AN NCS INTERVIEW: KVADRAT

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Jul 112024
 

(In April of this year the debut album by the Greek one-man dissonant black/death metal unit Kvadrat released its debut album The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion in collaboration with Nuclear Winter Records and Total Dissonance Worship (reviewed by us here). Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the person behind the band.)

Ivan Agakechagias is the sole member of Greek death/black metal project Kvadrat. Since 2015 Ivan recorded enough materials for only one EP, Ψυχική Αποσύνθεση (2012), and a split album alongside Moeror and Human Serpent (2021). It’s interesting that the goal was to collect money that will be used to cover some of the basic needs of the animals that were affected by the destructive fires that took place in Greece, including food, medical care, and the financial support of the early costs of anyone who is interested in adopting one of these innocent animals.

Finally, Ivan collected enough ideas for the full-length album The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion that was released on April 4th by Ivan himself, Nuclear Winter Records, and Total Dissonance Worship.

Disturbing, uncomfortable, and ruinous, this material spreads both well-hidden melancholy and distilled aggression. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TZOMPANTLI

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Jul 032024
 

(A couple of months ago we published Andy Synn‘s enthusiastic review of the new album from Tzompantli [released in May by 20 Buck Spin], and now we follow that with Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the band’s driving creative force, Brian Ortiz.)

Tzompantli began modestly as the death-doom side-project of the Mesoamerican-focused Californian death/metalcore outfit Xibalba’s guitarist. Brian Ortiz recorded the EP Tlamanalli (2019) alone, and now he has a second full-length coming out, as the project turned into a real band and consists of ten people, a couple of whom play folk instruments.

Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force repeats and refines the formula of the first album Tlazcaltiliztli (2022). The band produces vigorous death-doom with an emphasis on death, and in the lyrics, which sound, among other things, in the language of the Mayan Indians. The sound of folk instruments in Tzompantli’s music is natural, and they are indeed present in almost all songs, but they do not take up much space.

Tzompantli are straightforward and quite extreme in comparison with other rare representatives of Mezoamerican metal. We already had a pretty detailed interview here with Brian Ortiz about 18 months ago, so this interview, focused on Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force, is narrower yet honest as always. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: METALLUS

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Jun 262024
 

(Below you will find Comrade Aleks‘ interview with the very enthusiastic Doom Lord from the Polish doom band Metallus, who have a double-album to their name so far and a lot more to come.)

Funeral of the Sun is the first and very ambitious work of the relatively young Polish doom team Metallus formed by Doom Lord (bass, vocals), War Drum (drums!), and Hell’s Mage (guitars, vocals) in around 2018. The guys decided to start with a double album, the total duration of which exceeds an hour and a half. It contains quite a lot of traditional doom metal with very epic influences.

For example, the first track is the genre’s textbook “Witches Hammer”, which incorporates all the necessary elements of traditional doom. There are painful leisurely riffs, a short mid-tempo break that dispels drowsiness, heroic clean vocals, and lyrics that exaggerate clichés about a witch hunt. On the other hand, the massive “Great Hall of the Battle Hammer Cult” is a bit more entertaining, where you can feel the hammer-hearted Bathory’s influences set on a Sabbathian classic sound. This eleven-minute epic has a decent array of hooks, but you’ll need patience to get through each one. There’s a play on the atmosphere of the Lovecraftian issue “Shadow Over Innsmouth”, and that’s my favorite track in the album… Guess why!

So what do we have here? We have here the interview with Doom Lord, so let’s get down to business finally. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TITANIA

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Jun 252024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Tania Duarte, vocalist of the Peruvian heavy doom band Titania, whose debut album The Maverick was released on CD this past spring.)

Most die-hard doom metal fans will name two bands if we ask about Peruvian doom metal: Reino Ermitaño and Kranium. The first one was a traditional doom band with a lady on vocals, and the second one is a band with a huge history and only two albums in their discography.

