AN NCS PREMIERE: BEWARE OF GODS — “SECONDARY DROWNING”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 112026
 

(written by Islander)

“BEWARE OF GODS!” With little doubt, someone has been yelling that warning ever since human beings first conceived of divinities, but with little apparent success. The Minneapolis-based project whose music is the subject of this premiere brandishes that warning in its very name, while simultaneously crafting mythic lyrical and musical narratives that seem to teach other lessons as well — often in exceedingly scary terms.

We’ve had occasion to spread the word about Beware of Gods before, but a few reminders are probably worthwhile. It’s the solo project of a creator known as The Archetype, and has been devoted to the unfolding of a mythos centered on a protagonist called I Nomad — a dystopian cosmic mythos too be sure, but one that provides a mirror to quite human experiences of personal collapse, addiction, and rebirth, influenced by The Archetype’s own near-death experience and long recovery.

The latest Beware of Gods record is Behead the Oracle, the third and final installment in a musical arc named Upon Whom The Last Light Descends, and it’s set for release on July 10th by Invoke Records. As the label explains, it “completes a sprawling narrative about false prophets, algorithmic gods, and the collapse of meaning in a hyper-controlled future.” Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRIPPLE BASTARDS — “LA TUA FOTO SUL MARMO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 112026
 

(written by Islander)

It’s not valid to summarize the attractions of extreme metal in a word or two. The experiences are too varied. At one end, it can feel like the oppressive pressure of the ocean in the deepest trenches. It can also be mysterious and mesmerizing, or profoundly spiritual. But perhaps the greatest attraction derives from its explosive intensity, its raging nature, the furious violence it’s capable of channeling. And in those aspects it’s probably true that no sub-genre captures the heat or provides that kind of catharsis better than grindcore.

I have friends for whom grind is their meat and potatoes, the rushing red blood of what they listen to. I have other friends that barely have any use for it. Not enough hooks, not enough changes, not enough atmosphere, not enough groove to propel the banging of heads, the songs not long enough to sink in. I’m still going to urge those friends (and you) to hear what we’re premiering today, for reasons I’m about to explain.

What you have in front of you is La tua foto sul marmo, a new EP from Cripple Bastards that’s set for release on June 12th – tomorrow! – by F.O.A.D. Records. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ECOTAGE / MELTING / RATS WILL FEAST

 SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 112026
 

(Andy Synn presents three short-but-savage examples of the Metallic Hardcore arts)

Ok, I’ll admit it, I’ve been neglecting the short-play side of the scene again

So today I’m going to shine a light on three hefty pieces of Hardcore – of the more Metallic variety, naturally – whose brief run-time still packs one hell of a punch.

And then, if you’re lucky, I’ll follow up with a more Death Metal focussed one next week, deal?

Continue reading »

ASYLUM TX: “CULTUS INOXIA”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 112026
 

(This is DGR’s review of the latest album from a Fort Worth band who now call themselves Asylum TX.)

Texas-based tech-death group Asylum – now operating under the name Asylum TX – are a band we’ve been following for some time now, iInitially as a group that showed a surprising amount of promise from seemingly out of nowhere in the death metal world, but then afterward because the group’s music kept making strange twists and turns.

Where Asylum TX were looking to take their music was not something we would have expected or guessed. 2021’s Sharpen, for instance, is a lengthy album that treads the line between tech-death and something more amateurishly explorative of various forms of hallucinogens. It was an hour-plus worth of music that felt like a group of stellar musicians who had fallen into a weird Alex Grey by way of Tool rabbit hole and then taking the wildest swing at making a death metal album about it. Prior EPs and their 2017 album Psalms Of Paralysis had been more straightforward in that regard, as Asylum bore the marks of more than one Cattle Decapitation-influenced twist on their sound.

Five years removed from Sharpen, however, and Asylum – again, wearing a new visage as Asylum TX – once again sound as if they’re a completely different band who’ve come up with something far more angular in its approach than a traditional tech-death release for their newest album Cultus Inoxia. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AGONIA BLACK VOMIT — “TENEBRE E SANGUE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 102026
 

(written by Islander)

The last time we premiered music here from the Italian black metal band Agonia Black Vomit, in the run-up toward their second album Cosmosatanic Wisdom in 2017, we focused on how surprising the songs were, and how significantly they varied from each other in their sounds and moods — much more varied (and melodically rich) than one might have expected after seeing the band’s music simply categorized as “raw antichristian black metal” (not to mention their name)

Since then Agonia Black Vomit (which has been the solo work of Agonia) released another album — The Burning Noise of Satanic Annihilation — in 2023, and in July the fourth one will be co-released by Symbol Of Domination and WP Productions. The name of this one is Satanic Rites For The Undead.

