SYLOSIS: “THE NEW FLESH”

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Feb 182026
 

(We welcome back one of our early writers, TheMadIsraeli, and his review of a new album by Sylosis that’s due for release on February 20th by Nuclear Blast.)

It’s been a long while hasn’t it? More than six years by my count and I’ve been checked out as a music enthusiast for most of it. I won’t go into why, but I’m ready to come back and talk about some sick metal records, and starting my return to NCS with a Sylosis record feels about as appropriate for me as it gets. Before we get to talking about The New Flesh we ought to talk about my history with this band.

I discovered them all the way back when their debut full-length Conclusion Of An Age had just come out, and it blew me away. The commitment to mixing modern metalcore conventions and melodic vocal hooks with an extremely technical and precise thrash approach in the vein of Forbidden, Metallica, Testament, and the like really spoke to me, and it kept me hooked.

Sylosis is an all-time favorite band of mine. Edge Of The Earth is one of modern metal’s ALL TIME GREATEST records. I am a fanboy for this band, a simp, and an admirer as a guitarist of Josh Middleton and his commitment as a composer to keeping things melodic, technical, and deep. UNTIL that is, Cycle Of Suffering. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LESOTHO — “A FLASHING ON PLAIN GLASS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 182026
 

(written by Islander)

Just two days ago we hosted the premiere of an instrumental metal song by Utah-based Osmium Gate. We concluded the introduction by proclaiming, “It really is one of those songs that’s so emotionally evocative, so viscerally soul-stirring in its impact, that vocals are unnecessary, and indeed would have risked distraction from all the other marvels had they been present.” Coincidentally, we’re now premiering another instrumental metal song, this time from the other side of our continent, and the same impression holds for this one: You won’t miss the vocals at all.

What we have for you today is the title song for A Flashing on Plain Glass, the intriguingly named forthcoming third album from the Boston-based instrumental post-metal trio Lesotho. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MARLUGUBRE — “SHE NIGH HIS DEATH”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 182026
 

(written by Islander)

By definition, “concept albums” are based upon narratives or themes that connect the songs. Most often, the concepts are represented lyrically. Often, the lyrics are written independently of the music, even after much of the music has already been written. Although listening to the riffs and melodies might inspire the lyricist’s development of concepts, sometimes there may be no evident connection at all between an album’s “conceptual framework” and what the songs sound like.

Which brings us to a new concept album by the Italian artist Marlugubre. The name of the album is Per Amor Nymphae, and as that title signifies (it translates to “Through the Love of the Nymphs”), the songs are based upon the mythical figures of nymphs. Deeply rooted in Greek mythology, the songs include tales of the primordial figure of Nyx from Hesiod’s Theogony, of Chloris, of the tragic myth of Scylla and Glaucus, and of perhaps the even more tragic story of Orpheus and Eurydice — which is the subject of the song from Per Amor Nymphae that we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s February 27 release by Dusktone. Continue reading »

KILLING PACE – HCPM

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Feb 182026
 

(Andy Synn burns down genre boundaries with the new album from Killing Pace)

Did you know that I did my disseration on the concept of “categorical perception”?

In particular I was looking at the ways in which your (for want of a better term) perspective – dictated by your social, cultural, and even geographical, influences – affects your perception of things like language (specifically speech sounds), colour, and more.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, it’s because the way we categorise sub-genres also seems to follow a lot of the rules of “categorical perception”

Let’s face it, Death Metal that becomes increasingly more “blackened” until turns into “Blackened Death Metal” can easily just tip over into straight up Black Metal (and vice versa)… Hardcore combined with Metal becomes “Metallic Hardcore”, which in turn, at some point, becomes “Metalcore” (a term which itself means different things to different people, depending on their background and history), and so on…- to the point where even if the sonic spectrum appears pretty continuous we generally choose to draw some pretty hard lines and separate it into discrete little areas, if only to help us more easily manage the sheer wealth of music we’re exposed to.

But what’s really interesting about all that – to me, anyway – is the fact that while these sub-genre categories can be a useful tool, sometimes how you choose to categorise a band says more about you than them.

Which, of course, brings us to the new album from self-declared “Hardcore Punk Metal” crew Killing Pace.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): STRUP — “ABYSSURGE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 172026
 

(written by Islander)

The labels Rotted Life and Gurgling Gore have joined forces for the first time in a collaborative release of a debut album named Abyssurge by the Ukrainian band Strup, with a street date of February 20th. They describe the band as “a death grind assault unit blending the surgical brutality of death metal with the speed, chaos, and ferocity of grindcore”.

That description is true, but doesn’t completely capture all the musical ingredients of Abyssurge. Most prominently, Strup’s music is also hideously foul and abysmal as well as maniacally furious and brutally bludgeoning.

