Mar 072026
 

(written by Islander)

I’m experiencing technical difficulties. For the second time since February 1st, our DSL service shut down. The last time we waited two weeks for the DSL company to send out a repair technician. He got it going again. He explained that a pair of wires in the main line to which our house was connected had shorted out. He connected us to a different pair, but said there were a bunch of other pairs in the line that were also shorted out.

He said he would report the need for maintenance, but I got the impression this need for maintenance is widespread around the island where we live and that we shouldn’t get our hopes up. I guess there’s not enough money to be made here for the DSL company to spend money. And so, 16 days after the last repair, the DSL service stopped working again. It’s been out since last weekend. A repair technician is supposed to visit us again on Monday. Just a one-week wait this time instead of two weeks.

No DSL means our TV is useless for streaming. It also means no internet connectivity except what I can get from my phone. I’ve been using that as a hotspot for my desktop computer. The cell service is good enough that I can get online and do most of what I can do when the DSL is working. But there’s one drawback: a lot of the time the cell service isn’t good enough to stream music and videos, in part because my wife piggy-backs on my phone too since she uses a different cell service that’s borderline useless where we live. Kind of a big drawback for a music blog like ours. Continue reading »

Feb 122016
 

Death fetishist-Lucifer Descending

 

I usually post collections such as this one on Sundays, to make the Sabbath blacker. But I’m sitting on so much good new metal in a blackened vein that I decided to share this collection now. I’m hoping to put together another one for Sunday.

DEATH FETISHIST

Just a couple of days ago, the eminent Debemur Morti Productions announced the signing of a new band from Portland, Oregon, named Death Fetishist, whose debut album will be released by the label later this year. To commemorate the blessed event, Death Fetishist released a single-song EP entitled Lucifer Descending yesterday — which follows a two-song EP (Whorifice) released on the first day of this month. Both EPs are available on Bandcamp.

The person behind Death Fetishist is the prolific Matron Thorn, who is also the principal driving force in Ævangelist as well as the protagonist in a large number of solo projects, including Benighted In Sodom. He is the vocalist in Death Fetishist and performs all the instruments other than drums and percussion, which are handled by Grond Nefarious. Continue reading »

Oct 252015
 

Goatpsalm-Downstream

 

I am late in writing this review. I’ve had this album since mid-August and have enjoyed it over multiple listening sessions since then. It deserved more prompt attention, and it deserves even more words than I’m devoting to it now. On the other hand, the album isn’t projected for release until early next year, so I suppose I’m not too late.

The name of the album is Downstream, and it was created by a part-Russian, part-Ukrainian group named Goatpsalm, whose ranks include members of another very good, but very different, band — Sickrites. Continue reading »

Aug 202015
 

Thy Catafalque- Sgùrr

I haven’t had time to compile a round-up of new music since Monday. I enjoy posting premieres and accompanying reviews when I like the music, and we’ve had a lot of those this week (more are coming later today), but they do tend to cut into the time available to search out other new songs worth recommending. When three or four days pass without a round-up, it’s not possible to cover everything I’d like to cover — too much good music comes out every day. So this is just an initial group of things I’d like to recommend for now; with luck I hope to prepare another round-up for tomorrow.

THY CATAFALQUE

There are few bands whose music I admire as much as Thy Catafalque. Thanks to praise about the band I first read at The Number of the Blog back in early 2011, I discovered the wonders of Thy Catafalque’s discography and began writing about the music, which in turn led me to make the acquaintance of the band’s remarkable mastermind Tamás Kátai. And then later that same year I was simply blown away by the band’s newest album, Rengeteg. I’m terrible at making narrowed lists of things I like, but if I were to attempt to make a list of my 10 favorite metal albums of all time, I know it would be a strong contender. Continue reading »