AN NCS PREMIERE: WHARFLURCH — “HEADLESS GOD”

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Aug 242026
 

(written by Islander)

Time flies when you’re having fun. It still flies when life looks like sheer hell, with nothing but more hell to come and no way of stopping the misery.

More than two years have flown by since we last commented about the music of the Florida-based death/doom band Wharflurch. The occasion then was a compilation forthrightly named Shittier/Slimier, which collected previously unreleased Wharflurch demos that showcased the more experimental and psychedelic side of the project. Commenting on just one song from it, we wrote:

“It’s more impressive than you might expect based upon the new album’s name. Sure, it’s foul and gross, with monstrous reverb-ed vocals, but also brutish and crazed, capable of triggering muscle reflexes and of spawning ghoulish visions. When the band slow down, that’s when you really feel like you’re being dragged by your hair into a stinking cesspool, and the feverish lead-guitar sounds like it’s gleefully reveling in your agony.”

Time has flown, and now we come back to Wharflurch, expecting both more fun and more hell. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DECONSTRUCTING SEQUENCE — “THE UNDYING VOID”

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Aug 242026
 

(written by Islander)

Last November Black Lion Records released a second album by Deconstructing Sequence named Tenebris Cosmicis Tempora. The band had been formed in the UK by Tiberius, but he relocated to Szczecin, Poland, and began shaping a new creative direction for the band that’s now manifested through this new album.

The new album leans much further into black metal than the debut album, Cosmic Progression: An Agonizing Journey Through the Oddities of Space (which we reviewed here), but also pushes even further forward into the progressive and avant-garde territories explored in that debut. As Black Lion summarized:

Tenebris Cosmicis Tempora blends the furious riffing of Mayhem, the majestic elements of DHG and Emperor, and the haunting depth of Akhlys, forging a journey through idiosyncratic sound and vision.

Tiberius recorded the album with new drummer Dark Soul and also recruited a new lineup for live performances. As an explosive reminder of what Tenebris Cosmicis Tempora encompasses, today we’re premiering a striking video for an unhinged and thoroughly heart-hammering song from the album named “The Undying Void“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TODOMAL

 Interviews  1 Response »
Aug 242026
 

(Earlier this year our Comrade Aleks interviewed Javier Fernández Milla, one of the two members of the Spanish doom metal band TodoMal. Today we present an English translation of that very good discussion. TodoMal’s newest album Graveyards of Joy was released on July 3rd by Season of Mist, and we reviewed it, along with their two previous albums, here.)

We simply couldn’t ignore the third album by the Spanish band TodoMal, Graveyards of Joy. While their second release, A Greater Good, clearly showcased innovative, luxurious doom metal with the global cinematic backdrop and emotional vibe of Anathema in the late ’90s, today the band’s founders Javier Fernández Milla and Christopher B. Wildman have taken a step beyond that. TodoMal’s new material sets a new standard for melodic, still-heavy doom music, laced with a genuine sadness and an ineradicable humanity.

What is this doom with a human face about? I believe Javier will answer that question, too. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ENSLAVED, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, FIRTAN, URNA, SELENOPLEXIA, STOFLONG

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Aug 232026
 


Enslaved – photo by Chantik Photography

(written by Islander)

I’ve been knocked askew by a bout of forgetfulness. Yesterday I forgot that I’d committed to join my spouse at an event that lasted all afternoon and into the evening. I also forgot another commitment I’d made for later this morning; I don’t always check my calendar on Sundays, and it’s a good thing I did today.

Anyway, because of those two forgettings I was left with not enough time to get this Sunday’s column done. But it pains me to leave nothing here for people who make a habit of dropping by on Sundays, so I decided to do something I’m not sure I’ve ever done before; if I have, it’s a rare occurrence.

What I’m doing is just embedding streams of a handful of new songs (the first three accompanied by excellent videos) that I want to recommend, plus a recent EP, without any commentary of my own and only bare-bones info about the releases.

It bothers me to do this. It bothers me even though I have no idea how many listeners actually read what I write, versus just punching the Play buttons. But it would bother me more to do nothing at all. So, here you go (and please feel free to leave your own commentary in place of mine): Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BLACK ROYAL, MOTHER OF GRAVES, ANAGNORISIS, OFFERNAT, STATIC ABYSS, LACONIST

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Aug 222026
 

(written by Islander)

My short vacation which spanned last weekend prevented me from writing both this Saturday column and the usual one on Sunday. So for today I had two weeks’ worth of possibilities to choose among, along with many more on my list from previous weeks. Deciding what to recommend is always difficult, but today’s decisions were monumentlly difficult. That will be true for tomorrow’s column as well.

