SHADES OF BLACK: KRIEG, DREAM UNENDING, WORM

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Oct 222023
 


Krieg photo by Kassandra Carmona

In a departure from what I usually do for these columns I decided not to string together a bunch of singles from forthcoming records, but instead to write about two albums, one of them a split.

Both of them are already out, so what’s the point of writing about albums you can already hear for yourselves? You might ask that question about almost everything with my name on it, because I almost never scribble review-ish words without including the music streams. Same goes for a lot of the other scribblers around here.

The idea is that the words might induce some people to check out music they weren’t aware of, or decided to pass by. I hope that will happen today. Other motivations: Writing voluntarily can be fun, even when it’s hard. And it’s just good manners to thank someone for making music that resonates in the soul or the muscles or the mush between the ears.

So, with thanks to Krieg, Dream Unending, and Worm, here we go. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DREAM UNENDING

 Interviews  1 Response »
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 »

DREAM UNENDING – SONG OF SALVATION

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 142022
 

(Andy Synn gives Dream Unending another chance to win him over with their new album)

If you know anything about us here at NCS – beyond our charm, good lucks, and our unwavering loyalty (and, yes, I am riffing on a previous intro, what of it?) – you’ll know that we’re not afraid to admit when we’re wrong.

That being said, I still stand by my decision to include Dream Unending‘s first album in my list of the most “Disappointing” albums of 2021 as, while I didn’t hate it by any means, the amount of hype around it was completely unjustified.

It wasn’t really the band’s fault, to be fair, but, from the reactions by some of the Metal Media (a lot of which seemed content to just lazily regurgitate the press materials) you might have thought that they were the first (and only) band to ever consider combining the dolorous heft of Doom with the dreamy dynamics of Post-Metal (or that Paradise Lost had never existed).

However, I am happy to report – very happy, as a matter of fact, as I always felt this project had promise, despite being so critical of their debut – that Song of Salvation is a huge step up, and a huge step forward, that just might live up to most (if not all) of the hype around the band.

Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 2): DAKHMA, DREAM UNENDING, NORNA, JZOVCE, ANTUCO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 222021
 

As promised, here’s Part 2 of a round-up of new music and videos I began yesterday (here, in case you missed it). I’ll dispense with further introduction and just get right to it….

DAKHMA (Switzerland)

There have been a few Dakhma’s out in the world, but this one is the Swiss blackened death metal band, whose works I once characterized as “foul, filth-ridden, fiery, and ferocious music that channels the feeling of ancient, implacable evil… and utter devotion to its ends. As they say in the trade, not for the faint of heart”.

I chose those words in the context of their 2018 debut album, and now they have a second full-length on the way. Not being faint of heart (at least not when it comes to music), I eagerly partook of the new record’s first advance track — which is the way today’s round-up begins. Continue reading »