Dec 192024
 


photo by Hillarie Jason

(Here’s the second installment of year-end lists compiled for NCS by Neill Jameson (Krieg), with a couple more yet to come.)

Remember how I said things weren’t in any kind of order, until the end, in our last get together? I wasn’t entirely truthful. That list was really more the warm-up because this year I had incredible difficulty putting together a top ten list for my yearly what-have-you with Invisible Oranges, where I had to solidify it just so I could walk away without constantly wanting to move things around. We’ll start seeing those records I left out of the top in here.

I realize there’s several releases that I’m including in these lists that just came out within the last few weeks, which seems to happen every year. Does that mean I had enough time to truly sit with them? I’d like to think so, but it doesn’t seem likely. So I went back to years prior to see if I still felt strongly about late year releases I’d written about before, with a nearly perfect success rate, which was all scientifically calculated. So, in short, fuck off – they’re worth shedding light on.

I doubt anyone truly cares but that seemed like a good internal conversation. Continue reading »

Feb 132023
 

 

(In a seasonal mood, our friend Neill Jameson (Krieg) has brought us and you a playlist of varied dark music for these chilly days in the northern half of the globe.)

We’re halfway through winter here in the northern hemisphere and, as is tradition by some of the louder dunces on the internet, people are already proclaiming their albums of the year. And while I could spend another few hundred words decrying the shortsightedness of this instant gratification culture we’ve fostered, that would only serve to give Metal Twitter™ more reason to warble on and on about my merits as a human being, which would take away from their time trying to figure out which band you like once shared an elevator ride with someone wearing a Goatmoon shirt.

As I’ve traditionally been a shut-in most of my life, I’ve spent a lot of evenings this winter reading, drinking tea and listening to music to find new projects to admire. I wrote that to sound more sophisticated than it actually plays out in an effort to make you like me. In actuality I’m just old and this is my idea of a wild night now. 

Anyway I’ve discovered a lot of interesting and dark music, mostly through the excellent Rites of Pestilence YouYube channel, most of which was unfamiliar to me, and started making a list of what I’ve really gotten something out of. Here’s that list.

Continue reading »