AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SHRINE OF INSANABILIS — “VAST VORTEX LITANIES”

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Oct 172019
 

 

Today W.T.C. Productions is releasing Vast Vortex Litanies, the highly anticipated second album by the German black metal band Shrine of Insanabilis. It has been highly anticipated because the band’s first album, 2015’s Disciples of the Void, was so damned good (and the follow-on EP, 2016’s Tombs Opened by Fervent Tongues… Earth’s Final Necropolis, proved that the debut was no fluke). But Vast Vortex Litanies is nonetheless better than everything that has preceded it — as you’ll discover through the full album stream we’re sharing today.

While the band’s song-writing reveals improved dynamism and the enhanced infiltration of sorcerous melodies, it is the heights of glorious yet frightening frenzy that stand out, and that make the album such a continuously exhilarating experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WEIGHT OF EMPTINESS

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Oct 172019
 

 

(We give thanks to Russian interviewer Comrade Aleks for this extensive new conversation with guitarist Juan Acevedo, a member of the Chilean band Weight of Emptiness, whose new album was released not long ago via Australis Records.)

Raised from the ashes of Twilight Mist, this Santiago-based outfit has performed tight, energetic, and quite aggressive melodic death-doom metal since 2015. They built a basement for their debut album Anfractuous Moments For Redemption (2017) with their 2016 EP Anfractuous,  and they firmed up the band’s position with a new full-length, Conquering The Deep Cycle, released on August 31st by Australis Records. This passionate and vivid material demonstrates all of Weight Of Emptiness‘ strong sides and passion towards extreme heavy music.

A new album is always good reason to talk with a band, so we’ve organized this interview with Juan Acevedo (guitars). Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2019: GEIST / GÉVAUDAN / GODEATER

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Oct 172019
 


Geist

 

(In this edition of Andy Wynn‘s series on recommended releases by UK bands (presented by the letter “G”), the focus is on Geist, Gévaudan, and Godeater.)

Being a British writer for what is, primarily, a US-based (though not necessarily US-focussed) publication like NCS occasionally puts me in some odd, awkward positions.

For one thing, the level of autonomy afforded to me here is far greater than anywhere else I’ve written for, and, due to our location/reputation, there’s never any pressure on me to blindly “support the scene”, something which often forces other, UK-based, sites/zines to grit their teeth and find ways to be gratingly polite/positive even when they don’t really want to.

On occasion this “outsider” status has come back to bite me, for instance when a band (or their fans) decide I’ve not been nice enough about them, or when I’ve simply refused to cover a band because I didn’t think they were all that good, but, for the most part, it’s a very freeing position to be in, and not one I take for granted.

Hopefully it also absolves me of any accusations of bias or favouritism – I’m not covering these bands because I’m trying to ingratiate myself with them, or “the scene” in general, I’m doing it because I think our readers will want to hear them! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HAUSTIÐ — “BASKING IN REFLECTED GLORY”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 162019
 

 

I learned about Haustið just before Thanksgiving last year, thanks to a recommendation from Rennie of starkweather, who vividly compared Haustið’s then-latest demo to “a cross of Emanation and Wolok on a suicide mission”. When I wrote about that demo, Howling, the Sol Above, Nothing Below, I described “a surreal quality to the music as it flows along its twisting course, with outbursts of dark, dissonant, thorny permutations interwoven with soulful, gliding, and sinuous instrumental passages, both moody and mystical, that sometimes partake of traditions other than extreme metal”.

The next Haustið recording, released this past spring and also discussed here, was a two-track EP named Long Lost Ruins Cried their Black Soot. It was also a marvelously multifaceted experience, with both a “physically” powerful impact and a bitter and chilly atmosphere, delivering one changing experience after another.

Now we find ourselves in the midst of autumn, and Haustið (which is itself Icelandic for autumn, though it is the solo project of a Brazilian man who uses the name Draug), has prepared a new EP named Basking In Reflected Glory, and it’s our good fortune to premiere its tremendous title track today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TAN KOZH — “TROISIÈME FONCTION”

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Oct 162019
 

 

Regular visitors to our site will be familiar with the French label Antiq Records, a label we’ve come to prize around here for exceptional releases by Grylle, Véhémence, Wÿntër Àrvń, Dorminn, and Créatures (to name a few). And now Antiq will be adding to that list with the striking debut album of the pagan black metal band Tan Kozh.

The name of the album is Lignages Oubliés, and it’s set for release on November 15th. Inspired by ancient Indo-European myths, the first part of the album (we’re told) “contains visions of the past and future wars and destruction, within the background the awakening of ancient pagan gods and the eternal turn of the wheel of time; the second part of the album is made of prayers addressed directly to ancient gods”.

