THE SYNN REPORT (PART 197): OSTRACA

 THE SYNN REPORT  No Responses »
Aug 012026
 

Recommended for fans of: Orchid, Envy, (early) Deafheaven

What’s in a (genre) name?

Well, quite a lot – to some people, anyway – it seems, as picking the wrong genre tag for a band will mean some potential listeners might choose not to check out their music, under the wrong impression that it’s “not for them”.

Which is why I have to be careful when talking about Virginia’s Ostraca and their chaotic, cathartic, blast-driven, discordantly-heavy (yet also bleakly melodic) brand of Screamo/Hardcore/Crust.

If you’re not familiar with those terms, or if you think you’re familiar with them but not sure if this article is worth checking out, then allow me to assure you that the records highlighted here today – five albums (including the recently-released Thread) plus one EP (that I’ve already written about, as it happens) – are each, in their own way, as vicious and as visceral, as venomous and as violent, as anything else from the more “metallic” side of the scene, and all more than worthy of your time.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MINDVILE — “BITE BY BITE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 312026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we’re helping announce that the black/death metal band Mindvile (Spain/U.S.) have signed with Satanath Records (Georgia) and Paragon Records (U.S.)  for the release of their debut album, Old Continent, scheduled for September 25th.

The album is described as “the first chapter of “Stories No Tongue Should Tell“, a planned five-album conceptual series exploring real cases of human cruelty and depravity from different regions of the world,” with each release focusing on a specific continent and presenting “stories inspired by real individuals whose actions have left a lasting mark on society.”

In other words, rather than root their narratives in fantasies, Mindvile’s depiction of horror focuses “on real people, real crimes, and the psychological corruption that transforms human beings into monsters.”

As for the music, we have a first taste today in our premiere of a song off the debut album called “Bite for Bite“. Here’s the band’s comment about this song: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VEILCASTE — “CHAINS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 312026
 

(written by Islander)

The Indianapolis doom/sludge band Veilcaste took shape in 2010 under the name Conjurer, adopted their current name in 2020, and continued surging forward on their mission to crush the life out of listeners. With two albums released as Conjurer and three more as Veilcaste, they’ve assembled a very impressive (and very heavy) discography.

Now the band are moving toward the discharge of their fourth album as Veilcaste. The name of the new one is Hellward, and it’s set for release on September 4th. What we have for you today is the premiere of “Chains“, the third single from the album to emerge so far. It follows “Embedded“, which we premiered last April, and “Altar of Ecstasy“, which came out on July 10th. Continue reading »

FILLER

 Off Topic  1 Response »
Jul 312026
 


artwork by Albin Brunovsky

(written by Islander)

I don’t exactly remember when or why we fell into the pattern we have here for how the posting day goes, but the pattern is that we try to post a first thing at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (where I am) and follow that with two more posts, or sometimes three, an hour apart. The 7 a.m. posts tend to be written by other folks around here. On days when we have two premieres (like today), I try to get those up at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., which seems to work well because about half our audience is in North America and about half in the UK and Europe.

Today I didn’t have anything in hand for the 7 a.m. slot, hence this “filler” post. We will have those two premieres coming up, and of course I think both the songs are very good or we wouldn’t be messing with them.

And since I’m here and not writing about music, I might as well let you know that this weekend at NCS will likely be different from most weekends. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TEMPLE WITCH — “MAKER’S BREATH”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 302026
 

(written by Islander)

We are very happy to welcome the doom metal band Temple Witch to our pages for the first time (and we think you’ll be happy about it too). They’re a trio based in Kent, Ohio and have released two albums so far, 2021’s Hand in Hand with Chaos and 2024’s Ocean Thousand, Mountain Thousand.

They also have a third album on the way now, one named Veiling the Void, and we’re helping introduce it by premiering a great video for a viscerally compelling song off the album named “Maker’s Breath“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NOVAE MILITIAE — “ABYSSAL DOMINION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we assist Serpent Sun Records (UK) in announcing the new album Apocryphon Of The Unborn Light by the French satanic black metal band Novae Militiae. It will be released on September 18th and follows this mysterious band’s second album Topheth (2020) and their debut full-length Gash’khalah (2017). The label provides this ominous but intriguing description of the album’s conceptual framework:

Apocryphon of the Unborn Light presents itself as a revelation preceding all creation, where light itself has yet to be born, and where the order of the world already appears destined for its own dislocation. The album unfolds through a non-linear yet cyclical progression, where fall, knowledge and inversion intersect, within a vision where the end is not an outcome, but an original condition.

