OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 5): THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT, WARLUST, URFEIND

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 082025
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to Part 5 of this evolving list of infectious metal songs from last year. I’m not sure there’s any kind of organizing principle that explains why I put the following three songs together in this latest installment. They felt right together even though they sound very different, but I don’t know why.

Anyway, I think you will enjoy them. To check out the preceding four Parts and to understand what this list is about, go here.

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT

With tongues in cheeks but also sticking straight out, we’ve explained our difficulty in being entirely objective about The Monolith Deathcult. As Andy wrote in his review of their latest album, “We’ve been friends, we’ve been enemies… and then there was that unfortunate incident where we all swapped brains… but our love for the band’s music has never waned.”

Or as I wrote upon hearing that album’s title track last February: “With our long history slavishly lapping at the feet of The Monolith Deathcult, you didn’t really think we’d overlook the fact that they have a new album coming out or that they’ve released its title track, did you? Perish the thought!” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: URFEIND — “WEAVING THE ABYSS”

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Dec 102024
 

(written by Islander)

On January 10th of the impending new year Nine to Zero Productions will release Dauþalaikaz, the third album by the German black metal entity Urfeind. It includes re-recorded versions of the four songs present on the band’s 2021 EP Wraiþaz, preceded by five other new songs.

Through previous releases Urfeind has established its thematic connections to dark Germanic heathenism, misanthropy, and Anti-Cosmic Philosophy, interests that also seem to be reflected in the band’s very name, bearing in mind that “Ur-” is a German and Nordic prefix (or combining form) that refers to a primeval and primal stage of a phenomenon, the earliest stage, and in this case it’s combined with the German word “feind” — meaning “enemy”.

Well, to be clear, those are our own speculations about the significance of the band’s name, but they’re supported by the experience of the album track we’re premiering today. “Weaving the Abyss” is indeed primeval (and deeply chilling) in its atmosphere. It may also seem primitive in its construction — but only at first, because the music subtly but ingeniously and powerfully evolves, and it seamlessly morphs the mood as it does. Continue reading »