SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MIDNIGHT, ALIGN, FURNACE, STREGA, ARV, FLUISTERAARS

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Apr 052025
 

(written by Islander)

I don’t have a “physically active lifestyle” these days, yet some nights my body acts like I just ran a marathon. Last night was one of those. I conked out and woke up more than 9 hours later. Not even the part of my brain that always nags me, even asleep, about the need to get this Saturday column in shape could resist the bear-like compulsion to hibernate.

So, a very late start today, made later by the time needed to overcome grogginess. Still groggy, even after reading godawful global news stories while inhaling a cocktail of caffeine and nicotine, I glanced at the godawful big NCS in-box. Here’s the first message I saw:

Please take a moment out of your day to listen to the new track from Casa Mondo “Same Words.” It is a taste of Afro Reggae Summer Niceness and would give your followers a warm fuzzy feeling 🙂

I nearly wrote back to ask how in the world we got on this person’s list. We must be on many lists that have zero to do with what we do, because I see dozens of e-mails like this every day from musically remote planets (remote from our own ugly little asteroid).

Of course I didn’t write back, but I thought, the only warm fuzzy feeling our followers might want from music at NCS would be a feeling of fungal infection. And “niceness”? I think our definition of “nice” is not what Casa Mondo had in mind. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ABORTED, BORKNAGAR, COFFINS, DEICIDE, HIGH ON FIRE, KATAKLYSM, MIDNIGHT, MY DYING BRIDE, ULVER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 172024
 

Oh look! I made a round-up of new songs and videos! Make the motion for slapping me on the back from afar, or at least patting my pointy head.

Yeah, it’s been a long damned time since I pulled one of these things together. Beginning in late January I kept thinking my life would get back to normal after 6 or 7 weeks of being ruthlessly pounded by my day job, but the pounding unexpectedly continued.

I’m at the point of doubting everything, but now it really does seem like my long dark night of the soul has ended, and I can resume what passes for normal activity around the ruined halls of NCS. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KILLING JOKE, VANUM, MIDNIGHT, KONVENT, INCANDESCENCE, HELPLESS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 102022
 

 

The new music keeps coming in a flood. So what else is new? Well, these six songs and videos are new, and I’d like to recommend them. With a bit of luck I’ll have time to recommend more tomorrow.

KILLING JOKE (UK)

Lord of Chaos is a new Killing Joke EP. Recorded by the original line-up, it’s their first new music in seven years. It includes two brand new recordings, plus two re-workings of songs from the band’s last studio album, 2015’s Pylon. The new songs are described as tracks that “set the tone for the band’s next studio album, currently being worked on in Prague”. The re-worked older songs are titled “Big Buzz” (Motorcade Mix) and “Delete In Dub” (Youth’s Disco 45 Dystopian Dub). Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: IMMOLATION, MIDNIGHT, THE HALO EFFECT, FETAL BLOOD EAGLE, MORMÂNT DE SNAGOV, NEBULA ORIONIS, FACELESS ENTITY, KONTUSION, DEATHBELL, SPIRITUAL DECEPTION, OLD IRON, GHOST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 222022
 

 

I hope you’re having a good weekend. I hope to make it better by sharing a dozen new songs and videos I picked after sliding down the interhole for hours early this morning. I made an effort to provide a broad span of genres, and to arrange everything so as to take advantage of the contrasts. I’ve also put every damned one of these tracks on my list of candidates for 2022’s Most Infectious Songs.

Also, when a round-up swells to these proportions I usually don’t take time to download/upload the artwork, but I made an exception today because there’s a lot of good cover art in this group, beginning with Eliran Kantor‘s stupendous painting for the new Immolation. Speaking of which….

IMMOLATION (U.S.)