Each composition acts as a fragment within this whole, forming a coherent structure in which the visible and invisible frameworks of the world gradually fracture toward a point of rupture. Musically, the album is built upon a dark and incantatory form of black metal, alternating between extreme tension and more atmospheric passages, reinforcing an overall dynamic in which the distinction between creation and dissolution progressively dissolves, within a movement of dislocation confronting that which lies beyond.

As a first sign of what the album brings to listeners, today we’re premiering a song aptly named “Abyssal Dominion“. Continue reading »

SABERTOOTH – BLESSING RAGE

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jul 302026
 

(Andy Synn is back with a recommendation from the Indonesian underground today)

It’s perhaps not entirely surprising to note that the majority of bands we write about tend to be located on one of two continents, Europe or North America.

That’s not to say we don’t try our best to cover bands from other locales – though, as of yet, I don’t think we’ve ever written about any bands from Antarctica – but the fact that two of the three core members of the NCS crew are based in the USA, and the other one (me) is based in the UK (which are also the two places we get most of our audience from), means these are the areas which we get the most exposure to.

Of course, the counterpoint to that is we probably should be making more of an effort to cover bands from further afield – and, all credit to him, Islander already does a pretty damn good job with all his various round-ups of new releases from around the globe – which is why today we’re travelling to Indonesia to take in the sights and sounds and savage riffery of Metallic Hardcore crew Sabertooth.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ORBSTRUCT — “A DECADE OF TRANSCENDENCE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 292026
 

(written by Islander)

This is the tenth year of existence for Orbstruct, the blackened death metal band founded in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and later driven by war to a new home in Poland. During that decade Orbstruct has released three albums, the most recent of which (Ostracism) dropped last year.

To mark this year’s milestone anniversary, Orbstruct performed a live show this past May at the Hype Park Club in Kraków, a show that featured nine songs selected by the band from across their three albums, creating a convergence of their past and present.

Orbstruct’s performance was captured in a recording that will be digitally released under the title A Decade of Transcendence on July 30. It was also captured on film — and today we present that video of this commemorative show. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAHATY — “SCORCHED BENEATH THE SOLAR SEAL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 292026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we help spread the news that in August Sentient Ruin Laboratories will release the debut album of Rahaty — the one-man death metal side-project of Belarusian black metal act and musician Pa Vesh En — and we’re also premiering the album’s first advance track, “Scorched Beneath the Solar Seal“.

Sentient Ruin’s proprietor always presents vividly evocative descriptions of the label’s music, and has done so again in the case of Rahaty’s first release:

Here proclaimed with its debut album Bestial Lustmord is an unholy conquest within death metal’s most pestilent drift. Putrid atmospheres drenched in sickness. Downpours of death-reeking riffs collapsing into mangled, deformed aberrations. A tectonic rhythm section rupturing into seismic deflagrations, and a bestial vocal regurgitation retching obscenities through the disemboweled carcass of oblivion.

Other descriptions of the record provided by the label include such adjectives as “deranged”, “enigmatic”, “violent”, and “gruesome”. Of course, we have a few descriptors of our own to offer in preparation for your submission to the song we’re about to present. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRALLICE, BEASTLOR, SEKTION VASORÉ

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 282026
 

(written by Islander)

I only had one song premiere to prepare for today and nothing else for us to share with you besides the review from Andy that opened our day. So I impetuously decided to pull together this roundup of new music.

The first two choices attracted my attention because their overlapping lineups include people who I think it’s fair to say are luminaries among discerning metal listeners, those of us who search for more than “the same old, same old”. These artists’ creative interests and impulses also often lead them in unexpected directions, so there was an important intrigue factor in making the choices.

The third choice was much more impulsive. I just decided to listen to the music of the last band to e-mail us yesterday, a band with no reputation I knew of, and only two demo songs to their name. I’m so glad I yielded to that impulse, and I hope you will be too. Continue reading »

 Older Entries