SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CRYPTOPSY, GRIDLINK, RINGWORM, PHANTOM LUNG, CLOUDS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 082023
 

I don’t work regular hours for my “day job” (in quotes because it can require night hours too, because it’s irregular). The upside is that it usually gives me time for NCS in the early part of the day when I do most of what I do around here. The downside is that it sometimes inserts itself unexpectedly, like on a Saturday morning of all fucking times, which is what happened to me today, never mind that it’s also my birthday (please hold your applause).

So, getting a late start on this roundup means it’s not as fulsome as it should be. I was able to manage more than two songs (which was the sum total of what yesterday’s roundup provided), but not many more. But they’re good ones!

CRYPTOPSY (Canada)

Cryptopsy are one of those bands that I think all of the steady contributors to our site have enjoyed for a long time (at least I can speak for myself, DGR, and Mr. Synn). So the news of a new Cryptopsy album and song popped up in our secret discussions very quickly. So that’s where we’ll start… with the video for that new song, “In Abeyance” (especially because it gives us a chance to show off some more of Paolo Girardi‘s artwork at the top of the page). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CLOUDS — “DEEPEN THIS WOUND”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 102021
 

 

The internationally composed doom-stricken band Clouds have amassed a large and devoted following among listeners on the strength of five albums released beginning in 2014, and their sixth one is now set for release on October 14th. Its title is Despărțire (the Romanian word for parting).

The album was created by a slightly revised line-up, and it includes guest vocal performances by both Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride and Mick Moss of Antimatter. Further details will be disclosed in the near future, but what we have for you today is the premiere of a stunning album track named “Deepen This Wound“, accompanied by a video for which a warning has been provided. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: BLACK CURSE, HORNWOOD FELL, CZERŃ, LESSER GLOW, TERRESTRIAL HOSPICE, AEONIAN SORROW-CLOUDS, THE COMET IS COMING, AYYUR, HEGEMONY

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 092020
 

 

Here we go again. I decided not to alphabetize the bands today, but focused instead on structuring this a bit like a playlist of new music, with some ebb and flow and movement among genres as you go through it. I also threw in a curveball, as you’ll see.

BLACK CURSE (U.S.)

Chaotic, violent black/death with mutilating levels of distortion and explosive skull-busting rhythms, coupled with an amalgam of malevolent roars, grotesque growls, unhinged shrieks, and freaked-out, ear-shredding leads. The music also devolves into massive doom stomps saturated by musical misery and accented by gouts of splintering pain. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ENSLAVED, CLOUDS, COYOTE MAN, ESOCTRILIHUM, EXITIUM SUI, FORHEKSA, HENRY KANE, SÖLICITÖR, SHAPE OF WATER, VOODUS, ULCERATE, WITCHES HAMMER

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 262020
 

 

If you’re okay with this, I’m just going to continue pulling together big batches of new songs, with only brief introductions. Not that I would know one way or the other what you think. But please trust me — I’m not having to bend over backwards to find so many songs and videos to recommend. As it always is, even when I’m including more rather than less, you’re still seeing only a fraction of the new music that fires me up.

I did make one exception to my usual rule of not publishing news if it’s not accompanied by music, because Enslaved is always in a special category. After that, the bands are listed in alphabetical order. There are a couple of exceptions to another rule in here too.

ENSLAVED (Norway)

The news is that Enslaved have completed a new album named Utgard, but that they and their label Nuclear Blast have decided to postpone the release until the coming fall. The first single, and an accompanying video (filmed in Iceland), will be released on May 22nd. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CLOUDS — “EMPTY HEARTS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 102020
 

 

Daniel Neagoe, the alter ego of Clouds, has explained that after the release of the 2018 album Dor he felt that the band had reached its inevitable consummation, and that nothing remained for him to say through Clouds. It was time to let it rest. And then one of life’s tragedies disrupted those plans.

