AN NCS INTERVIEW: SACRIFICE

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jan 222025
 


photo by Kelly Clark Fotography

(On February 21st Cursed Blessings Records and High Roller Records will release Volume Six, a new album by the ’80s-era Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice — their first one in 16 years and with their original lineup intact. Yesterday we published Wil Cifer’s review, and today we bring you Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Sacrifice vocalist/guitarist Rob Urbinati.)

It’s always cool to know that there are veterans of the metal scene who keeps its fire burning, who are able to give it hot and strong. Sacrifice is one such band.

They started in 1984 as one of the first Canadian thrash/speed bands and evolving at the same time as bands like Anvil, Exciter, and Razor did. Torment in Fire (1986), Forward to Termination (1987), Soldiers of Misfortune (1990), and Apocalypse Inside (1993) left their impact on the world’s scene, but Sacrifice disbanded in 1993 on the peak of their activity, as one may say.

The band returned in 2006 in its original lineup, and they keep on rocking until today. Scott Watts (bass), Joe Rico (guitars), Gus Pynn (drums), and Rob Urbinati (guitars, vocals) haven’t forgotten how to do aggressive, technical, and highly tense metal. Their new album Volume Six easily proves it, as well as this interview. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 14): BRODEQUIN, WORMED, KONKHRA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 212025
 

In yesterday’s installment of this list I mentioned that I had a certain logic or organizing principle in mind when I grouped songs together in most of the remaining Parts of the list. Today’s feature is evidence of that.

All three of today’s songs are brutalizing experiences, but they’re also head-spinners, especially the first two. And both of those aspects are key reasons why I think the songs turned out to be infectious.

For those of you who might be stumbling into this list for the first time, you can find the preceding 13 installments via this link. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MALACATH — “A HYMN FOR THE HARVEST”

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Jan 212025
 

(written by Islander)

In February Eternal Death will release the fifth album by the New England black metal band Malacath, which began as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Lykos but has been a two-piece of Lykos and drummer Hiraeth for most of Malacath‘s discography. (Both members have been involved in many other bands, including their collaboration in Angel Morgue.)

The new album, Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain, brings us four substantial songs ranging in length from 10 minutes to more than 16, followed by a relatively brief acoustic closer (“Eleusis”). What we have for you today is the premiere of one of the long ones, an astonishing epic named “A Hymn for the Harvest.” Continue reading »

SACRIFICE: “VOLUME SIX”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 212025
 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of a new album by the ’80s-era Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice, their first one in 16 years and with their original lineup intact. It will be released on February 21st by Cursed Blessings Records.)

Thrash is a metal subgenre perhaps most shackled to a golden era that reached its peak in 1990 with albums like Seasons in the Abyss and Rust in Peace. Death metal gained prominence and bands either doubled down and got heavier to keep up or veered off to follow the ’90s alternative sound. The Canadian thrash band Sacrifice has been kicking it since the ’80s but never caught on to gain the cult status of a band like Voivod. They have however changed with the times on for their 6th album, which finds them sharing sonic ground with bands like Power Trip, who blended hardcore sounds with the thrash of the past.

If you were to listen back to the 1986 album Torment in Fire, while it captures the energy of that time, the guitar tones are a little dated, so the current production value plays to their benefit and breathes new life into what they do. This band is not jumping on a bandwagon to be relevant, but staying true to what they do while packing a suitable song punch, rather than digging up their pedal board from the ’80s to cash in on nostalgia for 1986. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 13): HIPPOTRAKTOR, TEN TON SLUG, IHSAHN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 202025
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to the lucky 13th Part of this list. In line with my original plan of posting a new installment every weekday until January expires, I now have 9 Parts left to go. Out of line with previous years’ lists, I’ve already planned which songs to include in each of those remaining Parts, though I suspect I’ll still make revisions because my brain won’t stay still and it’s so fucking difficult to stare at all the worthy songs I haven’t made room for.

As for today’s installment (and most of the ones still to come), I have grouped the songs together because they include certain stylistic ingredients that I thought would fit them together well. But you’ll be the judge of that, of course. To see the songs in the preceding 12 Parts, use this link. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WHERE THE LIGHT FADES — “TORN OUT”

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Jan 202025
 

(written by Islander)

A new week dawns at our site, and with it we bring a song premiere that’s the dawn of a new EP by Where The Light Fades, a Toronto-area band that arose during the pandemic from the ashes of Astaroth Incarnate.

