AN NCS PREMIERE: SINCE THE DEATH — “HE KEEPS FORGETTING”

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Mar 102026
 

(written by Islander)

We are now about to present a song that’s furious and frightening, a beastly manifestation whose formidable sonic and emotional powers are compulsive at a visceral level.

This song, “He Keeps Forgetting“, is the first to be revealed from a new album named Entangled by the Swedish band Since The Death, which existed as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Oscar Rask since beginning in 2016 (joined by various guest musicians on different releases) but has now expanded in a way that will bring Since The Death on stage for the first time this year.

Entangled also marks the band’s first record on the Norwegian label Nordic Mission Records, which has set Entangled for release on April 24th. As the label describes, “Musically, Since The Death operate at a fierce intersection of death metal, thrash, and black metal, fusing aggression with precision and atmosphere while maintaining a careful balance between cohesion and contrast.” Continue reading »

ACRANIUS – WHITEOUT

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Mar 102026
 

(Andy Synn says get ready to turn off your brains and turn up the volume with Acranius)

It’s pretty well-established that we tend to favour music of the more cerebral and artistic type… while still, for the most part, being heavy as hell… here at NCS.

In fact, it’s almost become something of a running joke (just take a glance at any handful of my most recent reviews, such as the artful blackened beauty of Miserere Luminis, the abrasive, pitch-black anarchism of Trespasser, or the complex Prog-Tech contortions of Cryptic Shift) that the older we get the more “progressive” (or “pretentious”) our tastes are getting.

But there’s a time and a place for proggy pretensions and artsy indulgence… and this is not one of those times.

Continue reading »

EXHUMED: “RED ASPHALT”

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Mar 102026
 

(Here we have DGR’s review of the latest album from Exhumed, which is out now on Relapse Records.)

When you start writing you assume you won’t ever be on the journalistic “beat” of some bands, yet somehow you seem to fall into a routine and over time wind up covering their releases far more than you’d expect. For this writer, Bay Area death metal veterans Exhumed are one such band. Such a long-running hallmark of an act isn’t one you’d expect to be continually checking in with, as they’ve been able to develop a large enough catalogue of music that they could coast for a lifetime bouncing between albums they put out up to a decade ago.

Yet the crew behind Exhumed remain fiercely creative and infected with an inability to sit still for even a second, spreading themselves far and wide among a baker’s dozen of projects and even then still finding time to launch the occasional new one, and then somehow after all of that… loop back around to Exhumed. Even when they share lineups among other different projects, it seems that the foundational spirit of the band still calls to them as something to be unified around. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NIFROST — “LIVSKRAFT”

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Mar 092026
 

(written by Islander)

“Hailing from Jølster, Norway, Nifrost return with a masterful display of melodic and epic black metal. Following the well-received Blykrone and Orkja, it is now time for Briseld. Once again, the legacy of Windir and the seeds planted by Enslaved and Borknagar have borne fruit in a new collection of songs.”

And that is how the Dusktone label begins to introduce Briseld, which is now set for release on March 20th. As a truly soul-stirring example of what the album brings listeners, today we premiere its second single, “Livskraft”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MUERTO — “WILDERNESS”

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Mar 092026
 

(written by Islander)

On April 17th Transcending Obscurity Records will release the third album by the doom-laden Mexican black metal band Muerto. Its evocative name is Eclipsed Realms — evocative because the music itself seems to transport listeners into un-real realms of perpetual shadow, there to be overcome by an array of harrowing and haunting experiences.

Two songs from the album have been previously revealed, and today we bring you a third one — “Wilderness“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GREEN CARNATION

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Mar 092026
 


photo by Lars Gunnar Liestøl

(On April 3rd Season of Mist will release a new album by Norway’s Green Carnation as the second installment in a three-album trilogy. Our Comrade Aleks discussed the first installment with vocalist Kjetil Nordhus last fall, and now we present a second more recent discussion between them which focuses on the new record — and includes lots more news, as well as a stream of a brand new second single from the new album, “I Am Time“, that’s premiering today.)

As you remember, the Norwegian veteran progressive band Green Carnation returned after a significant hiatus in autumn 2025 with an announcement of the trilogy A Dark Poem. As A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia was discussed in our interview here with the band’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus four months ago, we sequentially follow the plan and provide a new one focused on the trilogy’s second part, A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis.

