Oct 252015
 

Rearview Mirror

 

(This Sunday, DGR steps forward with our weekly look back at metal from yesteryear.)

I’ve been waffling a bit with the idea of contributing more often to the series of Rearview Mirror posts that we’ve been doing here at NCS. I genuinely love the idea of being able to deep-dive on a song at random, but I’ve also wanted to let other folks share their hidden gems out there without me vomiting my taste all over the site, especially as my own archive of ideas consists pretty much of bands I’ve already taken a healthy opportunity to write about on this lovely page.

However, there is one group that has been haunting me, that I’ve been thinking about a lot as of late, and that is Australia’s The Amenta. If you’ve been following NCS for a while, you’ll know that I’m a pretty unabashed fan of the band. Tim Pope gave me one of my favorite interviews ever, and the group’s 2013 release Flesh Is Heir ranks among my favorite discs — it is a noisy, harsh, and abrasive listen that seemed just slightly ahead of its time, especially as now it seems like more groups from Australia are breaking out into the limelight. Continue reading »

Oct 242015
 

Tongues

 

This would normally be titled as a “Seen and Heard” post, but I was in an alliterative mood this morning. This is a selection of new songs (and a pair of older ones) that I discovered over the last 24 hours and want to commend to your ears. As usual, I’ve tried to include a variety of sounds, but they’re all deliciously devastating in their own ways.

TONGUES

Tongues are a duo from Aarhus, Denmark. Their debut EP Thelésis Ignis was released last year by I, Voidhanger Records, and they’re now at work on their first full-length album, which I, Voidhanger hopes to release in 2016. In the meantime, Tongues have posted a new song named “Golden Crown of Death” to their Bandcamp page as a “name your price” download. It will appear on a vinyl compilation entitled Roam The Streets II: Fuck You – We’re From Aarhus, to be released in December by VoxHall. Continue reading »

Oct 232015
 

Kouros-Causa

 

I haven’t felt very well today, having managed to poison myself with alcohol at a job-related function last night. I doubted I would be able to write anything of my own for the site today. So fragile is my head and so unsettled is my stomach that I even doubted I would be able to stand listening to any metal. But for reasons I can’t really explain, I randomly decided to explore an EP named causa that a New Delhi band named Kouros had invited us to hear, via an e-mail that arrived yesterday. It proved to be a wise, if impulsive, decision.

causa was just released a week ago via Bandcamp, and it appears to be Kouros’ second release overall (though I could certainly be wrong about that). Further, it appears that Kouros is a solo project, the musical vision of a man who calls himself Nium, and it’s a multi-faceted vision that draws from multiple wellsprings of metal and rock. Continue reading »

Oct 232015
 

Kings Destroy-ST

 

(Comrade Aleks stepped forward for round-up duty today, bringing us videos and interview excerpts from four excellent bands.)

Yes, I already covered the mighty Kings Destroy and Pohjoinen in interviews with the bands’ members (here and here) at NCS, but these two bands are still in my player, so I want to say just a few more words about them, because amongst other things they have new official videos. As for Misty Morning and Plöw – it’s two very good bands with catchy tunes, proper riffs, paranoid atmosphere… and cool videos! Yes, it’s about videos and it’s about doom with balls.

KINGS DESTROY

Kings Destroy arose in Bronx, New York, on 2010. Being urban and graffiti fans, these five men decided to name their band after a local graffiti crew. Some of the band’s members gained experience in hardcore bands Breakdown and Killing Time, and both bands are still active despite the fact that Kings Destroy have three strong full-length albums for this period and a lot of shows and big tours. Continue reading »

Oct 232015
 

Lost Soul-Atlantis-The New Beginning

 

(KevinP provides the following introduction to our premiere of the new album by Poland’s Lost Soul.)

Poland’s death metal masters, Lost Soul, return with their fifth full-length album, Atlantis:  The New Beginning, via Apostasy Records on October 30, 2015.  Today we proudly present to you the exclusive North American stream of this new opus.

Mainman/founding member Jacek Grecki (vocals/guitar) and Damian Czajkowski (bass) return with the band’s first new material since 2009’s Immerse in Infinity.  Making their recording debut with Lost Soul are Asmodeus Draco Dux (drums) and Marek Golas (guitars), who both joined in 2012.

