Strange soundscapes and stranger riffs are the order of the day with new Canadian maniac sci-fi metallers Kontact, whose debut EP drops tomorrow on Temple of Mystery Records. Featuring veteran metal warriors from bands like Traveler and Blackrat, First Contact (missed opportunity to double up on the “K”s!) is a journey through the unknown; there is nothing predictable contained within other than a promise of really cool and unusual songwriting.

Read the full interview at Invisible Oranges:
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/kontact-interview-stream/

Another year has passed, and another chance to reflect on 12 months of killer releases is here. There’s a bit more than last year to dig into as bands either gave up on waiting out the pandemic or started touring again, along with bands that just outright wrote albums while they were stuck at home. All else aside it was a good year for music and there’s been lots of cool stuff that I mostly will ignore to talk about these specific 20 albums.

Read the full article at Invisible Oranges:
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/best-of-2021-brandon-corsair/

https://veriluola.bandcamp.com/album/demo

One of the strongest carriers of the torch after the original wave of death metal was the mighty Necros Christos, who dominated the world for 20 years across three albums, several EPs, and a variety of splits with cult bands like Teitanblood, Goat Molestör (who would later change their name to something more recognizable, Grave Miasma), and Loss. The band’s announcement after the masterpiece that was Domedon Doxomedon that they were done was a dark day, but soon after Necros Christos mastermind Malte Gericke announced that a new band was rising in its ashes: Sijjin.

Read the full interview at Invisible Oranges:
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/sijjin-premiere-interview/

Concrete Winds is the most vicious band in death metal right now. I don’t say that lightly; even on their parent label, Sepulchral Voice Records, there are some astonishingly violent bands such as Sijjin (whose upcoming debut album Sumerian Promises is a real doozy) and the mighty Degial. The brutal intensity and nerve-wracking cacophony that Concrete Winds create with their hyper-speed take on the genre is unmatched, with their music forming a whirlwind of unhinged hatred and promises of destruction.

Read the full interview at Invisible Oranges:
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/concrete-winds-noise-trepanation/

Pre-downtuned ‘80s style death metal primitivism is a special field of underground warfare that will never be properly in fashion. It’s too antithetical to what the average metal fan wants; not pleasing enough to the ear, never commercial for a second, and too damn raw. As much as a certain brand of death freak worships The Magus or Abominations of Desolation, they don’t pop up in essentials lists from more mainstream magazines and there’s always a limited amount of bands doing what those bands did.

Read the full interview at Invisible Oranges:
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/tempters-sacrament-ep/

Everlasting Spew Records basically came out of nowhere. They didn’t exist until 2016, and weren’t on my radar until probably 2018, but despite their recent start they’d already picked up notable bands like Birdflesh and Galvanizer by the first time I came across one of their releases. More recently they’ve picked up well known bands like Lord Gore, Ritual Necromancy, and Father Befouled—quite the feat for such a relatively recent label!

Read the full interview at Invisible Oranges:
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/entering-the-underground-16-diabolizer/

When I was offered an early release promo of the upcoming Nocturnal Wanderer album Gift of the Night, I jumped on the chance to premiere it. The Pacific Northwest project’s music is absolutely otherworldly, with a mesmerizing blend of some of black metal’s finest melodic underpinnings, classic heavy metal, and the dirty romping fun of genre classics a la Venom and Bulldozer without actually sounding like those bands. As I put those words to paper (so to speak) my mind is drawn to Malokarpatan, who employ many of the same influences and have a not-entirely-dissimilar approach, but Nocturnal Wanderer’s sound is their own; just as wild, but even more free, there’s a looseness that draws to mind something primordial dancing in the air, with the potential to be cruel but without the modernity to be construed as anything approaching evil.

Read the full interview at Invisible Oranges: https://www.invisibleoranges.com/nocturnal-wanderer-premiere/

Disclaimer: when I interviewed this band I had no idea I’d be releasing the album on CD!

There are many pathways that death metal can follow, and most of them are oft-treaded ground by this point. The bands that choose to follow their own path are always a love of mine, and especially bands that eschew conventions regarding heavy rhythms or song structures. Ghastly is one of those very special bands that pursues a more obscure path, replete with little idiosyncrasies of character that help differentiate them from all peers.

Read the full interview at Invisible Oranges:
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/ghastly-interview/

https://draghkar.bandcamp.com/