Oct 092018
 

 

I’ve chosen so much new music to feature in this stylistically eclectic round-up that I’m going to dispense with any further preface and just get right to it.

MAJESTIC DOWNFALL

Veins” is the first track released (just yesterday) from Majestic Downfall‘s new album, Waters Of Fate, which will be released on December 7th by Solitude Productions and Weird Truth Productions in Europe and Asia and by Chaos Records in the Americas. If you couldn’t guess based on how much praise we’ve heaped on this Mexican death/doom band over the years, this album is one we’ve been eagerly looking forward to. If possible, I’m even more eager now that I’ve opened those Veins. Continue reading »

Jun 232018
 

 

(For this week’s edition of Waxing Lyrical, Andy Synn reached out to lyricist/vocalist Mathieu Nogues of the French band Eryn Non Dae.)

To quote my review of Abandon of the Self, the new album by French quintet Eryn Non Dae:

“…to dismiss them as ‘just’ another Post Metal band would be a mistake [as] the group’s enigmatic blend of apocalyptic atmosphere and caustic catharsis has just as much in common with the distorted, post-human visions of Godflesh, Meshuggah, and Nero di Marte as it does with Neurosis, Isis, and their ilk…”

As a matter of fact, the band’s distinctive brand of proggy complexity and extreme emotion is one which defies easy categorisation (which is possibly why they still don’t have an entry on Metal-Archives).

With this in mind I decided to reach out to their vocalist Mathieu Nogues and get him to participate in this edition of Waxing Lyrical as a way of (hopefully) learning a little bit more about what makes the band tick. Continue reading »

Mar 092018
 

 

(Today, Debemur Morti Productions releases the new album by the French band Eryn Non Dae., and to help spread the word we’re presenting a full stream of the album along with the following review by Andy Synn.)

A quick google search for Eryn Non Dae. will likely tell you two things.

One, that the band apparently don’t deserve an entry on Metal Archives, despite having two (now three) extremely impressive albums under their collective belt.

And, two, that the most common genre tag applied to their music is that most nebulous of all descriptors, the dreaded “Post Metal”.

But while I can’t do anything about the former (MA’s arcane, and somewhat consistent, criteria for inclusion are beyond my control), I can definitely do something to correct – or at least, amend – the latter. Continue reading »

Mar 012018
 

 

Earlier this month we joined with other sites in revealing a song named “Astral” from the first album in more than five years by the French band Eryn Non Dae..  In light of that that roughly five-year break, it stands to reason that some people were being introduced to the idiosyncratic creative bent of of this band for the first time, and it’s kind of fun to imagine their surprised reactions to the unorthodox and unpredictable sound of that song. It’s going to be just as much fun imagining the reactions of listeners to the song we’re helping spread around today.

This newest revelation is named “Halo“. Like “Astral“, it will appear on the new END. album, Abandon of the Self, which will be released on March 9th by Debemur Morti Productions. Like “Astral“, it could be characterized at a high level as a multifaceted experience, blending compulsive physicality and disorienting atmosphere. In terms more suited to this specific composition, Eryn Non Dae. shake their listeners like rag dolls — we become loose-jointed playthings in their hands, heads bobbing and limbs flailing to the music’s heavy rhythmic grooves — but they’re doing other things to us at the same time. Continue reading »

Feb 082018
 

 

When you have followed, enjoyed, and praised the work of a band for as long as our site has been doing in the case of Eryn Non Dae., there is some risk that objectivity will be lost, or at least as much objectivity as can play a role in the appreciation of music, which some might argue isn’t very much at all.

Our site has been alive since November 2009, and one of our earliest reviews, only two months later, was of this French group’s debut album, Hydra Lernaïa. Since then, we’ve written about them more than a dozen other times, the last of which was a post in which my comrade Andy Synn named the band’s new album, Abandon of the Self, one of his most anticipated albums of 2018. It has been one of mine as well.

Eryn Non Dae. do not hurry themselves. More than five years have passed since their second album, Meliora; and it took roughly three years for Meliora to arrive after Hydra Lernaïa. If you’re a fan, you must be patient, but we’ve learned that the patience is rewarded. We’re about to learn that again. Continue reading »

Jan 132018
 

 

(Here’s a personal list by Andy Synn identifying eagerly anticipated forthcoming 2018 albums.)

 

One week ago Islander published a list of upcoming albums expected to be released over the course of the next twelve months, and also solicited comments and recommendations from our readers concerning which albums (and EPs) they were most looking forward to.

