SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AGRICULTURE, BLESSINGS OF MARA, CAVERN WOMB, DEVOURER, GOM JABBAR, OIL SPILL, URZAH

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Apr 202024
 

This has been an unusual week for me. I broke out of my hermit-like existence (originally provoked by covid but comfortably extending to the present) and made a quick Wednesday-Friday trip to Texas for a celebration of an old friend. The travel part of it was an annoying hassle; the celebration part of it was great.

During that trip I didn’t accomplish much for NCS. Among the things I didn’t accomplish was paying attention to the emergence of new songs and videos I might want to celebrate today. I bookmarked a few things in even more random fashion than usual while away and quickly spotted a few more things this morning.

These roundups are never comprehensive; this one skims the surface even more lightly. Kind of like a flying fish briefly airborne, with bigger toothsome things hungrily rocketing up from below without warning, jaws gnashing for a bite. The following things jumped up and bit me. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KYRIOS, HORNCROWNED, GUIGNOL NOIR, DEVOURER, ODIOSIOR

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Sep 202020
 

 

When I began to think about what to include in this week’s column I had the usual brain-freeze brought about by the immense volume of choices. This week I decided to deal with that by herding all the singles and advance tracks from forthcoming albums into one stockade, and filling another one with full-lengths that have already recently been released.

From the first herd I picked the tracks included below. I have an idea about how to deal with the riot in the second group, all viciously clamoring for attention, but I won’t say what that is in case I’m not able to follow through. Onward!

KYRIOS

I would like to create a sub-genre called Queasy Black Metal, reserved for music that roils your guts like food that’s gone bad, and messes with your mind like a demonically conceived hallucinogen. I would put this first song under that heading. Its squirming dissonance, freakish angularity, and unstable rhythms are intestinally upsetting and mentally disorienting. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): DEVOURER, SACRILEGIUM, UN, GESPENST, TAKATAK

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 172015
 

Devourer logo

 

Earlier today we brought you a round-up of songs from Comrade Aleks. The epicenter of all his chosen music was Italy, and so I thought I would expand our geographic horizons with the following collection of recommended new tracks that I sifted from the usual flood of sounds over the last 24 hours. The bands featured below come from Sweden, Poland, Seattle, Denmark, and Pakistan.

DEVOURER

Devourer are a two-man Swedish band founded in 2002 by John “Steinfaust” Falk (who plays all instruments and has also been the drummer for Sorcery) and he was joined in 2007 by lead vocalist Fredrik “Crocell” Håf. After recording two demos (Malignant and Thy Devourer), the band released their first album in January 2013 under the title All Hope Abandon. I discovered the band through their 2013 single, Filth; the title track was released in video form and reviewed here. Yesterday, Devourer released another single — and it’s also excellent. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NECROPHOBIC, DEVOURER, HAMFERÐ, AND CARPE NOCTEM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  15 Responses »
Sep 032013
 

This is a round-up of new songs and videos that debuted over the last 24 hours. There is a unifying theme to what I’ve selected: Although the styles of metal range from rampaging black metal to the sublime weight of doom, darkness pervades the sounds.

NECROPHOBIC

Only yesterday we posted Part 1 of Andy Synn’s review of the recently completed SUMMER BREEZE festival in Germany. It included words of praise for the live performance by Sweden’s Necrophobic. And today brought us the North American premiere of the first single from this influential band’s new album Womb of Lilithu, their seventh studio album and the first one in four years.

The new track is “Splendour Nigri Solis” and it’s now streaming at Spotify (here), though because it debuted in Europe earlier, it has also made its way to YouTube. It’s a thumping, thrashing, swirling whirlwind of black metal vehemence (with imperious, cleanly-sung, off-tempo sections that are as cool as the speedy parts). Continue reading »