A DOUBLE DOSE OF DENVER DEATH METAL: GLACIAL TOMB, NIGHTWRAITH

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 302024
 

(NCS contributor Gonzo usually helps us close the end of months with a collection of reviews, and he does so again today, but this time focusing on just two albums, both of them created by bands from Denver.)

This won’t be news to most of you, so I’ll get right to it –

The rolling thunder of the Denver metal scene cannot be denied. It’s been on a powerful sort of kick in the 2020s, and few American cities can rival the raw talent and creativity that constantly comes pouring out of it. I know this because I live here. Between the crushing ubiquity of heavy music and craft beer, this place is a veritable haven for people who wear battle jackets to bars.

And as the metal gods would have it, two new albums from two rising stars in the Denver scene have been released within a week of each other – Glacial Tomb’s Lightless Expanse and Nightwraith’s Divergence – and if you haven’t heard of either band, buckle up motherfuckers – these albums are poised to change that. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIGHTWRAITH — “WHISPERS OF DRAGONFLIES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 302024
 

Two years ago we opened the floodgates on a lot of enthusiastic words about the multi-faceted music of the Denver-based metal collective NightWraith. Back then, the subject was the band’s album Offering, which their leader Benjamin Pitts described as a combination of “the heavy parts from bands like Carcass, and Enslaved” and “the warmth of classic bands like Thin Lizzy, and Blue Oyster Cult“.

That album was so engaging and memorable that we eagerly looked forward to what NightWraith might do next. What they’ve done next is create a new album named Divergence that will be released on September 13th by What’s Left Records. It’s even more ambitious than the last one, and even better.

In addition to helping spread the news about the new record, today we’re also premiering a video for its first single, a song intriguingly named “Whispers of Dragonflies“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIGHTWRAITH — “BEGUILER”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 172022
 

 

Almost three months ago Reaping Scythe Records released a new album by the Denver-based metal collective NightWraith. Entitled Offering, it was one of those albums that threw down the gauntlet to people interested in simple genre descriptors. With changes reflected not only from song to song but within each song, the band made use of ingredients from melodic death metal, black metal, and doom, but pulled from an even more eclectic array of time-traveling influences than even those.

As the band’s extravagantly bearded founder Benjamin Pitts put it: “It’s like we took all the heavy parts from bands like Carcass and Enslaved and combined it with the warmth of classic bands like Thin Lizzy and Blue Oyster Cult. It has been really fun inserting rock guitar and organ tones into a genre that typically avoids these types of sounds.”

And really, even those contrasting references just hint at how many facets Offering displays as it turns. As a reminder of that, today we’re bringing you the premiere of a live video of the band performing one of the thoroughly captivating tracks from Offering, a song appropriately named “Beguiler“. Continue reading »