SEEN AND HEARD: BELL WITCH AND CULT OF ENDTIME

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 262015
 

 

I’ve finally reached what should be the last day of the project for my fucking day job that has kept me away from home for the last month and severely interfered with the all-important task of spilling my guts about metal on this site. I really can’t wait to get home.

I have a ton of new music to catch up on, but I probably won’t immediately dive back into blogging for a day or two since I also have about a thousand hours of sleep to catch up on, assuming my wife still recognizes me and will let me in the house.

I had a bit of free time this morning, so I pulled together this small round-up of music that grabbed me by the throat as I made a quick dash through the interhole looking for new songs.

BELL WITCH

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the time when a first advance track would emerge from Four Phantoms, the new album by Seattle’s Bell Witch, and it happened yesterday. The song is “Judgement, In Fire: I — Garden (Of Blooming Ash)”, the second of the album’s four long tracks (and at 10 minutes, it’s the shortest one). Here’s the complete track list: Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: CRAIG SMILOWSKI (RELLIK)

 Interviews  5 Responses »
Mar 262015
 

 

(In this latest installment of his “Get To the Point” series, KevinP poses 5 questions to drummer Craig Smilowski of Philadelphia’s Rellik, whose debut album Spiraling Infinite Chaos was released last week by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.)

K:   The band has been around since 1987, but never released any material until 2004.  Now, 11 years later, you are finally getting to your debut LP.  What the hell took so long?

C:  Well, as far as a full-length goes it’s just the way things turned out.  The band were all working different schedules and writing/rehearsing when possible.  And had quite a few member changes along the way.  Now with this established line-up, we have plenty of ideas coming in, which makes for better song writing. Continue reading »

THE GREAT OLD ONES / BAST / CONJURER – THE BLACK HEART, LONDON 21/03/15

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 262015
 

photo by Sinmara

(Andy Synn reviews the recent performances in London by The Great Old Ones, Bast, and Conjurer.)

Sometimes life hands you difficult choices. Case in point, Saturday I was torn between two fantastic shows down in old London town… Vader/Hate at The Underworld and The Great Old Ones at The Black Heart. What is a boy to do?

Seeing as how I selected Tekeli-li as one of my top 10 albums of last year (Critical Edition), and acknowledging the fact that I’ve seen both Vader and Hate before, I chose to plump for France’s acolytes of the great unknown, at the risk of my sanity and my very mortal soul.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A FREE DOWNLOAD): HELLEBORUS — “COILS”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 262015
 

 

Brothers Jerred and Wyatt Houseman were formerly members of a brutal death metal band from Colorado named Execration. They have turned their talents to a new project — Helleborus — which is the scientific name for a genus of beautiful but poisonous flowers that bloom in winter. Their debut album The Carnal Sabbath will be released later this year, and today we bring you the premiere of one of the album tracks — “Coils” — plus the chance to download it for free.

Helleborus is a departure from the brothers’  previous work in Execration. It’s a psychedelic black metal project created to explore themes of sexual mysticism, the Qabalah, and the Esoteric.  About “Coils” in particular, Wyatt Houseman explains: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OUTRE — “ARRIVAL”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Mar 252015
 

 

Following the release in 2013 of a debut EP (Tranquility) and a split with Thaw, Poland’s Outre will see the release of their debut album Ghost Chants next month. Today we bring you a first taste of this new work as we premiere its final track, “Arrival“.

The combination of piercing and groaning tones that introduce the song immediately fashion an atmosphere that’s both eerie and ominous. The titanic, distortion-drenched pounding and dynamic, deranged vocals that follow only deepen the sense of impending calamity, and when the song erupts in an explosion of jagged riffing and blasting drumbeats, the tension breaks and the threatened destruction becomes a reality. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BREEDING FILTH — “EXHIBIT OF PERVERTED LUNACY”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 252015
 

 

(Austin Weber presents our premiere of a song by Indiana’s Breeding Filth.)

