SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BLOOD RED THRONE, PHOBOCOSM, HORNWOOD FELL, LYSERGIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 112025
 

(written by Islander)

For these Saturday roundups I’ve been trying to include a minimum of six picks. I only have four today because I’m leaving the house early with my wife to get breakfast with another couple at a very cool place that’s an hour drive away. Bedtime last night was also unexpectedly late due to a certain excruciating 15-inning baseball playoff game and its delirious aftermath.

Being even more limited today than usual, there was a risk my picks would be even more random than usual, even more like throwing darts at a squirming mass of targets and hoping the few I hurled would impale winners. To mitigate the risk, I picked bands who had won me over repeatedly in the past. As I hope you’ll agree, that turned out to be a good strategy. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LYSERGIC — “OF RAGE AND POWER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 092024
 

Lysergic is a relatively new band, but its members aren’t newcomers. It’s the long-gestating brainchild of Portuguese guitarist João Corceiro, whose experience includes bands like W.A.K.O., Okkultist, Allamedah, and more. In Lysergic he’s joined by other talented and experienced performers whose names we’ll give you below.

The band’s debut album is named Black and Blue, and it’s set for release on January 27, 2025. We’re told that it “was written, recorded and mixed entirely alone by João Corceiro silently over the last decade, and can be considered an autobiography in the form of music and poetry.”

One song from the album, which shares the name of the band, was released with an excellent video a couple of months ago, and today we’re happy to premiere another excellent video for another compelling album track, this one called “Of Rage and Power.” 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 »