KEVINP’S ALBUMS OF THE MONTH — OCTOBER 2015

 Listmania  12 Responses »
Oct 282015
 

lostsoul_atlantis

 

(Here’s the latest installment of KevinP’s series in which he runs down his list of the best releases from the month that’s about to end.)

It’s been 10 months now that I’ve worked on this column and I always wondered how others kept track of what was released each month.  I simply take a notebook, write down a month on each page, and then when I get a promo, I download it and hand-write it in the release month.  That’s as low-tech as you can be (and sometimes semi-dangerous if the baby gets her hands on it and goes to town).  So does anyone have any better suggestions?  What do you do?

Anyways, we are fast approaching the end of the year and October has been quite the eclectic month, probably the most so far, as you’ll see from my selections.  Let us know what else wet your whistle in the comments below. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: JACEK GRECKI (LOST SOUL)

 Interviews  5 Responses »
Oct 262015
 

jacek grecki

 

(KevinP brings us another installment of his brief-interview series, this time posing questions to Jacek Grecki, vocalist/guitarist of Poland’s mighty Lost Soul, whose powerful new album Atlantis: The New Beginning we premiered last week.)

K: People who have not heard about you before might instantly jump to the “it’s a Polish band that sounds like Behemoth” mantra. This may be a good or bad thing (depending upon the person). And while I’ll admit certain countries may have a “sound” that permeates through multiple bands, Lost Soul started in 1990 as a death metal band and gravitated to technical (sorta) death metal over the years, while Behemoth started in 1991 as a black metal band, then moved to black/death, and now to modern death metal with theatrics. So I think the facts speak for themselves on that particular issue.

J: You know, Lost Soul isn’t such a popular band as Behemoth is. People rarely double-check historical facts about one of the lesser known representatives of the music scene. I think it’s natural to compare one band to the other, better known to the less known in this case. As they say: no matter whether it’s good or bad, what matters is people speak about the band. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: LOST SOUL — “ATLANTIS: THE NEW BEGINNING”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Oct 232015
 

Lost Soul-Atlantis-The New Beginning

 

(KevinP provides the following introduction to our premiere of the new album by Poland’s Lost Soul.)

Poland’s death metal masters, Lost Soul, return with their fifth full-length album, Atlantis:  The New Beginning, via Apostasy Records on October 30, 2015.  Today we proudly present to you the exclusive North American stream of this new opus.

Mainman/founding member Jacek Grecki (vocals/guitar) and Damian Czajkowski (bass) return with the band’s first new material since 2009’s Immerse in Infinity.  Making their recording debut with Lost Soul are Asmodeus Draco Dux (drums) and Marek Golas (guitars), who both joined in 2012.

If you like what you hear (and who are we kidding, YOU WILL), stay tuned — as on Monday, October 26, we will GET TO THE POINT in an interview with Jacek Grecki.  See the links below to grab digital and physical copies of the album (vinyl will be released in February 2016). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SWALLOW THE SUN, BELPHEGOR, LOST SOUL, BLACK FAST, REVENGE, HUMAN IMPROVEMENT PROCESS, WHORETOPSY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  24 Responses »
Oct 062015
 

Swallow the Sun-Songs From the North

 

Yesterday and today brought yet another flood of very good new song and video premieres, many of which I’ve collected in this post. This is another instance where there’s so much music I want to share that I’m having to throttle my tendency to spill great piles of words on top of the music. Instead, there will be only small molehills of words.

SWALLOW THE SUN

Yesterday Finland’s Swallow the Sun premiered a lyric video for one of the vast number of songs on their forthcoming three-disc album on Century Media, Songs From the North I, II & III. We’re trying to figure out how to review this album. Current thinking is to divide it among three different writers here at our site. We probably need to think more.

Anyway, this song is “Heartstrings Shattering” and features guest vocals by Aleah (Trees of Eternity) The title is well-chosen. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ATTAN, CHRONOLYTH, DEUS OTIOSUS, GRIFT, HOAXBANE, LOST SOUL, PANOPTICON, POWER FROM HELL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Sep 142015
 

Attan-From Nothing

 

I’ve accumulated quite a large number of interesting news items and new songs from my excursions through the interhole and the NCS in-box this weekend. In order to present more of them than I’m usually able to do, I’m going to do something that causes me great personal pain and undoubtedly will bring tears to the eyes of our faithful readers: I’m going to hold my own beautiful prose to a minimum and allow the music to speak for itself, largely without benefit of me as its interpretive intermediary.

Presented in alphabetical order:

ATTAN

Attan are a Norwegian band whose debut EP From Nothing will be released through Shelsmusic in limited-edition vinyl and digitally on November 30. The opening track, “Nocebo (I Shall Harm)” is now available for streaming on Soundcloud.

An avalanche of unhinged destructiveness; skull-fracturing drumbeats; spleen-rupturing riffs; aorta-rupturing vocals. Discordant and demented. Continue reading »