Last week wore me out, for a lot of reasons. After sleeping for an alcohol-assisted 11 hours Friday night I decided to take a vacation from NCS yesterday, and a vacation from listening to music of any kind. But I got back into the swing of things this morning, beginning before the sun rose. And from that listening session I picked what you’ll find here. I’m beginning with two bands whose past music I’ve enjoyed and then moving off into previously uncharted waters.

KATAVASIA

We kind of went overboard in our coverage of this Greek black metal band’s 2015 debut album Sacrilegious Testament and their follow-on 2017 EP Daemonic Offering: I count 9 posts we made about those releases, including an interview and a track premiere. If you’d like to get caught up, you’ll find all those articles here.

The band drew all that attention, not just here but elsewhere, in part because of the line-up, which included members of Aenaon, Varathron, Hail Spirit Noir, Agnes Vein, and Melan Selas. The line-up remains mostly intact on the band’s second album, Magnus Venator, which will be released on September 4th via Floga Records. Continue reading »