SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MELECHESH, KADAVEREICH, ARCHITECTS OF AEON, A FOREST OF STARS, THE HOLEUM, VOIDSPIRE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 142026
 

(written by Islander)

I felt a cold coming on yesterday when I woke up, and that was quickly followed by the discovery that anyone trying to get to NCS experienced frantic meltdowns from their browsers, which warned people that our site was insecure and might expose all their personal finances and identities to theft, might turn their children into ghouls, might cause cats to have sex with dogs, etc., etc. In other words, it seemed our site’s SSL security certificate had expired.

Or at least that’s what I concluded based on some googling, because I hadn’t received any advance notice or warning. I had forgotten what an SSL is, had no idea when we implemented it, and was completely clueless about what I was supposed to do to fix the problem. I e-mailed our IT consultant, who I think must have implemented SSL for NCS years ago (I still haven’t heard back from him).

I also opened a support ticket with our security provider, because our web host told me they maintain the site’s security certificate. I haven’t heard back from them either — though late yesterday afternoon the scary browser warnings stopped, so I guess they remewed our certificate, but I really am still in the dark about the whole incident. Which means I’m also in the dark about how to prevent this bullshit from happening again.

Oh, and my cold was also in full bloom by late afternoon yesterday. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD APPROACHING NEW YEAR’S EVE: ARCHITECTS OF AEON, SURFER JAMES, DE GEVREESDE ZIEKTE, SEVEN NINES AND TENS, SNAUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 312021
 

 

“Next year’s gonna be better than this year!” Yes, the chorus of that not-metal song I put at the end of the last round-up is still in my head. In fact I woke up this morning with it ringing in my head. I’m still highly skeptical about the message, and decided the best way to push the damn song out of my mind was to replace it with some other things — which I’m sharing with you now.

It’s a weird time for anyone to be releasing new music, a time when die-hard metalheads are perusing year-end lists or making their own, i.e., looking backwards. But weird as the timing may be, new metal is still coming out. In fact, we ourselves will be premiering a new Druid Lord song a bit later today to help beat the life out of what’s left of the soon-to-be-cold-corpse of 2021.

We also have a few more year-end lists to present next week, including lists from Austin Lunn, SurgicalBrute, and a combined list from our friends at Brutalitopia, and then, to complete our annual Listmania series, I’ll start rolling out our annual Most Infectious Songs list. So I guess we’re doing our part to help distract from the new music that’s still surfacing.

All of us here also want to wish you a Happy New Year. I might wish you a Happy New Year tomorrow too, but I’m not sure I’ll be posting anything tomorrow so I’ll convey the wishes now. We also hope you have a nice New Year’s Eve and that however you’re spending it you won’t be rubbing shoulders with omicron as an uninvited guest. Now, for some music…. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: REDEMPTOR, TORII, ARCHITECTS OF AEON, MÜTTERLEIN, SACRIFICIUM CARMEN, KAPALA, MORGUILIATH, DEAD WAR, HUSQWARNAH, FIELDS OF MILDEW

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 062021
 

 

Given the usual massive flood of new music this past week, I was hell-bent on getting at least one round-up completed before the weekend — but I failed. I had this lined up for Friday, with all the picks made, but ran out of time before I could finish it.

About these picks: When I made the selection on Friday morning it didn’t turn out at all like I thought it would. I had been building a mental list during the week just based on the band names I added to my monstrous list, most of them at least fairly well-known, but not one of those names is included here.

What happened was that as I started listening, this group just fell into place before I ever got to the names that had affixed themselves to my mental plan. These fell into place because they are all intense assaults on the senses and the emotions, albeit in different ways, until you reach the final track, which helped me partially recover from all the music that preceded it — but that last song still haunts me. Continue reading »

DOWNCAST: LOSS, FUNERAL TEARS, FUNERALBLOOM, ARCHITECTS OF AEON, BLACK TREMOR, SEA WITCH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 272017
 

 

This weekend I did my usual rambling through the bowels of the interhole and our overstuffed in-box in search of things I might write about today. Among the worthy discoveries I made were the new songs I collected in this post, and they seemed to belong together. Although the music is in fact quite varied, they all invoke downcast feelings in different ways and degrees. But before turning to the music, let’s begin with a news item about another band who are quite adept at plumbing the depths of despondency and doom.

LOSS

Six years after releasing their debut album Despond, Nashville’s Loss have a new one on the way named Horizonless. Over the weekend, Profound Lore announced that it will be released on May 19th and revealed Adam Burke’s killer cover art. Continue reading »