AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEER — “A PRIMORDIAL ENTITY OBSERVES FROM ACROSS THE COSMIC EXPANSE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 092018
 

 

Last fall we had the pleasure of premiering a new EP by the Vancouver band Seer. Entitled Vol. 5, it reflected the continuation of both the lyrical narrative that has run through Seer’s releases to date and the evolution of the band’s sound — which has become increasingly difficult to pin down. Vol. 5 encompasses varied strands of doom, sludge, black metal, and more — and no two of the tracks on the EP are quite alike.

Of the two middle tracks on the EP, which together form the bulk of the run-time, “The Face of the Earth Was Darkened and a Black Rain Began to Fall” is, in the band’s words, “an apocalyptic funeral dirge featuring more twists, turns, and layers than one might expect from sprawling, ‘big riff’ songs of this nature”. “A Primordial Entity Observes from Across the Cosmic Expanse”, on the other hand, “is a more straight-forward rock and roll tune with heavy emphasis on occult-rock guitar leads”, and it features interplay between harsh and clean vocals.

What we have for you today is the debut of an official video for that latter song, one that interweaves scenes of Seer performing live on November 3, 2017, at the Astoria in Vancouver and movie excerpts that suit the music’s occult aura — and are NSFW. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JACOBO CÓRDOVA (MAJESTIC DOWNFALL)

 LISTMANIA 2017  4 Responses »
Jan 092018
 

 

(It’s been a few years since we got a year-end list from our friend Jacobo Córdova — the man behind the magnificent Majestic Downfall from Mexico — but we’re pleased to share his with you this year.  And those of us eager for new Majestic Downfall might add this to the other hints and rumors that perhaps we will see some new music from him this year!)

 

2017: Another year full of great Metal with some truly killer releases. Having said this, I somehow feel I expected a bit more this time. I don´t know why, but while the last 5 years had always delivered 100%, I somehow felt this one fell a bit short. Maybe I am becoming a grumpy old man or viagra is starting to be on my radar, but that is what I felt.

With that observation out of the way, these killer albums made it to my year-end list and they somehow lit a flame in the right spot. Hail Heavy Metal, Hail Death! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: THE PREDECESSORS — “ROT”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 092018
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the debut EP by The Predecessors from the UK.)

 

It’s a simple fact that not every band knocks it out of the park on their first try. And, in today’s high-speed, high-attrition digital world – where a thousand new releases are just a few keystrokes away, and new bands have to crawl and scrabble and claw for even the merest scrap of attention – it’s all too easy for an otherwise talented young band to slip between the cracks simply because they don’t quite have all their pieces in the right place yet.

Which is very nearly what happened with Nottingham quintet The Predecessors and their debut EP, Rot. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (THY DARKENED SHADE, ACRIMONIOUS) — PART III

 LISTMANIA 2017  7 Responses »
Jan 092018
 


Artwork by V.I

 

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the third. Part I, in which Semjaza listed his 10 most-listened-to albums, is here, and Part II, which included additional inspirational releases, is here.)

 

Most-listened EPs, Demos, and Splits

Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: NEW SONGS FROM HOODED MENACE, THE CROWN, USURPRESS, PORTAL, MAMMOTH GRINDER, AND MORE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jan 082018
 

 

In an effort to catch up with new music that appeared last week (or in some cases that I only discovered last week), I’ve resorted to a two-part OVERFLOWING STREAMS post. And for those who haven’t noticed the format of these posts, they’re a form of personal surrender to the flood of new music. I enjoy writing thoughts about what I want to recommend, but in posts such as this one I just let the music speak for itself because there’s so much to recommend that I don’t have time to blurt out my own reactions.

In Part 1 (here), I collected some newly discovered splits. This one is devoted mainly to new advance tracks, some of which just premiered today, with a few full-album or EP streams in the mix. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM AUSTIN LUNN (PANOPTICON)

 LISTMANIA 2017  4 Responses »
Jan 082018
 

 

(Our friend Austin Lunn had a busy 2017, and one of the reasons is likely the recently revealed fact that Panopticon has a new double-album coming our way in March via Bindrune Recordings in the U.S. and Nordvis in Europe, the title of which is the scars of man on the once nameless wilderness. Nevertheless, Austin again graciously agreed to put together a year-end list of favorite records that we could share with you.)