I think I’m best advised to cut this introduction short and get right into the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HAINTGROVE — “I DREAM IN A TONGUE I CANNOT SPEAK”

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Aug 212026
 

(written by Islander)

On Juneteenth (June 19) Texas-based Haintgrove released “Starless Passage“, the project’s debut single and first track from a forthcoming album. I paid attention in part because I’m originally from Texas and spent nearly half my life there before moving to the Pacific Northwest, but mainly because of the song’s inspiration and lyrical themes, which Haintgrove described as follows:

“Starless Passage” serves as the opening chapter of a larger concept centered on the experiences of enslaved Africans in the colonial South. Rather than presenting history as a straightforward narrative, the project approaches it through atmosphere, landscape, memory, and emotional perspective. Coastal shorelines, flooded forests, forgotten crossings, and the natural world itself play a central role in the music’s identity.

The song proved to be quite impressive — and I’ll re-share my thoughts about it before we reach the end of this article, but the main subject is a second single from Haintgrove that we’re premiering today (along with a captivating video), a song called “I Dream in a Tongue I Cannot Speak“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DETHRASHED — “AVARITIA”

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Aug 212026
 

(written by Islander)

As their name suggests, Dethrashed are a death/thrash band. Having been founded just last year in Tbilisi, Georgia, they’re a new group (and a young one), but they’ve wasted no time in showing listeners what they can do. They independently released their debut album Existence Under Pressure in May of this year, and they’ve already got a second one waiting on the launch pad.

The name of their second album is The Weight Of The Vortex, and it will be released by Satanath Records on October 20th. To help spread the word, today we’re premiering a song from the album called “Avaritia“.

The label has given us this description of the album’s lyrical themes: Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: PSYCROPTIC AND RIVERS OF NIHIL — MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, AUGUST 15, 2026

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Aug 212026
 

(Our Australia-based contributor Tør is back with us today, providing a report on a show in Melbourne last weekend headlined by Psycroptic and Rivers of Nihil. He also provided a lot of good photos that we’re also sharing with you to help commemorate the experience of a great show.)

I almost miss the entire show because of a longer-than-usual day at work. By the time I arrive at Max Watts in downtown Melbourne, locals Growth and Sydney’s Slaughtercult have already finished most of their sets. As I get my wristband and descend the stairs to the main stage, I catch the final seconds of Slaughtercult. The room is already charged. I head straight to the bar, grab a beer, and make my way into the crowd.

Then Rivers of Nihil take the stage. Continue reading »

YOU’RE NOT HARDCORE UNLESS YOU LIVE HARDCORE: CHICO / DEAD TIRED / R.O.S.A.

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Aug 202026
 

(Andy Synn is a punk rocker… yes he is… for today, at least)

There’s been some interesting discourse – and for once I do actually mean “interesting” and not “irritating” – about the difference, if there is one, between the terms “Hardcore” and “Hardcore Punk”, and what the use of either (or both) of these terms says about the person using them.

You see, even as someone who prefers their Hardcore on the more “Metallic” side (including a lot of the current wave of Death Metal/Hardcore crossover) it feels like the “Punk” side of the scene is getting a little boxed-out (with one or two large exceptions, of course) in favour of breakdowns, beatdowns, and chunky-chuggery.

Purely by coincidence, however, I recently stumbled across a trio of albums that definitely err more towards the punkier end of the spectrum, and it’s these I want to talk about today.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BOÖTES VOID — “PANTA RHEI”

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Aug 202026
 

(written by Islander)

On September 4th Vendetta Records will release a new album named Panta Rhei by the German black metal band Boötes Void. It follows a demo (The Alder’s Sleep), an EP (Alders Heresy) and two previous albums (C.O.L.D. and Singularity).

As disclosed on Metal-Archives (and probably elsewhere), the band took their name from “a region of space hundreds of millions of light-years in diameter and containing very few galaxies, also known as a supervoid”. And yet their new album is based upon the surviving writings of the vastly influential pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus.

It is a very interesting concept, and an unusual one as the inspirational basis for black metal, and so we want to share Boötes Void’s statement about it before we get to the main focus of this feature — our premiere of the new album’s title song, which includes guest vocals by Lukas Gosch (Ellende). Continue reading »

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