SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): FROSTNATT, VOLLMOND, HINTERKAIFECK, STELLAR DESCENT

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Apr 112021
 

 

To the extent writing about music matters at all as a form of guidance, it clearly matters more in the case of complete albums or EPs than single tracks. Particularly when a writer is as verbose as I am, it doesn’t take much more time to just listen to a song than to read some goofball’s frothy impressions of it. But it obviously takes a much bigger investment of time for a listener to absorb an album or EP, and so getting some kind of overview can be useful, at least if you trust who’s providing it.

Therefore, the fact that I’m not providing a completely comprehensive overview of the six records collected here (all of them released between late March and last week) is a miserable failure. Much as I hate to be so brief, I’ve still attempted to at least give you a flavor of what each album brings. Given my time constraints, the alternative might be to say nothing about them at all, which I guess might be even worse.

FROSTNATT (Russia)

Frostnatt‘s debut album Det kommer til å bli kaldt, which follows a run of EPs that began in 2019, is a largely instrumental work (with a scattering of vocal samples and a few harsh expulsions) that’s both rugged and scintillating, combining primitive, earthquaking percussive rhythms and brilliantly vibrant ringing melodies of varying moods that stick in the head like hot spikes, plus a well-placed and sublime piano piece. And thus it generates an unusual shamanistic spell, delivering primal, visceral punch as well as ancient and mystical atmosphere, enhanced by moments of poignant beauty and piercing heartache. My favorite track: “Til sydpolplatået“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HINTERKAIFECK — “INCORRIGIBLE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 292020
 

 

Hinterkaifeck‘s first release, a 2019 Live Promo Tape, drew significant attention in the most diseased bowels of the underground, perhaps especially because it was such a completely unhinged and so thoroughly abrasive assault on the senses that it left deep scars on the mind. As a sonic manifestation of maniacal depravity and plague-stricken degradation, it was a horrifying scourge, but one that managed to connect powerfully to the primitive flight-or-fight instincts of those who survived the running of its gauntlet.

It also had a potent cathartic effect, operating as a toxin that both sounded like, and provoked, a vomiting up of furious frustration, bitter bile, and venomous hate. That struck a chord, and struck it hard enough and widely enough that the first press of that live promo tape quickly sold out, and those copies have since then been eating their way through whatever structures tried to hold them in our squalid abodes, like the acid blood spilled by the xenomorph of Alien fame.

The news that this black metal duo from Brisbane, Australia, would be releasing a follow-on release was thus met, at least in these quarters, with a mixture of fear, disgust, and hunger. The second demo, named Kak, will be released on May 8th by Nihilistic Noise Propaganda. Today we’re joining with Cvlt Nation in helping spread the word by presenting one of the four new tracks, “Incorrigible“, which is plainly what Hinterkaifeck are. Continue reading »