September 2015 - Page 3 of 12

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: MUTILATRED — “DISSECTING YOUR FUTURE”

Sep 242015

Mutilatred chose their name well, concocting a word that won’t be found in the dictionary but accurately conveys the sense of mutilating hatred that radiates from every song on their debut album, Dissecting Your Future. Today we bring you a full stream of the album in advance of its September 25 release by Seeing Red Records.

There’s nothing fancy about this music. It’s stripped-down, down-tuned, primal in its brutality, and remorseless in its delivery, combining an atmosphere of malevolent darkness and physically dismantling grooves, as if Incantation and Devourment had found a ground zero where they could jointly detonate an apocalyptic weapon. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEFORMATORY — “INFERNAL GATEWAY”

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Sep 242015

According to the first verse of the Book of Genesis, when God created the earth, it “was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep”. He said, “Let there be light”, but the darkness came first; in the words of the band Deformatory, “it was already alive, forever and eternal”. God divided the Light from the Darkness on the first day, but “that division has eroded”.

And that idea became the seed of Malediction, the second record by this band from Ottawa, Ontario, and the first in a series of concept albums revolving around an entity named Saväel, the creator of the Darkness. “In Malediction, the story follows the discovery of the sacred incantation text, his re-awakening, and the subsequent obliteration of the Light, the Heavens, and all remnants of humanity.”

Today we bring you the premiere of “Infernal Gateway”, the album’s first track and the beginning of this story about the rebirth of a timeless evil. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BLOODSTRIKE: “IN DEATH WE ROT”

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Sep 242015

Almost exactly one year ago I discovered a two-song demo named Necrobirth by Colorado’s Bloodstrike that totally knocked me on my ass (as I said here). At that point, the word was that Bloodstrike was working on a debut album that they projected for release this year — and now, sure enough, it’s upon us.

The name of the album is In Death We Rot, and it is nothing but Grade A nourishment for the death-worshipping souls of people like me, and all other fans of early ’90s death metal who haven’t convinced themselves that the only albums worth listening to were released 20 years ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ONIRIK — “INVOCATION AND DEFIANCE”

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Sep 232015

We metalheads may be different in some important ways from the people who don’t share our passion for abrasive, aggressive music, but in some ways we’re not so different: In our listening, many of us find comfort in what is familiar, and sometimes instinctively shy away from bands who have stepped off the usual beaten paths. But sometimes when that happens, the results can be exciting, even if the music is different and challenging on first listen.

Casket Dream Veneration, the new album by the Portuguese band Onirik, maintains a spiritual devotion to the traditions of black metal, but the band are definitely following their own path, and the music is a rewarding experience in part because it does sound different from much of the music that now travels under the black flag.

Take, for example, the track from the album that we’re premiering today: “Invocation and Defiance”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VARATHRON, SLUGDGE, BLOODRED HOURGLASS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Sep 232015

This is one of those mornings where I’ve accumulated a lot of music over the last couple of days that I’d like to tell you about, but I don’t have enough time to do all the telling. So I’ve picked only three new things, which is what I have time for, and I picked this grouping because they provide variety, which someone said is the spice of life. Because time is short, I will also have to hold my own descriptive verbiage to a minimum.

VARATHRON

One item of exciting news that appeared in recent days was the announcement that the Greek black metal titans in Varathron have a new, seven-track EP named The Confessional Of The Black Penitents that will be released by Agonia Records on October 23. Apart from the prospect of new music from this excellent band, I also enjoyed the cover art, since it happens to be a painting by Swiss painter and printmaker Carlos Schwabe (1866-1926) that I’ve used before as one of the daily art posts on the NCS Facebook page.

In addition to the news about the EP, Agonia began streaming a new track named “Sinister Recollections”. It’s one of three new songs on the EP — the other four are previously released songs recorded live in Larisa, Greece, on May 16, 2015. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE… NACHTMYSTIUM TRACKS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Sep 232015

(Andy Synn returns to an irregular series in which he shares favorite things that come in fives.)

