SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): THUMOS, OWL

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 272021
 

 

This is a rare weekday at NCS. For the first time in maybe years, we have no premiere on our schedule. And none of my comrades has sent in a review or interview. And despite knowing that our calendar would be a big blank space today, I didn’t get my ass in gear to do anything in advance either.

So here I am, having wandered around exploring new music for a couple hours this morning but having written nothing. To avoid further delay in pitching something up onto the site, I decided to make a brief start with two new songs that seemed to fit together well (fans of doom will be attracted to them). As the day wears on, I’ll add one or two more Parts to this round-up as time permits.

THUMOS

Thumos is a mystery. Metal-Archives identifies the location as the United States, but the members are anonymous. On the other hand, it seems that Thumos is some kind of successor to a project named Mono No Aware, and M-A identifies that project as the creation of a Spaniard. So there, I’ve saved you a little time trying to ferret out background info about Thumos. With that, let’s consider “Epithumetikon“, the first song revealed from a Thumos album named The End of Words. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OWL AND 0N0

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 232019
 

 

It is our privilege and pleasure today to present, on the day of its release, a full stream of a new split recording by two bands we’ve been avidly following for years — the German duo Owl and the Slovakian trio 0N0. The split includes five songs by Owl and two by 0N0. Through each band’s Bandcamp page it’s now available as a digital download and as a cassette tape, limited to 111 copies, with eerie and immersive cover art by T.

As always, we’re sharing our own reactions to the music, as well as a few insights into the inspiration for all these songs, and some background about the bands for those who might not be familiar with them. But of course, if you want to just be completely surprised, skip down to the very bottom of this article and start listening now. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: OWL (CHRISTIAN KOLF)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 122019
 

 

(Comrade Aleks is back! And he brings with him this interview of Christian Kolf from the German band Owl, whose most recent album, Nights In Distortion, was released last fall by Temple of Torturous.)

Owl is the Bonn-based project of Christian Kolf (vocals, guitars, synth) who created it together with Patrick Schroeder (drums, percussion) in 2010 in order to explore death-doom territory that he hadn’t crossed yet in his progressive death-doom band Valborg. Christian is pretty prolific. He also played atmospheric progressive sludge in Woburn House, some prog metal in Island, not not long ago he joined the black metal crew Absolutum, and he gained some experience in a few other acts as well.

Owl’s a strange creature, more so that owls seem to be. Their first two full-lengths, Owl (2011) and You Are The Moon, I Am The Night (2013), were experiments in the field of pretty proggy death-doom metal with quite complex and aggressive compositions, and the following EPs — Into The Absolute (2014), The Last Walk (2014), Aeon Cult (2015), and Orion Fenix (2018), show Owl’s development in another direction. The latest result of the band’s inner changes is the Night In Distortion album (Temple Of Torturous, 2018). It’s tagged as ambient doom metal, and this description is partly close to the matter.

I was impressed by this material and got in touch with Christian to ask him a few questions about Owl’s past, present, and future. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): OWL — “INTO THE ABSOLUTE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Mar 272014
 

I discovered Germany’s Owl and their 2013 album You Are the Moon, I Am the Night through a guest post on our site last summer by KevinP. That was Owl’s second album, and I was hugely impressed by it. Now, this two-man band have completed a four-song EP entitled Into the Absolute, and I’m hugely impressed by it as well — so much so that we obtained the privilege of premiering its title track for you.

Owl’s Christian Kolf says that if that last album was drenched in the atmosphere of night, the new EP is “set right before dawn, when the first light appears,” with “a feeling of a new awakening”.  There are in fact moments of beauty in the music, most strikingly in the latter part of the long, stately closing track, “Unearthly Arcana”, but when these moments come, the atmosphere is one of deep melancholy. And if the EP as a whole stands on the brink of dawn, it is nevertheless still very much wrapped in the mantle of night. Continue reading »

STUFF I HAD TO FIND ON MY OWN ‘CAUSE ISLANDER & HIS CRONIES MISSED IT – 2ND EDITION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 062013
 

(I guess it’s obvious that neither I nor my NCS cronies wrote this.  Just like the first installment back in January, NCS guest contributor KevinP did this.)

IGORRR – Hallelujah

I was gonna save the best for last, but I was too excited and figured we’d start off with a huge mindfuck.  This is also my new favorite thing of all time (for this week anyways).  I’m even willing to give partial credit to our CEO for posting the Apathia Records Comp recently, which featured ÖXXÖ XÖÖX.  IGORR is the main solo project of Gautier Serre (of ÖXXÖ XÖÖX fame).  While listening to the prior band, I stumbled across this gem.

I’m not going to spoil it for ya, just listen and keep listening, it has a little bit of everything (even chicken clucks).  The French have officially cornered the market on weird shit.  “Vegetable Soup” makes me feel like I’m walking around EPCOT (yeah Walt Disney World), then a techno opera, a farm, a techno farm dance club, whatever.  (It also has plenty of metal parts, don’t be scared.)

http://adnoiseam.bandcamp.com/album/hallelujah
http://adnoiseam.bandcamp.com/album/nostril
https://www.facebook.com/IgorrrBarrroque Continue reading »