AGABAS: “HARD ANGER”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 022025
 

(We present Didrik Mešiček‘s vivid review of a new album by the Norwegian “deathjazz” band Agabas, which will be released on June 13th.)

Have you ever been so sick you’ve hallucinated things that made absolutely no sense when your fever dropped and you got better? Something so surreal it’s actually not possible to put it into words? Or perhaps you’ve done an incredible cocktail of drugs and went on an amazing trip, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can never be repeated?

Well, Agabas have, to my knowledge, done neither of those two things, yet they’ve invented deathjazz. Which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s jazz. Mixed with death metal. Lots of yelling and lots of sax. And today we’re gonna delve into this mess(?) and see what their new album, Hard Anger, which will be released on June 13th, is really about. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGABAS — “TUSSMØRKE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 122019
 

 

Let me put my cards on the table: I am not a jazz aficionado. As only an occasional listener, off and on over the decades (and more off than on), I’m not well-educated. Yes, I’m familiar with big names such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Dave Brubeck, and perhaps somewhat more familiar with jazz musicians who’ve participated in various fusion movements, but I’m no expert. And the prospect of listening to a fusion of jazz with elements of death and black metal? To keep my cards on the table, that put me on guard, and not feeling terribly optimistic about the results.

But a feeling of intrigue, coupled with a more general hunger for metal extremity that’s off the usual beaten paths, overcame my skepticism, and I began listening to the self-titled EP of Agabas — a Norwegian group who call their music Deathjazz. Continue reading »