Dec 042023
 

(Andy Synn, our resident Krallice curator, offers his thoughts on the band’s new album)

Is there anything less surprising than a surprise Krallice release any more?

Not that it’s a bad thing by any means. Honestly, I love that the group continue to do things their own way and work to their own timescales, rather than trying to live up to any outside expectations or bow to external pressures.

But if you ask any group of metalheads (well, those of a more “underground” disposition, at least) the question “what band just dropped a brand-new album out of the blue?” I bet 9 out of 10 of them would immediately say Krallice without hesitation.

On their new album, however – their second of 2023 – the band have an even bigger surprise up their collective sleeve… a direct sequel, both stylistically and spiritually, to 2020’s Mass Cathexis.

Continue reading »

May 072023
 

To lay my cards on the table: I slept 4 hours longer than usual last night and then spent more than an hour moving in a dense mental fog. I guess my body and/or mind needed all that extra sleep, gluttonously so. A couple of large Manhattans over dinner Saturday night might have had something to do with it.

So here I am, with noon rapidly approaching and some paying work still ahead of me, so I’ll have to make the number of selections in this column shorter than usual, despite the vast abundance of new blackened metal sitting in front of me.

KRALLICE (U.S.)

Like many other people I have a compulsion to quickly check out anything new from Krallice, and not just because the members are so talented but also because they don’t do the same thing twice in a row. I didn’t have time to pounce upon their new album Porous Resonance Abyss on Friday when it was released. Although there might have been some kind of advance notice, it came as a surprise to me. Even today, I’ve only made one trip through it, and it’s not a quick trip. Continue reading »

Jun 212022
 

(Andy Synn continues his on again, off again, love affair with Krallice with their new album, Psychagogue)

I like Krallice, I really do.

But that doesn’t mean I like every single thing they put out… or, at least, it doesn’t mean I like everything they put out to the same level.

And that’s ok. Because being a fan of a band doesn’t mean you have to like absolutely everything they do, especially when the band in question are so disgustingly prolific, and cover so much musical ground, that simply trying to keep up with them is enough of a task in itself.

So when I say that I like the band’s new album, Psychagogue, you should know that I really like it… in fact, it may just be my favourite thing they’ve released since 2016’s Prelapsarian.

Continue reading »

Feb 062022
 

 

This morning I gazed with bleary eyes at the choices I’d made for this column: 1 new video; 8 individual advance tracks; 4 new albums; 3 new EPs; and 1 new split. I had discovered and listened to all of them just since this time last week. The idea of actually writing about all of them was of course absurd, and even more absurd because I slept much later than usual this morning. What to do?

Well, I cut the group of individual songs (and one video) down to 6, which is what you’re now about to experience. As for the albums and EPs, I’ll have to cut those down into something more manageable for Part 2 of today’s column, though at the moment I haven’t yet figured out how to do that. Stay tuned….

KRALLICE (U.S.)

I’ve already said my piece about the tremendous new Krallice album Crystalline Exhaustion. Don’t let another day go by without listening to it if you haven’t already. Be sure to watch this next video too. It shows this uber-talented quartet live-recording the instrumental performances for the song “Archlights“. I found it astonishing. It’s as if we are witnessing a hive mind at work. Continue reading »

Jan 312022
 

You may have seen that I prepared a long installment of our Most Infectious Song list yesterday. That effort cut into the time available for me to finish the column you’re now embarking upon, especially because I had to leave the house by mid-morning to keep another commitment. So, I’m a day late with this.

What you’ll find here is a recently released complete album, a new video from a previously released EP, a new advance track, a new split, and an album released almost two months ago that I just discovered. There’s more death metal in the mix than usual for this column, but it would be fair to call those entries blackened death metal.

Continue reading »

Jan 202022
 

 

Here are a half dozen new tracks and videos from forthcoming records that caught my attention over the last 24 hours, and are worth your attention. I think you’ll find that altogether they make for an interconnected playlist that flows well.

KRALLICE (U.S.)

