SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): HETROERTZEN, IMPERCEPTUM, IMHA TARIKAT, ANCIENT TUNDRA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Feb 122017
 

 

I tend to go overboard with the volume of music in these Shades of Black posts, but this one includes even more minutes of listening than usual. In this one you’ll find streams of two full albums, three full EPs, one single, and advance tracks from two forthcoming releases. And lots of my words, of course. In the middle, I’ve also spliced one very exciting piece of news.

Due to the size of this post, I’ve divided it into two parts. Part 2 is almost finished, but because of the volume of music here in Part 1 and in yesterday’s post, I think I’ll wait until first thing tomorrow to unveil it.

HETROERTZEN

Hetroertzen is a Chilean band now based in Sweden. I first discovered them through the music on their last album, 2014’s Ain Soph Aur (which I reviewed at length here). Their new album, Uprising of the Fallen, is now set for release by their new label Listenable Records on February 24. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (STRID)

 THE REARVIEW MIRROR  1 Response »
Feb 122017
 

 

Metalheads are geeks (I know, because I am one), and they have long memories. Many of them also love burrowing down the gopher holes of history, trying to learn where things started (yes, I’m a metal gopher, too). And many also zealously honor bands who played pivotal roles in the evolution of genres and sub-genres (and sub-sub-sub genres), even when such bands recorded precious few songs, and did so decades in the past. Which brings me to the Norwegian black metal band Strid.

I first learned about Strid only nine months ago when Neill Jameson devoted part of his NCS series on black metal to the band’s 1994 self-titled EP, and I’ll take the liberty of quoting part of what he wrote about them then: Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: MANTAR, MEMORIAM, CUT UP, ASCENDED DEAD, DEIVOS, VENOM PRISON, GÖKBÖRI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 112017
 

 

Happy Saturday to one and all, and if you’re not feeling particularly happy, maybe the recommended new music collected herein will improve your mood.

This is another Seen and Heard post, but with a title that’s more specific to the music I chose for this collection. Most of it could be considered shades and phases of death metal or, in the case of the first item, death-themed.

MANTAR

The Spell snuck up on me. I learned about it yesterday through an e-mail from Nuclear Blast Records that included a link to the lyric video you’re about to see. Like virtually everything else I’ve heard from Mantar, it exploded my brain. Continue reading »

SACRED COWS AND THE CRITICAL CONSENSUS

 Mosh Pit  18 Responses »
Feb 112017
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote the following bovine-themed opinion piece.)

Phew, for a group of people often characterised as “rebellious” and “anti-religious”… we metalheads sure do hold more than our fair share of things as sacred and inviolable, don’t we?

Case in point, a certain article last year (which will, for the moment, remain unnamed) dared to question and criticise a particularly famous and highly-regarded album, which of course led to the expected backlash from the sort of knee-jerk reactionaries who like to say things like “this proves you’re a hipster” or “if you don’t like [x] then you don’t like Metal!”

Now while I don’t want this article to develop into a similar bitchfest (again, for such a supposedly “macho” genre, we can certainly be a catty group when something ruffles our petticoats), I do have to say that I thought the article was well-written, and made some cogent points.

I didn’t necessarily agree with its conclusion, but then nor do I think it was wrong to write it, or that the author was just trying to troll people.

Because it is important, sometimes, to go against the grain. To challenge the prevailing orthodoxy and to try to make people think not just about what they like… but about why they like it in the first place.

Sometimes the sacred cow needs to be slaughtered. Or, at least, lightly stabbed. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: REVEL IN FLESH — “CASKET RIDE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 102017
 

 

In December of last year Cyclone Empire released the fourth album by the German death metal band Revel In Flesh, who have been a favorite of mine since I first heard their second album, Manifested Darkness, in 2013. This latest full-length is the group’s strongest release yet. As Jonny Pettersson of Wombbath stated when he named the album to his 2016 year-end list at our site, it’s “their most dynamic release so far”.

One of my own favorite tracks from the album is “Casket Ride”, and so I’m especially happy to share with you the band’s new video for that very song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CONJONCTIVE — “LET BLOW THE GRIM WIND”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 102017
 

 

In the Mouth of the Devil is the name of the second album by the Swiss metal band Conjonctive. In advance of its March 10 release by Tenacity Music, we bring you today the premiere of a song from the album called “Let Blow The Grim Wind“, which is presented through a video of the band performing the song at Conatus Studios, where the album was recorded.

After the band released their debut album Until The Whole World Dies in 2013, they spent time touring Switzerland and opening for the likes of Crowbar, Biohazard, and Aborted, among others… and their music evolved as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYPTIC BROOD — “SLURPING REEKING SLIME”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 102017
 

 

Somewhere, sometime, there must be a convening of psychotherapists and musicologists who will devote themselves to analyzing why large factions of metalheads revel in the sound of rot and bathe their minds in the filth of suppurating decay. I certainly can’t explain it, but I certainly do enjoy it — and I’ve found a new group of ghouls who deliver the experience with precocious mastery.

I’m referring to a trio from the wonderfully named town of Wolfsburg, Germany, who call themselves Cryptic Brood. In 2015 they self-released a demo cassette named Morbid Rite, which was soon released by different labels that same year, and then Xtreem Music vomited forth the band’s debut EP Wormhead in September 2015. Now the same death-loving Spanish label is going to release Cryptic Brood’s debut album Brain Eater on the first day of March.

In advance of that foul event we have a song to share with you. Not mincing words, the band named it “Slurping Reeking Slime”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVOURING STAR — “ANGEL OF NULL”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 102017
 

 

When I first learned last October that the Finnish black metal band Devouring Star planned to discharge a new EP this year, it immediately vaulted into the upper reaches of my personal list of most anticipated 2017 releases. I wrote about the news then, but now I can share with you further details about the new EP — which is named Antihedron — and we also have the privilege of bringing you the premiere of one of its three powerful tracks, a song called “Angel of Null“.

Antihedron will be released by the band’s new label Dark Descent on March 24 and becomes available for pre-order today.

I haven’t been alone in my eagerness for this EP. Devouring Star’s debut album Through Lung and Heart was widely recognized as one of 2015’s highlights, and an especially striking achievement given that it was the band’s first full-length. With Antihedron, they have moved from strength to further strength. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LVX HAERESIS — “IV”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Feb 102017
 

 

Last month the first advance track from the debut album by Lvx Haeresis hit me like a meteorite, unexpectedly rocketing in from the void and leaving a smoking crater in my skull. Now there’s a second crater to go along with the first one, and you’re about to hear it as well.

Lvx Haeresis is a Swiss black metal band formed in 2013, and their debut album is named Descensŭs Spīrĭtŭs. It was mastered by V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress, Secrets of the Moon, etc.), its cover art was created by Lemmy Gonthier, and it’s scheduled for a March 11 digipack CD release by Atavism Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AYAHUASCA DARK TRIP — “ETERNAL RETURN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 102017
 

 

As we all know, technological advances have made possible musical collaborations among people separated by significant distances that once would never have been possible. But even though multinational collaborations are no longer a rarity, few bands have been drawn together personnel from as many widely separated parts of the globe as Ayahuasca Dark Trip — and the music has drawn together an almost equally broad and unusual array of traditions as well.

When the band was first formed in 2010, its members included Buddy Van Nieuwenhoven from The Netherlands, Brayan Buckt from Peru, and Pedro Ivo Aráujo from Brazil. Now, the band also includes Dutch musicians Floris Moerkamp and Robin Van Rooy, U.S.-based Indrayudh Shome, and Sifis Karadakis from Greece. Continue reading »

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