AN NCS INTERVIEW: MEGALITH LEVITATION

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Dec 232021
 

 

(In this engaging interview Comrade Aleks spoke with vocalist SAA from the Russian occult psychedelic doom band Megalith Levitation, whose newest album Void Psalms was released in the fall of this year by Aesthetic Death.)

If you remember our interview with Moscow-based coven IL and their heresyarch Vlad, I mentioned them as “one of three most solid and impressive Russian doom bands nowadays”. And as a second one, Dekonstrutor, don’t answer interviews (shame on you guys, shame on you Mitya!), then it’s much easier to get a response from Megalith Levitation.

This occult, psychedelic and ritualistic act grew on the poisonous soil of industry giant city Chelyabinsk, under its smoke-covered skies. This environment can break or inspire in some way, and Megalith Levitation took the best they could find there and effectively channeled it through their second album Void Psalms (Aesthetic Death, October 2021). Traditionally we get in touch with the band’s singing vocalist SAA. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ASCIAN

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Dec 212021
 

 

(This time Comrade Aleks has shared with us an interview of one of the guitarists from the German band Ascian, who released an excellent debut album last year and, as you shall see, are hard at work on the next one.)

Another promo album which I almost lost in the maelstrom of 2021 is Ascian’s Elysion, released on October 2nd, 2020. The time has come, I’ve opened the necessary folder, and was fascinated with their very first song ‘Misery Seeds’, which offers to listeners a flawless, solemn, doom death mass with emotional delivery of combined clean and growling vocals.

The entire album grants pure pleasure, with a slow dive into the melancholic void this German quartet easily create with their instruments. And then I found the official video for Ascian’s ‘Dead Will Carry the Dead’… Who could expect that such a young band pays so much attention to visual aspects as well?

Now that you’ve got an idea what Ascian is about, I believe I can hand it over to the band’s guitarist P. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PANTHEIST

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Dec 172021
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks catches up again with Kostas Panagiotou, mastermind of Pantheist, whose latest album Closer to God was released earlier this month.)

Years ago Pantheist was known as a funeral doom metal band, international to some degree, and sometimes experimental. Twenty years passed since the release of their first demo 1000 Years and Pantheist went far away from the point where they were back then. 21 years, 24 different members, 6 full-length albums, and one man who holds this project on his shoulders – it’s obvious that he’s free to do whatever he finds necessary to this creature, whatever he feels right.

It’s Kostas Panagiotou who not only performs the duties of vocalist and keyboard player, but also writes music and lyrics and produces Pantheist. Is it a one-man band indeed? We’ll know it soon, of course. The new album Closer to God was born during this anxious and stressful lockdown, as Kostas lists the ingredients of the new material — “the ghost of Ennio Morricone; the soundtrack of videogames endlessly played; an unfulfilled need for connection; an acute awareness of the futility of it all…”

The album was planned to be a single track, but after all there are four gorgeous tracks on the verge of different genres yet based on a funeral doom fundament. The result of Pantheist‘s recording sessions is inspiring, the band gives some food for the soul and the brains, and Kostas serves it for us in this interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HLADOMRAK

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Dec 132021
 

 

(Today we present another interview by Comrade Aleks, and this one is a discussion with the founder of the Swedish black metal band Hladomrak, whose latest album was released this fall by Non Serviam Records.)

From a first look Hladomrak is Swedish band which is tagged in Bandcamp like “pagan black metal” and even “Scandinavian black metal”. That’s simple. But the band’s name consists of two Slavonic words Hald (“cold”) and Mrak (“darkness”) and its mastermind Evgenerator started his underground career in he Latvian black metal band Nightwing twenty years ago.

And that’s another story, as nowadays Hladomrak has its third album Archaic Sacrifice out on the well-known Non Serviam Records, and the very fact of that guarantees them proper exposure. They keep the dark flame burning using the occult language “Reithariil” in their lyrics. In addition, they sound “true” and they sound “evil”… so why not to try to find out more behind this story? That’s what we were trying to do during this interview with Evgenerator himself. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CENOBITE

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Dec 092021
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us this very lively interview with Kostek Dolganov from the Russian death metal band Cenobite, whose Hellraiser-themed debut album Dark Dimension was released in the fall of 2020.)

It’s strange but Metal-Archives indicates that only three metal bands bear the name Cenobite, and it seems that only the Russian followers of Hellraiser’s Leviathan cult are active.

The Russian band was formed by Chamber of Torture members – Kostek Dolganov (bass, vocals), Sergey Necrom (guitars), and Nikita Stepanov (drums). Well, actually there were three other drummers in this lineup, and the lineup who recorded the Dark Dimension album a year ago consists of Kostek and Sergey alongside Andrey Andrianov (drums) and Paul Skallig (guitars), who have already left the band.

But the lineup’s changes are the last thing that should interest our good readers, so it’s better to point out a far more important thing – that Cenobite perform pretty strict and thick death metal, and they do it well. As for other stuff… Kostek Dolganov is the one who can tell this story better. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS

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Dec 082021
 

 

(We present Comrade Aleks’ interview of Brett Clarin, the main man behind the symphonic black/death metal band Journey Into Darkness, whose latest album (which we premiered and reviewed HERE) was released in September 2021 by Spirit Coffin Publishing.)

