AN NCS INTERVIEW: VORGA

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May 032024
 

(Today we present an excellent interview conducted by Daniel Barkasi with guitarist and composer Atlas from the German black metal band Vorga, whose new album is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.)

The cosmic side of black metal is a fascinating one, boasting a wide range of approaches and sounds – from the horrifying and disturbing to the eclectic and bombastic. Emerging purveyors from deep, dark reaches of space, Vorga has metastasized an energy-laden, yet cuttingly furious approach. If a soundtrack to being sucked violently into a black hole has any appeal, their latest Beyond the Palest Star should be on your list.

Said new full-length is an advancement on the acclaimed Striving Toward Oblivion, which was a sonic boom of pacey, vivacious black metal that was always traveling at Warp speed. Beyond the Palest Star achieves a balanced output; plenty of speed to burn, while also allowing a wider array of influences to take hold, forming a deeper and more complex offering.

We managed to track down guitarist Atlas to speak in-depth about the new record, a film-quality video the band released, the sci-fi and the black metal scene, as well as the impacts of AI and streaming on the artist and the world at large. Prepare to traverse into the void with us. After all – “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Yeah, we went there. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: UNEARTHLY RITES

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May 012024
 


Photo by Lassi Kojola

(In two days from now Prosthetic Records will release the politically charged debut album by the Finnish death metal band Unearthly Rites, and to help pave the way we present Comrade Aleks‘ very interesting interview with vocalist Sisli and guitarist Santtu.)

Here’s a quite fresh and dirty entity from very North of Finland. Unearthly Rites was formed back in 2020, and since then they released only a self-titled EP in 2021… until now.

The lineup in Unearthly Rites includes members from the bands Dome Runner, Fosforos, Frogskin, Fuck-Ushima, Bolt Cross, Praise, etc, so this company of two ladies and three gentlemen seem to be quite busy with different sorts of underground activities. Yes, right, Unearthly Rites is a blackened death metal band, and one of the women is the person who roars in their full-length album Ecdysis.

Prosthetic Records are ready to release Ecdysis on May 3rd, so here we are to support this band with their absolutely crushing sound, a dedicated approach, and an attitude worthy of respect. Sisli (vocals) and Santtu (guitars) provided us quite an in-depth and interesting interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HIDEOUS DIVINITY

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Apr 292024
 

(Daniel Barkasi has brought us a fantastic interview with Enrico Schettino from the Italian death metal powerhouse Hideous Divinity, whose newest album, reviewed at NCS here, is out now on Century Media Records.)

Some have been calling recent times a sort of death metal renaissance. It’s true that an enormous amount of quality releases from bands old and new have been laying waste to our eager ears in the last few trips around the calendar. Hell, the sheer volume of new bands churning out innovative metal of the deathly variety alone has been inspiring. Death metal’s future is indeed strong. Ever leading the charge of the upper echelon is Rome’s Hideous Divinity.

Ever since their first foray Obeisance Rising in 2012, the band hasn’t slowed down a whole lot, dropping four albums that have continuously set high standards for both themselves and their peers. On to album number five, we have Unextinct, which stands out as their most ambitious, from a band who haven’t quite sat still record to record. It’s a massive album that goes straight for the throat, all while displaying multiple layers of intricate craftsmanship that adds significantly to the whole.

We got the opportunity to have a chat with lead vocalist Enrico Schettino on a myriad of subjects. From the obvious regarding all aspects of Unextinct, the absolutely wild “Against the Sovereignty of Mankind” throat cam video, what’s next (including a hint of an upcoming tour), and an odd question to attempt a practical joke on their incredibly cool manager Tito. We hope you enjoy – and pick up the damn album! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MALSTEN

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Apr 222024
 


photo by Hedda Winroth

(We present Comrade Aleks‘ very entertaining interview with members of the Swedish band Malsten, whose latest album-length tale of horror was released last month by Svart Records.)

Formed back in 2018, Malsten chose to follow the path of doom, and I’d tell you that they moved pretty fast, having released their first album The Haunting of Silvåkra Mill already in 2020. Four songs, totaling 42 minutes, told a story of bloodshed, evil, horror, and madness in a pretty traditional doom metal manner. The thing about this album was that it’s a concept album with a kind of open ending.

Malsten continued the tale of the Grinder at Silvåkra Mill with two singles, Entr’acte (2022) and Path of the Nix (2024), and as all good things move towards their end, so this story does. Their second album, The Haunting of Silvåkra Mill – Rites of Passage, saw the light of day on March 15this year  with the help of Svart Records, and here we are talking with the band about this and that.

Be ready to learn more about grim ways of [folk] horror doom from this quite in-depth and entertaining interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PANTHEIST

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Apr 192024
 

(In March of this year Pantheist released a new album-length EP, and Comrade Aleks found it tremendously good, and he reached out to conduct the following excellent interview with Pantheist‘s Kostas Panagiotu.)

For the past 24 years Pantheist has provided us with the one of most thoughtful and intelligent examples of doom metal in almost every form. They started with funeral doom in the days of O Solitude (2003), they turned to sophisticated death-doom on Amartia (2005), and further on the band moved towards things even more melodic and progressive.