Obviously, the band’s antichristian and unholy lyrical bent hasn’t changed at all, but the music is still multi-faceted, as you’ll discover for yourselves through the song we’re premiering today with a video, “Tenebre e Sangue“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERALIA — “BALLATA AVERNALE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 102026
 

(written by Islander)

Some metal albums are essentially collections of singles, songs that don’t have any thematic connection to each other. Others are “concept” albums, in which the songs have their place in some unifying pre-conceived vision by the artist(s), whether lyrical or musical or both. Such concepts might be relatively simple or not terribly distinctive, while others really stand out as the product of careful thought about unfamiliar subjects.

The new album Ultima Requies by the Italian black metal band Feralia falls into the latter category. Press materials circulated by ATMF (the label that will release the record later this month) describe the album as one “drawing from arcane and occult dimensions tied to the archaic Roman world,” in which “each composition unfolds as a passage, evoking forgotten rites, liminal states and the tension between life and death, presence and absence.”

Even the album’s frightening cover art fits into the narrative. To quote again from the press materials:

The artwork of Ultima Requies [depicts] a reinterpretation of the necromantic ritual of Erichto, the Thessalian witch described in De Bello Civili by Lucan. A figure feared even by the gods, Erichto was said to raise fallen soldiers from the battlefield during one of the most turbulent phases of Roman civil war. This imagery embodies the album’s core: a confrontation with death not as an end, but as a threshold to forbidden knowledge. Continue reading »

KHEMMIS – KHEMMIS

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 102026
 

(Andy Synn girds himself to take on the epic new album from Khemmis, set for release this Friday)

Self-titling an album is always a bold move.

After all, what it says to an audience… for better or worse… is “this is the definitive version of who we are“.

It stands to reason, then, that self-titling an album when you’re already more than a decade into your career, with four other incredibly successful records already under your collective belt, is an even bolder move.

Because it doesnt’t just say “this is who we are“, it also says “this is what we’ve been building to all this time“.

So let’s see exactly what Khemmis have been building, shall we?

Continue reading »

FORTRESS FESTIVAL 2026 – MAY 30-MAY 31, SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND – DAY 1

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 102026
 

(Below you’ll find Daniel Barkasi’s extensive report on the first day of Fortress Festival 2026 in England, accompanied by his great own photos. His report on Day Two lies ahead.)

Intro:

When one has an incredible experience, it’s only natural to chase that down to re-experience it again. My experience at Fortress Festival last year without doubt qualifies – a festival that was built from the ground up to provide something unique, and now in its fourth iteration, Fortress has become a destination for many that they simply can’t miss. Yours truly obviously can be tossed into that categorization, as here we are, ready for our second helping of black metal insanity.

With this mind-boggling lineup, how could we not come back? Continue reading »

THE UNDERGROUND IN CHINA: 10 UNDERGROUND EXTREMITIES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jun 092026
 

(In 2021 Ryan Dyer made his NCS debut touting the insanity of one-man bands in China, followed that by trumpeting the destructiveness of Calgary’s Whorrify, and then returned to the Chinese scene with a review of an EP by Horror of Pestilence. After an extended absence he’s back, and again focused on the Chinese underground.)

The Underground in China: Metal, Punk, Hardcore and Noise (2013-2021) showcases bands across the spectrum of genres in China. I have handpicked ten of the more extreme bands found within the book to showcase here. To learn about 90+ more, pick up The Underground in China, releasing on June 12 via Earth Island Books (see the link at the end of this feature). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: POX — “TO GREIFSWALD!”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 092026
 

(written by Islander)

As their name signifies, the Belgian black metal band Pox draw their inspiration from the history of plague and disease in northwestern Europe, but they also find inspiration in the obscure and often bleak folklore of the same region, more often than not connecting with pre-Christian archetypes and heathen concepts.

The music of Pox has been presented through a pair of EPs, a split with the Dutch band Heretic, and a live album. In July of this year they will have a new EP released by Void Wanderer Productions — their first new music in almost a decade. The name of the EP is B.K.W. — which stands for “Brass Knuckle Witchcraft“. Void Wanderer provides this description: Continue reading »

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