Jul 122018
 

 

For the second year in a row, NCS was proud to co-present Northwest Terror Fest, which took place this year on May 31 – June 2 in Seattle, Washington. Several of us in the NCS family helped organize and present the fest, and I guess that makes us a bit biased, but we’re not the only ones who thought it was a fantastic event. The feedback from bands, fans, and the venues has been uniformly very, very positive — so much so that we and our co-conspirators are already at work planning the third installment of NWTF for 2019.

We will of course be bringing you news about next year’s fest when the time is right, but we now want to take one more look back at NWTF 2018. And to do that, we’re fortunate to be able to present some of the amazing photos that New Orleans-based photographer Teddie Taylor took while the festival was in progress. Continue reading »

Apr 122018
 

 

We’re taught by daily disappointments and betrayals, by recurring defeats and the loss of people we hold dear, to see the world through jaundiced eyes. Life rides us with a heavy whip-hand, and hard lessons can lead to hardened hearts. When you listen to the music of Wild Hunt, it’s evident that they’re no strangers to the stings of life’s chaotic lashings. And so perhaps it’s all the more remarkable that their music also powerfully up-ends our defeatist worldview by injecting a sense of wonder and a feeling of irrepressible resilience.

Just about every writer at this site, at one time or another, has found reason to praise what this Bay Area band have accomplished, even if we (and others) can’t completely agree on what kind of genre labels to slap on the sounds. The word “progressive” always (understandably) seems to find a way into the stitched-together, multi-hyphenated descriptors, with black metal, doom, or post-metal sometimes in the jumble as well. But whatever Frankenstein-ian label might be most accurate, it’s probably best to just skip past that puzzle and allow the music to have its way with you.

Wild Hunt’s latest work is an album named Afterdream Of The Reveller. It will be released on April 20 by Vendetta Records. And what we have for you today is the album’s truly wondrous closing track, “Palingenesia“. Continue reading »

Mar 052018
 

 

(This is the third and final part of DGR’s round-up of selected new songs and videos that appeared over the last couple of weeks. You can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.)

 

Venom Prison – Devoid (Live)

The last time we checked in with Venom Prison was in late January, to spread the news of the February 23rd Prosthetic Records re-release of their 2016 album, Animus, and the group’s music video for the song “Immanetize Eschaton”. That deluxe edition of Animus is now out with five live songs added to it as a bonus disc, and the group unveiled a live-shot video for one of those songs, “Devoid“, right around that time. Continue reading »

Jan 132018
 

 

(Here’s a personal list by Andy Synn identifying eagerly anticipated forthcoming 2018 albums.)

 

One week ago Islander published a list of upcoming albums expected to be released over the course of the next twelve months, and also solicited comments and recommendations from our readers concerning which albums (and EPs) they were most looking forward to.

Well, as successful as that endeavour was, now it’s my turn to talk up some of my most anticipated album scheduled for release in 2018. Continue reading »

Jul 082015
 

Wild Hunt-Scroll and Urn

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Wild Hunt from the Bay Area of California.)

So I’ve really been enjoying discovering all these EPs lately. It’s not exactly been a conscious thing though, it just seems we’ve been enjoying a fantastic run of short, perfectly proportioned releases during the first half of this year.

Scroll and Urn is another one to add to the list, although we’re actually coming to it pretty late in the day, as it’s been available since the 17th of April from the band’s Bandcamp page.

If you visit the esteemed site known as Metal-Archives and search for the name Wild Hunt (and then click on the correct entry… handy tip: it’s the one without a “The” in front of it) you’ll see that the band are listed as Progressive Doom Metal/Post-Black Metal. However, this seems something of a misnomer to me.

While there’s certainly a strong progressive, and enviably creative, undercurrent to the music (as well as a gloaming shade of ominous, oppressive Doom) this is Black Metal to the core, with none of this “Post” nonsense to muddy the waters. Continue reading »