AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HALTER — “HOLOCAUST JACKALS”

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May 112026
 

(written by Islander)

Six years after their last album, the Russian band Halter are returning this month with a new full-length. Titled Another Strong Hand For A Damned Land, it’s set for co-release on May 25th by Symbol Of Domination (Moldova) and the Russian labels Wroth Emitter and Arx Productions.

It brings to the table old-school death/doom tinged with touches of sludge, stoner, and gothic metal. It was written and recorded during difficult times in Halter’s country, times marked by the Covid pandemic, the strengthening of a tyrannical regime, and of course the brutal war.

Unavoidably, all of those events affected the music and the lyrics. The labels tell us: “Lyrically, through profound symbolism, the songs are filled with the experiences of recent years, an anti-war message, a desire for freedom, and bitterness over the fate of people in the region.”

What we have for you today is the premiere of a video for an immediately infectious and powerfully moving track called “Holocaust Jackals“, which is powerful on multiple levels. Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES — VOLUME XXVII: A DREAM OF SPRING

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May 112026
 

(We present another monthly collection of reviews by Daniel Barkasi, who focuses his attention this time on albums released during April 2026.)

Spring – that lovely time when the cold goes away and I don’t need thermal undergarments to go outside. Alas, Mother Nature can’t seem to make up her mind – freezing one day, gorgeous the next. One day, we experienced the conditions of all four seasons in a single day. Those kinds of swings have been common all over – ask the poor iguanas in Florida – so we just have to push through it.

When titling this edition, yes, of course we’re parodying the A Song of Ice and Fire book series that’ll seemingly never finish, so with a lack of judgement in the humor department, this is where we landed. At least this column will be done before the next book comes out.

Also, totally unrelated – the horses are finally home! It’s good to have them back, and by the time we’re writing about May releases, we’ll hopefully be able to announce the arrival of our girl Naru’s foal.

The beginning of festival season is of course upon us, and NCS’s very own Northwest Terror Fest is literally days away as I write this. To all attending, have the absolute best time, and thanks for making it and this lovely place what it is. I’ll join the group someday. Maryland Deathfest follows, of course, with a lineup that’s difficult to imagine being real. For me, Fortress Festival immediately follows, so stay tuned for a documentation of my adventures in the town of Scarborough. Continue reading »

APOLAUSTIC: “NO PLENITUDE WITHOUT SUFFERING”

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May 112026
 

(We begin a new week at NCS with DGR’s review of the debut album from the Swiss band Apolaustic, which is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.)

Often when a band splits with a long-tenured vocalist it can feel like the group have hard-capped themselves at about eighty percent of their potential. While the reasons why long-time vocalist Romain Negro stepped down from Swiss tech-death group Stortregn are likely out there, that sort of muckracking – while amusing – has never been something we’ve been too interested in here. Instead, we exist in a series of zeroes and ones: is person in band? is person not in band? and we roll from there.

Sometimes, lineup changes can even be refreshing; a new perspective can recharge a band. But when you have a creature created already so strong, it can feel a bit like you’ve hobbled yourself on both fronts. and the respective projects that form afterwards always land at “pretty good” but never the “spectacular” heights of old. Thankfully, Stortregn’s One Eternal release went far in assuring us that would not be the case and now we also have Apolaustic, a new solo effort from Romain Negro handling all of the songwriting and vocals while recruiting Nicolas Muller on drums and Merlin Bogado for bass and guitar work for an album that is not all too dissimilar from the high-speed extremity of Stortregn, except for the much, much larger taste for melodic black metal. The result is in an eight-song, forty-minute release entitled No Plenitude Without Suffering, and thankfully Apolaustic have also dodged the eighty-percent potential cap with an absolutely killer album. Continue reading »

ARCHITECTURAL GENOCIDE: “MALIGNANT COGNITION”

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May 092026
 

(Because Islander is goofing off at the NCS-sponsored Northwest Terror Fest this weekend, we won’t have his usual weekend columns, but we will have some reviews by DGR, including this one devoted to a new album by Houston-based Architectural Genocide.)

