NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NORDJEVEL

Jun 052018

(We present Karina Noctum’s interview of DzeptiCunt (ex-Ragnarok), bassist for the Norwegian black metal band Nordjevel, who are working on a new album named Necrogenesis which will be released by Osmose Productions and who will be embarking on a European tour with Hate in July, following appearances at Hellfest (France) and Garasjefestivalen (Norway). The interview took place during Inferno Festival 2018.)

You released an EP last year. Are you in the process of writing a new album?

Yes indeed, we are close to finishing our second album! We are very excited to see how it will turn out altogether; the songs that are already written are killer!

What stage is the album’s creation at now?

The album is in the making as we speak, we have written 6 songs and another 4-5 coming up soon. We haven’t decided which songs will be on the album yet — we’ll see when all songs are recorded. Our designer will be starting on the artwork for the upcoming album these days as well. Continue reading »

FRACTAL GATES: “THE LIGHT THAT SHINES”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jun 052018

(This is DGR’s review of the new album by Fractal Gates, which was released on May 12th through Naturmacht Productions.)

Five years between discs is on the long end of the “should I just stop checking to see if this band is doing anything or move on” segment of the waiting scale for fans. It actually may be the darkest part of said scale, where you wind up quickly moving through the five stages of grief about letting a group go, yet being thankful at the same time for all the music you do enjoy from them while clinging to the hope that if something new does pop up in the future it will serve as a pleasant surprise. It’s an odd yet freeing type of emotional whiplash, and one that many fans of France’s prog keyboard-heavy melodeath crew of Fractal Gates had likely started going through as the time passed since the release of the group’s 2013 album, Beyond The Self.

The musicians in Fractal Gates have certainly kept busy during that time, particularly vocalist Sebastien Pierre, who has become part of a variety of projects including Enshine, his solo work through Cold Insight, his various Mass Effect cover songs and reimaginings, and even some work with Monolithe — but those who enjoyed the up-tempo, keyboard-heavy work of Fractal Gates finally got their own taste of new material this year with the group’s new, densely packed album The Light That Shines, a disc that has absorbed five years worth of experiences into its own introspective formula. Continue reading »

WE’RE STILL HERE

Metal News 3 Responses »

Jun 042018

Panopticon at Northwest Terror Fest

I forecast a slow-down at NCS a couple of weeks ago and explained why. It did occur to me that some people might have missed that post and that I ought to say it again, in case our readers assumed the forces of shitty metal had finally succeeded in shackling and then dismembering us. That didn’t happen; the struggle continues. But I never got around to posting a reminder about why the volume of music and words has dwindled.

The reason that happened is that I and some other NCS villains made the trip to Baltimore for Maryland Deathfest and then turned right around and help put on Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle. The latter ended on Saturday night; we spent Sunday loading backline gear and other stuff out of the venues and storing things for the 2019 edition of NWTF — and then drinking for about 8 hours solid, until past midnight, joined by some excellent people from one of the bands who performed at the fest. Continue reading »

ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Jun 042018

(Andy Synn wrote this article, which includes thoughts about the new albums by Lago from Arizona and Burial In the Sky from Pennsylvania.)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but the concept of pure “originality”, in its most stringent and (ironically) restrictive form, is often given far too much weight and consideration when bands are being critiqued/assessed.

Now this in no way excuses bands whose music never rises above being a dilute derivative of something we’ve heard a thousand times before, but the truth is that the majority of musical growth and evolution occurs in the form of slow, incremental changes, with successive artists tweaking, altering, and adding to the formula(s) of their predecessors over time.

In that sense it’s a lot like science, where new developments are generally the results of years of perseverance, building on the legacy of the work done previously, so that the chain of events, the path of discovery, is clear for all to see.

Of course in music, as in science, there will always be sudden, paradigm-altering breakthroughs when inspiration suddenly strikes, and something truly “original” is created, but, for the most part, we need to acknowledge that all of us, from the least to the greatest, are standing on the shoulders of giants. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 97): WAYFARER

THE SYNN REPORT 2 Responses »

Jun 012018

(Andy Synn delivers a SYNN REPORT for the month of May, focusing on the discography of the Colorado band band Wayfarer.)

Recommended for fans of: Agalloch, Panopticon, Oak Pantheon

One of the great things about writing The Synn Report over all these years is how much variety has been involved since its inception, with the collected entries (now nearing a cool one hundred) covering a wide swathe of the Metal landscape as well as a solid proportion of the globe.

Heck, in just the last ten entries we’ve had entries from Norway, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Poland, and the USA, featuring a mix of Black, Death, Sludge, Thrash, and Post-Metal, and I have plan to visit many more countries and a variety of other genres (and sub-genres) going forwards.

