Apr 232022
 

I’m pretty sure this is the single biggest roundup I’ve ever created. The streams of music were indeed overflowing over the past week, and I felt compelled to get out to you as many of the good ones as I could — though I still have more, drawn from blackened veins, to push your way in tomorrow’s column.

I will say that there’s more rocking out to be found in this collection than usual, and a couple of exceptions to our no-singing rule. But don’t worry your pointed little heads, there’s plenty of savagery in the mix too. I’ll also say that I played DJ, trying to arrange these in a way that would pair up like-minded songs here and there. But some of the segues are still probably jarring, which is how I like it.

BLACK VOID (Norway)

I decided to begin with music from forthcoming releases by a big label before clawing deeper under ground. The first pick is a video for “Dadaist Disgust“, a new single from this Norwegian band’s upcoming debut album Antithesis, out May 27th on Nuclear Blast. Continue reading »

Jun 232017
 

 

I’m continuing to make my way through some of the songs and videos that have come out since I basically checked out of NCS to work on Northwest Terror Fest. Especially because I’m getting a slow start on this Friday, I decided to put together this pair of good ones I found last night, and if the day goes right, a couple more pairings before we hit the weekend, rather than compiling another overstuffed SEEN AND HEARD post.

SHADOWFLAG

I hadn’t encountered this UK black metal band before last night. Metal-Archives (which lists them as “Shadow Flag”) identifies two albums released in 2013 and 2015, and today they’re releasing a third one named The Delusion Machine. I can’t comment on the whole album yet, but I sure as hell have fallen hard for a song called “Singularity 45“, which is the subject of the lyric video I saw last night. That’s the first item in this pairing. Continue reading »

Feb 222017
 

 

I’m pressed for time today, but I wanted to get this round-up of news and new music posted not only because I’m excited about what’s in it, but also because if I wait, I know it will be overtaken by still more new releases that get me excited. So I’ve truncated my own blather, though I know that will cause weeping on a global scale.

TEMPLE OF VOID

Yesterday, Shadow Kingdom Records revealed Paolo Girardi’s cover art for the new second album by Detroit’s Temple of Void, entitled Lords of Death. And this, therefore, makes the second post today in which the Italian maestro’s artwork has appeared at the top of our page. Continue reading »

Jan 012017
 


Partied hard, smiling big.

 

Happy New Year to one and all. I hope you survived whatever you did last night, intact and with only a modicum of blood loss and brain-cell death. I would tell you in detail what I did but I’m not sure you could stand the excitement. Even I was so drained after both putting down the robot uprising and preventing the savagery of the loris horde’s celebration from overflowing their compound, armed with nothing but a few blow darts, that I was asleep by 10:30, stone cold sober and vomit-free.

I’m beginning the new year at NCS the way I ended the old one (here), by assembling a giant batch of the new music I heard in recent days that I thought would be worth your time, plus one older release I came across only recently.

As a trained medical professional (ha!), I’ll warn you that if you did suffer more than a modicum of blood loss or neuronal cell death, you might want to wait another day before exploring what awaits you below. It won’t help your recovery, and it’s no sane person’s idea of a hangover cure. Damned good metal, though.

I’ll also mention that because this post takes the place of my usual Sunday Shades of Black feature, the music is mainly in a blackened vein, though not entirely. Continue reading »