AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AETHEREUS — “THE PALE BEAST”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 192018
 

 

Sometimes visual metaphors are the most vivid means of capturing the sensations of hard-to-describe music. The imagery that came to this writer’s mind in listening to the song we’re premiering here was an extravagant fireworks display, or a kaleidoscope being spun at the speed of a turbine. The music is equally dazzling, the kind of performance that will leave most listeners wide-eyed in wonder, and smiling in delight.

The song (presented through a lyric video that makes good use of Sam Nelson’s wonderful cover art) is “The Pale Beast“, the final track on Absentia, the debut album of Aethereus from Washington State, which will be released on August 10th by The Artisan Era. It’s a prime example of this group’s brand of progressive death metal, which (as the label accurately describes) “deftly combines elements of atmospheric death metal, ferocious technical death metal, and more overtly melodic death metal”. Once you’ve heard the music, it’s not surprising that Aethereus cite Obscura, Spawn of Possession, Cynic, and Gorod among their prime influences. Continue reading »

KHEMMIS: “DESOLATION”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  2 Responses »
Jun 192018
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Colorado’s Khemmis, which will be released on June 22nd by 20 Buck Spin in North America and by Nuclear Blast everywhere else.)

I’m more than happy to admit that I’m a very late joiner to the Khemmis train.

Oh, sure, I’d heard the name around, I knew they were pretty well liked and that there was a fair bit of hype building behind them, and had even caught a glimpse of their eye-catching artwork here and there, but – for whatever reason – I’d just never found the time to actually listen to one of the band’s songs/albums.

Thankfully, their brilliant performance at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest made me an immediate convert to their cause, and I’ve spent the time since then immersing myself in the band’s back-catalogue and catching up on everything which I’ve been missing, just in time for Desolation to drop into my inbox with a resounding (digital) boom. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MUTILATION RITES, DRAWN AND QUARTERED, CEMETERY URN, CIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 182018
 

 

As you can see, I decided to shift away from last week’s almost daily “Quick Hits” round-ups of new music and back to the longer compilations, though I’m still doing a bit of catching up on tracks that are now a week or two old. I might still break out the Quick Hits moniker every now and then, when I don’t have time to do more than throw a couple of songs your way.

P.S. Just as I was finishing this post I saw that Abhorrence premiered their first new track in 28 years at DECIBEL, and that Ván Records just revealed a track from the new album by the Irish black metal band Slidhr (with with Garðar S Jónsson of Sinmara and Almyrkvi taking the reins as bassist), which can be streamed HERE. I haven’t listened to either of these yet, but I bet they’ll be well worth your time. (Thanks to HGD for pointing me to both.)

MUTILATION RITES

“Pierced Larynx” is such a goddamned good head-banger, and a ridiculously addictive one, too. It comes from the new album by Mutilation Rites, whose music seems to be continually evolving, if one were to judge by “Pierced Larynx”. Their line-up has evolved, too, and now includes drummer Tyler Coburn (Yautja, Alraune), along with bassist/vocalist Ryan Jones, guitarist/vocalist George Paul, and guitarist Michael Dimmitt. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORDANT RAPTURE — “UNSIGHTLY BEAST”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 182018
 

 

We have for you an explosive, adrenaline-fueled, and multi-faceted song from the debut EP by Mordant Rapture, which will be released on Friday the 13th of July by The Artisan Era. “Unsightly Beast” is its name, and it is a beast of a track, no doubt, but more grand and glorious in its ferocity than unsightly.

The Abnegation is the title of the new EP, and it represents an attention-grabbing step forward for this group, who claim among their influences such bands as Spawn of Possession, Emperor, Necrophagist, and Dissection. As those names might suggest, the sound of Mordant Rapture as displayed on this new work could be considered a form of symphonic technical death metal with black metal elements in the mix. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES FIRST ROUND OF BANDS FOR 2019

 Metal News  9 Responses »
Jun 182018
 

 

The biggest extreme metal festival in the U.S. has just revealed the first group of bands who are booked to perform in Baltimore next year. Barring death, debilitating disease, or some kind of unforeseen rudeness by my fucking day job, I’ll be there again, along with some of my most steadfast NCS comrades and assorted other miscreants and saints, including more than a few of you.

