BELPHEGOR: “TOTENRITUAL”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 092017
 

 

(We present DGR’s detailed review of the new album by Belphegor, which is out now on the Nuclear Blast label.)

You could be forgiven for thinking that at this point in their career Austria’s Belphegor would’ve been perfectly okay to rest on their laurels a bit. Having long ago established themselves as one of the more popular extreme black-metal-infused death metal acts out there, currently housed over at Nuclear Blast, and building a career draped in the worlds of blasphemy and a logo bearing prominent inverted crosses, Belphegor have defined themselves as one of the go-to groups for heavy metal’s dose of Satan.

Totenritual, the group’s eleventh album in a career spanning well over twenty years could’ve had the band serve up another smattering of heavier-than-the-Earth guitars and bellowing vocals, yet the Belphegor crew seem to have found new life in their chosen font of death and draw from it for the gathering on Totenritual. Totenritual does have its fair share of minor quirks, but overall Belphegor has honed in on a very focused sound — one which they hammer home numerous times over the nine songs that make up the disc. The album again shows the relic of subtlety (which Belphegor tossed a long time ago, in case albums titled Lucifer Incestus and Bondage Goat Zombie didn’t point you in the right direction) cast off in favor of nine tracks fueled by — and introduced numerous times by — the devil. Continue reading »

A DOOMED DESCENT (PART 1): ARMY OF DAGON, CARDINALS FOLLY, DAUTHA

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 092017
 

 

(Our Russian connoisseur of all things doom, Comrade Aleks, has brought us a series of reviews of 2017 releases that we haven’t yet touched upon, beginning with this first trio of assessments.)

I looked through my list of reviews for September and suddenly found for myself a few names that I almost forget to mention in the places where they should be mentioned. Shame on me…

I’d like to solve this situation as soon as possible, so a few stories of doom wait ahead. Let’s start with new records of Seattle-based Army Of Dagon, the heretics from the Finnish woods, Cardinals Folly, and the grim crew of Dautha (Sweden).

 

Army Of Dagon:  Night Of The Mystics (Self-released)

Army of Dagon from Seattle made their way to a self-titled debut without hurry: Born in 2011, they managed to record it only in 2015. This record represented a kind of traditional doom with heavy metal influences and melancholic atmosphere. Two years passed and they return with a sophomore release that successfully cultivates the general “Army Of Dagon” musical ideas. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: WITCHERY, ZIGGURAT, WORMKVLT, BETHÍOCH, IMPERCEPTUM

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Oct 082017
 

 

I’m having to somewhat throttle my usual verbosity in this Sunday’s collection of music I chose from the black realms. Though I know it will break your heart to have slightly fewer of my linguistic contraptions to marvel at, I’m running out of time and am forced to let the music speak (mainly) for itself.

If you’re able to make your way through everything here, you’ll find a lot of stylistic twists and turns, and maybe something that will agreeably seize you by the throat.

WITCHERY

We have another new song from Witchery’s new album, I Am Legion, which will be released by Century Media on October 6. Presented with a video, “Of Blackened Wing” begins in a slow, dismal, head-moving fashion, and then Witchery cut loose with a blast of evil, blood-pumping black thrash, laced with eerie melodic accents that amplify its infernal atmosphere. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MYSTAGOS — “HO ANTHROPOS TES ANOMIAS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Oct 082017
 

 

All music is connected to some kind of inspiration, from the most mundane (and even deplorable) to the most sublime. Some songs are the result of nothing more than cynical calculations intended to draw ears like clickbait draws eyes. Others seem like efforts to express (and perhaps exorcise) strongly felt emotions, either positive or negative. And still others can be understood as genuine efforts to channel a spiritual experience, or to create a medium for spiritual experience by others.

Of course, even when the inspiration for music is something commonplace and uninteresting, the music itself can still be appealing. And conversely, even when the inspiration is a blinding revelation, the music can nevertheless be colorless or even unlistenable. There’s no necessary correlation between the two, because songwriting talent and performance skill count for a lot. But when spiritual inspiration and distinctive musical talent come together, the results can be remarkable, as you will soon discover.

Ho Anthropos Tes Anomias is the debut album of Mystagos, and it will be released by the U.S. label Clandestine Faith on October 12. The album becomes available for pre-order today, to coincide with the label’s launch of a new web site, and we’re launching a full stream of the album today as well. Continue reading »

SOL DE SANGRE AND DESPISING AGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 072017
 

 

I thought about not putting anything together for the site today, just taking a break and working on some round-ups and reviews I’ve planned for Sunday and Monday. After all, there have been some other Saturdays and Sundays over the last 8 years when we haven’t posted anything. Maybe 9 or 10, total. Still bugs me when that happens. So it won’t happen today after all.

But I am scaling back. I’ve picked just two songs to share. I noticed them for the first time this morning; things I found earlier in the week are part of the bigger round-ups mentioned above. These two helped get my sluggish morning blood get going when I heard them.

