Dec 142024
 

(written by Islander)

If you’ve been visiting us recently it’s obvious that we’ve dived into year-end LISTMANIA. Andy Synn just finished his week-long series, which always starts us off, and we’ve re-posted a few lists from sites much bigger than our own. But if that was the dive, we’re about to sink way deeper into lists, like someone who offended a crime lord and are now being pulled into a watery abyss with concrete blocks chained to our thrashing body.

To preview what’s coming, next week we’ll roll out DGR‘s week-long Top 50 list, a three-part list series from Neill Jameson, and a couple of year-end lists from other NCS writers, with a lot more to come in the weeks after that. Continue reading »

Sep 112020
 

 

Earlier today one of our writers, purporting to speak for all of us, asserted that we at NCS are not perfect. I disagree. I, for one, am perfectly aware of my inability to keep up with the release of new music.

Last night I did manage to plow through the last two days of e-mails in our bulging in-box and checked a few other valued sources. From that effort I added roughly two-dozen new songs to check out, on top of a similar number I had identified the last time I went exploring just a couple of days ago.

A laughable thing to do, of course, given there’s no way I could make my way through all of that in time to write anything for today. So I threw mental darts at the list, with some hits and some misses. The following eight new songs were among the hits. I’ll pick some more for your listening pleasure on Saturday.

DARK TRANQUILLITY (Sweden)

In “Phantom DaysDark Tranquillity launched the run-up to their new album Moment with a sure-fire crowd-pleaser — nothing terribly different, but capable of stimulating the pleasure centers of fans. I confess that I felt stimulated, though not to the point of tumescence. Will I remember it? That’s a different question. Continue reading »