Well, as successful as that endeavour was, now it’s my turn to talk up some of my most anticipated album scheduled for release in 2018. Continue reading »

Jun 222017
 

 

That’s Jinx Dawson’s coffin up there, rising above the stage at Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle last Saturday night. Trust me, she was about as far from dead as you could get, but that’s where she was, inside that box when the lights came up. The crowd went crazy when she came out, and didn’t stop until a while after Coven finished their headlining set on the festival’s last night.

Someday soon I’ll write about the festival, and maybe a little about the chaotic experience of actually helping put on a festival instead of just watching the show. That’s a box I’ve now checked off on the bucket list, even though it wasn’t on my bucket list before the planning for NWTF began last year. As I think back on the experience, I’m lucky I didn’t kick the bucket before the weekend ended. Nevertheless, we’re doing it again next year, and perhaps I will emerge less exhausted, having learned a few things from the first outing, but probably not.

Anyway, since about the middle of last week I’ve had no time to compile a round-up, and am thankful to DGR for stepping into that breach not once but twice (even though he too helped out with the heavy lifting at NWTF). In the meantime, my list of new things to check out became typically overwhelming. To make the job of choosing somewhat easier, I’ve focused on more recent revelations, and perhaps will dig deeper into the last week or two in the coming days. So, let’s begin…. Continue reading »

Jan 072015
 

 

Every now and then I feel the need to elevate myself to about 40,000 feet above the Earth so as to more clearly receive extraterrestrial emanations and special guidance from the cosmos itself. I happen to be doing that right now. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology I can snoop the web for news and new music and post what I find, even as I receive mysterious communications from entities far beyond our own sphere.

Actually, to be brutally honest, which is the only kind of honest we know how to be at this site, I’m cooped up on an airplane flying across the country for my fucking day job, and the only emanations I’m getting are from the whine of the jet engines outside my window; I can’t make sense of them.

Although there’s an internet connection on board, it’s not good enough for me to hear music streams or watch videos. So, I’ve picked all but one of the music streams in this round-up based on educated guesses that they will be good. Maybe you’ll leave a comment and let me know if I guessed right. Presented in alphabetical order: Continue reading »

Sep 232013
 

Here are a four new (or new-ish) things I saw and heard since the weekend began that I’m really liking. I could keep them to myself, but I believe that goes against the first rule of blogging: Assume that everyone is fascinated by everything that interests you, and therefore keep nothing to yourself.

You can think of this as a death metal sandwich, two slices of rotting death metal bread on the outside and two unusual goodies in the middle.

BLOOD MORTIZED

We’ve been tracking the output of Sweden’s Blood Mortized since the beginning, and now they’re about to follow up their 2012 album The Key To A Black Heart (reviewed here) with a new full-length — The Demon, The Angel, The Disease. Today the band unveiled a music video for a track off the forthcoming album. To sum up:

The Music: Doing it the flesh-crawling bone-smashing old way, and doing it right. OOOF!

The Video: Gore, gore, gore, gore! And more gore! Continue reading »

Jul 232013
 

(Guest contributor Old Man Windbreaker finds a perhaps not-so-obvious connection among the latest albums by Gojira and a group of other bands, and includes some bonus items at the end.)

A little more than a year ago, we read a piece by Andy Synn titled Gojiralternatives, describing music by half a dozen bands as an alternative of sorts for those who are not that into Gojira’s music. Old Man Windbreaker decided to catch up to the bands featured in that list, since most of them have released a new album since the date of that article. But, Old Man Windbreaker is lazy. Hence, you have a review of the albums a full 2 months after the release of the latest album on this playlist. By the way, here are the albums on this playlist, in chronological order:

  •  L’Enfant Sauvage by Gojira
  •  Meliora by Eryn Non Dae.
  •  Vertikal by Cult of Luna
  •  Possession by Benea Reach
  •  Back to Where You’ve Never Been by Hacride

You might notice that Burst and Oceans of Sadness are not in this playlist. That is because they both split up; before the publishing of the original ‘Gojiralternatives‘ article, I might add. So, they will not be revisited, despite having produced amazing music. You might also notice that Eryn Non Dae. is here on this list. That is because of Double Panda. One happened to be playing Double Panda while listening to the album the first time, and One thought they sounded somewhat like Gojira at the time. This eventually led to One revisiting the other Gojiralternatives as well. Continue reading »