GREAT FALLS – THE BITE THAT GROWS UP

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 132026
 

(Andy Synn sinks his teeth into the new album from Great Falls, out this Friday)

It’s no secret that sludge-slinging noisemongers Great Falls were one of my highlights of this year’s edition of Northwest Terror Fest (FYI – tickets for NWTF 2027 are now on sale).

And while I was already at least passingly familiar with their ugly, unapologetically abrasive sound – all rough-hewn, splintery riffs, scraping, angular rhythms, and venomous, throat-scarring vocals – it was the raucous energy and raw intensity of their live performance which made them such a major stand-out.

The question now, of course, is whether – six albums deep into a 15+ year career of bleak, binge ‘n’ purge catharsis – they can still bring that same energy and intensity when the big red recording light goes on.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DARKEST HOUR, GREAT FALLS, WORM ALTAR, NERVOCHAOS, MILIM KASHOT VOL. 7, GRISEVILLE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 052026
 

(written by Islander)

As we all do, some days I wake up feeling like shit but still have to forge ahead with daily tasks. Today is one of those days.

The covid virus is still spreading around the country, and an updated vaccine for it became available last week. Because I’m in a demographic with an elevated risk of serious infection, I got the updated shot at a local pharmacy late yesterday afternoon. That’s what caused me to feel like shit this morning. I have a mild case of the sniffles but mainly I ache all over. It’s not so bad if I stay perfectly still, but any kind of movement is painful.

If my past experience with the vaccines is a guide, this will all pass by tomorrow or the next day at the latest, and for me the discomfort is a price worth paying for the enhanced immunity. The daily tasks I still feel the need to forge ahead with include preparing this column you’re now reading.

I mean, I could have just blown it off and gone back to bed. No one would have fired me for shirking. No one else would have suffered serious damage (probably). But this is the kind of daily task that takes my mind off of what ails me instead of turning up the torture dial — so on we go. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BLACK CURSE, GREAT FALLS, DROWNSHIP, POLEMICIST, THE WEIR, LYSERGIC

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 052024
 


Black Curse – photo by Brendan Macleod

A few times a year my spouse leaves town without me, jetting away to have fun with one of her sisters or a friend. I could join if I wanted to, but have figured out that giving her some breaks from me is a good idea. I give her some other breaks when I go off to metal fests without her (she’d rather be punched in the kidneys than go to a metal show).

These times when I’m home alone are clouds with silver linings. It doesn’t take long before I start really missing her. The sudden and prolonged silence around the house starts weighing on me. One of the silver linings is that I fill up the silence with music whenever I want to (my kind of music), and fill it up some more by spilling out thoughts about what I’m hearing.

You could guess that my spouse has been gone on one of those trips since early last week, given that I’ve now managed to pull together three roundups of new music and videos in the space of the last four days. She’ll be back home this afternoon, so I’ll most likely be back to doing these once a week on Saturdays until she plans another jaunt. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: GREAT FALLS AND RADIATION BLACKBODY

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 262023
 

On October 27th — tomorrow! — Ancient Temple Recordings and 7 Degrees Records will jointly release a new 7″ split by Seattle’s Great Falls and Brooklyn’s Radiation Blackbody, and today we’re presenting a stream of both bands’ contributions to the split.

The news of this release seized our attention mainly because of the presence of Great Falls. Even though Metal Archives hasn’t yet seen fit to include them, the band’s 2023 album Objects Without Pain is one of the most emotionally intense and stupefyingly heavy records you’ll find this year, and a worthy candidate as we get closer to year-end listmania.

At least for those of us around the NCS hovel, Radiation Blackbody was a new discovery — and, it turns out, a very good one. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GREAT FALLS, THE KEENING, DIKASTERION, COPROLITH

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Aug 192023
 

Well, no unforeseeable calamities befell me or our indomitable site in the last 24 hours, and so I’ve probably set a record for us today with the fourth roundup of new music in a row. If you include tomorrow’s Shades of Black column (barring a calamity), that will be five in a row.

