Nachtmystium Archives

Best Albums: Entombed AD, Spoon, Angus & Julia Stone, Nachtmystium

Entombed AD: Back to the Front
Spoon: They Want My Soul
Angus & Julia Stone: s/t
Nachtmystium: The World We Left Behind

Review: Nachtmystium’s Silencing Machine

Nachtmystium: Silencing Machine (Century Media, 7/31/12)

“Borrowed Hope and Broken Dreams”

Nachtmystium: “Borrowed Hope and Broken Dreams”

Silencing Machine, Nachtmystium’s sixth full-length album, re-embraces the traditional Norwegian black-metal sound of its early efforts. The band’s first recordings were Darkthrone covers at heart, but by the time of Instinct: Decay in 2006, it had traded minimalism for riff salads and more textured songs. The Black Meddle series, consisting of Assassins (2008) and Addicts (2010), was purposefully experimental, drawing comparisons to Pink Floyd and Ministry.

Now Nachtmystium takes the lessons learned from experimentation and applies them to the conventional black-metal language of moveable minor chords and tremolo picking.

Nachtmystium debuts Silencing Machine title track, discusses going “back to basics”

Nachtmystium unveils new track and Joy Division cover

Roadburn Festival 2012

Holland’s annual Roadburn Festival begins today, featuring some of the most adventurous names in metal (and beyond) from across the globe over four days of festivities. This year’s ALARM favorites include: Ancestors, Michael Gira (of Swans), Killing Joke, Om, Sleep, Pelican, Manorexia (JG Thirlwell), Nachtmystium, Barn Owl, Jucifer, La Otracina, Justin K. Broadrick, Saviours, Tombs, and The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation.

See the complete schedule here. Though the festival is sold out, it’s never too early to plan for 2013!

The Metal Examiner: Circle of Animals’ Destroy the Light

Every Friday, The Metal Examiner delves metal’s endless depths to present the genre’s most important and exciting albums.

Circle of Animals: Destroy the Light (Relapse, 10/12/2010)

Click here to download Circle of Animals’ “Poison the Lamb”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Circle_of_Animals_Poison_the_Lamb.mp3|titles=Circle of Animals: “Poison the Lamb”]

Producer/multi-instrumentalist Sanford Parker (Minsk, Buried at Sea) and saxophonist Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) have long and assorted ties in and around Chicago, where the two reside and contribute to the city’s vibrant underground.

Parker, in addition to his main gig in Minsk, has produced the likes of Pelican, Rwake, Unearthly Trance, Jai Alai Savant, Lair of the Minotaur, and Nachtmystium, and Lamont, outside of Yakuza, recently finished recording a solo album and regularly plays with other experimental metal and noise outfits (Decayist, Sick Gazelle) as well as improvised-jazz players (Jeff Parker, Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis).

Each man’s résumé is a mile long, and now the two have come together to pay tribute to Chicago’s late-’80s and early-’90s Wax Trax! industrial scene with their new project, Circle of Animals. A diverse and widely recognizable cast of drummers rounds out the lineup on this release, with names like Dave Witte (Discordance Axis, Municipal Waste), John Herndon (Tortoise), John Merryman (Cephalic Carnage), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) lending their talents.

Weekly Music News Roundup

The Dillinger Escape Plan begins recording a new album in July; El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Madvillain post tracks; Sunny Day Real Estate is rumored to be reuniting; Steve Reich wins a Pulitzer. Keep reading in the roundup.

Weekly Music News Roundup

Details emerge about new albums from Isis, Tortoise, Akron/Family, and Stinking Lizaveta; Zu announces some dates for a world tour (a pair of which are with Mike Patton); Dark Meat will go on tour with its 17 members; the Scion Rock Fest hosts a spate of crushing metal bands in Atlanta on February 28.

Keep readin’…