RAGANA: “YOU TAKE NOTHING”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 262017
 

 

(Here’s Wil Cifer’s review of the new album by Ragana from Oakland, California.)

With the tone of recent world events providing the inspiration for their new album You Take Nothing, the Oakland two-piece have returned with a feral vision of their brand of blackened crust.

The album opens with a deliberate crunch before it turns toward placing more emphasis on atmosphere. Where they part ways with many American black metal bands is in the concise nature of their songwriting. It never feels like you have lost your place in a bloated drone of tremolo picking, and the blast beats always feel as if they are wisely implemented. Continue reading »

IDES OF GEMINI: “WOMEN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Apr 142017
 

 

(We present Wil Cifer’s review of the new album by Ides of Gemini.)

The changes on Ides of Gemini’s newest offering Women seem tailored to suit my own personal tastes, as it is a perfect blend of goth rock and metal. By goth rock I mean Siouxsie and the Banshees, 45 Grave, etc., and not the type of Hot Topic cheese that came out of Finland in the early ’00s.

Sera Timms has put down the bass to find her voice. This adds a dimension that is more colorful and energetic. While the Siouxsie influence is there. it is not just limited to that; she has a reasonable sense of who she is. Continue reading »

ROYAL THUNDER: “WICK”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  5 Responses »
Apr 032017
 

 

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Royal Thunder.)

This Georgia band have never actually been metaI. They have toured with metal bands, some of their members have been in metal bands, and they certainly came pretty close on Crooked Doors. I really loved Crooked Doors. I wore it out. This means the bar is held pretty high here.

Going into the album there was uncertainty when hit with the slow droning riff that accompanies the more circular chant of the first song. They don’t come out swinging like they did on the previous album. I went back and gave this song another listen after hearing the entire album, and it made a little more sense, but didn’t really grab me. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WOE (CHRIS GRIGG)

 Interviews  6 Responses »
Mar 212017
 


Photo by Samantha Marble

(Wil Cifer delivers to us this interview of Chris Grigg — founder, vocalist, and guitarist of Woe, whose new album Hope Attrition has just been released by Vendetta Records.)

 

Woe is one of my favorite American Black Metal bands, right along side Liturgy and Nachtmystium, though Woe stuck closer to more conventional metal, even after their move to Brooklyn. With their fourth full-length Hope Attrition, the band continues to plow into fierce territory, blending in flourishes of death metal and hardcore. I recently caught up with main man Chris Grigg to discuss the new album and the state of black metal in America, and the results went something like this.

******

I heard that in the process of making this album you guys scrapped almost an entire album’s worth of songs in order to settle on what became the final product. What determined what made the cut?

It might not have been a whole album, but pretty close. We got rid of everything that sucked. We just kept reworking the songs and if there was a transition that felt forced, a riff that didn’t feel just right, we scrapped it. We demoed this intensely, so at the end of the day what would be left going into the studio were the best that they could be.

Continue reading »

SLAGMAUR: “THILL SMITTS TERROR”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 272017
 

 

(Wil Cifer wrote this review of the long-awaited new album by Norway’s Slagmaur.)

This band from Norway have found their own dark path to stomp down with a grandiosity that elevates them over many of their peers.

They often find themselves chugging into more death-metal-like waters while holding the guitar textures with enough darkness to earn them the label of blackened death metal. At the end of the day, sub-genres be damned, it’s clear these songs are crafted with the understanding that no matter how heavy you are, the songs have to come first. Continue reading »

KING WOMAN: “CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF SUFFERING”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Feb 152017
 

 

(In this post Wil Cifer reviews the new album by San Francisco’s King Woman.)

King Woman’s full-length debut has the kind of thick, dream-like haze cast over it that makes the mood much darker and heavier than what we got from their previous EP. Like many albums that I sing the praises of, this one tickles the sweet spot of my taste buds, and once again proves you don’t have to adhere to typical metal trappings in order to be heavy.

Kristina Esfandiari allows some of her backing vocal tracks to move into more of a scream. And there is weight to the guitars, which often carry the dense distortion of doom. By the second song, it sounds to me that this album is going to take them to the next level of recognition. Continue reading »

CODE ORANGE: “FOREVER”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 202017
 

 

(Wil Cifer wrote this review of the new album by Code Orange, which was released on January 13 by Roadrunner.)

The kids are all grown up now, so welcome to what could become 2017’s equivalent of You Will Never Be One of Us. This album shows a band going from a more post-hardcore sound to refining themselves into a snarling machine.

It’s also worth mentioning before we dig into the nitty-gritty of Forever that the guitar tone on this rather well-produced album is mean as fuck. Gone is the reckless punk attitude, replaced with very precise execution, and the syncopation is ridiculous more often than not. After the opener you are ready for whatever they are going to throw at you, so to my ears it did not feel jarring. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2016: WIL CIFER’S TOP 10 MAINSTREAM METAL ALBUMS OF 2016

 LISTMANIA 2016  4 Responses »
Jan 092017
 

 

(Wil Cifer brings us one more year-end list to accompany his earlier ones.)

This could almost be the Top 10 Hard Rock albums of 2016, as many of these bands ride the line between what is considered metal and what might not meet today’s standards of metal. They are much more likely to be heard on Sirius Radio or any air waves that venture into metal, like KNAC. Some of these acts are veterans who are back in fighting shape, and the very fact that they are mainstream means they have already paid their dues in the clubs, at the very least. These are not bands some sites I write for like Cvlt Nation would cover.

Varied sub-genres like thrash, power-metal, and even folk metal are thrown in, but in terms of heaviness these album ride the middle road. If you have still not figured out how I am defining mainstream metal here, then go back to sniffing glue, as here are your Top Ten mainstream metal albums of 2016. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2016: WIL CIFER’S TOP 10 HARDCORE PUNK RELEASES OF 2016

 LISTMANIA 2016  1 Response »
Jan 032017
 

 

(Wil CIfer’s series of year-end lists for 2016 continues with this selection of 10 favorite releases in the vein of hardcore punk.)

Yeah I know, we are talking metal on this site, but I think there is enough crossover here to appeal to the more open-minded readers. In some places the line between hardcore and metal is more clearly defined; many of these selections are heavier than most of the bands on your top metal lists.

This list will encompass anything that is a bastard son of punk, from grindcore to emo. This was an emotionally charged year, but none of these albums is really that political. And yet everyone tried to console themselves after the election by saying at least punk will get good. Well, the tried and true NOFX’s have gotten old and might not have been bad, they just are not as good as any of the bands on the top ten hardcore punk albums of 2016 list. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2016: WIL CIFER’S TOP 10 PROGRESSIVE METAL ALBUMS OF 2016

 LISTMANIA 2016  No Responses »
Jan 022017
 

 

(Wil Cifer continues his series of year-end lists with a Top 10 ranking of progressive metal releases.)

Progressive means you allow your music to progress. If you are putting out the same album of indulgent noodling, I don’t care if it is under the guise of a rock opera or not, your sound is not evolving; you are not progressive.

So these are not albums serving as bookends to keyboard solos, and are all more focused on the songs rather than trying to just make musicale bukkake. Many genres are touched on within this list. Some are more black metal than others, some are death metal, some are hard rock, but they all break the mold and embody progressive metal even without operatic vocals and frilly shirts. Here are my choices for the top 10 progressive metal albums of 2016. Continue reading »

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