LANTERN: “II: MORPHOSIS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the Finnish band Lantern.)

I’ve been eagerly anticipating a new Lantern record since I heard and reviewed their undeniably powerful debut full-length Below. That thrash/death/black combo, which personified a synthesis of early Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, and Emperor, still holds absolutely true and finds itself achieving new progressive ambition on the band’s sophomore opus II: Morphosis.

This is also a new chapter in the project’s lifespan, upgrading from an enthusiastic duo to a full-fledged five-piece, although I still suspect guitarist/composer Cruciatus and vocalist Necrophilos call the majority of the shots, if not all of them. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FERNDAL, MYSTAGOS, HYPNOS, MORAST, ERDVE, MISERY, EDEN WEINT IM GRAB

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Feb 082017
 

 

Those of you impeccably tasteful metal aficionados who follow my Shades of Black posts know that I was too incapacitated to get one done for last Sunday. So I’m doing one now, although none of the songs collected here was included in what I planned to write about for last Sunday. I discovered all of these since then. I do still plan to complete the write-up I had originally conceived, perhaps later this week or at least for this coming Sunday.

FERNDAL

Yesterday, I was reminded about a German label named Einheit Produktionen by seeing their release schedule for the spring. I would have discovered these plans sooner if I’d been paying closer attention to our daily e-mail flood.

In April, Einheit will be discharging the self-titled debut album of a German black metal band named Ferndal, whose influences are described by Einheit as “reaching from Darkthrone to Windir, from Beethoven to Arvo Pärt and from baroque grace to romantic melancholy, within a veil of pure black metal aggression”. Is it any wonder I paused in my scurrying to have a listen to the first teaser of music? Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN PRESENTS: REVIEWS IN HAIKUS (BENIGHTED, HADAL MAW, AVERSION’S CROWN)

 Album Reviews, Reviews In Haikus  1 Response »
Feb 082017
 

 

(We present another edition of Andy Synn’s three-line reviews.)

Well, well, well… it looks like I’ve not done one of these since November.

Which I suppose isn’t too surprising, since most of December was dedicated to rounding up the previous twelve months in list form, as well as desperately scrambling to cover as many albums as possible before the end of the year, and most of last month was similarly focussed on catching up on some of the 2016 albums which we/you might have missed.

Thankfully I’m almost done looking backwards (yeah right) and am starting to switch my attention more and more towards new and upcoming albums from this, the year of our lord 2017.

So, in that spirit, here’s three albums of Death/Grind/Core goodness for you all to (hopefully) enjoy. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: NIDINGR — “THE HIGH HEAT LICKS AGAINST HEAVEN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 082017
 

 

Tomorrow is Season of Mist’s official North American release date for the new album by Nidingr — The High Heat Licks Against Heaven — and today we’re sharing a full stream of the new work.

This is the group’s fourth album and again finds guitarist/composer Teloch (Mayhem, The Konsortium, ex-1349, ex-Gorgoroth) and vocalist Cpt. Estrella Grasa in harness together, along with drummer Øyvind Myrvoll and bassist SIR. Continue reading »

A NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NECROWRETCH — “SATANIC SLAVERY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 082017
 

 

There is lot to appreciate about the artwork (by Nekronikon) on the cover of the new album by the French black/death band Necrowretch. The teeth, which seem to sprout from every orifice, including orifices that shouldn’t exist. The multitude of horns. The hooked wings. The tentacles, both thick and thin. The torrent of blood being vomited into a chalice. And the eyeballs… the eyeballs. The only thing better (or worse) would be if this ghastly montage came to life and began to move.

Well, guess what! If that is your wish, it has been granted. And if that is not your wish, it has been granted anyway!

We present the premiere of a video for the title track to Satanic Slavery, the new album by Necrowretch. It brings the blood-chilling cover art for the album to life. But of course, the true (and evil) delight comes from the music. Continue reading »

LORN: “ARRAYED CLAWS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 072017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the Italian band Lorn, which has just been released by I, Voidhanger Records.)

Black metal has rarely achieved that truly evil, blasphemous, horror sound that many bands have aspired to. It wasn’t until the style took a more melodic, progressive, and esoterically melodic approach that I started to care about it in the early 2000s or so. I don’t like Burzum, Bathory, or Darkthrone. Emperor was where my taste for the music started, and in following suit, all of my favorite black metal comes from that Emperor school of thought… until recently.

