AN NCS PREMIERE: BOGHAUNTER — “CONSTELLATION VOWS”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Apr 062018
 

 

When I first saw the name Boghaunter I made some guesses about the nature of the music crafted by this band from New Hampshire; some of you are probably doing the same thing right now. The name made me think of a dark, dense swampland, the chill air heavy with moisture and the aroma of decay, the features of the landscape obscured by shadows but also by mist, a place where lost spirits wail in the distance. And so I had some kind of slow, spectral doom in mind.

It turns out that wasn’t a bad guess, but as I discovered — and as you’re about to discover — it wasn’t a completely accurate one either.

On May 4th Seeing Red Records will release Boghaunter’s debut EP, Writhe. It consists of two substantial tracks, and today we’re presenting the premiere of the first of those:  “Constellation Vows“. Continue reading »

INFERNO FESTIVAL 2018 – DAY 4

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 062018
 

 

(Andy Synn was fortunate to be in attendance at the 2018 edition of Inferno Festival in Oslo on March 29 – April 1, and files this report, which we’re spreading out in installments this week. Day 4 is the focus of this post; reactions to Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 can be found here, here, and here.)

 

The fourth, and final, day of Inferno Festival 2018 was the day which held the fewest number of bands that I was really interested in, but that didn’t mean there weren’t a bunch of killer acts to see. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STRIBORG — “MYSTERIOUS SEMBLANCE OF SPECTRAL TREES” (REMASTERED)

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 062018
 

 

Yesterday we spread the news that on April 21st of this year Satanath Records (Russia) and Death Portal Studio (U.S.) will release a new, remastered edition of Spiritual Catharsis, the 2004 album by the Tasmanian black metal/ambient project Striborg. But that’s not the only Striborg album that these labels are re-issuing.

On April 22nd, Satanath and Death Portal will also be releasing a special edition of Striborg’s Mysterious Semblance. That album was also first released in 2004, on tape by Total Holocaust Records, and a CD version with bonus tracks was presented the following year by Finsternis Productions. This new release has again been remastered and features new artwork, and today we’re premiering a song from it named “Mysterious Semblance Of Spectral Trees“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FAAL (PASCAL VERVEST)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Apr 062018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks presents this interview he conducted with Pascal Vervest, founding guitarist of the Dutch band Fall.)

 

Doom metal isn’t the slowest music in the world, but playing slow sometimes means “recording slow” as well. Netherlands-based funeral / death doom outfit Faal (which means “Fail” in Dutch) appeared in the heavy underground in 2005 and their first album Abhorrence-Salvation saw the light of day through Ván Records in 2008.

The combination of sub-genres Faal practiced brought some fresh vibe, but the band didn’t make haste and took their time in finishing a second album. The Clouds Are Burning appeared in 2012, offering the listeners a 45-minute-long voyage in the depths of depression and bitter grief; and, well, it even has some pretty extreme moments there…

With the third full-length record, Desolate Grief (Ván Records, February 2018) it seems that Pascal Vervest remains the only original member of Faal. How did he manage to keep the band in the same vein? I’m going to sort it out. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STRIBORG — “SPIRITUAL CATHARSIS” (REMASTERED)

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 052018
 

 

The prolific Tasmanian black metal / ambient project Striborg was founded by its sole creator Sin Nanna in 1993 under the name Kathaaria, with the name Striborg chosen in 1997. Over the course of this long career, Striborg has released two-dozen albums and other shorter releases, but the 2004 full-length Spiritual Catharsis (originally recorded on an analogue 4-track) seems to have acquired a special place in the hearts of Striborg fans. Originally released by Finsternis Productions, it was re-issued in 2007 by Displeased Records, and on April 21st of this year it will be re-issued again by Satanath Records (Russia) and Death Portal Studio (U.S.).

For this new edition, the music was remastered by Digivision Records, and given new artwork by Ismaelta & Phaedra. Today we present the debut of the remastered version of the album’s title track, “Spiritual Catharsis“. Continue reading »

INFERNO FESTIVAL 2018 – DAY 3

 Concert Reviews  5 Responses »
Apr 052018
 

 

(Andy Synn was fortunate to be in attendance at the 2018 edition of Inferno Festival in Oslo on March 29 – April 1, and files this report, which we’re spreading out in installments this week. Day 3 is the focus of this post; reactions to Day 1 and Day 2 can be found here and here.)

