THREE FACES OF DARKNESS: MARE / NACHTLIEDER / OUTRÉ

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Sep 042018
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn presents reviews of three of the best black metal albums released so far in 2018.)

You could perhaps consider this article something of a rebuttal to my “Three Faces of Death” piece which was published last week, wherein I stated that 2018 seems to have been a very Death Metal heavy year so far, and that the Black Metal scene has (arguably) been lagging a little bit behind so far.

After all, while this statement is still generally true, some of this year’s blackest highlights – Funeral Mist, Ordinul Negru, Slidhr, Gaerea, Aklash, Ascension– have been more than capable of going toe-to-toe with whatever their deathly brethren have brought to the table.

It’s really just a numbers game at this point, and while I don’t see this torrent of dominating Death Metal ebbing any time soon, I’m pleased to be able to redress the balance somewhat by featuring the following three albums of blackened brilliance. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEVENTH GENOCIDE — “SLEEPLESS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 042018
 

 

“Sleepless” is the name of the new song by the Roman band Seventh Genocide that we’re presenting today. Simply experiencing the changing moods and sensations of the music induces an interpretation of that title, which may or may not be supported by the lyrics. These changing and sharply contrasting sounds seem to capture not mundane insomnia, but a kind of severe sleep deprivation that leads to unbidden reveries, feverish paranoia, hallucinatory visions, and sudden discoveries of untapped energy whose reservoirs somehow haven’t yet been exhausted.

To come at the song in a different way, it is by turns hypnotic and jolting, dreamlike and savage, haunting and explosive. It’s quite an eye-opening trip, and a very enticing attraction for Seventh Genocide‘s new EP, SVNTH, which will be jointly released by Third I Rex and Toten Schwan Records on October 28th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PSYCHOTOMY — “WITNESS OF VOID”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 042018
 

 

Roughly 18 months ago we premiered a video for a track called “Evidence of Tyranny” by the Italian death metal band Psychotomy, which was a precursor to a new album that was expected later that year. The album didn’t arrive quite as soon as we had hoped, given how good that first teaser was, but now it is nearly upon us: It will be released on September 28th by Everlasting Spew Records. The album includes “Evidence of Tyranny” in “a brand new and fully improved guise”, along with eight other ravaging tracks, one of which we have for you today.

“Witness of Void” is a masterful achievement, a song whose immediately strong impression becomes even more impressive with further listening. And the song both induces and demands further listening because it’s such a twisted, continually changing nightmare, and so insidiously effective at worming its way into the listener’s head for a long, haunting occupancy. Continue reading »

A FEW IMPRESSIONS FROM BEYOND THE GATES 2018

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 042018
 

 

(Norway-based NCS contributor Karina Noctum was in Bergen, Norway last week for part of the latest edition of the Beyond the Gates festival. This isn’t a complete review of the fest, but rather some reflections about the location, some musical recommendations prompted by the line-ups, and impressions of some of the performances that made a particular impact. Credit for all the wonderful photos in this post goes to Jarle H. Moe.)

Beyond the Gates is a festival that takes place every year in the mythical Black Metal city of Bergen (at least, it certainly seems mythical). It’s a paradise for blackpackers (a name for the hopeful souls who make the journey to the land of Black Metal and if they do their research well may end up in Abbath’s garden), a good city if you are into grey, doleful weather and dark surroundings. You’ve got the beautiful and dark mountains of might surrounding the city; it rains pretty much every day; and as a consequence the shadowy forests will be under a shroud of fog. All in all, pretty Black Metal.

If you are considering traveling in spite of everything I’ve mentioned above then go here and you will find a comprehensive list of metal stuff to do in Bergen. I find Bergen a nice place since I like grey skies, dark forests, mountains, and rain, so being there is a happy experience for me, especially when combined with music. Continue reading »

BYONOISEGENERATOR: “NEUROMECHANICA”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 042018
 

 

(Vonlughlio reviews the new album by the Russian death metal band ByoNoiseGenerator, who combine brutal death metal, grind… and jazz. The album will be released on September 20 by Reality Fade Records.)

ByoNoiseGenerator from Perm, Russia, are one of the most forward-thinking brutal death metal bands at the moment, because of their unusual willingness to incorporate new elements into their sound.

They broke out back in 2015 with the release of their debut, Turbulent Biogenesis (available here), to which my immediate reaction was the following: “Really??? What the fuck????”. Of course I listened to that release five times in a row, which was not an imposing challenge because it’s only about 14 minutes long. Listening to a saxophone in this kind of music was just mindblowing, because to be honest I had bought the CD and did not know what to expect.

In fact, one thing that I regret was not including this release in my top albums from that year. To be able to mix BDM, grind, and jazz elements in elaborate yet short songs, and make it work, is not an easy task. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): YOVEL, ETERNAL SACRIFICE, AVAST, HULDREKALL, SPEKTRAL HATCHERY, S.E.K.H.

