AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOMBRE HÉRITAGE — “ALPHA URSAE MINORIS”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 192020
 

 

This road to this album premiere began in much the same way as yesterday’s premiere of the superb new album by Serment. In mid-May we posted an article by our friend Speelie that focused on Métal Noir Québécois. Along with Serment, it included the news that Sepulchral Productions would also be releasing, on the same day, the debut of Québec project Sombre Héritage, the title of which is Alpha Ursae Minoris.

With our interest having been piqued by that news, we paid close attention to the first track that Sepulchral Productions revealed from the album, a song that shares the band’s name — and it proved to be damned exciting, prompting the inclusion of the song in one of our Shades of Black features. And now we have the chance to bring you a stream of the entire record in advance of its June 24 release date. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): ENSLAVED, SOMBRE HÉRITAGE, KALL, UBUREN, XIFICURK

 SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
May 242020
 

 

At the risk of overwhelming our visitors (a constant risk around here), I have again found so many new songs I’d like to recommend that I thought it best to divide today’s column into two parts, and will do my best not to become too verbose so that I have time to finish Part 2 in time to post it today — because Monday is going to be loaded with new things too.

ENSLAVED

I haven’t tried to find out how Enslaved’s new single is being received among fans and the metal press. I, for one, think it’s fantastic, and would rather not spoil the feeling by coming across some grim cur who’s sour about it. Not because I actually think anyone is entitled to be sour about it, but metalheads being metalheads, it’s inevitable. Continue reading »

MÉTAL NOIR QUÉBÉCOIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 122020
 

 

(At the end of February we published a guest edition of our SHADES OF BLACK column [here] which began as an e-mailed group of recommendations by our valued supporter Speelie. It included music from the Québec black metal scene. Just a few days ago Speelie e-mailed additional recommendations that focused entirely on black metal from Québec, and with our encouragement he turned that into the following post.)

The Métal Noir Québécois guys sure like to keep busy. NCS has posted plenty of news and links about the Quebec scene, including some from me previously. But Quebec continues to take a leading place among the flood of 2020 Black Metal releases.

Forteresse were always the standard bearers for the Métal Noir Québécois movement, but I suspect the band is on hold for the moment. The guys are all involved in other projects right now, and these are starting to see the light. There seems to be an unwritten rule that the cooler the old, colonial-era painting that a Quebec band can find, the better the album it is used for. Guitarist Moribond has a new solo project called Serment, with this amazing cover art: Continue reading »