AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CONCRETE FUNERAL — “CARNIVAL OF CONTRADICTIONS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 242019
 

 

Strap yourself in and prepare for a wild ride, as a passenger in a big gas-guzzling turbocharged metal machine with nothing but open road ahead of it and nothing but scorched pavement in the rearview mirror.

“Carnival of Contradictions“, the song we’re presenting through a music video, is the second advance track to be revealed from the forthcoming debut album (Ultimum Judicium) by Concrete Funeral, a quartet of metal veterans based on Calgary, Alberta, who pull from a wide range of metal influences, chiefly thrash, death, and groove metal in this new song. Continue reading »

ODYSSEY: “THE SWARM”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 242019
 

 

(Professor D. Grover the XIIIth [ex-The Number of the Blog] returns to our pages with this review of the new album by Odyssey from Spokane, Washington, which is being released today.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. A week ago I promised a full review of the new Odyssey album, The Swarm, and today I return to deliver on that promise.

Now, when you’ve been listening to a band or artist for the majority of their career, often you begin to foster a sense of casual ownership, that feeling of I Knew Them Back When, that helps to deepen your connection to them. You know their albums intimately, to the point that when you somehow manage to go an indeterminate stretch of time without listening to them, everything still feels comfortable and familiar. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TESSITURA — “WOUNDS OF THE RIGHTEOUS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 232019
 

 

What we’re about to present is the second play-through video released for the same song by the Canadian death/thrash band Tessitura. If you already know the song — “Wounds of the Righteous” — you’ll understand why it merits both of these videos (and why both are a kick in the ass to watch). And if you’re encountering the song for the first time, prepare for a multi-faceted experience, one that’s a real thrill-ride but with some beguiling detours long the way.

“Wounds of the Righteous” is the opening song on this Edmonton band’s 2018 EP, Unearth the Underworld, and probably the strongest of the five tracks on that 30-minute release (though the other four are definitely well worth your time). The video features performances by guitarist Stephan Ceña and bassist Leillyn McColman. Continue reading »

VADER: “THY MESSENGER”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 232019
 

 

(DGR reviews the new EP by Polish extreme metal veterans Vader, which will be released on May 31st by Nuclear Blast.)

It doesn’t feel that long ago that we were musing on the idea, prompted by Vader’s previous EP Iron Times — prior to the full-length The Empire in 2016 — that the group’s habit of putting out an EP just before an album release often served as excellent preview of where the long-running Polish death-metal/thrash-metal group’s head-space was currently at, and what sort of album we might be getting from them soon after.

It’s a serious consideration with Vader, because unlike many other death/thrash hybrids the group often aren’t a hardcore fusion of genres, where elements from both are clearly recognizable all the time. Vader have two methods of operation: They can actually be a full-blown thrash band, or a fully furious death metal band. When they mix the two, they often lean hard into one side. When they are in a full-on thrash mood, it is like they could’ve easily headed the genre as a whole, and when they go for the blast-furnace style of death metal played at high pace, it seems like they could do the same thing there. Continue reading »

RAPID FIRE RECOMMENDATIONS: KOLOSSUS, WARCHEST, KNEEL, DE LIRIUM’S ORDER

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 222019
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli re-surfaces at NCS with a group of quick recommendations of recent releases for your earholes.)

KOLOSSUS

Kolossus are a pretty neat Finnish band whose music I couldn’t peg when I first heard them but I’ve settled on calling it melodic death metal. Really good melodic death metal is rare for me these days, but this group’s combination of the playfulness of Into Eternity, Before The Dawn‘s style of morose gothic melody and atmosphere, and  their militant energy and propulsive grooves bring to mind both Byzantine and System of A Down. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EGGS OF GOMORRH — “SHRINE OF DISGUST”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
May 222019
 

 

Krucyator Productions and Atavism Records are presiding over a marriage made in hell. On July 11th they are joining forces to release Encomium of Depraved Instincts, which is the appropriately-worded title of a violent new split by the Swiss nihilists Eggs of Gomorrh and the Turkish blasphemers Sarinvomit. The album-length split includes four tracks by each band, with each group contributing a pair of new songs as well as live performances of two tracks from previous releases.

What we have for you today is one of the new songs by Eggs of Gomorrh, “Shrine of Disgust“, which only further cements this band’s reputation for delivering astonishingly savage forms of sonic mutilation with impressive technical skill — and slipping in some grooves and eerie melody in the midst of their foul, slaughtering tirades. Continue reading »

OCTOBER TIDE: “IN SPLENDOR BELOW”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 222019
 

 

(DGR reviews the new album by the Swedish band October Tide, which was released on May 17th by Agonia Records.)

In Splendor Below is a very different album from its predecessors. Since reforming and releasing A Thin Shell in 2010, October Tide have kept to a pretty steady release schedule of every three years, with the most recent album prior being 2016’s Winged Waltz. Since that time the group have added two of the gentlemen from Letters From The Colony in their midst, picking up the rhythm section while the Norrman brothers stay on guitar and vocalist Alexander Högbom sticks around to deliver the deep-throated and anguished yells that have become a staple of the band since his first appearance on Tunnel Of No Light.

While there is a definite sense of lineup familiarity in place, the death metal atmospherics and groove that have worked their way into the group’s sound between the release of Winged Waltz and now are certainly new. Guitarist Fredrick Norrman was quoted in the press release for thier Our Famine lyric video describing the album as “a bit more aggressive, a bit more death metal, and with an overall colder feeling than previous records.” And that feeling makes itself apparent immediately. Continue reading »

CALL OF THE VOID: “BURIED IN LIGHT”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 222019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Denver’s Call of the Void, which was released on May 10th by Translation Loss Records.)

For the sake of simplicity we often tend to think of the Metal scene as being split between the “underground” and the “mainstream”. But, of course, nothing is that simple.

The “underground” scene is itself separated into several distinct strata, from the upper echelons where the various “big” names live, well-known to all of us, but still practically invisible to the “mainstream” audience, all the way down into the deepest, darkest, dankest pits of squalling, sub-musical noise that only a handful of people are ever likely to hear… and everything in between.

And while Call of the Void have been hovering on the brink of breaking through to the wider underground for a while now, Buried In Light looks set to elevate them to a whole new level entirely. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACK CRUCIFIXION — “LIGHTLESS VIOLENT CHAOS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
May 212019
 

 

In just about every review of an album by Black Crucifixion there seems to be an obligatory history lesson, and there will be one here too, because in the case of this band the historical context may actually matter. And there are other reasons to appreciate their history, which we’ll come to.

At the same time, the road traveled by this band has led them to a very different place than where they began in their songcraft almost 30 years ago, as it has in the case of such other early black metal stalwarts as Ulver, Satyricon, Ihsahn, Tom G Warrior in his Triptykon days, Enslaved, and Carl-Michael Eide under the banner of Virus. What doesn’t seem to have changed is Black Crucifixion‘s devotion to the devil. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DORMANTH

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 212019
 

 

(Comrade Aleks returns to NCS today with a new interview, and this time his guest is Óscar Del Val of the resurgent Spanish band Dormanth.)

Born in 1993, this Spanish band has always balanced on a verge of death and death-doom metal, giving preference to fast, direct, and aggressive stuff. Dormanth split up in 1996, having only one demo, a split, and a full-length album in their discography, but one of the band’s founders, Óscar Del Val (guitars, vocals), decided to return the band back to life in 2015, and suddenly has succeeded in recording one EP and two full-length albums with a new lineup.

Base Record Production will release a new EP, Abyss, on May 27th, so I got in touch with Óscar to learn more about Dormanth’s past and present. Continue reading »

 Older Entries