SOL DE SANGRE

I’ve rapidly become a fan of Sol De Sangre, even though I’ve now only heard two songs by them. The first one I wrote about here a month ago is a tribute to Altar of Madness-era Morbid Angel named “Más Abajo del Infierno” — which is now available on Bandcamp. The second one, “Muertos Con Ojos Estallados“, popped up on YouTube just yesterday, and is yet another summoning of the evil death metal these dudes grew up with. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GREYTOMB — “FORCE MAJEURE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 062017
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records has allied itself with a significant number of excellent extreme metal bands from Australia, including The Dead, The Furor, Illimitable Dolor, Somnium Nox, and Norse, and recently the Australian black metal band Greytomb has joined those ranks.

The band’s first recording was a 2015 demo, The Mourning Field, and they followed that with a debut album last year, A Perpetual Descent. What lies ahead is a new EP named Monumental Microcosm, which the band describe as “a serious transition from the music we were creating to what we will be creating” — “a new era of dark, cosmic and nihilistic art!” It will be released by Transcending Obscurity on December 19th.

Monumental Microcosm consists of three substantial tracks, one of which it’s our pleasure to present to you today: “Force Majeure“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PILE OF PRIESTS — “REDEMPTIONEM PER CRUCIATU”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 062017
 

 

I know exactly where I was (Anchorage, Alaska) almost two years ago when I heard the first track off Pile Of Priests’ debut album, Void To Enlightenment. I also know exactly how cold it was outside (1°F). I know these things because I pasted the data from my phone at the top of the post where I wrote about that song — a track that made me much warmer, and left my jaw hanging loose with some drool wetting my chin.

That track wasn’t the only jaw-dropper on Void To Enlightenment. And thankfully, that album also isn’t the last of the devil’s work that this Denver-based progressive death metal band have seen fit to do. They’re at work on a new EP, but in the meantime they’re releasing a new single that we’re premiering today through a lyric video, the title of which is “Redemptionem Per Cruciatu“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MORBID ANGEL, AUROCH, PAROXSIHZEM, SICARIUS, THE NEGATIVE BIAS, HÄIVE, THE KAHLESS CLONE, WITCHES MOON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 062017
 

 

The weekend is nearly upon us. And before we close the books on the work week and begin whatever we cook up for the site on Saturday and Sunday, I thought I’d collect a few recent and recently discovered items of interest — two items of news at the outset, and then five new songs. I should mention that we also have two more premieres coming today… don’t miss those!

MORBID ANGEL

Morbid Angel being the iconic band that they are, even their belching after a sumptuous meal would provoke strong and inconsistent reactions among a vast fan base. Just imagine the reactions to yesterday’s announcement of a new album, one whose name begins with a “K” and is framed by the cover art you see above.

I usually don’t read extended comment threads on the internet, unless they appear on this site, because it’s like walking at night through a park littered with dog turds where the owners didn’t have the common courtesy to put them in flaming bags. But I read a few yesterday on Morbid Angel’s announcement. Continue reading »

ENSLAVED: “E”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Oct 062017
 

 

(This is Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Norwegian icons Enslaved, which will be released by Nuclear Blast on October 13.)

Whereas the popular vision of the Vikings is one of horn-helmeted, heavily bearded barbarians, with an axe in one hand and a drinking horn in the other, the truth of the matter is that the Norsemen (and women) of old were more than just pirates and plunderers. They were a culture of scholars and seers, inventors and explorers, whose lust for life and adventure led them to traverse the farthest reaches of the known world.

It’s only fitting then that their descendants in Enslaved seem to have inherited this same pioneering spirit, and that their career so far has been one of almost constant exploration and reinvention, a potent mix of myth and metaphysics which has seen them always looking towards new horizons, while never losing touch with their roots.

And perhaps nowhere is this more evident than on their fourteenth(!) album, the free-spirited E, which is not only the band’s most shamelessly progressive and indulgently introspective release since Vertebrae, but which also draws influence and inspiration from all eras of their history, from the medieval majesty of Vikingligr Veldi to the cosmic contemplation of Below the Lights, resulting in what is probably their most confident and creatively ambitious album in years. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DE PROFUNDIS — “BEYOND THE THRESHOLD”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 062017
 


photo by Ester Segarra

 

The name De Profundis is one you will recognize if you’ve been a frequent visitor to our site (or have otherwise kept your antennae alert to the emergence of excellent metal), given that we have published positive reviews of their 2013 album The Emptiness Within, their 2014 EP Frequencies, and most recently (and most glowingly) their latest album, Kingdom of the Blind, released in 2015. Of that album, my comrade Andy Synn wrote:

“[T]his move towards a proggier outlook – more expressive and textured and, ultimately, more natural – has clear benefits for both the Prog and the Death aspects of the band’s sound. The heaviest moments benefit from a greater sense of focus and direction, while the band’s progressive side is given free rein to fully express itself, and, on a grander scale, the songs themselves feel simultaneously more streamlined and structured, yet also more complex and freeform, with a greater sense of fluidity and flow between moments of blast-fuelled fury and expansive, melodic creativity…. Kingdom of the Blind is by far the band’s finest hour, and every subsequent re-listen has only cemented this impression.” Continue reading »

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