AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MACERATION — “LYCANTHROPIC CARNAGE”

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Nov 042026
 

(written by Islander)

The story of Maceration is such an interesting and inspiring one, at least if you’re a nerdy death metal historian. They began in roughly 1990 as a death metal side project of two guys (Jakob Schultz and Jacob Hansen) from the Danish thrash band Invocator, catching the building death metal wave in Europe. They played their first gig that same year with Darkthrone back when that band was playing death metal. And their 1992 debut album A Serenade of Agony was what most people consider the first Danish death metal album. At least for that reason, and maybe a few others (such as a 19-year-old Dan Swanö recording session vocals for the record), it achieved a kind of cult status.

But as a side project Maceration turned out to be short-lived. There was an independently relased Maceration demo in 1995, and then nothing further for quite a long time (i.e., nearly 30 years). Thought dead, but with its heart still secretly beating, Maceration revived in 2022 with a new album authentically titled It Never Ends…, and to draw the red line back to the band’s origins it included growls by Dan Swanö in what (so far as we know) was his last performance of harsh vocals.

They followed that hellaciously good comeback album with another terrific album just last year — Serpent Devourment — with Dan Swanö still involved as producer and mixer, but with the band’s live vocalist Jan Bergmann Jepsen behind the mic. And now they have fairly quickly brought forth another full-length. Titled Mercy to the Miserable, it’s set for release on November 20th by Emanzipation Productions,  a label that’s been with them arm-in-arm since the comeback album.

We are most happy today to premiere a lyric video for the final single from the new album in advance of that release, a song aptly named “Lycanthropic Carnage“. (And by the way, if you’re a nerdy metal historian like we are, it will be worth your time to read our contributor Zoltar’s wonderful 2025 interview of sole remaining founding member Jakob Schultz — here.) Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DISEMBODY — “AWAKENING OF ANCIENT EVIL”

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Nov 032026
 

(written by Islander)

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering the second single from Awakening of Ancient Evil, the second full-length from the Finnish black/thrash duo Disembody. It’s set for release by Helldprod Records on November 4th (tomorrow!), but you can listen to it in its entirety now through our album premiere below.

The label has summed up the music as “raw, vicious and uncanny” — “eight tracks packed with hellish aggression, piercing riffs, and relentless pounding evilness,” leavened with “haunting melodies [that] will lull you into a dark slumber.”

That is accurate and succinct, but of course we have more elaborate thoughts of our own to share about this very remarkable album. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANCESTROS — “INCOGNITUM HACTENUS”

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Nov 032026
 

(written by Islander)

Ancestros is a new Seville-based collective of musicians, writers, and visual artists, whose musical performers have been associated with such bands as Orthodox, Pylar, and Voidescent (among others). The name of their decidedly unorthodox debut album is Blasfemia Austral, and it’s set for release on November 16th by Cavsas, a division of Cyclic Law.

The label’s description of the music makes comparative references to the likes of Portal, Deathspell Omega, Teitanblood, Oranssi Pazuzu, Reverorum ib Malacht, Hellhammer, and Bathory, which should generate intrigue.

One song from the album surfaced earlier this month, and today we’re premiering a video for a second one — “Icognitum Hactenus“. But before we get to them, we want to share a more complete description of the album’s thematic conception drawn from the press materials circulated on behalf of the Cavsas label, because it is a further source of intrigue: Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Nov 032026
 

(Andy Synn presents another round-up of things from last month you may have missed)

Was October the busiest month in Metal so far this year?

Well, the jury’s still out on that one, but it definitely left me with so many options for this edition of “Things You May Have Missed” – including Black Royal, Coal & Crayon, The Curse Made Flesh, Dethroned, Detresse, Dread Witch, Hatalom, Hope Collapse, Litost, Minenfeld, Sneglefeber, Throes, Urarv, and Veret – that I might just have to do a another one of these articles next week, because four really isn’t a big enough number to even scratch the surface of what I want to recommend to you all from last month.

With that in mind then, let’s not waste any more time and get right to my first batch of recommendations.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROPANTHER — “THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD”

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Nov 022026
 

(written by Islander)

Let’s pause for a moment to admire the artwork created by Max Sherman for Necropanther’s new album The Book of Change.

More than a moment, actually, because it takes a more careful inspection to comprehend the detailed rendering of spiky crab-like legs and swirling tentacles, of pointed teeth and skull-like growths, of multiple eyes and sprawling coral-like creepiness. The colors are wonderful as well, including the shade of green that backstops all the alien weirdness in the forefront.

If you’re new to the musical works of Necropanther, you might wonder what the connection is (or if there is any connection) between that artwork and this Denver band’s music. Is it intended to signal something about what you’ll hear? Is it rooted in some way to the songs’ lyrical themes?

