AN NCS PREMIERE: WINDSWEPT — “SHROUDED IN PALE SHINING, SO SLEEPS INFINITE ANCIENT STEPPE”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Jan 312017
 

 

I’m in the camp of those who believe that any music crafted by the hand of Roman Sayenko will be worth checking out. Best known for his work in Drudkh for the last 15 years, he has also released powerful music under the banners of Blood of Kingu, Hate Forest, and Old Silver Key, among others. The latest Sayenko project is Windswept, in which he is joined by Drudkh’s rhythm section, V. and K. On March 31, Windswept’s debut album The Great Cold Steppe will be released by Season of Mist, and today we’re helping premiere another track from the album, “Shrouded In Pale Shining, So Sleeps Infinite Ancient Steppe“.

From the album’s title to the cover art to the names of the tracks, it’s obvious, as the label’s press reports confirm, that Windswept drew “inspiration from the harsh and unforgiving nature of the Eastern winter steppes”. But the music itself burns like a storm-driven blaze. Continue reading »

ASHENSPIRE: “SPEAK NOT OF THE LAUDANUM QUANDRY”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 312017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Ashenspire from Glasgow, Scotland.)

I’m into a lot of really emotive, depressing, progressive or avant-garde metal lately, and no scene does emotive, depressing, progressive or avant-garde like black metal right now. Ashenspire are in that vein, and even wear the avant-garde black metal label, although they are so avant-garde that they barely even qualify as black metal.

This band is very meta. They have more in common instrumentally with bands like Opeth or Ne Obliviscarus (they seem to have a full-time violinist like NeO, or at least his presence is a full-time feature of this album) combined with some very post-black metal-y stuff going on. Combine this with a vocal style that’s… not clean singing, but is? It doesn’t particularly try to be melodic in any way but it’s kind of like a harsher version of Warrel Dane’s operatic bellowing. It’s impossible to articulate. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 20): BORKNAGAR, HELCARAXË, IN THE WOODS…, CONAN, PHANTOM WINTER

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  6 Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

We’re down to the penultimate day for the rollout of our 2016 Most Infectious Song list. I’m in a bit of a panic, because I’m having so much trouble deciding how to end it. There are still so many songs that I feel are deserving of a place on the list, but it also seems awkward to continue a 2016 list of any kind past the first month of the new year.

And I suppose I should remind you that because I have so much difficulty as a list-maker, I didn’t have the list completed when I began the rollout, and to an extent, I’ve been making it up as I go along. That’s why tomorrow’s ending is arbitrary, and why there is a degree of randomness in what’s on the list and what isn’t. What’s not random is my conviction that all the songs I’ve picked are worthy of the awards.

BORKNAGAR

I ask you, if you can’t make an exception to our Rule about singing for the likes of Andreas “Vintersorg” Hedlund, Simen “ICS Vortex” Hestnaes, and Kristoffer Rygg, then who could justify an exception? Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2016 WRAP-UP

 LISTMANIA 2016  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

There’s a possibility that at this late date I might still receive a promised year-end list or two, but with those possible exceptions our 2016 edition of LISTMANIA has concluded — or at least close enough that I’m ready to provide this wrap-up.

Once again, we had an extensive series of year-end lists. As usual, some of them were re-postings of lists that appeared at “big platform” web sites and print magazines, and others were prepared by our own cadre of writers. But once again the largest group of list posts came from invited band members and assorted other guests, including fellow metal bloggers/writers. Plus, we’ve also received many lists in reader comments on THIS POST (and new lists are still being added there).

In this article I’m collecting links to all of the 2016 year-end lists that we published, divided into categories and listed within each category in the order of their appearance. For people who are looking for the best metal that 2016 had to offer, I think these lists provide a tremendous resource.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to 2016 LISTMANIA and to everyone who made time to read what we pulled together. Continue reading »

WIEGEDOOD: “DE DODEN HEBBEN HET GOED II”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the Belgian band Wiegedood.)

As everyone knows by now, the best Black Metal these days comes from Iceland.

And France.

Oh, and Germany too.

