SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CONAN, GREY AURA, SEPULCHRAL CURSE, NITE, DEATH OBVIOUS, ABRAXAS HORN (AND MORE)

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 252025
 

(written by Islander)

In the early part of this month, as the old year moved into the new, the volume of new album announcements and new songs subsided. For people like those of us at NCS, things got kind of slow and comfortable.

Well, of course that turned out to be comparable to a “negative storm surge,” a phenomenon in which waves recede before a typhoon strikes, the water being pulled away from the coast by the storm’s low pressure system before the ocean comes rushing back when the typhoon strikes in full force.

Which is what is now happening in the music we pay attention to. Everything is in full force, and I’m drowning in new music. I know it gets repetitive and possibly mind-numbing when I share the count, but I’ve got more than 60 open tabs on my computer, each one linked to a song that came out just this past week which I was curious to check out in planning today’s column, on top of a lot more from last week.

Obviously, I didn’t listen to all of them. Obviously, I wouldn’t have liked all of them if I had. I liked the ones below that I did get to. How did I get to them within that great mass of tabs? I admit I gravitated to bands I’ve liked in the past — though I did take a few shots in the dark that also paid off. And I decided to add some music at the end without commentary (due to vanishing time).

P.S. In the early evening I’m going to an annual party in Seattle across the water from my home. I’m sure that if I make it back home, it won’t be until close to 2 am. I’m also sure I won’t make any effort to wake up before noon on Sunday, and will be woozy when I do. So, don’t expect a SHADES OF BLACK column this weekend (I won’t have enough time to pull it together before leaving home this afternoon). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEPULCHRAL CURSE — “ONWARD THE LEGIONS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 142023
 

Transcending Obscurity Records introduces Abhorrent Dimensions, the forthcoming second album by Finland’s Sepulchral Curse, by drawing a picture of contrasts in the music — an integration of “crushing and domineering” sensations with others that are “intricate and complex” and still others that weave together “various shades of emotion” that create “engrossing tales” within the songs. Nuance, in other words, coherently co-exists with robust power, and in this way the new album represents an advance in the band’s songwriting.

Of course, as intriguing as those descriptions are, we prefer to form our own conclusions, and no doubt you prefer to form your own too. The conclusions based on the disclosure of individual songs become stepping stones toward the final judgments that will arrive after the album’s complete release, which in this case will happen on October 27th.

Today we can all take another step, courtesy of the band’s official video for the song “Onward the Legions“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SEPULCHRAL CURSE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jun 072022
 

 

(We present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Kari Kankaanpää, vocalist of the Finnish death metal band Sepulchral Curse, whose most recent record Deathbed Sessions was jointly released last month by Personal Records, Transylvanian Recordings, and Lycanthropic Chants.)

There are three Finnish bands which are tightly entwined with each other. So guitarist Aleksi Luukka plays in death-doom band Solothus, the doom/black band Yawning Void, and the death metal act Sepulchral Curse. And I can tell you the same about vocalist Kari Kankaanpää who roars in the same three bands. Previously, Yawning Void’s drummer Tommi Ilmanen performed his duties in Sepulchral Curse too, and now his place is occupied by Johannes Rantala, who was noticed in Yawning Void as well.

It looks like a death metal focused Santa Barbara, but things are easier indeed, and though we did interviews with all three bands previously, now it’s Sepulchral Curse’s turn again because they have a new EP and took part in one compilation which we need to discuss too. Kari Kankaanpää is here to tell everything. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SEPULCHRAL CURSE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jun 242020
 

 

(On July 31st Transcending Obscurity Records will release the debut album by the Finnish band Sepulchral Curse, and thus it seemed a good time for Comrade Aleks to get in touch with the band, and this discussion followed.)

NCS’ constant readers may remember the Finnish bands Solothus and Yawning Void. We spoke (here and here) with members of these extreme doom acts some time ago. I wasn’t surprised when I found Turku-based death metal band Sepulchral Curse with three members from Solothus / Yawning Void in its lineup. As both mentioned interviews were equally cool, and the preview of Sepulchral Curse’s debut Only Ashes Remain sounds promising, it was natural to get in contact with them. And this chat with two Ragnarock heralds Jaakko Riihimäki (guitars) and Tommi Ilmanen (drums, vocals) won’t disappoint fans of the good old death metal concept behind it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEPULCHRAL CURSE — “CHURCH OF LOSS”

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Jun 082020
 

 

Four years ago we premiered a song from At the Onset of Extinction, the eye-opening second EP of the inventive Finnish death metal band Sepulchral Curse (which includes members of Solothus and Yawning Void). We must not have screwed that up too badly because we’ve been invited again to host a Sepulchral Curse song premiere, this time from their debut album Only Ashes Remain, which is set for a July 31 release by Transcending Obscurity Records.

This is an album we’ve been eagerly awaiting, given the striking impression created by that previous EP, which was the band’s second release. If you’ve had your eyes and ears open, you’ve already discovered some of the fascinations in this band’s unusual amalgamation of stylistic ingredients, through track premieres at Decibel and T.O.‘s YouTube channel. And the one we’re presenting today, “Church of Loss“, is no less viscerally electrifying, mentally engrossing, and emotionally powerful. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEPULCHRAL CURSE — “ENVISIONED IN SCARS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 262016
 

sepulchral-curse-at-the-onset-of-extinction

In the spring of this year we premiered the latest album by the Finnish band Solothus (No King Reigns Eternal), along with a review that praised the album as “an artful combination of staggering heaviness, neck-snapping aggression, and cold, alabaster beauty,” one that “generates an atmosphere of emotional collapse and physical decay, but… gets the blood pumping, too.” Little did we know then that Solothus vocalist Kari Kankaanpää was also in the ranks of Sepulchral Curse, whose debut EP A Birth In Death appeared two years ago. And now we also know that Sepulchral Curse have recorded a new EP that will be released in December, the name of which is At the Onset of Extinction.

The first track on the new EP is “Envisioned In Scars“, and we have the premiere of that song for you today. It’s as powerfully appealing as the latest Solothus album, though it diverges significantly — and dynamically — in its musical strategies, culminating in a very interesting display of black/death metal. Continue reading »