June 2020 in Review

Oops! We made a bit of a mistake. On account of incredibly busy home lives and a hectic summer filled with political upheaval and civil unrest we missed our June in Review segment. But hey, better late than never right? Of course it goes without saying that the continued civil unrest going on across the globe has been felt even in our home of Newfoundland and Labrador with everything from Black Lives Matter protests to COVID-19 anti-mask protests occurring on the streets and in front of the Confederation Building and heated discussions, debates and arguments going on across the Newfoundland sphere of social media.

Even in our own community there have been individuals who have been assaulted by the police (as evidenced by one of the biggest stories we published this month in which Kristopher Crane of Nemophilist and Impaled Upon the Mountains was brutally attacked in Montreal) while we decided to put together our first ever compilation album to raise funds to fight racism and discrimination here in our own backyard.

Read on to find out exactly what June 2020 had in store for the punk and metal community of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Biggest Stories
– Ambient Artist Nemophilist Assaulted by Montreal Police
– A Compilation Album for a Good Cause
– Hag Receive Coverage in The Newfoundland Herald
– Kaspam Cult Seeking New Drummer
– Local Musicians Speak Out Against Racism
– Racism in Newfoundland
– November Mayhem Will Not Happen in 2020
– Yes, Officer Donates 100% of LP Proceeds to Black Visions Collective

New Albums
– Hag – Hag
– Yes, Officer – Autobiography of a Naysayer

New EPs
– Divine Eradication – Marystown
– Froze to Debt – Mind Control
– Nemophilist / Vehement Gates – Split
– Ring of Restoration – To Breach Cyclopean Tombs

New Singles
– Blood Wyrm – “The Forbidden Hand”
– Blood Wyrm – “Runestoner”
– Blood Wyrm – “War Maiden”
– Doom ‘An Blue – “Wicked Serotonin”
– Nemophilist – “The Nightlight Man”
– Yes, Officer – “Play in Traffic”

Album Reviews
– Hefe NFLD: Deadgaard / Orchid’s Curse – Graveyard of the Gulf
– Qyn – Archetype
– Sludgefist – Sludgefist

Albums Announced
– The Hellfire Club – Volume II

Albums Archived
– Divine Eradication – Marystown
– Vehement Gates – EP
– Vehement Gates + Nemophilist – Split

~ Akhenaten

Nemophilist Releases New Single “The Nightlight Man”

Montreal-based Carbonear native Forest Wanderer has been upping his game during the last few months of COVID-19 induced quarantine, releasing a string of lengthy singles of dark ambient music as both Nemophilist and Pretty Little Flowers which sonically represent various themes.

The latest installation in the Nemophilist saga is “The Nightlight Man”, a horror-themed track lasting about 15 minutes that is cryptically described as being about “A nightmare I had as a kid.” The track was released on Wednesday, June 10th, through YouTube.

You can listen to “The Nightlight Man” through our YouTube embed below.

~ Akhenaten

Vehement Gates and Nemophilist Release New Split Album

Glovertown dark ambient project Vehement Gates and Carbonear dark ambient project Nemophilist have collaborated on a new split album. The record, simply entitled Vehement Gates & Nemophilist, was released on Monday, June 1st, through Nemophilist sole musician Forest Wanderer’s YouTube channel.

You can listen to Vehement Gates & Nemophilist through our YouTube embed down below.

~ Akhenaten

Vehement Gates Releases Debut EP

Glovertown singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Powell, who most know as the voice behind bedroom pop project Fog Lake, revealed late last night that he was working on a new project in the realm of ambient and drone. The project, revealed under the name of Vehement Gates, released its debut EP, simply titled EP, moments after midnight on the morning of May 19th.

According to Powell the EP and project were inspired by the critically acclaimed survival horror game Silent Hill 2 and it’s soundtrack composed by Akira Yamaoka. The final track on the EP, “The Day of Night”, is actually a cover of one of Yamaoka’s compositions.

You can listen to EP by Vehement Gates through our Bandcamp embed below.

~ Akhenaten

 

April 2020 in Review

So passes our first full month since the COVID-19 pandemic started and honestly, Newfoundland is doing pretty good right now. There have been multiple consecutive days where the island has seen no new cases of the novel coronavirus. Of course the ongoing situation still has no real end in sight as people continue to self-isolate within their homes which has led to a bit of a lull in news for us here to report on.

Yeah, April’s been kind of a dry month.

But that being said we still saw some cool things happen like a plethora of new music being released (mostly from solo projects) such as new albums from Aaiesieux and Ogreblut as well as singles from the almighty Devastator, Rick Massie, Gossamer and Nemophilist.

Let’s reflect on the cool happenings these past 30 days.

