SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CAINITES, DUSKWALKER, ENEMY XIII, FULL OF HELL, GOREBRINGER, HAUNTED PLASMA, THANATOTHERION, ZELENAYA (AND THREE COMPILATIONS)

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 272024
 

In considering what to do for this weekly roundup of new songs and videos I felt like a rabbit surrounded by wolves at every point on the compass rose, scrambling and darting this way and that. Too many wolves, not enough space to escape. Wild-eyed, here’s what I decided to do.

CAINITES (Italy)

The cover art for Cainites‘ new album is a very good clue to the music in the album’s first single, “Darkness Awaits“. The feverish riffing, which rings and swarms, is an evil, hungering manifestation, and you can feel its famished heart beating in the drumwork as it snarls and gasps.

But the song is a shapeshifter. The music mysteriously soars and haunted singing (haunted, but still sinister) comes around the corner, and around another corner the music rings like chimes and the creature sings again, forlorn. More changes come, with fast-throbbing guitars and beleaguered doom-ish chords. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DUSKWALKER — “THE CRAWLING TONGUE”

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Dec 102020
 

 

H.P. Lovecraft never knew, nor could have imagined, what sumptuous source material his twisted storytelling would become for extreme metal bands half a century (and onward) after his death. But so it is, and that symbiosis shows no sign of ever diminishing. Across a wide range of genres and bands, his ghastly supernatural tales continue to exert a magnetic attraction, which inspired the heavyweight Canadian group Duskwalker when they wrote “The Crawling Tongue“, the song that’s the subject of official video we’re premiering today.

The track comes from Duskwalker’s 2019 album All They Know Is Fear, which was released by CDN Records. It’s the first full-length under the name Duskwalker, but is actually the band’s second album (the first one being released under the group’s previous name, The Offering). The album as a whole delves into themes of myth, conspiracy, and horror, and channels influences that range from Morbid Angel and Carcass to Cannibal Corpse and Pantera, blending traditional metal, old school death, and thrash. Continue reading »