Islander

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE: “OCCULTACLYSMIC”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 202018
 

 

(Norway-based NCS contributor Karina Noctum prepared this review of the new album by Lecherous Nocturne, which will be released by Willowtip Records on April 6.)

Lecherous Nocturne are from South Carolina. The musicians have other musical projects that revolve around Brutal Death and Black Metal (Atrocious Abnormality, Cesspool of Vermin, Apotheosys, Helgardh). They have accumulated enough experience, and it fully shows in LN. Besides, since they’re from South Carolina you can bet the guitarist has played live with Nile, and that is one good hint when it comes to LN’s level of talent.

Lecherous Nocturne are many things. First, they are tech, so you get the insane guitar/bass work, and drums to die for. But keep in mind that if you have your reservations against tech or brutal, this is not your boring, souless tech, and not your raw brutal Neanderthalensis either. This is interesting, reminiscent of stuff that everyone loves but in the grey zone between several styles.

So yeah, this is tech but it is blackened and darkened, in a different spectrum than your average tech death band. Hints of rawness, that blackened thrash rawness, are present. Think of Absu! When it comes to DM you also have Morbid Angel’s omnipresent shadow, which is like a solid concrete foundation that makes this so heavy and enjoyable. The first song brings to mind Morbid Angel’s Heretic, for example.

Their latest album Occultaclysmic is to be released on April 6th by none other than one of the safest quality-checkers in extreme metal, Willowtip. (What a roster they have!) This is an album that further confirms the high quality that is to be found in their catalog. This is basically my definition of how the sound of metal should develop. It has thick musical roots firmly engrained in the DM genre while expanding the sound further into the extreme. It’s faster, much more powerful, and more intricate, without spiralling away into full chaos or a vastness of experimental sounds until the very core of the music is lost. It’s everything you hold dear, just taken to a next level. I do enjoy next levels. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOL DE SANGRE — “SOL DE SANGRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

Welcome to our exclusive debut of one of this writer’s favorite death metal albums of 2018, one that includes some of my favorite extreme metal songs of 2017. Yes, Sol De Sangre began spreading the word of this album last year through the release of four singles, two of which we wrote about in our periodic collections of recommended new music and one of which we premiered. Those were tremendously tempting teasers for this first full-length offering, and fortunately the album as a whole proves to be just as fantastic as all those early glimpses.

There’s a lot to take in on this self-titled album — 12 tracks in total, and not one of them a throw-away. Over the course of the album this veteran group of Colombian musicians pay homage to a variety of classic death metal sounds, and yet once you’ve heard all of them I think you’ll conclude that the only name which really represents the music faithfully is the name of Sol De Sangre. They’ve put their own distinctive stamp on these compositions, while at the same time re-living a host of past glories. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ÆPOCH — “AWAKENING INCEPTION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 192018
 

 

Get ready to take plenty of deep breaths. Hyperventilating wouldn’t be a bad idea. You’re going to need the oxygen… because the song you’re about to hear is genuinely breathtaking and mind-bending. (Body armor is recommended, too, because the track is also a vicious bone-mangler.)

The song in question is the title track to Awakening Inception, the new album by the death metal band Æpoch from Ontario, Canada, which is set for release on Friday the 13th of April, 2018. Among a large panoply of remarkable features, the track includes guest vocals by Hideous Divinity frontman Enrico Di Lorenzo. Continue reading »

AUGURY: “ILLUSIVE GOLDEN AGE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

(The Canadian death metal wizards in Augury will be releasing a new album on March 30 via The Artisan Era, and today we present DGR’s extensive review of this eagerly awaited new work.)

 

This first third of 2018 is proving to be an insane time for groups coming back from the obscure voids of space to which they had retreated, and the angular prog-tech-death madness that Augury specializes in is the latest example of that trend. Prior to the March 30 release of the band’s upcoming album Illusive Golden Age, the gap between their previous two releases Concealed and Fragmentary Evidence was a little under five years. When Illusive Golden Age sees the light of day via The Artisan Era, that previous gap will have been eclipsed, as Illusive Golden Age comes sailing in at a little under nine years since Augury’s last disc.

Through Illusive Golden Age’s eight songs, Augury basically pick up right where they left off. By the opening notes of its title song, there is absolutely no need to make guesses about whether this is an Augury disc or not — everything is served up on an incredibly dense plate from moment one, and from there Augury zig-zag through an increasingly complicated obstacle course, purpose-built to leave its listeners with the equivalent of auditory whiplash. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2018, PART 1: AKLASH / GEOMANCER / MY SILENT WAKE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

(Our man from Nottingham, Andy Synn, resumes a series in which he focuses on releases from a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe.)

