AN NCS PREMIERE: PAGANIZER — “WORLD SCYTHE”

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Aug 302024
 

(written by Islander)

What better way to launch your weekend than to have Paganizer blast through the midnight barrier hours before it arrives? And to show us that what lies beyond the barrier is something much more thrilling (and frightening) than an early Saturday morning?

As you undoubtedly know, Paganizer have been seizing attention ever since the late ’90s. With Rogga Johansson continuously at the helm and a changing cast of allies alongside him, Paganizer have released a dozen albums and nearly two dozen shorter releases, and now there’s a lucky 13th album headed our way — entitled Flesh Requiem — with an arrival date of November 1st through Transcending Obscurity Records.

As you can see, it’s adorned by the distinctive artwork of Mariusz Lewandowski, which gives us a chilling glimpse of the other world that lies beyond the midnight barrier. It’s also a suggestive sign that what Paganizer are doing on this new album goes beyond the delivery of ruinous death metal might — and the song we’re premiering today is an electrifying demonstration of that. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ROGGA JOHANSSON (HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jul 242024
 


Rogga, photo by Jacob Johansson

(We present the following interview of Rogga Johansson by our Comrade Aleks. The initial focus is on the latest album from House by the Cemetary, released by Pulverised Records in May, but of course the discussion branches off into many other topics too.)

Rogga Johansson is a paranormally hyperactive Swedish guitarist and vocalist who started to conquer the metal underground with the death metal band Terminal Grip in 1994. I could fill the entire foreword just counting the bands and projects where he took part or which he keeps on running. But it seems that his most crucial band is Paganizer, the successor of Terminal Grip which has provided death metal since 1998 and produced twelve full-length albums and a good bunch of smaller releases.

However tonight we focus on the international death metal (of course!) project House by the Cemetary which he runs together with American vocalist Mike Hrubovcak (ex-Monstrosity, Azure Emote, ex-Vile, etc).

Their third album The Mortuary Hauntings was released in May 2024 by Pulverised Records, and if you missed it somehow, this interview with Rogga will close that gap. If you dig stuff with titles such as “Cadavers Emerge”, “The Realm of the Cursed” and “Opening the Gates of Hell”, this will please your tastes. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PAGANIZER — “BEYOND THE MACABRE”

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Apr 112022
 

He might blush to hear it, but Rogga Johansson is death metal royalty. Prolific and seemingly indefatigable, he and hordes of talented allies have been churning out death metal and other forms of musical extremity since the mid-’90s under dozens of names. The oldest of all those bands (unless one counts the short-lived Terminal Grip) is of course Paganizer, a mauling and magnificent offspring that reached maturity long ago but still grows and flourishes.

All good things will come to an end, but Paganizer seems deathless — in the vanguard of Swedish death metal from the early days and relentless in its continuing momentum. On June 24th of this year we will witness the release of their 12th album Beyond the Macabre, nearly a quarter century after the first one, embellished with a cover painting by Juanjo Castellano that’s as much of a supernatural spectacle as the music is.

And yes it’s true — Beyond the Macabre is a supernatural spectacle, a display of Swedish death metal that continues to menace and maraud in the best of the old traditions, but with a knack for incorporating evocative melodies that both add to the music’s visceral and vicious vitality and makes the songs genuinely memorable. It’s thus an honor to present the title track today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PAGANIZER — “ROT SPREADS”

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Aug 222019
 

 

Undeniably, rot does spread, whether in wood, in human flesh, or in a damaged mind. Decay and decomposition are the natural end-points of organic life, the inevitable by-product of death. Once the spark goes out, the path to ruin is usually very slow — but the rot in the Paganizer song we’re presenting today spreads like… wildfire.

We hope that Paganizer needs no introduction. As the oldest and longest-running of the numerous groups to which the great Rogga Johansson has devoted his talents, it is a musical landmark that rises high above the gnarled forests and subterranean crypts of Swedish death metal. Unlike most living things, the music of Paganizer also seems immune to rot and deterioration. Arriving 20 years after the release of Paganizer’s debut album, the new full-length, The Tower of the Morbid, is full proof of that. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): PAGANIZER, BENEDICTION, BEYOND GRACE, MSC, INFANT ANNIHILATOR, ROBIN STONE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 302019
 

 

To continue with the round-up I began earlier today (here), I’ve got another wide scattering (stylistically speaking) of new music and videos, and as I did in the first post I’ve snuck in an announcement that (sadly) I’m not able to accompany with new music.