Does anyone need any more reason to get stoked over a new Immolation album? I don’t see any hands up. I guess I could have skipped this first song and video. I guess you could skip over it too. But I’m getting more and more near-sighted, so I could have missed a hand, so here goes. Continue reading »

HELLRAISERS: MIDNIGHT, ANIMA DAMNATA, SOL DE SANGRE, ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS, OXYGEN DESTROYER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 062017
 

 

From day to day, we have very few plans here at the NCS HQ, or at least very few that I know of. As the editor I rely mainly on my reflexes, which are like coils of rusted springs, ready to creak into action on a moment’s notice. Our other writers may have plans, but I usually learn of them only when our intrepid pigeon aeronauts arrive with stained scrolls of text wrapped around their legs. I do my creaky best to get their writings ready to go by the next day… or the same day… and quite often those surprises unexpectedly fill up our site with content when only the day before I might have wondered what the hell I would have for you beyond my own frenzied scribbling. Beyond that, the rest of my life occasionally intrudes with other reflex tests.

And so it was that I promised Part 2 of my latest SHADES OF BLACK column would be posted on Monday, and then got surprised… and then was surprised again on Monday… and today will also be full of surprises (at last count, we’ll have six posts today). Anyway, no SHADES OF BLACK today either, but I am going with this selection of new music from five bands, most of which I originally intended to include in that missing Part 2 and a couple that I came across since starting on it. I’m calling this “Hellraisers” because… well… you’ll find out why soon enough.

MIDNIGHT

This is one of the items I discovered most recently — last night, in fact. It’s a new release by Ohio’s Midnight, a cover of “I Don’t Need Society” by D.R.I. It’s a Bandcamp, download-only release, and all profits will be donated to the Red Cross in their efforts to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Various other Midnight CDs, LPs, tapes, patches, and t-shirts are available in bundles along with the new download, and profits from those sales will also be donated to the Red Cross. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): KADAVERDISCIPLIN, KAPALA, KATLA, MIDNIGHT, ZEIT

 Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Aug 232017
 

 

Here’s the second part of a column delayed from Sunday. I began it yesterday with a news item and then new music from four bands, and continue it today with new music and a new video from five more. From yesterday through today, these items are organized in alphabetical order by band name.

KADAVERDISCIPLIN

Kadaverdisciplin is a newish band of Swedish black metal slaughterers whose line-up includes a core trio of musicians from Västervik, Sweden (who include members of Zombified and Blodsrit) plus drummer extraordinaire Fredrik Widigs (Marduk, The Ugly). After a couple of digital singles, they have finished a debut album appropriately named Death Supremacy that will be released by Hammerheart Records on October 20. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): MIDNIGHT, KARTIKEYA, IMPUREZA, ENDSEEKER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 112017
 

 

Surprise! Hope your kids or your parents or your bosses weren’t looking over your shoulder when you landed on this post. But hey, we have to have our fun where we find it. Just tell ’em that’s a recently discovered Michaelangelo that’s making news throughout the art world.

Midnight also has a new promo photo that you can view after the jump. Your kids/parents/bosses will really love it!

I’ve got a few bits of additional info about Midnight’s new album to start this end-of-week round-up, plus another piece of album art and news about a long-awaited new album, and then some music. I’ve collected so many new song streams that I’ve decided to break up this rond-up into somewhat smaller bites so your mind won’t choke on it. I’ll probably be posting round-ups from now straight through the weekend.

MIDNIGHT

As you can see, the new Midnight album is named Sweet Death and Ecstasy. There’s some more info about the album that I’ll quote below. Unfortunately, Hells Headbangers didn’t tell us who created the scissor-sisters cover art. Might be William Lacey, who’s done work for these sleazy Clevelanders before, but I’m not sure if he’s responsible for this one. Here’s that new promo shot: Continue reading »

OUR LAST POST OF 2016… AND OUR FIRST OF 2017 (WITH NEW MUSIC FROM MIDNIGHT, THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT, MISERIST, MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY, VIELIKAN)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Dec 312016
 

 

Yes, of course, it’s just an arbitrary date, one that has no intrinsic meaning. The arrow of time moves inexorably forward, the segmentation of its path into old years and new ones solely our own creation, one more effort to impose some kind of communal order on chaos. The effort fails, but as an occasion for remembering good times and bad, and perhaps kindling hope for a better tomorrow, the clicking of the clock past midnight tonight serves a laudable purpose. Even as simply an excuse for a cathartic blowout, it’s a good thing, if that’s your thing.