This month’s entry however, as well as being a day late, just so happens to mark the second entry in a row hailing from the good ol’ US of A (Denver, Colorado, to be exact)… and next month’s might just end up making three in a row if things carry on the way they are doing… but I think you’ll find that the strength of the music on offer easily justifies this decision to stick around in the putative “Land of the Free”. Continue reading »

DEAD WRETCH: “HUG DIVISION DEAD WRETCH”

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

May 312018

(DGR reviews the new album by Dead Wretch, released on April 27th by the Albuquerque label Ipos Music.)

Hug Division Dead Wretch may be the fastest I have ever gone from clicking around with the Random Band button on Metal-Archives to purchasing an album.

Hug Division Dead Wretch is the first full-length for Dead Wretch, a one-man project belonging to musician Daniel Jackson based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, that at one point counted amongst its ranks fellow band member “Definitely Not A Copy Of EZDrummer”. It is a tongue-in-cheek black/death/grind project that despite its less-than-serious origins has grown into something that not only has an acidic sense of commentary but also the musical bite to back it up. Having spent a few years launching EPs and a handful of joking singles, Dead Wretch released its previously mentioned first full-length this year, comprising mostly new songs and three tracks re-done from the project’s first EP, the tersely titled fuck it.

While most projects like this tend to make use of the plug-and-play nature of grindcore, Dead Wretch performs a much more difficult act — that of skewering various specific subjects (at one point claiming to be from Minot, North Dakota, so they too could seem more exotic) but also offering righteous indignation and social commentary (check out “Eat Shit” for an immediate example) while backing it up with excellent music. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JYOTISAVEDANGA — “THERMOGRAVIMETRY WARP CONTINUUM”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

May 302018

Although the subject is not free from doubt, the laws of thermodynamics can be understood to forecast a far distant future in which ever-increasing entropy leads to the heat death of the universe. Order devolves into disorder, chaos leads to extinction, and meanwhile the unexplored fifth dimension of our reality shadows the path of this lethal arrow of time.

These concepts have inspired the harrowing sounds of Jyotiṣavedāṅga, but mysticism holds a powerful attraction as well. This international entity, whose members consist of guitarist Sadist from the Indian band Tetragrammacide; H. from Russia’s Sickrites on synths, noise, and effects; vocalist AR, from the Kolkata band Banish; and Ukrainian drummer Dimitry Kim (Sickrites, Goatpsalm, Balance Interruption), is named after Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, one of the earliest known Indian texts on astronomy and astrology. In their music and lyrics, they seek an intersection “between light and obscurity, between science and superstition, between good and evil”, a place “between the pit of all fears and the peak of all true knowledge.”

How they have done this you are about to discover. Jyotiṣavedāṅga’s new album, Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum, will be released by Larval Productions on June 6th, and now we give you the chance to hear the full album in advance of its release. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KRAKOW — “BLACK WANDERING SUN”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres 1 Response »

May 302018

In this post we happily present the North American premiere of a new song and a new video from the new album, minus, by the Norwegian alchemists in Krakow, which will be released by Karisma Records on August 31. And as a prelude, let’s begin with the band’s own words — in part because the final sentence seems particularly fitting in the context of this new song: “black wandering sun“:

“Following the laborious process of distilling two albums worth of material into one focused gem, we give you “minus”. The pinnacle achievement of Krakow’s thirteen-year existence. After a year of recording, shaping, re-recording and refining, “minus” has been reduced to the bare essence of who Krakow are as individuals, as a group and as story tellers. An album that defies any attempts at genre definition. This release covers the heavy, the subtle, the melodic, the atonal, the groovy, the sluggish, the dense, the airy, the naked, and always, always, the wall of sound where no light can escape.”

WHAT I DID ON MY VACATION

Concert Reviews 16 Responses »

May 302018

(Here is Andy Synn writing about his excursion with other members of the NCS crew to the just-completed 2018 edition of Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore. Photos by Islander, except the one above by Andy.)

I don’t know what you’re up to, dear reader, but I’m currently sat here decompressing and trying to recover (both physically and mentally) from another weekend spent enjoying the sights and sounds (and smells) of Maryland Deathfest.

But, rather than put together a straightforward write-up of each day in a purely linear fashion, I’ve decided to echo what I did last year and provide a slightly more irreverent insight into the weekend’s festivities. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AHTME — “SUBHUMAN REMAINS”

Premieres 1 Response »

May 292018

When last we visited Ahtme from Kansas City, Missouri, it was almost two and a half years ago, not long after they had signed with Unique Leader Records. At that time, Unique Leader was on the verge of reissuing the band’s debut album The Demonization and we were hosting the premiere of a video for one of that album’s demonizing tracks. The reissue was a paving of the way toward something new from the band, and at last, it has arrived.

June 1st is the date set by Unique Leader for Ahtme’s new album, Sewerborn, and we are in the happy position of again hosting a premiere, this time for the new album’s final track, a merciless but insidiously infection brutalizer named “Subhuman Remains“. Continue reading »

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