NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VOKONIS (SIMON OHLSSON)

Jun 102016

(We present Comrade Aleks’ interview of Simon Ohlsson, vocalist/guitarist of the Swedish band Vokonis, whose new album was released in late May.)

Wild, angry, and full of energy, Swedish power trio Vokonis ride in their thunderous chariot right from nowhere throwing lightning and rattling at full scale! This loud combination of doom metal and stoner is straightforward and masculine, you hear it and get the revelation — Vokonis have big balls and they literally show it on their brand new album Olde One Ascending!

We had a talk with Simon Ohlsson, singing guitarist of Vokonis. Bring it on Simon! Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 3): IMPERIUM DEKADENZ, SPIRE, MORTHUS, FIRTAN, BLOODRAIN, DREAD SOVEREIGN

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK 9 Responses »

Jun 092016

This is the third and final part of a post I began two days ago devoted to recent song and video streams, as well as full releases, in a blackened vein. This doesn’t exhaust what I’d like to recommend from what I’ve been listening to over the last week or so, but after this I’m going to get back to the more usual schedule of posting these Shades of Black collections on Sundays. Hope you find some things to like in what follows. In case you missed the first two parts of this post, here are links:

Part One
Part Two

IMPERIUM DEKADENZ

I first discovered this German band in the spring of 2010 and wrote a review of their then-current album Procella Vadens (which is superb), except I wrote it as if Suffocation’s Frank Mullen were writing the review. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I failed to review their next album, 2013’s Meadows of Nostalgia (also excellent), only managing to praise two songs from it. And now a third album is on the way, with the first advance track premiering yesterday at Rolling Stone (of all places). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MONOLITHE — A TEASER FOR “ZETA RETICULI”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Jun 092016

Only six months ago we were privileged to bring you the premiere of a full-album stream on the release date of Epsilon Aurigae, the the fifth album by the remarkable Parisian doom band Monolithe. But that album was only the first part of a two-album conceptual work, and the second part — entitled Zeta Reticuli — has now been scheduled for release by Debemur Morti Productions on July 8. As was true of Epsilon Aurigae, the new album is composed of three long tracks, and today we’re helping share a video teaser that will begin whetting your appetite for the full experience.

In my review of the last album, I attempted to describe the experience as something akin to “diving into a deep blue hole, with crushing pressures and glowing phosphorescence all around you, or perhaps like a venture into the cold void of space. Either way, you really lose the sense that you’re standing on solid ground.”

That album was brimming with dark atmospheric music, incisively textured and powerful in its emotional impact. But for all of its alien ambience and bereft melodies, the album was also a heavyweight crusher, and one of the most mesmerizing doom albums of 2015. Understandably, I’ve been eager to discover the second half of this musical saga. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AUROCH AND MITOCHONDRION — “IN CRONIAN HOUR”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Jun 092016

Auroch and Mitochondrion are two Vancouver, BC, bands with interlocking parts who have been favorites of this site for a long stretch of years. They have joined forces in a split release called In Cronian Hour that’s finally on the brink of release via Dark Descent and Hellthrasher Productions, and we’re damned fortunate to bring you a stream of the split today.

We’ve been waiting for this release a long time — I first wrote about plans for the split in November 2013. Yet despite the passage of years, this week turns out to be excellent timing for the debut of the music stream: Less than two weeks ago, both bands proved their power once again with staggering sets at Maryland Deathfest 2016 (reviewed here), and less than two weeks from now Auroch will undoubtedly do it again in Vancouver as part of the stacked line-up at this year’s Covenant Festival on June 16-18.

People who have seen the bands perform within the last six months have probably heard both of the songs on this split. They’re striking songs, even heard individually and separated in time, but they’re connected. Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN PRESENTS: REVIEWS IN HAIKUS (DARK FUNERAL, GLORIOR BELLI, WHITECHAPEL)

Album Reviews, Reviews In Haikus 12 Responses »

Jun 092016

(Andy Synn revives an old, irregular series of album reviews in haiku. Three reviews of three lines each come after the jump. With music, of course.)

REVIEWS IN HAIKUS
It’s been quite a while
Since I’ve done one of these. Let’s
See if I still can! Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): NIGHTBRINGER, TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE, BLACK FUCKING CANCER, VERWOED, DEISIDAEMONIA

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK 14 Responses »

Jun 082016

This is the second part of a collection I began yesterday, recommending new song streams and recent album releases from the hallowed realms of black metal. I’ve had a lot of catching up to do after spending most of the last two weeks devoting time to other pursuits, and although I still won’t succeed, I’ve decided to prepare a third installment of this post, collecting a handful of additional song streams and releases. That will probably happen tomorrow, but perhaps today if I have more time than I think I’ll have.