Brett Clarin was one of a few guys who started the death/ thrash / doom act Apparition in 1988. They changed the name in 1991, becoming Sorrow, and got a contract with Roadrunner Records for a full-length album. Some may suppose the guys were lucky, and indeed the album Hatred and Disgust saw the light of day in 1992. But as it happens sometimes with some labels, Roadrunner switched their attention to something more appealing for them and Sorrow didn’t get their deserved exposure.

Sorrow was soon disbanded but Brett started that strange project Journey into Darkness. His first solo work under that name, Life Is a Near Death Experience (1996), was an experiment, something like darkwave, a kind of sympho black metal without vocals and actually without guitars or typical metal instruments at all. Brett left the project for 14 years but now there are two more albums in his discography – Multitudes of Emptiness (2020) and Infinite Universe Infinite Death (2021). It’s okay now!

With Jei Doublerice on vocals Brett provides us symphonic death / black metal and it’s something we’re going to talk about with him. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PULCHRA MORTE

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Dec 062021
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us this in-depth interview with drummer Clayton Gore from the U.S. doom/death band Pulchra Morte, whose latest album, the tremendously good Ex Rosa Ceremonia, was released last year via Transcending Records.)

Five men may be too many for a doom death band, but twin guitars always give a strong hint on melodic components and Pulchra Morte prove it with two albums – Divina Autem et Aniles (2019) and Ex Rosa Ceremonia (2020). All of them for years played all kinds of extreme metal – death metal, black metal, death/black metal, sludge… I believe you’ve heard names like Skeletonwitch and Wolvhammer. And Jarrett Pritchard (guitars) alongside Clayton Gore (drums) started in the Tampa-based death metal band Eulogy nearly 30 years ago! Big guys who know how to play crushing stuff, yes.

True to tell, it’s my fault for doing this so late because Ex Rosa Ceremonia was released one year ago and Pulchra Morte was in my “need-to-interview” list for awhile, but it’s better late than never. Especially as Clayton provides us a great interview, an in-depth look at band’s own life as well as a good glimpse on the difficulties of the modern underground scene. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GENUNE

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Dec 032021
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us the following interview with guitarist Dragos of the fine Romanian black metal band Genune, whom we’ve praised repeatedly here at NCS.)

Genune means “chasm” or “abyss” in Romanian. It’s a fitting name for a black metal band but this trio isn’t one of those straightforward acts who praise the joys of nihilism and hatred. Dragos (guitars), Cosmin (guitars) and Istvan (vocals, bass) are rather into this modern melancholic way of interpreting the genre which helps to stream their energy not only through common aggressive channels but also through more fragile and elegant “atmospheric” decorations.

Placed somewhere in-between Bacău and Cluj-Napoca, Genune released their second album Inert & Unerring in April 2021 and it sounds like a reflection on themes of feeling and being in this very place. It’s easier to understand Genune when you watch the band’s official videos and, of course, when reading this interview we made with Dragos. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CRYSTAL COFFIN

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Nov 232021
 

 

(The music, the artwork, and the lyrics of Vancouver-based Crystal Coffin are fascinating in and of themselves, but reveal themselves to be even more fascinating and alluring with the additional info furnished by this excellent interview of the band conducted by Comrade Aleks.)

Oh modern black metal scene! A cabinet of curiosities! You can find everything here from old school die-hard true and evil devils to Cascadian naturalists, from true / untrue occult visionaries and charlatans to bands who are hard to categorize. And as many bands say, they don’t care about categories and genre definitions, it’s for labels, for listeners and for us “journalists”.

Crystal Coffin is another blackened riddle one could notice due to the premiere last month of their second album at NCS. This Vancouver-based trio performs (crazy or intellectual – choose for yourself) progressive and melodic black metal with truly authentic stories behind their albums.

Crystal Coffin is carried on the shoulders of Rob Poirier (drums), Aron Shute (vocals, bass), and Lenkyn Ostapovich (guitars, keyboards), and well, it seems we spoke with Lenkyn, but most of the time his voice did sound like the voice of Crystal Coffin’s collective mind, and that’s not bad as far as it works. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PAYDRETZ

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Nov 042021
 

 

(In this fascinating new interview Comrade Aleks talks with Geoffroy “le Veuzou” from the distinctive French folk/black metal band Paydretz, whose debut album was released by Antiq Records in early October.)

I hope our constant readers are used to long interviews because for our luck there are a lot of both new and old bands who have something to tell and to open our eyes on the things previously unseen.

When I received a new promo pack from Antiq Records there was a new name on it – Paydretz — and again the cover art did its work, making me play their debut album Chroniques de l’Insurrection and try to search for the story behind it.

This French trio consists of Sven Avel Viz (guitars, bass, drums), Michel de Malvoisin (guitars, backing vocals), and Geoffroy “le Veuzou” (vocals, bagpipes, whistles and keyboards). Geoffroy explains the name of the band: “Paydretz” was the nickname given to the fighters of the Vendean general Charette, who came from the region of Retz, in French “Pays de Retz” which gives us “Paydretz”.

“Vendean” what? – you wonder as I did. Yes, this black / folk masterpiece tells the story of the Great Vendean Insurrection (1793-1796) from the point of view of the Vendean insurgents… And yes – this interview will reveal more about it, so lads and lasses take your copybooks and pencils and be ready. Continue reading »

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