(In what follows Gonzo reviews and recommends four albums released in June 2024.)
Given that it’s been a few months since I’ve been able to crank one of these out, there’s no time like the present, right?
Jul 022024
Feb 242022
Evergrey
We’re just a heavy-music site, but it’s hard to ignore what’s happening in Europe right now as the world takes another big step backward into a darker time. That has influenced my musical choices in this collection. The song titles and some of the album titles seemed particularly appropriate. As always, the music streams are mostly brand new, and very good, and varied enough to suit many tastes.
EVERGREY (Sweden)
The first song is a hard-charging, emotionally fiery, and ferocious track, with a glorious guitar solo in the mix — and of course it’s a well-earned exception to our rule about singing. Excellent video too. “Save Us” comes from Evergrey‘s new album A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament), out May 20 via Napalm Records. Continue reading »
Sep 062016
(DGR prepared this large roundup of new music streams, with one item added by the editor.)
I’ve been slowly gathering up this veritable feast of heavy metal for this roundup, basically doing my usual duty of being the last line of defense for metal news that often pops up and we didn’t catch right away for a variety of reasons. This time around, I’ve got a huge collection of six [now seven] different items, some of which I’m sure you’ve likely crossed paths with but we didn’t dedicate words to and others because they may not be in the usual NCS coverage wheelhouse. I even managed to include some serious lighter fare this time, to help brighten up the mood musically after the first two full onslaughts [now three] hit your musical listening systems.
So let’s kick this thing off with a real quick one that happened as I was writing this intro, and then dive into the meat of it and romp around in its innards for a while.
KHONSU – ARTWORK TRAILER / “A DREAM OF EARTH” SNIPPET
This one is going to be quick, mostly because there isn’t a huge block of heavy metal music proper — but it just happened, and I’ll be goddamned if I don’t say that I am immensely excited for this disc. Continue reading »
Aug 012016
(DGR volunteered for round-up duty to start our week, and brings us new music from seven bands plus new-album news from an eighth.)
We have been trying our damndest to keep up with the flow of music that has been spilling forth from the gaping maw of heavy metal recently, but it has become clear that this is a war that must be fought on multiple fronts. Thus, I find myself once again deploying to the Seen and Heard front lines with a veritable smorgasbord of new music, videos, and album announcements for you to all enjoy.
I had a lot of fun figuring out where to position each band this time, as I have a very symmetrical idea of how things in this Seen and Heard should be approached — resulting in tremendously heavy music spilling into some infectiously light stuff and then returning right back to the abyss from which it came. You may need to settle in for this one; there’s a lot of fantastic stuff packed within this round-up, and it just goes to show that 2016 is proving to be a hell of a year for metal. Continue reading »
Aug 152014
Here are some things I saw yesterday that opened my eyes wide and increased my flow of drool, requiring an early change-out of the trademarked NCS bib I wear at all times. You may increase the size of some of these images by clicking on them.
ITEM ONE
Item One appears at the top of this post. It’s a shirt design created by Manuel Tinnemans (Comaworx) for Switzerland’s Bölzer, based on the song “Steppes”. I guess it’s not enough that Bölzer are making lots of people jealous with their music. Now they get shirts like this made for them. Stunning. Here’s the artwork on a black background:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BÖLZER/108657105834227 Continue reading »