SHOW REVIEW: 5 SHADES OF BLACK (SAOR, THE GREAT OLD ONES, FEN, DRAWN INTO DESCENT, SORROW PLAGUES) — ANTWERP, OCT 21, 2017

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 282017
 


The Great Old Ones

 

(Greek metal writer and occasional NCS contributor John Sleepwalker attended the 5 Shades of Black show in Antwerp, Belgium, on October 21, 2017, and provides these thoughts about the performances by Saor, The Great Old Ones, Fen, Drawn Into Descent, and Sorrow Plagues. And we are most grateful to Kriss Wolf for kindly giving us permission to use her wonderful photos from the show, which appear throughout this review.)

 

5 Shades of Black stands as the type of an event that is a rare occasion in the lands of Greece. To the point that it seems more hopeful to dig for water in the desert than to expect names such as these to ever visit the capital city of Athens. Since the brand of old-school names is typically what tends to attract the majority of local interest, the few listeners dedicated to different aesthetics often need to travel to enjoy the related gigs of their choice. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ABIGOR, OBSCURA AMENTIA, DEFECRATOR, TAPHOS NOMOS, CIEŃ, VÄKI, DIPLEGIA

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Nov 272017
 

 

The year is supposed to be barreling toward the end, with a deep breath and a gasping look backward, but it’s obvious that the life pulse of metal takes no breaks. If you spend too much time reflecting on the last 11 months, you will inevitably miss a lot in the 5 weeks yet to come. I’m going to have to take that break, but not quite yet.

I intended to post this particular collection yesterday in its usual Sunday spot, but couldn’t finish it before departing for some Thanksgiving weekend festivities with friends. Since then it has grown a bit, but could have become much longer.

ABIGOR

Yesterday the brilliant Austrian black metal band Abigor announced that their new album, Höllenzwang – Chronicles of Perdition, has been sent off to the pressing plant. They made clear that the release will not be preceded by “any fancy youtube video, tons of merch or other promotion campaigns”. But the band did provide a few insights into the music, as well as a stream of song excerpts, which I’ve included below. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: FUNERAL CHANT — “FUNERAL CHANT”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 272017
 

 

In the early weeks of this now-waning year the Oakland-based black/death band Funeral Chant self-released their first cacophonous chants of total death on tape and digitally. It took little time for that self-titled album to produce a clamoring in the unwashed hordes of the underground for a vinyl and a CD edition, and now those wishes are about to be granted:

On November 30, Caverna Abismal Records (Portugal) and Duplicate Records (Norway) will release Funeral Chant’s enormously impressive debut in LP and CD formats, and to help spread the word we’re fiendishly pleased to present a full stream of the album for those who may have missed it before. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRETHOR — “EMBRACING OBLIVION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 272017
 

 

The quality of the music is obviously the most important criterion for assessing a new release, but there is added value when the concept and inspiration for an album teaches you something interesting that you never knew before, and when it features artwork that catches the eye. And the new album by Virginia’s Grethor that’s the source of the song we’re about to premiere scores high in all of those respects.

The album’s name is Damnatio Memoriae, which is Latin for “condemnation of memory“. We’re told that “the Roman Senate adopted this as a form of dishonorable punishment against traitors and criminals who brought shame to the Empire” — a form of punishment which stipulated “that a person must not be remembered”, and one that was “regarded as a fate worse than death”. Continue reading »

PERVERTED DEXTERITY: “SPIRITUAL AWAKENING”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 272017
 

 

(Our friend and contributor Vonlughlio from the Dominican Republic wrote the following review of the just-released new album by the Indonesian band Perverted Dexterity, whose sole creator is also behind the black metal project Pure Wrath, whose music we’ve previously written about on multiple occasions at our site.)

Perverted Dexterity is the one-man project of Mr. Januaryo Hardy formed back in 2010. I found about this project in 2015, a year after the release of their debut album Primitive Scene of Inhumanity”, which featured fast-paced, in-your-face songs with  a raw production and cannibalistic vocals.

Yes, I was a tad bit late discovering the project, but was so glad I did. Hailing from one of the best BDM scenes around the globe — Indonesia (a land I want to visit someday) — this project has gained more notice since the release of that first album internationally. Prior to that, I believe it was much talked-about in the Indonesia scene as a result of their demo, a spilt, and a 2013 promo release. Of all the one-man projects around the globe, Perverted Dexterity is one of the best, and my favorite. Continue reading »

OBLIVION: “THE PATH TOWARDS…”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 272017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Oblivion, which is out now via Unique Leader Records.)