We’ll venture answers to those questions, and we’ll share comments from the band that shed further light on what they’ve gotten up to on this new album, but our main focus today is on the song we’re premiering today, whose title does seem to tie in very well to what’s on the album cover: “The Thing From Another World“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VÉR — “A FÉREG PUSZTULÁSA”

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Nov 022026
 

(written by Islander)

Vér is the name of a quintet from Budapest, Hungary who made their public debut with a demo in September 2024. It grabbed the attention of Me Saco Un Ojo Records, which released the demo on tape early the next year. And now that same label is about one month away from releasing Vér’s debut album, A Féreg Pusztulása.

Not having heard that demo, our first impression of Vér’s music, as captured on the album, was formed by the press materials we received — such as this:

Rare in the death metal realm does a record maintain resolutely old-school influences – the squirming horror of early Cemetary, the alternating gallop & tank-tread of equally early Grave, the angular beatdown of mid-’90s Immolation, the swarming miasma of early ’90s Absu – whilst emitting an essence that it is refreshing and (re)invigorating. Such is the case with A Féreg Pusztulása.

Those same press materials also made reference to the band’s “labyrinthine mindset” in their approach to songwriting, and that rings true repeatedly over the course of the album, and definitely in the case of the album’s title song, which we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SUNDAY: BAEST, SERPENT, GORMA, FORTRIU, DAWN OF SOLACE, HOLY DEATH, GEISTERFAUST, BELTEZ

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 012026
 

(written by Islander)

We all know that expectations can be disappointed even when the expected person is dependable. You probably expected a roundup of new songs and videos here yesterday, especially because it was Halloween, maybe even a grab-bag of horror videos. What you got instead was the premiere of an album whose themes had nothing remotely to do with Halloween.

What you’ll get today is the roundup you were probably expecting yesterday instead of the usual SHADES OF BLACK column, which I suppose is another dashed expectation. Rest assured that this collection does include some black metal, but overall it will be more cross-genre in its scope.

As usual, the choices were difficult because there was so much to choose from. With Friday being devil’s night and Saturday being Halloween, metal bands and labels really loaded up the week with new stuff. Hope you enjoy the picks I struggled to make. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 200): IAPETUS

 THE SYNN REPORT  No Responses »
Nov 012026
 

Recommended for fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Nightrage, Wintersun

Wow, 200 editions of THE SYNN REPORT… how time does fly.

Of course, strictly speaking there’s actually a few extra ones knocking about, but those were all “special editions” and don’t count towards the official total (plus 200 is a nice round number, so let’s stick with that).

For such a momentous milestone it’s only fitting to choose an equally momentous band, one whose work has impressed us with each and every release – up to and including their new album, The Mother Void, which came out last month – in the form of cosmic Melodeath maestros Iapetus, aka Jordan Navarro and Matthew Cerami.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAINTGROVE — “HAINTGROVE”

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Oct 312026
 

(written by Islander)

We started paying attention to Haintgrove in June when this Texas-based solo black metal project released its first single, “Starless Passage“. That led us to host premieres for two more singles, “I Dream in a Tongue I Cannot Speak” in August and “Kingdoms in the Thicket” in September. And now we’re premiering the entirety of Haintgrove’s self-titled debut album, which includes those three songs and five more, on the day of its release.

Haintgrove’s inspirations and lyrical themes have been as much a part of its appeal as the music. Haintgrove has expressed the short version of that in these words: “Rooted in the history and lingering memory of enslaved Africans in the colonial South Carolina Lowcountry, this album exists to honor those who came before us, and to remember what was carried, what was taken, and what continues forward.”

Creating a further connection to the album’s historical settings and lineage, Haintgrove has created some videos which feature his film and photography of the Lowcountry, and we’ll include them as we work through the music track by track. But at the end we have an album-length stream that pulls all the songs together.

This is an extremely rare weekend premiere at our site — and on a Halloween no less! — but we hope and believe you’ll understand after hearing the album why we made this exception. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARONIOUS — “ANTEDILUVIAN”

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Oct 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Six years have passed since Halloween last occurred on a Saturday, and 11 more years will pass before it happens again, but it is indeed happening tomorrow, and on the verge of that most metal of holidays today has been a big day for new offerings of the devil’s music. We have one more offering for you before this weekday ends, a new song off a new album by Wisconsin’s Aronious in advance of the album’s release by The Artisan Era on November 13th.

The name of the album is The Ever Living Ones, and it follows two previous albums on the same label, Perspicacity (2020) and Irkalla (2022). This new one, which is 11 songs long, is yet another series of steps in the band’s increasingly fascinating musical evolution. The one we have for you today is “Antediluvian” — but before we get to it, you should really listen (or re-listen) to the album’s first single, “Dawn of Diathan“. Continue reading »

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