AN NCS INTERVIEW: ULTHAR

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Feb 212023
 


Photo by Melissa Petisa

(Last Friday 20 Buck Spin released Anthronomicon and Helionomicon, the two new full-length studio offerings from West Coast blackened death metal trio ULTHAR, and today we quickly follow that with Comrade Aleks‘ genuinely fascinating interview of the band’s vocalist/guitarist Shelby Lermo.)

Shame on me! It’s easy to catch my attention if the band communicates with the cosmic horror born from the myths of H. P. Lovecraft. This reference helped me to learn about a few great bands, and Ulthar from the US is one of them now. The trio consists of Shelby Lermo (guitars, vocals), Justin Ennis (drums), and Steve Peacock (bass, vocals). Each of them have a few more bands or projects behind them, but they really put a lot of ideas and energy into Ulthar.

Their first albums Cosmovore (2018) and Providence (2020) demonstrated fanatical devotion to surrealistic and violent blackened death metal. And now 20 Buck Spin have released two new album from Ulthar at once – Anthronomicon and Helionomicon. The band chose not to release them as a double-album, as the two recordings are different entities, and of course you’ll know the reason when you read this interview with Shelby Lermo. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TZOMPANTLI

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Feb 132023
 

(We begin a new week at NCS with Comrade Aleks‘s interview of Brian Ortiz, a member of Xibalba and the creative force behind the California death-doom band Tzompantli, whose debut album was released last year by 20 Buck Spin.)

A tzompantli was a type of wooden rack or palisade documented in several Mesoamerican civilizations, which was used for the public display of human skulls, typically those of war captives or other sacrificial victims. Also it’s a death-doom band from Pomona, California.

Started in 2019 as a solo project of Brian a.k.a. Big o))), Tzompantli first shot out the EP Tlamanalli in 2019. Brian has been the guitarist of death metal / metalcore outfit Xibalba since 2007, so he knew how to deal with a lot of instruments and recording witchcraft too. His efforts were noticed by 20 Buck Spin, who soon signed the band. As result Brian’s next album Tlazcaltiliztli was recorded with G-Bone and Mateotl Gonzalez (both perform many of the folk instruments) and saw the light of day through this label in May 2022. However these songs are far from folk and embody the extreme, meat-grinding and bloody side of death-doom.

Now Tzompantli has a full live line-up and I can’t skip a chance to learn more about Indigenous Mexican death-doom from Brian. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GOLOD

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Feb 092023
 

(We thank Comrade Aleks for the following interview with Vadim (aka Holod), the person behind the Toronto-based black metal project Golod, whose newest album was released just last month via Ván Records.)

Little is known about Golod. “Golod” translates as “Hunger” from Russian. It’s a solo-project based in Toronto and it’s tagged as “black metal” and “ambient”. Its discography contains two full-length albums – .​.​.​to be Lost and Forgotten in Solitude (June, 2021) and the brand new Dnevnik (January, 2023).

It’s also known that the man who stands behind this project is Vadim, whom I interviewed about one month ago regarding another band – Hussar. So actually it was easy to find him and get more information about his lo-fi exercises in Black Art.

Well, do people use this definition in relation to this kind of music nowadays? However, let’s talk a bit about Black Metal Art! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: AMPUTATE

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Feb 072023
 

 

(In today’s new interview Comrade Aleks engages in a very lively discussion with vocalist/guitarist Tom Kuzmic from the Portuguese death metal band Amputate, whose latest album was released last year by Massacre Records.)

The band’s name should tell you everything and you don’t need the crystal ball to learn what Amputate is about.

The core lineup of this Florida-styled death metal crew from Portugal located to Switzerland some time ago, but they keep on playing the same bloodthirsty razor-sharp stuff even in relatively comfortable Zurich. Their second album Dawn of Annihilation interested Massacre Records and these eight tracks of gore and the macabre have been available on CD and vinyl since October 2022.

Tom Kuzmic, the band’s front-man, consults us about sonic surgery and its contraindications. And how much of good old gore is left in Amputate? Let’s find it out. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NIGHT HAG

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Feb 062023
 

(Below we present Comrade Aleks‘ new interview with the crushing Virginia-based death/doom band Night Hag.)

Night Hag‘s debut full-length album Phantasmal Scourge was released one year ago by Rotted Life Records. However the band was founded somewhere in Virginia in about 2010 and its discography is far from poor, as it contains three demos, an EP, a split release, and even live album.

Jon Ransom (drums, vocals), Joe Arida (guitars), and Sam Fox (bass, vocals) are fans of macabre and savage death-doom metal, so covers of Mortician and Necrophagia sound natural in Phantasmal Scourge. There was no big news nor a new album’s announcement since its release, but Night Hag was in my “need-to-interview” list for nearly the entire year, and here we go at last.