But you’ll soon see this for yourselves, because today we’re premiering a full stream of this Kyiv band’s debut — preceded (of course) by our own more detailed thoughts about what you’re about to encounter. Continue reading »

CRYPTID SPAWN: “BLACK PHOSPHOROUS DUNGEON”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 172026
 

(We present Todd Manning’s enthusiastic review of a debut EP by Singapore-based Cryptid Spawn, released at the end of January by Iron Lung Records.)

When it comes to vicious hardcore punk, d-beat, and grind records, the label Iron Lung Records reigns supreme. However, it is rare that they release anything that falls more firmly in the metal camp. So when they do put something out that is unquestionably metal, it is something to take notice of. Such is the case with Black Phosphorous Dungeon, the new EP by Cryptid Spawn.

When we say that Cryptid Spawn is undeniably metal, we aren’t talking about Judas Priest, not that there would be anything wrong with that. Cryptid Spawn’s leather-gloved hands are sticky with the DNA of the darkest extreme metal forebears. Think early Bathory, Blasphemy, Sarcófago, and Hellhammer. “Gods of the Grim and Dismal World” shows how they are able to blend the relentless blur of war metal with actual, discernible riffs, the song held together by a primitive but memorable chord progression. The vocals spew blasphemous phlegm in the best possible way, and when the guitars slow down partway through the song, the riff is the best combination of death metal crawl and sludge-ridden filth.It’s an auspicious beginning to a short but devastating release. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: GLASSBONE / KANONENFIEBER / MUDTOOTH

 SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 172026
 

(Andy Synn has three more bite-sized blasts of brutality to share with you today)

As we all know, short-form releases (splits, EPs, and the like) tend to get the… ahem… short end of the stick when it comes to coverage (especially amongst the larger and/or more mainstream publications, who tend to prioritise full length albums, for obvious reasons).

Last year, however, I managed to reverse this trend a little, covering more EPs than I did the year before that… and in 2026 I’m hoping to continue expanding our coverage of releases best described as “short but sweet”.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORS.VOID.DISCIPLINE — “SANGUINEM IN ANUM CAPRAE PUTRESCENTIS EIACULANS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 162026
 

(written by Islander)

Take it from someone who’s been struggling to write about music for 16+ years: It’s not easy to capture sounds in words, or to represent how they alter feelings and inspire the imagination without running afoul of triteness or tedium. A humbling challenge to be sure, but even more humbling when we run across the prose of the honcho behind Sentient Ruin Laboratories. Here, as a pertinent example, is an excerpt from the label’s linguistic preview of an album that’s the source of a song we’re about to premiere:

Chilean bestial goregrind terror-cult Mors.Void.Discipline emerge from the bottomless dungeons of South America’s extreme metal underground with their debut full-length monstrosity Txketh)ëké, a twenty-minute obfuscation of terror-spawning bestial war metal destruction swathed in the flesh-eating violence and maggot-infested putridity of 90’s goregrind.

Cryptic and malignant beyond thresholds comprehensible to man, Txketh)ëké projects forth a cancerous aural perversion in which the war-mongering assaults of Blasphemy collide with early Carcass’ mangled and deconstructed sonic butchery. Its astonishing hideousness and violence are not only shaped by its unequivocal descendancy, but further complexed by the peculiar antediluvian and occult aura historically permeating Chile’s underground scene, as well as by the band’s enigmatic inner workings and imagination harvesting perversions from beyond the reach of sanity.

You see? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OSMIUM GATE — “WATERS OF NATRON”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 162026
 

(written by Islander)

We are genuinely thrilled today to introduce you to Osmium Gate, a two-person instrumental metal band “forged in the shadows of Salt Lake City, Utah”. Those two people are guitarist/bassist Drew Ehrgott, known for his work in Reverence Of The Martyr, and drummer Rene Gomez, “whose percussive presence reverberates through Ibex Throne, Yaotl Mictlan, and his bass work in Pan-Amerikan Native Front.”

Osmium Gate was formed in December 2024, and they now have a debut album named Cannibal Galaxy set for release on March 13th. We’ll share these further words from the press materials we’ve received, already excerpted above: Continue reading »

CONVERGE: “LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 162026
 

(Last Friday Converge released their new album Love Is Not Enough, and below you’ll find Wil Cifer’s thoughts about it.)

It is always an exercise in objectivity when you are reviewing one of your favorite bands. For me, they are under more scrutiny as they set my expectations high, leaving me with certain boxes to check off as I am listening. The larger their catalog, the more expectations their legacy has built.

I am not surprised that the hyper-aggression of Boston hardcore legends Converge has endured, now 11 albums into their career. Their new album does find it being refined and often being more of an Entombed-like stomp. There are some thoughts on the idea that seem to be stuck on the chaos of what they do, but in truth, compared to albums like When Forever Comes Crashing, it is a much more streamlined effort that is more accessible to a larger metal audience. Continue reading »

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