SHADES OF BLACK: PILLORIAN, MORD’A’STIGMATA, SPEKTRAL HATCHERY, DØDKNELL, OPIATE, WRECHE

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  8 Responses »
Jan 152017
 

 

It’s time to blacken the Sabbath again. As usual, I find myself up to my eyebrows in new advance tracks and new or newly discovered full releases I’d like to write about. I picked this group not only because they’re among the best of what I have on my list but also because they provide an array of different sounds and a mix between higher-profile and more under-the-radar bands.

PILLORIAN

Agalloch is no more, of course, and I would guess that many people who mourn the band’s dissolution blame John Haughm, certainly in part because of a poorly worded and widely lampooned statement he made when the news broke last year. His former Agalloch comrades have joined forces with Aaron John Gregory of Giant Squid to form a new band named Khôrada, who are now busy recording demos — and I’m quite anxious to hear what they’re creating.

Meanwhile, John Haughm founded Pillorian. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 102)

 Phro's Posts, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jan 152017
 

 

(Old-timers at our site will remember our old friend Phro, whose frustration at the infrequency of our That’s Metal! series has led him to take matters into his own hands.)

One of the few bright spots in my week is waking up Sunday morning, after passing out following a rousing evening spent fighting zombie wombats for the last packet of crackers, and reading a new edition of That’s Metal! Sadly, though, the (not-so) esteemed Islander apparently no longer feels like entertaining me with all manner of entries that are metal in one way or another.

A lesser human would whine and moan about it while waiting a year to get new entries — and that is exactly what I did last year, until we received a new installment in November! But now the jerk has gone off and been a lazy ass again, so post-zombie-wombat-battling Sunday mornings are once more sad and boring. But to hell with waiting another year! Here’s some metal-ish stuff that’s not music I found all on my own. Please enjoy them.

Prince Rupert drop

I imagine this isn’t really new to many of you — it seems these bits of glass have been made since at least the 17th century! (If you can believe Wikipedia.) They’re pretty cool looking bits of glass — kind of like a giant piece of sperm frozen as it rocketed through space Silver Surfer-style. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 11): CANTIQUE LÉPREUX, WODE, FORTERESSE, GEVURAH

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  11 Responses »
Jan 142017
 

 

There was a time not so long ago, relative to the entire span of my life, when I wouldn’t have considered any of these four songs to be infectious. Certainly 10 years ago, and maybe even 7, I probably would have considered them almost unlistenable. But my own tastes and appreciation for metal have evolved, and now I would get depressed imagining life without these songs. For me, they are all so compelling that I go back to each of them repeatedly, even with as much time as I spend listening to new music. And that’s kind of the main criterion for this list.

To hear the other songs that were added before these, go here. After you listen to these songs, I don’t think there will be any mystery why I grouped them together.

CANTIQUE LÉPREUX

As you know, I get very excited about new music on almost a daily basis. But this song… this song nearly made my heart explode the first time I heard it, and it brings my heart near to exploding every damned time I hear it. How many songs do that to you? Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 10): IN MOURNING, MISTUR, MOONSORROW

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  2 Responses »
Jan 132017
 

 

We have arrived at Part 10 of our growing list of last year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. After the three songs I’m adding to the list today, we’ll be up to a total of 27, with about two and a half weeks left to go before my self-imposed deadline for finishing this thing. To check out the songs preceding these three, click this link.

I probably have some kind of twisted reason for grouping these three songs together, but if I do, it has eluded my conscious mind, and at the moment I don’t have time to plumb the murky depths of my subconscious to determine what it is.

IN MOURNING

On the 20th of last May, In Mourning released the fourth album of their career with Afterglow. My NCS comrade DGR wrote one of his typically lengthy reviews (here), which included a discussion of how the album fits within the band’s evolving discography. I’m going to excerpt his words about the song from Afterglow that I’m adding to our list — “Below Rise To Above“: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VILES VITAE — “THE VORTEX OF DISHARMONY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 132017
 

 

Viles Vitae are a new Portuguese black metal band, but one whose members are reputedly experienced and known within the Portuguese extreme metal underground. They’ve recorded a debut EP entitled IV, which is founded upon four elemental principles used in ritual magic and consist of four songs. In advance of the EP’s release next month by Caverna Abismal Records, we bring you the first streaming of one of the EP’s four incantations, a song called “The Vortex of Disharmony“.

To listen to the song is indeed like being pulled into a disconcerting vortex. It’s unrelentingly intense and disturbing, even though the fury of its arcane energies waxes and wanes like the blaze of the moon, and it exerts a tight grip on the listener’s attention from start to finish. Continue reading »

KREATOR: “GODS OF VIOLENCE”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 132017
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new 14th studio album by Germany’s Kreator.)