If you like what you hear (and who are we kidding, YOU WILL), stay tuned — as on Monday, October 26, we will GET TO THE POINT in an interview with Jacek Grecki.  See the links below to grab digital and physical copies of the album (vinyl will be released in February 2016). Continue reading »

Oct 222015
 

VEHEMENCE_FORWARD_WITHOUT_MOTION_COVER_HI_RES

 

Forward Without Motion is the fourth album by Arizona’s Vehemence — and the first since the band split up in 2005 following the 2004 Metal Blade release of Helping the World To See. They are obviously back — and as you’re about to hear from our premiere of a full stream of the new album, they are back with overpowering force.

We knew this album was on the way. In September our writer Andy Synn helped pave the way for its arrival by compiling reviews of all three of the band’s previous full-lengths for the 62nd installment of The Synn Report (here). What we didn’t know then was that we would be invited to bring you a full listen to the new album — but we’re damned glad the opportunity has come our way.

The wait has been a long one — and no one knows that better than the band. They provided us this statement to accompany the album stream: Continue reading »

Oct 222015
 

Invoker-Aeon

 

We’ve previously premiered two tracks from the new album by Germany’s Invoker — “Secrets of Seed” and the title track “Aeon”. Two is not enough. We have more, beginning today with the album’s seventh track, “Engulfed For Millions of Years”.

If you’ve been following the songs from Aeon that have appeared to date, you already know about Invoker’s talent for weaving dark melodic hooks into the majestic and multifaceted tapestry of their sound, and “Engulfed…” is another grant example of that skill at work. The song races and rips from the beginning, seizing the listener’s attention without delay, and then begins to move along a changing course that includes hard-jabbing riffs, a swirling melodic guitar melody that shimmers like streamers of light, and big, booming hammer blows of pile-driving power. Continue reading »

Oct 222015
 

Lung Molde-ST

 

Lung Molde is an evocative name for a band. Knowing nothing about the music, it begins to shape your impressions of what you will hear. You begin to imagine your air supply choked off by a toxic growth of slime breeding in the hothouse of your own body, of a once pink vitality turned into a gasping black ruin, of your eyes clouded by the fog of your own impending asphyxiation. Or maybe that’s just me, contemplating the start of lung molde season here in the Pacific Northwest.

This Portland trio (which includes members of Triumvir Foul) chose their name well, because, as you’re about to learn through our premiere of their debut self-titled album, the music is indeed calamitous. Their brand of staggering sludge and doom generates an oppressive atmosphere, creating a soundscape that’s blighted, bulldozed, and burned. Continue reading »

Oct 222015
 

nagasaki-explosion

 

(This is Part III of a three-part article prepared by our Russian friend Comrade Aleks. Part I is here, Part II is here.)

This third part of an article that has mainly told the story of World War II’s Eastern Front was supposed to appear earlier, but for some reasons I couldn’t rush. Its structure isn’t so straight, but the main subjects of this part aren’t battles, but the dirtier side of War, War Crimes.

It’s impossible to believe that such things were done by human kind in the period from 1941 ’til 1945, yet these crimes in different forms continue to the present days. You’ll not find here my point of view – only facts from the internet which you can easily check, and mostly extreme and brutal musical points of view on the events of World War II.

Here we have tracks from KYPCK, 1349, Slayer, and Jucifer (again), and you’ll also find exclusive comments by such bands as Winterborn (with fierce and sudden audio help from Impaled Nazarene), The Committee, Cirith Gorgor, and Endstille — along with their music.

I have no quote of Erich Maria Remarque for this time. Just never forget. Continue reading »

Oct 212015
 

Yellow Eyes-Sick With Bloom

 

Last Saturday I began what was supposed to be a two-part post of new music in a blackened vein. Forgetting that part-time, half-witted metal bloggers should never forecast what they’re going to do, I said that I would post Part 2 on Sunday, or Monday at the latest. And… it’s Wednesday.

Of course, the arrow of time didn’t stop in mid-flight to wait for me, and so more new songs and EPs have appeared since I compiled the stuff I originally  planned to include in Part 2. Therefore, I’ve made some additions, and postponed writing about some other things. Ain’t no way I’m saying when the next installment will come….

YELLOW EYES

When I first found out in early September that Gilead Media would be releasing a new album by New York black metal band Yellow Eyes, I blared the news as fast as I could. Now that I’ve heard the album, I feel completely justified in my initial enthusiasm. Continue reading »