SHADOW WOODS IV ANNOUNCES FULL LINE-UP FOR 2018 (AND MORE DETAILS)

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Mar 202018
 

 

 

For a time, it looked like last year’s edition of the marvelous Shadow Woods Metal Festival would be the last one. The Maryland property where the event had been held for three years was sold, and the odds of finding another mid-Atlantic location that could preserve the festival’s unique character as an open-air camping, heavy metal gathering seemed daunting. But inspired by the fervor of previous festival goers who did not want to see this end, festival founder Mary Spiro began working behind the scenes, searching for a new venue and raising needed funds through contributions from past attendees. The work paid off.

Late last week Shadow Woods announced that a fourth edition of the festival — now known simply as Shadow Woods IV — will take place from Thursday, September 20th through Saturday, September 22th in Purcellville, Virginia, at Harpers Ferry Adventure Center (HFAC). And that news was accompanied by the disclosure of the entire confirmed line-up of more than 40 bands — which we’ll get to right away, and then provide a few more useful pieces of information.

So, here’s the line-up, day by day, with the bands listed in reverse order of their appearance (with headliners at the top) and brief commentary by the fest: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CULT OF EXTINCTION — “BLACK NUCLEAR MAGICK ATTACK”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 202018
 

 

Last fall Cult of Extinction emerged from the bowels of some hellish horror pit to deliver the destructive fruits of malignant conceptions, a self-released demo tape aptly entitled Black Nuclear Magick Attack. It seized the attention of both Sentient Ruin Laboratories and Atavism Records, who will jointly be releasing this monstrosity far and wide on March 30th in both 7″ vinyl and tape formats, as well as digitally. One excerpt premiered not long ago at Metal injection, and today we present another, which is the EP’s terrifying title track.

Cult of Extinction is the work of a single anonymous German creator, who seems both possessed by demonic forces and possessed of a certain kind of sadistic genius. He has waded into the toxic territory ruled by such warlords as Blasphemy, Revenge, Nuclearhammer, Temple Nightside, and Necroholocaust, and has emerged with music that upholds the standards of annihilating savagery that govern war metal, yet delivers more than the mere mindless and murky bludgeoning often vomited forth by less talented practitioners. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OAK — “SCULPTURES” (LIVE AT STONE SOUND STUDIO)

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 202018
 

 

On March 11, 2018, a Portuguese duo who have taken the name Oak entered Stone Sound Studio in Portugal and made a live recording of a composition called “Sculptures“. The performance was filmed, and now we present both the song and the video to the public for the first time.

Our interest in Oak began when we learned that the two men in the project are also members of the Portuguese black metal band Gaerea, whose debut EP was one of the best shorter releases of 2016 (and one we wrote about repeatedly, both before and after its release, including a post in which we named “Void of Numbness” to our list of the year’s “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs“).

But in Oak, the two participants have turned their talents in the direction of funeral doom/death — and what they’ve accomplished just with this one song is strikingly impressive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TELOCH VOVIN — “PSALMS OV KHAOS — CASUS BELLI” (PSALM X)

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Mar 202018
 

 

The Spring Equinox is upon us, at the moment this post appears on our site. At 12:15 pm Eastern time, the sun comes directly in line with the equator; on this day the Northern and Southern hemispheres will experience an equal amount of daylight and night; from this moment the days in the North will grow longer until the Summer Solstice in June. The beginning of spring has been marked in the tilt of the Earth’s axis, and Teloch Vovin have marked it through the release of a tenth Psalm Ov Khaos.

Two years ago, on the Winter Solstice of 2015, this occult New York black metal band embarked on an extended musical project, devoted to the electronic and ambient textures and ritualistic elements of their creativity. Beginning then, and continuing on each quarterly change of the seasons since then, they’ve released a new Psalm Ov Khaos. The one we’re presenting today — “Casus Belli” — is the tenth of those. One more remains, and it will be included in a physical edition collecting all 11 Psalms, which is projected for release sometime next year. Continue reading »

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE: “OCCULTACLYSMIC”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 202018
 

 

(Norway-based NCS contributor Karina Noctum prepared this review of the new album by Lecherous Nocturne, which will be released by Willowtip Records on April 6.)

Lecherous Nocturne are from South Carolina. The musicians have other musical projects that revolve around Brutal Death and Black Metal (Atrocious Abnormality, Cesspool of Vermin, Apotheosys, Helgardh). They have accumulated enough experience, and it fully shows in LN. Besides, since they’re from South Carolina you can bet the guitarist has played live with Nile, and that is one good hint when it comes to LN’s level of talent.

Lecherous Nocturne are many things. First, they are tech, so you get the insane guitar/bass work, and drums to die for. But keep in mind that if you have your reservations against tech or brutal, this is not your boring, souless tech, and not your raw brutal Neanderthalensis either. This is interesting, reminiscent of stuff that everyone loves but in the grey zone between several styles.

