(Andy Synn delivers another installment in a series devoted to worthy releases by bands from his homeland.)
Where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday I was working on my eighth “Best of British 2017” post, yet here we are again with number nine and 2017 is almost over!
But while there’s still time left, and still breath in my lungs, I’m going to keep doing my best to bring you the very best metallic morsels which have sprung from these green and pleasant lands. Continue reading »
If the analytical stats about the composition of our visitors are correct, about half of you will be observing Thanksgiving Day while for everyone else it will be just another day. It’s sort of just another day here at NCS — as you can tell, we’re still posting about metal — but it’s also Thanksgiving Day here in Seattle. And inevitably, I’m feeling thankful.
To give thanks, you need someone or something to thank, don’t you? In the tradition of this holiday, the idea is to express gratitude to some higher power, but if that seems like a fantasy (as it does to me), you become mindful of the thanks you owe to other people instead. Since our eighth birthday was only a few days ago, I’ve already thanked all the people (including you) who have contributed to the perplexing longevity of NCS. Today, I’m feeling especially thankful to the bands who help make life pleasurable, even during the dark days when it’s a struggle to find anything else that makes you feel thankful.
And so, voila, here’s a random selection of recent news and new music for which I’m grateful, with few words (because I’m headed off soon for a Thanksgiving get-together with family and friends).
AMENRA
I was late in getting around to checking out Amenra’s new video for the song “A Solitary Reign” off their new album Mass VI, which is out now via Neurot Recordings (and was reviewed here by Wil Cifer). It is a captivating video, made by Tine Guns, the mother of Amenra guitar player Mathieu Vandekerckhove’s son, Wolf. The song is completely captivating as well, perhaps the high point of Mass VI. The music was described in this way by the band’s Colin H. Van Eeckhout: Continue reading »
“May you live in interesting times” is an old English expression, usually attributed (probably incorrectly) to a Chinese origin. Rather than a blessing, it is a curse, because as we all know too well, surprises in life can be as often terrible as joyful. In that context, there is indeed something to be said for evenness and tranquillity; we might be willing to do without the unexpected reappearance of an old friend if we could also be spared the appearance of a spot on the lung. But in the context of music, and metal in particular, I suspect most of us would rather have 100 unpleasant surprises in return for one really good one, instead of an un-ending parade (even a comfortable one) of what we’ve heard many times before.
And this new song by the Polish band Jarun is a very welcome surprise. In fact, it’s full of surprises, and perhaps the biggest one is that all the unexpected occurrences within the song unexpectedly work, and work so well that it becomes a piece that’s very hard to forget. The name is “Malowany ogień“, and it’s the closing track on the band’s forthcoming third album, Sporysz, which will be released on December 22 by Arachnophobia Records. Continue reading »
Few would deny that we are in the midst of a resurgence and a branching of black metal that rivals, if not eclipses, the torrent of the second wave in its flourishing abundance and creative fertility. There are a lot of forks in this great, gnarled tree of music, and some of the off-shoots bear little resemblance to the original root stock, much to the disgust of purists in certain quarters. Other thorned flowerings have hewed more closely to the vitriolic intensity and scarifying aggression of the progenitors. The Swiss band Enoid is in that camp.
The project of a sole creator who calls himself Bornyhake, Enoid has been a prolific source of musical hate and misanthropy, releasing seven albums since 2006 as well as a trio of shorter works. The first two of those albums, Livssyklus and Dodssyklus, were released in 2006 and 2007 by Rotten Vomit Records and NMB Records, respectively. They have become hard to find, but on December 16th they will be re-released in a re-mastered compilation recording by GrimmDistribution (Belarus) and Final Gate Records (Germany).
To help spread the word, we’re premiering a remastered track called “Ecnarffuos“, which originally appeared on the Dodssyklus album. Continue reading »
We are told that the name chosen by the two-man band Garhelenth (originally from Iran, then Georgia, and now based in Armenia) will not be found in any dictionary, in any language. It is instead a creation that has symbolic significance in the band’s occult philosophies, and it is black metal that forms the musical channel of their communication.
