SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: COFFIN DUST, EREB ALTOR, ASENATH BLAKE, REEK, SUBSERVIENTDOMINANCE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Dec 042021
 

 

I’m going to dispense with an elaborate introduction to this Saturday’s round-up of new and newly discovered songs and videos. I’ll say only that it includes one complete album, one complete EP, and an assortment of tracks from forthcoming releases — and that the music bounces around quite a it, so don’t think you’ll be allowed to lock in to any one stylistic groove.

COFFIN DUST (U.S.)

Five years is a long time between releases, but save for a very short 2019 split, that’s how long it’s been since we’ve had something new from this enormously impressive Philadelphia band. But the ticking clock got re-set yesterday when Coffin Dust released a new album (their third), the name of which is Nightmare Vision. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 3): GOAT TORMENT, HATE, NECROMANTIA, REEK, REVERENCE TO PAROXYSM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 182021
 

 

As promised yesterday, I’m continuing to make my way through the metal alphabet, with another slug of songs and videos that I siphoned out of the ongoing flood during the past week. I thought I’d make it to the end of the alphabet today, but now I’m not so sure. The demon alcohol afflicted me last night, and the affliction both caused me to sleep like a hibernating bear and also to wake up in a state of severe brain fog. I’ll just have to see how things go.

GOAT TORMENT (Belgium)

If you’re not already educated about the kind of music Goat Torment make, one long look at the album art will tell you much of what you need to know. There’s one important piece of imagery missing from the artwork though — massed howitzers and machine-guns firing at will. The song you’re about to hear sounds like a mechanized war zone, one that’s also plagued by frenzied demons, who reach heights of mania in a really stupendous guitar solo. Continue reading »

(OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 3 OF 3): RALE, REEK, SICK SAD WORLD, SODOMISERY, SUMMIT, THE DITCH AND THE DELTA, UNMERCIFUL, VENTR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 292020
 

 

At last, I’ve called a halt to my effort to pump so much new music into your ears that your brain drowns in it (though I still have plans for a SHADES OF BLACK column later today, so I guess I’m only pausing rather than stopping). Picking up from Part 2, the alphabetical ordering of bands continues here, R through V.

RALE (U.S.)

We begin with four tracks of roaring, howling, mind-warping death/grind courtesy of these North Carolina marauders. Veering between gargantuan roars and shattering screams, the vocals are truly ferocious; there’s a mountainous bass presence; and the riffing shifts from utterly crazed to sickeningly dismal and apocalyptically calamitous. The band inflict truly brutish, skull-flattening punishment; sometimes the distorted fretwork sounds like a giant excavation machine at work in a quarry; and they are equally adept at igniting conflagrations of ravaging chaos. Explosive and electrifying…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REEK — “CONDEMNED BY THE HANDS OF PAIN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 272020
 

 

Probably ’til the end of times, fans of old Entombed will debate the merits or demerits of the band’s movement from Left Hand Path through Clandestine and into the “death ‘n’ roll” of Wolverine Blues. But it’s clear that the Swedish band Reek don’t mourn that transition but instead celebrate it, as you’ll discover through today’s premiere of a track from their debut album, Death is something there Between, which will be released by Testimony Records on April 24th.

A debut album it may be, but the members of Reek are accomplished veterans. Leading the way are Håkan Stuvemark (Wombbath, Pale King) and Rogga Johansson (too many bands to name), who have collaborated before in the progressive death metal band PermaDeath. Here, Stuvemark and Johansson both play guitar, and this time Stuvemark is also the vocalist. They’re joined in Reek by their PermaDeath teammate Jon Skäre (also Defiatory, Wachenfeldt) on drums and by bassist Mathias Back (Fimbultyr).

With that kind of talent assembled under the name Reek, listeners will predictably have high expectations, and those expectations will not be disappointed. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS (PART 1): GRAVEVIEW, REEK, VITRIOL

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 302019
 

 

Today’s round-up of new music, divided into two parts, focuses on flavors of death metal (particularly destructive death metal, I should add), hence the title of this post. We begin with a stream of a complete new release (which includes a couple of exclusive song streams you’ll find only at NCS) and then move from there into advance tracks from forthcoming records. Look for Part 2 (which hasn’t yet been finished) a bit later today.

GRAVEVIEW

The first thing that struck me about Graveview after listening to only the first track on the recently released compilation of their two demos is how goddamn massive they sound — like being right up next to some giant excavation machine gouging out the guts of a stone quarry, operated by madmen who are ignoring all occupational safety and health regulations. Continue reading »