I’m going to keep the preamble short and sweet for this one, as I’ve written quite a lot over the course of the last couple of weeks, both for NCS and for my regular job, and seem to have worn my poor keyboard fingers down to the bone in the process.

Still, I hope you all find something to enjoy in today’s column, which is meant to provide an insight into some of the most promising new albums to have come out of these green and pleasant lands so far this year. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): COSMIC CHURCH, UNREQVITED, SCHRAT, VONLAUS, BOIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Mar 182018
 

 

Continuing on from Part 1 of this Sunday’s column, I’ve chosen new music from five black metal bands. One is a recently released EP and the rest of the songs are from albums scheduled for release in the coming months. If you missed Part 1, it’s here.

COSMIC CHURCH

The Finnish one-man band Cosmic Church has released two albums and many shorter releases since the first demo in 2006, but has now decided to end its life with one final album, entitled Täyttymys. A single called “Armolahja” was digitally released on March 15th as a preview of the album, which will appear on CD and vinyl at some unknown future date via the Finnish black metal label Kuunpalvelus. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): GUÐVEIKI, TRNA, UADA, RAAT

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Mar 182018
 

 

Three weeks have passed since the last of these columns, mainly because of my vacation to Iceland, so I decided to double up today. I’m also still experiencing postpartum depression from the severance of myself from Iceland. To treat the condition, I chose to include some new music from Icelandic black metal bands, one in this Part of the column and another in Part 2. Other parts of the world are also included, before the flood of Icelandic black metal covers them like the deluge of Genesis and reduces the globe to a state of watery chaos.

GUÐVEIKI

Mystískaos is a record label (or perhaps more accurately, a creative collective) formed through the collaboration of American musician Alex Poole (Skáphe, Chaos Moon, Entheogen) and Icelandic musician H.V Lyngdal (Wormlust, Ljáin, Martröð). Its list of releases principally consists of the projects of those two creators, but includes participation by other people within their circles, and now also includes a partnership with Fallen Empire. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: CONJURER

 Interviews, WAXING LYRICAL  2 Responses »
Mar 172018
 

 

(Andy Synn continues our new regular Saturday series in which he discusses metal lyrics with bands whose music you should also get to know if you don’t already.)

 

Having recently dropped one of the most vital and visceral albums of 2018 so far, an album which I fully expect to make an appearance on numerous “Best of…” lists come the end of the year, Conjurer are currently riding a wave of popularity and critical acclaim which seems unlikely to die out any time soon.

So now seemed like the perfect time to grab hold of the band’s guitarist/vocalist Dan Nightingale and get him to spill the beans about his writing process, inspirations, and all that jazz. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WIDOW’S PEAK — “MOTHER MISERY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 162018
 

 

There is no shortage of death metal bands whose aim is to inflict brutal punishment while showing off their speed and technical dexterity, but some are obviously better at it than others. Widow’s Peak from Calgary, Alberta, Canada are one of those groups who stand out from the pack, and the song we’re premiering today provides abundant evidence of that.

The name of the track is “Mother Misery“, and it comes from the band’s new EP, Graceless, which will be released on April 27th. It provides an inventive display of breathtaking destructiveness married to kaleidoscopic, head-spinning instrumental performances, and further reveals an unconventional taste in melody that makes the song even more fascinating. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: INHUMANKIND — “DOUBLE-HEADED KING” AND “AGAINST ALL ODDS”

 Premieres  13 Responses »
Mar 162018
 

 

To borrow a phrase from Monty Python, “And now for something completely different.”

Consider this: a Spanish band named Inhumankind whose musical instruments solely consist of the flute and the acoustic double bass, and who draw freely in their compositions from a broad range of musical inspirations, including (but not limited to) classical and black metal; with minimalist lyrics that draw upon the left-hand path, voiced in ritualistic fashion by two accomplished women and a vicious death growler; and an album named Self-Extinction that was produced by Colin Marston (who also contributed percussion to one of the tracks). Consider further what the esteemed Mr. Marston has said about the album:

“Existing at the nexus of modern classical music and extreme metal, Inhumankind have a completely unique sound. Aggressively played flute, acoustic bass, and occasional vocals are excellently employed to create compositions that are simultaneously sparse and complicated, awkward and confident. This is one of the most original albums to come across my desk in quite some time!”

And now take a deeper look at the cover painting by Italian master Ettore Aldo Del Vigo.

If you have not become intrigued by now, then your time might be better spent elsewhere. If your interest has been piqued, however (mine sure as hell was), then you will want to experience the two songs from Self-Extinction that we’re presenting today in advance of its March 30 release by I, Voidhanger Records. They might take you far out of your listening comfort zone, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything more original and distinctive this year. Continue reading »

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