I was a huge fan and advocate for Oblivion when they first appeared in the scene all the way back at the release of their debut three-song EP. I enthusiastically reviewed their 2013 debut album Called To Rise, amazed by their dedication to old school, riff-driven technical death metal that called to mind Suffocation, Incantation, and Pestilence. It was one of the best death metal records of its year, and as a result I’ve been very excited to see what the band would do next.

The Path Towards… is the first album in a two-album series about the inevitable AI takeover of the human race. Generally a tired concept that’s been done to death, Oblivion pull it off quite convincingly, conveying the horror and sense of existential dread of being phased out along with the accompanying unbridled and anguished sense of rage you’d expect from such an event. Continue reading »

ENSLAVED – LONDON – NOV 24, 2017

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 272017
 

 

(Andy Synn continues to make his way down to London to witness shows that make his States-side friends violently jealous, but probably isn’t driven to do so solely, or even at all, by the prospect of that effect. Probably.  We have here his words and videos from the latest excursion.)

So last Friday, for the second time in as many weeks, I found myself back down in London at the Islington Assembly Hall to catch another of Norway’s finest musical exports, the nine-worlds-renowned Enslaved.

Now originally I had planned on seeing the Norse quintet in Nottingham the weekend before as part of their tour supporting Opeth but, due to still feeling like crap, I ended up not being able to make that show, resulting in me making the five-hour round-trip down South instead.

But, truth be told, given the option, I’d much rather see an Enslaved headlining show than an Opeth one, as the latter tend to be a little hit-or-miss live in my opinion, whereas I’ve never not had a fantastic time at seeing the former, so maybe things worked out for the best in the end? Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BARSHASKETH AND OUTRE — “SEIN ZEIT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Nov 262017
 

 

At this site we don’t often publicize mere announcements of new releases without accompanying music, but a few weeks ago I did because the announcement got me so excited that I couldn’t resist. The subject was a forthcoming split by Barshasketh (formerly based in New Zealand, now located in Edinburgh, Scotland) and the Polish band Outre. Entitled Sein / Zeit, the split is scheduled for released on November 27th by Third Eye Temple and Blut & Eisen Productions.

Both of these bands have released some stunningly good music in the past, and that alone would have been reason enough to cause excitement about this split, but the conceptual focus of the music described in the announcement made the prospect even more intriguing. And now we’ve heard the split — and today you may do the same — and it is every bit as exciting as we thought it might be. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: TRIBULATION, DDENT, TRESPASSER, CAVEMAN CULT, LEFT ALONE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 252017
 

 

It seems that the four-day Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. has made mincemeat out of our site’s traffic, and while we don’t depend on traffic for money, it’s not much fun to put a lot of work into a post and then realize that few people will see it. It’s a test of the severity of my own blog compulsion. As you can tell, my compulsion passed the test with flying colors.

These are a few recent things I enjoyed last night and this morning, and hope you will enjoy too.

TRIBULATION

Well, this is sort of recent. I somehow missed it when it came out 8 days ago. Not sure how that happened, but anyway, I found it last night. It’s a video for a new song named “The Lament” off the next album by Sweden’s Tribulation. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (FRIDAY): TAAKE, PORTAL, BLACK ALTAR, MOURNING DAWN

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Nov 242017
 

 

I saw a meme this morning on Facebook, which read as follows:  “Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.” And yes, I suppose it’s so. For some of us, however, the last thing on our minds on this day, a thing to be avoided like the second coming of the black plague, is an excursion to retail outlets of any kind. The stronger impulse is to become even more hermit-like, to hunker down in our bunkers and put the thought of voraciously consuming crowds as far away as possible.

On the other hand, getting trampled is not in itself a bad thing, and can indeed be a very welcome experience, as long as the trampling is inflicted through the earholes, and the resulting visions of turmoil are spawned by the mind rather than observed through the eyes. And so here’s a rare Friday edition of SHADES OF BLACK, probably to be followed by another one in its usual place on Sunday.

TAAKE

Unless I missed something, the release of Taake’s new album, Kong Vinter, was preceded by the release of only one single (“Inntrenger”), and what a fine one it was. But the entire album is now publicly available, having been released yesterday by Dark Essence Records, in physical form and as a Bandcamp download. We failed to prepare a review in advance, and I’m afraid that what I’ve written below may not merit such a word, but I do want to share my enthusiasm, along with the music stream. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries