SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BEHEMOTH, RUSSIAN CIRCLES, FUMING MOUTH, SÉPULCRE, LUMINOUS VEIL, JØTNARR, THOLN, MAUNAH

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 272026
 

(written by Islander)

Sometimes we lead off these roundups with shiny lures (bands whose names are well known) to attract hungry fish (you), in the hope that the fish will get hooked by something sharp hanging below in darker waters. That’s what I’ve done today, though to be clear, I was also attracted by the lures.

(Note to self: don’t use the fishing analogy again since you haven’t gone fishing in decades and the only lures you used were worms.)

The lures are themselves quite different from each other, and so are the lesser-known hooks, and altogether they provide a lot of listening (and viewing) pleasure. Be forewarned: there’s a bit of singing in the mix until you get to the end — when there’s a lot of it (and extraordinary singing it is). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MASTODON, FUMING MOUTH, SOOTHSAYER, 85 SEGUNDOS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jun 062026
 

(written by Islander)

I am lucky, because every day brings me some new surprise. Most often it’s a musical surprise, because I spend so much of my days listening to music. Even when I’m listening to a song that’s built with familiar ingredients, I sometimes get surprised by how much I like it when it’s essentially no different than something I’ve heard many times before.

Beyond that, I find surprises in conversations with my wife or friends, or in watching our brother cats, or in a movement in my peripheral vision while sitting on our deck outside — a squirrel or a bird or a deer or a raccoon clawing its way up a tree before sunrise.

A couple of mornings ago I found some very small paper-thin objects in a corner of that deck I don’t remember seeing before. Here they are: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GAEREA, FUMING MOUTH, AKLASH, HYPERDONTIA, OMNIVORTEX, DYSRHYTHMIA, ÖXXÖ XÖÖX, PRIMAEVUS, PERCHTA, DEMERSAL, DOWNCROSS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 022024
 

Tomorrow is another Bandcamp Friday, and I had enough time to get ahead of the game today with a few selections that might help drain your bank account tomorrow. Actually, it’s more than a few — new singles and videos from 11 bands, spanning a very broad spectrum of music.

GAEREA (Portugal)

We begin with an intense new stand-alone single from Gaerea. As the band explain, “‘World Ablaze‘ tells the story of a man who has lived all his life inside a cage. He knows that one day he will be set free and experience the world with its true colors. Unfortunately, he also knows that day will be his last hours alive. It’s a song about desire, hope and freedom. A dance between life and death, hope and despair”. Continue reading »

FUMING MOUTH – LAST DAY OF SUN

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 302023
 

(Andy Synn gives his thoughts on the new Fuming Mouth album, out Friday)

To describe Last Day of Sun simply as a “post-cancer” album would be overly-reductive.

It’s more than just that, for sure.

But there’s no question that the knowledge of Fuming Mouth frontman Mark Whelan’s battle with, and recovery from, Acute Myeloid Leukemia definitely adds some extra thematic weight to the record’s metallic meditations on mortality and the fragility of existence.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CELESTE, FUMING MOUTH, URANIUM, TUMANDUUMBAND, MECHINA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 092023
 


Celeste

A lot of new music came out over the last week. All I can do today is lightly scratch the surface, like a friendly cat who touches their human companion’s skin with claws that let you know they’re there but without drawing blood — though some of the music here might feel like blood is being shed.

I got a very late start this morning, and so depended on late-breaking alerts from some of my NCS compatriots and a couple of other acquaintances rather than methodically clawing through my immense list of links and letting my own impulses determine the choices.I’ll probably be more self-directed in assembling tomorrow’s blackish column. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, SEPTEMBER 2021

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 012021
 


Unto Others

(NCS contributor Gonzo returns with another end-of-month roundup of music that caught his ears.)

There are a few bittersweet observations I’ve come to realize in the past month, related both to music and to the endless hellscape that is the human condition:

As of this writing, 2022 is just three months away and I’m still processing whether 2020 was even real. This means that while I survived the endlessly overwhelming shitstorm of that year, it does beg the question of how much worse this planet could get for humans over the next decade.

While live music is back and I’ve been reveling in the joy of sweaty venues and the sleep deprivation that comes with festivals again, I was just notified that Judas Priest is postponing the rest of their tour due to Richie Faulkner’s heart condition.

The next date would’ve been where I would see them (for the first time, no less) here in Denver.

Fuck.

The good news? Sabaton, who opened for Priest on this tour, is still playing a show in Denver, and by the time this piece goes to print, I’ll have seen the show and will post a full review in the coming days.

In the meantime, I’m at least somewhat distracted by the troves of amazing heavy music that keep blasting out of the darkest corners of the netherverse as of late.

Join me as I take you through some unfettered heaviness and savagery that’s emerged in the past month and kept me sane as we descend into 2021’s final few months. This month, I’ve got two albums and three singles for you to delve into. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Sep 252021
 

 

To avoid boring you and offending vegetarians and vegans out there, I’ll spare you the details, but I have to pick up an animal carcass and then burn wood in a pit for about 6 hours today before burying it. There’s a lot to be said about staring at fire for 6 hours, but I’m going to drink anyway.

And anyway, because this all has to get started soon and because I slept in, I’m unable to write this morning. Even in the “Overflowing Streams” format I usually manage to write a couple sentences about the new music and videos I’ve chosen and then leave pre-order and Facebook links. I don’t even have time to do that today. In the 11+ years of NCS I can’t remember another time when all I’ve done is installed the music streams and videos. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

To salve my wounded conscience I did decide to (mostly) limit this collection to what I consider well-known bands because you’ll probably have a good idea about what’s coming without me providing any guidance. But there may still be a few surprises.

P.S. There’s no new music from Lock Up in this collection. I just like Khaos Diktator‘s cover art for the band’s new album. The first single, “Dark Force Of Conviction”, will be coming on September 30th with a video. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ALUSTRIUM / DÖ / FUMING MOUTH

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Nov 182020
 


Alustrium

 

(Andy Synn prepared the following reviews of three recent and very impressive EPs.)

It’s pretty common knowledge that, for the most part at least, I’m more of an “album guy” than an “EP guy”. There’s just something about the extra effort, the extra level of commitment, involved in creating an album that makes it feel more real and more substantial in my mind (although I’m sure that’s not always true).

That being said, I can’t deny that there are certain times when an EP is exactly what I’m looking for from a band, something explicitly designed to deliver a short, sharp shock of (ideally) all their best ideas and elements in one concise, captivating package.

Which is exactly what I have here for you today, three EPs – from three tonally and stylistically very different artists – all of which are pretty much brand new (one of them, in fact, is so new that it isn’t actually released until Friday) that find each band putting out some of their best material yet while also dropping a few hints as to where they might take things next. Continue reading »

A TALE OF TWO ALBUMS: FUMING MOUTH AND TOWERING

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jun 262019
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn combines reviews of two recently released death metal albums, by the Massachusetts band Fuming Mouth and the French band Towering.)

Maybe it’s my google algorithm or something, but considering that Fuming Mouth’s The Grand Descent and Towering’s Obscuring Manifestation are two of the downright best Death Metal albums I’ve heard all year, I’ve seen a real dearth of reviews for them, particularly the latter release (which has been out for almost a month now).

Hopefully this co-review will go some way towards correcting this egregious oversight on behalf of the Metal community though, and hopefully a lot of you will discover your new favourite band(s) as a result of what you’re about to read! Continue reading »