(Andy Synn presents three more artful examples of the Best of British)
There are three things which the three bands featured in today’s article all share:
One… they’re all British (though I suppose that’s obvious).
Two… they’ve all got eye-catching, instantly memorable, double-barrelled names.
And three… they’re all really fucking good.
(A festival, a move between towns, and a hurricane have slowed but not stalled Daniel Barkasi‘s preparation of monthly album reviews, and today he rejoins us with a selection of eight recommended albums that saw the light of day in August.)
This is the summer that doesn’t end. Yes, it goes on and on, my friend. Yeah, I’m making my own version of the song from Lamb Chop. If you don’t know the one, I weep for your childhood, but also give a nod to your sanity. The song doesn’t end, after all. Here in the swamp that is Florida, Summer doesn’t really end a whole lot. Maybe that’s why I listen to The Midnight so much – their album Endless Summer is where the title of this column is coming from, after all. We’re not here to speak about synthwave – though that’s a subject that this guy could go on about in perpetuity. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn presents a collection of four six killer cuts from last month you may have overlooked)
Today’s edition of “Things You May Have Missed (But Shouldn’t)” is a little larger than usual – six artists/albums rather than the normal four – because it was utterly impossible to keep up with the overwhelming torrent of new records that came out in September (and I’m not just talking about all the “big” releases).
Hell, just to get it down to just six bands I had to leave the likes of Ars Veneficium, Convictive, Glare of the Sun, Servant, Ubiquity, and more on the proverbial cutting room floor… so if you’re still looking for stuff to check out after listening to all the albums in this article then there’s a few more names to lend your ear to!
(NCS contributor Gonzo usually helps us close the end of months with a collection of reviews, and he does so again today, but this time focusing on just two albums, both of them created by bands from Denver.)
This won’t be news to most of you, so I’ll get right to it –
The rolling thunder of the Denver metal scene cannot be denied. It’s been on a powerful sort of kick in the 2020s, and few American cities can rival the raw talent and creativity that constantly comes pouring out of it. I know this because I live here. Between the crushing ubiquity of heavy music and craft beer, this place is a veritable haven for people who wear battle jackets to bars.
And as the metal gods would have it, two new albums from two rising stars in the Denver scene have been released within a week of each other – Glacial Tomb’s Lightless Expanse and Nightwraith’s Divergence – and if you haven’t heard of either band, buckle up motherfuckers – these albums are poised to change that. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
As I did in yesterday’s weekend roundup, for today’s column I’ve chosen a mix of complete new releases and advance tracks from forthcoming records. I’ve also consciously mixed up the musical styles, all of which use black metal as a touchstone but throw other stones at us as well. At the end I’ve also embedded three new videos without commentary; they’re all worth seeing and hearing, even though I haven’t tried to explain why.
P.S. In certain parts of the Christian world today is Michaelmas, feast day of the archangel Michael, who is celebrated for casting the Devil from Heaven. The Devil has had a celebrated career on Earth since then, as today’s music helps prove. Today is also probably the birthday of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the author of Don Quixote, which will always inspire its readers to continue tilting at windmills, which thankfully all of today’s bands are doing. Continue reading »
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 »
(Andy Synn looks to the future with the new album from Germany’s Giver)
Don’t you love it when you stumble across an album that just hits you, out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning?
It’s a fantastic feeling, and one I hope I never lose… especially when it leads me to discover the electrifying Metallic/Melodic/Post- Hardcore of a band like Giver, whose latest release – the powerfully prophetic The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation – absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it.
Beginning in late June of this year we began our own gradual march toward the release of Torrefy‘s new album Necronomisongs. At that point we premiered a startling song from the album named “Enslaved New World” (inspired by the Death Gate Cycle fantasy series), and also reprised a previously released single (equally startling) called “Of Wind and Worm” (inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune). And then in August we brought you the premiere stream of “Street Reaper” (inspired by Stephen King’s Christine).
And now we’re at the end of our march. Necronomisongs will be released tomorrow (September 27th) on the Germany-based Witches Brew label, and today we’re happily sharing a full stream of all the songs. Continue reading »
Wurm Flesh
(As we’ve nearly broken into the final quarter of the year, DGR decided it was a good time to do some more catching up on reviews that have been percolating in his head, and so here are five of them that might collectively scramble your own head.)
While sifting through the pile of music that I’ve been gathering up over the years for these shorter, less officious and stuffy – my preferred writing style – review collectives I’ve found that I often have a small blockage of grind releases building up against the wall. There hasn’t necessarily been a particular overarching guide as to what gets written about and when with these, as it’s more of a panicked attempt to spread the word about a few of them before year-end season hits, and I lock myself in a closet with the laptop and a caffeine-fueled fit of pique and do so much writing that I end up having zero thoughts for a month afterward.
However, this bout is my attempt to help get a few of those out there, as well as to aim for something a little shorter and then round off with two releases from way opposite ends of the spectrum that I’ve been enjoying in between checking out the shiny latest and greatest that have come tumbling down the pipeline over the last few months.
Combining this with an absolutely fucked-up concert slate for my corner of Northern California and you can see exactly where the compulsion for coverage is starting to take over, with the sense that these things need to happen now. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget. That is how memory works. Pain and suffering etch themselves onto your soul, while joy seems to be a fleeting whisper you can barely hold onto. It is this paradox of memory that haunts us all, leaving us to wonder what we are, what we were, and what we might become.”
— The Road by Cormac McCarthy“I stand beneath the open sky, at the setting of the sun. The still waters stretch before me to the distant horizon and the clouds drift slowly across the vast canvas of the sky – a brilliant blending of deepest blues, rich purples, vivid red and warm orange. Yet for all the open vista, the space and freedom, I am trapped; suffocating in a labyrinth of black desperation. The cold walls of insurmountable sorrows and confusion contain me and I am imprisoned by past scars that have become infected, poisoned by the cruel, slow venoms of grief, loss and guilt. I built this maze, but I have long since forgotten the way to freedom…”
— Marche Funèbre
I probably could have left those two quotations and moved right along, without further embellishment, to the premiere stream of Marche Funèbre‘s new album After the Storm (set for release by Ardua Music on September 27th) that we’re hosting today. I had the second one already. Purely by coincidence, I saw the first one shared on social media just as I was finalizing this premiere article. It’s from a devastating and unforgettable work by the late Mr. McCarthy, and seemed entirely suitable to the experience of the album, which is itself often devastating — and I suspect will be very hard to forget as time passes.
On the other hand, those quotations could also be a bit misleading, because it turns out that After the Storm is as vibrant and as heart-pounding as it is heart-aching. Continue reading »