SEEN AND HEARD: EXTOL, AETHERIAN, ARONIOUS, NIDARE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 162026
 

(written by Islander)

On almost all weekdays for many years I have committed to make either two track premieres or an EP premiere or an album premiere. Sometimes there is a day off because of some late-stage mishap (never my own, of course), as there was on Tuesday of this week, and sometimes we either receive only one invitation for a track premiere or only one that we’re happy to accept (believe it or not, I do turn down invitations when I can’t enthusiastically recommend a song).

Today was one of those rare days when I only calendared a single song premiere. And so, as on Tuesday, I had a bit of time to use for catching up with new songs and picking a few to recommend in another rare weekday roundup. Barring some kind of unexpected interference I will have more to recommend, as usual, on Saturday and Sunday. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NIDARE, COLLIER D’OMBRE, GRIFT, ATGEIR, VOIDMÏLKER

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 232023
 


Nidare

Why would any sane person wake up at 4:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, which is what I did today? Was it too hot to sleep in our un-air-conditioned bedroom? Not at all — it was a delicious 55°F (12.7°C) outside (eat your hearts out all you hell-dwellers in the rest of the sun-broiled world). It may have been that I limited my Saturday-night intoxicants to one ice-cold martini. Possibly I was subconsciously anxious because I had made no start on the writing of this column yesterday.

I don’t recommend this kind of behavior. I see no evidence that the early bird gets the worm. Instead, it turns the brain wormy… or at least very foggy. I went in search of music to function as a pesticide (the more forever chemicals, the better) and a bitter wind to blow away the fog. Here’s what I found:

NIDARE (Germany)

Late last year we premiered a song from Von Wegen, the then-forthcoming debut album by this German post-black metal band, and it pulled me headlong all the way into that album. It’s a very good thing, then, that we haven’t had to wait long for a follow-up, which hit the streets on July 12th in the form of a stunning EP named Naehe und Flackern (via Through Love Records). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NIDARE — “WINDSPIEL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 062022
 

What we have for you today is the premiere of a song whose soul-stirring and soul-stricken passions are unmistakable — music of both torment and tragic beauty, rendered in a way that’s unsettling but in equal measure completely immersive and enthralling.

The name of the song is “Windspiel” (“wind chime”), and as the name signifies, the music rings, and continues ringing in the mind even after it ends. For that, we have Nidare to thank, a Berlin-based black metal band whose members came together from post metal, screamo, and hardcore outlets such as Ancst, Henry Fonda, Ast, Chambers, Afterlife Kids, rýr, and Youth Cult, and who took their name from the old German word “nidar”, which means “below”. Continue reading »