 

The third day of the festival began with another long lie in, followed by a bit of a wander around Oslo, which included stopping at a nice little restaurant/bar just around the corner from the venue for a delicious burger and several pints of Norwegian beer, before I eventually made my way into Rockefeller in time to catch Nordjevel riffing it up on the main stage. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NIGREDO — “TEN REPELLANT ANTIFORCES”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 052018
 

 

As I explained at our site about 10 days ago when I first encountered excerpts from the album that’s the source of the following premiere, “nigredo” (or “blackness”) was an alchemical practice that referred to the process of putrefaction or decomposition, a method of cleansing alchemical ingredients by cooking them to a uniform black matter. Because that word encompassed the process of death, putrefaction, or blackening, it also came to have symbolic or metaphorical usages in psychology and in certain spiritual studies as a necessary step in a new beginning.

Nigredo is also the name chosen by an Athenian black metal duo — vocalist, guitarist, and bassist A. (Ravencult) and drummer Maelstrom (Dephosphorus, Embrace of Thorns, ex-Ravencult) — whose debut album Flesh Torn – Spirit Pierced will be released on April 15 by Transcending Obscurity Records. As the band themselves explain: Continue reading »

NECROS CHRISTOS: “DOMEDON DOXOMEDON”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Apr 052018
 

 

(Few bands have made as dominant a mark on the progression of extreme metal as Necros Christos, and that makes their new album an event worth focusing on — and Wil Cifer does that here, in this review.)

 

I am a sucker for niche sub-genres. “Occult Death Metal” was one of those. It meant… we masturbate on our copies of Onward to Golgotha, but we’re dark enough to lure people like you in. even with the influences worn plainly on their little black sleeves.

One of the best bands to emerge from that was this German band, who have heralded this album as their last. This supposed swan-song finds the band coming out from the murk of cavernous reverb to a more organic brand of death metal with less Incantation worship. For that matter, there are a few moments that sound like Morbid Angel. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WRATHRONE — “THRONE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 042018
 

 

I’m not sure what first set in motion the trend in certain strains of death metal for bands to adorn their music (and their lyrics) with imagery of women being sexually violated, tortured, and brutally murdered, or when that started, or why. Undoubtedly, metal historians have investigated… but I haven’t.

The Wrathrone video you’re about to see is in line with that trend… up to a point… and then it ends in a way you wouldn’t see coming (except now you’ve been alerted), because this particular victim returns from a watery grave to mete out vengeance.

It appears from the video that death doesn’t succeed in claiming Wrathrone either, given their own gore-splattered appearance as they hammer out the delicious piece of death-metal mauling and romping that provides the soundtrack to the short film.

The song is “Throne“, and it appears on the band’s new album, Reflections of Torment, which will be released (CD and digitally) on April 23rd by Satanth Records (Russia) and The Void Records (Italy), with vinyl and tape editions projected for release in September by Cimmerian Shade Recordings. Continue reading »

ABYSSAL: “MMVIII – MMXIV”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 042018
 

 

(In this post Grant Skelton reviews a new anthology release collecting the music of the Mexican funeral doom band Abyssal, and shares news about Abyssal’s next album.)

 

“What are we? We live in the dark, everything we see it’s not what it appears to be. We are blind to this world, we are blind amongst ourselves, we live afraid. It is out feat that brings us to commit horrendous acts towards everything that surrounds us, fighting anger with anger, blood for blood. It’s our fear of finding out we are fragile and weak. Human figures on beautiful landscapes that is all we see, for we live in the abyssal plains… Music to be the companion on those long struggles for a better world, doesn’t matter the sound, when melody and meaning come together we feel we are not alone, there’s someone beside us fighting the same fights.”
(From the MMVIII – MMXIV liner notes)

 

 

Tijuana, Mexico is the home of Abyssal, a funeral doom band whose upcoming 2018 album (more info on that later) should be on our radar. Although active for a decade, word about Abyssal seems scarce even in dedicated doom circles. Their first 2 albums (Blindness and Landscapes) had only been available on CD-R prior to this year. Thanks to Concreto Records, fans may now enjoy a proper physical release of those two albums as part of an anthology called MMVIII – MMXIV. Rounding out the anthology is Abyssal’s 2014 track “Ad Noctum”. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries