AN NCS PREMIERE: IN TENEBRIZ — “WINTERNIGHT POETRY III”

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May 142018
 

 

In a recording career that now spans more than a decade, the Russian band In Tenebriz has released nine albums and an even greater number of EPs and splits. Beginning with the Autumn Constellation album in 2015, In Tenebriz has pursued themes that use that the natural phenomena of the seasons as a way of reflecting the inner experiences of the lyrical protagonists, while drawing upon the elements of atmospheric black metal, doom, ambient music, and post-metal to give musical shape to these external changes and internal moods.

The newest album in this sequence is Winternight Poetry, and on this album the principal creator of In Tenebriz, Wolfir, has done everything, including the vocals. Conceptually the album is an interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s seven-part tale The Snow Queen, but with a dark twist: in the tale of Winternight Poetry, the protagonist Kai fails to spell the word on the frozen lake that will free him from the Snow Queen’s enchantment, and must therefore remain a prisoner in the kingdom of permafrost forever. Continue reading »

A DOOM DESCENT (PART 5): ALASTOR, BLACK CAPRICORN, ELLIOTT’S KEEP, HOODED PRIEST

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May 142018
 

 

(After a seven-month hiatus, we present the continuation of a series of reviews prepared by our Russian connoisseur of all things doom, Comrade Aleks.)

First, I was busy finishing the Doom Metal Lexicanum book, and then I put the weight of the “Lexicanum II” project on my shoulders, but blood calls for revenge! And I have some obligations, so here are four overviews of doom albums you may have missed at the end of 2017.

 

Alastor: Blood On Satan’s Claw (Ljudkassett!)

Blood On Satan’s Claw is the second Alastor EP for 2017, and actually I wonder why they didn’t release one full-length album instead. This time the Swedish quartet prepared two ten-minute tracks with a deep psychedelic touch and pop-occult lyrics. The record surpasses its predecessor, Blood Magic, with more effective songwriting and delivery, though the production is on the same underground level. The vocals on these new songs sound different. Actually I was thinking that Alastor had recruited a lady on vocals, but I was wrong. It’s still their bass-player, R, who sings. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PLAGUESTORM, CLOAK OF ALTERING, ENSCELADOS, THE NIGHTLY DISEASE, RAAT

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 132018
 

 

There’s a mountain of black music in today’s column — five full releases, the shortest of which is more than 20 minutes long. Moreover, one of those releases is a single song that itself tops 20 minutes in length. I don’t expect everyone to make their way through all of this; tastes do vary, as does the amount of time people are prepared to set aside for the exploration of new music. Recognizing that, I’ve provided previews of the music (at least as I hear it), and in the case of the releases other than the two that consist of long-form monoliths, I’ve selected specific songs that I think provide a good test for whether you’ll like the rest of what’s there.

PLAGUESTORM

Eternal Throne is the debut EP by a Swedish black metal band (from Malmö) named Plaguestorm. According to the two labels who are releasing it (Helter Skelter and Blood Harvest), it was recorded in 2015 but is only now being released for the first time due to unspecified “hardships and delays”. Their description of the music peaked my interest:

Eternal Throne, they wrote, “features four tracks in 21 minutes, where all possible aspects of black metal is being mixed into one, big gruesome bowl where everything from the classic guitar leads of Mercyful Fate, and the chaotic mayhem of Katharsis has its righteous place”. Continue reading »

SET FIRE TO YOUR SATURDAY WITH IMMORTAL, NERVOSA, LELAHELL, ALIEN WEAPONRY, SAHON, AND KARNAR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
May 122018
 

 

One of my friend Andy’s objectives in launching our Saturday Waxing Lyrical series (the new edition of which is here) was to make it possible for me not to worry about coming up with something to post on Saturdays. I get to party on Friday nights, sleep in on Saturday mornings, and loll around like a walrus in penguin shit for hours after waking.

So I’m sort of defeating the purpose of Andy’s generous gesture by doing this post… but only sort of. I couldn’t resist throwing these brand-new hell-blazing tracks and videos at you because I had so much fun listening to and watching them yesterday and this morning, but I’m not going to take the time to explain what happens in the songs or why I like them so much. I’ll just give some basic info and let you have at it.

There’s some good geographic dispersion in this collection, as well as a lot of enviable talent on display. Also, if you happen to have some asbestos underoos, you might want to pull those on to protect your nether regions. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: THE KING IS BLIND

 WAXING LYRICAL  1 Response »
May 122018
 


photo by Kieran Wakeman

(In this edition of Waxing Lyrical, Andy Synn elicited thoughts from Steve Tovey, vocalist of the UK metal band The King Is Blind.)