Kranium (founded in 1986) released their second album Uma Tullu in 2020, so it’s okay, we know that they’re more or less active. But Reino Ermitaño… they haven’t released anything since 2014, and it seems that the band is no more.

Honestly, I almost missed it, but two years ago both bands gave birth to Titania, a traditional doom band that includes members from Kranium and Reino Ermitaño: Mito Espíritu (bass), Eloy Arturo (guitars), Tania Duarte (vocals), and Manuel Lozano (drums). Their first album The Maverick was released in late 2022, but the CD-edition was released only in 2023.

Tania Duarte gladly accepted our request and answered about the band’s current occupation. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NEUROPOLIS

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jun 212024
 

(Here we have Comrade Aleks‘ extensive interview with vocalist Vladimir Alekseev from the Russian doom/death metal band Neuropolis, who released their debut album in February of this year.)

The St. Petersburg death-doom band Neuropolis was founded in 2016 and had two very solid EPs in their discography – Temptation / Искушение (2019) and Golem (2020) plus a reputation honestly earned through live performances and, in general, thanks to an active position on social networks. But what we have now is this: The Neuropolis lineup has been radically updated after 2021, with vocalist Vladimir Alekseev as the only member who has remained in the group after those previous sessions.

However, these changes seem to have given Neuropolis an impetus in a new direction, and, having released the full-length album All Nothing / Всё ничего, these St. Petersburg doom-heads have not given up weekly rehearsals and are already recording new material. So doom metal is not only about inertia. And an interview with Vladimir will serve as proof of this assumption. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CELESTIAL SEASON

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Jun 192024
 

(Last month Burning World Records (an affiliate of Roadburn Records) released Mysterium III, the newest album by the Dutch band Celestial Season, and a box set of all three Mysterium albums under the name Orbis Mysterium. Long in advance of the release Comrade Aleks conducted an interview with vocalist Stefan Ruiters which we finally present today.)

Celestial Season from the Netherlands was one of the really successful death-doom bands in the early ’90s. They didn’t reach the status of the UK Three, but the debut album Forever Scarlet Passion (1993) and, more importantly, the sophomore full-length Solar Lovers (1995) made their reputation with some interesting out-of-the-genre experiments. Blurred videos for ‘Decamerone’ and ‘Solar Child’ were a blast!

But the guys chose to change the direction dramatically towards stoner/doom stuff, and that led Celestial Season to lose their positions and disband in 2001. The band was brought back to life in 2011, but after a few efforts they didn’t release anything new until 2020, when the first album in twenty years, The Secret Teachings, saw the light of day. Since then, the band has regenerated almost entirely to the full original lineup and released two more albums in the vein of their early material – Mysterium I and Mysterium II. These albums embody beautiful and deep melancholic death-doom metal with growls, cello, and violin.

But what I need to tell you is that the band has Mysterium III on their schedule. Stefan Ruiters has growled in Celestial Season since 1991 to 1995, and rejoined the band in 2020. He answered our questions tonight.

Well… tonight… That “tonight” happened somewhere in November 2023, as the Mysterium III release date was scheduled for December 2023. But as far as I know, Roadburn Records had problems with the vinyl plant, so the  release was delayed, and the album will see the light of day on May 17th, 2024. Okay, it was worth waiting for anyway. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KAWIR

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Jun 132024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ April 2024 interview of Therthonax, the mainstay of the foundational Greek black metal band Kawir, with a focus on Kawir‘s newest album Kydoimos. The delay in presenting the interview is our fault, not the fault of Aleks or Therthonax.)

As we follow the world-wide cultural program of supporting the Hellenic Black Metal scene, it would be criminal negligence to skip the fresh release of Kawir, one of the oldest representatives of the Greek metal underground.

The band just passed its 30th anniversary in 2023, and Soulseller Records presented their ninth full-length album Kydoimos (Κυδοιμος) on April 19th. Named after the ancient demon of war, this album explores ancient ways of battle in many forms.