In particular, Neagoe lost a parent to cancer, after first bearing witness to months of continuous torment. As he has written, seeing the fear, the panic, the pain, the delusions, and the helplessness of a parent, and the shame that comes to a loved one unable to take care of their most personal and private needs, is itself a terrible experience, made all the more frightening by the “the constant fear that one day they will close their eyes forever”. And of course, after struggling to be as much a comfort as possible, that fear became a reality for him.

This wrenching experience led to the rebirth of Clouds, and to the new album Durere, which was released on March 1st. It represents, in Neagoe’s words, “a part of a soul going out to another soul”. And that is what it sounds like, though the souls who may now receive and benefit from it still breathe. Continue reading »

2018 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE CRITICAL TOP TEN

 Album Reviews, LISTMANIA 2018  20 Responses »
Dec 132018
 

 

(Andy Synn‘s week-long round-up of metal in 2018 continues with this list of his picks for the year’s ten best albums across a range of metal genres — one of which hasn’t been released yet and is reviewed here.)

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that any attempt to craft a “Top Ten” list that represents the wide variety and near-infinite density of the modern Extreme Metal scene is doomed to failure. There’s simply too much of it, too many different competing styles and sub-genres, for a mere ten albums to cover.

That doesn’t stop me trying every year though, so what you’re about to read is my latest effort to capture a clean snapshot of the very best of the best from the past twelve months.

Interestingly this list seems to differ significantly from the various other sites and zines I’ve been keeping an eye on, though that’s not by conscious design. It also skews in a surprisingly “progressive” direction overall, which is not something I anticipated when I first began trying to piece it together, with a massive 70% of the albums featured here making use of clean vocals in some form or another.

In demographic terms, this year’s list features two entries from the USA, two entries from Germany, one from Portugal, one from Iceland, and three from the UK – which, again, wasn’t by design – as well as one international collective whose members come from all across Europe.

It also runs the gamut of practically the entire twelve-month period, with the “oldest” album on here having been released all the way back in the first week of January, while the “youngest” entry won’t even be out until the 21st of December! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KOSTAS PANAGIOTOU (PANTHEIST, TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 012018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview of Kostas Panagiotou of Pantheist, whose latest album was released on September 14th by Melancholic Realm Productions, and Towards Atlantis Lights, whose first album was released earlier this year by Transcending Obscurity.)

I bet every doom metal fan knows Pantheist. Started as funeral doom studio project in 2000 by Kostas Panagiotou, it has grown to the size of a full band and went through a series of stylistically metamorphoses. After seven years of secret workings since their last album, Pantheist have returned with an updated lineup and a new full-length album, Seeking Infinity. Besides that, Kostas managed to take part in the international doom project Towards Atlantis Lights, whose first album Dust Of Aeons saw the light of day in March 2018 through Transcending Obscurity Records.

In light of these events, it seemed there were several questions that we should ask Kostas, and so we did. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CLOUDS, WITCHERY, GRAVEBOMB, POHJOISEN SOTURIT, DO SKONU, DAVID BOWIE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 222016
 

clouds-departe

 

Greetings brethren and sistren on this beautiful Saturday. At least it’s beautiful where I am, deep in the heart of Texas, where I’ve been visiting family members the last couple of days. In fact, it’s such a beautiful morning that I felt compelled to ugly it up with new metal. I found some good ways to do that, which you will hear below, and I found one other surprise, too.

But before we get to music that will bruise the day, I’m beginning this collection with something that’s as beautiful in its own way as this morning. And before I get to THAT song, I’ll leave you with YouTube links to some new music and videos that appeared just yesterday from the following bands, though I’m not writing about them here: Hail Spirit Noir; Madder Mortem; and Dark Tranquillity. I’ll also embed the videos at the end of this post if you’d rather not leave our humble site to hear and see them.

CLOUDS

I thank Grant Skelton for alerting me to this first song, which appeared about five days ago. Its name is “How Can I Be There” and it’s from Departe, the second album by the band Clouds. Continue reading »