Ok, fine, yes, and America. And Poland. And obviously Norway is still up there…

Look, what I’m trying to say is that these days it seems like killer Black Metal bands are cropping up all over the map, and Belgium is no exception. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEROCS — “AND SO IT BEGINS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new video from Serocs.)

Multi-national technical brutal death metal act Serocs have remained an ongoing favorite of mine ever since I first stumbled upon their 2013 album, The Next, and reviewed it at the time here at NCS. Even then the band was onto something special, but they truly took themselves to a higher level on their 2015 album, And When The Sky Was Opened, from which NCS helped launch a single called “Itami”.

Since that time, the band’s founder, guitarist Antonio Freyre, has been busy starting other projects, including last year’s side-project Punished, for which Islander was nice enough to premiere a song called “The Absent” (since I guested on it briefly and it wouldn’t have been right for me to cover it).

But I digress. Seeing as it’s now 2017 and Serocs is ramping back up again, that provides the impetus for us helping to launch this new video today. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): THORMESIS, MAHTOWA DEATH MARCH, DUSKTONE, MANIACAL VIOLATOR, HOLOCAUSTO, ALTARS OF ASH AND BONE

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

This is the second part of a Shades of Black post I began yesterday. At the risk of drowning you with such a large torrent of music (but when has that ever stopped us?), I have another compilation, plus three full recent releases, plus advance tracks from two more that are slated for release next month. All of them are recommended, of course.

THORMESIS

Trümmerfarben is the fifth album from Germany’s Thormesis since 2008, but I don’t think I’ve heard anything from the previous ones. The new album has a release date of February 10 via MDD Records, and what you’ll find below is a lyric video (in German) for a song called “Waheelas Fährte”. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 19): FALLUJAH, VEILBURNER, DAHACA, COLDWORLD

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  3 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

Welcome to the 19th installment of my list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. I’m beginning to feel stressed about this list, because I swore to myself (and may have promised you) that I would bring this to an end on January 31, and yet I still have dozens of worthy candidates. That means there’s going to be an arbitrary cut-off, with a lot of worthy tracks being neglected. But I figured that would happen when I started this list… I’ve never been very good at list-making.

Anyway, here are four more songs. You’ll never guess why I chose to group these four songs together. It will just have to be my little secret.

FALLUJAH

In his NCS review, my colleague Andy Synn called Dreamless the finest of Fallujah’s three albums so far — a creation that “could very well be a game-changing, life-altering release for these Tech-Death titans-in-waiting.” He praised the songwriting, which gave each track its own distinctive personality despite the presence of common ingredients — “nuanced, technical drums, strobing, rapid-fire riffs, dreamy synth waves, and soaring, extravagant lead guitar work” — and the positive direction of the band’s continuing evolution. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): MISÞYRMING, SINMARA, ORATION MMXVI, WELL OF NIGHT, GROK, DIAMANDA GALÁS

 SHADES OF BLACK  8 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

I have a large collection of recent releases or advance tracks to recommend, all of them within the ever-widening spectrum of black metal or reflecting to varying degrees the influence of black metal. I’ve divided the collection into two parts. I haven’t written the second one yet, so I’m not sure if I’ll be posting it today or on Monday.

MISÞYRMING

Formed in Reykjavík back in 2013, Misþyrming (Icelandic for “abuse” or “mistreatment“) was originally the solo project of multi-instrumentalist D.G., but eventually expanded into a full band as a result of D.G.’s desire to perform Misþyrming’s music in a live setting. The band shares members with Naðra and Carpe Noctem, and D.G. is also a member of Martröð and Skáphe. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIMPHAION — “THE CONQUEROR WORM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

The Russian band Nimphaion are working on their third album, a conceptual creation named Quoth the Raven that’s projected for release in the coming spring. As a sign of what lies ahead, the band are releasing a single from the album, “The Conqueror Worm“, and today we’re sharing with you a stream of the title song in a lyric video.

Those of you familiar with the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe will have already realized where Nimphaion drew inspiration for this music. In fact, they’ve described the music in genre terms as “Poe-tic Black Metal”. Continue reading »

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