Jun 102024
 

(Andy Synn finds that the new album from Oubliette, out now, is far from torturous)

There are a lot of bands out there that I happen to think are over-hyped and overrated.

But this isn’t about them.

This is about a band who’ve yet to receive anywhere near the attention and acclaim for their music – a stunning blend of scorching intensity, soaring melody, and scintillating technicality which bridges the gap between Panopticon and Insomnium while still adding its own distinctive flair and flavour – which they so richly deserve.

And, I’ll cop to it, some of that is our fault, as although we’ve featured the band here a few times over the years, this is the first time any of us has actually managed to find time to sit down and give them a full write-up.

So let’s make it count, shall we?

Continue reading »

Mar 202024
 

It has been a very busy week for the release of new songs and videos, and the week is only half-way through. Some of my fellow NCS slaves have tossed a lot of them my way, and I’ve ferreted out others.

Even though I’ve included quite a lot of them in this roundup, more are still running around the prairies waiting to be corralled. I hope I can lasso a few more before the weekend, assuming my lathered-up pony doesn’t hit a gopher hole and pitch me over its head into a hard landing.

DÅÅTH (U.S.)

This site sprang to life in November 2009. Just a couple months later we published our first annual list of “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs“, and Dååth‘s “Wilting on the Vine” was one of the 10 we selected. That’s how long ago we started following this Atlanta-based band, though they had been releasing music for six years before that. But after one more album in 2010, the band fell silent for what turned out to be a very long time. Continue reading »

May 222018
 

 

Not for the first time, I’m grateful we have Metal-Archives, because it provides evidence that this Tennessee band is the only active one on the planet with the name Oubliette. And why is that worth noting? Because Oubliette is one of the most metal band names I can think of.

It’s an old word, a French one, its earliest recorded use dating back to 1374. Although another old French word — donjon — seems to have been the source for the English word dungeon, the oubliette was the true dungeon, at least as that latter word has come to be understood. The donjon was instead a castle tower, or “keep”. The oubliette was the dark, claustrophobic hole underground, often accessed only by a trapdoor or hatchway from the room above, where doomed wretches were imprisoned or tortured, some of those cells so small that lying down or even turning around was impossible. In time, as we are told, oubliettes became symbols of hidden cruelty and tyrannical power. Continue reading »

Nov 022015
 

Ara Kra-self titled

 

There’s a ton of new music in this round-up that I really like, most of which I discovered over the weekend. I thought about dividing up this post and leaving some of the songs until tomorrow, especially since we’ve delivered so much other music to you on this Monday. But I’ve learned the hard way that when I defer something I want to do, sometimes it doesn’t happen at all. So I’m including music from eight bands in this post, and to make it somewhat less daunting I’ve tried to minimize my own linguistic spewing.

I’m presenting the music in alphabetical order by band name. I do hope you’ll find time at least to sample everything.

ÄRA KRÂ

I’m cheating on this first song — because I’ve already written about it, back in May to be precise. But this talented band have just established a Bandcamp page for the self-titled EP on which it will appear, and that gives me an excuse to repeat what I said before (and yes, I’m already going back on what I promised about minimizing linguistic sewage): Continue reading »

Jul 112014
 

I’ve been distracted over the last couple of days and haven’t kept up as well as I’d like with the appearance of new songs and videos. I have a long list, and with luck I’ll have a big Saturday catch-up post to share more of what I’ve found. For today, I want to throw you some recommended music from two bands who together have been dismantling my sanity quite effectively.

OUBLIETTE

Oubliette are a Tennessee-based melodic black metal band whose members include guitarist Mike Low of Inferi — whose latest album DGR reviewed here — and his wife Emily Low (vocals), plus bassist Vincent Jones (Æther Realm) and drummer Doug Mesich. Apart from the fact that I’m a fan of Inferi and Æther Realm, I was attracted to Oubliette after I had the chance to hear an unmastered version of a song named “Creatures of the Endless Slumber”. Yesterday the band released their debut album on Bandcamp, where the final version of that song and 7 others are now available for streaming and download.

I’m still really high on “Creatures of the Endless Slumber”, and although I’ve only started making my way through the rest of the album, it’s sounding really good, too. “Creatures” beautifully integrates sensations of the ethereal and the physically savage. The effectiveness of this combination is due in no small part to Emily Low’s remarkably versatile vocal talents, which range from ghostly clean song to bestial snarls, as well as to the juxtaposition of soft acoustic melodies with storming riff and blast assaults. Continue reading »