AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT — “FINISTERRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Aug 222017
 

 

(We have the privilege of helping to premiere a full stream of the new album by Der Weg Einer Freiheit in advance of its August 25 release by Season of Mist, which we introduce with a review of the album by Andy Synn.)

Raise your hand if you’re familiar with Der Weg Einer Freiheit’s phenomenal 2015 album, Stellar?

If your hand isn’t up in the air… shame on you. Shame.

Because you’ve been missing out on one of the most electrifying and emotionally invigorating acts (and albums) in the Metal scene today.

But don’t worry, because the band’s latest record (their fourth) is another opportunity to bask in the glory of their sublime blackened beauty. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): ORATION, AUÐN, A PALE DECEMBER, ARCHGOAT, JUDASWIEGE

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Aug 222017
 

 

Greetings from western Wyoming. I’m two days late posting this column. I intentionally delayed it from Sunday to Monday because it seemed to make more sense to post this installment on the day of the total eclipse here in the U.S. — a time when actual shades of black would become manifest as the totality approached, and a moment when we could greet a black sun edged with the brilliance of the corona as night triumphed over day.

But I obviously didn’t get that done. After finishing yesterday’s three premieres, I ran out of time before the approach of the black sun beckoned.

I originally chose new music from seven bands for this week’s feature, but with the delay I’ve added two more new discoveries, in addition to one news item, which leads off this column. The new music is organized in alphabetical order by the name of the bands — and because of its length I’ve divided this into two parts. Because I’ll be making my way back to Seattle today, I might not get Part 2 posted until tomorrow.

ORATION

Yesterday Oration Records and Studio Emissary announced the first group of bands for next year’s edition of the Oration fest in Reykjavík, Iceland, which will take place on March 7-9, 2018, at the Gamla Bíó venue. As you can see from the flyer above, the bands announced yesterday are as follows: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): EHNAHRE — “THE MARROW”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 212017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us his review of the new album by the Boston-based ensemble Ehnahre, as well as the premiere of a full stream of this fascinating new record.)

Ehnahre are one of the most interesting groups in metal, a lot of which is due to how much their music draws so liberally from outside of metal, specifically from classical music, chamber music, jazz, film score music, avant-garde, improv, and beyond, with all of this married to a love for all things experimental and harsh, wrapped inside a doom metal, death metal, and sometimes black metal influenced framework.

They’re a rare group, one whose sound is amorphous and ever-shifting from release to release and from song to song, delivered with a scope and love for long-form compositions that ends up making their music feel like it’s a world all its own. For those new to Ehnahre, both current and former members have spent time playing in fellow avant-garde metal experimentalists Kayo Dot  if you need further evidence that this project is worth paying attention to.

I’ve been following the project for many years now, and finally got around to covering them here at NCS starting in 2016 when we helped Ehnahre do an exclusive early stream of their sprawling double album, Douve. That was followed by a second 2016 release in the form of an EP called Nothing and Nothingness, that I also made sure to cover here at NCS. So I’m happy to continue supporting them here with an early stream of their new album, The Marrow. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DAWN RAY’D — “THE ABYSSAL PLAIN”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Aug 212017
 

 

The UK black metal band Dawn Ray’d made a stunning advent last year with their debut EP, A Thorn, A Blight, a collection of six songs that my comrade Andy Synn described as “vivid and visceral”, an onslaught of “pure, refined fury and anguish, stripped down to its most basic, most human, form,” manifesting “supreme confidence and ruthless aggression”. And now Dawn Ray’d are returning with their first full-length LP.

The Unlawful Assembly is the name of this new album, and it’s projected for release in October. It’s divided into two parts, The Wild Service and The Wild Magic, composed of “equal parts malice and spite, and ethereality and exultation”. And today we present the album’s second track, an immensely powerful and multifaceted song called “The Abyssal Plain“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND AN INTERVIEW): BOTANIST — “THE SHAPE OF HE TO COME”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 212017
 

 

It’s likely that after six unique albums and a trio of EPs, Botanist has become known to all discriminating and adventurous metal listeners, of whom you are likely one because you are visiting us now. But in case you are a curious explorer finding your way to Botanist for the first time, we’ll provide a brief introduction before sharing with you the title song from the newest Botanist album — Collective: The Shape of He Who Comes — which will be released on September 1 by Avantgarde Music (CD) and Favonian (LP).