Biggest Stories
Make It So Productions Open Up Discussion on Earlier Show Times
Mistwalker Part Ways with Live Guitarist William Boisvert
Qyn Receive Two Page Coverage in The Newfoundland Herald

New Albums Released
Aaiesieux – Selective Attention
Aaiesieux – Fleshy Sacks
Aaiesieux – Hash Puck
Aaiesieux – The Vulture of Bethlehem
Kyle Gryphon – Isolation

New EPs Released
Sarcophagon – Contagious

New Singles Released
Chain of Lynx – “Bob” [Live]
Devastator – “The Watcher”
The Knifes – “No Quarantine”
Mistwalker – “Medicine Road” [Fog Lake Cover]
Nemophilist – “Observe”
Old Thieves – “The Keys”
Pretty Little Flowers – “11:39-2:20”
Rick Massie – “Following the Rain”
Trevor Sturge – “Sorrow” [Bad Religion Cover]

New Demos Released
Corey Merrigan – “Big Ounce”
Corey Merrigan – “Isolation”
Ogreblut – A Frosted Journey

New Music Videos
Smoke Signals – “Cosmic Walk”

Albums Announced
Gamma Knife – Final Warning
Hag – Untitled New Album
Ratpiss – Do Not Return
The Tangerine Machine – Untitled New EP

Album Reviews
Artach – Chronicles of a Black Winter [Reviewed by Akhenaten]

New Merch
Pearl Reveal Custom Guitar Picks

Watch
Greg Ravengrave Parodies Megadeth’s “Hangar 18” with “COVID-19”

We also hit the twentieth (!) episode of our Official Podcast this month, and it was a special one! We had our first ever recorded telephone interview on the podcast in this episode, where we sat down with Richard Furey, lead game designer for a video game called SWARM which is going to feature a ‘heavy metal choir’ composed of local Newfoundland metal and punk vocalists and musicians.

You can check out our podcast either on YouTube or on our Bandcamp page.

Albums Archived
Anal Christ – Filth Upon Thy Mass Graves [EP / Black Metal]
Intern – Things Will Never Be Like They Were Two Summers Ago [LP / Screamo]
Jigger – The Rona Iso EP [EP / Hard Rock]
Mistwalker – Medicine Road [Single / Black Metal]
Nemophilist – Observe [Single / Dark Ambient]
Ogreblut – A Frosted Journey [Demo / Dungeon Synth]
Sarcophagon – Contagious [EP / Death Metal]

~ Akhenaten

Pretty Little Flowers Releases New Single “11:39-2:20”

Carbonear-based dark ambient project Pretty Little Flowers, the companion project to Forest Wanderer’s Nemophilist, has been significantly active during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, releasing several singles under both projects.

The latest release comes in the form of “11:39-2:20”, a song about another horrific disaster, the sinking of the Titanic back in 1912.

The single was released on April 14th and is available on YouTube and coming to Bandcamp shortly. You can listen to “11:39-2:20” through our YouTube embed below.

~ Akhenaten

February 2020 in Review

So ends this leap year’s month of February, and with it the RPM Challenge. Aside from all of the hubbub surrounding RPM 2020 we also saw a lot of other albums unrelated to the challenge released including full lengths from Artach and Qyn alongside announcements from RPM darlings like Chain of Lynx and Yes, Officer. Besides that we had a few more reviews than normal this month thanks to our expanding writing team, including Endrot, Mistwalker and WasteCase. We even had an awesome video interview with Paul Brake, the mastermind behind WasteCase, which can be found on our YouTube channel.

Biggest Stories
Grind Mind Announce Casting Call for Upcoming Film Mummering Legends
Rockfest on the Rock Announces First Installment of New Festival

Editorials
Heavy NFLD’s Best Albums of 2019
The New Wave of Newfoundland Black Metal

Albums Released
Artach – Chronicles of a Black Winter
Benedict Drinks – Lose Your Delusion
Count Cromulent – Louder!
Mallwalker – Single Use
Personal Space Invaders – Argh! Argh! Mmph!
Pretty Little Flowers – Germinate
Qyn – Archetype
Rabbit Food – Die Young
Sarcophagon – Sarcophagon
Whisper Room – Vol. 4: Decimate

EPs Released
fourfivefour – Demo Tape EP
Fucked to Death – Post-Coital Drip
Honestly Cured – Conspiracy Theory
Nocturnal Prayer – May You Lay Waste to Astral Gods with Star Disintegration

Singles Released
Artach – “Lords of a Frozen Domain”
Chris Feener – “Chameleon”
Disposition – “Drive”
Rick Massie – “Time After Time”

Album Announcements
Adventure Team Assemble – Untitled RPM LP
Chain of Lynx – Untitled LP
Chris Feener – Untitled Solo EP
Nocturnal Prayer – Advance on Weakened Foes
Smoke Signals – The Mind and Beyond
Yes, Officer – Untitled LP

Album Reviews
Endrot – Planned Obsolescence
Hefe NFLD: Mistwalker – N.W.O.N.F.L.D.B.H.M.
WasteCase – An Act of Defiance

Interviews
An Interview with WasteCase

New Merch
Disposition Have Posters… and They’re Already Gone
Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Jammers Reveal New Sticker Designs

Videos
Artach – “Fire & Ice” Official Lyric Video
Dark Bay Films – Sweet Dreams
Dark Bay Films – Unsolved Files
Disposition – “Drive” Official Music Video
The Dorkz – “Happy Little Creatures” Official Music Video
Jaded Truth – “Osiris” Official Music Video
Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Jammers – Live @ Treble Lounge – February 8th, 2020
Kyle Gryphon – “Resurrect Them”

Albums Archived
Exotic Narcotic – Heave It Outta Ya [LP, Partial Upload]
Goddammit – Dreaming of a Green Christmas [EP]
Hells Minions – Killing with Lust [EP]
Intern – “Anime”
Ledningsmunn – “Blek Manejakt”

We also managed to get another episode of our podcast done this past month, in which we took a look at the dirty and dingy underground music scene in the great city of Montreal, Quebec (where our head writer resides). You can find the podcast on our YouTube channel as well as our Bandcamp page.

~ Akhenaten