OUR LIST OF 2022’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 13): MACERATION, DECIPHER, GRAVEDANCER

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2022  No Responses »
Jan 182023
 

Like yesterday’s installment of this list, today’s lucky 13th grouping doesn’t have much rhyme or reason to it. I mean, all these songs are here because I found them all highly infectious and very good in different ways, but I sure won’t claim that they have many other connections.

Oh, I guess I should mention that all three happened to be either songs or videos we premiered at NCS, though that’s not the reason I picked them.

MACERATION (Denmark)

I feel honored every time someone asks us to host a music premiere, but I admit I was especially excited when we were asked to premiere the come-back album of this Danish death metal band last year. Not only did it represent the return of a group who made a heavy mark in the old annals of death metal with their 1992 debut A Serenade of Agony, it also featured Dan Swanö stepping in again to fill the session vocal role, as he did under the name Day Disyraa for that 1992 debut. And the new album also turned out to be really fucking good — an opinion I attempted to justify at great length in a review accompanying the premiere. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVEDANCER — “THE DEVIL’S GARDEN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 042022
 

There are SO many things to like about the Gravedancer video we’re about to premiere that it’s hard to imagine anyone not enjoying it — other than perhaps the trvest of the trve black metal kultists out there. And they’ve already got so many other things to be upset about that this is probably just one more drop in a rapidly filling bucket.

The music alone is a big attraction. Entitled “The Devil’s Garden“, the song is the closing track on this Arkansas band’s latest EP, Every Kind of Dog, which was released last October. It traverses some interesting and unexpected musical territory, especially given the general folk/Americana style of the tracks that precede it in on the EP. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRAVEDÄNCER — “RIPPING METAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 272021
 

 

As much as many of us enjoy the realms of the avant garde within the world of metal, no dyed-in-the-wool metalhead would ever deny the continuing appeal of the Old Guard, or the visceral thrills that can be generated by newer bands who embrace the sounds that formed the foundations of heavy metal and carry them forward with the right spirit and uncommon skill. Which brings us to Gravedäncer.

This Brazilian duo, composed of members of Flageladör and Tyranno, have created a debut demo, righteously named Ripping Metal, that’s an electrifying hybrid of early black metal and NWOBHM — think of a union between Judas Priest and Venom. The songs are stripped-down and unpretentious, neither forward-looking nor artificially embellished. They depend on the power of the riff, and a devotion to sulphurous audio aromas that promise the delights and dangers of hell.

And as you’ll discover through our premiere of the demo today in advance of its January 29 release by the Helldprod Records, the primal appeal of what they’ve done is damned near irresistible. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VOID, WØMB, NERVOUS DECAY, OMNIKINETIC, ENSANGUINATE, GRAVEDÄNCER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 292020
 

 

Just a few days left in this year that has been so miserable in so many ways, but so great when it comes to heavy music. Speaking of which, my plan is to finish rolling out our year-end lists by January 1st. At this point, I have five more slated to post. Soon after the beginning of the new year I’ll begin the last stage of NCS LISTMANIA, which is my list of 2020’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. I have a lot of thinking to do about that between now and then.

In the meantime I’m still trying to keep up with newly arriving metal. My fucking day job has been relatively calm over the holidays, which makes this task a bit easier, though I expect it to heat up again after New Year’s Day. Here’s some of what I discovered over the last 24 hours that lit me up.

VOID (UK)

The London-based avant-garde black metal band Void, who have been active since 1999, don’t hurry their releases. If you’ve heard either of their first two albums — 2003’s Posthuman and 2011’s Void, you’ll understand why. This isn’t the kind of music that can be thrown together quickly, but it has been so unusually good that it rewards the patience of fans. And now, a decade after their last album, Void will be releasing a new one through Duplicate Records near the end of January 2021. Continue reading »