AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTARS OF GRIEF — “IN DYING LIGHT”

 Premieres  23 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

Exactly one week ago we had the pleasure of premiering for you a fantastic track by the band Nachtterror from their forthcoming split on the Hypnotic Dirge label with fellow Canadians Altars of Grief — and today we’re equally happy to stream for you one of the songs by Altars of Grief — “In Dying Light”.

Entitled Of Ash and Dying Light, the vinyl version of the split includes two songs by each band, and the digital version will also come with a bonus track by Altars of Grief and two bonus tracks from Nachtterror.

“In Dying Light” is a thoroughly engrossing piece of music, from the isolated opening guitar notes to the huge wave of sound that soon follows it, from the sweeping, exalted melody to the rippling, finger-tapped bass notes and gunshot drum beats, from the anguished snarls to the sombre clean vocals. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BEARSTORM — “AMERICANUS”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us the full streaming premiere of the new album by Bearstorm from Richmond, Virginia.)

Occasionally bands win the lottery, the stars line up perfectly, and you get a near-perfect band name and an idea for a sound that focuses on an as-yet-uncombined merger of musical styles. In such a rare moment, Richmond, Virginia-based Bearstorm was born.

Graced with more than an intriguing band name, Bearstorm are truly a whirlwind of creativity and gorgeous fury fused together in an inseparable union of awesomeness. Islander mentioned them in a post not too long ago, and so here we are with a full album stream to show you what this mindfucking new record called Americanus is all about. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SKINLESS — “BARBARIC PROCLIVITY”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

Of course, you’ve already grabbed a copy of the new Skinless album, Only the Ruthless Remain, and allowed it to gnaw off your leg, rupture your spleen, and rend your face into bloody tatters.

What’s that? You haven’t??? Well damn, maybe you need a little extra encouragement. We can arrange that. In fact we have arranged that, because we’re delivering right here, right now, a premiere of the band’s lyric video for the song “Barbaric Proclivity“, the title of which could hardly be a more apt description of what the song and the album exhibit, in spades. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ABNORMAL THOUGHT PATTERNS — “DISTORTION OF PERCEPTION”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song and video by Abnormal Thought Patterns.)

California-based Abnormal Thought Patterns are in my estimation one of a rare breed of astonishing instrumental metal acts deserving of praise and much more press, yet who are somehow among the least-mentioned instrumental groups (which I don’t understand). The last time I wrote about them here at NCS was when I put the band’s 2013 record, Manipulation Under Anesthesia, on my lengthy 2013 year-end list. Fortunately, the band have a new record to engage with and be enamored by called Altered States Of Consciousness, which comes out June 26th through Lifeforce Records. Ahead of its release, we at NCS are proud to show you a new song/new video from this album called “Distortion Of Perception”.

The core of the band has always been the genius guitar/bass duo of the Tipton brothers (Troy Tipton on bass/ Jasun Tipton on guitar). I first fell in love with their Meshuggah-influenced prog/shred madness back in 2001 with their old (in a modern context way) pre-djent record, The Towers Of Avarice, by their previous band Zero Hour. Even their old drummer from Zero Hour, Mike Guy, continued along with them on this new soaring instrumental avenue paved with soulful chug ‘n’ shred done right (and far better than most others), and the band further includes second guitarist Jason Montero. Continue reading »

KATAKLYSM: “OF GHOSTS AND GODS” — FIRST IMPRESSIONS (AND MINOR DIGRESSIONS)

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote the following first impressions of Kataklysm’s new album — and there IS a summing-up at the end.)

So I’ve decided to do something a little different for this review. Instead of my usual over-wordy, over-intellectualised stream of self-congratulatory bullshit (quality bullshit, of course) I’m going lo-tech and lo-fi with this one!

So after the jump you can follow my first impressions in a semi-live manner, as I note down my random feelings and musings from my first listening session to the band’s new album.

