AN NCS PREMIERE: MOLOSSER — “STRYCHNINE HILL”

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Apr 242026
 

(written by Islander)

Brisbane-based Gutter Prince Cabal has established a reputation as a go-to platform for exposing the world to killer underground metal from Australia and New Zealand, and they’ll continue doing that in May when they present the debut of NZ’s Molosser. Here’s the vivid language they use in introducing the record:

Set for release on May 11, the band’s self-titled debut EP Molosser arrives as a full-frontal assault, an uncompromising barrage of aggression that wastes no time in establishing its intent. From the very first moments, the message is clear: rip and tear, kill and maim.

Built on muscular riffs, punishing rhythms, and an atmosphere of pure hostility, Molosser is a record that pulls no punches. Every track surges forward with unyielding force, carving a path through anything in its way. There is no restraint here, only momentum, impact, and the raw satisfaction of destruction.

We’ll have a tough time competing with those words in describing the EP track we’re premiering today, but of course that won’t stop us from trying! Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SCORDATURA — “LED INTO OBLIVION”

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Apr 242026
 

(written by Islander)

We heartily welcome the return of the Scottish death metal band Scordatura, whose music we’ve previously described as “a neck-wrecking, gut-churning, bowel-loosening bombardment of jagged riffs, technical twists, and gruesome, glass-gargling gutturals that floats like an atom bomb and stings like a beast,” and as “the kind of brutish and blistering treatment that our pathetic world so richly deserves.”

Six years on from their last album, the ruthlessly punishing Mass Failure, Scordatura have joined forces with Everlasting Spew Records to lead us into oblivion with a new full-length named… Led Into Oblivion… which we’re helping to announce today through the premiere of a video for the record’s brutally bombastic but also razor-sharp title song. Continue reading »

NEURAL GLITCH: “HYPNOTIC IMPAIRMENT”

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Apr 242026
 

(Texas-based Neural Glitch released an album last year that ranked high on the year-end list of our old friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, and just last month they released another full-length that has gotten Grover even more excited. He explains why in this review, which includes info and insights drawn from a dialogue with the project’s mastermind.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. With the sheer quantity of music that I’ve listened to in my many years on this earth, it’s become increasingly rare that I find something that really catches me by surprise these days. And yet, as you’ve no doubt surmised, it does still happen on occasion, as was the case with Neural Glitch’s debut from last year, Convinced To Obey. The absurd mix of technical death metal and sample-heavy glitch electronica reminded me in various parts of a number of different bands while still presenting something really unlike anything I’d heard before, and I was enamored enough that the album landed in the top ten on my year-end list here, standing as the only release from a band with which I was previously unfamiliar in that top ten.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I found out that after only a year and a couple months, the band had released another album. The turnaround is especially impressive given the densely layered nature of the music here. HypNOTic ImpAIrment has actually surprised me once again, representing an impressive step forward in songwriting and general production while retaining the gloriously anarchic spirit of its predecessor. As much as I enjoyed Convinced To Obey, this is undoubtedly a better album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VIDE

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Apr 232026
 

(Vide’s unusual new album Aux enfants des ruines was released by the Antiq label in late February of this year, and it may have flown beneath the radar of many listeners who would appreciate it. But Comrade Aleks has done his best to elevate it through the following interview with its French solo creator.)

French multi-instrumentalist Hylgaryss’ solo project, Vide, remained in the shadow of another, slightly more atmospheric black metal duo, Sainte Obyana du Froid. But the balance may change, as Vide has returned after a four-year hiatus, and the project has not only slowed down but also become less extreme and more atmospheric.

One of the key features defining the sound of the new full-length Aux enfants des ruines is the use of actual recordings of a children’s choir, performing parts reminiscent of Gregorian chants. In fact, the opportunity to use a children’s choir recording largely guided Vide, and while some of the release is framed by a flurry of familiar black metal misanthropy with a depressive edge, the main storyline of Aux enfants des ruines is almost a spiritual mass, a call to the outcasts, to the “children of ruins,” as the artist calls them.

An atheist, Hylgaryss sought to give the album an “ultra-religious atmosphere, steeped in Christian mysticism.” The album’s entire atmosphere revolves around children: the visuals, the sound, the lyrics, the sheer purity of the voices brings something unusually tender to the raw and melancholic black metal. So there were more than enough reasons to take a deeper view in Vide’s work with Hylgaryss himself. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BRINGERS OF DISEASE — “SULPHUR”

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Apr 232026
 

(written by Islander)

If you heard the Bringers of Disease debut EP Gospel Of Pestilence it’s unlikely you’ve easily forgotten the experience, even though it was released 15 years ago. But maybe you never came across it. In that case, what should quickly seize your attention for the band’s debut album Sulphur are the people who made it.

The lineup includes founding guitarist Jason Phillips (ex-Acheron) and original vocalist Logan Madison alongside Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, ex-Nachtmystium, ex-Wolvhammer), drummer Zack Simmons (Goatwhore, Acid Bath), and bassist Jon Woodring (ex-Usurper, Bones).

