ESSENTIAL ENTRIES: JUNE 2015

 Listmania, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Jul 202015
 

Abyssal-Antikatastaseis

 

(In this post Dan Barkasi continues his monthly series recommending music from the previous month.)

June is long gone, but alas, there’s music that needs some light shed upon it!

Apologies for the delay on this one. Life finds a way – to get in the way of my getting this done faster. Thanks, Dr. Malcolm, for the line!

How good was June? It was loaded like a politician’s rhetoric, but not vomit-inducing. In other words, lots of audible goodies! A lot of styles represented, too, possibly being the month with the most diversity thus far.

Let it begin!

Abyssal – Antikatastaseis

Chaotic as they are potent, Abyssal’s third album displays a band who continue to hone their craft to devastating effect. This sublime combination of black, death, and doom metal is so crushing that it gives a dinosaur a run for its money. There’s also a little bit more melody than the previous two discs, which is used to great effect. Continue reading »

ROLLERCOASTER – PART 1

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Oct 172011
 

Over the weekend I came across a divergent array of largely new music that I feel compelled to share here at the beginning of the week. It’s really all over the place, up and down, swerving right and left. Tracking through these songs and videos put me in mind of a rollercoaster ride, hence the title of this post. There’s so much here that I’m dividing this into two parts. The next one will follow in a couple of hours. I’ll keep the verbiage brief and let the music do the talking for itself. In Part 1, the music comes from Ne Obliviscaris (Australia), God Is An Astronaut (Ireland), and Apostate (The Czech Republic).

NE OBLIVISCARIS

We originally featured this unsigned Melbourne, Australia band back in March 2010, focusing on a 2007 EP called The Aurora Veil. At long last, they’ve completed their debut album, Portal of I, which will be released in the near future (I haven’t yet found a specific date or how it will be distributed). It will consist of 7 tracks, with a total run-time of more than 1 hour 11 minutes. So yes, the songs are long ones. The band released one of them to their Facebook page on Friday night. It’s called “And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope”. I heard it via a link from NCS reader Kevin this morning — and it has floored me.

I know that I’m given to impulsive bursts of enthusiasm and that this undoubtedly devalues the weight that some people give my opinions. So, those people will want to take this with a grain of salt. Actually, take it with a pound of salt and choke ’til you pass out, because I’m serious: this is a wonderful song. It begins with a sweeping, violin-led melodic instrumental section and then moves on through a changing splash of musical colors and tones, part black metal, part melodic death metal, part prog metal — all good. It’s right after the jump. Continue reading »