AN NCS INTERVIEW: NORILSK

 Interviews  No Responses »
Sep 262022
 


photo by Nick Richer

(Here we have Comrade Aleks‘ new interview of Nicolas Miquelon from the Québec band Norilsk, who released a new EP this past spring to tide us over ’til the next album.)

NCS’ constant followers should remember Norilsk. It’s a Canadian death-doom band who integrated elements of post metal into their music, and we interviewed Nicolas Miquelon (all instruments, vocals) a few years ago. But in case you forgot that, let me remind you of some facts about Norilsk.

The band is named after the world’s northernmost city and the second-largest city (after Murmansk) inside the Arctic Circle. Norilsk and Yakutsk are also the only large cities in the continuous permafrost zone. So you see the reason why Nicolas and his band-mate Nick Richer (drums) entitled their first album The Idea of North (2015). Then Hypnotic Dirge Records released the albums Le passage des glaciers (2017) and Weepers of the Land (2018). And then… then there was silence.

The Beyond the Mountains EP is the first band’s recording in four years, and that’s quite a long break for such an active act. These two tracks bring the hope that Norilsk are going to get rid of their relatively new passion toward post-metal, as here we have good old death-doom as it was in ’90s. What else could we expect if one of the songs is an Officium Triste cover? So just one really new song after four years? Well, not. This interview was intended for Dark City magazine, but here it is. A chance to dig deeper into the idea of North again. Continue reading »

A DOOMED DESCENT (PART 5): NORILSK, OPHIS, PROCESS OF GUILT

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 192017
 

 

(In the fall of this year we posted a four-part series of reviews by Comrade Aleks, who usually brings us excellent interviews from the manifold realms of doom, and now we have a fifth part, in which Aleks spreads the word about 2017 albums by Norilsk, Ophis, and Process of Guilt.)

 

Autumn 2017 brought three big releases to followers of the extreme doom metal scene. Of course there were many more, but I want you to pay an attention to these three today.

I greatly enjoyed the first album of death-doom Norilsk (Canada) in 2015 and was pretty excited to listen to their second work Le Passage Des Glaciers. The new Ophis (Germany) became a real trial for me with its sick and deranged atmosphere embodied in their own darkest nihilistic way. And Process Of Guilt (Portugal) made another step further from their death-doom roots and have recorded interesting and intensive sludge-focused music. Let me sum up my impressions. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NICOLAS MIQUELON (NORILSK)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Feb 272015
 

 

(Our Russian friend Comrade Aleks has been busy — for the second day in a row he brings us a new interview. Today, his conversation is with Nicolas Miquelon, lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist of the Québec band Norilsk.)

Norilsk is a Russian industrial city, the world’s northernmost city, with more than 100,000 inhabitants — and it’s one of most polluted cities in the world due to intense mining, a bleak land of ore and melted metal, of biting frost and acid rains. But Norilsk is also the name of a death/doom band from Québec, Canada, and their debut full-length record The Idea Of North will be released on the 10th of March through Hypnotic Dirge Records.

I found the band on their label’s new compilation Subarctic Nocturnes: Doomed to Be – Vol.1 (available here), and it was a worthy discovery. Are you ready for the cold, distorted, and burning breath of arctic wind? Nicolas Miquelon (all instruments but drums, and vocals) is here to spread the very idea of North. Continue reading »