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OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 11): OPETH, BORKNAGAR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 162025
 

(written by Islander)

In yesterday’s installment of this list I think it’s fair to say that I spelunked pretty far underground with the selections, and (to mix my metaphors) veered off the beaten paths we usually beat around here. And so it seemed appropriate today to bounce back with songs from two bands of long standing and widespread veneration, both of whom released standout albums last year (though the first one wasn’t without its fan controversies).

I should add another explanation for today’s choices: I listened to hundreds of songs last year and found many of them infectious, as I define the word, far too many to include all of them in this list. And so part of what I try to do is to make choices that also provide a reflection and survey of metal in 2024, though in all cases my own tastes are still in command.

To find yesterday’s unconventional installment and all the other Parts of this list so far, click this link. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THRONE — “MORRIGAN”

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Jan 162025
 

(written by Islander)

“Hell ain’t a bad place to be”, they say. Well, it’s probably because Throne are not running the place, because if they were, hell would be really… hellish. Throne are back with their heaviest, strongest and most desperate effort so far and their solid sludge metal morphed into something more sulphureous, more malignant and definitely more feral.

That’s part of how the Dusktone label introduces this Italian band’s new album Ossarium, which they also describe as “a long, painful trip into the territories laden out by Eyehategod, Buzzoven, and Acid Bath but with an evolved take bordering on black metal sound….”

In support of these descriptions, Dusktone has already premiered a first single named “Aten,” and today we bring you a video for a second one — “Morrigan” — the song that opens the album. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MŮRA — “NEEDLE CATHEDRAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 162025
 

(written by Islander)

“Punishing in its heaviness, violently deranged in its fretwork,  hopeless in its moods, and vocally horrendous, the song takes listeners to a nightmarish place, and freezes us in place while it completes its looming edifice of terror and awe.”

That’s how we summed up the title song to a new EP by the Prague-based blackened death/doom metal band Můra when we premiered it earlier this month. Today we premiere the EP in its entirety, in advance of its release on January 20th by Doomentia Records and Caligari Records. Like the title song, it is a very heavy and relentlessly harrowing experience. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 10): OTTONE PESANTE, KILLING SPREE, PONTE DEL DIAVOLO

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 152025
 

For the last few installments of this list I haven’t had any organizing principle that guided the grouping of songs together in a specific Part. Today I do. But I’m afraid if I tell you why I put these three songs together you might not listen to them (if you haven’t already heard them). Better for you to learn for yourselves, and hopefully to find yourselves as enthusiastic about them as I am.

(To find and listen to all the preceding songs in this list, use this link.) Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEUS SABAOTH — “CYCLE OF DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 152025
 

On their debut album Cycle of Death the Ukrainian band Deus Sabaoth have put purveyors of religious faith in their crosshairs. It’s not an uncommon focus for black metal bands, but this group extends their critique, both philosophically and in their music, in uncommon ways.

Regarding the philosophical concept of the album, the main theme of the lyrics “is to reflect different perspectives on religion and the existential concerns of those who confront their mortality while rejecting any religious beliefs,” and thus they “delve into a personal, internal struggle, exploring the complex emotions and conflicts faced by those who question the very nature of existence.” The following statement from the band develops these ideas further: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9): DÖ, NECROPHOBIC, NECROWRETCH

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  2 Responses »
Jan 142025
 

(written by Islander)

We’ve arrived at Part 9 of our expanding Most Infectious Song list, with three more songs today. I again didn’t have a cohesive organizing principle in mind when grouping these three together, though I couldn’t resist going necro with the last two (in more ways than one).

To check out the preceding 8 Parts of the list and to learn what the list is about, use this link. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GREH — “DYSPHORIC DEVOTION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 142025
 

After guitarist Gjero Krsteski left the German horror/punk band Hellgreaser he founded a new band named Greh in 2022 as a one-man project. After releasing an EP and a single on his own, Greh expanded to a full lineup with the joining of drummer Maurice Müller (Hard Strike, Milan) and vocalist Martin Kocula (Grau).

Now a full band, Greh released their 2023 EP Reversion of the Repressed, and then a trio of singles last year. This year — on January 15th — Fetzner Death Records will release the band’s debut album Dysphoric Devotion. It includes those previous three singles and five more original songs, and we’re bringing all of them to you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CAPILLA ARDIENTE

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Jan 142025
 

(Last October the Chilean doom band Capilla Ardiente released their newest album, and it led our Comrade Aleks to conduct an interview with one of the founding members, Claudio Botarro Neira, last fall. Due to our own delays while focusing on year-end traditions, we are late in publishing their very good discussion, but now we do.)

Chilean epic doom band Capilla Ardiente was founded in 2006, and since then its crew gained a proper reputation releasing rare yet remarkable albums. Each of the band’s members is occupied with different tasks and different bands, so each album of Capilla Ardiente is something you need to wait for.

Claudio Botarro Neira (bass), Felipe Plaza Kutzbach (vocals), Francisco Aguirre (drums), Julio Bуrquez (guitar), and Igor Leiva (guitar) know how to play any kind of metal, but the new Capilla Ardiente album Where Gods Live and Men Die released by High Roller Records in October 2024 is a four-song-long epic journey, or rather pilgrimage, to the peaks of doom metal. We got in touch with Claudio, and here’s the interview we conducted. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 8): ULCERATE, SÓLSTAFIR, EVERTO SIGNUM

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  2 Responses »
Jan 132025
 

Today we have begun a new week of posts at NCS, and thus resume the rollout of our list of 2024’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. To check out the preceding 7 installments and get an explanation about what the list represents, go HERE.

I don’t have any logical organizing principle for why I put these three songs together in this Part 8 of the list, though I suppose I might have subconsciously grouped them just to keep listeners off-balance. I do enjoy doing that.

ULCERATE

This is another example of choosing a song from a band who are extremely well-known and whose 2024 album (Cutting the Throat of God) justifiably garnered a ton of acclaim. Those factors would not alone warrant the pick of a song for this list, because (as I’ve explained before) it’s not really about critically acclaimed music. It’s about songs that are “catchy,” very memorable, or “most-played” — features that are all aspects of infectiousness as I define the term.

As it happens, however, a number of the songs on Ulcerate‘s new album — hell, probably all of them — are worthy contenders for this list in addition to making up an album that has rightly been critically lauded. Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Today the Romanian/UK band Clouds are releasing their sixth album, Desprins, and we’re helping spread the word by sharing the premiere of the entire record.

From “Disguise” through “The Fall of Hearts,” Desprins includes seven new songs, plus two bonus tracks — “Sorrowbound” and “Chasing Ghosts,” which were released as stand-alone singles in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The band describe the album as “a fearsome journey into the darkness of consciousness, an introspective reflection upon the human existence.”

The lyrics of the new songs are poetic, which is what we’ve come to expect from songwriter Daniel Neagoe. As we have also come to expect, they are expressions of the crushing disappointments, pain, and hollowness of life (“this mockery of hope”) — dark reflections filled with acrimony, loss, regret, and the realization of delusion. Insanity and rage also mark the narrator’s bleak memorials, but not joy or hopefulness; life has extinguished those. Continue reading »

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