ANNIHILATION IN THE LIMINAL VOID: A DEEP DIVE WITH GALVANIST

 Album Reviews, Interviews  No Responses »
Sep 042026
 

(Today our Denver-based contributor Gonzo brings us high points of his conversation at the recent Fire In the Mountains festival with members of the Montana band Galvanist, intertwined with his thoughts about their new album The Silence Between Stars, released in May of this year via ATMF.)

There’s a particular kind of magic that only happens when you’re standing out on tribal land in the shadow of the mountains, dust coating your boots, cold drink in hand, talking heavy music with people who live and breathe it. Festivals like Fire in the Mountains aren’t just weekend party stops; they’re cultural touchstones where you discover something deeper about the music, the setting, and the people making the noise.

That’s precisely the headspace I was in when I sat down with Bozeman, Montana’s Galvanist to unpack one of the most cerebral, devastatingly heavy, and quietly fascinating projects brewing in Bozeman’s DIY heavy music underground. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): GALVANIST – THE SILENCE BETWEEN STARS

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 252026
 

(Andy Synn, who spent the whole weekend at MDF, still found time to handle today’s premiere)

In my opinion, the job of an article like this – one that’s simultaneously both a premiere and a review (you might even call it a preview) – is not so much to tell you what to think as it is to shape your expectations, so that those thoughts can proceed and develop free of any incorrect assumptions or misconceptions about the music.

This is particularly relevant in this case, as while Montana-based quartet Galvanist are often billed as “Experimental Doom/Death Metal” I feel that this has the potential to be misleading, even counterproductive, going into their upcoming new album, The Silence Between Stars, which has more in common – to my ears at least – with the more progressively structured, esoterically atmospheric end of the Black Metal spectrum.

That’s not to say there aren’t some deliciously doomy moments to be found – elements like the sundered atmospheric synthscapes underpinning “Dreich” and the gloom-laden, grand guignol climax of “Spiorad” recall the bleakest (albeit still “blackened”) moments of Mizmor and Bethlehem (especially the former) – but there’s also a clear debt owed here to the likes of Leviathan and Blut Aus Nord (particularly the latter’s more cosmically-inclined compositions), and it’s in this context that the album is best approached.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GALVANIST — “CONNECTION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 082022
 

If I’m being honest about what’s motivated me to help keep this site going and growing for 12+ years, it’s a mixture of selfishness and altruism.

Selfishly, it has become a vehicle for turning me on to a lot more music, and a lot faster, than would have happened if I were just a fan. E-mails and other messages bring me new music in droves every day, far more than I have the ability to check out and much of it that on its face doesn’t seem that interesting, but I still find gems in the flood that I’m sure would have escaped me were it not for NCS.

Altruistically, NCS also gives me and my co-writers the ability to share what excites us with a much bigger audience than we could reach by mere word of mouth. Helping underground bands and labels reach more people is a good feeling, and the feeling is even better when they don’t yet have the kind of profile that’s going to get them widely noticed regardless of what we do here.

And that brings me to the “esoteric doom band” Galvanist from Bozeman, Montana. But for NCS. it’s highly unlikely I would have discovered their forthcoming debut album Connection as quickly as I have, or maybe at all. And because of NCS, I now get the chance to share with you a record that has quickly become a thrilling favorite among all the many records I’ve heard this year. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: UFOMAMMUT, GALVANIST, MÅNEGARM, KATHAROS XIII, BOG BODY, SIGN OF EVIL, WOLFANGER & WOLFHEART, VREID, WORMROT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 192022
 


Ufomammut – photo by Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni

I hope your weekend is going well. Mine got off to a very good start this morning as I made my way through songs and videos that surfaced over the past week or so. By sheer good fortune, almost everything I listened to struck a chord, and the ones that rang loudest made its way into this big round-up.

I organized the selections in a way that made sense to me, capped by a shot of pure adrenaline. I’ll briefly tell you what to prepare for.

UFOMAMMUT (Italy)

Prepare for: a slow burn, a dreamy but sinew-triggering trip reminiscent of an old Pink Floyd space odyssey, with an increasingly fiery slug-fest as its destination. Continue reading »