Ok, so, here we go… pushing play… Continue reading »

KRONOS: “ARISEN NEW ERA”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

(DGR reviews the new album by those French titans in Kronos.)

Since Unique Leader has come into prominence over the last few years, the label has been the overseer of a tech-death explosion, one that has seen them dredging up all kinds of different groups from the rubble and ash piles of local scenes while at the same time ensuring that in the wake of their roster of bands there would be absolutely no notes left for anyone else to play on guitar.

As something of a genre-label, Unique Leader have acquired a sound — the type of noise where you can see their logo on a group’s album and more often than not usually guess what they will sound like. Not to knock them, of course, as the label has been the savior of the Nor-Cal death metal scene up here, picking up some of the most highly technical and underrated bands and at least giving them a shot after they’ve been scrapping it out for years. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: THE ROLL-OUT RESUMES (TOMORROW)

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  22 Responses »
Jun 242015
 

 

Some of you will remember that late last fall we actually began our annual roll-out of the list of “Most Infectious” extreme metal songs released during the year that was drawing to a close. Some of you will also remember that the roll-out just sort of… stopped… without even a polite interval of the gas gauge showing “Empty” or coasting for the last dozen yards before the machine just turned into a giant, half-formed paperweight.

There was a reason for this (sort of): I was rudely interrupted by a protracted grind at my fucking day job, and by the time life returned to a semblance of normalcy, so much time had passed that I just gave up on finishing the list. I guess I needed a tardiness support group. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAISING THE VEIL — “QUBIT COMPUTED MULTIVERSE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 242015
 

 

In the wake of a successful crowd-funding campaign this spring, the multinational group Raising the Veil are preparing for the release of their debut album, Bosonic Quantum Phenomena, and today we’ve got for you the premiere of the album’s first single, “Qubit Computed Multiverse“.

The new album marks the band’s second release overall, following their 2012 EP Yucatanimvs. In its current configuration, the band includes Austrian vocalist George Wilfinger (Monument of Misanthropy, Disfigured Divinity, ex-Miasma), Canadian guitarist Daniel McLellan and bass-player Denis Landry, and Necrophagist drummer Romain Goulon. Together, they’ve created some brain-scrambling, pulse-pounding, progressive-minded tech-death capable of re-wiring your neurons and firing their synapses at will. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SATANARCHIST / RESIGNED TO FATE — A SPLIT

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 242015
 

 

The split we’re premiering today is an unusual one. One of the bands is alive and kicking (like a mule), one is defunct. One is as raw, raucous, and chaotic as you could want, and the other has a well-produced sound, with a lot of smartly crafted dynamics and stick-in-your-head melodies. And the split is a DIY effort that came to us out of nowhere.

But hang on to your seats, because if you like metal with megawatt energy that will give you an adrenaline-inducing rocket ride, plus enough interesting contrasts to keep you rooted in place, this thing is going to grab you hard from beginning to end.

Satanarchist, from Portland, Oregon, is the first of these two bands, and this split marks their recording debut. The second band, once based in Denton, Texas, is Resigned To Fate. They have a few things in common, including the fact that Satanarchist’s guitarist John was once a member of Resigned To Fate, plus the incorporation of thrash riffs in the melting pot of their respective sounds. But it’s still best to take them one at a time. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: BARÚS — “BARÚS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  8 Responses »
Jun 242015
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the debut EP by a French band named Barús.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I need you to stop whatever you’re doing and listen to this. This deserves your complete attention. All of it. There will be no exceptions.

Are you listening yet? Good.

Welding the mutated megaton guitar heft of Meshuggah at their slowest and heaviest to a heaving undercurrent of soul-crushing Doom and touches of the sort of hypnotic, almost ritualistic, atmosphere that would make your average occult-obsessed Black Metal band turn green(er) with envy, French Death Metal types Barús have managed to create something with their debut EP that simultaneously embraces and defies convention – something utterly dense and uncompromising, yet surprisingly progressive and introspective in nature. Continue reading »

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