NO CLEAN SINGING

SEEN AND HEARD: KHONSU, NOCTEM, CULT OF FIRE, BLOODSTRIKE, KINGDOM

Aug 162016

I’ve returned from Olympia where I spent three days and four nights immersed in the wonders of Migration Fest. While I still need to write a recap of the festival’s final day to accompany two previously posted recaps, I’ve also started exploring developments in the world of metal that I missed while I was out and about in Olympia. Unsurprisingly, I missed a lot. I’ve selected a mere quintet of items to recommend in this round-up — four of them from old favorites of our site and one by a very striking newcomer.

KHONSU

To say that we’ve been eagerly anticipating the new album from Norway’s Khonsu would be an understatement. Earlier this year, our man Andy Synn named it as one of his five most anticipated albums of this year, largely on the strength of the band’s 2012 debut album Anomalia, which he called “without doubt one of the strongest and most creative debut albums in living metal memory”. And now, finally, we have more details about the album along with a video trailer for it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DORMANT INFERNO — “EMBERS OF YOU”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Aug 162016

In March of last year we premiered a powerful song called “Deliverance” by the Mumbai-based doom/death band Dormant Inferno from their split with Pakistan’s Dionysus, and then followed that last August with Comrade Aleks’ interview of Dormant Inferno’s guitarist/bassist Sunny Bhambri. Today we bring you a stream of a new Dormant Inferno single named “Embers of You” — and it’s superb.

Two nights ago I fell into a trance-like state during the immense closing set by Australia’s Mournful Congregation at Migration Fest in Olympia, Washington. I was reminded of that set in listening to “Embers of You” again last night. It’s a long song that’s also completely entrancing — and crushingly heavy. But in addition to drawing from the deep underground reservoirs of grief to be found in the caverns of funeral doom, Dormant Inferno also ratchet the intensity levels with elements of earth-quaking death metal. Continue reading »

MORROW: “COVENANT OF TEETH”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 152016

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by London’s Morrow.)

By not seeking to live off of post-apocalyptic distortion alone this London-based sludge band captures an atmosphere almost as mournful as a doom band.

Past affiliations have led to characterizations of Morrow as a crust super-group. Crust seems to be a hot buzzword when it comes to underground metal these days. The only time I hear this crusty side of the band is when they speed up with more punk energy toward the end of the first song, “Fathom”. They take their time getting started, as it’s 4 minutes in before the drums lay the ground-work to the melancholy. The cello on this song really adds more emotion. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SCOUR — “SCOUR”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 9 Responses »

Aug 152016

(DGR reviews the debut EP by Scour.)

There is no doubt that the reason the Scour EP and its mid-July release landed on most metal fans’ radar due to the presence of one Phil Anselmo trying his hand at extreme metal. Phil has proven himself to be a polarizing figure this year via one very particular scandal, and it is still not clear whether he thought he was being funny making a racist joke or if he is a fucking gigantic moron.

He seemed penitent enough when the inevitable backlash occurred, pretty much making it clear that if he was proving to be an obstacle to any of the bands he was in, he was willing to leave. But it makes you wonder if these events had any sort of effect on the lead-up to the Scour EP’s mid-July release. Continue reading »

MIGRATION FEST: DAY TWO

Concert Reviews 5 Responses »

Aug 142016

This is the second part of a three-part recap of the first Migration Fest in Olympia, Washington. For the first installment, covering the pre-fest show on August 11 and Day One on August 12, go here.

The first day of Migration Fest proved to be a very strong start to what I selfishly hope will become an annual tradition. If anything, Day Two topped it, in large part on the strength of a history-making performance by Saturday’s headliner — Panopticon — that was simply stunning.

At the end of this post I’ve embedded five videos from Panopticon’s 90-minute set, and I’ve got one video of Vastum in here, too. By tomorrow, I also plan to update this post (and yesterday’s recap of Day One) with videos of additional bands. For now, I’m including the best of my crappy cellphone photos, and some words of course. Continue reading »

MIGRATION FEST: PRE-FEST SHOW AND DAY ONE

Concert Reviews 10 Responses »

Aug 132016

Here I am on a gorgeous Saturday morning in Olympia, Washington, still pinching myself to make sure what I’ve been experiencing isn’t some kind of fantasy (or more likely, incipient dementia). Yesterday was the first day of Migration Fest, and the night before that was the unofficial start of the party with a three-band pre-fest show. In a nutshell, it’s been an absolute blast so far. More words (and amateurish photos) to follow.

