SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (PART 1): GAAHLS WYRD, IMPERISHABLE, MY DEMENTIA, ORTHODOX, A FLOCK NAMED MURDER, DISPYT, FAMILY GARDEN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 122025
 


Gaahls WYRD – photo by Jørn Veberg

(written by Islander)

It’s good to have friends. Friends can give you useful advice. Sometimes friends can also give you advice that makes you think, “I wish they hadn’t said that.” Case in point:

Since the middle of last week my wife has been 1,100 miles from where we live visiting her favorite sister. Home alone, I spent way more than the usual amount of time yesterday getting ready for this column. I listened to bits and pieces of 30 new releases, most of them singles and some of them EPs or albums. I picked 10 of them for today that I thought provided a good amount of variety. I even arranged them in a way I thought made sense.

I was so happy that I shared the list with my old friends Andy and DGR. Between the two of them they then pointed out 4 more new songs that I’d missed, all from known culprits we all like. Fuck me, what to do? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A FLOCK NAMED MURDER — “GARDEN OF EMBERS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 302022
 

Four years ago the mere name of this Toronto-based band seized our attention. An unusual name, A Flock Named Murder, and one that seemed to draw upon the wonderful collective appellation for an assembly of crows, it also sent sinister messages. Other messages that accompanied the announcement of their debut album An Appointed Time also added to the intrigue and the interest — references to the musical influence of such groups as Agalloch, Neurosis, Cult Of Luna, The Ruins Of Beverast, and Immolation.

Happily, after all that, the music presented through that first full-length turned out to be exceptionally good, and it got a fair share of acclaim among fans and scribblers like us. Even four years later we have no hesitancy recommending An Appointed Time. It is well worth tracking down (here, to make it easy), if you haven’t heard it.

Four years can be a long wait for something new after a debut, especially when you enjoy a debut so fervently. Happily, the wait is over, because A Flock Named Murder have recorded a new single — one that we’re premiering today in sync with its release — and they’ve disclosed that they’re at work on another album. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: GROZA, DRATNA, A FLOCK NAMED MURDER, SLEGEST, HISSING, SOLAR TEMPLE, FLUISTERAARS, TURIA

 SHADES OF BLACK  12 Responses »
Sep 302018
 

 

I struggle with these picks every week, and resolve the struggle in different ways. Sometimes, when I’ve got the time, I double-up the column so I don’t have to leave out quite as many possibilities. I don’t have that kind of time today. And to make the task harder, a lot of the music I wanted to talk about today turns out to be extra time-consuming — full releases, really long songs, many minutes that don’t lend themselves to pithy introductions.

Days like this I’m reminded that the main value of what we do here is “curation” (to use a pretentious term), i.e., the sifting and sorting of music and the selection of what we find appealing and think might be worth the time of people like you. If the writing itself proves to be entertaining, that’s a bonus. Mainly, we just do that to entertain ourselves. Hopefully, the curation alone will carry the day today — my own words are limited to begin with and kind of tail off into tiny dribbles the further you get into this.

GROZA

My friend eiterorm found Groza’s new album on Friday, said it was obviously inspired by Mgła, and expressed completely certainty that I would like it, judging from our common tastes in metal. “So make sure this one gets top priority. ;-]”, he wrote. So I did, and my friend was right — this is really good. Continue reading »