Joe Arida (guitars) is going to tell us about Night Hag‘s dirty deals. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SIRRUSH

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Jan 312023
 

(Last November, roughly 15 years after their inception, the Sicilian band Sirrush released their debut album Molon Labe through Non Serviam Records, and it led Comrade Aleks to reach out for the following interview with the band’s founder Otagron to discuss the band’s past, present, and future.)

Sirrush isa Mesopotamian hybrid, a kind of dragon you could see on Ishtar Gates, one of Babylon’s most remarkable monuments. And this Sicilian band indeed dedicated their blackened death metal to Sumerian myths back then in 2007 when it was founded.

Years passed, but not much happened in Sirrush’s lair, as the EPThe Era of Išhtar (2011) remained their only official release. Things changed along the band’s concept as Sirrush came back to life with the stories of 300 Spartans in 2022. The singles A Son Set His Father Free and Molon Labe proclaimed the release of the full-length with the same title of Molon Labe through Non Serviam Records, so the band’s founder Otagron (vocals, guitars) is here to shed some light on Sirrush’s story.

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DREAM UNENDING

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Jan 272023
 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks talks again with Justin DeTore, this time with a focus on Dream Unending, whose second album was released last fall by 20 Buck Spin.)

We spoke with Justin DeTore in November – back then the theme of our interview here was his death-doom band Innumerable Forms and its up-to-date album Philosophical Collapse. Check it, the album is worth attention. And the problem was that we had this proper interview focused mainly on Philosophical Collapse released in September 2022 and I was very, very impressed with another project where Justin shares his ideas with the talented guitarist Derrick Vella  – Dream Unending.

Their second album Song of Salvation saw the light of day in the very same November 2022, and I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that I needed to learn more about this piece. It’s a breathtaking death-doom-based psychedelic experience with an absolutely unique atmosphere and approach. If you believe that nothing new could be done in the death-doom realm then Song of Salvation proves you’re wrong.

I fought with temptation to do this interview for some time because I can’t interview Justin each time one of the bands where he plays releases a new album – Innumerable Forms, Solemn Lament, Sumerlands, or Vestal Claret are active in almost equal measure. But after all… why not? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FROM BEYOND

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Jan 242023
 

(Those for whom Lovecraft is their nightmare food and for whom progressive blackened death metal makes a fine condiment will relish the following interview by Comrade Aleks of the duo who make up the Portuguese band From Beyond.)

I bet that we should thank Gordon Stuart for his poisonous gem of the VHS-era named after H. P. Lovecraft’s story From Beyond, for Stuart was the one who inspired a few bands with his video adaptation of that horrible story of scientific fanaticism, madness, murder, and nightmarish beings from another world.

Two guys from Portugal’s Porto founded a quite progressive band transferring their occult visions in a form of blackened death metal. Chronicler (guitars, bass, drum programming) and Innsmouthian (vocals) released their first album The Great Old Ones on the 12th of December 2022, and we’re going to talk about this work while it’s fresh and hot. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MARE INFINITUM

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Jan 182023
 

(Here we have Comrade Aleks’ very engaging interview with Georgiy Bykov, a key musician with the Russian band Mare Infinitum, whose newest album was released near the end of last year by Solitude Productions.)

I didn’t expect any new releases from the Russian doom-focused label Solitude Productions during 2022, because the label was put on hold after infamous events which started in February 2022. But somehow they managed to release Cryosleep, the third album of the Moscow-based band Mare Infinitum.

The band was founded back in 2010, and its albums Sea of Infinity (2011) and Alien Monolith God (2015) received a warm welcome, so the band often played live, joining almost all the local doom festivals during the past decade. After a seven year long break and some line-up changes Mare Infinitum returns, and their new material differs significantly from the good old death-doom stuff we expected from them.

The band’s founder Georgy Bykov tells how they lived through these seven years and passed the genre’s borders. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HUSSAR

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Dec 272022
 

(For our last interview of 2022 we present Comrade Aleks‘ discussion with vocalist/guitarist Vadim from the Toronto-based death metal band Hussar, whose powerful debut album was released a few months ago by I, Voidhanger Records.)

This time I pecked at the band’s name and their “death-doom” tag, and what do we have in the end?!

Alright, let’s start from very beginning. Let me introduce you to Hussar, a ravenous and dangerous trio from Toronto. The band was started in 2018 and its current lineup is Vadim Balanyuk (vocals, guitars), Nathaniel Reynolds-Welsh (drums) and J. T. (bass). It seems that the guys tend to keep their identities anonymous, but Metal-Archives knows!

This year having a demo, a live album, and the EP No Victor (2019) in their discography, Hussar struck back with the first full-length album, All-Consuming Hunger. The aggression and progressive constructions of this technical death metal with  minor death-doom elements represent the album’s title precisely, but there’s always more to learn and we’re here to dig out more about Hussar and its background. Continue reading »

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