AN NCS INTERVIEW: MOON INCARNATE

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Aug 082024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ excellent discussion with Christian Kolff and Matin Vasari, with the focus being on their band Moon Incarnate, whose debut album was released earlier this year by Iron Bonehead Productions.)

The death-doom coalition Moon Incarnate was created by experienced members of the German underground: Christian Kolff (guitar, bass, synths), the leader of the prog death-doom act Valborg and five other projects of different directions, as well as Matin Vasari (vocals, synths) from the death metal band Beyondition.

Hymns to the Moon is seven small fantasies on the theme of death-doom of the ’90s, the fruit of love for the legacy of The British Three, Tiamat, Katatonia, Samael, as well and others like them. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SCALD

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Aug 062024
 

(The comeback album of the Russian epic doom band Scald has been out for 10 days, and to help celebrate the event we’re publishing Comrade Aleks‘ interview with Scald bassist and lyricist Velingor, which occurred not long before the release.)

Scald was a unique and short-lived phenomenon on the Russian scene in the ’90s. The band gathered in Yaroslavl in 1993, but disbanded in 1997 after the tragic death of vocalist Agyl. Scald‘s first and only full-length album, Will of Gods Is a Great Power, was released posthumously on tapes, but it was only in the 2000s, after its release on CD, that the band began to get recognition and reach fans abroad. Their truly epic doom metal with Viking influences in the vein of Bathory sounded expressive, talented, and powerful.

Scald was revived in 2019 on sheer enthusiasm for a single performance at the German Hammer of Doom festival, when Chilean vocalist Felipe Plaza Kutzbach, who lives now in Sweden, volunteered to perform as Scald’s frontman. Felipe sings in two epic doom bands, Capilla Ardiente and Procession, and thrashes with Deströyer 666. He has a wealth of experience, gifted by the [heathen] gods.

With all the difficulties that exist today for international cooperation and adjusted for the covid period, the release of a new Scald album in itself is a real success. That new album, Ancient Doom Metal, picks up where Will of Gods Is a Great Power stopped years ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: OFFICIUM TRISTE

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Aug 052024
 

(Last week we had the privilege of premiering a powerfully moving song named “Anna’s Woe” from the tremendous new album by the Dutch band Officium Triste, and now we follow that with Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the band’s steadfast vocalist Pim Blankenstein, a discussion that includes insights into that song we premiered, among many other subjects.)

One of the oldest bands on the scene of Netherlands is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year with the release of a new album Hortus Venenum. Officium Triste have consistently and slowly continued to improve their art of death-doom since 1994, and it must be said that the band somehow manages to develop and grow without going beyond the genre’s borders.

Their sixth album The Death of Gaia (2019) turned out to be the best one in their discography, and now it seems that Hortus Venenum surpasses it predecessor. While Transcending Obscurity Records prepares different sorts of the album’s physical releases for September 6th, Hortus Venenum could be found online almost everywhere – an unfortunate sign of our times.

We discussed all of these things with the band’s original vocalist Pim Blankenstein. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: LILLE GRUBER

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Aug 022024
 

Images courtesy of Laura McCullagh and Slam Dank Productions

(We’re very pleased to present our contributor Vizzah Harri‘s interview of Lille Gruber from Defeated Sanity, with apologies to both of them for our delay in publishing it.)

Defeated Sanity are a jazz ensemble hiding in plain sight as a brutal tech-death band. At this writing they’re currently on their Final Impetus tour to bring to audiences far and wide one more experience of their 2020 opus, The Sanguinary Impetus. Their recent show in Cape Town, South Africa was reviewed here.

It’s certainly not easy to make time on a tour for pesky questions from a sometimes-contributor to a music blog, but Lille Gruber, drummer, songwriter, and founder of Defeated Sanity, took precious time out of his busy schedule to entertain my queries.

For those who don’t know or grew up under a rock like me, Lille Gruber started playing and growling from a really young age. Starting the band with his brother Jonas Gruber and their dad, the late Wolfgang Teske (R.I.P. 2010), it was like growing up with a literal Amadeus as a father.

With family names basically soothsaying where they’d end up seeing as the etymologies date back to people who lived in a hollow… or pit (Gruber), and to console/comfort (Teske); well, they’ve been comforting pit-dwellers since 1993 and aren’t we all the richer for it? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: UKEPARAAVE ENVIAVUASAN

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Aug 012024
 

(Our contributor Vizzah Harri has provided us and you the following interview that he conducted.)

We contacted the founder of Nächtlich and owner of Vinland Corpse records, the artist known as Ukeparaave Enviavuasan, in order to shed more light on their latest album Exaltation of Evil, which was reviewed at NCS here. (They’re also involved with quite a few other projects, Thallid, Black Kruud, Bloody Winds, Dibikimitig, Dobhar Chú, Dolmen Shrine, Eerified Catacomb, Reliquary Ash, Malphas). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ROGGA JOHANSSON (HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY)

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Jul 242024
 


Rogga, photo by Jacob Johansson

(We present the following interview of Rogga Johansson by our Comrade Aleks. The initial focus is on the latest album from House by the Cemetary, released by Pulverised Records in May, but of course the discussion branches off into many other topics too.)

