AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CEREMONY OF SILENCE — “OÚTIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 292019
 

 

Oútis, the debut album by the Slovakian duo Ceremony of Silence, is one of the most mind-bending albums of the year so far, a display of such astonishing (and mentally destabilizing) brilliance that it is likely to leave a shivering gleam in the eyes of astute listeners even as they make their lists at the end of this year.

The album will be released by Willowtip Records on April 5th. We have already published an enthusiastic review by our contributor Vonlughlio, who called it “spectacular from start to finish”, “complex and extravagantly inventive at many times, straightforward and simple (and oppressive) at others”, but since we have the privilege of premiering a full stream of Oútis today, I can’t resist adding my own equally exuberant comments by way of introduction. Continue reading »

CEREMONY OF SILENCE: “OÚTIS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 122019
 

 

(Vonlughlio prepared this review of the new album by the Slovakian blackened death metal band Ceremony of Silence.)

It’s been quite a bit since my last small write-up and I was planning on something else, but I needed to write about Ceremony of Silence‘s debut album Oútis, to be released via Willowtip Records on April 5th.

The project is guitarist Vilozof and drummer Svjatogor – both already deeply-rooted in the Slovakian underground metal scene – who formed Ceremony of Silence in 2015. The duo spent countless hours immersed in freeflowing, improvised jams and writing sessions. As they continued, they developed the 7 chapters of this effort, which can be described as death metal with a dissonant/atmospheric feel that is evident, with blast beats that emerge rapidly out of nowhere and riffs that are in constant motion and very addictive. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HORNDAL, ZERBIRST, INTRCPTR, FOUL BODY AUTOPSY, CEREMONY OF SILENCE, AVHATH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 052019
 

 

As you can see, this is the second Part of today’s round-up of new music I decided to recommend, based on an orgy of listening I engaged in yesterday while snowbound. Half the bands here are ones I knew (favorably) through previous releases, and half were newcomers to my ears. As in Part 1, there’s a diverse array of heavy sounds represented here, though hardcore plays a role in many of them.

HORNDAL

Sweden’s Horndal are one of the new bands whose music I discovered yesterday. With a backbone of heavy hardcore and an anthemic dramatic quality, their debut album Remains was inspired as a way of memorializing and protesting the implosion of their hometown of Horndal, a small industrial center that was gutted during the 1970s by the closure of a steel mill that had been the community’s lifeblood. Though I knew nothing of the band before yesterday, the official video for a song off the new album named “Wasteland” produced an immediately powerful reaction. Continue reading »