AN NCS PREMIERE: WYKAN — “THE GATHERING”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 112018
 

Wykan is a new Montreal trio founded by guitarist/singer Jeremy Perkins from the band Éohum (whose music we’ve featured before at our site) and completed by drummer Morgan Zwicker and bassist Daniel Paras. On their debut EP, Solace — which will be released on April 13 — they were joined by guest vocalists Matt McGachy (Cryptopsy) and Barrie Butler (Éohum).

Perkins‘ mission in starting Wykan was to explore a blending of musical ingredients from black metal, doom, psychedelic/stoner rock, and blues. The fact that Zwicker and Paras had backgrounds in jazz and the blues helped achieve that objective… and the results are quite compelling, as you’ll discover by listening to the song we’re premiering today: “The Gathering“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERVENT HATE — “EVIL TWINS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 112018
 

 

The Peruvian band Fervent Hate launched their recording career with a 2013 album named Roads Of Insanity and followed that with a 2015 EP entitled Diablo. But I missed both of those, and so I had no expectations when I first encountered their new album Tales Of Hate, Lust And Chaos, other than the recommendation of Satanath Records that it would please fans of Entombed, Illdisposed, Grave, Dismember, At The Gates, and Gorefest — and that it was mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö.

Of course, for this listener those were all very enticing names, but even so, large questions remained. Many bands have chosen to toil in the fields furrowed by those groups, but not all have been successful in bringing forth the kind of abominable new growth that would feed and satiate the endless hunger of their many fans. How have those questions been answered by Fervent Hate? Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN PRESENTS: REVIEWS IN HAIKUS (MONOLITHE, ÆTHĔRĬA CONSCĬENTĬA, GLORIOR BELLI)

 Album Reviews, Reviews In Haikus  1 Response »
Apr 102018
 

 

(After a hiatus, we present another edition of Andy Synn’s three-line reviews.)

 

According to my records (or vague recollections) it’s been almost ten months since the last edition of ‘Reviews in Haikus’… and this simply will not stand!

So, since I have a backlog of unreviewed albums as long as the Seine, I’ve selected three albums from our Gallic cousins which deserve some attention to cover here.

So, without further ado… Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: STORTREGN — “SHATTERED UNIVERSE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 102018
 

 

In May of 2016 we premiered a stream of Singularity, the third album by the Swiss band Stortregn. We found it to be an electrifying adrenaline rush from start to finish. Drawing upon the rich traditions of Scandinavian melodic death metal as well as Nordic black metal, Singularity reminded us of At the Gates at their most ferocious, accompanied at times by the wintry chill of early Dissection.

It was thus very welcome news to learn that Stortregn are returning with a fourth full-length. With the title of Emptiness Fills the Void, it will be released by Non Serviam Records on May 25th, 2018, and today we are very happy to host the premiere of a song called “Shattered Universe“, which is presented through a lyric video that makes effective use of the cover art by the great Dan Seagrave. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYTHIC — “BENEATH ANCIENT PORTALS (THE GATE OF GANZIR)”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Apr 102018
 

 

Beneath Ancient Portals is the name of the debut album by the German death/doom band Abythic. It’s coming out on May 11th via Blood Harvest Records. When I heard the first single from the album, I expelled a few words here in an immediate rush of enthusiasm:.

“…gruesome tremolo-implemented barbarism, both seething and crawling… with a destructive rhythm section… a roaring monster behind the mic… and a thick, morbid atmosphere…”

And there’s more where that came from. As a further sign of this new album’s soul-plundering power, we present a second single, this one named “Beneath Ancient Portals (The Gate Of Ganzir)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOR — “BLACK GOAT”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 102018
 

 

There are only two people in VOR. One plays bass, one plays drums, one of them also shrieks like a man who’s being carved with straight razors. We’re lucky that arms-control authorities haven’t allowed them to use more than two instruments. With just those two they create an appalling level of sonic destruction.