This new EP is a three-song offering entitled Into The Depths of The Black Creek, and it will be released on January 31st by the Northernshadow label, which previews it this way:

Expect a mixture of black, doom, and some melodic death metal in the vein of Wolves In The Throne Room, Imperium Dekadenz, Mgła, Darkthrone, Taake, and early Katatonia.The lyrics are based on life, death, and grieving – something anyone can relate to. Continue reading »

SHEDFROMTHEBODY – WHISPER AND WANE

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 202025
 

(Andy Synn finds that the fourth time continues to charm when it comes to Shedfromthebody)

With 2025 finally starting to get into gear, it’s time for us to start looking ahead and planning out what artists and albums we’re going to review over the next few months (and beyond).

That being said, it’s always important to leave a little bit of wiggle room in your schedule for an unexpected surprise or two… such as the recently-released new album from Finnish “Doom-gaze” chanteuse Suvi Savikko, aka Shedfromthebody.

Continue reading »

CHRONICLING CORRODED CRENELATIONS OF RESONANCE – LONGFORM MUSINGS ON KOKESHI, MESARTHIM, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, LYCOPOLIS

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jan 202025
 

(As the title of this post signifies, our Vietnam-based contributor Vizzah Harri shares some thoughts about new music by kokeshi, Mesarthim, Imperial Triumphant, and Lycopolis, but in this month of beginnings and transitions he also shares a great many other abundantly-linked thoughts before getting there, many of them concerning “theft and intertextuality within music.”)

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.” – ultimate guitar user quote… originally by H.P. Lovecraft

It was 210 days left in my 40th year when I started writing this. One of my exes recently said the reason I’ll remain single for life is because I refuse to grow up, probably also why my articles read like they were written by a teenager on crack. 210 is a Harshad number. Harshad originates from the Sanskrit harṣa (joy) + da (give), meaning joy-giver. I for one rejoice in the bliss of discovering new music gushing in from my headphones.

2024 was the year of the dragon, a word which finds its origin in the Greek drakōn or ‘serpent’. 2025 will be the year of the snake, from 蛇 or Shé in traditional Chinese, or Hebi in Japanese Kanji which refers to “the winding thing.” This bodes well for what is to come for the dragon sharing so much of its hoard with us in music. And their etymologies being so linked one could only imagine 2025 to be as prodigious in output. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: RUINOUS POWER, DAKÛ, NECRODANCER, BESNA

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jan 192025
 

(written by Islander)

What is the correct adjective for the genre of music known as Black Metal? Is it “blackened“? I think not. “Blackened” is a word I often see applied to the music of bands who play something other than Black Metal but add ingredients that people think are drawn from Black Metal, even if it’s nothing more than shrieks, blizzard-like tremolo riffs, or blistering blasts, even though none of those elements is unique to Black Metal.

So if “blackened” really isn’t right, then what is? Other adjectives commonly used to describe Black Metal are even less specific to the genre — words like “grim,” “cold,” “nihilistic,” “misanthropic,” or “kvlt,” and for some kinds of Black Metal they don’t fit very well at all.

How about “Black Metallic“? Linguistically, it appears to be accurate; “metallic” is an accepted adjective for things relating to or being a metal, and there’s also an accepted definition of “metallic” that refers to “having a harsh or rasping sound.”

There’s a risk that if “Black Metallic” were accepted, it could become a noun. After all, the term “Classical Music” originally might have been intended as an adjectival phrase but is now a noun, and has been for a very long time. But I don’t think it would be terrible if people used “Black Metal” and “Black Metallic” interchangably. Of course that will never happen. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: IN THE WOODS…, BONG-RA, DESSIDERIUM, NOMADIC RITUALS, AGHARATH, BRAT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jan 182025
 

(written by Islander)

I’m going to a memorial service today for a friend who died of brain cancer. First time I’ve been in a church since the last church funeral I attended, which was pre-covid. During covid I attended two memorial services via zoom, one for my best friend, the other for my most important mentor, both of them killed by the same disease that then kept their friends and family from remembering them in a shared physical space.

The arc of life being what it is, the longer you survive, the more chances you’ll have to show up for those who succumbed before you have. I really don’t want to go to today’s service, or any of them. Who does? But at some point in the distant past I learned from what other people did when I lost family members I loved: I learned the importance to the survivors of showing up, of being present, even if you don’t utter a word. Most of the words you might utter would sound so clichéd anyway that they’d risk coming off as phony even if they aren’t.

I make this dreary report only to explain why I’m late in posting this Saturday roundup and why it’s shorter than I wish it were. My head has been clouded by sorrow and dread since waking up, remembering the last times I sat with my friend when he could no longer speak and now daunted by the prospect of what’s coming later today. All that slowed me way down, though the music I did manage to investigate blew away those clouds, even if only temporarily, and even if sometimes they replaced them with other clouds. Continue reading »

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