(We present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Nicolas Miquelon from the Canadian band Norilsk, whose new album Antipole is out now on Hypnotic Dirge Records, accompanied by photos credited to Nick Richer.)

Canadian Norilsk was deliberately named by the band’s ideologist Nicolas Miquelon in honor of the most densely populated city beyond the Arctic Circle. Nicolas, who is familiar with Russian culture firsthand, wanted the name to reflect the harshness of the North. Norilsk initially embodied this idea in death-doom, but over time they enriched the musical landscape with elements of sludge and post-metal.

Let’s take the title track of their new album Antipole: it seems to obtain the spirit of ’90s death-doom, but Norilsk go beyond it, avoiding to step too far into well-known post-metal territory at the same time. “Antipole” is atmospheric doom metal, but there is something strange, atypical, and at the same time naturally revealing the essence of the genre. In “D’ombre et de glace (l’asphyxie)” Norilsk progress further: there is a lot of growling, a lot of thematic transitions.

But “Locus Sanctus” shows that this is not the limit: the rolling riffs are preceded by a dark acoustic intro with clean declamation, and Nicolas continues the story further, replacing the whisper with a growl. Solemn, upset riff cycles alternate with solo guitar interludes and acoustic themes, until a melody of a cosmic scale bursts into the narrative. The aggressive contrast of “Nunataks” seems unusual for Norilsk, but the name comes to the rescue here. “Nunatak” is a rocky peak surrounded by ice in the language of the Inuit, and the stubborn, rebellious melody justifies the name. It helps to get through the death-doom hummocks and the pumping mid-tempo post-doom hit “La fonte”; Norilsk know how to surprise.

Everything ends, however, with the dirge “Un chant pour les morts”, nothing can be done about it – “a song for the dead”. Not everything is clear about the album, and as a good tradition – I offer you this interview with Nicolas Miquelon, another good chat about good music. Continue reading »

photo by Nick Richer

(Here we have Comrade Aleks‘ new interview of Nicolas Miquelon from the Québec band Norilsk, who released a new EP this past spring to tide us over ’til the next album.)

NCS’ constant followers should remember Norilsk. It’s a Canadian death-doom band who integrated elements of post metal into their music, and we interviewed Nicolas Miquelon (all instruments, vocals) a few years ago. But in case you forgot that, let me remind you of some facts about Norilsk.

The band is named after the world’s northernmost city and the second-largest city (after Murmansk) inside the Arctic Circle. Norilsk and Yakutsk are also the only large cities in the continuous permafrost zone. So you see the reason why Nicolas and his band-mate Nick Richer (drums) entitled their first album The Idea of North (2015). Then Hypnotic Dirge Records released the albums Le passage des glaciers (2017) and Weepers of the Land (2018). And then… then there was silence.

The Beyond the Mountains EP is the first band’s recording in four years, and that’s quite a long break for such an active act. These two tracks bring the hope that Norilsk are going to get rid of their relatively new passion toward post-metal, as here we have good old death-doom as it was in ’90s. What else could we expect if one of the songs is an Officium Triste cover? So just one really new song after four years? Well, not. This interview was intended for Dark City magazine, but here it is. A chance to dig deeper into the idea of North again. Continue reading »