PAGANIZER

I decided to begin with this new Paganizer track for three reasons. First, because I needed to see Dan Seagrave‘s fantastic artwork for the new album at the top of our page until tomorrow. Second, because I have a crippling weakness for the music of Rogga Johansson, and Paganizer is the oldest and longest-running of the numerous groups to which he has devoted his talents over the last quarter-century. And third, because the track is a killer. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PAGANIZER — “FORLORN DREAMS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 042017
 

 

Rogga Johansson proclaims that Land of Weeping Souls “is the best Paganizer album, death fucking metal the way it is supposed to be done”. If you want to find a reliable authority on how death fucking metal is supposed to be done, you could hardly do better than Mr. Johansson, even making allowances for his partiality to Paganizer, which is the oldest and longest-running of the numerous groups to which he has devoted his talents over the last quarter-century.

Featuring ghastly cover art by Daniel “Devilish” Johnsson, Land of Weeping Souls is a 10-track monster, the tenth full-length in the discography of Paganizer. It will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on the 5th of August, 2017. It is also a renewal of faith — faith that even in a genre with such an old, gory history, the life hasn’t gone out of death (metal), and faith that at least for some of the earliest practitioners of the art, the creative fires still haven’t burned out but are blazing higher than ever.

Half the songs on this new Paganizer album have already been revealed in various premieres leading up to the release date, and I’ve collected all of them below. But today we have a sixth fusillade to add to the barrage — a track named “Forlorn Dreams“, which turns out to be as infectious as it is obliterating. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PAGANIZER, NOKTURNAL MORTUM, ANTIGAMA, DEPHOSPHORUS, KAECK, SAKRA, LYLE COOPER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 092017
 

 

Because of my mini-vacation that stretched from late last week through Sunday, I’ve accumulated a substantial number of worthy new song streams and videos to recommend. Seven of them are in this post, and I’ll compile more in the coming days, no doubt joined by others that will appear for the first time before the weekend.

PAGANIZER

Out of all the nearly countless projects to which Rogga Johansson has devoted his talents, I suppose much of my my favorite work of the Bard of Gamleby has come under the name of Paganizer. It’s therefore a delight to report that August 5th will bring the release of the 10th Paganizer album, Land of Weeping Souls. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PAGANIZER — “ANGRY ALL THE TIME”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 122016
 

Paganizer-On the Outskirts of Hades

 

Of all the many musical projects of Rogga Johansson over an illustrious career, Paganizer is the oldest and longest-running, with the first demo (Stormfire) being released in 1998, followed by new releases or compilations almost every year since then. In this current year, the mighty Paganizer have again mounted a new death metal assault in the form of an EP fittingly named On the Outskirts of Hades, and today we bring you the premiere of its opening track: “Angry All the Time“.

What a great name for a song, and one that rings so true in the baleful light of Paganizer’s long and savage history. And it’s not only the title of the song that’s great. Continue reading »

SATURDAY SLAUGHTER, SWEDISH STYLE: TORTURE DIVISION, MORDBRAND, PAGANIZER, JOHANSSON & SPECKMANN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Dec 272014
 

 

It’s been a little while since I posted some real Swedish fucking death metal on the site, long enough that I was starting to get the shakes, the night sweats, the dry mouth, and the volcanic gut rumbles. So I decided to do something about it. I’m tending to my needs, and bringing you some slaughter for your Saturday at the same time. But as you’ll find out, this is also a very bittersweet post for me to write.

TORTURE DIVISION

I first discovered Torture Division in March 2011, when they released a cover of Mastodon’s “Iron Tusk” from the Leviathan album, accompanied by an introduction that included these words:

“This is how we would have made this song, had we written it in the first place. But we didn’t, we just thought it would be nice to MASTODON to make a proper tune out of it. Kidding, kidding… MASTODON‘s cool. They are no TORTURE DIVISION, but hey — can’t win them all.”

I became an immediate fan, and have remained one in the years that followed (you can still hear that “Iron Tusk” cover in the first Mordbrand feature I prepared). I wrote about most of their other releases over the last three years (collected here) and liked every goddamn one of them. And now, sad to say, I’m writing about their final effort. Continue reading »