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 »

Dec 302022
 

 

(We’ve been enjoying Neill Jameson‘s year-end lists as they’ve arrived, and making lots of new discoveries (we hope you have too), and today we bring you his fifth and final list for 2022 at NCS.)

I don’t really look at these lists as the “best of” a certain year, per se, rather just recordings I’ve enjoyed throughout whatever calendar year it currently is. However, the last part is historically what I considered “best”, so forget whatever the fuck I just said a few words ago. These were my favorites out of everything we’ve covered thus far. Continue reading »

Dec 262022
 

(One of the perennial highlights of our year-end LISTMANIA series are the articles Neill Jameson has contributed, and we’re very happy that he’s done so again this year. This one is the fourth of a five-part installment of Neill‘s lists for 2022. As you’ll see, it goes in lots of different directions)

As I’ve been writing these I’ve kept an open doc with the list from this year that I just continue to add to. My therapist might tell me that this kind of behavior is me subconsciously punishing myself for years of shitting on people with huge year-end lists but I’d just steer the conversation back to when the neighbor molested me when I was a child.

This is a bit of a longer list. Continue reading »

Dec 232022
 

(One of the perennial highlights of our year-end LISTMANIA series are the articles Neill Jameson has contributed, and we’re very happy that he’s done so again this year. This one is the third of a 5 (or 6?) part installment of Neill‘s lists for 2022.)

I spent a solid half hour during a meeting at work googling Shakespearean English to try to cobble together the title for this one which was both a great use of company time as well as a fine opportunity for someone with a dry dick and classical education to tell me I used the terms wrong. I’m nothing if not a giver.

I said way back when in the first piece I wasn’t going to do theme lists. I guess this is a good time to admit to you that I’m a filthy liar and I should feel shame but instead it’s mostly glee at being dishonest to twelve or thirteen people at once outside of my immediate family. Anyway, here’s dungeon synth. Continue reading »

Dec 222022
 

(One of the perennial highlights of our year-end LISTMANIA series are the articles Neill Jameson has contributed, and we’re very happy that he’s done so again this year. This one is the second of a 5 (or 6?) part installment of Neill‘s lists. And to be clear (again), Neill wrote the title of this feature himself.)

There’s no real need for me to write anything more than welcome to part II of my annual titterings. We’re going to start this one with a fucking bang.

Continue reading »

Dec 202022
 

 

(One of the perennial highlights of our year-end LISTMANIA series are the articles Neill Jameson has contributed, and we’re very happy that he’s done so again this year. This one is the first of a handful of Parts we’ll be publishing. To be clear, Neill wrote the title of this feature himself.)

I think I’ve struggled with the introduction to this more than the actual list. If 2022 was a flavor it would be lukewarm soft-serve dogshit with a sprinkling of cardamom for that nice little pop at the end. We could sit and examine the state of the world but that’s an increasingly depressing affair and this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, afterall. So instead I’ll just get into the reason for the season. 

I spent a lot of time with cassettes and eps this year so the bulk of the forthcoming prattlings will focus around that. I’ve tried to do theme pieces in the last two years but really the only one I’ll do is the coup de grâce with my favorite releases of the year. So until then nothing on these lists is in any kind of order. Hopefully one or two selections tickles you and if so then please support the artists directly, especially since Bandcamp is now taxing the fuck out of us. I’ve included links where I could find them. 

If I write about anything that came out at the end of 2021 and you’re excited to educate me on it, don’t.  Continue reading »

Dec 272021
 

 

(Here’s the final part of Neill Jameson‘s 5-part series of year-end lists for NCS. As always we’re grateful to him for letting us share them, and we hope you’ve made as many great discoveries from them as we have.)

So now we’ve come to the end of several days’ worth of things to read while you’re on the shitter which, according to Christmas tradition, should be full. I didn’t do full albums for this, you can use Google to find my list of those, and I would have added Funeral Mist and Ifernach to the heap but both of those came out too late for me to really do much about it, and by now you should have already guessed they’re both great.

Again, these lists are entirely subjective and I’m sure I missed whatever bullshit you’ve been chubbing up to, which you’ll tell me about in some forum I’ll never read. Or worse, perhaps you’re one of the people who spend the other 51 weeks of the year talking cash shit about me only to suck up this last week of the year hoping I’ll do something for your band or label, only to fall back into the internet sewing-circle of dry dicks waiting for me to do something that finally gets me “cancelled’.

Well, get fucked, your band sucks and I’ve had shows cancelled due to Antifa decades before you even knew your dick was for anything besides pissing. If this is the first you’ve heard that it can be used for anything else, congratulations and welcome to 2022. I’ll be leaving 2021 the same way I came in: making crass dick jokes some shitty webzine will dissect thinking it’ll get them somewhere. They can get fucked, too. Here’s the best of the best of the last twelve months in my eyes (ears?): Continue reading »

Dec 242021
 

 

(We’ve reached Part IV of the year-end lists we’re gratefully sharing from Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), with a fifth and final segment slated for publication on Monday.)

This was a huge year for small releases. What do I mean by that? I mean that these lists are taken up mostly by EPs, splits, cassettes, etc. Not necessarily bite-sized pieces, that’s too fucking cutsey, but a lot of bands did a lot of shorter releases this year that held my attention way more than the traditional long-player. Some excellent pairings that helped introduce me to new sounds as well as some that paired so well you’d think a fucking sommelier crafted the menu.

I don’t really need much more of an introduction than that. Here’s the splits of 2021 that really kept my attention: Continue reading »

Dec 232021
 

 

(Today we present Part III of a five-part series of year-end lists from Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood).)

I guess I’ve talked about my waning interest in dungeon synth every time I’ve written about it for the last few years, which has been frequent, so that makes me either dishonest with myself or an idiot. I’m sure the internet will provide a measured response to such an existential question so while I wait patiently for the polite and measured response I’ll walk you through the synth pieces I’ve really enjoyed in 2021.

As a note: not everything is dungeon synth or even remotely linked to it, the music here just shares the common thread of being ambient, electronic or synth-driven in nature. And like every year I tend to stick to the same few labels so I’m sure I’ve missed a few great recordings elsewhere (and probably a few hundred not so great ones). This is one genre that I’m always willing to listen to recommendations in, so if you have any then shoot your shot. Continue reading »

Dec 222021
 

 

(Our friend Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) has joined us again with year-end lists as 2021 draws to a close, and today we have Part Two of a five-part series.)

2021 was an outstanding year for the cassette, at least until the last few months of it because the little screws that are used to hold the fucking things together were apparently stuck on one of those boats that contained 80% of the country’s supply chain. Even still there were a ton of releases that were pushed through, some of them were even good.

This was probably the most difficult part of this year’s trophy parade because there were so many killer tapes that I left off this list but I really had to cut the fat, otherwise this would be a thirty-band list and nobody wants that. Continue reading »