Raise your hand if you’ve heard of The King Is Blind?

Now keep them raised if you’ve heard their fantastic second album, We are the Parasite, We are the Cancer.

If your hand is down… well, what the heck have you been playing at? Not only did I give the album a glowing review, but I also hand-picked it as a close runner-up to Immolation in last year’s “Critical Top Ten”, describing it as:

“…one killer slab of Old-school influenced audio violence, with a Major in Riffology and a Minor in Metallic History, whose every track seems to exist solely to remind you why you fell in love with the more extreme side of Metal in the first place.”

So, with all that in mind, you can see why I decided to talk to the band’s frontman Steve Tovey about his influences (or lack thereof), his favourite vocalists, novels… and pretty much anything and everything else which feeds into his overall concept for each of the band’s records. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2018 (PART 3): HUNDRED YEAR OLD MAN / MASK OF JUDAS / VOICES

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May 112018
 


Hundred Year Old Man

(Andy Synn delivers another installment in a series focused on recent releases by UK bands.)

There’s not going to be too much preamble for this edition of “The Best of British”, mainly because I’m currently very busy with work for my day job, work for my band(s), and work for a certain other music magazine, all of which are collectively conspiring to monopolise most of my time at the moment.

Be that as it may, however, I’m hoping there’s enough variety contained within these three albums – some of which you might say are a little bit off our regularly beaten path here at NCS – that most of our readers will be able to find something they can engage with and enjoy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DÉLÉTÈRE — “CANTUS I – TEREDINIS LEPRA”

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May 112018
 

 

The song we’re about to present is one that’s so emotionally explosive and so persistently electrifying that it left this listener wide-eyed in wonder, and wondering what the hell to do with all the energy that had suddenly surged into the blood stream.

The song is “Cantus I – Teredinis Lepra“, the opening track from the new album by the Québec black metal band Délétère. Entitled De Horae Leprae, the record is described as “a monumental concept album devoted to Teredinis, a simple leper whose calling it is to become a prophet of Centipèdes as well as an incarnation of the Plague”.

The album is indeed a colossal achievement, a sprawling 65-minute opus that demands more careful consideration and a more extensive discussion than you’ll find here today. All you’ll find here — in addition to the music stream — is a gushing flood of adjectives un-corked by just this first track. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEGEMONE — “WE DISAPPEAR”

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May 112018
 

 

If you’re looking for titanically heavy music, the kind that will loosen your teeth and vibrate your spinal fluid, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re looking for music that glimmers and shimmers like the northern lights, you’ve also come to the right place. If you want the sounds of tension and pain, lead-weighted gloom and feverish desperation, mechanized warfare and sunrise grandeur, you’ll find that here as well — plus a steady dose of what makes people compulsively bob their heads.

Even if all you know about Hegemone’s new album, We Disappear, is what you just read, you can already tell that they’re devoted to creating contrasts on multiple levels, sometimes by separating and juxtaposing the differences, and often by layering them together. The music surges and subsides, seems to crack the earth and heat the blood to a feverish boil, and spirits the listener away to heights of of perilous and panoramic wonder. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AUTUMNWIND — “LOST AND ALONE”

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May 102018
 

 

Autumnwind is the solo project of a Syrian musician named Abdulrahman Abu Lail, and the third Autumnwind album, Endless Fear, will be jointly released on May 20th by Symbol of Domination and More Hate Productions. An instrumental album, it draws upon the elements of atmospheric black metal to capture the sensations of terrifying panic attacks that struck its creator in the summer of 2017.

Of course, the effect of all music on any listener is the product not only of the inspirations, moods, and goals of the musician but also of the listener’s own mental and emotional states and experiences. Pain and terror may have been at the source of the music on Endless Fear, but to this listener the song we’re premiering today, “Lost and Alone“, is an entrancing as it is unsettling. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VALGRIND — “LAST ANGEL (INTO THE UNKNOWN”

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May 102018
 

 

On the 25th of May, Everlasting Spew Records will release Blackest Horizon, the third album by the Italian death metal band Valgrind (named for the ancient gate that stands before the great hall of Valhalla in Norse mythology), which follows the band’s tremendously good 2017 EP, Seal of Phobos. Last month we brought you the album’s victorious opening track, and today we present another. This one — “Last Angel (Into the Unknown)” — begins a trilogy of songs that end the album.

That song we shared previously — “Victorious” — launches the album in extravagant fashion, delivering a kaleidoscopic aural experience that’s hallucinatory, heart-pounding, mind-bending, savage, and exuberant to the point of madness. The one you’re about to hear is no less fascinating. Continue reading »

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