As you will learn, this new album is different from its predecessors in some important ways (though every Botanist album has differed in important ways from its predecessors). And to learn about those differences, and much more about the creative process that produced it as well as Botanist’s future plans, we also present an interview of Botanist’s creator and alter ego Otrebor by an Italian examiner who we’ll call “Mene Frago.” Continue reading »

HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE (“EMBRACE”)

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 202017
 

 

I’m still in Wyoming with a bunch of good friends, now one day away from the total eclipse of the sun that we came here to witness together. Last night was another late session of stargazing, boozing, and the kind of unpredictable conversation that boozing under the shine of the Milky Way can produce.

Much earlier in the day NCS contributor Grant Skelton had sent me a link to a song that I had decided to include in today’s SHADES OF BLACK column (which I haven’t even started writing, but will write, I promise — though I might not post it until eclipse day tomorrow). And the name of the band reminded me of something I hadn’t thought about in years, and that provoked one of the most interesting conversations under the stars last night. Continue reading »

CRUSHING INTOLERANCE VOLUME 5: NEW MUSIC FROM DEAFEST, VERMIN LORD, SCATHED, GUDSFORLADT, SHADOW LAKE, AND MORE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 192017
 

 

Two days to go until the total eclipse. I’m lucky to be in a beautiful place in Wyoming that lies within the path of totality, which cuts across the United States from Salem, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina.

After some carousing and late-night stargazing with friends, I slept like a dead man and wasn’t sure whether I’d write anything for NCS on this lazy morning. I had a few half-baked ideas that I was noodling over, and then I got word that Volume 5 of Crushing Intolerance had been released on Bandcamp. That wound up blowing the other ideas away like dust in the wind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KROSSFYRE — “BURNING TORCHES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 182017
 

 

In April I came across the first single from Burning Torches, the debut EP by a Spanish black/death band named Krossfyre. I was eager to hear it partly because the line-up includes members of Sheidim, Graveyard, Körgull the Exterminator, Insulters, Suspiral, and Morbid Flesh, and in part because the press announcement made references to classic Nifelheim and Vomitor, early Tribulation, later Desaster, Gospel of the Horns, Bestial Mockery, and Nocturnal Graves.

That first song, “Fire Solution”, was as good as I hoped it would be, and definitely earned its name. The whole EP turns out to be a fire solution to whatever might be ailing you. It will be released by the ever-tasteful Hells Headbangers on September 15 (CD, 12″ MLP), and today we have the premiere of the title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROPHILE — “IRREPRESSIBLE DISCHARGE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 182017
 

 

Death is deathless, in Japan as in most places. I’m referring to death metal in particular, and even more particularly to the Japanese death metal band Necrophile, whose music we’re premiering today.

The band’s origin story takes us back to 1987, which certainly qualifies them as one of the first Japanese death metal bands. They recorded two demo tapes in 1988 and 1989 ( The Terminal Derangement and Beyond the Truth) and then produced two further releases in 1991, the Dissociated Modernity and a split LP with Singapore’s Abhorer. And then, as happened to so many extreme metal bands from those formative years, they drifted away — but not forever. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ASTRAL BLOOD, ALTARAGE, KAWIR, SACRILEGIOUS RITE, KAUAN, SHADOWMASTER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 182017
 

 

And so we come to the end of another work week. Three days have passed since the last round-up of new music I pulled together, and those have been eventful days for the release of new metal, not even counting the many excellent premieres we introduced ourselves. I’ve had to resist the temptation to cram a big mountain of them into this post (instead of a small mountain), in part because I’m off to the airport again for a long weekend in the Rocky Mountains, capped by the coming of a black sun on Monday.

I hope you’ll enjoy the picks I’ve made for this truncated round-up, and that you’ll enjoy the two more premieres we’ll be bringing you later today. I think I’ll have time to pull together some more new music this weekend despite being away from the forested NCS fortress near the Puget Sound.

ASTRAL BLOOD

I’m beginning this collection with a new single by Minnesota’s Astral Blood, in part because it gives me the opportunity to post not one but two pieces of artwork by Luciana Nedelea that will cover the front and back of the album from which it comes. The album is named SYZYGY, and the front piece is above. This is the piece for the back cover: Continue reading »

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