While talking to Dawn of Dementia guitarist Derick Harshbarger recently, he mentioned to me that he is a part of another new group from Indiana called Breeding Filth, and that they were close to having a single drop. So we at NCS are now proud to help spread the word about them with the premiere of “Exhibit Of Perverted Lunacy”, the debut song from their upcoming full-length, Perverse Devolution.

Anyone who is a fan of Dawn of Dementia will easily dig “Exhibit Of Perverted Lunacy”, especially because of a similar melodic focus on sheer darkness and skull-crushing fury. Stylistically, Breeding Filth are different — they have a more brutal/slam character than Dawn Of Dementia — but there is still a fair bit of technical death metal riffing woven in. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO: FELL RUIN

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 242015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli introduces us to a band from the Detroit area named Fell Ruin.)

I found out about Fell Ruin through the vocalist from a Michigan band we’ve covered here, Scorned Deity. Brian Sheehan hit me up, wanting me to check out another project of his who’ve finally gotten to release their first bit of music after some time. I love Scorned Deity, so I thought I’d see what he was doing with Fell Ruin.

Fell Ruin are definitely worth your time. I can’t quite describe what they do, but in an attempt to give you an idea, I’ll say it’s basically blackened death grind doom sludge? I don’t even know. It’s riveting stuff though, and savage like a pack of feral hyenas. Continue reading »

ENSLAVED, YOB, ECSTATIC VISION, AND BELL WITCH: LIVE AT EL CORAZON (MARCH 11, 2015)

 Concert Reviews  8 Responses »
Mar 232015
 

(BadWolf brings us this review of a live performance in Seattle by Enslaved, YOB, Ecstatic Vision, and Bell Witch, with photos by Madison Leiren.)

My Wednesday evening at El Corazon on March the 11th was, in many ways, a redemption shot. I was there to see local Seattle funeral doom merchants Bell Witch, as well as Philadelphia’s uncategorizable Ecstatic Vision, Eugene Oregon’s doom wunderkinds YOB, and Norway’s progressive black metal institution Enslaved.

To begin, here is my list of grievances to be resolved that evening:

First, grievances with myself: Continue reading »

THEORIES: “REGRESSION”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 222015
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews the debut album by Seattle’s Theories, which will soon be released by Metal Blade Records.)

Of all metal, grind is often the style where one can really do no wrong as long as things are fast, ear-shatteringly loud, and brief in run-time. But naturally, those rare grind bands who write more interesting songs or who choose to reach outside their genre stylings and bring in other dimensions to their music are going to be the most interesting — which is exactly what Seattle-based Theories accomplish so brilliantly on their new full-length album, Regression. I love all grind, but what Theories have done so well on Regression is to produce a record that has a lot more intensity and replay value than most of their peers.

There isn’t a single song under two minutes on Regression, which is certainly a rarity for a grind band. Theories have a more intricate and densely composed sound than the average quick blasts of fury that populate their genre. Theories could be called deathgrind, but I would say their sound is along lines that are similar to Misery Index. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ZATOKREV, CRIMSON SWAN, HAMFERÐ, DEATHBLOW, KHROMA

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 212015
 

 

I’m about to enter the home stretch of the out-of-town project for my paying job that has been severely constricting my blog time. Four or five more days, and I’ll be done. Those remaining days are going to leave me with even less time to blog than I’ve had since the project started three weeks ago, so this morning I decided to carve out some time for one last round-up of new music before running the final gauntlet.

ZATOKREV

I discovered the Swiss band Zatokrev through their 2012 album The Bat, the Wheel and a Long Road to Nowhere, which turned out to be one of my favorite albums of that year. Their fourth album, Silk Spiders Underwater… is now finished and scheduled for released on April 13 by Candlelight Records. It is reported to be the first of a two-part conception and features artwork by Maks Loriot. Continue reading »

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