Feb 262020
 

 

(Karina Noctum conducted this extensive interview with the prolific and multi-faceted drummer AntiChristian, touching upon many subjects, including the activities of three of the very different main bands he now plays in.)

AntiChristian is a Norwegian drummer known for playing in Tsjuder and Gothminister. He also plays in a less-known band called Beaten to Death that is getting increasingly more recognition both in Norway and elsewhere. This interview includes some in-depth questions about BtD since it is a pretty interesting and unique band that picked up my attention since the beginning. In addition to drum-talking, there is also some cool news when it comes to Tsjuder and Gothminister, which will most likely be topics for in-depth interviews in the future. Continue reading »

Sep 172015
 

Tsjuder-Antiliv

 

(Leperkahn is on a roll again, with a multi-part roundup of new music streams. Here’s Part 1.)

The metal world is really good at trying to drown us in new stuff. Here, we take a stand and fight back, trying to cover all that we can. A new wave of defense for NCS starts with this post, in which we cover (briefly) five albums you can now stream in full on the interhole.

TSJUDER

We’ve been covering Antiliv, the new album from these Norwegian black metallers, pretty much since it was first announced, so I’ll cut to the chase and say that this ripper is available for you to stream via Decibel. If you like your black metal staunchly traditional, yet still pretty well-produced, dig in. Continue reading »

Sep 112015
 

Speedtrap=Straight Shooter

 

(Here’s Part 3 of Leperkahn’s round-up of new music for this Friday. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here.)

SPEEDTRAP

Prior to finding a full stream of their new album Straight Shooter on Noisey, I hadn’t heard of Finnish troupe Speedtrap. If you’re in the same boat that I was in, I’ll tell you that these guys sound pretty much exactly like you think they will, in that they love Motörhead, as everyone should. This thing is chock full of blazing riffs and cheesy lyrics sung by an oddly bluesy power-metal-type singer — I’m in love.

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/speedtrap-straight-shooter
https://www.facebook.com/speedtrapmetal
https://speedtrap.bandcamp.com/ Continue reading »

Aug 252015
 

SOM 364LP Gatefold 8mm spine (LP1044) OptM.indd

 

Antiliv is the name of the fifth album by Norway’s Tsjuder, which will be upon us in mid-September. Last month I wrote (here) about the first advance track from Antiliv, a song named “Demonic Supremacy” that I thought was an instant classic. And now we have the chance to bring you a second new song from the album, a track named “Djevelens Mesterverk”.

Tsjuder have a well-deserved reputation for unleashing hellfire with tremendous intensity, and “Djevelens Mesterverk” is a striking example of the band’s unmitigated ferocity. It’s in the red zone from start to finish, a non-stop adrenaline injection driven by AntiChristian’s jaw-dropping drum performance and Draughluin’s blazing riffs.  And Nag’s shrieked vocals are utterly poisonous and savage. Continue reading »

Jul 262015
 

VI-album art

 

I’m still surrounded by excellent new metal, like a cork bobbing in the ocean. In a post yesterday I collected four recently released songs and videos, and I have more to recommend today. In this post I’ve included three more new songs and one new album stream, followed by music from two releases that are not quite as new but are new to me. The music here falls within the realms of black metal, although as you’ll find out, the tracks are still quite diverse.

This is a long post with a lot of music in it, and perhaps I should have broken it up into pieces. But though it may appear daunting in its length, I hope you’ll stick with it, because there’s a lot of good metal in here from some tremendously talented bands.

VI

This first new song caught my eye because the band — whose name is VI — has a line-up that includes current or former members of Aosoth and Antaeus. The cover art by the talented Alexander L. Brown is a real eye-catcher, too.

The band’s debut album De Praestgiis Angelorum is scheduled for release on September 25 by Agonia Records, in a 6-panel digipack CD and on vinyl. There’s also a shirt that features that cool cover art. Look at all this tasty stuff: Continue reading »

Jun 242014
 

I watched a lot of new music videos yesterday, many of which made me smile, though not all for the same reasons. I decided to put all the smile-inducing ones right here for you — five of ’em, in alphabetical order by band name. That’s right, five. Settle in, fix a bucket of popcorn and douse it in that movie theater goop that should be labeled IT TASTES LIKE BUTTER BUT IT’S NOT!, and watch. And listen. Listening is important.