Rogga Johansson is a paranormally hyperactive Swedish guitarist and vocalist who started to conquer the metal underground with the death metal band Terminal Grip in 1994. I could fill the entire foreword just counting the bands and projects where he took part or which he keeps on running. But it seems that his most crucial band is Paganizer, the successor of Terminal Grip which has provided death metal since 1998 and produced twelve full-length albums and a good bunch of smaller releases.

However tonight we focus on the international death metal (of course!) project House by the Cemetary which he runs together with American vocalist Mike Hrubovcak (ex-Monstrosity, Azure Emote, ex-Vile, etc).

Their third album The Mortuary Hauntings was released in May 2024 by Pulverised Records, and if you missed it somehow, this interview with Rogga will close that gap. If you dig stuff with titles such as “Cadavers Emerge”, “The Realm of the Cursed” and “Opening the Gates of Hell”, this will please your tastes. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ARGILE

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Jul 232024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ extensive recent interview with Philippe Courtois of Misanthrope fame, with a special focus on the Misanthrope spinoff Argile and the completion this year of Argile‘s trilogy of albums.)

Argile is the doomy branch of French intellectual extremes Misanthrope and it rarely emerges from the underground. While Misanthrope have been steadily recording albums and performing for over 35 years, Argile have been moving modestly and heavily from album to album.

Spleen Angel is the band’s third full-length work, and it is separated from the previous full-length by a huge break, counting 14 years. The album was recorded with a full Misanthrope line-up: Philippe Courtois (vocals), Jean-Jacques Moréac (bass, keyboards), Gaël Féret (drums) and Anthony Skemama (guitars).

Argile sound absolutely doomy, but unbridledly artistic, and do not restrain their impulses by genre conventions. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FURZE

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Jul 192024
 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us the following interview with Woe J. Reaper, the maniac behind the Norwegian “Black Psych Metal” band Furze, whose latest album Caw Entrance is out now.)

Trondheim-based black psych metal project Furze has a proper discography, and their eighth album Caw Entrance was released on 5 April 2024 by Devoted Art Propaganda from Polytriad Fingertips. Once again Woe J. Reaper supplies his followers with quite eccentric black metal filled with old school vibes and macabre delivery.

And yes, yes, Furze’s founder keeps the same approach to recording and delivery of his material — it’s better to quote him directly:

“You don’t like the production? Oh, luck gently off! Coherently we advise all listeners to grab a nice pair of headphones and listen to this album that way. No background listening sessions will work and not even your stereo for that sake. It’s strange but true: special details were impossible to secure into both ways of listening. Don’t worry: lots of work was laid down with mastering too, and what’s closer to a simple level adjustment from the mix worked like a superhorse so the result is clear: Headphone listening sessions are the only way to enter one’s Caw Entrance.”

I welcome you to learn more about Woe’s motivation and what BLACK PSYCH FUCKIN’ METAL is. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PNEUMA HAGION

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Jul 172024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ very interesting interview with Ryan Wilson from Texas-based Pneuma Hagion, whose new album will be released to hideously infect our minds next month, courtesy of Everlasting Spew Records.)

This duo from Texas consists of Ryan Wilson (all instruments, vocals) and Shane Elwell (drums). Both of them have had rich activity in metal and non-metal projects for years, and the new album of Pneuma Hagion From Beyond provides us Lovecraftian horror-influenced, death-metal-oriented material filled with inhuman, fierce, and raw aggression.

According to the official press-release “From Beyond explores Lovecraftian ideas of horrifying extra-dimensional entities forcing their way into the causal universe by infecting the minds of humans”. Sounds exciting! It’s Pneuma Hagion’s third full-length album since 2015, so without doubt it’s the most focused and well-built material and it’ll be available from Everlasting Spew Records on August 30th.

Meanwhile, you can listen the album’s first track “Harbinger of Dissolution”, which we premiered here, and read the following interview with Ryan. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NOCTURNUS AD

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Jul 122024
 


photo by Tim Hubbard

(Today we present an excellent interview by our Comrade Aleks of Mike Browning from the terrific Nocturnus AD, whose latest mind-bender of an album is out now on Profound Lore.)

Nocturnus AD is the brainchild of Mike Browning, who started his career in the early ’80s in Morbid Angel as drummer and vocalist, and continued it in bands like Nocturnus and Acheron, among others. Nocturnus AD serves not just as continuation of Mike’s past works, but strictly follows the ideas he put into Nocturnus’ albums back in the very early ’90s. Together with Belial Koblak (guitars), Demian Heftel (guitars), Josh Holdren (keyboards), and Kyle Sokol (bass) he explores the occult side of technical sci-fi death metal.

Nocturnus AD‘s new full-length Unicursal was released on May 17th by Profound Lore Records, and we were lucky to catch Mike and learn more about his new album. Continue reading »

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