 

I’m sorry I am a bit behind with this list as my life has been a bit chaotic as of late.

There was so much music to consume in 2017… Here is a list of some of the records I enjoyed in 2017…some are from 2016 and I was just a little late to discover them. I had quite a few more but I just felt as if my list was getting a bit excessive. This list spans a lot of genres and is in no particular order… But I will say that the first 5 on my list were my favorites this year. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: NEWLY DISCOVERED SPLITS (HORNA, PURE, SPECTRAL LORE, JUTE GYTE, FISTULA, COME TO GRIEF, -(16)-, VOLAHN, XAXAMATZA, BHL, KALATHON, HAUNTER, SOVEREIGN, II, LIHHAMON)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 082018
 

 

In an effort to catch up with new music that appeared last week (or in some cases that I only discovered last week), I’ve resorted to a two-part OVERFLOWING STREAMS post. And for those who haven’t noticed the format of these posts, they’re a form of personal surrender to the flood of new music. I enjoy writing thoughts about what I want to recommend, but in posts such as this one I just let the music speak for itself because there’s so much to recommend that I don’t have time to blurt out my own reactions.

In the first part of this post I decided to collect only new split releases that I’ve recently found. To be sure, these aren’t the only splits that I’ve discovered recently — some I intend to listen to but haven’t heard yet. These, I’ve at least listened to once and have had positive reactions, and perhaps you will too. The first one is really hot off the presses, since it just appeared over the weekend. Continue reading »

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2018 ANNOUNCES COMPLETE LINE-UP — TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jan 082018
 

 

For the second year in a row, NCS is proud to co-present Northwest Terror Fest, which will take place this year on May 31 – June 2 in Seattle, Washington. We and our co-conspirators in the NWTF crew have been gradually releasing the names of bands who will appear this year, but today we’ve revealed the entire line-up, which in our completely objective opinion is wonderful. And the revelation of the full line-up is timed to coincide with the launch of further ticket sales, following our sale of limited early-bird passes last year.

Here’s a tip: Act quickly, because the ticket sales began at the moment this post appeared — 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time — and we expect the full three-day passes will sell out fast. Info about how to acquire tickets is down below.

And now, let’s talk about that line-up. As you can see, thanks to the festival poster created by Becky Cloonan, the three headliners for the three nights of NWTF 2018 are Panopticon, Integrity, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. They are supported by a stellar group of other bands, and we’ve organized them all below according to the dates of their performances and the venues. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (THY DARKENED SHADE, ACRIMONIOUS) — PART II

 LISTMANIA 2017  5 Responses »
Jan 082018
 


Artwork by V.I

 

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the second. Part I, in which Semjaza listed his 10 most-listened-to albums, is here.)

 

Additional inspiring metal albums

 

I am one of those who respected the devoutness of Ancient Records since the very first steps of the label. Swartadauþuz and Sir N. decided to continue separate ways but they both still release great spiritual art. In order not to spam the list with most of their releases, I decided to state that one simply ought to buy their releases.

Listen here: https://mysticismproductions.bandcamp.com/

and here: https://svartrit.bandcamp.com/ Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: VERHEERER, AFVALLIGE, YHDARL, MALADIE,KRUKH, ABIGOR

 SHADES OF BLACK  12 Responses »
Jan 072018
 

 

I mentioned in yesterday’s last post, which immediately precedes this one, that I have an extraordinarily long list of intriguing new music that came out (or that I discovered) over just the last week. And a great deal of that is music from the black realms… too much to shoehorn into a single SHADES OF BLACK post.

So, even though this is a long post, with a lot of music for you to explore, it doesn’t exhaust everything I would like to recommend. Sadly, I’ll have to shoehorn everything else into an OVERFLOWING STREAMS post tomorrow, in which I’ll deprive myself of the pleasure of commenting on the music and instead simply furnish the streams, with release details.

VERHEERER

The first song in this collection is also the one I heard most recently, thanks to a link yesterday from my astute acquaintance Miloš. But it demanded to be placed here, because it shot a lightning bolt straight through me on the first listen. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries