AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: IRON FLESH – “AS GHOULS MARCH ON”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 262022
 

Over the last five years we’ve devoted no fewer than seven articles to the music of the French death metal band Iron Flesh, most recently Andy Synn‘s review of their second full-length Summoning the Putrid in 2020. But just last month Iron Flesh released a third album, that one entitled Limb After Limb, and we can’t let the year go by without paying attention to them once again.

In commenting on the last Iron Flesh full-length before this most recent one, Andy suggested you “think Grave/Dismember meets Autopsy/Hypocrisy, with a little bit of early Paradise Lost and Edge of Sanity added for good measure”.

The newest album, out now on War Anthem Records and Cudgel Metal Mailorder, is a weighty offering, featuring 10 tracks of widely varying lengths, and they provide varying experiences as well. Continue reading »

UNSUNG HEROES OF 2020: ILSA / IRON FLESH / PLAGUE

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Dec 172020
 


Ilsa

 

(Andy Synn wrote the three album reviews collected in this post.)

As you may know, List Season is now officially over (for me anyway, though not for the site)… which means Post-List Season is officially open!

Now I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your attention that over the past few years (and beyond) we’ve been experiencing another one of those periodic Old School Death Metal “revivals”, where it seems like everyone has been competing to find the most effusive and hyperbolic way to praise the latest batch of Floridian-meets-Finnish Death Metal disciples (especially, or so it seems, if they’re American).

One reason for this, I’d imagine, is that we’ve now reached a point where a certain generation of bands, fans, and writers who weren’t old enough to take part in the original rise of the genre, or the early waves of Old School nostalgia, have risen to positions of prominence/notoriety, and by praising, supporting (and sometimes over-hyping) the current crop of retro riff-mongers they’re now able to relive – if only vicariously – the “classic” days of the genre which they missed out on.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some absolute gems to have come out of all this (several of which we’ve written about here before now), and so I’ve decided to dedicate today’s edition of “The Unsung Heroes of 2020” to three more of them, one of which was a firm favourite on my “Good” list, another of which took a prominent position on my “Great” list… and the third of which might, if I’d discovered it sooner, have forced a major rewrite of my “Critical Top Ten” this year! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: APATHY NOIR, IRON FLESH, YASHIRA, PTEROGLYPH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Sep 282020
 

 

I finished my hike through a grand forest yesterday, more than three miles. My wife and her friend didn’t even have to drag me to the finish, though the fact that we had an hour break for lunch is the only reason I made it. I slept like a dead man last night and, to use an old idiom, was all “stove up” (google it) when I staggered out of bed this morning.

Confronting a massive list of new songs that could have been fodder for this post, I decided to make it easy on myself and just use a quartet that Andy Synn recommended to me late last week. This was a bit of a shot in the dark, since I hadn’t yet listened to any of them, but not completely in the dark since Andy has decent taste. On the other hand he’s not completely disinterested, because he performs with one of these bands. But that’s where I come in, to bring some objectivity to bear (through the waves of muscle and joint pain).

APATHY NOIR (Sweden/UK)

Wonderful cover art on this one, credited to the band’s sole instrumental performer on this release, Viktor Jonas, based on the original artwork “Grappling for the Lost Cable” (ca. 1866) by Robert Charles Dudley. It’s for a single called The Shipbreaker’s Song, with a B-side track named “The Sunken Place“. And yes, our own Andy Synn wrote the lyrics and performed the vocals on these two songs. Continue reading »

A TRIO OF REVIEWS: ADVENT SORROW / IRON FLESH / WARFORGED

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 162019
 

 

I was chatting with DGR recently (yes, we do in fact keep in touch outside of the site) and we both agreed that we’ve now reached that point of the year (and it comes every year) where our list of potential/possible reviews has become so massive and unwieldy that we’re just going to have to cut our losses, accept that some of the stuff we’d dearly love to write about isn’t going to get covered, and focus instead on doing our best for those artists/albums which we do get a chance to write about.

So, in that spirit, here are three new albums, one from an old favourite, one from a current favourite, and one from a potential new favourite, all of whom are well worth checking out if you haven’t done so already. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IRON FLESH — “MALIGNANT KINGDOM”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 082019
 

 

(Andy Synn introduces our premiere of a track off the forthcoming new album by the French quartet Iron Flesh.)

This site’s relationship with French Death Metal fanatics Iron Flesh – originally the solo project of Julien Helwin (ex-Otargos), but soon expanded to a full-powered four-piece – goes back a couple of years now, beginning when we stumbled across their debut EP, Worship the Necrogod, and continuing through our coverage of the band’s follow-up, Scourge of Demonic Incantations, last year.

On a more personal level my own relationship (if you want to call it that) with Julien goes back to when he was filling in on drums for Mithras in 2016, which is when I first met him (and saw how good he was behind the kit), and I’ve been eagerly following his career ever since.

As a result it fell to me to pen a few words about “Malignant Kingdom”, the first track to be released from the band’s upcoming full-length debut, Forged Faith Bleeding, which we’re delighted to be able to premiere for you all today! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HADAL MAW / IRON FLESH / TAKEN BY THE TIDE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 212018
 


Hadal Maw

 

(In this post Andy Synn has assembled three reviews of three new EPs that deliver diverse forms of metal extremity.)

Not much of a preamble today, I’m afraid, apart from affirming that you should really check out these three EPs if you’re after a short, sharp fix of sonic savagery.

‘Nuff said. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GATECREEPER, IRON REAGAN, RITES OF THY DEGRINGOLADE, KNELT ROTE, IRON FLESH, EEVIOMORFIA, HIGH COMMAND, SCORN OF CREATION, MINORS, SCHIERMANN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jan 102018
 

 

There’s a megaton of explosive stuff in this mid-week round-up of recommended new sounds, so I’ll dispense with an introduction and just move right to the music.

GATECREEPER AND IRON REAGAN

Gatecreeper’s debut album Sonoran Depravaton was so damned good, a true highlight of 2016 and the source of a song (“Craving Flesh”) that I put on our list of that year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Their EP from last November, Sweltering Madness, was also damned good, a meshing together of dismal, stomping brutality and maniacal, earth-shaking obliteration. And so when I saw that Gatecreeper had released a new song yesterday I nearly soiled myself in my haste to listen to it. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ENTOMBMENT / IRON FLESH / SEPREVATION

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Sep 042017
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn combines reviews of three recent EPs, with music streams of course.)

Phew, time really flies doesn’t it? I mean, somehow it’s already September and although we still have a huge number of releases to look forward to before the year’s end, I find my mind already turning towards the upcoming Listmania with an equal mix of anticipation and trepidation.

Thankfully that particular furore is still a little way off and, although work is keeping me pretty darn busy at the moment, I should be able to fit in quite a lot of reviews and features before the time comes for our annual wrap-up.

So, without further ado, get ready to wrap your earholes around three short, but succulent morsels of Thrash, Death, and Death-Thrash courtesy of Entombment (USA), Iron Flesh (FR), and Seprevation (UK). Continue reading »