FIENDS OF EASTERN THEATERS — PART 2 (SHORTER FORMS)

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Oct 042024
 

(Following up on yesterday’s Part 1, today our Vietnam-based contributor Vizzah Harri brings us Part 2 of an article focused on Asian bands, narrating the effect of four EPs released this year.)

Having succeeded in subverting the norms with not-so-subtle subterfuge in an article containing very little metal in recent weeks – a tactic learned from Waylander of David Gemmell’s fantasy was that of hiding in plain sight — here we have four offerings that are connected to Part 1 geographically, but also aesthetically, albeit genre-wise we’re dealing with offerings of a more mongrelized persuasion. Anything suffixed with ‘core’ is a curse word in some circles, I prefer to spread the mycelium- and spongiform-afflicted ear holes of mine in myriad directions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BILE CASTER — “WRITHING BETWEEN BIRTH AND DEATH”

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Oct 022024
 

(written by Islander)

“Nasty, miserable, no-nonsense sludge played at maximum volume with a focus on what is shit in life.” That’s the elevator pitch that Cursed Monk Records throws for Writhing Between Birth And Death, the debut EP from the UK band Bile Caster, and it hits the mark.

This Leicester-based trio, who might draw comparisons to the likes of Primitive Man and Meth Drinker, specialize in ugly, angry, primitive music that slugs hard enough to rupture spleens and is bleak enough that it might leave damaged souls looking for a permanent way out.

The new EP also has the capacity to leave anyone who survives it feeling dazed. It’s too ruthless to be truly entrancing, but the shock-and-awe effect may be enough to leave people feeling incapacitated, wondering what the hell they’re going to do while waiting for their reptile brains to yield back control of the higher faculties. Continue reading »

A DGR REVIEW ARCHIVE: WURM FLESH, EXORBITANT PRICES MUST DIMINISH, ORPHEUS OMEGA, SERPENTHEIR, COLACON

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Sep 262024
 


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 »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ASPHALT GRIEVING / IFRIT / WALKING WOUNDED

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Sep 252024
 

(Andy Synn presents three fresh flavours of heaviness for you to – hopefully – enjoy)

In light of how long and wordy my write-up of the newIngurgitating Oblivion was yesterday I decided that today I’d focus instead of a handful of shorter, and simpler, releases from recent weeks – both as a way of giving my brain a little bit of a rest and because I’ve been pretty lax about covering EPs this year.

So, let’s not waste any time and get right to it, shall we?

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAMMERFILOSOFI — “SOLUS”

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Sep 122024
 

(written by Islander)

Tomorrow, on the first Friday the 13th of 2024, ATMF will release a new EP by the Italian/Norwegian duo Hammerfilosofi. Its full name is SOLUS (Igne Natura Renovator Integra).

The EP follows by almost exactly one year the band’s first release and debut album The Desolate One, which we premiered here, calling it ” fanatical, fiery, and frightening,” but also “a harrowing esoteric process of liberation and elevation.”

ATMF portrays the new EP as “four psalms of relentless, multi-layered, and hellish madness,” and the band’s NKTFR describes it as “an inward journey of spiritual violence and cathartic soul-searching,” picking up from where The Desolate One left off: “Both musically and conceptually we want to bring back some of that rebellious pride, wrath, and danger – some Blood, Fire, and Death – that for us are mandatory ingredients in Black Metal.”

As we did for the album, today we present SOLUS… from beginning to end. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ANTE-INFERNO, ANTIKVLT, SKOGNATT, ANOMALIE, YOTH IRIA

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Sep 082024
 

Yesterday I bemoaned the trouble that weeks ending in Bandcamp Friday’s create for me in trying to compile the usual Saturday roundup for NCS. It creates similar troubles for picking music to recommend in these Shades of Black collections: just way too much potentially interesting stuff to check out.

Yesterday I tried to compensate (only slightly) by stuffing a greater-than-usual number of new songs into the roundup. For better or worse, I don’t have time to do that today — below you’ll find only four advance tracks and one new EP. I hope you like all of it, or at least find some one thing to brighten (i.e., darken) your day.

ANTE-INFERNO (UK)

In the fall of this year Ante-Inferno will release their third album in what is developing as a steady every-two-years sequence (our own Andy Synn reviewed their first two albums here and here). Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS ON A SATURDAY

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Sep 072024
 

From midnight on Thursday to midnight on Friday we received 221 e-mails about recent and forthcoming heavy metal releases. That’s not counting the e-mails that were just trying to sell us clothing or physical editions of records that have been out for a while, or to announce tours and shows, or to promote music that’s utterly foreign to anything we cover here (no idea how we get on some of these distribution lists).

That’s what Bandcamp Fridays do to our in-box, and the same thing happens on social media. It’s no longer surprising. Bands and labels know that lots of metalheads wait for these days when more of the money they spend will go to bands and labels. But it sure as hell makes me feel like I’m drowning when I look for things to include in Saturday roundups following Bandcamp Fridays.

And that’s not counting all the new songs and videos that were already on my plate before Friday arrived. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DRAGSHOLM — “SORROW HEXEN”

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Sep 052024
 

(written by Islander)

“Blackened Death Metal for fans of Dissection, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Sacramentum and Vinterland“. That’s how Horror Pain Gore Death Productions hails the music on the third EP from New Jersey’s Dragsholm, which the label will release tomorrow (September 6th).

That turns out to be a meaningful set of reference points for the four songs on Sorrow Hexen. And that title of the EP is a good reference point in itself, conjuring thoughts of both melancholia and the occult, both of which are features of the music’s atmosphere — though there are other features as well.

You’ll have an opportunity to experience everything Dragsholm bring to the table on Sorrow Hexen, here on the eve of its release, because we’ve got a full stream for you below. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ARKONA, GROZA, GAEREA, AETHYRICK, SVRM, EZKATON

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Aug 252024
 


Arkona

(written by Islander)

Yesterday I read a story about a recent lobster-boat race across Casco Bay along the coast of Maine. It was won by a man and his 14-year-old daughter, with his daughter at the wheel of their 32-foot diesel-powered fishing boat. The man summarized their race strategy to a reporter: “Point it and punch it!”

Today’s collection includes new music from black metal bands who follow a similar strategy, but it also includes music that reveals a different strategy, something more like “slow it and sink it” (and maybe set it on fire first).

What ties all the music together is the presence of emotionally moving melodies and often the achievement of a certain scale and sweep (vast). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GIGAN, OLD MACHINES, FURNACE, SOLUS REX, ENDLESS CHAIN, LUSCA, KOBOLD, THE HYPOTHESIS, NARKOSE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 242024
 


Gigan

(written by Islander)

Poor you, I had lots of time on my hands yesterday, and so made my way through a lot more music than I’m usually able to do, and even had enough time to spill a bunch of words, like kernels from a violently ruptured grain silo.

With this much music in a weekly roundup, I often default to mentally un-taxing organizational strategies like alphabetization. But not today. I made these choices because of connections, and organized them in the way they connected for me. You’ll get it or you won’t, but as always, I hope you find one or more things you’re really glad you found, in whatever order it comes. Continue reading »

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