So yeah, this is tech but it is blackened and darkened, in a different spectrum than your average tech death band. Hints of rawness, that blackened thrash rawness, are present. Think of Absu! When it comes to DM you also have Morbid Angel’s omnipresent shadow, which is like a solid concrete foundation that makes this so heavy and enjoyable. The first song brings to mind Morbid Angel’s Heretic, for example.

Their latest album Occultaclysmic is to be released on April 6th by none other than one of the safest quality-checkers in extreme metal, Willowtip. (What a roster they have!) This is an album that further confirms the high quality that is to be found in their catalog. This is basically my definition of how the sound of metal should develop. It has thick musical roots firmly engrained in the DM genre while expanding the sound further into the extreme. It’s faster, much more powerful, and more intricate, without spiralling away into full chaos or a vastness of experimental sounds until the very core of the music is lost. It’s everything you hold dear, just taken to a next level. I do enjoy next levels. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOL DE SANGRE — “SOL DE SANGRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

Welcome to our exclusive debut of one of this writer’s favorite death metal albums of 2018, one that includes some of my favorite extreme metal songs of 2017. Yes, Sol De Sangre began spreading the word of this album last year through the release of four singles, two of which we wrote about in our periodic collections of recommended new music and one of which we premiered. Those were tremendously tempting teasers for this first full-length offering, and fortunately the album as a whole proves to be just as fantastic as all those early glimpses.

There’s a lot to take in on this self-titled album — 12 tracks in total, and not one of them a throw-away. Over the course of the album this veteran group of Colombian musicians pay homage to a variety of classic death metal sounds, and yet once you’ve heard all of them I think you’ll conclude that the only name which really represents the music faithfully is the name of Sol De Sangre. They’ve put their own distinctive stamp on these compositions, while at the same time re-living a host of past glories. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ÆPOCH — “AWAKENING INCEPTION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 192018
 

 

Get ready to take plenty of deep breaths. Hyperventilating wouldn’t be a bad idea. You’re going to need the oxygen… because the song you’re about to hear is genuinely breathtaking and mind-bending. (Body armor is recommended, too, because the track is also a vicious bone-mangler.)

The song in question is the title track to Awakening Inception, the new album by the death metal band Æpoch from Ontario, Canada, which is set for release on Friday the 13th of April, 2018. Among a large panoply of remarkable features, the track includes guest vocals by Hideous Divinity frontman Enrico Di Lorenzo. Continue reading »

AUGURY: “ILLUSIVE GOLDEN AGE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

(The Canadian death metal wizards in Augury will be releasing a new album on March 30 via The Artisan Era, and today we present DGR’s extensive review of this eagerly awaited new work.)

 

This first third of 2018 is proving to be an insane time for groups coming back from the obscure voids of space to which they had retreated, and the angular prog-tech-death madness that Augury specializes in is the latest example of that trend. Prior to the March 30 release of the band’s upcoming album Illusive Golden Age, the gap between their previous two releases Concealed and Fragmentary Evidence was a little under five years. When Illusive Golden Age sees the light of day via The Artisan Era, that previous gap will have been eclipsed, as Illusive Golden Age comes sailing in at a little under nine years since Augury’s last disc.

Through Illusive Golden Age’s eight songs, Augury basically pick up right where they left off. By the opening notes of its title song, there is absolutely no need to make guesses about whether this is an Augury disc or not — everything is served up on an incredibly dense plate from moment one, and from there Augury zig-zag through an increasingly complicated obstacle course, purpose-built to leave its listeners with the equivalent of auditory whiplash. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2018, PART 1: AKLASH / GEOMANCER / MY SILENT WAKE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

(Our man from Nottingham, Andy Synn, resumes a series in which he focuses on releases from a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe.)

I’m going to keep the preamble short and sweet for this one, as I’ve written quite a lot over the course of the last couple of weeks, both for NCS and for my regular job, and seem to have worn my poor keyboard fingers down to the bone in the process.

Still, I hope you all find something to enjoy in today’s column, which is meant to provide an insight into some of the most promising new albums to have come out of these green and pleasant lands so far this year. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): COSMIC CHURCH, UNREQVITED, SCHRAT, VONLAUS, BOIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Mar 182018
 

 

Continuing on from Part 1 of this Sunday’s column, I’ve chosen new music from five black metal bands. One is a recently released EP and the rest of the songs are from albums scheduled for release in the coming months. If you missed Part 1, it’s here.

COSMIC CHURCH

The Finnish one-man band Cosmic Church has released two albums and many shorter releases since the first demo in 2006, but has now decided to end its life with one final album, entitled Täyttymys. A single called “Armolahja” was digitally released on March 15th as a preview of the album, which will appear on CD and vinyl at some unknown future date via the Finnish black metal label Kuunpalvelus. Continue reading »

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