This is, of course, the first edition of what by all rights should become a never-ending tradition, a labor of love jointly organized by Adam at Gilead Media and Dave at 20 Buck Spin, with support from a whole bunch of their tireless friends and family members. They assembled a stellar line-up of bands, and based on what I’ve seen so far (at least from a fan perspective), they’ve been executing on the plan like a well-oiled machine. Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN PRESENTS: REVIEWS IN HAIKUS (DESPISED ICON, KING, VALE OF PNATH)

Album Reviews, Reviews In Haikus 2 Responses »

Aug 122016

(Andy Synn returns again to his irregular series of album reviews in haiku. Three reviews of three lines each come after the jump. With music, of course.)

It seems like almost everyone and their mothers are off to Migration Fest or Bloodstock this weekend, but I’ve taken it upon myself to ensure that our faithful readership aren’t left wanting. How good am I?

Anyway, we’ve got three new albums this time around, covering Canada, Australia, and the good old US of A (respectively)! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: IMPURE CONSECRATION, ACANTHROPHIS, YONDER

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Aug 112016

In a few hours I’ll be flying along I-5 south, down to Olympia for Migration Fest. Okay, who am I kidding. It’s I-5 southbound from Seattle during daylight, which means I’ll be crawling like a slug. Anyway, before beginning that slimy crawl I thought I would package together some lamentably brief reviews for four recent EPs that have brought me much pleasure in recent weeks. They all deserve more elaborate and articulate praise, but fortunately they will all speak well for themselves through the complete music streams now available on Bandcamp.

IMPURE CONSECRATION

To begin this quartet of treats, we have a California band named Impure Consecration. They’ve been in the news recently because of a new 7″ EP named Succumb To Impurity Fire released (here) by Blood Harvest Records at the end of July. However, in January of this year they also released a previous EP entitled Consumed By the Venomous Curse, and that’s the one that first drew me to the band. Continue reading »

NECRONAUTICAL: “THE ENDURANCE AT NIGHT”

Album Reviews 11 Responses »

Aug 112016

(DGR wrote this review of the new album by the UK’s Necronautical.)

Let’s lay all our cards on the table up-front here. I was very excited when England’s Necronautical announced a follow-up disc to their album Black Sea Misanthropy. I genuinely enjoyed the nautical-themed group’s debut full-length, and for a while was worried that they wouldn’t do another after they went radio-silent for a brief spell.

I was actually introduced to the band via a review of that album on this very site by our own Andy Synn. Though I am loathe to admit this in public, as the man’s ego hardly needs any more inflating, and knowing that he was right about a recommendation might just provide more reason for it. His homeland may not be sure what part of the planet it wants to be located on at this moment, but I don’t need it to literally float off the map via Andy Synn‘s head-shaped balloon.

Black Sea Misanthropy was a symphonic black metal disc and, as the name implied (as well as the band’s own name), it focused heavily on ships, the ocean, and the brutality involved in many of those sea-going adventures. It was at times thrashy, full-blown death metal, raging and teeth-bared symphonic death, and frustratingly catchy (look, years out and I still get chunks of “Ghosts Of Men” stuck in my head), so I had high hopes for the band to have a follow-up. The Endurance At Night is that follow-up. Released in the middle of July, it continues the band’s nautical explorations but manages to do so in a much more mature package, one that shares a lot of similarities with its predecessor but also comes off much more fierce. The two years between discs have given Necronautical enough time to come up with one hell of a record. Continue reading »

IN THE WOODS…: “PURE”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Aug 112016

(Andy Synn reviews the first album in 17 years by Norway’s In the Woods….)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several years you’ll probably have noticed the surprising upswing in the number of legendary Metal bands making an unexpected return to the scene. From At The Gates to Extol, from Carcass to Gorguts, and beyond, there seems to have been a sudden surge in how many of the “big” names (relatively speaking) have decided to mount their long-awaited comeback… often to greater, and much-deserved, commercial and critical acclaim than they originally received the first time around.

With a 17-year gap separating the release of their last full-length (1999’s Strange in Stereo) from their imminent return, In The Woods… don’t quite hold the record for longest time between albums (of their peers mentioned above, that honour goes to At The Gates with their 19-year intermission between Slaughter of the Soul and 2014’s At War With Reality), but I have no hesitation in stating that Pure more than deserves to be mentioned in the same reverent tones reserved for Surgical Steel, Colored Sands, et al. Continue reading »

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