If none of these makes you smile, then I surrender and will take my lashes without complaint. Because I never complain when that happens.

DEMONIC RESURRECTION

As we’ve previously reported, India’s Demonic Resurrection have a new album entitled The Demon King that’s due for release on July 14 by Candlelight Records (and by Universal Music in India). Yesterday the band started streaming the album’s first single, “Trail of Devastation”, and it’s a winner — well-written, well-produced, dynamic, memorable, and made for fist-pumping.

It combines swirling guitar melody, sweeping orchestration, and riffs that alternately twist insidiously and jab like a prize-fighter. The Demonstealer puts his multifaceted vocal talents to good use in the song, too, with an array of harsh roars, scalding shrieks, and carefully placed, soaring clean vocals that really work. Continue reading »

Apr 122012
 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of performances at the second day of Oslo’s Inferno Festival. For his review of the first day’s inferno, go here.)

Day 2, and far more refreshed after a night’s proper sleep, we turned up at the venue a little before Agalloch’s set, allowing us to wander round the various stalls, tattoo showcases, and other assorted gubbins that act as an annex to the main festival. Highlights included some impressive tattoo work, a random assortment of rare/hilarious special editions (including a hugely over-priced and hugely amusing mega-box edition of the new and deplorable Morbid Angel album), and the none-more-metal selection offered by the infamous Neseblod Records stand. To top it all off we were even offered the opportunity to buy some of ICS Vortex’s old leathers. Truly the stuff legends are made of. But all these wonders were mere distractions set against the night’s impressive musical line-up.

Right from the start, Agalloch set out to reclaim and redefine the term “epic” with their tense and scintillating sound, expanding to fill the massive venue with a wall of sonic majesty, roots and branches reaching up to the heavens and penetrating deep into the loam of the earth. Cherry-picking the best tracks from The Mantle, Ashes Against The Grain, and Marrow Of The Spirit, the quartet painted the venue with sound and light, washing over the audience in tidal waves of lush, transcendent noise and focussed power – in particular, “In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion” was both utterly haunting and emotionally exhausting. Even some temporary technical problems were dealt with in an almost seamless manner, the rest of the band maintaining the pulsating heartbeat of ethereal ambience while frontman John Haughm dealt with his misbehaving guitar.

If you’ve never seen Agalloch live, I implore you to do so at any costs; they conjure an atmosphere as intense as any band I have seen (equaling, though not competing with, that of Triptykon on the previous night), but in a manner wholly unique to themselves. It’s the music of nature and nurture, layers and layers of melody and complexity that subtly, and unexpectedly, combine into something overwhelmingly heavy yet effortlessly organic. Continue reading »

Apr 032012
 

Thanks to MaxR of Metal Bandcamp, I just discovered that the wonderful Season of Mist label has recently set up camp on Bandcamp. As Max reports, “The bands have individual pages, each featuring their Season of Mist discography. Among the 44 bands available now, we find symphonic death metal giants Septicflesh from Greece, and their three albums from the Season of Mist catalog: Sumerian Daemons, Communion, and The Great Mass from 2011.”

In addition to Septic Flesh, you will find pages for the most recent releases by such NCS favorites as Solstafir, Thy Catafalque, Drudkh, Rotting Christ, Ghost Brigade, Nader Sadek, Benighted, Elitist, Esoteric, Minushuman, Nothnegal, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Terrorizer, and a whole lot more.

As those who are familiar with Bandcamp will immediately realize, this means not only that the albums can be digitally downloaded, but also that they can be streamed in their entirety. It also means that bloggers like me can embed full-album streams in our posts, which is what I’m about to do.

For the hell of it, I’m going to include an album stream after the post for a record called Legion Helvete by the Norwegian band Tsjuder, who trace their roots back to 1993.  Legion Helvete was released in October 2011. I meant to listen to it then, but failed. I’ve been listening to it this morning, and the music is absolutely killer. Continue reading »