SHADES OF BLACK: BEFOULED MALEDICTION, KILAT, I HELVETE, FERNDOM

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 042026
 

(written by Islander)

For reasons that are too embarrassing to disclose I’m getting a very late start today. Fortunately, I did my listening in previous days and made my picks yesterday. It’s just the writing that I left for this morning.

With so much time already gone before I started, and honestly not feeling great, I again wondered whether I should bother with the writing since I’m just providing my reactions to music everyone can hear for themselves. Can’t I just say, “You should listen to this,” and leave it at that? It’s a recurring internal debate. And I resolved it as I always seem to do. But to keep this from being ridiculously late, I did shorten it from six selections to four.

By way of introduction, I arranged the music so you’ll start of in the midst of some fireballs, then pull back in a moody kind of interlude, then heat up again, and then drift away in contemplation of the season ahead (or the one slowly ending). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FERNDOM — “STONE-TOOTHED ABYSS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 052026
 

(written by Islander)

I’ve previously explained that the forthcoming debut album of Ferndom piqued my interest before I ever heard a note. First, it’s a one-person project from my hometown of Austin, Texas (the person goes by Vileinist, a clever name for reasons you’ll soon learn). Second, the title of the album is Tesuque, named for a place near Santa Fe in New Mexico that I and family members have visited frequently.

And, well, the third reason for getting interested is that Vileinist is a violinist, and uses an electric violin to replace traditional guitar parts throughout the album.

The occasion for first paying attention to Ferndom at our site was its release of the first single from Tesuque, a completely captivating song called “Cacophony of Ice“. We’re paying more attention today because we’re premiering a video for the album’s second single, “Stone-Toothed Abyss“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: BONG-RA, UDRĘKA, VERDUN, FERNDOM, SEAR, LUCERNA MUNDI

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jan 182026
 

(written by Islander)

Two days ago people in the tiny Spanish village of San Bartolomé de Pinares renewed a tradition that’s purportedly five centuries long — building bonfires in the central streets and riding horses through the flames. This is done on the eve of the festival of Saint Anthony the Abbott, the patron saint of domestic animals, because what honors domestic animals better than forcing some big ones to hurtle through an inferno?

I always look for photos of the event because they’re typically amazing and because they’re usually pretty good metaphors for people here and around the world trying to brave whatever fiery hells are burning around us. Lots of those to choose from these days.

Oddly, when I went looking for photos of this year’s ritual I had to wade through snowy photos of armed Greenlandic polar bears and sled dogs. What the hell was that about? (Well, I knew, and I guess it’s proof that AI is good for something besides kicking people out of work and threatening humanity with extinction.) Continue reading »