The incredible thing is that even with so many daily installments, one after the other, there’s still a big pile of worthy new metal I haven’t managed to feature, and in that respect there’s nothing particularly unusual about the last week. Every week, the flood just keeps surging.

GREAT FALLS (U.S.)

I fibbed a little. Not everything in today’s collection surfaced during the last week. These first two songs, “Trap Feeding” and “Old Words Worn Thin“, are a tad older than that. They’re both from a new album by this devastating Seattle crew that will be out on September 15th through Neurot Recordings. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AGRYPNIE, DEAD SOUL COMMUNION, GREAT FALLS, VOID, DEADLY CARNAGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 172018
 

 

I can guarantee you this won’t last, but for the fourth day in a row I’ve had enough time to compile a round-up of new songs, two of which are presented through extremely cool videos.

I can also guarantee you that you won’t see where this collection is going. No two songs sound remotely alike. Sometimes there’s a flow or a connection between the songs I pick for these posts that just feels right as I hear the music, even if I’m not always able to explain it. This time I just fuckin’ liked all the songs and videos, and the only other thing that feels right is imagining how the movement from one to the next will throw you off balance.

AGRYPNIE

Way back in January of this year my comrade Andy Synn identified Agrypnie’s fifth album as one of his “most anticipated” releases for 2018, relishing the prospect of “some seriously intense blastery, brilliantly moody melody, and artfully applied aggression… along with a heaping helping of brooding atmosphere… and a bevy of unpredictable twists and turns designed to expand the band’s already expansive ‘Post’ Black Metal sound”. At last, that album is upon us. Actually, two of them are upon us. Continue reading »

SHOW REPORT: CORRECTIONS HOUSE AT HIGHLINE (JAN 2, 2014)

 Concert Reviews  7 Responses »
Jan 192014
 

(My NCS comrades DGR and BadWolf paid me a visit in Seattle over the New Year’s holiday, and herein lies the tale of one of our nights together, as told by Toledo-based BadWolf. The iPhone photos are his, too. Sample music is at the end.)

It was Thursday, January 2nd, and DemiGodRaven’s face was getting a bit red. Islander turned to me, and said “he looks sick.” I swapped out his high-gravity IPA with my mellower lager—each beer, craft-made, sported enough hoppy bitterness to cleanse the palate of formaldehyde. Such is the style in Seattle.

DGR and I, being men of modest means, had saved up some scratch to spend our New Year’s week in Seattle at the NCS home base, which meant two things: live music and booze. At that moment it looked like the libations might take their toll on my fine Corvid co-writer.

Fitting, since we were drinking at The Pine Box, a Public House situated in what was once a morgue. The speakers played The Misfits, our server had a Rancid tattoo, and we were tipsy at 7pm. Perfect. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM DEPHOSPHORUS, GREAT FALLS, AND AEGAEON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 082012
 

If the name Dephosphorus rings a bell, it may be because Phro recently reviewed this Greek band’s April 2012 split with Wake (here). Yesterday, thanks to a tip from NCS kvrmvdgeon KevinP, I found out that the band have finished recording a debut album called Night Sky Transform, the cover to which you can see above.

The album will be released soon on heavy vinyl by the underground German distro 7 Degrees Records. Two songs from the album are now streaming on the Dephosphorus Bandcamp page (here) — “Cold Omen” and “Uncharted”.

But that’s not all.  In June, Dephosphorus participated in a 7″ split with a Seattle band named Great Falls, which is being distributed by a vinyl subscription club called Hell Comes Home. For people like me who are turntable-deprived (yeah, I still haven’t bought one), both bands’ tracks are also streamable and downloadable at the Hell Comes Home Bandcamp page (here).

After the jump, I’ll offer a few words about the music and play the songs for you. Also after the jump: a brand new song from Aegaeon from their forthcoming EP, Being. Continue reading »