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AN NCS INTERVIEW: UNEARTHLY RITES

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May 012024
 


Photo by Lassi Kojola

(In two days from now Prosthetic Records will release the politically charged debut album by the Finnish death metal band Unearthly Rites, and to help pave the way we present Comrade Aleks‘ very interesting interview with vocalist Sisli and guitarist Santtu.)

Here’s a quite fresh and dirty entity from very North of Finland. Unearthly Rites was formed back in 2020, and since then they released only a self-titled EP in 2021… until now.

The lineup in Unearthly Rites includes members from the bands Dome Runner, Fosforos, Frogskin, Fuck-Ushima, Bolt Cross, Praise, etc, so this company of a lady and four gentlemen seem to be quite busy with different sorts of underground activities. Yes, right, Unearthly Rites is the lady-fronted blackened death metal band, but I wonder if you’re able to decipher who roars in their full-length album Ecdysis.

Prosthetic Records are ready to release Ecdysis on May 3rd, so here we are to support this band with their absolutely crushing sound, a dedicated approach, and an attitude worthy of respect. Sisli (vocals) and Santtu (guitars) provided us quite an in-depth and interesting interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SELVANS — “IL CAPRO INFUOCATO”

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May 012024
 

The Italian artist Selvans probably needs no introduction to those who regularly visit our site, but for those encountering Selvans for the first time today, we’ll share a few words from Selvans‘ label Avantgarde Music:

The singer and keyboardist Selvans, plays black/heavy metal with prog-rock influences. Lyrics and concept are inspired by Italian folk-horror tales and imagery. After two full length albums, Lupercalia (2016, Avantgarde Music) and Faunalia (2018, Avantgarde Music) in 2021 he released The Dark Italian Art EP, an artistic manifesto that sees the team-up with the horror writer Luigi Musolino.

We can also share that Selvans will be following The Dark Italian Art with a new album. Though a release date hasn’t yet been announced, we’ve all been given a preview of what it will bring through Selvans‘ recent release of a single named “Il Capro Infuocato“. To help spread the word further, today we’re presenting a lyric video for the song. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DER GHUL — “THE RAT KING”

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May 012024
 

Vladimir Bauer is a musician originally from Odesa in Ukraine but based in Germany since 2017. He is best known for his band Schattenfall, whose music we’ve written about frequently over the years (as you can see here), and for his work in the early years of White Ward. But Bauer has another project named Der Ghul, and it’s the black metal of Der Ghul we’re focusing on today.

Der Ghul released a debut EP (available on Bandcamp here) named Pulse of Awakening in 2019 (which included Stefan Traunmüller as vocalist), and that will soon be followed by a debut album entitled Hunger Anger Decay, which is set for release on May 17th. One song from the album has been revealed so far, and today we premiere a second one — “The Rat King“. Continue reading »

MY DYING BRIDE: “A MORTAL BINDING”

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May 012024
 

(About 10 days ago Nuclear Blast released the 15th studio album from My Dying Bride, and DGR has sat with it long enough to now provide his thoughts below.)

My Dying Bride‘s newest release A Mortal Binding is a surprisingly turbulent album by My Dying Bride standards. Though My Dying Bride have been an adaptive beast over the course of a long-running career, the group have cycled back around into an interesting amalgamation of modern day doom and their early miserable forms.

Yet My Dying Bride have been the civilized and staid older-sibling of the doom scene, awash with despair yet seeming more ‘refined’ than their cohort bands. No stranger to longform song writing either, it hadn’t been until 2020’s The Ghost Of Orion that they forged themselves into a stately yet concise version of what they’d been before. Granted, they almost immediately followed that up with Macabre Cabaret, an EP with a ten-minute song as its opener, but it seemed like My Dying Bride had found a strong comfort zone with the fragile and mournful atmospheres of The Ghost Of Orion.

Which is what makes A Mortal Binding quite the followup. Continue reading »

GLASSING: “FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR”

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Apr 302024
 

(We present Wil Cifer‘s review of the new album by Austin-based Glassing, which was released last week by Pelagic Records.)

Twin Dream was a perfect album. Glassing are perfecting the art of perfection with From the Other Side of the Mirror. The heaviness here is more biting. The melodies are more textured and haunting. These are conclusions I came to only four songs in.

Granted, a piece like “Sallow” is more of an ambient interlude, but “Defacer” has serious sonic teeth, and can have you head-banging before your second cup of coffee. With Twin Dream what they were doing was more easily defined. It had hardcore kids making atmospheric sludge. This time around more colors of sound are being explored. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ULTIO — “A THOUSAND TIMES MORE”

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Apr 302024
 

On May 23rd Brucia Records will release Cor, a new album by the Italian black metal entity Ultio, the solo work of Giorgio Barroccu, who is also behind the music of Derhead. Brucia describes Cor as “the twistedly demented brother of The Grey Zone Phobia, Derhead‘s latest album released back in March 2023″. (We had some things to say about that album here.)