What we have for you today is a stream of the album’s opening track, “Troisième Fonction“, which launches the first part of the record. Continue reading »

HORRIFIC DEMISE: “EXCRUCIATING EXTERMINATION”

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Oct 162019
 

 

(Today Vonlughlio reviews the debut album of the U.S. death metal band Horrific Demise, which is out now on the Comatose Music label.)

The subject of today’s brief review is Excruciating Extermination, the first album by Horrific Demise, released via Comatose Music this past August 29th.  I believe this project was formed back in 2005 by Matt Bishop (Human Artifacts, ex-Lividity) and I heard of the name since he was working on this release for a couple of years. I was not familiar with this particular project, but was with his former band Lividity.

After time in developing the music he gathered some top musicians alongside him to record the album, including Anthony Voight on vocals (Sarcophagy, ex-Gorgasm),  Phil Good on bass (Lust for Decay, Necrotic Disgorgement), Tony Tipton on guitars (Sarcophagy, Regurgitaton, ex-Necrotic Disgorgement), and Kyle Christman on drums (Sarcophagy, Human Filleted, ex-Gorgasm). When I saw that lineup I thought, hot damn!!!! A great list of top musicians who have contributed to some amazing releases in the BDM world. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PISSED REGARDLESS — “IMPERIAL CULT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 152019
 

 

In reviewing albums I usually avoid dropping the names of other bands as reference points, but in the case of the new record by San Diego’s Pissed Regardless, mentioning Ringworm, Integrity, No Warning, Darkest Hour, and label-mates Light This City is a good quick way of getting your head prepared for the album stream we’re presenting in advance of its October 18th release by Creator-Destructor. Just seeing those names all in one place is a significant tip-off to the variable ingredients Pissed Regardless have harnessed in Imperial Cult.

But it still probably won’t prepare you for just how crushing the album as a whole is, on multiple levels, or how electrifying it is to experience the band’s twists and turns as they take you through these ten tracks. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VULTUR — “POSTMORTEM LIVIDITY”

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Oct 152019
 

 

I feel like there ought to be a death metal air raid siren that could be turned on when albums like Vultur’s Drowned in Gangrenous Blood are on the way, not so much as a warning (though some people probably should be warned so they can run for the hills) as it would be a rallying cry for addicts of thoroughly gruesome and brutally bludgeoning old school monstrosity. I can imagine the throngs coming on like the zombie hordes in World War Z.

This new album, which follows Vultur’s 2016 demo (Beak) and their 2018 debut album (Entangled in the Webs of Fear) really does display the kind of spirit and craftsmanship that is likely to cause slobbering hunger among fans of evil, diseased, and neck-wrecking death metal. These Hellenic hellraisers have learned their black art very well, as you’ll discover when you hear the track we’re premiering today in the run-up to the album’s October 31st release by Memento Mori. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: INTERFECTORMENT — “GROTESQUELY DECAY”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 152019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new EP by Indonesia’s Interfectorment, which was released on May 31st by Brutal Mind, and features cover art by Toshihiro Egawa.)

One of the BDM scenes that is well known for their passion, is the Indonesian one. They are an amazing group of fans who support BDM in all its forms and do not hide the happiness this genre brings to them. A lot of bands come from that region, and some are great ones.

Sometimes, with the number of bands who play BDM, it can be hard to distinguish one from the other in terms of sound. Regardless, there are still bands who stand out from that large pack and bring something special. In this case, it’s the project Interfectorment from (Bandung, West Java), who on May 31st released their long-awaited EP Grotesquely Decay via Brutal Mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN — “TEUFELSBÜCHER”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 142019
 

 

At the beginning of Unaussprechlichen Kulten‘s new album Teufelsbücher we hear a haunting piano melody and the swell of symphonic strings. The stateliness and solemnity of those moments is at odds with nearly everything else that comes after, and yet its mystifying grandeur is in keeping with the magnificence of the insanity that soon ensues and never really relents until the grandiose and sorcerous extravaganza of “Necromancy and Torment” brings the album to a close.

The six songs on Teufelsbücher are asylum dreams, hellish visions of menace and madness that also relentlessly challenge the listener’s own sanity. The ever-twisting-and-turning compositions are ecstatically exuberant and the performances technically bewildering. The music boils like an overheated cauldron of unchained creativity, un-tethered to trends and un-bowing to conventions. It’s as if the band, in the throes of a possession, succeeded in opening Pandora’s box, loosing upon the world, through the sounds of mutated death metal, a torrent of bat-winged and brazen evils, never to be sealed again. Continue reading »

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