TRANSMISSIBILE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES — AN INFECTIOUS ADDENDUM PART 2 OF 3

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Feb 242026
 


(We concluded the rollout of our 2025 Most Infectious Extreme Metal Song list at the end of January, but our South African contributor Vizzah Harri has prepared a three-part Addendum of infectious songs that weren’t included in our main list. The complete title of this Part 2 is: “Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies – An Infectious Addendum Part 2 of 3 (Blackened reaches, To stars and beyond, Unclassified viral infections, Queer cuts for bygone moons.”)

Wikipedia only lists around 1555 albums across all genres including metal for 2025 and only around 468 on the page for ‘heavy metal’. If you have Catamarcan dune sands’ worth of time on your hands you should really give the big list a scroll cos cool stuff like the Malatu Astatke’s reimagining and improvisation on old hits popped up. The encyclopedia for the archives of metal lists 32,613 releases for last year: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WINCE AND FRISSON — “KÄRRHÄXAN”

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Feb 242026
 

(written by Islander)

We would like to introduce you to the “dissoblack and death metal” band Wince and Frisson. They are a duo, one in North Carolina and one in New Jersey. Their names are not “Wince” and “Frisson”. One of them goes by Triumvir Kaleido, and the other is Steve Wiener, who is the artist behind Am I in Trouble? and a member of Eveale, Negative Bliss, and Ashenheart.

Triumvir is the group’s songwriter, guitarist, bassist, and vocalist. Triumvir also creates the band’s artwork and is responsible for the animated music video we’re about to share with you for their first single, “Kärrhäxan“. Steve programmed the drums and produced, mixed, and mastered the music you’re about to hear.

But to briefly go back to the band’s name, “wince” is a word that describes “a slight involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the body out of or in anticipation of pain or distress” (as a visitor to NCS, you probably knew that already), while “frisson” refers to “a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear, a thrill”. Why did they pick this name? You’re about to get some clues. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CENOTAFIO — “ACAUSAL ESCISIÓN”

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Feb 242026
 

(written by Islander)

This seems like a good time to leap right into a linguistic preview of the song “Acausal Escisión” that you’re about to hear, and then come back to you with further details about where the music comes from.

You would be best advised to gulp lots of air before listening, because violent madness and dreadful misery reign in the song with punishing power. The madness comes first. Without prelude, Cenotafio explode in a stunning assault of light-speed blasting, viciously roiling and insanely shrieking guitars, monstrously malignant roars, and fanatical howls. It is an absolutely unchained, electrifying, and harrowing experience. Continue reading »

ROSA FAENSKAP – INGENTING FORBLIR

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 242026
 

(Andy Synn recommends the new album from one of the most vital new voices in the underground)

If you’ve been in this game for a while, like I have, chances are you’ll have come across quite a few sites/zines/writers who only really cover “big” name bands (usually signed to well-known labels) in the hope of receiving some reciprocal attention and/or access in return.

And while we’ll occasionally cover some “bigger” (relatively speaking) names here at NCS – no-one’s going to be accusing Kreator of being “underground” any time soon, after all – that’s never been our primary focus.

I’ll grant you, in the past we’ve occasionally had a guest writer or two who’ve crossed the line from honest advocacy into outright sycophancy, but when it comes to the core cadre – myself, Islander, and DGR – we at least try to provide some context and justification for our recommendations, rather than just regurgitating the provided press-release materials and calling it a day.

But, let me tell you, as hard as we may try to maintain this self-imposed sense of pseudo-objectivity, it’s not always easy to do so, especially when it comes to an album like Ingenting Forblir… but I’ll try my best.

Continue reading »

TRANSMISSIBILE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES — AN INFECTIOUS ADDENDUM PART 1 OF 3

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Feb 232026
 

(We concluded the rollout of our 2025 Most Infectious Extreme Metal Song list at the end of January, but our South African contributor Vizzah Harri has prepared a three-part Addendum of infectious songs that weren’t included in our main list. The complete title of this Part 1 is: “Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies – An Infectious Addendum Part 1 of 3 (Prog, tech, avant, death, schedule 1 drvgs, gospel music?).”)

2025 had a lot of people feel like it was out to get them, like we were all engineers in the Starfleet wearing red shirts (for the uninitiated: a trope oft parodied that has to do with people wearing red in a sci-fi show predestined to die before the third act). If you’re reading this, the scars might be real, hell does exist on earth, there are still monsters and beasties out there, but somehow and somewhere there is also a balancing counter effect.