It took way too long to achieve this monk-like state of enlightenment but listening to Architectural Genocide’s newest release Malignant Cognition via Comatose Music all the way back in the middle of January, revealed that perhaps twenty-three minutes is the exact amount of this style of brutal death metal that you need in your life. Continue reading »

HANGING GARDEN: “ISLE OF BLISS”

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May 082026
 

(We present DGR’s review of the ninth album from Hanging Garden, released on March 20th by Agonia Records.)

I have struggled with how I wanted to start writing up Finland’s Hanging Garden and their newest album Isle Of Bliss. They’ve been “blessed” enough to join the club of groups whose opening review paragraphs have seen more rewrites each year than your standard superhero movie. It’s not any fault of their own either; the blame lies entirely at my feet.

I think a large part of the difficulty comes from the fact that although Hanging Garden have been active for the better part of two decades and have been very consistent in releasing albums or EPs (they seem to thrive on album-EP- album cycle with little breath in between), I haven’t been one to yell from the rooftops about them,  in spite of how much I’ve enjoyed everything they’ve done. So, in a roundabout way, it feels like any time I want to write about Hanging Garden I need to begin with an apology of sorts for not using my pulpit to preach their gospel to the masses.

Hanging Garden are one of the best out there in a saturated genre of melancholy-infused doom and goth-rock groups. Even when the band have been experimental – which surprisingly is where they first caught my attention with the very Paradise Lost-leaning Blackout/Whiteout in 2015 – before fully adopting a very melodramatic death and doom persona, their releases have been some of the most steady-footed, good-to-great collections you can find. There are athletes who would kill for Hanging Garden’s sort of batting average.

The even better part of all of this, now that the guilt of not being as loud about them as I could’ve been has been waylaid somewhat until their next release, is that the group’s newest album Isle Of Bliss – which saw release in late March via Agonia Records – is absolutely stunning and only reinforces the fact that the Hanging Garden collective are stealthily one of the best out there at this particular style. Continue reading »

IN RUINS: “WE ARE ALL TO PERISH”

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May 072026
 

(Our Norway-based writer Chile prepared the following eloquent review of a new album by the Romanian band In Ruins, which was released in March by Meuse Music Records.)

What is it which really matters in our lives when we spend our whole existence staring right at death’s hollow face? Coming ever closer to its unjudging oblivion with each passing day, always taking us unexpectedly under its dark wings, death has been a fascination for the duration of all human civilization. 

It is certainly a wonder that all aspects of our lives are so influenced by the only thing which lies outside of our living experience, and of which we know nothing. As the old saying goes, if there is us, there is no death, and if there is death, there is no us.

As the questions of death have been on the minds of philosophers, writers, and artists throughout history, it is not surprising that the concept of ending themes has found its strong foothold in music also, and since we are here, metal music particularly.

Now, it is not necessary to go into details of how metal embraces the ideas and the mystery of death, we have all heard our share of varying viewpoints through various genres (death metal, anyone?). So, we turn our spotlight to a singular example, and by involving literature in this equation, some bands do pique our interest on the very first listen. Continue reading »

BEYOND THE STYX – DIVID

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 072026
 

(Andy Synn is in Seattle right now… which makes it the perfect time to talk about ferocious French furies Beyond the Styx, righr?)

If you’re reading this… and you must be, because you’re seeing these words… then I’ll be in Seattle attending this year’s edition of Northwest Terror Fest, which means I won’t be online as much or available to respond to your queries and comments as quickly.

