(written by Islander)
Můra is a Prague-based Blackened Death/Doom Metal band originally formed in 2020. In the following year they released their debut EP, Doom Invocations and Narcotic Rituals. Later this month two respected labels (Doomentia and Caligari) will jointly release Můra‘s second EP, Needle Cathedral, and today we proudly premiere its title song. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
In naming their records and their songs the Mexican black metal band Fumes have shown a talent for combining words in distinctive ways that also point the way toward the character of the music: Their 2022 debut EP was named Stellar Murders Upwards. The title of their forthcoming debut album is Skeletal Wings Unleashed. And that album’s first single was “Stellar Ascension Infernal.”
Today we present a second single from the album. The name of this one — “Kamazotz” — will be less understandable for many fans, but it also turns out to be suggestive of meanings behind the music and its sensations as well. Continue reading »
The old adage is true: Misery does love company, especially when the company is as powerfully talented as the UK post-black metal band who call themselves Vintras. But even listeners who are happily basking in brightness will be gripped by how well Vintras shatter all rose-colored glasses.
The band’s debut album Timescarred will be co-released in late March by Void Wanderer Productions and War Productions. They have presented an eloquent statement about the grim perspectives that inspired the music: Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
We are about to premiere a surreal video for a track from a new album fittingly named Black Abyss Invocation by the enigmatic Finnish duo known as Vomitriste. Set for co-release later this month by Roman Numeral and Machine Tribe Recordings, it represents a horrifying new chapter in the band’s creative impulses.
What they’ve done before consists of six albums, which Vomitriste have recently released as a compilation called Droneworks (2022-2024). As that collective title suggests, the music could be (too simplistically) summed up as an amalgam of “colossal, noisy drones and profound dark ambient.” But what they’ve done on Black Abyss Invocation leaves that behind and makes a new start.
The change was unexpected even to the band. They say the new creations, which were created in a single session overnight, left them “perplexed” as they opened their minds and accidentally stumbled across new methods of expression. Here’s how they explain it: Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
I don’t think I’d heard of Naked Whipper until Neill Jameson mentioned their forthcoming album not once but twice in his year-end articles at NCS, as something to look forward to in January. He made the same observations on social media. Just about every time, he included exclamation points. I began to think that was part of their actual name: “Naked Whipper(!)”
And then serendipitously we got asked to host this premiere. Sadly, I discovered that exclamation points aren’t part of their official name. Happily, I discovered why Neill was always adding that punctuation.
One reason is that their new album, Chapel Defilement, is the band’s first release of any kind since 1995, so there’s the surprise that comes from thinking something’s dead and dusted and then suddenly seeing it breathe again. But there’s another reason, which you’re about to discover. Continue reading »
On January 31st the Kansas City outfit Dejecter will build upon and expand what they’ve done on two previous EPs through the release of a new one named Oblation Husk, and today we’re helping to introduce it through our premiere of one of the four new songs. Its entirely fitting name is “Fiends.”
For those who haven’t yet discovered the band, it began in the summer of 2022 when Sean Rehmer (Mercurial) and Josh Caldwell (Godhammered, One Inch Punch) begun writing together at Storm Crow Studio just outside of Kansas City. Some months later, they sought out a vocalist to complete their vision and found what they sought in Silas Olson (Devourist).
They then put out those two EPs mentioned above, Human(v)oid in 2023 and Majesty Artificial last year. Those two led Metal Archives to brand Dejecter‘s music as “Death/Sludge Metal,” and you’ll detect both of those genre ingredients in the new EP, but other ingredients are now also apparent. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
There are so many aspects of the Fell Omen song and video we’re about to premiere that are just… bonkers. But I hasten to add, they are bonkers in very good and highly entertaining ways. Let me count the ways:
There is the name of the song: “Dungeon Metal Punks Besieging Digital Castles“. There is the fact that Fell Omen‘s Greek mastermind Spider of Pnyx performs the song in a suit of medieval armor. There is this armored warrior’s use of a hurdy-gurdy to open the song, and the fact that it’s not even the most “out there” aspect of the music. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
In this strange in-between period of days separating one holiday and another, between the final gasps of the Old Year and the first whimpers of the New One, we still have a few premieres to share with you. This one, in particular, will make it even easier to lose track of what day it is… and whatever else your confused minds might have been pondering.
The Atlanta death metal band Metaphobic weren’t playing games when they named their debut album Deranged Excruciations. They were being brutally forthright about the nature of the music they made, as you shall learn for yourselves when you listen to this first advance track from the album — “Spectral Circle” — a couple months before the album release by Everlasting Spew. Continue reading »
(Written by Islander)
In March of this nearly-ended year we premiered a full stream of Ego Sum Dolor, the fourth album to emerge, after four years of work, from the Saint Petersburg death metal band Monastery Dead. It was co-released by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Australis Records (Chile). And today we have a couple of reminders of what a strong album it was (and is), including our premiere of a thrilling full-band playthrough video of Monastery Dead performing the album track “Revelation.”
But the first reminder, if you’ll indulge me, is to repeat a few things we wrote in a review accompanying that album stream last March:
If your Latin is rusty, the album’s title translate to “I am pain”, or perhaps “I am in pain”. Consistent with that title, the concept of the album is described as follows:
This is a story about a man doomed to experience all the suffering and torment destined for him in his life, here and now. He bears the burden of merciless retribution, which, like stigmata, he acquired by birthright, experiences pain and inflicts pain, is obsessed with destruction and destroys himself. His own wounds and those of his victims will never heal and will bleed forever.
Or to put it more succinctly: “The basis of the concept of the release is the idea that the real hell is our current existence on Earth.” Continue reading »
More than 9 years have passed since their last album Noxkult. In that time they’ve participated in a 2018 split with Djevelkult and Kyy, and in 2021 they released a stunning long single named “Triumphant Silence of Void” (reviewed here) in tribute to the band’s former vocalist Iconoclast, who died earlier that year.
At last, Nihil Kaos have finished a new album named Mystagogue, which includes the performances of new vocalist Tleps (Acherad, Kyy) in addition to those of its other steadfast members. It will be released in the first quarter of 2025 by Mara Productions. It is described as “a harrowing journey into the chaos where the band was born and where we all shall return”: “The power of that chaos, the tragedy of it, the beauty and even the terror of it. From omega and back to omega.”
What we have for you today is the premiere of “Eternal Genesis,” the album’s closing track and the first song publicly revealed from Mystagogue. Continue reading »