SHADES OF BLACK: IHSAHN, DÉLÉTÈRE, NIPHREDIL, ANGEL OF THE ABYSS, RAAT, DISCIPLINE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 192023
 

I hurt all over, thanks for asking. The result of a week spent trying to exercise muscles that turned into limp noodles after months of sedentary living. If I could get all the lactic acid out of my body it would probably fill a barrel.

Well, maybe hurting all over wasn’t the worst thing as a basis for picking the music in this Sunday column today. It led to selections that will make you hurt in different ways too.

IHSAHN (Norway)

The hurting begins with “Pilgrimage To Oblivion“, a new song from Ihsahn that surfaced three days ago in two different versions. The main version combines orchestral bombast and terrorizing screams, frenzied strings and plundering percussion, to create a thoroughly harrowing experience in keeping with the song’s title and the video’s tale of personal ruin. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DÉLÉTÈRE — “MILITES PESTILENTIAE III — BABYLONIA MAGNISSIMA”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
May 012019
 

 

The last time I wrote about the Québec black metal band Délétère, when we premiered a song from their stunning 2018 album De Horae Leprae, the music un-corked a flood of enthusiastic adjectives from the cask in my head. It’s about to happen again, because we’re premiering another Délétère song.

Conceptually, that 2018 album was devoted to Teredinis, a simple leper whose calling it was to become a prophet of Centipèdes as well as an incarnation of the Plague. I wasn’t the only scribbler of words who received that album so enthusiastically. I enjoyed, for example, this block of praise from Stereogum, which put it at the No. 6 spot on the site’s list of The 10 Best Metal Albums of 2018: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DÉLÉTÈRE — “CANTUS I – TEREDINIS LEPRA”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
May 112018
 

 

The song we’re about to present is one that’s so emotionally explosive and so persistently electrifying that it left this listener wide-eyed in wonder, and wondering what the hell to do with all the energy that had suddenly surged into the blood stream.

The song is “Cantus I – Teredinis Lepra“, the opening track from the new album by the Québec black metal band Délétère. Entitled De Horae Leprae, the record is described as “a monumental concept album devoted to Teredinis, a simple leper whose calling it is to become a prophet of Centipèdes as well as an incarnation of the Plague”.

The album is indeed a colossal achievement, a sprawling 65-minute opus that demands more careful consideration and a more extensive discussion than you’ll find here today. All you’ll find here — in addition to the music stream — is a gushing flood of adjectives un-corked by just this first track. Continue reading »