Kreator is a pretty big fucking deal to many people, including me. They are one of the most consistent thrash bands from the genre’s early heyday who have not only produced consistently killer music but have been unafraid to experiment and change things around during their career, always doing so with bold ambition. I’ve been a big fan of the thrash-meets-melodic-death-metal direction the band have been on since Violent Revolution, with Enemy Of God and Phantom Antichrist being absolute modern classic albums that have undeniable power.

In addition, Mille Petrozza is one of my favorite thrash front-men and one of the best riff writers in metal, his voice striking in how pissed-off and forceful it sounds and his riffs bringing remarkable intensity and tasteful technicality. Among the old guard, those talents are almost unrivaled (among modern thrash bands, David DiSanto of Vektor would probably take my vote). And with those confessions of zealous loyalty out of the way, let’s turn to Gods of Violence. Continue reading »

BLACK ANVIL: “AS WAS”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jan 132017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by NY’s Black Anvil.)

Towards the tail-end of 2016 I conducted an as-yet-unpublished interview with Black Anvil bassist/vocalist Paul Delaney about the band’s upcoming new album, As Was (out today on Relapse Records).

During said conversation he ruefully acknowledged that the fact that the band’s members all have roots in the NYC Hardcore scene tends to unnecessarily dominate the conversation a lot of the time, often causing people to read into things, or hear things, that aren’t there, and leading interviewers to say or ask things which make it clear they’ve made certain assumptions about the band, and about their music, that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

So I had to laugh when skimming through some of the coverage of As Was on the internet recently, noting several writers/reviewers still attempting to cast doubt upon the band’s sincerity and/or integrity, with the general gist seeming to be that it’s impossible for tattooed ex-Hardcore guys to truly “get” Black Metal, which is a genre that’s solely the preserve of weedy dudes in face paint, who truly understand “darkness” (no parents?).

I mean, are we honestly still going with the whole “jocks vs nerds” stereotype?

Don’t get me wrong. I understand the urge, the need, to see and hold a style of music as “yours”. Particularly if it’s been such a formative part of your identity for so long. But to write off a band simply because they haven’t followed the same path as you is just ludicrous.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat… or to blast a beat… after all. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9): MITHRAS, BLOOD INCANTATION, VOID OMNIA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  12 Responses »
Jan 122017
 

 

I know it’s damned late in the day for another post — probably past bed-time for some of our readers across the Atlantic — but I’ll be damned if I let another day go by without resuming the rollout of this Most Infectious Song series. This train must keep on rolling! (If you’d like to see the songs that preceded these three or learn what we mean by “most infectious”, go here.)

I continue to have fun picking combinations of songs for each installment. The three songs in this one are musically quite distinct, although all of them display phenomenal musicianship, but they do have a few things in common. Perhaps the most obvious one is a fascination with SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE….

MITHRAS

I assume I don’t need to provide much of an introduction to the new Mithras album, On Strange Loops. Nevertheless, I assume I’d have to pay some wretched price if I mentioned Mithras without quoting from my friend Andy Synn’s review, so here goes: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): NIGHTBRINGER, LVX HAERESIS, ENGULFED, QUESTION, ZETKIN, TENDRILS LOOM OVERHEAD AS MOSS BELOW

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jan 122017
 

 

Two days after promising Part 2 of a round-up, here it is. I’ve been fighting (and losing) a brutal battle with a vicious cold. Between that bloody conflict and other commitments, both related and unrelated to NCS, I got thrown off-track.

Most of the items in this collection were the ones I intended to write about two days ago, but since then I’ve found many other new things to like, including the one that begins this post. I might do another one of these for tomorrow, depending on how the land war in my sinuses goes. Looks like I’ll be living in the recent past for a while.

NIGHTBRINGER

Season of Mist has revealed details about Nightbringer’s new album, as well as an advance track. The album’s name is Terra Damnata and it’s set for release on April 14. As you can see, the cover art by the talented David Herrerias was also revealed, as well as this comment about the album by the band: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ENEPSIGOS — “PAGAN RITES”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 122017
 

 

We’ve learned that any band in which the Norwegian artist Doedsadmiral is involved will be worth checking out. Those bands include Nordjevel, Svartelder, and Doedsvangr, and now there’s one more to add to the list. Under his guise as V.I.T.H.R, he fronts a new group called Enepsigos, in which he is joined by Straff (ex-Sarkom) on guitars and bass and Italian drummer Thorns, who has worked with Blut Aus Nord, Deathrow, Fides Inversa, Frostmoon Eclipse, and Darvaza (among others).

The debut album of Enepsigos is named Plague Ov Plagues, and it’s set for release on January 15 by Drakkar Productions. Last fall we wrote about an advance song from the album named “Manifestum”, and now it’s our pleasure to share with you a video for another song called “Pagan Rites“, created by Hugo Aribart. Continue reading »

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