NO CLEAN SINGING

WARFORGED – THE GROVE | ALMANAC

Aug 172026

(Andy Synn courts controversy yet again with his review of the new Warforged album, out now)

We should probably start things out today by laying all our cards on the table, yes?

While many people were impressed by Warforged‘s debut album, I: The Voice, I’m afraid I wasn’t one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still an impressive number of ideas, and a lot of technical talent, on display across the album’s unwieldy, almost 73 minute run-time (this is definitely not a band who ascribe to the theory of “less is more”, that’s for sure) but I ultimately found the execution to be disjointed and uneven, with too much of it just haphazardy thrown at the wall in the hope that something would stick.

Their second album, however, showcased a darker, more atmosphere-heavy, sound (as well as a new vocalist) that felt – with a few slightly janky exceptions – more focussed and intentional, harnessing the band’s more experimental and unpredictable impulses with a greater sense of direction that made all the various parts, even the ones which didn’t quite work, feel like they were actually contributing to a greater whole, rather than pulling the record in a thousand different directions at once.

And, luckily for me – though this may end up disappointing a certain section of Warforged‘s fanbase – Almanac is very clearly both a spiritual and sonic successor to Sundial, continuing the ongoing story by adding a fresh new chapter to the band’s career.

SHORT BUT SWEET ON A SATURDAY: HELL IS REAL / MOUTHBREATHER / RACETRAITOR

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Aug 152026

(Andy Synn picks up the slack today while the boss is away)

Our beloved leader, he whose eyes are all-seeing and whose arms encircle the sun, is currently off on a scenic break, leaving myself and DGR in charge of the site over the weekend.

And, as consumnate professionals… we have nothing prepared.

Or, at least, I should say that we had nothing prepared, since – as luck would have it – a surprise release yesterday has allowed me to complete another tripartite “Short But Sweet” article (which, thankfully, I already had half written) so as to ensure we don’t go another day without feeding the internet’s constant craving for new content to consume.

SHADES OF BLACK: DARK PLAGUE, PYRE OF DESCENT, LA BESTIA DE GEVAUDAN, MATAVITATAU, SPIRIT POSSESSION, SKELETAL SERPENT

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Aug 142026

(written by Islander)

As many of you will know, I usually post a column at NCS on Sundays with recommendations in the expanding orbit of black metal. I wasn’t able to do that last Sunday due to leaving home on the early side of the day for what turned out to be a cool birthday celebration in a forest for a friend. I had made some choices for the column by then, and wanted to carry through with them whenever I could this week, while adding a couple of songs I’ve discovered since last weekend.

But it took me nearly all week to get this finished. It comes to you on another day when I’m about to depart from home and computer for most of the day; I have a ridiculously early start on a journey to the Seattle airport for a long weekend vacation. I’m doubtful that I’ll be able to assemble the usual new-music roundups for this coming Saturday and Sunday, but we shall see.

In the collection you’re now looking at I’ve interwoven an album, an EP, and four singles. Continue reading »

NERVOSA: “SLAVE MACHINE”

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Aug 142026

(Erstwhile NCS writer TheMadIsraeli returned to us with a review earlier this week, and he’s already back again, this time writing about a new album by Brazil’s Nervosa that was released in April by Napalm Records.)

I know the band we’re reviewing today is Nervosa, but I just need you guys to take a detour with me, okay? We’re doing a Tarantino sort of introduction here. It will come together with time. I want to talk about Arch Enemy first.

We’re talking about Arch Enemy because I love Arch Enemy. Well, mostly… The Johann Liiva era of Black Earth, Stigmata, and Burning Bridges is arguably still the strongest first three-record run of any of the Gothenburg bands during the ‘90s. If I make a list of my top 100 albums of all time, there’s more than one Arch Enemy record in there, including even the Gossow era for a time or two. Their music was sonic indignation. You felt this unhinged lashing out at the world and all of the unfairness of it in everything they wrote, on top of first-class guitar work both from a riff-writing and a lead-playing standpoint.

I ate and breathed this band for a long time. Then Rise Of The Tyrant came out, and while it’s a solid record, it’s the start of a very noticeable slide into complacency and just… you could tell Michael Ammot was in full careerist mode. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATHGRAVE — “HELL IS EVIL”

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Aug 132026

(written by Islander)

By this point the Bay Area grindcore miscreants Deathgrave probably need no introduction to the kind of miscreant listeners who visit our site, but there’s also a chance someone just awoke from a long coma or just recovered from a debilitating mental disease, so we’ll make a quick one.

Originally formed in 2013, Deathgrave brings together the talents of guitarist Greg Wilkinson (Autopsy, Brainoil), bassist Fern Alberts (Amber Asylum), vocalist Andre Cornejo, and drummer Clint Zane (Owl). Even from their earliest releases, they were prone to stewing together differing genre ingredients from punk and metal, but the stew has become more rich over time. Their new album Hell Is Evil is the richest yet.

We’ve already published a review of the album (here), which concludes with this paragraph:

This is the sound of what happens when grindcore grows up. Fans of the more feral punk-tinged offshoots of death metal would be advised to give this album a listen. Overall, it proves it does not matter how heavy or intense your sound is; there is always time to slow down and create memorable songs, without having to sacrifice the confrontational elements of your sound. This is the primary reason why this is one of the best albums on the more extreme side of things so far this year.

