AN NCS PREMIERE: DISPOSSESSED — “CONCRETE TOMB”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 262025
 

(written by Islander)

Portland, Oregon-based Dispossessed made their hulking and haunting presence known with a harrowing first full-length, Exanimate, in 2019, and followed that with the “Makhnovshchina” single in 2022. Now they return with a new five-song full-length named Dêmocide that will be released on October 3rd (a Bandcamp Friday) through Carbonized Records.

As before, Dispossessed use their fusion of sludge, doom, and death metal to express rage and despair, this time lyrically addressing issues such as systemic violence, environmental destruction, and carceral injustice, once more grounding their work in anti-authoritarian ideals.

Those passions thrive in the confrontational nature of their music — which is enormously heavy, wholly absorbing, but also viscerally devastating in both its aural and emotional qualities. We have a striking example of this in the song we’re premiering today — “Concrete Tomb.” Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): NOCTEM, GRIMA, TONGUE, DISPOSSESSED, TEMPLUM ANIMA MORTI, NYSS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jul 072019
 

 

As you can see, I’ve planned a two-part SOB again. I doubt I’ll finish Part 2 in time to post it today, and even if I do, I think I’ll defer it to Monday anyway. With so many new-music round-ups lately, I’m afraid we’re at risk of overloading people already, especially because this Part 1 includes four full releases in addition to the two advance tracks I’ve placed at the beginning (and there are additional complete releases in what I have in mind for Part 2)..

NOCTEM

We’ve been closely following the progress of the Spanish band Noctem since 2011, when they released their second album, Oblivion. Four of us have written about the band over the years since then, amassing 16 different posts about them (including two interviews). Obviously, we are fans. But we have equally been persistently curious about what they would do next.

Noctem’s music has always been a blend of death and black metal, but the sound hasn’t remained stagnant. It might go too far to say there has been a continuous trajectory over time, but in general it seems like in the earlier years they were more death-metal focused, whereas the last album, 2016’s Haeresis, leaned more toward the black metal elements in their sound. Based on the title track from their new album, The Black Consecration, it sounds like they’re leaning even harder in that direction, and have in other ways made shifts in sound from their last record. Continue reading »