LISTMANIA 2017: BLASHPEMOUS FOUNDATIONS (A YEAR-END ROUNDUP BY THEMADISRAELI)

 LISTMANIA 2017  13 Responses »
Dec 282017
 

 

(We present here the lists of 2017 releases that proved to be the favorites of NCS writer TheMadIsraeli.)

2017 was a fucking great year for metal of all kinds, but most particularly the extreme kinds. Keeping it short and sweet again this year, I’ve decided to call this list Blasphemous Foundations. I picked a Top 6 of thrash, black, and death metal, the central pillars of extreme metal (heuhueheue 666 get it!?) followed by a miscellaneous Top 10 of stuff either not in those categories or was its own thing to the extent I didn’t think it fit into them. This will probably be my year-end list format going forward, although there will be differing amounts of exposition and me generally being an overly verbose fuckhead.

But first, some hot takes, and not-so-hot takes I’d like to offer: Continue reading »

OBLIVION: “THE PATH TOWARDS…”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 272017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Oblivion, which is out now via Unique Leader Records.)

I was a huge fan and advocate for Oblivion when they first appeared in the scene all the way back at the release of their debut three-song EP. I enthusiastically reviewed their 2013 debut album Called To Rise, amazed by their dedication to old school, riff-driven technical death metal that called to mind Suffocation, Incantation, and Pestilence. It was one of the best death metal records of its year, and as a result I’ve been very excited to see what the band would do next.

The Path Towards… is the first album in a two-album series about the inevitable AI takeover of the human race. Generally a tired concept that’s been done to death, Oblivion pull it off quite convincingly, conveying the horror and sense of existential dread of being phased out along with the accompanying unbridled and anguished sense of rage you’d expect from such an event. Continue reading »

RAPID FIRE RECOMMENDATIONS (PART 2): DEIVOS, MORTIFICA, PRAYERS OF SANITY, OPHIS, THE WRATH PROJECT

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 142017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli returns with another blast of fast recommendations, with music streams that will let you take the full plunge.)

Welcome back to rapid fire recommendations where I throw brief reviews or recommendations of albums that would have been reviewed already if we hadn’t been drowning in the metallic avalanche of 2017.

Deivos – Endemic Divine

Polish hyper-death titans Deivos have put out a killer death metal record bathed in rabies, bath salts, beefy guitars, schizophrenic riffs, and classically Polish militaristic technical drumwork. Continue reading »

VITRIOL: “PAIN WILL DEFINE THEIR DEATH”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 102017
 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new EP by Vitriol from Portland, Oregon, with a complete Bandcamp stream on the day of its release.)

Ted O’Neill of Oblivion tells me about this guy, Kyle Rasmussen, and his band Vitriol and says I should look into them, tells me he thinks they’re going to be a significant band to pay attention to. I get these recommendations all the time, and of course as a music journo or blogger of any sort your instant thought is to think someone’s just trying to signal-boost their friends. I still check those recommendations out, of course, because I’d be close-minded to take the cynical route. I hit up Kyle for his band’s debut EP and… it did not disappoint.

Vitriol hit a death metal note that’s not really been struck for a while now, that brand of out-of-control, rabid, and schizophrenic tech death some of us associate with the likes of Cryptopsy and Cephalic Carnage — structured delirium, organized chaos, encapsulated insanity. Continue reading »

UNDERKRIPT: “SUFFERANCE AND SORROW”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 092017
 

 

(Here’s TheMadIsraeli’s review of the debut album by the UK band Underkript, which was released yesterday.)

The Brits had a mini scene explode for a short period of time a few years back; a combination of progressive thrash metal, melodic death metal, and various metallic hardcore elements came into play. Sylosis is the most notable name in this movement, and they’ve been the best at it. At least until now.

Underkript are an impressive rookie band hailing from Hull, UK, who label themselves somewhat incorrectly if you ask me. While touting a melodic death metal label, Underkript play more a brand of technical progressive thrash metal with a good bit of New York Hardcore and modern extreme metal sensibilities. The songs are pretty lengthy, the riffs are relentless, the vocals are scalding with angst and militancy, the melodies stoic and somber, the drums like inter-dimensional artillery fire. Underkript have got the “it”factor, if you ask me. Sufferance and Sorrow is the name of the band’s debut. Continue reading »

SEITA: “MALEDICTUS MUNDI”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 082017
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the Dutch band Seita, which will be released on November 9.)

Seita have quickly become one of my favorite bands from The Netherlands. They exhibit a firebrand combination of death, thrash, hardcore, and groove metal, united into a form of frantic obliterating terror that not many bands can rival. These guys are like being force-fed adrenaline by the gallon.