What does this mean? Brucia describes it this way:

Another side of the same, dark coin – Ultio shares Derhead‘s very same dramatic tension and despair, however showcasing here a magnificently unrestrained and raw soul: behind a gloomy wall of freezingly cold riffs and shrieking screams Ultio ascends maniacally, building a sense of impending peril and oppression – dissonance after dissonance. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MYRONATH — “THE VORACIOUS SPHERE”

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Apr 302024
 

The Swedish black metal band Myronath made their debut in 2019 with the full-length Into the Qliphoth, and two years later followed that with another album aptly named Djevelkraft. Now they’re returning with album number three, their most ambitious one yet, and it too has a very fitting title: Inferno, fitting not only because of the sensations of the music but also because the album is a conceptual work inspired by Dante‘s Inferno.

Inferno again features the work of former Ragnorak members Hellcommander Vargblod (vocals, bass) and Bjarkan (guitars), joined this time by guitarist Bathim and studio session drummer Calle Larsson.

In advance of Inferno‘s May 30 release date by the Dusktone label, they’ve already released a first single (with a lyric video) named “Purity Through Indulgence“, and today we present a second one, “The Voracious Sphere“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE BLEEDING — “CHEMICAL LOBOTOMY”

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Apr 292024
 

Monokrator is the third album by the UK band The Bleeding, and their best yet. Released last summer by Redefining Darkness Records, it garnered heaping helpings of praise across the metalsphere, including from our own Andy Synn. In his review, he wrote that the album “bursts out of the speakers with the frenetic riffs and frenzied blastbeats of ‘Chemical Lobotomy’ and then proceeds to kick ass and take names like the bastard child of The Crown, Cannibal Corpse, and Goatwhore“.

He further acclaimed it as a record that succeeds in “marrying thrashy, galloping rhythms with streams of strangulating tremolo riffage and passages of lurching Death Metal heaviness, all topped off with some seriously sharp, snarling vocal hooks” — “the sort of record – lean, mean, and taking no prisoners – that may well put The Bleeding on the global metallic map where they belong.”

As a reminder of what a kick-ass album Monokrator truly is, or as an introduction to people who might have overlooked it, what we have for you today is the premiere of an official video for that song that launches the album in such exhilarating fashion — “Chemical Lobotomy“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SATANIC PRIEST — “WOLVES AMONG SHEEP”

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Apr 292024
 

Consider the name chosen by the Salvadoran band Satanic Priest. Then consider the name they chose for their forthcoming debut album: …Of Blasphemies and Lust, which fittingly will be released by a UK label named Vicious Witch. Then add to that the album’s cover art, and the fact that their brand of music is a flame-throwing, turbocharged amalgam of black thrash and speed metal.

All these signs point to an unpretentious old-school devotion to all things 666 and an equal devotion to alcohol-fueled, pedal-to-the-metal sonic barbarity geared toward giving listeners an adrenaline rush. What you might not guess so far, but what you’ll figure out when you listen to the song we’re premiering today with a lyric video, is that Satanic Priest are also fiendishly good songwriters. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HIDEOUS DIVINITY

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Apr 292024
 

(Daniel Barkasi has brought us a fantastic interview with Enrico Schettino from the Italian death metal powerhouse Hideous Divinity, whose newest album, reviewed at NCS here, is out now on Century Media Records.)

Some have been calling recent times a sort of death metal renaissance. It’s true that an enormous amount of quality releases from bands old and new have been laying waste to our eager ears in the last few trips around the calendar. Hell, the sheer volume of new bands churning out innovative metal of the deathly variety alone has been inspiring. Death metal’s future is indeed strong. Ever leading the charge of the upper echelon is Rome’s Hideous Divinity.

Ever since their first foray Obeisance Rising in 2012, the band hasn’t slowed down a whole lot, dropping four albums that have continuously set high standards for both themselves and their peers. On to album number five, we have Unextinct, which stands out as their most ambitious, from a band who haven’t quite sat still record to record. It’s a massive album that goes straight for the throat, all while displaying multiple layers of intricate craftsmanship that adds significantly to the whole.

We got the opportunity to have a chat with lead vocalist Enrico Schettino on a myriad of subjects. From the obvious regarding all aspects of Unextinct, the absolutely wild “Against the Sovereignty of Mankind” throat cam video, what’s next (including a hint of an upcoming tour), and an odd question to attempt a practical joke on their incredibly cool manager Tito. We hope you enjoy – and pick up the damn album! Continue reading »

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