SHADES OF BLACK: CAULDRON, CORPUS CHRISTII, EPPING FOREST, GRIMFAUG, IMBER LUMINIS, ONIRIK, STREAMS OF BLOOD, VELDES, YPOKOSMOS, ZIFIR

 SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Mar 122017
 

 

I guess I’ll be surprised if anyone remembers, especially those of you who lost an hour of sleep last night, but a week ago I began what I said would be a two-part SHADES OF BLACK post. Before I could finish Part 2 for Monday I came across a bunch of new songs, and that collection became Part 2. I still want to recommend the songs that I had picked for the original Part 2. They’re all in here, a week later than I had planned, but of course I’ve added a few newer tracks, too. A whopping ten songs in all.

With one exception, all of these tracks are from albums or EPs that haven’t been released yet, and I’ve organized them in alphabetical order by band name. I have a separate collection of recent full releases, and if time permits I’ll try to pull those together before the usual tornado of the work week begins spinning tomorrow.

CAULDRON

To begin, I have “Severe Martyrdom“, a severe song from Regnum-Phobos by the Spanish band Cauldron. This is their second album and it will be released by Darkness Within on March 14th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISHARMONY — “THE ABYSS NOIR”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 122017
 

 

Here we are again, watering down the absolutist proclamation in our site’s name. Hell is clearly freezing over. Is nothing sacred any more? What has happened?

Yes, we are about to premiere an Exception to our Rule — a well-earned one that can’t be denied. What has happened is that the Greek band Disharmony have overcome your humble editor’s prejudices against clean singing in metal. How have they done this? Allow me to explain. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AU-DESSUS, FULL OF HELL, MOUNTAINS CRAVE, NERVOCHAOS, BEAST MODULUS, EMPHASIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Mar 112017
 

 

To begin our series of weekend posts I’ve assembled the following collection of diverse new songs, one of which comes with a video. Tomorrow we’ll have a premiere and an extra-large SHADES OF BLACK post. I might try to work in something else, time permitting.

Apart from the quality of the music, I also chose the following songs for this post because of the quality of the cover art for the forthcoming albums that will include them.

AU-DESSUS

I dipped my toes in the roiling dark waters of this Lithuanian band’s music when I impulsively selected their self-titled debut for an episode of the now nearly defunct MISCELLANY series two years ago. Now they are returning with a debut full-length entitled End of Chapter, which will be released on May 19 by Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions. Continue reading »

REPLACIRE: “DO NOT DEVIATE”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 102017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Boston-based Replacire, which will be released by Season of Mist on March 17, 2017.)

How do you like your Death Metal? Old-School? New School? Proudly Uneducated?

How about Prog, how do you feel about that? Positive? Negative? Oddly ambivalent?

How about a band which mixes the pummelling intensity of Dying Fetus with the proggy eccentricity of Leprous, along with shades of both Yattering and The Faceless?

Sound good? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: OF WOLVES, DEATH LIKE MASS, MALIBLIS, LONGHOUSE, ANIMUS MORTIS, UNDERGANG

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Mar 102017
 

 

I meant to finish this post and launch it yesterday, but as you may have noticed, we had a flood of premieres (all of them worth checking out if you haven’t), and time ran out. So I’m not quite as fast in turning you onto these things as I’d like, and with the delay I’ve accumulated even more good things that I’ll need to throw at you this weekend.

OF WOLVES

To begin, I have a piece of news that perked me right up, from a fondly remembered band whom I haven’t had an excuse to write about in a few years. They are Of Wolves, and they are of wolves. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LANTERN — “LUCID ENDLESSNESS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 102017
 

 

On March 17th, Dark Descent Records will release the second album of the Finnish death metal band Lantern, which bears the name II: Morphosis. The album can be understood as a reflection on the processes of dying and death and what may lie beyond the extinction of mortal life, an attempt to divine and manifest the chilling chaos of unseen terrors, a channeling of visions from eldritch spheres, an exhibition of dark perceptions and even darker imaginings about the transformation of life through death into something inherently mysterious.

The striking cover art Zbigniew M. Bielak is itself a collage of the album’s song titles and lyrical themes, with its centerpiece an image of a human cocoon parting, and a form leaving the clutch of rot and decay and rising up toward a domelike spire. And in that image, the cover makes a connection with the album’s epic final track, “Lucid Endlessness“, which happens to be this writer’s favorite track on the album — and the one we have the pleasure of premiering today. Continue reading »

DEVILISH ART: “TEMPLE OF DESINTEGRATION”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 102017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the second album by the Ukrainian black metal band Devilish Art, independently released at the end of January.)

 

I really love it when black metal meets the harshness and chill of the heavier side of industrial. Khonsu has done a good job of this, and of course there are bands such as Mysticum. Mysticum suffers, though, from that same rythmic stagnation issue I mentioned in my recent Cirith Gorgor review. There still needs to be dynamism, interesting transitions, and tasteful incorporation to really drive the elements home together in a way that feels alive and organic.

Devilish Art’s Temple Of Desintegration is my first exposure to them. They have a debut, but I haven’t listened. Devilish Art play a very riffy style of black metal that reminds me a lot of Naglfar and Old Man’s Child mixed with harsh industrial and electronic elements in an impressive cohesion. Engaging in both its hybridization and in its pure, singular stylistic moments, this is an album in the black metal realm that’s going to stick with me. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LOST TO THE WAVES — “REMEMBER ME”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 092017
 

 

We’ve had a very big day of premieres at our site today, including more than a few big names in underground circles, but we have one more premiere. It comes from a Boston-area metal band, younger than other names scattered across our site today and more under-the-radar… at least so far… but one whose new single got its hooks in my head from the first listen, and revived some nostalgic feelings as well. And it comes in the form of a video written and directed by the band’s guitarist that makes its own forceful impact.

The name of the band is Lost To the Waves (formerly known as Elegy), and the song is “Remember Me“. It’s destined to appear on the group’s debut EP, Nightfall, which is scheduled for release on March 31.

These dudes look like a friendly, fun-loving group, don’t they? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FEN — “WINTER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 092017
 

 

Examples can be found in the annals of metal and rock of unusually long albums that either seemed to be calculated displays of pretentiousness or were simply the result of laziness, with a lack of care and focus producing an experience destined to defeat its listeners through an attack of tedium. In the same ways, some books have been written that were so rambling, self-indulgent, and bloated that only students forced to read them in a class could claim the dubious distinction of reaching the end.

But some long works of music and literature earn the demands they place on our time; the length feels necessary, not only because the inspirations of the artists genuinely demanded it, but also because the pleasure of the experience for listeners and readers would have been materially diminished with anything less.

And that brings us to the music of Winter, the new album by FEN that it’s our pleasure to bring you today in advance of its March 10 release by Aural Music/Code666. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PIMEYDENTUOJA — “INTO THE CATACOMBS OF MISERY”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 092017
 

 

Not long ago I came across a single named “Invocations of Wrath and Fire” from Hellcrowned, which is the new second album by the Finnish band Pimeydentuoja. I promptly sang its praises in one of our Shades of Black features, and now I have the deviant pleasure of bringing you the premiere of another slaughtering song from that same album in advance of its March 31 release by the unholy triumvirate of Symbol of Domination Productions (Belarus), More Hate Productions (Russia), and Black Plague Records (USA). This new track is “Into the Catacombs of Misery“.

Since being struck down by that first advance track off of Hellcrowned I’ve learned that Pimeydentuoja first assembled back in 2009 and since then have released the Black Goat Psalm demo in 2012, a debut album named The Devil’s Epoch in 2015, and a single called “Sadist Ritual” last year. Continue reading »

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