The calendar will flip over, but I’ll just keep writing as if nothing is about to change. Why the hell not? I have a lot of new songs and videos I’ve discovered over the last 48 hours. I’ve collected a few of them — the result of hard choices — and will make some of them the subject of this last NCS post of 2016, and the rest the subject of our first post of 2017 tomorrow.

Happy Fucking New Year to all of you from all of us. My resolution, over which I have no control, is to be here with you one year from today, saying the same damned thing. Continue reading »

MIDNIGHT AND SHITFUCKER — A SPLIT RELEASE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Aug 182015
 

shitfucker-midnight split sover

 

This is one of those extremely rare occasions when I’m writing about a new release without being able to include a stream of any of the music. This leaves you without the vital safety net of your own ears, wholly dependent on my own gibberish as a guide. While I really hate putting you in that position, I really have to froth about this release now. If and when a music stream surfaces, I’ll try to remember to add it. But since my memory is no more reliable than my verbiage, maybe you should just order this tasty little split for yourselves.

The partners in crime on this two-song release are Cleveland’s Midnight and Detroit’s Shitfucker, and it will be discharged by Hells Headbangers on 7″ vinyl on September 4.

MIDNIGHT

Midnight’s track is “Sadist Sodomystic Seducer”, and it’s their first new music since 2014’s stupendous No Mercy For Mayhem. It’s only 2:13 long, but man it’s good. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JAMIE WALTERS (MIDNIGHT)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Oct 022014
 

 

(In this post you will find BadWolf’s interview of Jamie Walters, aka Athenor, of Cleveland’s Midnight.)

Cleveland’s Jamie Walters struck gold (though maybe he didn’t know it) when throwback metal outfit Boulder became inactive and he formed his one-man project Midnight. Part black metal and part cock rock, Midnight has won over a surprising number of fans with a mixture of powerful hooks, depraved lyrics, and shocking imagery. The band’s 2011 album, Satanic Royalty, made me a fan. Their set at 2013’s Maryland Deathfest made me a devotee. Now, with their sophomore LP, No Mercy For Mayhem, I am a fanatic. Still, Walters’ music has the hooks, but perhaps not the ethics we as listeners demand from modern rock music. I got on the blower with Walters to see what satanic royalty has to do with sexism and an undying love for AC/DC.

********

I don’t see that many interviews with you.

Jamie: No, I try not to do too many interviews. I don’t know, over the internet. . . I’m not really an internet type of person, so over the internet you get kind of just like short answers, kind of half-ass, and then over the phone it’s always just like, ‘hey, we’re just talking’. I don’t like talking to people but it’s like, sometimes it doesn’t come across as an interview, because then you start talking about the Steelers, the Lions, kind of stupid shit — you know? — that has nothing to do with an interview. So.

 

You’re from Ohio, you’re like, you’re an Ohio boy, and you never play Ohio.

Jamie: Well, I wouldn’t say never, but not as much, you know, I guess just as much as any other cities.

 

Well, I mean, you played Cleveland maybe twice last year, you’re from Cleveland. . .

Jamie: Yeah, yeah.

 

. . . and you’re about to do this Hell’s Headbangers warehouse show.

Jamie: Okay, it’s just a warehouse, essentially, so I’m sure you’ve been to a warehouse, it has a bay door, a garage, and all that kind of stuff, and it’s a warehouse. You know, it’s basically like a private party here, just do a little gig here in the parking lot and play in the, you know, the bay doors, and just have bands play, and just have hotdogs and pop or whatever the shit and those guys are good and it would be cool. And of course they think on a little more bigger level I guess, and it’s like yeah, well, just have it open to everybody…. I thought it would be like a private party at most, you know, 40 people or something like that, but I guess beyond that it grew bigger than we anticipated. I don’t know. We’ll see, but it seems like there are a lot of people coming. Continue reading »

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