That being said, I don’t expect too much in the way of controvery or complaints with regards to the upcoming new album from French Metallic Hardcore firebrands Beyond the Styx (set for release this Friday via Innerstrength Records), as if you were a fan of their previous album (which you can read more about here), then you’ll be happy to learn that DIVID is all about giving you more of what you love… even if it’s tough love.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FOGOS — “WYRM”

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May 062026
 

(written by Islander)

We are told that the name of the Barcelona-based black metal band Fogos was “inspired in the fires that enlighten the path of the dead and their main themes: paganism, nihilism, death and the decay of the human soul.” They began that daunting path of bloodshed and decay with their debut album Corpses and Ashes (2022), and now they continue onward with a new and even more murderous album named Of Wyrm And Men.

On the new album this band’s experienced lineup is augmented with guest appearances by Rider G. Omega from Obsidian Kingdom and our friend J. F. Fiar from Foscor and Jade. It also benefits from professional production, with recording accomplished at Moontower Studios in Spain and mastering by Dan Lowndes at Resonance Sound Studio in New England.

Of Wyrm And Men will be co-released on June 21st by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Poisoned Furrows Records (U.S.), and what we have for you today is the premiere of a stunning album track named “Wyrm“. Continue reading »

GADGET: “COERCED”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 062026
 

(The Swedish grindcore veterans Gadget are returning with a new EP set for release on May 8th (on vinyl via De:Nihil Records), and what we have below are DGR’s enthusiastic thoughts about it.)

While it isn’t that long in terms of grindcore bands, given their “jump in and jump out just as quick” nature and the way so many grind projects are ephemeral blasts of sound that seem to appear and burn to the ground just as quickly, five years is a good-sized gap for new music from a project. Sweden’s Gadget haven’t had it easy either.

A period of lineup changes saw the group without a full-time vocalist for a bit and their first release post-2016’s The Great Destroyer was a split with Retaliation that saw Gadget contributing four songs, each with a different vocalist. The fire was still there and each song punched in at sub one-minute-and-thirty seconds. That was five years ago, though.

One of the highlight songs that did emerge from 2021’s Gadget/Retaliation split was “Intenso”, which featured vocalist Emilia Henriksson stepping behind the microphone for fifty-seven seconds of manic and relentless energy that was everything you might’ve wanted out of the blastbeat-driven firestorm style of grind that is composed entirely on the high-end, high-tempo side of things with little room for groove or chest-thumping low-end.

Emilia would eventually take over the vocals segment of the band in 2023 and be joined by Kristofer Jankarls on guitars as well as vocals for a double-headed attack, cementing Gadget in stable form for the three years since. 2026 marks the newest release for this lineup in recorded form, an eight-song and thirteen-and-a-half-minute blast of music known as Coerced. Continue reading »

FORTRESS FESTIVAL 2026 PREVIEW

 Metal News  No Responses »
May 062026
 

(Our writer Daniel Barkasi prepared the following preview of the 2026 edition of Fortress Festival set to take place in Scarborough, UK, on May 30-31.)

Deja vu is a hell of a thing. Just like this point last year, we were preparing for experiences familiar and new – we’ll be in attendance for the annual tradition known as Maryland Deathfest in a few weeks, and the celebration of all we love at NCS in Northwest Terror Fest looms even sooner still this coming weekend. I swear, I’m going to make it out to NWTF one of these years.

What’s also similar, but a little different this time for yours truly, is the subject of the buzzing Fortress Festival. Last year was our first foray to this destination weekend of black metal powerhouses, and we were nervously scrambling to make sure everything was in order. It was my first visit to the UK, after all, so paths unseen can be a tad stress-inducing. That said, deep in my gut, it felt like a festival that we just had to attend.

The experience we had was far beyond what could have been realistically expected. The lineup was absolutely packed, the organization was excellent from all angles, the locale was picture-perfect, and the crowd was an eclectic bunch of amazing folks clad in black t-shirts. What’s not to love? If you don’t believe me, read up on my memorable experience in 2025.

Naturally, considering all of the above, the opportunity to come back to the shores of Scarborough again in 2026 was simply too good to pass up, and you’re all welcome to come along for the ride (virtually speaking) on May 30 – 31, coming from the wonderful seaside locale of Scarborough. Continue reading »

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