Gerhelenth’s new album (their second) is About Pessimistic Elements & Rebirth Of Tragedy. It will be released on December 14th by Satanath Records (Russia) and The Eastern Front (Israel), and from that album we bring you a stream of a track whose name is as gloomy as the album’s title: “Self-Humiliation“. Continue reading »
Earlier today we invited our readers to suggest candidates for our list of 2017’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. We have our own list of candidates as well, one that has been building in size over the last 11 months, and today I added one more to it — the song we’re premiering in this post.
The name of the song is “Transcendence To Final Eclipse“. It’s from a debut album entitled Splendor… Then Gloominess by Doomortalis from Irapuato, México, which will be released later this month by Chaos Records. It’s a pulverizing track, and it really gets its hooks in your soon-to-be-headbanging skull as well. Continue reading »
(We present Austin Weber’s review of the long-awaited (and very eagerly awaited) new album by Cleric.)
In 2010, the Philadelphia-based avant-garde metal band Cleric dropped one of the biggest mindfucks ever to appear in the modern metal era called Regressions. In a lot of ways, the album felt like the rightful spiritual heir to Mr. Bungle and Secret Chiefs 3, endlessly explorative and capable of churning out incomprehensibly dense and eclectic compositions that sound like nothing else out there.
It was fitting then that Regressions was put out by Secret Chiefs 3/ex-Mr. Bungle mastermind Trey Spruance’s label, Web Of Mimicry. To give you another prime example of Regressions‘ complex mind-bending insanity, a prominent Cleric trait which certainly holds true to the music on Retrocausal as well, Colin Marston once discussed their debut in an interview in the following way: “Regressions by Cleric took waaaaaay longer than any other record I’ve ever worked on. It’s also probably the most dense in terms of the sheer number and complexity of layers being heard at any given time.”
Now, with little pre-warning, comes the dawn of album number two, Retrocausal, with Cleric once again reuniting with Colin Marston to handle the recording, mixing, and mastering of another amorphous musical behemoth. Continue reading »
Well, here we are again. It’s the time of year when we are beginning our year-end LISTMANIA extravaganza. For those of you new to this orgy, our LISTMANIA blockbuster comes in four parts:
First, we re-print assorted lists of the year’s best albums, leeched from other big web sites and magazines, like this one a couple days ago which launched that part of LISTMANIA 2017. Second, we will provide a post in which our readers’ can share their lists of the 2017 albums and shorter releases they enjoyed the most (we’ll be asking for those on December 1, so get ready). Third, we post the year-end lists of our own staff and assorted guest writers. And fourth, I’ll roll out my list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.
And that last list is the subject of this request for help.
In case you’ve become an NCS reader since this time last year, here’s what this Most Infectious Song list is all about: Continue reading »
(Our New Zealand compatriot Craig Hayes (Six Noises) brings us this tremendously exciting premiere of a track from the forthcoming debut album of NZ’s Bridge Burner.)
You’d be hard-pressed to put your finger on where New Zealand four-piece Bridge Burner sit on the extreme metal spectrum nowadays –– and that’s no bad thing. Originality counts for a lot with today’s jam-packed roll call of noise-makers. And while Bridge Burner list groups like Botch, Godflesh, and death metal legends Bolt Thrower as influences, you’ll also find that grindcore, crust punk, and even dissonant black metal feature on the band’s latest full-throttle track, “The Blood Never Lies”, which is streaming below.
“The Blood Never Lies” is taken from Bridge Burner’s upcoming album, Null Apostle, which is due for release in 2018. In truth, it’s not that much of a surprise that the band display such energetic and multi-hued creativity on “The Blood Never Lies”. For a start, Bridge Burner’s members have also played in a raft of other notable bands, including Graves, Diocletian, Ulcerate, Punished, Witchrist, In Dread Response, and The Mark of Man. Continue reading »
When last we visited the Russian atmospheric black metal band Taiga, roughly 14 months ago, their third album (Sky) was on the brink of release and we were premiering a track from the album named “Похоть“, which in English means “Lust”. Now Taiga are returning with a fourth album, and we’re again premiering a song, this time through a lyric video. This one is named “Стыд” (Shame).
The title of the new album is Cosmos, which might make you think of the vast mysteries of an endless, star-spangled void. But the concept here is an inner cosmos, a space in which anger, love, hate, decency, and other impulses and emotions orbit each other, colliding and exploding in ways that could lead to self-destruction, or to new heights of self-realization. Continue reading »