SHADES OF BLACK: MORTEM, SOL SISTERE, EXITIUM SUI, DENEVÉR, RIVERS ABLAZE, MIND AFFLICTION, LECHUZA

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 052026
 

(written by Islander)

As you can see, despite yesterday being the Fourth of July, I carved out enough time to find music worth recommending today. I had made some of today’s selections before yesterday but completed the grouping while people were getting ready to make a lot of loud noises last night — or so I thought, because I made one last-minute addition this morning.

As usual, there’s considerable variance among the following songs, because I really do believe (as a long-dead poet said) that variety is the spice of life, and because black metal these days offers tremendous variety. Having said that, the first five selections and the final one all prominently feature keyboards in important roles, though they don’t sound alike either. There are some genuine head-twisters down below as well. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 062023
 

(Andy Synn presents four more artists/albums from last month which you may not have heard)

Would you look at that… it’s somehow November already. Which means, in a little over a month, I’ll be taking over NCS for a full week and publishing my lengthy round-up of all the Great, Good, and Disappointing releases of the year – the ones I’ve heard and feel at least semi-qualified to give an opinion of – culminating in my usual Critical and Personal top ten lists.

As always, it’s impossible for me to listen to, or cover, everything that’s released over the course of a year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and squeeze in as many reviews and recommendations as I can before then.

Making the decision of who/what to include, however, seems to be getting harder and harder – albums which almost made the cut this month include END‘s absolutely devastating The Sin of Human Frailty, the stellar debut album from Voidescent, and the predictably excellent new record from Slidhr – but I’m confident that the four selections I’ve made, two of which were “surprise” released without any warning or fanfare, will be well worth your time (and mine).

Continue reading »