Pantheist’s previous full-length album Closer to God saw the light of day in 2021, and this year the band returns with the 50-minute-long EP Kings Must Die. What’s good there? Believe me, that’s an album that’s worth listening to. And I believe this interview with the Pantheist’s founding member Kostas Panagiotu (vocals, keyboards) will only prove this statement. Continue reading »

LOST IN A LIMINALITY OF IM-PURE WRATH AND REFLECTION (READ: REFRACTION) — AN INTERVIEW WITH DØDSSANGER (PART 2)

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Apr 192024
 

(This is the second interview that our Hanoi-based contributor Vizzah Harri conducted with Downfall from the Vietnamese black metal band Dødssanger. Find the first interview here.)

Taken from Audio recorded in conversation on February 27th, 2024.

I first met Kyle Newman aka Downfall from Dødssanger when he was still a university student; he’s grown more in all aspects in the last 6 years than I’ve experienced growth over the last 2 decades. The conversation that follows was way more of a general discourse on the Hanoi scene, headphones, live shows and the writing process than an interview, whereas Part 1 was more formal, happened later and attempted to focus more on his stage persona Downfall and the project as such. Continue reading »

LOST IN A LIMINALITY OF IM-PURE WRATH AND REFLECTION (READ: REFRACTION) — AN INTERVIEW WITH DØDSSANGER (PART 1)

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Apr 172024
 


Downfall, Dødssanger

(In an effort to help shine a light on metal from Vietnam, our Hanoi-based correspondent Vizzah Harri has brought us the following very erudite and very entertaining interview of Downfall, the person behind the Hanoi-based black metal band Dødssanger.)

Dødssanger is Downfall, writer, multi-instru-mentalist and creator of the depressive black metal project that released their debut last year.

I met with Downfall at the end of February this year but the day job, time-fvckery and taking on too many projects at one time meant that the finishing touches were pushed back. Islander posted my ‘6-word novel’ review of their song Penance in this reader’s most infectious lists of 2023 which can be found here. If you didn’t get the time to read those posts, here is what I said about Penance:

“Hebephrenic grimoire,
hellatious hymnals of ill-grace.”

Those words still stand.

The interview that follows lighted upon musings about live performances, the Vietnamese music scene, as well as their recording process. Dødssanger just released their album in physical format and it can be found/ordered here: and there are only 21 copies left of an original 40. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HAUNTOLOGIST

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Apr 162024
 


photo credit: Kuba Leszko

(No Solace released Hauntologist‘s long-gestating debut album in early January of this year, and it has made a memorable impression on a lot of listeners, including Comrade Aleks, who follows up the album with this interview of The Fall.)

How many times was Hauntologist mentioned here? And yet it’s not enough. The debut album of this Polish experimental black metal duo entitled Hollow saw the light of day in January, and you can’t ignore it. Not only because it’s a project of two of Mgła’s members – The Fall (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Darkside (drums). This nihilistic and dissonant yet experimental black metal projects precisely our urban misery; it lacks a traditional blackened aesthetic but it’s functional, striking, and highly atmospheric.

Hauntologist is the best example of modern days black metal with an artistic approach and an in-depth, personal message. It was good to learn a bit more about Hollow from The Fall himself first-hand. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CEMETERY OF SCREAM

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Apr 122024
 

(Following some delays on our part, today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview with guitarist Marcin Piwowarczyk from the Polish band Cemetery of Scream, who trace their birth to the ancient year of 1992 and still go strong.)

I’m a long-time Cemetery of Scream fan. I remember those innocent days when me and my buddy shouted out the lyrics of “Anxiety”, their best-known song from the first album Melancholy, at a local graveyard. I remember how I watched and appreciated the metamorphosis the band went through from death-doom to… to some experiments within the genre that could be classified as “gothic”. And though I knew that those times, those vibes, won’t return and the band have changed too much, I awaited their new material.

There was a huge break since the release of their last album Frozen Images. It saw the light of day in 2009, and I knew that new songs were already prepared in around 2016. So what happened? It took too much time, yet here they are.

Sleaszy Rider Records released Cemetery of Scream’s sixth album Oceans in November 2023, and here we are with the band’s original guitarist Marcin Piwowarczyk. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT

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Apr 102024
 

(Last week we forced Andy Synn to listen to and review The Monolith Deathcult‘s new album, and this week we forced Comrade Aleks to interview TMDC‘s Robin Kok, and although we can’t affirm that Aleks got away unscathed, he did provide us the interview… below….)

The Dutch band The Monolith Deathcult began its underground career more than twenty years ago with quite brutal and moderately unbridled death metal, which over time was symphonized, electrified, industrialized, and decorated with various, often unexpected, samples. It sounds scary, but, for example, one of The Monolith’s past hits “Fist of Stalin” gained an exorbitant number of plays on streaming services, and on YouTube the views of this video amount to almost a hundred thousand, which is not bad.

As the years go by, The Monolith has changed within the framework of the formula discovered by its members, but the composition of the group has remained unchanged for many years: Michiel Dekker (guitar, vocals), Carsten Altena (keyboards, orchestrations, guitar, vocals) and Robin Kok (growls, bass). If we take into account the band’s tendencies towards electronic sound, then we can assume that their drums are programmed, but for several years now the invariably professional guest drummer Frank Schilperoort has been working in this position. He also worked with The Monolith Deathcult on the new album, released in April by Human Detonator Records, The Demon Who Makes Trophies of Men, which we spoke with Robin Kok personally about. Continue reading »

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