SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (PART I): LÖMSK, DJEVEL, DEUS MORTEM, GHOULHOUSE, SVARTKONST

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Nov 022024
 


Lömsk

(written by Islander)
Halloween (or Samhein if you prefer) is in the calendar’s rear-view mirror but not out of my head yet. That’s the best way I can explain why I picked some of the selections for this roundup, and not just the ones that sound hellish but perhaps especially the ones that are carried by (gasp!) clean singing. Many of the songs were actually released on Halloween.

There’s again a lot to see and hear today, so much so that I again divided the collection into two Parts, with Part II coming in an hour or two from now. But rather than default to alphabetizing the picks, I organized things based on what I was hearing, to create a little flow, a river of greater and lesser turbulence and gloom.

P.S. Happy Día de los Muertos.

P.P.S. If you live in the U.S., don’t forget to roll your clocks back an hour before you go to sleep tonight. Also, fucking plan to vote if you haven’t already voted early! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY, PART II: H-W

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Oct 272024
 

(written by Islander)

Moving on from yesterday’s Part I of the usual weekend roundup, I’m starting with the next letter of the band-name alphabet and continuing through W (no X, Y, or Z bands in this collection).

I mentioned yesterday that I had a few complete releases in this collection, in addition to all the singles, but I realized that one I thought had come out on Friday isn’t actually out yet, so I’ll push that one to a subsequent weekend.

But the first band today does have a complete release to their name, and it’s an interesting one. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY, PART I: A-G

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Oct 262024
 

(written by Islander)

We’re creeping toward the end of 2024, not too far away from the time when the denizens of our miserable site and the visitors who come slumming here will begin focusing on year-end lists. But there’s still more than two months to go before we ring in 2025, and a lot of new music is still coming out, and will come out.

I was brutally reminded of that fact when trying to sort out what to recommend today, especially because a short vacation prevented me from making as big a compilation last week as I usually do. By the time I had sorted out what I thought would be worth exploring with you today, I had 16 picks, far too many to cram into a single column.

So, I divided this giant collection into two parts. Rather than try to figure out what kind of musical flow might make sense, I took the easy road and alphabetized everything. This post is roughly the first half. Roughly the second half will arrive tomorrow, barring some personal catastrophe. And I have ambitions to bring forth another SHADES OF BLACK collection tomorrow as well, but we’ll see. Might be a case of biting off more than I can chew.

In the meantime, chew on these choices. Most of them in this two-parter are singles, but with a few complete releases in the mix. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANDROÏD OF KRYPTON, ALTAR OV ASTERIA, SLUAGH, DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD

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Oct 192024
 

 


Mandroïd of Krypton – photo by Rebecca Bowring

By the time you read this I will have left home early this Saturday morning on a quick three-day vacation. I mean, really early, so I didn’t have time to write much, and I stabbed these songs off my gigantic list pretty quickly and impulsively.

But that doesn’t mean the songs aren’t excellent, because they are. In fact I impulsively stabbed them because each one of them shivved me right fast and deep.

Due to the vacation, the odds are high that there won’t be a SHADES OF BLACK on Sunday, and we might not have much to throw at you on Monday either. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: VIDRES A LA SANG, GOLGOTHAN REMAINS, APOSTASIE, EUCLIDIAN, BOMBUS, [4672], SOLAR WIMP, HEXENBRETT, GLORIOUS WOUNDS, YUNCLAS

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Oct 122024
 


Vidres a la Sang

(written by Islander)

Last week I came across the word “Alician” for the first time. Pronounced similarly to “elysian”, it means “Surreal, whimsical, or illogical.” Maybe you can guess by now that it’s based on the character Alice, the heroine of Lewis Carroll’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

By coincidence the word came back to me as I was sifting through a big pile of music in order to make choices for this Saturday roundup. It came back to me because at some point I began to feel like I was tumbling farther and farther down a rabbit-hole, coming across one thing after another that really did sound “surreal, whimsical, or illogical”.

