OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 1): ARS MAGNA UMBRAE, ATRAMENTUS, BEDSORE, DAWN OF A DARK AGE, THE INFERNAL SEA, MYRIDIAN, THE OCEAN, PSYCROPTIC, WARATHRON, VOID ROT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 032020
 


Ars Magna Umbrae

 

This is a great day for metal fans to support bands with their money. It’s a harrowing day for metal bloggers like myself.

It’s a great day because Bandcamp is again waiving its share of revenues from sales on its site, which means more money generated from purchases and donations goes directly to bands and labels, some of whom are in turn donating proceeds to charitable causes.

It’s a harrowing day because bands and labels have been releasing a HUMONGOUS AMOUNT OF MUSIC to take advantage of the occasion. Beginning yesterday and continuing today, my in-box has exploded with Bandcamp alerts and press releases, and that’s on top of the usual flood of other new music appearing earlier in the week. There’s no way I can sample all of it. But I’ve sampled some of it, and you see the results in this post — or at least some of them.

What I’ve done here is to collect individual songs and videos for new releases (and a few older ones), arranged in alphabetical order by band name. Many of those releases, but not all, can be purchased or pre-ordered on Bandcamp to take advantage of the revenue-share waiver. In Part 2 I’ll quickly throw out recommendations for complete new releases that would also be good candidates for your Bandcamp purchases. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DKHARMAKHAOZ, WĘDROWCY-TUŁACZE-ZBIEGI, SEER, SORGE, SECTARIAN BLOOM, BEDSORE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
May 202020
 

 

Maybe it’s the mental discombobulation that comes from being basically stuck at home for two and a half months, but I’ve noticed that I’ve started inserting things into these round-ups that don’t fit in with our usual musical interests and that sometimes violate our general (yet historically porous) rule about singing. I don’t want anyone to worry too much about this drift, because extreme underground sounds are always going to be my lodestar, but in today’s collection I’m once again indulging some musical interests that diverge from main lines of NCS.

And yes, there will again be a lot of singing. But just so you don’t get too freaked-out, I’m bookending the collection with some harsher recommendations.

DKHARMAKHAOZ

I found out about this first song just this morning, thanks to a timely message from Rennie (starkweather), who wrote: “Guitar tone is almost like early Portal, but, the bass has far more clank and clatter and then there are chord choices that are more informed by conventional black metal and folk melodies… vocalist sounds like a deadite.” Which made me lament the fact that I haven’t been clever enough to compare vocalists to deadites before. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEDSORE — “AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Aug 222018
 

 

I feel compelled to begin the introduction to this premiere with an uncalled-for comment about the band’s name: Don’t be fooled by it.

At one time or another we’ve all been bedsore, waking up cranky and achy. But sleeping poorly and moving slowly upon rising is such a drab, mundane experience, one you just want to banish with the aid of a gallon of coffee. But there’s nothing mundane about the song you’re about to hear, nothing dull or forgettable. To the contrary, it’s a big eye-opener, an unexpected bolt from the blue that proves to be both mystifying and harrowing, a labyrinthine excursion through a nightmare realm. Continue reading »