SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: VITRIOL, SAASTA, RUDRA, PESTILENGTH, SAN LEO

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Nov 042023
 


Vitriol – photo by Peter Beste

It’s been a hell of a week for yours truly, emphasis on hell. In an average week now, the release of new metal is a deluge. This past week, another Bandcamp Friday pushed the storm-surge higher. Fittingly, as I write this, the rain is coming down outside like a fucking monsoon, a rarity here in the usually drizzly Pacific Northwest.

On top of that I decided to get the latest covid vaccine and the latest flu shot on the same day early in the week. When you have as much gray hair as I do and have spent the majority of your life smoking, getting both of those shots was strongly recommended. In hindsight, getting them both at the same time was a dumbass move.

Sore arms for a few days, of course, and all my energy also evaporated for a few days too, as it did with every previous covid jab. But this time my head and lungs got congested like someone had flooded them with concrete slurry and my nose ran like a leaky faucet. That has slowly improved, but I’m still congested and damned tired of that.

The combination of a big flood-tide of new music and a misery-clogged head isn’t a great combination for this usual Saturday column. Although I’m still happy with today’s picks, there should have been more. At least you can’t hear me hacking and snorting, so that’s one blessing. More blessings to follow…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PESTILENGTH — “TAMM”

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Feb 032022
 

 

We were late in discovering the ruinous and mind-boggling talents of Pestilength from the Basque Country of Spain, having overlooked the slew of EPs and singles with which they began their career, but their 2020 debut album Eilatik changed all that. It was so eye-opening, as was the band’s Apore Flesh EP and their split with Mexico’s Reverence to Paroxysm, both of which were also released in 2020, that we’ve been hungry for the next album — and now we have it.

This new eight-song record is named Basom Gryphos, and it will be released on March 7th in a variety of formats by Nuclear Winter Records in collaboration with Sentient Ruin and Goat Throne, accompanied by the chilling cover art of Namurian Visions that’s emblazoned at the top of this post.

One track from Basom Gryphos has already emerged, and today we present another, the name of which is “Tamm“. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: HUMAN HARVEST, AEVITERNE, ARKAIK, MESLAMTAEA, PESTILENGTH, CORRUPTER, HYDRA, LOATHE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 062022
 

 

There was a modest but noticeable slowdown in the release of new songs and videos over the holidays, but things have kicked back up into high gear again, as evidenced by the enormous number of tabs I’ve opened up for new music and video streams just since last weekend. I’ve made my way through many (but not all) of those and made the following selections across many metal sub-genres in the hope of brightening (and darkening) your day.

HUMAN HARVEST (Sweden)

A dozen years after the release of their second demo this death metal band (now the formidable duo of Jonny Pettersson and Jon Rudin) has crawled from its crypt again and fashioned a debut album named Flesh Sermons that’s been set for release on January 31st by Iron, Blood and Death Corporation. Last Monday saw the discharge of the album’s first advance track, a macabre monstrosity called “Blasphemy“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THEOTOXIN, PESTILENGTH, TOMORROW’S RAIN, MHLS

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Jul 102020
 

 

Here’s another short round-up of songs and videos as a way of wrapping up our posts for this week. I have in mind another one for Saturday.

THEOTOXIN

This first video has it all — flashing images of swarming maggots, snakes, death in the insect kingdom, human and goat skulls, stone tombs, abundant torches and candles, skies ripped by lightning, and a masked and corpse-painted band ripping through their song in a cavern. It’s missing a human sacrifice, but we shouldn’t be greedy. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): EXULANSIS, PESTILENGTH, ERADICYST, REMISSION

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 092019
 

 

Lo and behold, I managed to finish the second part of the round-up of new music I began here yesterday. Not a great shock that I couldn’t finish it yesterday; more shocking that I finished it at all. Hope you enjoy what you’ll find here. Musically, it’s pretty diverse.

EXULANSIS

I’m not embarrassed to admit that when I first listened to the title song of the debut album by Exulansis, which opens the album, I got a lump in my throat and moistness in the eyes. It’s no secret that I tend to have stronger emotional responses to music (and tend to express them more unabashedly) than many people who are (or pretend to be) music critics, mainly because I think of myself more as an enthusiastic fan than a critic. But this song damn near broke my heart. And it turns out that the song continues to have that effect every time I hear it, which means I have to ration how often I turn back to it (simply forgetting about it isn’t an option). Continue reading »