(NCS contributor Grant Skelton has prepared four year-end lists that we will be posting this week, beginning with this one, which focuses on his favorite thrash albums of 2016.)
Dec 272016
Dec 272016
Terra Tenebrosa’s new album The Reverses received a lot of attention at our site this year, as it did just about everywhere else in the ghetto of metaldom. We reviewed it not once but twice, the second time in the context of a feature on all of the band’s albums to date. We also had the privilege of bringing you the first full stream of the record, and NCS writer Andy Synn named it one of 2016’s Great Albums. And now, as this year is about to gasp its last breaths, we’re helping to premiere a video for a song from the album — “Where Shadows Have Teeth“.
For those who still may not have explored The Reverses, allow me to quote excerpts from our two reviews:
“The Reverses is as heavy, as dense, and as radioactive as a cache of transuranic elements. It’s a visit to a nightmare realm where the shadows have teeth, the surreal musical equivalent of a Hieronymus Bosch landscape, a vision of hell, or perhaps the exorcism of hellish visions. It sinks its talons into the twisted nightshades that grow in the darker corners of the human psyche and shakes them until they quiver with fearful and fearsome excitement.”
“From start to finish The Reverses is a mental and physical ordeal that spits in the face of the orthodox, and laughs manically at any suggestion of normality.”
Dec 262016
We’ve been following the creative pursuits of Moscow-based artist and sound engineer Roman Arsafes for almost as long as this site has been in existence. We first learned of him through the excellent releases of his band Kartikeya, and since then have followed his work through many other earlier and later projects in which he has either been a member of a group or a solo artist, including Nevid, Above the Earth, Zmey Gorynich, and of course Arsafes. Today it’s our pleasure to bring you the premiere of a new Arsafes single named “Ziggurat“, which is being released today via Bandcamp.
Roman composed the song, produced it, and performs all the instruments and vocals, with orchestral arrangements by William Graney. The single on Bandcamp comes not only with the full new song but also with an instrumental-only version of the track, plus stems for drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, and vocals. Continue reading »
Dec 262016
(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the impressive, just-released debut album by the Polish band Thunderwar.)
Alright. One more review for 2016.
Thunderwar are a rookie melodic death metal quartet from Warsaw, Poland, who bring something of a blackened take to the style. It’s unfortunate that their album was released late this month, as it won’t have a fair chance of being recognized on year-end lists. Maybe sometime in Q1 2017 I’ll do a “Top 10 albums in 2016 left in the dust because they were released in December and therefore came in too late for top albums of 2016 lists because these lists need to be published ASAP for clicks instead of waiting ’til 2017 to give a 100% informed account of 2016’s musical landscape” list.
The timing is unfortunate because for me Black Storm is the most impressive debut of 2016 in this style, alongside Betrayal’s Infinite Circles. Continue reading »
Dec 262016
Those of you who have been hanging around our putrid site for more than a few weeks will recognize the name Transcending Obscurity, since we’ve been regularly highlighting albums on that label for years — and even more frequently over the last year or two as they’ve been dramatically expanding their roster of international bands. Today we have some exciting news about an immense free sampler of music just released by Transcending Obscurity, along with a chance to win a Mark Riddick-designed shirt.
The sampler features 55 tracks from 55 bands, spanning a wide range of metal sub-genres and an equally expansive geographic coverage. All of the bands are signed to Transcending Obscurity and include such names as Officium Triste, Paganizer, Ursinne, Echelon, Henry Kane, Stench Price, Sepulchral Curse, Fetid Zombie, Infinitum Obscure, Altar of Betelgeuze, Veilburner, Jupiterian, and Rudra, among many others whom we’ve written about at NCS. Continue reading »
Dec 262016
(For the third year in a row, we present a year-end list from our Iowa-based guest Ben Smasher.)
Welp, next time we drown in 86 gallons of buffalo vomit, we can think to ourselves, “It’s ok, it’s not as bad as that time we lived through 2016!”
I swear the only reason I didn’t put a bullet in my temple this year was because of all the records that would pile up outside my door in the wake of my departure. Though my rabid interest in metal music had waned somewhat over the last few years, this year I decided to begin a YouTube channel (here) where I talk about my collection and other metal-related topics, and that stoked the fires more than they have been in years.
So I feel that this year I have a more refined list to offer because of how much more time I spent delving into the far reaches of the genre. If you find yourself in the throes of the winter doldrums come January, there is certainly some solace to be found below. Continue reading »
Dec 262016
(Last week we published the first three installments of Austin Weber’s year-end lists, which were devoted to death metal, black metal and grind, and mathcore and instrumental metal. This is the fourth and final installment.)
My goal has been to bring you a massive alternative list of my favorite lesser-known releases of the year, divided into several parts. Which means I won’t post a lot of releases that you see on other lists. Not because I didn’t dig a lot of them, but because you already know about them and will be seeing a lot of the same names being repeated elsewhere.
Undoubtedly some of the releases will be ones you’ll know or heard mentioned in passing, but hopefully you’ll find more new bands and music you were unaware of overall. Quotes that appear below the following releases were pulled from my reviews, multi-band articles, and song premieres from music covered here at NCS and my 2016 posts from Metal-Injection. You’ll also find some new mini write-ups for releases I didn’t get a chance to cover anywhere this year, but loved as well. Continue reading »
Dec 262016
(Each day last week we rolled out a part of DGR’s list of his favorite 50 albums of 2016. In this 6th and final installment of his year-end list we have not-metal favorites, awards, confessions of shame, and other miscellaneous stuff. Follow these links for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of the list.)
NON-METAL
I often try to include a small segment of not-metal shit that I’ve listened to during year soon ending, and to be honest, the rotation kind of stays the same. But it’s only because I feel like these groups absolutely nail it. However, I can fully understand that the “DGR pitches Fixt-label and Celldweller music” paragraph can be tiring, which sucks, because both of Klayton’s Scandroid and Circle Of Dust discs came out this year and they’re both GREAT.
However, that’s not going to fully stop me from putting all my credibility underneath a dump truck’s tires and then backing over it until it is a fine paste, so here’s a small taste of the rock and electronica stuff I got around to this year. Continue reading »
Dec 252016
To all of you who may be celebrating this day, for whatever reason, all of us here at NCS hope you have a joyous Sunday.
Actually, I have no idea whether any of the other miscreants at NCS hope that. For all I know, they hope you contract leprosy. And I’m just saying that because I’ve seen other people say it. So I said it.
With that out of the way, let’s move right into the main objective of this post, which is to put this holiday to the torch, musically speaking of course. And perhaps these gifts will also add to your joy. Continue reading »
Dec 252016
(Andy Synn steps in for this Sunday’s look back at metal releases from the past.)
Christmas Day, for many, is not just a time to spend with family and friends (or whatever fictional deity you prefer)… it’s a time for reflection, a time for looking back and taking stock. So I suppose it’s only fitting that we publish another one of our Rearview Mirror pieces today.
This time around it falls to me to take you all on a journey into the misty depths of days gone by, all the way back to the fabled year of two thousand and ten, to discover the wonders of the first (and, so far, only) album by French philosadists 11 As In Adversaries. Continue reading »