The band’s initial plan was to create three different albums which would complement each other, and until now it seems like everything goes according the plan. At least Sanguis follows closely to The Shores of Melancholia and yet provides some new ideas and quite a refreshing experience. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FINNR, EUCLIDEAN, DEMONOLOGISTS, VAINORAS, TRELLDOM, AKYROS EXPANSE, HUBRIS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 082026
 

(written by Islander)

For reasons I explained yesterday in details verging on the tedious (if not tipping all the way over), I’ve again confined myself to music that I’ve been able to download and listen to on a music player rather than stream online. In one instance where a haunting video was available (for a Trelldom song) I came back to it often enough that I was able to see it during one of the few episodes of internet connectivity.

The first two choices were records I intended to include at the end of last week’s edition of this column, to complete a triptych of releases I was drawn to because of the cover art. I ran out of time last Sunday before I could get to them, so I’m starting with them today. And to complete a new triptych I followed them with a song where the cover art was also the first seduction.

After those first three you’ll find three others, one from a legendary name, another from a very new name, and a third from a band whose notoriety is in between.

And by the way, I forgot to set any clocks ahead last night, including the one at my bedside. Of course I did. My wife forgot too, but she’s married to me so her judgment is already suspect. Thus, this column is arriving later than I thought it would, and although there’s still a lot here, there’s not as much as I’d planned. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GOMMA, GORMA, GHOROT, GOATPSALM, GLUTTONY

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Mar 072026
 

(written by Islander)

I’m experiencing technical difficulties. For the second time since February 1st, our DSL service shut down. The last time we waited two weeks for the DSL company to send out a repair technician. He got it going again. He explained that a pair of wires in the main line to which our house was connected had shorted out. He connected us to a different pair, but said there were a bunch of other pairs in the line that were also shorted out.

He said he would report the need for maintenance, but I got the impression this need for maintenance is widespread around the island where we live and that we shouldn’t get our hopes up. I guess there’s not enough money to be made here for the DSL company to spend money. And so, 16 days after the last repair, the DSL service stopped working again. It’s been out since last weekend. A repair technician is supposed to visit us again on Monday. Just a one-week wait this time instead of two weeks.

No DSL means our TV is useless for streaming. It also means no internet connectivity except what I can get from my phone. I’ve been using that as a hotspot for my desktop computer. The cell service is good enough that I can get online and do most of what I can do when the DSL is working. But there’s one drawback: a lot of the time the cell service isn’t good enough to stream music and videos, in part because my wife piggy-backs on my phone too since she uses a different cell service that’s borderline useless where we live. Kind of a big drawback for a music blog like ours. Continue reading »

NO/MÁS: “NO PEACE”

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Mar 062026
 

(Below is Wil Cifer’s review of No Peace, a new album by D.C.-based No/Más that’s set for release on March 13th by Redefining Darkness. The cover art was created by Brian Sheehan.)

There could never be a more fitting soundtrack for the world today than this album. NO/MÁS are angry as fuck. They are not here to spread good news. They are bringing their apocalyptic message to you with a perfect guitar sound for it, that is a balance of brutality which is refined enough to keep the riffs in focus, rather than just being a raw outburst.

At times, grooves slide into the riff. They write songs with an ear for detail, and maximize the two-minute runtime of these songs, cramming more punch in under three minutes than some bands can pack into an entire album. A Slayer influence certainly looms over this album. They throw in guitar harmonies into “Blood Soaked Soil” to break up the feral explosion and breakdowns. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HUMERROR — “VICIOUS DOMINION”

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Mar 062026
 

(written by Islander)

The Indonesian deathgrind band Humerror hail from Palembang, South Sumatra. They have prepared a debut album named Liturgy of the Synthetic Gods that will be released later this year, and today we reveal its first chapter, a furious new single called “Vicious Dominion” that the band are presenting through a spectacular lyric video.

Humerror explain that their music “explores modern idolatry and institutional power, portraying a world where devotion is exploited and new gods are manufactured through systems, technology, and collective compliance,” and their dystopian artwork incorporates these themes. Thus, they “frame extreme sound as a vehicle for social commentary — merging classic grindcore urgency with contemporary critique.”

We’ll also share the band’s synopsis of the song you’re about to hear: Continue reading »

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