And today we have the pleasure of premiering the new album’s title song in advance of the record’s release by Tankcrimes on August 21st. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: EXTINCTION OF MANKIND / HAAST / THE SALT PALE COLLECTIVE

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Aug 132026

(Andy Synn tries to beat the heat with three more home-grown recommendations)

It’s another hot one here in the UK right now, and people are definitely looking for something to take their minds off the oppressive heat.

And in the absence of any particularly icy Black Metal to cool us down, I thought I’d instead focus on a trio of recent releases (“recent” being a relative term) all capable of capturing your attention and distracting you from the oppressive weight of the weather, in three distinctly different ways.

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE BLACK THUNDER — “VERIFICATION OF WOUNDS”

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Aug 122026

(written by Islander)

Today we have the pleasure of helping announce that in October Pagan Records will release a new album named Time Obliteration by The Black Thunder from Poland, and to help build anticipation for that event we’re also premiering a video for the album’s first single, the genre-bending “Verification of Wounds“.

If you are already familiar with The Black Thunder via their previous releases, including their two previous albums, you may be in for a surprise, because the band have shifted their sound, moving on from the stoner and groove-based sounds of those records into darker tones that feature a mixture of black metal elements, sludge elements, technical elements, and crust-punk elements.

Moreover, The Black Thunder recorded Time Obliteration in a live studio recording. Pagan Records further explains that, lyrically, the album “focuses on themes of existential anxiety, internal conflict, and distorted perception”.

Here is how bassist, vocalist, and founder Marcin Szczepański explains some of the changes in the context of the new song you’re about to hear: Continue reading »

APOGEAN: “WASTE WHERE LIFE BEGINS”

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Aug 122026

(Former NCS writer TheMadIsraeli returns after a long absence with the following review of a new album by the Toronto death metal band Apogean, which was released on July 10th by The Artisan Era.)

It sounds so fucking stupid to say, but a pretty good barometer of a good album especially if you’re on the AuDHD spectrum like I am is “does this album make me pay attention to it while grinding on Diablo 4?”. Diablo has oddly enough been a crucible through which many albums have been deemed good or bad in my mind; if something can catch my attention through the demands of playing the game especially at end-game sweat levels it means it stands out or it stands on its own.

Apogean’s now sophomore album Waste Where Life Begins is a great record, and one that oddly in my opinion takes quite a divergent path from their debut. Cyberstrictive was good, don’t get me wrong, a good but rather standard tech-death-metal/deathcore middle ground album. I liked it. My life was in turmoil at the time so it wasn’t exactly a priority list to write about in my life but it got a few spins.

Waste Where Life Begins has within the span of a week already gotten more spins out of me than Cyberstrictive ever did. Partially because those scant deathcore touches have been entirely abandoned, which to me, I’m sorry, is just always objectively good, and also due to a commitment toward an oddly more atmospheric, almost blackened death metal direction. The serpentine riffs are still there, but there’s a much greater emphasis on riffs and rhythmically impactful sections that are designed to seize your attention. Continue reading »

FIRE IN THE MOUNTAINS 2026: FOUR DAYS OF DUST, WIND, FRYBREAD, AND TRANSCENDENCE

Concert Reviews 1 Response »

Aug 122026

(Below you will find NCS writer Gonzo’s extensive and beautifully evocative report and celebration of Fire In the Mountains 2026, which took place on July 23-26 on the sovereign lands of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana.)

Fire in the Mountains has never been the kind of festival you simply consume. Over the years, I’ve come to understand that it can be demanding—not in the hollow, transactional way so much of modern life has become, but in the more meaningful sense that it asks attendees to be present, considerate, and involved. The reward is a space built around something increasingly rare: community over convenience, inclusion over exclusivity, and shared experience over consumption.

This festival is, and always has been, a vast departure from the life we’ve been told we have to live. That’s why it remains as special as it is. The people hosting this gathering are cut from the same rebellious cloth, as they dare to take risks where it counts, doing things their way, but never losing sight of what they originally set out to accomplish years ago.

Like last year, all these thoughts were surging through my head at dawn as I hit the gas on I-25 from Denver. The same thoughts returned as I finished packing my Subaru to the brim with supplies. Our destination tonight was Great Falls, MT, and we’d complete the trek to Red Eagle Campground for Fire in the Mountains 2026 on Thursday morning.

All of this seemed so familiar, as though it had already happened in a parallel universe. Or maybe it was just the welcome sense of familiarity I felt, knowing that I’d be revisiting a very special and sacred land, reuniting with the incredible people I met last year, and watching even more astoundingly awesome music there over the next four days.

ONLY DEATH IS REAL: GODAGAINST / IMPERATHRON / SEPULCRUM

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Aug 112026

(Andy Synn takes us on a trip to the Death Metal underground of Chile today)

It’s been suggested, perhaps not unfairly, that I’ve been neglecting the Death Metal side of things recently.

So to make up for this (while acknowledging that I’ve definitely covered stuff from Carbon Tomb, Altarage, and a bunch of other short form releases all in the last month or so) I decided that today would be the day we’d dive head-first into the Chilean Death Metal scene in all its nasty, blasty brilliance.

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