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Sep 032018
 

 

It’s Labor Day here in the U.S. today, which won’t mean much or anything to half the people who visit our site. For those people, who don’t live here, it’s a holiday designed to celebrate the American labor movement. For me, it’s just another laboring day at NCS, though of course it feels more like fun than work or you can be damned sure I wouldn’t be doing it.

This is the second Part of a column I began yesterday, which I hope you’ll check out if you haven’t, because there’s a lot of good music there as well as here.

YOVEL

Although I mostly focus these columns on new or forthcoming releases, I’m stepping back in time for the first recommendation today. I overlooked this album when it was released on April 1st of this year, but was called back to it through a recent e-mail we received. The first track was seductive; the second track spun the turbine in my head into the red zone. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYSTALMOORS — “HIJOS DEL SOL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 032018
 

 

On October 15th Casus Belli Musica and Beverina will join forces to bring forth an album-length split by two distinctive Spanish pagan metal bands, CrystalMoors and Hordak, both of whom pay homage through their music to the ancient lifeblood of their Iberian homeland, and today it’s our pleasure to present one of the CrystalMoors tracks that will appear on the album — “Hijos del Sol“.

The CrytalMoors side of the split, which consists of four tracks, is named Árguma, a Cantabrian word for a plant called gorse which we’re told is an invasive species that originated in Cantabria but now grows throughout Europe. With 4-cm thorns and deep, strong roots, “Árguma (also known as Tojo) symbolizes the Cantabrian nation of the pre-Roman epoch, bristling in the same way for self-defense and deeply rooted in its native land.” Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): A FOREST OF STARS, ÖVER, THE ORDER OF APOLLYON, TEZCATLIPOCA, BLACK MOLD

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Sep 022018
 

 

This Sunday’s collection of music validates the title of the series: No two of the songs are very much alike, and they display quite different degrees of “blackening”. If you’re like me, you’ll like all of it; even if you’re not, there’s enough diversity in the music that you’re bound to discover something of interest.

As you can see, there will be a second Part of what I’ve pulled together this week. But the odds are I won’t finish it in time to post it today, and you’ll see it tomorrow instead.

A FOREST OF STARS

The first single from A Forest of Stars‘ new album (“Precipice Pirouette”) was a glorious extravagance, a 10 1/2-minute pageant capable of carrying the listener away like a leaf in a gale. I said so, and so it must be true. And now we have a second single, with the delightfully loony yet carefully calculated title “Decomposing Deity Dance Hall“. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 78: KIZIN, INANNA, SOULROT

 MISCELLANY  4 Responses »
Sep 012018
 

 

This MISCELLANY series is one of several that I started at NCS in the early days, but it has become moribund in recent years. In the case of this series, I posted the first edition on July 5, 2010, and the last one (No. 77) in June 2016, and the series had become very irregular even by then. So a refresher on the MISCELLANY game is probably worthwhile:

On a fairly random basis, I pick releases I’ve not heard before, usually by bands I’ve not heard before; I listen to a song or two (usually without much or any advance idea of what the music will sound like); I write my immediate impressions; and I then stream what I heard so you can make your own judgments. I should add that I have some ambitions to revive this series going forward, though I know myself too well to promise that it will happen on any kind of predictable basis.

I decided to sample the music of these three bands based solely on an e-mail we received from a Chilean metalhead whom I don’t know, recommending these three releases. All three groups are from Chile.

KIZIN

Of the three bands in this collection, Kizin have the most recent release, a 2018 debut album named Abstraction (released on July 17th), which includes cover art by Nox Fragor. Metal-Archives also lists three demos and a compilation in the discography of this group from Temuco going back to 2012, none of which I’ve heard. Abstraction is on Bandcamp, and on that page there’s a written prologue for the album: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WINDFAERER — “ALMA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Aug 312018
 

 

Those of you who’ve been visiting our site regularly for more than a year or two will be familiar with the name Windfaerer, because we’ve been following their steady ascent since early days. This New Jersey-based, folk-influenced black metal band was launched by guitarist and frontman M. Gonçalves as (we are told) “an epic black metal paean to his ancestral homeland of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)”. From its earliest days, Windfaerer has now evolved into a full band in which Gonçalves is joined by electric violinist B. Karas (aka Valček), guitarist I. Keren, bassist M. Muñoz, and drummer J. Applegate, some of whom contribute vocals in addition to their prodigious instrumental talents.

Since 2009 Windfaerer have released two albums, in addition to a few shorter releases, and their third full-length, Alma, is now rapidly approaching a September release by Fólkvangr Records and Avantgarde Music. It’s their most impressive work to date, as you’re about to discover through our stream of all eight tracks. Continue reading »

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