OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XX: CHANGES, TEMPERATURES, AND RIFFS

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Sep 152025
 

(Daniel Barkasi returns with his monthly collection of album reviews, this time recommending six albums released in August 2025.)

As summer nears its conclusion, the heat has finally (sort of) calmed down a little in the Floridian swamp. It’s about damn time. The dogs can finally be taken outside and we’re not a dripping puddle of sweat in 1.2 seconds. More like 10 minutes, which is an improvement that’s most welcome!

On a sad personal note, my wife and I lost our precious dog Kaiya last week. It wasn’t completely unexpected – she had just turned 17 and had some worsening health issues – and her body just couldn’t keep going. We had a hell of a 17th birthday bash only a few days prior, but she sadly plummeted quickly not long after.

My wife had her for literally half of my wife’s life, and I had the distinct pleasure of having her in my life for over a decade. She was the best girl – sweet as can be, loving, gentle, and quirky in the best ways. It’s still hard for me to write this, as I miss her terribly and it’ll be fresh for a while. One of our other dogs, Hiroki, has taken it especially hard, as they were incredibly close. He seems to be on the mend, thankfully, as he sits next to me. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HEBEPHRENIQUE — “VISIONS OF MAGDALENE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 102025
 

(written by Islander)

“Think Gorguts by way of Mayhem, filtered through Anaal Nathrakh’s violent theatrics and a heavy dose of dystopian dread.” That’s part of how Gutter Prince Cabal and Brilliant Emperor Records vividly preview Decathexis, a new album from the Australian band Hebephrenique that those labels are set to release on August 23rd. And there’s more:

“Decathexis is a whirlwind of spite-fueled vocals, mechanical precision, and hypnotic ambience, anchored by songwriting that hurts as much as it surprises. It’s more technical, more aggressive, and somehow even more unstable than their acclaimed EP [Non Compos Mentis], a deeper dive into madness and alienation.”

At first blush it’s hard to believe that the new album could be more aggressive or destabilizing or disorienting than that 2023 EP. When we premiered it, we frequently resorted to words like “insane,” “crazed”, “kaleidoscopic”, “diabolical”, and “dazzling”. We analogized it to a theater of devilish carnivals set in hellish asylums and a labyrinth of lunatic splendors.

We further wrote that “it’s also one of the most fascinating and engrossing records we’ve heard this year, and it marks the advent of a remarkable new talent that we hope will return with more madness soon.” Now our wish is coming true. As a first sign of what new madness comes our way we’re premiering a video for “Visions of Magdalene“, the first single from Decathexis. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEBEPHRENIQUE — “NON COMPOS MENTIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 272023
 

The Australian band Hebephrenique chose a name that may contort the part of your brain responsible for making sense of letters and checking new words into the vocabulary library. We’ll make it easier, since we’ve already done a bit of research:

Hebephrenique seems to be the French word (without accent marks) for hebephrenic, which refers to a “disorganized” type of schizophrenia, one “typified by shallow and inappropriate emotional responses, foolish or bizarre behaviour, false beliefs (delusions), and false perceptions (hallucinations).” So says this source.

That this is what the band had in mind when they chose their name is guesswork on our part, but their debut EP Non Compos Mentis provides circumstantial evidence that we’re on the right track. Continue reading »