On top of that, the album also features guest guitars on “First Born Of The Dead” by Nate Garnett (Skeletonwitch) and on “Flowers Bloom From The Prophet’s Skull” by Sonny Reinhardt (Necrot), and guest vocals on “Sacred Heart Of The Abyss” by Ben Falgoust (Goatwhore, Soilent Green).

Now that we have your attention with that information — which is probably all the inducement any lover of metallic extremity really needs to dive into Sulphur — we’ll present a full stream of the album, on the eve of its release by Disorder Recordings. But in the extremely unlikely event that someone wants to know more before spending time with the album, here’s more. Continue reading »

MIRE – PALE REFLECTION

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Apr 232026
 

(Andy Synn closes out his week here at NCS with a name that hopefully some of you will recognise)

The term “Mandela Effect” refers to a mistaken but widely-held belief – originally that Nelson Mandela died in prison, but also more generally applied to such assertions as “the girl in Moonraker definitely had braces” (she didn’t) or “the Fruit of the Loom logo used to have a cornucopia in it” (nope) – that has entered the public consciousness, blurring the lines between what’s actually true and what we remember as being true.

Sure, some of these instances have a relatively prosaic explanation (it’s been shown several times that a run of knock-off or mis-printed “Fruit of the Loom” shirts did in fact use the alternate logo, but it was never officially put into circulation) but others have been ascribed to anything from “mass psy-op” to “glitches in the matrix”.

Why am I saying all this? Well, Colorado-based groovemongers Mire have their own Mandela Effect going on, because depending on how you remember things Pale Reflection is either their second or their third album.

The reason for this, of course, is that their “first” album, Shed, was taken offline not long after its release – Metal Archives still has it listed on the band’s profile page, and my own review is still online, but otherwise evidence of its existence is relatively sparse (though it can, with a bit of searching, still be tracked down on Spotify) – and its six songs re-recorded as part of the band’s real debut, A New Found Rain, making Pale Reflection actually the band’s first album of totally new material since 2018.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CNOC AN TURSA — “A CRY FOR THE SLAIN”

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Apr 222026
 

(written by Islander)

For those of us who were electrified and bewitched by Cnoc An Tursa’s first two albums, The Giants of Auld (2013) and The Forty Five (2017), the wait for something more from these Scots has brought its fair share of woe, because the wait has been so long. But even though it’s rarely true that all good things come to those who wait, something exceptionally good has at last arrived from Cnoc An Tursa, a new album named A Cry for the Slain.

The album richly rewards the long-suffering patience of the band’s fans. As their label Apocalyptic Witchcraft describes (and as we might have expected) it is “an evocative tribute to the history, the folklore, the unique magic of their homeland,” a compendium of songs “that bring together mourning and defiance, mystery and fear, pride and passion.” The band themselves have said:

“With this new album we feel like we are going back to our roots with a more guitar-driven style and bringing back some of the folk elements musically and lyrically which was the original inspiration for the band.”

Of course, we have thoughts of our own to share about the album (many of them), though the main purpose of this feature is to provide the chance for you to hear it in its entirety in advance of its release on April 24th by Apocalyptic Witchcraft. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GRAVES FOR GODS

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Apr 222026
 

(In late January of this year Meuse Music released the second album from the Australian doom/death metal band Graves for Gods, and that prompted our Comrade Aleks to contact them for a second interview — and here it is.)

Three years ago we interviewed Graves for Gods. Jak Shadows (Voices of Doom) and Matt Spencer (Resonant Strings) told a story behind the band’s debut album The Oldest Gods, and they mentioned that the music for their second full-length was already written. It took more time than anyone might have expected, yet here’s Graves for Gods’ sophomore album Last Light Fades, released earlier this year. As you understand, there was no chance to miss a moment and talk to these two guys again. Continue reading »

PORTRAYAL OF GUILT: “…BEGINNING OF THE END”

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Apr 212026
 

(Here we present Wil Cifer’s review of a new album by Texas-based Portrayal of Guilt, which will be released on April 24th by Run For Cover.)

If you had to ask me what band would be the future of heavy music, I would say Portrayal of Guilt. They are not hampered by being tied to any sub-genre. They are forward-thinking, rather than being bolted to the nostalgia of an era, no aspirations to recreate ’90s Tampa or Bergen. Their album We Are Always Alone stands as a masterpiece that this band’s work is measured against. After releasing that album, they pushed themselves to sonic extremes, and …Beginning of the End finds them pushing themselves into a more experimental direction, while making music that might resonate the most with larger, more mainstream metal audiences without compromising who they are. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVOID OF THOUGHT – “DEVOID OF THOUGHT”

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Apr 212026
 

(Andy Synn has his own thoughts about an album which is far from devoid of them)

I wasn’t supposed to be writing this article.

I’m serious… it wasn’t until yesterday when I name-checked this Italian Death Metal battalion in another review that Islander slid into my DMs to inform me that we had this premiere scheduled (which gives you some insight into the well-polished and highly-professional outfit we’re running here) and to ask whether I’d like to take a run at writing the accompanying review.

Luckily he caught me in the mood for even more weird, mind-warping Metal… which is exactly what Devoid of Thought have delivered on their long-gestating, highly-anticipated, self-titled second album.

Continue reading »

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