Once again Therthonax, Kawir’s only founding member still in the lineup, and his allies dive into the world of old myths and old black metal with zealous rage and determination. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: COFFIN CURSE

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Jun 112024
 

(For various reasons the interview you’re about to read got lost in the ugly bowels of the NCS HQ, and because it’s one of the best discussions Comrade Aleks has produced, thanks significantly to the flair of his conversation partner Max Neira, our editor is flagellating himself for the delay with extra-bloody vigor.)

Two years ago we did the interview with the Chilean band Inanna. You probably remember these tough guys who do top-notch death metal with a twisted Lovecraftian touch. Two of those guys also have their own death metal band – Coffin Curse. Max Niera (guitars, bass, vocals) and Carlos Fuentes (drums) started it in 2012, and since then they do not stop. No rest for the wicked, so you say.

A few days ago I heard the absolutely malevolent and bloody straightforward death metal album The Continuous Nothing, which is their second full-length. Memento Mori released it on April 22nd. As the official press kit states, you should expect “a logical continuation of that not-inconsiderable debut: timeless, taut, and terrorizing”. And there’s hard to add something else to this laconic and capacious definition.

Naturally we had a lot to discuss with the band, and Max Neira provided us this detailed and thoughtful interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: EL MORTA

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Jun 102024
 

(The Irish trio El Morta includes current or former members of Mourning Beloveth, but in this new configuration they’ve followed very different and much harder to pin down directions. They released their debut album last month, and around that time Comrade Aleks spoke with El Morta‘s Adrian, producing the following extensive and interesting interview.)

I know that besides me there are a couple of people here who remember the Irish death-doom band Mourning Beloveth and are waiting for a new album from them. They seem to be writing something, but it’s not clear how soon we’ll get it. Meanwhile, their much-ex-bassist Adrian de Buitléar and still-listed guitarist Brian Delaney and vocalist Darren Moore recorded their first album under the name El Morta.

The project previously launched two EPs, but although the Metal-Archives describe these records as “death-doom”, it is simply a label hung on El Morta by inertia. Their album The Man Who Laughs does indeed have doom forms and moods at its core, but this material gives a stronger impression of heavy, experimental, almost avant-garde psychedelia.

Vague instrumental images and a certain monotony of the narrative, cycle after cycle, song after song, keep the outline of the album unbreakable, although El Morta cannot be accused of monotony. The futility of existence, the exhausting pressure of reality, and some kind of latent premonition of trouble form a deafening emotional vacuum, a feeling of claustrophobia that is very obvious thanks to the detached voice of Darren. Strange, uncomfortable, and a bit crazy album. We discussed it with Adrian recently. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CRYPT SERMON

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  1 Response »
Jun 072024
 


Photo credit: Scott Kincade

(Today we’re very happy to present Comrade Aleks‘ excellent interview with frontman Brooks Wilson from Crypt Sermon, whose new album is set for release on June 14th via Dark Descent Records.)

The Philadelphia doom crew Crypt Sermon took the matter seriously from the very beginning, and the first album Out of the Garden (2015) became, if not a modern classic, at least a significant phenomenon for the doom scene. The second release The Ruins of Fading Light (2019) cemented Crypt Sermon’s reputation as one of the most relevant “new” epic doom bands, but how to grow further with such a triumphant start?

The band’s new album The Stygian Rose is to be released on June 14th, and its lyrics are partly inspired by the ideas of American medium and occult writer Pascal Beverly Randolph. They mix very traditional doom with magical retro metal, combining crushing riffs and shimmering guitar melodies, and Crypt Sermon go into the large-scale and epic doom-ascension with no final destination.

Crypt Sermon are endearing due to their fidelity to heavy metal doom roots and their artistic take on the rigid form of the genre. We have done the interview with the band’s frontman Brooks Wilson, and it’ll help us learn more about the story behind The Stygian Rose and further. Continue reading »

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