We’ll get to those songs, because I hung onto them, but not right away. Right away, we’ll get to something much more serious — unsettling in a different way. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CREST OF DARKNESS, SLECHTVALK, DOEDSMAGHIRD, [4672], BULLHEAD, GRUZJA

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Oct 092024
 

(written by Islander)

I found enough time enough to pull together another mid-week roundup of new songs and videos. I picked all of these on Monday and started scribbling about them then, hoping to post this collection sooner than today. In the meantime, a lot of other new things have caught my attention, but those will have to wait ’til Saturday.

The first two of the songs and videos below are heart-pounders and neck-wreckers of different kinds, and then the music begins to twist and turn in increasingly bizarre directions. By sheer coincidence, none of the bands is from the U.S. By design, I again threw a curveball at you with the final selection. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BLACK CURSE, GREAT FALLS, DROWNSHIP, POLEMICIST, THE WEIR, LYSERGIC

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Oct 052024
 


Black Curse – photo by Brendan Macleod

A few times a year my spouse leaves town without me, jetting away to have fun with one of her sisters or a friend. I could join if I wanted to, but have figured out that giving her some breaks from me is a good idea. I give her some other breaks when I go off to metal fests without her (she’d rather be punched in the kidneys than go to a metal show).

These times when I’m home alone are clouds with silver linings. It doesn’t take long before I start really missing her. The sudden and prolonged silence around the house starts weighing on me. One of the silver linings is that I fill up the silence with music whenever I want to (my kind of music), and fill it up some more by spilling out thoughts about what I’m hearing.

You could guess that my spouse has been gone on one of those trips since early last week, given that I’ve now managed to pull together three roundups of new music and videos in the space of the last four days. She’ll be back home this afternoon, so I’ll most likely be back to doing these once a week on Saturdays until she plans another jaunt. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BEHEMOTH, PESTILENT HEX, DEIVOS, SOUL DEVOURMENT, CKRAFT, SOULSKINNER, TALES OF BLOOD, THORNLORD

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Oct 042024
 

“BC Friday. Go spend money.” That’s what a fellow metal writer posted early this morning in a chat group I’m part of, populated by a bunch of other metal writers from print and on-line spaces. From my observation, they do that every Bandcamp Friday, sharing in the group what they’ve bought, proving they did it and suggesting spendy ideas to the others, even though all of them get free promos of most records they’re interested in.

Well, I’m not going to exhort all of you to go spend money on Bandcamp today. Ends must be made to meet, and for some, the ends don’t include paying for music you can listen to for free. But for those who do like to take advantage of these Fridays and shove a few extra coins across the table to needy metal bands and labels (which is about 95% of them), I’ve got a few more ideas for you — in addition to the gazillion other ideas we’ve offered up on every one of the 28 days since the last Bandcamp Friday. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (HEADSPIN EDITION): MITOCHONDRION, AVHATH & KUNTARI, RINTRAH, THE HOLY FLESH, HIGH INQUISITOR WOE, DUKH DÄKOMPOSITA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 022024
 


Mitochondrion

(written by Islander)

With my wife out of town visiting one of her sisters and me having gotten a head-start on the premieres I’d committed to write for today, I found myself with a rare chunk of time to go musically exploring yesterday, and to prepare this rare mid-week roundup.

Entirely by coincidence, most of what I listened to was head-spinning in different ways (as you can tell by the post title). I think it’s fair to call all of the following songs unconventional, and maybe even experimental in some respects, including the ones that feature singing (and yes, some of these are “exceptions to the rule” around here).

But lest you think I’m about to load you up with many melodious things, let’s incinerate that assumption immediately. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: THAW, THUMOS, THUNRAZ, THE CURE, DISFIGURE, MARTERPÆL, KEITZER

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 282024
 

Last week I filled up this column with 16 songs from 15 bands, all but two of those tracks from forthcoming records. This week I’ve taken a different tack, recommending some complete new records and singles, and fewer advance songs.

With a smaller number of bands I also decided not to arrange things in alphabetical order, other than three in a row at the start for groups whose names share a couple of opening consonants. And to break things up I stuck a curveball in the middle instead of at the end. Continue reading »

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