AN NCS INTERVIEW AND A PREMIERE: VON — “BLACK LOTUS (BASS DEMO)” AND “EXTINCTION”

 Interviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 122015
 

 

As those who dwell in the underground already know, the seminal U.S. black metal band VON has embarked on an unusual audiovisual project: They are releasing their third album Dark Gods: Birth of the Architects  (which is itself Part II of a trilogy that began with 2013’s Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves) in 12 CD installments, with each of the 12 tracks accompanied by part of a comic book named Dark Gods written and illustrated by VON’s founder VENIEN!!! Each CD includes not only a version of a track from the album — which will be released in its entirety in March — but also a bonus track exclusive to the comic book.

Today we bring you a special two-part feature: the premiere of a demo teaser for the album’s 7th track “Black Lotus” along with an instrumental B-side from the CD called “Extinction”, plus an exclusive interview with VON’s drummer “Dirty FvKn! Pistols” and the band’s guitarist “HangMan”. The interview, conducted by e-mail, comes first… the images you will see are preview pages from the comic.

THE INTERVIEW

“Dark Gods: Birth of the Architect” is an unusual project – 12 songs released on a weekly basis, with each song accompanied by an installment of a 12-part “Dark Gods” comic book, with a variety of variant covers. For people who are just learning about this, could you explain the concept behind the story and the music?

Dirty Fvkn! Pistols:
The idea was to take the story each song told individually and release them as though someone was giving you a novel, one chapter at a time. Conceptually we already intended to intertwine them so it just made sense to us. We wanted a record that was more than just a bunch of songs, but rather its own entity within itself. It was important that each piece be the correct fit to make one cohesive unit in the end. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KOZELJNIK, BLACK TABLE, AND VON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 082013
 

My head is spinning with new music that I want to spread around and introduce to new listeners. I’m afraid I’ll never have time enough to write about all of it. Correction: I know there’ll never be enough time. I’ll do what I can, but there will necessarily be a degree of randomness in the selections. Still, I look for themes around which to organize the picks.

The theme of this post is the rich diversity of black metal. If you’re one of those people who did an eye roll at reading the last sentence, thinking that it all sounds alike, I can only say that you haven’t listened enough. Try out these three offerings as proof. They consist of new music from Kozeljnik (Serbia), Black Table (NY/NJ), and Von (California).

KOZELJNIK

This band is composed of two members: Kozeljnik, who is the vocalist, guitarist, and bass player, and L.G., the drummer. Both of them are also members of a long-running excellent Serbian band named The Stone, which I featured in a MISCELLANY post back in March 2011. Kozeljnik has released an EP and two albums (Sigil Rust and Deeper the Fall), and they’re on the verge of releasing a second EP named Null: The Acheron of Multiform Negation.

One song from the new EP is now streaming and available for download on Bandcamp (here) — “Time, Neglected in the Wound of a Martyr”. The last album, Deeper the Fall, is also available on Bandcamp (here). Last night I listened to the new song as well as the first track from Deeper the Fall, “Thetruthisdeath”. Both are them are striking, and strikingly different from the norm. Continue reading »

TUESDAY TUMULT: MITOCHONDRION, RETALIATORY MEASURES, PAROXSIHZEM, VON, AND VOYAGER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 302012
 

Here’s another daily round-up of tumultuous metal (and artwork) that caught my attention while I rooted around the interhole over the last 24 hours. In no particular order:

MITOCHONDRION

These Vancouver-based beasts have two releases on the near horizon. First, Dark Descent Records will be releasing a 7″ single named Antinumerology that includes two new Mitochondrion songs: “Insummation” and “137 (Antinumerology)”. The striking artwork has been created by Richard Friend (Loss, Father Befouled), and you can see it on the right (click the image to see a larger version). I haven’t found a release date yet, though it looks like sometime in 2013.

Second, Siege Engine Records will be releasing a double LP version of the band’s 2011 album, Parasignosis. The label is giving away a free test press copy of the LP, though you have to be on Facebook to enter the contest. To do that, “Like” the Siege Engine Records Facebook page and then click on the “Contest!” link toward the top of the page and enter the e-mail address associated with your Facebook account.

The artwork for the LP was created by Alexander L. Brown, and apparently will include a Parasignosis poster that looks stunning (not sure if this will be sold with the LP or separately). A detail from the poster is up above. A photo of the whole thing is just after the jump, and more detail shots can be seen here. This is really great work. Continue reading »