AN NCS INTERVIEW: ARGILE

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Jul 232024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ extensive recent interview with Philippe Courtois of Misanthrope fame, with a special focus on the Misanthrope spinoff Argile and the completion this year of Argile‘s trilogy of albums.)

Argile is the doomy branch of French intellectual extremes Misanthrope and it rarely emerges from the underground. While Misanthrope have been steadily recording albums and performing for over 35 years, Argile have been moving modestly and heavily from album to album.

Spleen Angel is the band’s third full-length work, and it is separated from the previous full-length by a huge break, counting 14 years. The album was recorded with a full Misanthrope line-up: Philippe Courtois (vocals), Jean-Jacques Moréac (bass, keyboards), Gaël Féret (drums) and Anthony Skemama (guitars).

Argile sound absolutely doomy, but unbridledly artistic, and do not restrain their impulses by genre conventions. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FURZE

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Jul 192024
 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us the following interview with Woe J. Reaper, the maniac behind the Norwegian “Black Psych Metal” band Furze, whose latest album Caw Entrance is out now.)

Trondheim-based black psych metal project Furze has a proper discography, and their eighth album Caw Entrance was released on 5 April 2024 by Devoted Art Propaganda from Polytriad Fingertips. Once again Woe J. Reaper supplies his followers with quite eccentric black metal filled with old school vibes and macabre delivery.

And yes, yes, Furze’s founder keeps the same approach to recording and delivery of his material — it’s better to quote him directly:

“You don’t like the production? Oh, luck gently off! Coherently we advise all listeners to grab a nice pair of headphones and listen to this album that way. No background listening sessions will work and not even your stereo for that sake. It’s strange but true: special details were impossible to secure into both ways of listening. Don’t worry: lots of work was laid down with mastering too, and what’s closer to a simple level adjustment from the mix worked like a superhorse so the result is clear: Headphone listening sessions are the only way to enter one’s Caw Entrance.”

I welcome you to learn more about Woe’s motivation and what BLACK PSYCH FUCKIN’ METAL is. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PNEUMA HAGION

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Jul 172024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ very interesting interview with Ryan Wilson from Texas-based Pneuma Hagion, whose new album will be released to hideously infect our minds next month, courtesy of Everlasting Spew Records.)

This duo from Texas consists of Ryan Wilson (all instruments, vocals) and Shane Elwell (drums). Both of them have had rich activity in metal and non-metal projects for years, and the new album of Pneuma Hagion From Beyond provides us Lovecraftian horror-influenced, death-metal-oriented material filled with inhuman, fierce, and raw aggression.

According to the official press-release “From Beyond explores Lovecraftian ideas of horrifying extra-dimensional entities forcing their way into the causal universe by infecting the minds of humans”. Sounds exciting! It’s Pneuma Hagion’s third full-length album since 2015, so without doubt it’s the most focused and well-built material and it’ll be available from Everlasting Spew Records on August 30th.

Meanwhile, you can listen the album’s first track “Harbinger of Dissolution”, which we premiered here, and read the following interview with Ryan. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NOCTURNUS AD

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Jul 122024
 


photo by Tim Hubbard

(Today we present an excellent interview by our Comrade Aleks of Mike Browning from the terrific Nocturnus AD, whose latest mind-bender of an album is out now on Profound Lore.)

Nocturnus AD is the brainchild of Mike Browning, who started his career in the early ’80s in Morbid Angel as drummer and vocalist, and continued it in bands like Nocturnus and Acheron, among others. Nocturnus AD serves not just as continuation of Mike’s past works, but strictly follows the ideas he put into Nocturnus’ albums back in the very early ’90s. Together with Belial Koblak (guitars), Demian Heftel (guitars), Josh Holdren (keyboards), and Kyle Sokol (bass) he explores the occult side of technical sci-fi death metal.

Nocturnus AD‘s new full-length Unicursal was released on May 17th by Profound Lore Records, and we were lucky to catch Mike and learn more about his new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KVADRAT

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Jul 112024
 

(In April of this year the debut album by the Greek one-man dissonant black/death metal unit Kvadrat released its debut album The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion in collaboration with Nuclear Winter Records and Total Dissonance Worship (reviewed by us here). Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the person behind the band.)

Ivan Agakechagias is the sole member of Greek death/black metal project Kvadrat. Since 2015 Ivan recorded enough materials for only one EP, Ψυχική Αποσύνθεση (2012), and a split album alongside Moeror and Human Serpent (2021). It’s interesting that the goal was to collect money that will be used to cover some of the basic needs of the animals that were affected by the destructive fires that took place in Greece, including food, medical care, and the financial support of the early costs of anyone who is interested in adopting one of these innocent animals.

Finally, Ivan collected enough ideas for the full-length album The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion that was released on April 4th by Ivan himself, Nuclear Winter Records, and Total Dissonance Worship.

Disturbing, uncomfortable, and ruinous, this material spreads both well-hidden melancholy and distilled aggression. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TZOMPANTLI

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Jul 032024
 

(A couple of months ago we published Andy Synn‘s enthusiastic review of the new album from Tzompantli [released in May by 20 Buck Spin], and now we follow that with Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the band’s driving creative force, Brian Ortiz.)

Tzompantli began modestly as the death-doom side-project of the Mesoamerican-focused Californian death/metalcore outfit Xibalba’s guitarist. Brian Ortiz recorded the EP Tlamanalli (2019) alone, and now he has a second full-length coming out, as the project turned into a real band and consists of ten people, a couple of whom play folk instruments.

Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force repeats and refines the formula of the first album Tlazcaltiliztli (2022). The band produces vigorous death-doom with an emphasis on death, and in the lyrics, which sound, among other things, in the language of the Mayan Indians. The sound of folk instruments in Tzompantli’s music is natural, and they are indeed present in almost all songs, but they do not take up much space.

Tzompantli are straightforward and quite extreme in comparison with other rare representatives of Mezoamerican metal. We already had a pretty detailed interview here with Brian Ortiz about 18 months ago, so this interview, focused on Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force, is narrower yet honest as always. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: METALLUS

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Jun 262024
 

(Below you will find Comrade Aleks‘ interview with the very enthusiastic Doom Lord from the Polish doom band Metallus, who have a double-album to their name so far and a lot more to come.)

Funeral of the Sun is the first and very ambitious work of the relatively young Polish doom team Metallus formed by Doom Lord (bass, vocals), War Drum (drums!), and Hell’s Mage (guitars, vocals) in around 2018. The guys decided to start with a double album, the total duration of which exceeds an hour and a half. It contains quite a lot of traditional doom metal with very epic influences.

For example, the first track is the genre’s textbook “Witches Hammer”, which incorporates all the necessary elements of traditional doom. There are painful leisurely riffs, a short mid-tempo break that dispels drowsiness, heroic clean vocals, and lyrics that exaggerate clichés about a witch hunt. On the other hand, the massive “Great Hall of the Battle Hammer Cult” is a bit more entertaining, where you can feel the hammer-hearted Bathory’s influences set on a Sabbathian classic sound. This eleven-minute epic has a decent array of hooks, but you’ll need patience to get through each one. There’s a play on the atmosphere of the Lovecraftian issue “Shadow Over Innsmouth”, and that’s my favorite track in the album… Guess why!

So what do we have here? We have here the interview with Doom Lord, so let’s get down to business finally. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TITANIA

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Jun 252024
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Tania Duarte, vocalist of the Peruvian heavy doom band Titania, whose debut album The Maverick was released on CD this past spring.)

Most die-hard doom metal fans will name two bands if we ask about Peruvian doom metal: Reino Ermitaño and Kranium. The first one was a traditional doom band with a lady on vocals, and the second one is a band with a huge history and only two albums in their discography.

Kranium (founded in 1986) released their second album Uma Tullu in 2020, so it’s okay, we know that they’re more or less active. But Reino Ermitaño… they haven’t released anything since 2014, and it seems that the band is no more.

Honestly, I almost missed it, but two years ago both bands gave birth to Titania, a traditional doom band that includes members from Kranium and Reino Ermitaño: Mito Espíritu (bass), Eloy Arturo (guitars), Tania Duarte (vocals), and Manuel Lozano (drums). Their first album The Maverick was released in late 2022, but the CD-edition was released only in 2023.

Tania Duarte gladly accepted our request and answered about the band’s current occupation. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NEUROPOLIS

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Jun 212024
 

(Here we have Comrade Aleks‘ extensive interview with vocalist Vladimir Alekseev from the Russian doom/death metal band Neuropolis, who released their debut album in February of this year.)

The St. Petersburg death-doom band Neuropolis was founded in 2016 and had two very solid EPs in their discography – Temptation / Искушение (2019) and Golem (2020) plus a reputation honestly earned through live performances and, in general, thanks to an active position on social networks. But what we have now is this: The Neuropolis lineup has been radically updated after 2021, with vocalist Vladimir Alekseev as the only member who has remained in the group after those previous sessions.

However, these changes seem to have given Neuropolis an impetus in a new direction, and, having released the full-length album All Nothing / Всё ничего, these St. Petersburg doom-heads have not given up weekly rehearsals and are already recording new material. So doom metal is not only about inertia. And an interview with Vladimir will serve as proof of this assumption. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CELESTIAL SEASON

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Jun 192024
 

(Last month Burning World Records (an affiliate of Roadburn Records) released Mysterium III, the newest album by the Dutch band Celestial Season, and a box set of all three Mysterium albums under the name Orbis Mysterium. Long in advance of the release Comrade Aleks conducted an interview with vocalist Stefan Ruiters which we finally present today.)

Celestial Season from the Netherlands was one of the really successful death-doom bands in the early ’90s. They didn’t reach the status of the UK Three, but the debut album Forever Scarlet Passion (1993) and, more importantly, the sophomore full-length Solar Lovers (1995) made their reputation with some interesting out-of-the-genre experiments. Blurred videos for ‘Decamerone’ and ‘Solar Child’ were a blast!

But the guys chose to change the direction dramatically towards stoner/doom stuff, and that led Celestial Season to lose their positions and disband in 2001. The band was brought back to life in 2011, but after a few efforts they didn’t release anything new until 2020, when the first album in twenty years, The Secret Teachings, saw the light of day. Since then, the band has regenerated almost entirely to the full original lineup and released two more albums in the vein of their early material – Mysterium I and Mysterium II. These albums embody beautiful and deep melancholic death-doom metal with growls, cello, and violin.

But what I need to tell you is that the band has Mysterium III on their schedule. Stefan Ruiters has growled in Celestial Season since 1991 to 1995, and rejoined the band in 2020. He answered our questions tonight.

Well… tonight… That “tonight” happened somewhere in November 2023, as the Mysterium III release date was scheduled for December 2023. But as far as I know, Roadburn Records had problems with the vinyl plant, so the  release was delayed, and the album will see the light of day on May 17th, 2024. Okay, it was worth waiting for anyway. Continue reading »

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