SEEN AND HEARD: KAMPFAR, ADVENT SORROW, THEATRE NOCTURNE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 222013
 

For reasons I won’t bore you with, over the last 24 hours I haven’t been able to devote my usual efforts to scouring the world of metal for new sightings and hearings. However, with a little help via links from friends, I did compile the following brief round-up of items that are very much worth mentioning.

KAMPFAR

The first item is at the top of this post. It’s the cover, released today, for the next album by Kampfar — Djevelmakt, which appears to mean “devilpower” in Norwegian. This is noteworthy for two reasons: First, because Kampfar chose a painting by the masterful Zdzisław Beksiński for the cover art. And second, because Kampfar is an excellent band, and whatever they do next will be worth hearing.  Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THEATRE NOCTURNE – “NEPENTHE AND LAVENDER”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jul 172013
 

When we got the chance to premiere the new music video from Buffalo, New York’s Theatre Nocturne, we jumped on it. Not only is “Nepenthe and Lavender” a killer song, the video itself is also riveting to watch.

As for the music, it’s flat-out explosive — a jet-fueled rampage of blackened death metal that’s a sure-fire headbang trigger. It lets all of the band’s talented performers strut their stuff, and they’ve definitely got the right stuff: razor-edged riffing and fiery soloing, gut-rumbling bass, munitions-grade drumwork, and feral howls. And you gotta love the spine-jarring bass lead that takes center stage in the song’s mid-section.

But there’s more to the music than a pleasing amount of technical flash and a healthy dose of ravenous brutality. “Nepenthe and Lavender” is also a dynamic, well-written song with a catchy melody, the sort of thing that pulls you back for repeat listens. And the production quality is excellent.

As for the video — filmed and produced by Doug White of Watchmen Recording Studios — it layers a montage of images of the dead over well-filmed, well-edited video of the band thrashing in a fire-lit space. The photos are from another era, solemn portraits of loss, the living and the dead side-by-side. Since “nepenthe” is a medicine for sorrow, a drug of forgetfulness in the ancient Greek, the imagery is fitting. Continue reading »