KEVINP’S ALBUMS OF THE MONTH — AUGUST 2015

 Listmania  9 Responses »
Aug 312015
 

Majestic Downfall--When Dead

 

(Here’s the latest installment of KevinP’s series in which he runs down his list of the best releases from the preceding month.)

August was been absolutely stacked with quality releases, which caused me to make a few hard choices (i.e., cuts).  A few albums worth your time that didn’t make the list were from:  Krisiun, Ogotay, and Sources of I.   Also, I went back and forth on the ranking between numbers 2-5, and really, depending on my mood, I could change them up, that’s how much I enjoyed all of them.  This month’s numero uno though was head and shoulders above the rest, and released by a perennial NCS favorite.

 

5.  Creeping – Revenant

This is the third full-length by this New Zealand trio and the first one I’ve heard by them.  Why exactly are these kiwis not more well known?  That kinda baffles me.  Black doom with a healthy dose of death metal goodness thrown into the mixture.  It’s grimy, it’s dark, and it’s just a visciously good album. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: CREEPING — “REVENANT’

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 042015
 

Creeping-Revenant

 

Steel yourself for a harrowing experience, for we’re about to bring you a full stream of Revenant, the new third album by New Zealand’s Creeping.

This isn’t an idle warning. Making your way through the album is like a brutal descent into a sodden catacombs inhabited by damned and vengeful spirits. The deeper you stagger and stumble into its depths, the farther the light recedes above you, replaced by an ever-increasing sense of implacable menace and wrenching loss. You are about to join the company of phantasms, and Creeping make their terrors your own.

Mostly slow or mid-paced, the songs are often as crushing and remorseless as the most catastrophic doom album you’re likely to find this year. Anchored by titanic, distorted riffs and earthquake drumming, the music is laced with eerie reverberating guitar melodies which enhance the supernatural atmosphere that surrounds the entire album. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MALIGN, BROKEN FLESH, NECHOCHWEN, CREEPING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  24 Responses »
Jun 232015
 

 

Because I only write about metal that makes me enthusiastic, these round-ups of new music necessarily reflect my own idiosyncrasies. Fortunately, I suppose, I get enthusiastic about lots of different styles of metal (though I vehemently deny the accusation that I like everything I hear). And so it’s true again today that what you’re about to hear ranges far and wide across the metal landscape. Still, to ensure further diversity of viewpoints, you’ll also find a recommendation from Grant Skelton in addition to my own.

MALIGN

Here are some questions for you:  Do you enjoy writhing black metal extremity, with riffs that swarm with reptilian menace and hammer powerfully at the gates of doom? Does your pulse quicken at the sound of a drummer who rocks out as well as he blasts with mechanistic precision? Do you relish bestial growls that come straight for your throat with teeth bared? Do you search for black metal songs that get stuck in your head as well as generating an atmosphere of infernal menace, befitting the rising of a vengeful sun that emanates death? Continue reading »