AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MELAN SELAS — “DREADFUL DOME”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 052023
 

We know from the first three records released by Melan Selas (Melan Selas, Ῥέοn, and ΦΑΟΣ) that this black metal band is capable of quite significant variations and contrasts in their music, but what perhaps tends to stay most firmly rooted in memory are the songs where the band let the adrenaline throttle all the way out and fly toward elevated heights.

There is where they most powerfully reveal themselves as part of the modern vanguard carrying forward many of the old traditions of unmistakably Hellenic black metal, with its embrace of classic heavy metal riffing, epic keyboards, and an atmosphere that’s just as magnificent as it is fierce and ripping.

As it happens, that’s the kind of Melan Selas song we have for you today, a heart-palpitating and highly infectious track named “Dreadful Dome” off the band’s new album Zephyrean Hymns, and it’s presented through a lyric video. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MELAN SELAS, IMPERIUM DEKADENZ, BELENOS, NORDKVÄDE, MAZE OF TERROR

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Aug 252019
 

 

Yesterday some of you saw a skeletal version of this post because I hit “Publish” instead of “Save” and didn’t realize what I’d done until Andy Synn pointed it out hours later. By the time of my bone-headed goof I had picked the songs I wanted to write about and had uploaded artwork, added the usual links, put in the html codes for the music streams, and copy-pasted info about the releases from press releases, Bandcamp pages, or YouTube streams — but hadn’t actually written anything of my own about the music.

That’s the same process I follow every time I prepare one of these collections. Usually I don’t stop there, but I’m still on vacation and had some carousing to do, so I deferred the writing. Actually, I had already begun the carousing, which is most likely why I hit “Publish” instead of “Save”.

Anyway, hope you like the music I picked for today’s SOB. I’ve made selections for a second installment of the column, but don’t know if I’ll get that finished before the carousing begins again. Continue reading »