I suppose I couldn’t help but feel that first-wave and some second-wave black metal was just rather cartoony or something. I couldn’t take it seriously. I always wanted to hear an album or EP from this genre that truly succeeded in capturing the sound of a pit of hell opening up, or being trapped inside a dank chamber with a bunch of banshees torturing you with non-stop blood-curdling shrieks until you were incapable of knowing peace, sanity, or anything but the endless wail.

Lorn has done that. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DIGIR GIDIM — “I THOUGHT THERE WAS THE SUN AWAITING MY AWAKENING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Feb 072017
 

 

As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t agree to host premieres of music at our site until we have first listened to the music and concluded that it’s worth recommending to you, according to our own twisted tastes. When I began listening to what you’re about to hear, the band’s name was new to me and I had no clear idea what to expect. What I heard left me gasping and unnerved, emotionally stretched taut, and wide-eyed in wonder at what this mysterious duo had achieved. I felt myself enthralled by the unsettling sorcery of masters practicing a very dark but transportive art.

The band is Diĝir Gidim (whose location is unknown), and the title of the album is I Thought There Was the Sun Awaiting My Awakening. It will be released by ATMF on March 31, 2017. Continue reading »

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST: ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ROUND OF CONFIRMED BANDS

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Feb 072017
 

 

On June 15-17, 2017, in the Emerald City of Seattle, Washington, No Clean Singing will be partnering with the tireless Terrorfest honcho David Rodgers and Invisible Oranges to present the first edition of Northwest Terror Fest, and today we’re leaking the names of the first group of confirmed bands. Actually, this is the second leak, because yesterday David disclosed through an interview with Metal Injection that Warning from the UK will be headlining the final night of NWTF, with Young And In the Way also appearing on that closing night of the fest.

The appearance of Warning is big news, made even more special by the announcement that they will be performing their 2006 comeback album Watching From A Distance in its entirety. Warning’s NWTF performance will follow shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco that we’re also co-sponsoring.

But today we’re announcing the names of 13 more bands whose NWTF appearances have been confirmed, including another headliner: the mighty Cephalic Carnage from Denver, who will be playing their experimental 2002 sludge/doom EP Halls of Amenti in its entirety, in addition to other songs from their head-wrecking discography.

Here are those names in alphabetical order, followed by more details about NWTF and the people involved in making it a reality: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THREE TRACKS BY STENCH OF PROFIT

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 072017
 

 

It’s not unusual for us to premiere new music. It is unusual for us to premiere three tracks from the same release at the same time. But that’s what we’re doing today — and it will take you a grand total of two minutes to hear them. However, if you’re like me, you’re going to spend more time listening to them again, and again. Once is not enough.

The names of these three tracks are “Mental Depravation” (28 seconds), “Know Your Shit Or Live In Ignorance” (71 seconds), and “The Dance of Deceit” (21 seconds). They are three of 18 tracks by the Venetian band Stench of Profit that will appear on a forthcoming split entitled New Doomsday Orchestration with fellow Italian destructors Mindful of Pripyat. The split will be released by Everlasting Spew on March 1.

You may remember the name Mindful of Pripyat, because we premiered two of the tracks from their side of the split in mid-January. Those songs were damned destructive. So are these three. Continue reading »

MURDERING MONDAY: SINISTER, SVART CROWN, POSSESSION, DOEDSVANGR, MORBID FLESH, THE NEGATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 062017
 

 

I decided to give the “Seen and Heard” caption a brief rest, but that’s basically what this post is — a round-up of new songs and videos. It just happens that everything in this round-up is the sound of slaughtering, though translated through difference metallic prisms. In essence, we’ll do a death metal/black metal back-and-forth, though you’ll hear differences even within those broad genre umbrellas, and the boundaries blur as well.

SINISTER

Over the weekend Sinister released an official video (created and directed by Sebastiaan Spijker) for a song called “Neurophobic” off their new album Syncretism, which will be released on February 24 by Massacre Records. This is the 13th studio album by these Dutch death metal veterans, and judging from the new song, it’s going to be lethal. Continue reading »

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