SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PHASE MERIDIAN, COGNIZANCE, PIG’S BLOOD, NUNSLAUGHTER, SWÆRMMM, FRACTURED INSANITY, NIXIL, GODLESS ANGEL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 282026
 

(written by Islander)

I did a better job than usual this past week going through NCS e-mails every day, compiling a list of what I thought might be worth checking out, and digging through that list with sharp ears. I still had to leave a lot behind, but made a voluminous 8 picks for this Saturday’s column.

And then… I went out last night to party without writing anything, and woke up very late today. I thought about cutting my planned column in half so I could get it finished before sundown, but then decided, fuck that, I’ll keep everything but cut way back on the verbiage — to the likely consternation of music scholars who will be studying my writings for decades into the future (yeah, that wasn’t serious).

If my plan for the day works out, these 8 choices (many of them with good videos) will leave you with whiplash and a scrambled brain if you manage to make it through all of them. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIXIL — “MAY THIS FLAME FLICKER OUT”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 182021
 


photo by Shane K. Gardner

 

The Maryland band Nixil have embraced, and luxuriated in, an alchemical approach to black metal on their debut album All Knots Untied. Formed by past or current members of Spectral Tombs, Tsepesch, Dagger Moon, and Corpse Light, this foursome reveal a spectrum of stylistic influences that (as the advance press correctly reports) might remind listeners “of the weirder side of Mayhem, the atmospheric expansiveness of French avant garde black metal a la Blut Aus Nord or Glorior Belli, and the moody, gothic depression of Bethlehem“.

Envisioned as “a manifestation of chaos, rage, strength, and despair” in the midst of “a toxic and crumbling world”, the album is a serious-minded but adventurous channeling of such sensations, though it’s not without infiltrations of the occult and the psychedelic as well.

We have a fine example of Nixil’s multi-faceted approach to the black arts in the song we’re presenting today, “May This Flame Flicker Out“, via a beautifully made video. Continue reading »