LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (THY DARKENED SHADE, ACRIMONIOUS) — PART IV

 LISTMANIA 2017  3 Responses »
Jan 102018
 


Artwork by V.I

 

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the fourth and final. Part I, in which Semjaza listed his 10 most-listened-to albums, is here; Part II, which included additional inspirational releases, is here; Part III, which listed favorite EPs, demos, and splits, is here.)

 

Non-metal most-listened releases

  Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (THY DARKENED SHADE, ACRIMONIOUS) — PART III

 LISTMANIA 2017  7 Responses »
Jan 092018
 


Artwork by V.I

 

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the third. Part I, in which Semjaza listed his 10 most-listened-to albums, is here, and Part II, which included additional inspirational releases, is here.)

 

Most-listened EPs, Demos, and Splits

Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (THY DARKENED SHADE, ACRIMONIOUS) — PART II

 LISTMANIA 2017  5 Responses »
Jan 082018
 


Artwork by V.I

 

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the second. Part I, in which Semjaza listed his 10 most-listened-to albums, is here.)

 

Additional inspiring metal albums

 

I am one of those who respected the devoutness of Ancient Records since the very first steps of the label. Swartadauþuz and Sir N. decided to continue separate ways but they both still release great spiritual art. In order not to spam the list with most of their releases, I decided to state that one simply ought to buy their releases.

Listen here: https://mysticismproductions.bandcamp.com/

and here: https://svartrit.bandcamp.com/ Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (OF THY DARKENED SHADE AND ACRIMONIOUS)

 LISTMANIA 2017  11 Responses »
Jan 022018
 

 

 

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the first.)

 

Upon contemplating which albums I listened to and bought this year, I comprehended that the list is vast. I don’t view my lists at NCS as the regular end-year lists since I am not completely interested in that. This is an opportunity to spread the message and, along with it, some of the releases that spoke to me each year. This is by no means a way to review these albums. With the over-flooding of the mainstream, I see lists including the same albums over and over again. That’s one of the core reasons I decided to appear regularly at a web-zine like NCS.

With that being stated, I prefer a no year list than another tasteless list with the same bands that engulf the magazines and the internet. It is infrequently that a list can do anything to me personally. Some of us are here to prove that brain-dead paid reviews or public relationship praise aren’t the solitary reasons to write such articles. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ACRIMONIOUS — “QAYIN REX MORTIS”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

On the 20th of March W.T.C. Productions will reveal the third album by the Greek band Acrimonious, bearing a title that’s manifested without words in the record’s striking cover art: Eleven Dragons. In 67 minutes the album encompasses 11 songs, and we have for you today the premiere of the seventh of those, “Qayin Rex Mortis“.

The roots of Acrimonious reach back in time to 2002, though by 2011 changes had occurred in the creative forces behind the name, with founding member Cain Letifer (vocals, guitar) then joined by Semjaza of Thy Darkened Shade as second guitarist and C. Docre on drums. In that configuration Acrimonious released their second album, Sunyata, which made an impact akin to a meteor strike on the mind of this listener (and many others).

It has been a long wait for this trio to stoke the flames of Satanic chaos again, but now they’ve done it, and though I wouldn’t have expected it, Eleven Dragons surpasses even the high pinnacle reached by Sunyata. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ACRIMONIOUS, METALTOWER, NETHERBIRD, AMIENSUS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 232016
 

acrimonious-eleven-dragons

 

Here are a select group of new and varied songs I discovered over the last 24 hours that I think are well worth your time.

ACRIMONIOUS

Almost four years have passed since the release of Sunyata, the second album by the Greek black metal band Acrimonious. That album was my own introduction to the band, and also one of my favorite releases of 2012. And so it was a very welcome surprise to find out yesterday that Acrimonious will be releasing a new album, the name of which is Eleven Dragons. As you can see, it features striking cover art by Vamperess Imperium. Continue reading »

POWERLESS, PART 1: CONVERGE, ACRANIA, ACRIMONIOUS, AND AMENDFOIL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 202012
 

I stayed home from work yesterday. I picked a bad day to do that. Yesterday afternoon we lost power on our island due to a really nasty day-long storm that raged through the Puget Sound area. We got the generator going, but the DSL service in our area went down at the same time the power did, and it didn’t come back before I went to bed. This morning, the power and the DSL were both back.

The experience vividly demonstrated how obsessive I’ve become about this fucking blog. Being disconnected from the internet for about 12 hours prevented me from keeping up with what was happening in the world of metal. I experienced feelings of anxiety and intense frustration. I didn’t know what to do with myself.

It got so bad that I drove in the darkness  through the driving wind and rain to the ferry terminal, where the power was on and an internet connection was available. I sat there for about 30 minutes, getting this morning’s first post ready to appear automatically and doing a bit of web surfing, and then decided I shouldn’t leave my wife alone in our powerless house any longer and went home. Fucking sick, that’s what I am. I need help of some kind.

This morning I spent hours catching up on what I missed while the net connection was down. I found dozens of interesting-looking things. Even after winnowing out the ones that turned out to be less interesting than they first appeared to be, I still have more shit to share than would manageably fit in one post, so I’m dividing them into three posts, of which this is the first. I’m going to cover the new music and videos in alphabetical order.

But before diving in, here’s one piece of breaking news: Year-end listmania is almost upon us, and it begins with DECIBEL magazine selecting All We Love We Leave Behind by Converge as its Album of the Year. Here’s the proof, as it appeared on the Converge Facebook page: Continue reading »