I’ve not done one of these in a while it seems, so while I’m tinkering away on a few other bits and pieces (I’ve got an EP review in the pipeline for this week, as well as another Synn Report in-progress… and maybe one day soon I’ll even complete that column about the importance of lyrics… though don’t hold your breath for that) I thought I might as well just throw something together for the sheer hell of it!

So, ignoring the well-documented douchebaggery of Blake Judd (he’s a toxic cunt by all accounts… but damn, he can write some mighty fine drug-induced Black Metal jams when he wants to), here’s five of my favourite Nachtmystium songs from the Black Meddle-era. Continue reading »

WORLD WAR II (PART I)

Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 12 Responses »

Sep 222015

(This is the first of a two-part article prepared by our Russian friend Comrade Aleks.)

We are used to horror lyrics in metal and especially in extreme metal music. Different reasons push different bands to write about it, and I’ll let someone else write about that who knows this topic better than I do. Today I have for you a compilation of tracks dedicated to World War II, mostly to the Eastern Front. 70 years ago the War ended, and today there is still a lot of discussion born in Russia, the East, the EU, and the USA about how it truly was, and how it could have turned due to some specific circumstances. I will not tell you my point of view — but just provide brief historical excursions, music, and sometimes the comments of death, black, and doom bands about it.

Here you will find exclusive detailed comments from Martin van Drunen of Hail of Bullets and some stories by participants in Skyclad, Altar of Oblivion, Mental Home, Eastern Front, Dark Lunacy, and Sodom.

Why the Eastern Front? Because a damned lot of things happened here, sooth to say. My grandfather was recruited in January 1943. He was 17 years old, and German aviation had bombed his village near Leningrad / Saint-Petersburg. He took part in breaking the Leningrad siege and in a Finnish company where he was wounded. The War touched nearly every family here, and we must remember. I’m thankful for all these bands who remind us about it. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HUMAN IMPROVEMENT PROCESS — “ENEMIES OF THE SUN”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Sep 222015

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Italy’s Human Improvement Process.)

This has been a bumper year for EPs so far, with several of my favourite releases of 2015 coming in the old Extended Play format…. Barús, Wild Hunt, Sanzu, Pyrrhon, Exgenesis, Barishi, The Monolith Deathcult… the list goes on.

Well, now you can add Italian Tech-Death collective Human Improvement Process to that litany of names above, with their all-killer, no-filler, new EP Enemies of the Sun. Continue reading »

THY CATAFALQUE: A REVIEW OF “SGÚRR” AND THE PREMIERE OF “JURA”

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Sep 222015

We are very fortunate to help premiere a song named “Jura” from Sgùrr, the new album by the remarkable Thy Catafalque. The album has been one of my most-anticipated releases of 2015 — and my expectations were very, very high, given the quality of Thy Catafalque’s most recent albums, 2011’s Rengeteg and 2009’s Róka Hasa Rádió. Yet as lofty as those expectations were, Sgùrr has exceeded them.

I won’t blame you if you now jump to the end of this post and start listening to “Jura”, but there may still be reasons to read the review that precedes the song stream, because no one song on this album tells you what you need to know about the rest of it.

I hasten to add that I’m not sure I can tell you what you need to know either. When you encounter an album as varied and unusual as Sgùrr, the typical genre references and descriptive adjectives go out the window, and that leaves me feeling even more helpless than usual in trying to find the right words. Of course, as mentally hobbled as I am by these limitations, I’m soldiering on anyway. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: SHRINE OF INSANABILIS — “DISCIPLES OF THE VOID”

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Sep 212015

About a month ago we brought you a clue to what lies within Disciples of the Void, the debut album by a mysterious entity known as Shrine of Insanabilis, with our premiere of a song from the album named “Ruina“. Now we are privileged to lift the veil all the way off as we deliver a full stream of the album in advance of its September 22 release by W.T.C. Productions.

Actually, that metaphor about lifting the veil is an overstatement, because the identities of the band’s members are still concealed, and the music itself remains mystical. But that’s only part of its allure. Continue reading »

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