SEEN AND HEARD: RADIANT KNIFE, NIHILO, ANCESTROS, GNULL, SUNDOWNER, GHÂSIQIN

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 132026
 

(written by Islander)

We’ve had a couple of reviews today that are well worth reading — DGR’s take on Behemoth’s new compilation and Andy Synn’s writing about the fantastic new album from Great Falls. I was supposed to prepare the premiere of a full album stream for today as well, but that fell through because the band jumped the gun without warning to the label or me. So, I decided to use the unexpected free time to pull together this roundup.

As you may know, I didn’t write the usual weekend columns last weekend due to being on a short vacation in Eastern Washington with my spouse and some good friends. Fortunately, Andy filled the void with two review collections on Saturday and Sunday (here and here, in case you missed them).

Because I didn’t plan to do anything myself, I have a ton of possible roundup selections that had accumulated before last weekend, and even more now. With not enough time to attempt any kind of comprehensive survey, I resorted to impulse in making the choices. Fortunately, impulse control isn’t one of my strong suits. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 282023
 

(Andy Synn delivers one final retrospective on albums from 2023 you may have overlooked)

Hey everyone, I’m back, feeling fully refreshed and ready to rumble after my week (and a bit) hiatus.

Before I get fully stuck into 2024’s upcoming slate of releases I’ve got two more pieces for 2023 for you all to enjoy – namely my last Synn Report of the year (coming on Friday) and this extra-big edition of “Things You May Have Missed”.

Now unlike previous editions, this one won’t just be focussing on albums from the last month (though there’s seven – I think – albums from December featured here) but will also take a look back at certain albums from the past year that I either didn’t get the chance to cover at the time, didn’t discover until much later, or just wanted to highlight one more time for people to check out.

Of course, even so there’s more artists and albums I wanted to include than I had space or time for – so I’d urge you, if you have any extra time, to check out the new Moonreich (which almost made my “Personal Top Ten“, Rosa Faenskap (which did) and Witch Ripper (which I know was on my “Critical Top Ten“, but still seems to have flown under a few radars) – but first, feel free to go through everything I’ve featured here (which I’ve broken up into separate sub-categories) and check out a few things you may have missed!

Continue reading »

GONZO’S END-OF-SUMMER MEGA-ROUNDUP

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Sep 012023
 


Radiant Knife

(NCS contributor Gonzo rejoins us with a selection of seven albums he’s been greatly enjoying over the summer that’s now drawing to a close.)

Summer has a habit of hitting me harder and faster than an Archspire blast beat, so with that in mind, I’ve developed a tradition of compiling my usual monthly columns into one bigger-than-usual compendium at the end of August.

There was plenty to sift through over the past three months – along with some other shit that was released before then that somehow flew under my radar. Let’s dig in.

Continue reading »

AN A-Z OF EVERYTHING WE’VE MISSED

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Oct 302018
 

 

(Despite what the title of this post says, Andy Synn hasn’t managed to review every fine 2018 album and EP we’ve heretofore failed to write about, but he does catch up with more than two dozen of them.)

While lots of blogs/zines are already (or soon will be) switching their focus away from covering new releases and towards consolidating their annual “Best Of…” lists, here on NCS island we’re still doing our very best to bring as many new (and some not so new) albums/artists to your attention as possible.

Of course the truism that “there’s simply too much music out there” remains as painfully accurate as ever, and it pains me to admit that I/we simply can’t cover all the releases we want to, in the depth we want to, no matter how hard we try.

So consider this article a voluntary mea culpa acknowledging our limitations and a (probably futile) attempt to make amends a little bit to all the bands and artists who we may have missed or ignored over the last several months, as well as to shine a light on a couple of upcoming releases you’ll probably want to keep your eyes/ears open for. Continue reading »