AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HARKANE — “ARGO”

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Dec 122024
 

(written by Islander)

When I was a very young lad my mother gave me an illustrated book of Greek myths. One of the tales that especially captivated me was the legend of Jason and the Argoanuts’ quest for the Golden Fleece. Later, I was equally captivated by the classic film Jason and the Argonauts, which featured stop-motion animation visual effects by the great Ray Harryhausen.

I didn’t know then, and only learned recently thanks to the Italian band Harkane, that the principle source material for this legend was an epic Greek poem, The Argonautica, written in the third century BC by Apollonius Rhodius, who served as a scholar and librarian at the great Library of Alexandria.

I learned this because Harkane have made an ambitious concept album entitled Argo, soon to be released by the Dusktone label, that itself narrates this epic adventure, with express credit given to Appollonius. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: BØNES, FUMES, KRIEG, WITHDRAWAL, LYCOPOLIS, NECRODEATH, PILLAR AMONGST WILLOWS, PLAGUEWIELDER, TER ZIELE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 082024
 

I had time to pull together a large collection of music for this usual Sunday post, but not enough time to pull together the usual long-winded introduction. So we’ll just have to get right to it (please, stop applauding).

As I did in yesterday’s roundup, I organized the choices in alphabetical order by band name. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ABDUCTION, ANCIENT TOME, FANE, MONASTR, MONTE PENUMBRA, PHRENELITH, RELICS OF HUMANITY, VIOLET COLD

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 072024
 


Abduction – photo by Jack Armstrong

(written by Islander)

Bandcamp Friday would have been a better time for this roundup, but I couldn’t get it done in time. Yesterday was the last one of those for 2024, and it’s not clear if Bandcamp will keep it going next year. They announced the 2024 schedule on March 11th of this year, so it’s really too early to say. Obviously, a big horde of us hope Bandcamp continues the tradition.

Well, near misses only count in horseshoes and hand grenades, so my near miss with this roundup probably doesn’t count. Still, even with Friday gone, picking up the releases collected below won’t cost you anything more, even though less of the purchase money will go to the labels and artists.

Once again I resorted to arranging the music in alphabetical order by band name. To the extent there’s any musical through-line here, anything that explains why I picked these songs instead of the many others I considered, it might be that they all made me… uncomfortable… in different ways. And it turns out that the arrangement will throw you back and forth, tempo-wise. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TETHRA — “WITHERED HEART STANDING”

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Dec 052024
 

On December 6th — tomorrow! — Meuse Music Records will release Withered Heart Standing, a magnificent new album by the Italian melancholic doom/death metal band Tethra, and it’s our pleasure to give you an advance listen today.

Over the course of eight songs, from “Liminal” through “Commiato,” the album both builds a dark, monumental, and ornately adorned edifice and holds out a fragile bleeding heart. It hits very hard, and it drifts like shining seas or wafting clouds. It becomes brazenly defiant, even furious, and it collapses on its knees, like a stricken soul stripped of everything dear but memory. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: ANTE-INFERNO / EARTHBOUND / WARPSTORMER

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Dec 052024
 

(Andy Synn presents three more of his favourite home-grown heroes)

Well, here we are… it’s almost time for “List Week” (there might even be a little preview coming tomorrow).

But before we get there I wanted to sneak in one last edition of “The Best of British” to highlight three recently-released albums which are sure to tantalise your musical tastebuds.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SUMMONING SATURN VOIDS (SELF-TITLED)

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 042024
 

(written by Islander)

What madness is this?!?

No doubt with grinning faces, Summoning Saturn Voids describe their lineup as an “intergalactic covenant” that features “clones and doppelgangers stolen from earthly bands like Aborym, Darkend, Drakkar, The Headless Ghost, and Daemoniac (plus a quite well renowned gentleman from Norway).”

Possibly still with grinning faces, but possibly not, they describe their musical mission this way:

“The Summoning Saturn Voids project was born from a desire to create a musical time machine.

“Bringing a black metal singer into the future, immersed in sidereal and cosmic sounds and then catapulting him into the 70’s, jamming with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler…. The potion thus evoked is at the same time spirited and punishing, grim and melancholic, reeking of 70’s era Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and… well, you will surely find out.” Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AXIOMA — “LIVE TOTALITY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 042024
 

(written by Islander)

In April of this year the Cleveland post-black metal band Axioma traveled to Lorain, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie, to witness a solar eclipse. But they didn’t just witness it, they simultaneously provided their own soundtrack for it.

Building up to the eclipse and continuing through it, they performed an extensive instrumental piece on the lakeshore that they’d written for the occasion, aptly named “Live Totality“, and some friends filmed it, creating a video that includes gorgeous overhead scenes of the band’s setting and the lake.

On December 6th, through their label Stained Glass Torments, Axioma will release that song on a vinyl and digital EP that shares the song’s name. The EP includes three more subsequently recorded tracks, and we have all the songs for you to stream today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME — “DIAGENESIS”

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Dec 032024
 

(written by Islander)

No matter how “niche” they may be, every genre of extreme metal includes variations on the themes that give them their names. That’s why, as time has passed, most of them have been categorically sub-divided, with an ever-increasing use of hyphenated naming conventions.

Few genres are more “niche” than funeral doom. No doubt, it has intensely devoted fans, but, with very rare exceptions, it has never been “popular” and probably never will be. In the imagination of most listeners, the music is too slow, too superficially simple, too appallingly bleak, and usually with track lengths that are too long for anything remotely approaching mass consumption.

Yet even in such a niche genre variations abound, though its popular reach is so limited that people haven’t reached very far for hyphenated or slashed sub-conventions. That doesn’t mean we can’t try, and for the sheer hell of it we will try to find one that suits Diagenesis, the latest album by the mysterious Belgian entity Until Death Overtakes Me which we’re premiering today in advance of its December 6 release by Aesthetic Death. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, NOVEMBER 2024

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Dec 032024
 

(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo weighs in below with reviews of three albums released in November 2024 that he heartily recommends.)

We’re rapidly approaching everyone’s favorite time around here (or most stressful, depending on who you ask) and that time, of course, is Listmania, where our dignified group of NCS scribes, contributors, friends, and an assortment of others all sound off on their favorite releases of 2024.

Before all that unfolds, though, I wanted to squeeze in one last monthly roundup of new music. Why? Because everyone should have something to read on the toilet if they need to avoid asshole family members during the holidays.

You’re welcome. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Dec 022024
 

(Andy Synn highlights three of the more unusual albums from November)

This time next week we’ll have begun my annual round-up of “The Year in Review(s)” – which means right now I’m elbow-deep in the running document (which I’ve kept mostly up to date over the last twelve-ish months) of every single record I’ve heard during 2024.

There’s no guarantee, of course, that they’ll all end up being featured next week – the “short-list” currently stands at just under 400 albums, although I’m sure that number will come down a bit as I decide that I just don’t have a strong enough opinion about certain releases to include them in good conscience (it’s not about the quantity, after all, it’s about being able to present you, our readers, with some representation of each album’s quality) – but there’s still a lot of work to be done, and not much time left in which to do it.

That being said… I do plan on sneaking in a few more reviews before “List Week” officially commences, including this triptych of unorthodox delights from last month which you may well have missed!

Continue reading »

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