SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GRIMA, A THOUSAND SUFFERINGS, KLUDDE, BODY COUNT, GOSPEL TREMORS, BRÜDNY SKÜRWIEL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 232024
 


Grima (photo credit: Mikhail Yuyukin, Viktor Shkarov, Marat Zaborovskiy)

(written by Islander)

How’s your day going? Well, I hope. Here’s how mine started:

I woke up way earlier than I wanted. I made coffee and went out on my deck to start inhaling it, along with a few smokes. While doing that I read various lengthy narratives of the Game of Thrones series because my wife and I had started binge-watching it for the first time and I was both confused and curious about where it was going (though I’m still confused). I also read a moving and meaningful report on a ceremony in Gettysburg, PA last week to commemorate the 161st anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

I was putting off a daunting task but finally forced myself to get to it, the task of trying to figure out what to put into this roundup, daunting because even though I managed two weekday roundups over recent days my list of candidates was still enormous. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (STILL TOO MANY NAMES TO PUT IN A POST TITLE)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Aug 072021
 

 

By some kind of industry consensus Fridays have become big days for the release of new music. When you stack a Bandcamp Friday on top of that, you get a deluge of biblical proportions. In an effort to keep up with the torrent, I compiled an extra-large roundup yesterday, but even though it included 14 new songs and videos that I enjoyed it still only scratched the surface. So I decided to do it again today, and to go even bigger, though I didn’t quite make it to Z in the alphabet.

Once again, there are a lot of bigger names in this collection, and once again I’ve injected some lesser-knowns as well. I’ve also included some playthrough videos. There’s not a lot of black metal in the mix, but that’s because tomorrow is Sunday, and you know what that means. Don’t you?

A THOUSAND SUFFERINGS (Belgium)

In this first song the dark, folksy, acoustic opening grabbed me, and then I felt both swept aloft and heart-stricken by the ensuing waves of bleak but grand melody and the shattering screams. The sounds are immense, stately, and emotionally crushing, even with the softer, haunting interstitials that arrive. The music boils over into sounds of torment and fury, and becomes almost hallucinatory in its agony, which makes this rendering of black/doom even more powerful. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A THOUSAND SUFFERINGS — “FACES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 082018
 

 

With a 2015 debut album (Burden) and a 2017 split with Marche Funèbre in their review mirror, the Belgian band A Thousand Sufferings are on the brink of returning with a second album, Bleakness, which will be released on November 22nd by Symbol of Domination. It won’t be a happy occurrence, as you might guess from the album’s title and the band’s name, even if you were unfamiliar with their previous creations. But pain and gloom become manifest in different ways through music, just as they do in our lives.

The concoctions of blackened sludge and doom brewed by A Thousand Sufferings is a particularly intense portrayal of disillusionment and death, almost merciless in the scraped-raw immediacy of its maimed and wounding sounds. As displayed through the song we’re premiering today, they channel feelings of betrayal and disgust, torture and fury, with emotionally compelling power — without foregoing the appeal of head-moving rhythms and melodies that will stay with you. Continue reading »