WOULD YOU LIKE SOME DOOM WITH YOUR DOOM?

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 082015
 

(About a week ago, while I was being roasted alive in day-job hell, Grant Skelton e-mailed me about some doom discoveries. I’ve decided to just paste his e-mail comments into this post along with the music. I hope it’s okay with him that I’m doing this. I subscribe to the view that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.)

CRYPT SERMON

In keeping with your interest in Crypt Sermon, I found that they are streaming another new song called “Will of The Ancient Call” over at NPR. Listen here.

If you’ve heard “Heavy Riders” or the title track, then you know this is traditional doom. I suppose detractors might call it “re-doom,” but I think it’s phenomenal. I’d love to see these guys tour with Below. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SANNHET, CRYPT SERMON, THE BANNER, ABOMINATOR, GALAR

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 162015
 

My memory of what happened a year ago is hazy (my memory of what happened yesterday is hazy, too, but more like partly cloudy instead of overcast with dense fog). But this January seems to have brought an unprecedented tide of new music. Wholly apart from all the new album promos we’ve received since the first of the year, every day has bought new song or video premieres that are worth hearing. It’s as if labels and bands were just waiting for the holidays to end and then opened the floodgates.

I’ve got a list of new music to check out that’s grown absurdly long, and since I haven’t managed to write a round-up in five days, it’s unrealistic to catch up in a single post. So even more so than usual, I chose this collection of songs on a truly random basis. I have a lot more I’d like to throw your way — with luck I can do that this weekend.

SANNHET

Sannhet are from Brooklyn. Their second album, Revisionist, is coming from The Flenser on March 3. Yesterday Stereogum premiered the album’s first advance track, a song named “Lost Crown”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BASTARD GRAVE, CRYPT SERMON, GHOULGOTHA, INTEGRITY, WOODEN STAKE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jan 012015
 

 

Well, Happy Fucking New Year to all you motherfuckers out there (to bring good luck, I think it’s important to call all our readers “motherfuckers” on the first day of 2015). I hope everyone is beginning the new year in one piece and not too much the worse for wear from whatever you did last night to commemorate the calendar change.

I’m in unusually good shape myself, which is to say that I had a fairly peaceful and alcohol-free evening with my spouse, who resisted my entreaties to get shit-faced. This morning, I want to thank her for once again being the level-headed part of this partnership.

I spent part of this morning web-surfing for new music and found quite a lot worth recommending. Here’s part of what I found, presented in alphabetical order, since I am able to remember the order of the alphabet because I was good last night.

P.S. For those who came here looking for the next installment in our 2014 “Most Infectious Song” series, I’m taking a break for today — so I can figure out which two songs to post next! Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: STEVE JANSSON (CRYPT SERMON)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  4 Responses »
Jan 012015
 

 

(NCS interviewer KevinP delivers the first in a planned interview series, and this inaugural edition features guitarist Steve Jansson of Crypt Sermon — whose forthcoming debut album Out of the Garden is absolutely killer!)

Welcome to what I plan on being a monthly feature, GET TO THE POINT.  Besides wanting a fancy title for my interview segment, the idea is to be a bit more succinct, if and when possible.  Who knows, maybe I’ll be a chatty Kathy more than usual and totally not stick to it, let’s see how things turns out.  In the coming months, we will be talking to (among others):  Calvin Robertshaw (My Dying Bride), Matt Calvert (Dark Descent Records),  Öxxö Xööx (a French avant garde doom band), and Nikos Panagiotopoulos (Universe217).  So, without further ado……

*****

K:  So Enrique (Crypt Sermon’s drummer) was scared to do the interview and pawned me off onto you.  What’s up with that guy?

S:  Oh, we don’t let him do interviews. I sent his ass to get more beer, though.

Hah, nah, Brooks (vocalist) and I are generally the ones who do the interviews. It just sort of worked out that way, I guess. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: CRYPT SERMON — “DEMO MMXIII”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 202013
 

Crypt Sermon are the second doom-oriented band with a new debut release named Demo MMXIII that I’m reviewing today (the first was by Temple of Void). This is a new project, and I know only a small amount of information about them: By snooping around I’ve learned that they are from Philadelphia, the membership apparently includes Steve Jansson (Infiltrator, Grass, Trench Rot), Brooks Wilson (Grass), and James L. (Labyrinthine), among others, and the demo was mastered by Chris Grigg (Woe).

I’ll say up-front that the demo is an Exception To the Rule around here — no howls, growls, guttural vomiting, or hair-raising shrieks on this release. But  the clean vocals — whoever is doing them — are definitely one of this demo’s strengths. The music is strong in many other respects as well.

The three songs are an offering of traditional doom — the kind of music that put me in mind of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, and The Gates of Slumber — but less theatrical than some of the music from the bands I just name-dropped. I will also say up front that I have never been a die-hard fan of any of those bands, yet Crypt Sermon struck a chord, and twanged it really hard. Continue reading »

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