AN NCS PREMIERE: 0N0 — “UNWAVERING RESONANCE”

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May 102022
 

If you’re unfamiliar with the music of the Slovakian trio 0N0 (and shame on you if you’re not!), Metal-Archives will tell you that it’s “Experimental Industrial Doom/Death Metal”, which is a mouthful, and still not completely adequate. As we wrote here when we last had occasion to write about 0N0, “Eerie, chilling, tremendously heavy music” might be a different way of trying to wrestle their sounds into linguistic form, yet still misses some relevant adjectives.

That last visitation we made was through our premiere of the band’s tremendous 2019 split with Owl, and today’s reunion is prompted by their follow-on release, a new album named Unwavering Resonance.

Divided into four massive tracks that collectively just under forty minutes, it’s no easier to classify than 0N0‘s previous creations. It presents a sequence of extravagant, elaborate, mind-blowing, and jaw-dropping journeys so wondrous and frightening that they seem only barely tethered to the planet we call home. We have one of those excursions to share with you today, and it’s the new album’s title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OWL AND 0N0

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Sep 232019
 

 

It is our privilege and pleasure today to present, on the day of its release, a full stream of a new split recording by two bands we’ve been avidly following for years — the German duo Owl and the Slovakian trio 0N0. The split includes five songs by Owl and two by 0N0. Through each band’s Bandcamp page it’s now available as a digital download and as a cassette tape, limited to 111 copies, with eerie and immersive cover art by T.

As always, we’re sharing our own reactions to the music, as well as a few insights into the inspiration for all these songs, and some background about the bands for those who might not be familiar with them. But of course, if you want to just be completely surprised, skip down to the very bottom of this article and start listening now. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: KALEIKR, 0N0, VITRIOL, EYRTH, MOURNING SIGN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 152018
 

 

Having been immersed in year-end LISTMANIA and other diversions since completing a recent vacation, I have a large backlog of newly released music that I’ve only just begin working my way through over the last couple of days. From what I’ve heard so far, I assembled the following collection — almost all of them advance tracks from forthcoming releases, plus one new bonus track that arrived late last month.

KALEIKR

In extreme metal circles these days, when one thinks of Iceland one thinks of black metal. Draugsól was one of many Icelandic black metal bands who proved their worth, with a fine 2017 debut album named Volaða land (we learned more about the band and that album in a 2017 NCS interview of guitarist M.K. and vocalist A.J.). Now, two of Draugsól’s three members (guitarist/bassist/vocalist Maximilian Klimkoare and drummer Kjartan Harðarson) are forging ahead under a new name — Kaleikr — and their new album Heart of Lead will be released on February 15th by Debemur Morti Productions. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 77: GATECREEPER, CELTEFOG, EGGS OF GOMORRH, OCULTUM, 0N0, LIFE WASTER

 MISCELLANY  4 Responses »
Jun 182016
 

Gatecreeper-2016 split

 

My helpful WordPress blogging software tells me that I started writing this post on March 30, 2016, and then I got sidetracked — repeatedly. I’m so tightly wound that I nag myself about things that I start but don’t finish. My life is full of self-nagging. Sometimes, however, that incessant buzzing in my head produces a result. Hence, this post.

This MISCELLANY series is one of several that I started at NCS in the early days, but it has become very irregular in recent years. So a refresher on the MISCELLANY game is probably worthwhile: On a fairly random basis, I pick releases I’ve not heard before, usually by bands I’ve not heard before; I listen to a song or two (usually without much advance idea of what the music will sound like); I write my immediate impressions; and I then stream what I heard so you can make your own judgments.

GATECREEPER

In my “refresher” above, I forgot to add that I sometimes violate the rules of the MISCELLANY game, and for this first item I’ve done that because I knew something about Arizona’s Gatecreeper before listening to this song. Two years ago I featured one of their videos in a round-up, and after that I grabbed the EP that included the song in the video. Continue reading »