To cut to the chase, here are the names of the first 25 confirmed bands for Maryland Deathfest XVII, set to take place at Rams Head Live and Baltimore Soundstage on May 23-26, 2019: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AKASHA — “MOONLITE RITUHELL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 182018
 

 

The California lone wolf behind the black metal project Akasha doesn’t like most people and despises being around others. In what must have been a feverish three days and nights, he wrote and recorded Akasha‘s debut album, Consuming the Soul, and mixed and mastered it himself. His intention, and what fueled the project, was (as he explained in a recent interview) “to exact revenge on those who have crossed me and to take full advantage of the weaknesses they have shown me”.

And so the choice of Akasha as a name, invoking the ancient Egyptian queen who ate the dead with vampyric intent, is less an affinity for blood-sucking ghouls or an attempt to link arms with the lineage of Les Légions Noires and more an expression of “mental and spiritual vampyrism” — “feeding off of my enemies in order to empower myself and ruin them”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SVIN — “CUTS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 182018
 

 

The Font of All Human Knowledge tell us that Thomas Hardy originated the term “cliffhanger” in 1873 when he left a protagonist from one of his serials literally hanging off a cliff at the end of a particular installment. But of course, as the great Font reminds us, the cliffhanger as a plot device goes back much, much further, at least as far back as the One Thousand and One Nights, in which Scheherazade narrated a series of stories to King Shahryār for all those years of nights, “with each night ending on a cliffhanger, in order to save herself from execution”.

And since then, the cliffhanger has been a tried-and-true hook across a range of artistic media where bringing the customer back is the main objective. Think of how often you’ve seen season-ending cliffhangers in TV and on-demand series, or encountered them month-after-month in a comic book series, or been left dangling over the edge in a novel that makes you wait for a sequel. It works, even though it’s frustrating.

Why the hell, you may ask, is he droning on about the “cliffhanger” device??? You will find out soon enough. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CON, PATHS, UTZALU, DIS ORCUS, MESHECH

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Jun 172018
 

 

I’m well aware that a lot of black metal fans out there are hard to please when it comes to new releases. Some of them, yawning or rolling their eyes, find most current black metal bands too slavishly devoted to what has been done before, re-treading riffs and blasts and particular approaches to production rather than attempting or succeeding in creating music that sounds genuinely creative. Others, gnashing their teeth or choking on their own disgust, find a lot of bands unworthy of the name “black metal”, bastardizing the music to the point of fracturing it or acting the part of charlatans without true spirit or devotion.

I, on the other hand, find it very difficult to compile these Sunday posts because every week I have more to like than I have time to write about what I’ve enjoyed. I have this same problem in other genres of metal. Maybe my tastes are too catholic (small “c”), maybe I’m not sufficiently discerning or demanding. At least I can’t legitimately be accused of dishonesty — I truly like the music I recommend to you. And I try to provide variety in these posts because I’m well aware it won’t all appeal to everyone. If you make only one new discovery that you think is worth your time, then it will have been worth my time. And if not, there’s always next week…. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: THE SPIRIT, BORN TO MURDER THE WORLD, CHTHE’ILIST

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jun 162018
 

 

I’m still grateful to my friend Andy, whose Waxing Lyrical series continues to relieve my compulsion to come up with something new to post here on Saturdays. And as you can see, I’m still not completely free of the compulsion. I’ve also now abandoned the goal of this week-long series of Quick Hits as a vehicle for catching up on new music from the last two weeks. For the third day in a row, I’ve again been diverted by late-breaking releases: Everything collected here appeared yesterday or the day before.

THE SPIRIT

Last fall Germany’s The Spirit self-released an enormously impressive debut album entitled Sounds From the Vortex. In April, Nuclear Blast announced that they had signed the band, and yesterday revealed that they would be re-issuing Sounds From the Vortex on August 10th in CD, LP, and digital editions (with new cover art). To celebrate the occasion, Nuclear Blast released a lyric video for an album track named “The Clouds of Damnation“, which happens to be my favorite track from that record. And so, although many of you are no doubt familiar with the music through that previous self-release, I wanted to start today’s round-up with that new video. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: SLAVES BC

 Interviews, WAXING LYRICAL  No Responses »
Jun 162018
 

 

(Andy Synn brings us another edition of this series devoted to metal lyrics, and his guest this week is Josh Thieler of Pittsburgh-based Slaves BC.)

I hope you’ve all been enjoying this series of columns so far. I certainly have, and it seems like a lot of the writers/vocalists I’ve spoken to have too, and have really appreciated the chance to talk about this particular part of their work.

Today’s edition comes courtesy of Josh Thieler of Slaves BC, who provides us with an insight into his past, his process, and the roles which both faith and suffering have played in his development as a writer (and as a person). Continue reading »

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