I reviewed their debut Asymmetric Warfare back in 2012, lavishing it with great praise. Since then, the band have been rather quiet. They released some stand-alone songs from an unreleased EP this year, which I expected to be the next release. Instead, they are coming out the gate with a full-length album, the one in question here, and that EP will be arriving later. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: FRAMEWORK — “WHERE WE DIVIDE”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Nov 012017
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new EP by Framework from New Jersey and New York.)

Melodic death metal is a genre that’s arguably an endangered species as a stand-alone style. It started as something very distinct and apart from the rest of metal for sure, and some of the greatest metal ever made was recorded by bands operating under that label and with those stylistic leanings. However, I think it can be argued that the style has basically been devoured by the rest of metal.

More extreme bands began incorporating more melody into their music, and the melodic death bands who took notice of this started incorporating more extreme elements into their own music. This musical adaptation that’s happened, especially in the last ten years, make it worth asking if we should even be using the genre descriptor any more.

I reviewed Framework’s excellent record A World Distorted here at NCS previously, an impressive debut that incorporated all the best aspects of ’90‘s/early 2000s heavier melodic death metal in the spirit of At The Gates, Soilwork, Nightrage, etc. Framework have been underground for a good while since then, now three years removed from A World Distorted. And now I understand why, as the band have been busy re-tooling their sound, making that adaptation I spoke of earlier. Continue reading »

KARTIKEYA: “SAMUDRA”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 302017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album, released earlier this month, by the Russian band Kartikeya.)

I’ve been out for awhile and I apologize for that. I had a personal tragedy occur and it caused me to have to pull back for awhile. I had originally asked Islander to review this album since I didn’t think I could, but I decided to pick myself up and do it since I’ve got a lot of history with this band.

Kartikeya’s brand of ethnic-influenced melodic death metal with modern groove and progressive influences has been a beloved sound here at NCS, among both the staff and the site’s readers. Samudra is an album that’s been waylaid by a lot of delays and suffered a lot of difficulties in coming to fruition. It’s now been SIX YEARS since Mahayuga, and for people who love this band I think there was a lot of speculation as to whether all the delays would spell doom and whether Samudra would be up to par.

We got a taste of Samudra with the 2011 Durga Puja EP (which I reviewed here) — the EP’s title track is included on the album — as well as what were originally three stand-alone singles, “The Horrors Of Home” (2012), “Tunnels of Naraka” (2013), and “The Golden Blades” (2016), which are also on this record (and each of which we’ve reviewed). “Durga Puja” was an exercise in Kartikeya pushing their Vedic elements to the absolute forefront, a borderline danceable snake dance that really served to emphasize Arsafes’s love of the culture he was raised in, while the first of those singles was more of a traditional Kartikeya-style death metal song, gnarly mangled riffs, fast as fuck, with a juxtaposed melodic chorus to keep a bit of hookiness in there.

I was surprised to find out when I finally got the promo of Samudra that those four songs were only the tip of an expansive soundscape that is like being hit by a sandstorm filled with flesh-gnawing insects and majestic wonder. Continue reading »

BENEATH: “EPHEMERIS”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Sep 112017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli prepared this review of the new album by Iceland’s Beneath, released in August by Unique Leader Records.)

I was a 100% emphatic fan of Beneath’s sophomore release The Barren Throne. it was one of 2014‘s finest examples of technical/progressive death metal done with immaculate nuance and care. I wasn’t a big fan of the band’s first album, Enslaved By Fear, but it was different from The Barren Throne. Based on the band’s new album Ephemeris, I can now see that what I attributed to just natural evolution or getting better as a band wasn’t that. It’s actually that Beneath wants to write a different kind of death metal album every go around.

Ephemeris abandons The Barren Throne and it’s Suffocation-esque mix of bleak melody and noodily passages of inter-dimensional angular tangents, opting for something of a more opaque sci-fi aesthetic. Continue reading »

THE LURKING FEAR: “OUT OF THE VOICELESS GRAVE”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Sep 082017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli prepared this review of the debut album by Sweden’s The Lurking Fear, released on August 11 by Century Media.)

Let’s revisit what Swedish death metal royalty group The Lurking Fear had to say when they announced their formation:

“We want our Death Metal ugly, twisted and possessed. We miss the urgency, intensity and ‘realness’ in a lot of the modern Death Metal, therefore it is natural for us to stray away from the streamlined sounds of today, but rather focus on bringing sheer, natural weirdness and horror back to the table…””

This band has a ton of prestige-level pedigree behind it. Besides being fronted by Tomas Lindberg, the king of the mid-range vomitus bark, the members have history in bands such as The Crown, Edge Of Sanity, Marduk, Cradle Of Filth, God Macabre — the list is fucking long. I also appreciate very much TLF’s mission statement because I agree that death metal nowadays is very much lacking the urgency, intensity, and realness it speaks of. I’ve reviewed, and others here have reviewed, plenty of exceptions to this rule of course — our site thrives on the deathly arts — but trust me that what we give praise to here is a baffling minority. Continue reading »

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