VOR’s music is ugly, abrasive, a danger to the listener’s psyche — and irresistibly body-moving. It will scour out the inside of your skull, while it’s making your skull bang up and down like a piston.

VOR are based in Madrid, Spain. They have a new album coming out. It’s their second one. It will be released on May 19th by Third I Rex and a consortium of Spanish labels — Odio Sonoro Records, Nooirax Records, Noizeland Records, T-Shirts FUZZ, Base Record Production, and Sacramento Records. We’re premiering the album’s first single today — “Black Goat” — and I wish I could see your faces when you listen to it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACK MASS PERVERTOR — “LIFE BEYOND THE WALLS OF FLESH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 092018
 

 

With a history that can be traced back to 1998 and a sound that has evolved over the course of a demo, a previous EP, and a 2016 album (Phanerosis), the Finnish black metal band Black Mass Pervertor have reached an apotheosis of devilment with their new EP, Life Beyond the Walls of Flesh.

It’s a fiendishly infectious romp that, in the accurate words of the public relations campaign paving the way for its release, bows reverentially to “Belial, Barathrum, and especially early Impaled Nazarene whilst nodding to the early-Noughts work of Horna, Sargeist, and Behexen.”

It has, in short order, become a deliciously deviant pleasure of mine, a pleasure I get to share with you today in advance of its release by Blood Harvest Records on Friday the 13th of this month. Continue reading »

WEED PRIEST: “CONSUMMATE DARKNESS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 092018
 

 

(DGR prepared this review of the latest album by Weed Priest from Galway, Ireland.)

 

I’ve been hinting at writing this one for a very long time — considering that this album hit on October 31st, 2017, and I didn’t mention it other than to say I was looking into it in December. In the annals of reviews of mine that I have deleted and restarted numerous times, this one has to be up there. Considering that we’re now in early April, the album is very much up there as one of the ones it has taken me a very long time to forge ideas about.

Put simply, it’s because I am not the doom guy around here. Your doom expert around these parts is our very own ruler of the early morning post Comrade Aleks. Not only has he put together a near-ceaseless and well-constructed series of interviews with different musicians across the genre and issued them here (and elsewhere) for some time now, but he has also written a tremendous book. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LEVIATHAN, DEIPHAGO, HOTH, GRÁ, TOMUSZ

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Apr 082018
 

 

I’m deep in the heart of Texas today for my fucking day-job, and will be deep in the heart of Philadelphia tomorrow for the same reason, but in the meantime I’ve managed to cobble together some streams of new music from the black realms, and some thoughts about each selection.

LEVIATHAN

It may be my imagination, but it seems that more and more bands who have a devout following are choosing to spring their new releases without much warning or PR assistance. That’s what Leviathan did one week ago, with the release of Unfailing Fall Into Naught through Ascension Monuments Media.

This new album is a compilation of tracks previously released in other formats. It includes Leviathan’s contributions to a 2004 split CD with Xasthur (released by Profound Lore Records) and a 2006 split with Sapthuran (released by Battle Kommand Records, and then later released by Southern Lord in 2007 as a stand-alone Leviathan EP called The Blind Wound). Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: FOSCOR

 Interviews, WAXING LYRICAL  4 Responses »
Apr 072018
 


photo by Unai Endemaño

 

(Andy Synn returns with another installment in his Saturday series about lyrics in metal, and today we have a fascinating and eloquent discussion by J. F. Fiar, the vocalist and bassist for the Spanish band Foscor, who has penned the lyrics for their songs, in Catalan and English, for the last four years.)

 

Foscor’s latest album, the stunning Les Irreals Visions, was a beautifully bleak, moody and multifaceted delight, and was so good I declared it one of the Critical Top Ten albums of 2017 and at one point described it as:

“…an album that is simultaneously easy to pick up, and nearly impossible to put down…”

Hopefully, like me, you’ve found it just as difficult to stop listening to and, if so, you might be interested in hearing from the band’s long time vocalist J. F. Fiar about his life, his lyrics, and everything he’s learned along the way! Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries