Ellende Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE, BRUXAX, COLDWORLD, CREDIC, CRUZ, ELLENDE, FIRTAN, HADAL MAW, THE HIRSCH EFFEKT, LOUDNESS

Jul 302022

A couple of updates for you weekend visitors: First, I’ve had to rush today’s roundup, thanks to a late start on the day and way too many new songs and videos to go through in order to make these choices. Due to the rushing, I had to leave lots of good stuff on “the cutting room floor”, despite how many choices I made.

Except in the context of deadly sins and circles of Hell (the violent and bestial one), 7 is a lucky number, so I initially decided to stop there. But I couldn’t help myself, and so pushed it to 10 instead, presented alphabetically by band name.

Second, I’m going to a big party in Seattle tonight. It was originally scheduled to happen in January, but last winter’s covid surge fucked those plans. It will be very late before I get back to the NCS island headquarters, and there’s at least a 50/50 chance I’ll wake up on Sunday with a hangover, and a 100% chance that most of the morning will be gone by the time I open my red eyes. Which means we may not have a Shades of Black column tomorrow. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SARKRISTA, FUATH, FORHIST, KANKAR, MNHG, FERRITERIUM, ELLENDE, HOLDLAJTORJA

SHADES OF BLACK 2 Responses »

Jan 242021

I may have bitten off more than you can chew in this collection of recommended black metal. It’s certainly more than I can masticate with adequate words. I’ve started with a collection of individual songs from forthcoming albums by five bands, and then followed that with a complete album and two full EPs. To make this manageable for me, if not for you, for the full releases I’ve only hinted at what you’ll find within them and then left you to browse for yourselves.

SARKRISTA (Germany)

The first song in today’s collection, “The Beast Reborn“, is a teaser for the third album to be released by these Finnish Satanists (who dwell in Germany). It rips and ravages, batters and scampers, but soars in a way that’s both glorious and desperately beleaguered, and the trilling leads channel a heart-felt yearning that might seem at odds with the completely unhinged, flamethrowing vocals. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ELLENDE, MESZAROTH, OMINATION, ULTIO, SULDUSK, MALHKEBRE

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 5 Responses »

Feb 032019

Ellende

There’s quite a lot of new music I’m recommending in this Sunday’s column — three full EP streams (one of which is an EP-length single composition), plus advance tracks from three forthcoming albums. Coincidentally, four of the featured bands are essentially solo projects.

As usual, I picked these selections in part to provide some listening variety, though there’s certainly more than a fair share of melancholy and grandeur to be found herein, along with a fair share of ripping and tearing. I also positioned one selection to provide a bit of a diversionary interlude through its interweaving of Neo-Folk elements (and clean singing) among heavier sounds.

ELLENDE

I discovered this Austrian atmospheric/post-black metal band through a 2016 video of the title track from their 2014 EP, Weltennacht. I couldn’t get the song out of my head, and the video was hard to forget, too, since it included film of the 1987 public suicide of a Pennsylvania politician (Budd Dwyer) at a press conference he conducted the day before he was to be sentenced to prison following a conviction for bribery. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CULTES DES GHOULES, ELLENDE, THE INFERNAL SEA, WELLS VALLEY, FRONTIERER, CEMETERIUM

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Nov 022016

Getting kind of a late start on today’s post — yes, “post”, in the singular. I got slammed at my day job yesterday afternoon, and today will be no better. I’m now sitting on an airplane after leaving my house at 5 a.m. to start a cross-country trip, and as soon as I finish writing this thing, I’ll have to put my nose to the grindstone again.

Last night I did make my way through a bunch of new music and videos that have appeared since the weekend, and culled from them this collection of goodies.

CULTES DES GHOULES

The mysterious cult of ghouls from Kielce, Poland, are returning with a new album named Coven, or Evil Ways Instead of Love, which is set for a double-CD release by Hells Headbangers on November 25, 2017, with a triple-LP vinyl version coming later. All that extra physical room is needed because this new immensity is nearly 100 minutes long. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 3): HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, ELLENDE, AZZIARD, NIRNAETH, ISGÄRDE, AKATHARTA

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 6 Responses »

Jul 052016

This is the third and final Part of a post that I began on Sunday focusing on black metal (and music influenced by it), thinking it would just be a two-parter featuring six bands instead of what it has become. As the days have passed, I’ve continued to come across advance tracks and full releases that I want to support, and the total has now reached 13 bands. Honestly, I could do this every day, but I’m going to make myself stop until next Sunday so I can devote attention to other things. Like eating and sleeping.

I’m going to begin with a couple of videos, one brand new and one not so new (but newly discovered), both of them created for Austrian bands. And then I’ll turn to a new split, a recent album, and a couple of new songs from a band with some famous names attached to it that aren’t really black metal but I want to mention them without further delay.

HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY

The new album by this Austrian band, III: Trauma, is fantastic. We’ve already featured one of the new tracks (here) and premiered a second one (here), and yesterday the band debuted a video for a third one. Continue reading »