If there is now any kind of reliable forecast for new music from Krallice, it is to expect the unexpected. It seems evident that the many creative forces within the band are simply uninterested in plowing the same furrow twice, and instead they give free rein to what interests them and how they’re feeling at the moment. Like all good mavericks, the impulse to shake things up also seems to be alive and well. Continue reading »

Dec 132021
 

 

I guess you noticed that we didn’t post anything new at the site on Saturday or Sunday. In 12+ years of our existence that has happened only a couple of other times. I went to holiday events on Friday and Saturday nights, got trashed at both of them, and spent the days after in a state of crippling mental and physical disability. So that’s the explanation in a nutshell.

There’s obviously a lot of catching up to do in the race for staying on top of new songs and videos, which explains why I’ve resorted to this OVERFLOWING STREAMS format. I made a conscious effort to include a fair share of black metal since I failed to post a SHADES OF BLACK column yesterday. Speaking of which, if you haven’t noticed I’ll mention the good news that a new Funeral Mist album is set for release on December 17th HERE (it appears that it will be released in its entirety that day, without any advance song streams).

IMMOLATION (U.S.)

I thought about alphabetizing this collection, as I usually do, but I have to begin with Immolation. Last week one of the best death metal bands of all time divulged a video for the first single from a new album, and it’s a breathtaker — explosive, blazing, bludgeoning, exotic, and crazed. Here’s a band who seem immune to the deleterious effects of aging. Continue reading »

Mar 062021
 

 

As forecast last weekend, I’m not able to write my usual NCS weekend posts today or tomorrow. The project for my fucking day job has indeed been consuming me. I haven’t listened to any new metal over the last 4 or 5 days other than what I had agreed to premiere. I didn’t even have time to pay close attention to our in-box or use my other typical ways of ferreting out new music so as to add to my list of what to check out later.

However, a few things did jump out at me yesterday — a surprise new album by Krallice (they do love surprising people), a new 20-minute song off the new Majestic Downfall album, and a video for a new track by Grave Miasma from their next album. I would listen to and watch all of that today if I had time, which I don’t. But because I detest letting a day go by without having new music up on the site, I’m installing the streams of these three things below, even though I haven’t checked them out myself. But it’s a good bet they will be worth your time.

By the way, even though I can’t do more than this today, it would be great if you used the Comments to flag any other new music that would be good uses of listening time. And of course, feel free to let us know what you think about the following streams if you get a chance to hear them. Continue reading »

Aug 132020
 


Krallice

 

(Andy Synn wrote the following compilation of reviews.)

It seems to me that, over the years, the constant cascade of new albums has swollen into a never-ending, unrelenting, flood, to the point where it often feels like we’re almost drowning in new releases.

The only way to cope, I’ve found, is to simply accept that you’re not going to be able to cover everything. There’s just not enough hours in the day to properly preview, review, analyse, and criticise, all of it, especially if you also want to try and maintain some general standards of quality and insight (which, let’s be honest, isn’t necessarily a concern for everyone…).

That being said, a bit of catch-up coverage never goes amiss, which is why I’m dedicating today’s article to four artists who each dropped their newest record – in one case with little prior warning – last Friday. Continue reading »

Aug 072020
 

 

As I suppose most metal lovers are well aware, today is another Friday when Bandcamp is foregoing its share of revenues from sales at their site (they’ve announced that they will continue to do this on the first Friday of each month from now through the end of this year). If I had forgotten, I would have been reminded by the explosion of Bandcamp alerts and messages in our in-box this morning.

In the past I’ve tried to assemble a slew of recommendations timed to coincide with Bandcamp Fridays, as a way of encouraging support for bands and labels. Unfortunately, upheavals at my fucking day job have prevented me from doing that for today — though of course we’ve been recommending music day in and day out for, well, almost forever. So there’s that. Just browsing through our posts over recent weeks and months would give you lots of good options.

But I thought I would at least quickly throw these three new options your way now. Continue reading »