The 26th year of the 3rd millennium is already well underway, and even though African shores that follow Gregorian calendars are where these words are writ, I still tend to live partially or at least in spirit, on Eastern shores where the year of the fire horse only commences in the middle of February.

Superstitions can have far-reaching effects if a whole populace gets hyped up by it. 1966, the last occurrence of the red horse, induced a significant drop in fertility in Japan because of oral traditions relating this astrological occurrence with misogynistic overtones. One origin story is of a real woman who was burned at the stake for an apparent attempt to commit arson, and though there are varying accounts, Yaoya Oshichi was born in the very metal year of the fire horse, 1666. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TERATOMA — “STERTOROUS WHISPER”

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Feb 232026
 

(written by Islander)

If you’ve ever listened to the music of the German band Teratoma, as first captured in their 2021 debut album Purulent Manifestations, you know their choice of band name wasn’t some random shot in the dark. They clearly searched for a real-world representation of the hideous ghastliness they sought to channel in their death metal, and they found the teratoma tumor to be suitably horrid. (FYI, the term comes from the Greek word for “monster” plus the “-oma” suffix used for tumors.)

But even within their debut album Teratoma’s brand of death metal manifested other aspects of monstrosity besides sensations of horrid disease and blood-congealing creepiness. Like the tumor whose name they chose, the music was abominably multi-faceted.

Their new album, Longing Voracity, further expands those other aspects, as the album’s title itself foretells, and we have a prime example of what they’ve achieved achieves through our premiere of the album’s closing track “Stertorous Whisper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CALVANA — “SUMMER STORM”

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Feb 232026
 

(written by Islander)

We are told that the Italian black metal band Calvana was established in 2015 at the foot of the Calvana massif, an imposing mountainous ridge north of Florence, and that the band exists “solely to amplify the voice of the mountain as a singular, monolithic entity”. On March 20th Adirondack Black Mass will release Calvana’s third album, Sub Janus.

The press materials for the album evocatively describe the music:

As trend-free as ever, the record captures the primal rage of the peaks and the elemental wrath of nature, forged in the fires of old-school black metal. Rough and robust, their roiling screeds of fury remain as potent as ever, locating that ever-elusive balance between the cryogenic and the lava-like. All instruments hold equal weight in their rustic, all-analog soundfield – particularly bass guitar, an instrument often relegated to nonexistence in black metal – further grounding Calvana’s elemental nature.

You’ll be able to appreciate these claims by listening to the second song from the album released for listening so far, “Summer Storm“, which we’re premiering today with an unsettling lyric video. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: CRYPTIC SHIFT / GOOD TIGER / SIDIOUS

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 232026
 

(Andy Synn serves up three more examples of high-quality British beef for your ears)

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating all the same… the UK Metal scene is as vital and as vibrant and as varied right now as it’s ever been.

And one of the reasons this particular column exists is to help highlight that variety – and today’s post is particularly diverse in its stylistic scope – beyond the borders of this green and pleasant (though currently quite wet) land.

Obviously I can’t cover everything that issues from these shores every year – for one thing, there’s some albums that I just don’t want or feel the need to cover – but hopefully I can help out at least a few of my fellows by exposing their music to a more international audience.

So, without further ado, let’s get to it… shall we?

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: AIN SOPH AUR, LIGHTLORN, GALVANIST, PAINIST

 SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 222026
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday’s column was shorter than usual. I explained then that I was leaving home early for a day-long outing with my spouse. That happened, and what we did together was a tremendous amount of fun. But we didn’t get back to our island home until nightfall, and I didn’t spend what was left of the evening messing with NCS stuff.

As it happens, I’m leaving home again with my spouse this morning to do something else she planned. So once again, I’m having to shorten the volume of music as compared to what this column usually includes. Luckily, I had already listened to everything I picked during the past week, so I wasn’t starting from scratch. But with more time I would have included more.

The first three selections came easily — I initially paid attention to them based on my past experience with the bands’ music, and their new stuff definitely doesn’t disappoint. The fourth one was just me getting a wild hair, and the impulse paid off. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AT THE GATES, THE SILVER, THE LEAVING, DEFECT DESIGNER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 212026
 

(written by Islander)

Today’s collection will be shorter than usual, because I need to leave house and computer fairly early this morning for a day-long outing with my spouse. We have a ferry departure we need to make, so I won’t have any wiggle room.

I suppose my first choice for today is an obvious one, for reasons I suppose I’ll identify in case it’s less obvious than I think. After that I settled on a couple of “proven commodities” who are proving their worth again, and one new band that drew attention because of its lineup. I hope these songs and videos get your weekend off to the right start, as they did for me. Continue reading »

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