NIGHTBRINGER

As many of you already know, four tremendously good black metal bands — Thy Darkened Shade, Abigor, Mortuus, and Nightbringer — have joined forces to create an album-length split recording that has been one of my most highly anticipated releases of the year. We began hinting at this release back in January when we premiered an excerpt from Thy Darkened Shade’s offering for the split. Since then, excerpts from each of the other band’s tracks have gradually been revealed. The last one came yesterday when Nightbringer previewed its track, which is named “Tunnels”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BETRAYAL — “INFINITE CIRCLES”

Album Reviews, Premieres 3 Responses »

Jun 082016

(TheMadIsraeli delivers our premiere of a full album stream for the debut full-length by Germany’s Betrayal, along with a review.)

Betrayal is a promising melodic death metal new-blood hailing from Aschaffenburg, Germany. Their new album Infinite Circles is one of the most impressive debuts I’ve heard this year, mixing the technicality and high/low vocal attack of The Black Dahlia Murder, the venom and dynamism of Arsis along with some proggy undertones that call to mind bands like Extol, all firmly rooted by a very The Absence-esque dedication to the best of tried and true melodic death metal convention. Continue reading »

OLD CORPSE ROAD: “OF CAMPFIRES AND EVENING MISTS”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jun 082016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Old Corpse Road.)

I suppose one of the reasons I’m so… selective (some might say “picky”, some might say “elitist”, some might say “hey you, just get on with it!”) when it comes to what bands from the UK I choose to write about is my distaste for the unfortunate sycophancy and self-regard which infests much of our home-grown Metal media.

After all, we’re a small nation, with a disproportionately large influence (particularly historically) on the Metal world, which inevitably breeds a certain parochialism and provincialism. Everyone has to be nice to everyone else, whether they truly mean it or not, because no-one wants to end up ostracised or shut out of the various clans and cliques, or construed as a traitor to the cause of “True British Heavy Metal” and its blinkered sense of national pride.

Indeed, sometimes it seems almost like a point of honour to show that we can produce just as many generic Machine Head/Pantera clones as our American cousins, or keep pace with our European brethren in the race to release as many half-baked Melodeath or interchangeable Black Metal albums as possible each year.

That’s why I’m always happy to throw my weight behind any band who demonstrates that extra flash of intelligence, intensity, or integrity I’m looking for. Bands like Wode, King Goat, and The King Is Blind (to name but a few)… bands like Rannoch, The Infernal Sea… and Old Corpse Road. Continue reading »

HIGH FIGHTER: “SCARS & CROSSES”

Album Reviews, Interviews 1 Response »

Jun 082016

(In this post Comrade Aleks combines excerpts from his interview with the German band High Fighter and thoughts about their debut album Scars & Crosses, due for release on June 10 by Svart Records.)

Mona Miluski (vocals) and Christian Pappas (guitars) started together in the heavy stoner band A Million Miles, but the band split up in early 2013, only a couple of days right after they released a first full-length album and after they had been together for more than 5 years.

It took Christian and Mona almost a year to get back on their feet in music. In the beginning of 2014, they started to look into founding a new project, when Ingwer Boysen joined ’em as the lead guitarist. His current band at that time, Buffalo Hump, had no singer at that point, so there was a bassist and a drummer left — all they needed to complete a new band line-up. So it was Ingwer who came up with the idea of bringing Constantin (bass) and Thomas (drums) into the new project that later would become High Fighter. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): HAIL SPIRIT NOIR, ROTTING CHRIST, KVALVAAG, INCULCATOR, DER ROTE MILAN

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK 9 Responses »

Jun 072016

For almost two weeks I’ve been in the throes of Maryland Deathfest frenzy, taking time away from many of my typical blogging activities to attend the festival itself and then re-living the experience through a five-part recap all of last week. I missed a lot of new music, and of course when you check out for that long in today’s riotously fecund metal environment there’s no way to completely catch up. However, I have spent some hours making incomplete lists of what I missed and then listening… and from that I have some songs I want to recommend.

Many of the new songs I want to write about are connected in various ways to black metal, and I’ve collected some of them here, along with one recent piece of very enticing news. There will be at least one more installment in this blackened catch-up collection, and maybe two if time allows.

HAIL SPIRIT NOIR

I think of Hail Spirit Noir as sonic alchemists, highly adept at combining different stylistic ingredients and transmuting them into strange and wondrous sounds. They’ve proven those alchemical talents through two albums so far — Pneuma in 2012 and Oi Magoi in 2014 — and last month they announced that a third one is on the way. Continue reading »

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