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Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: COFFINCRAFT — “IMPIOUS SPAWN”

Jul 222015

Alexander L. Brown’s cover art for the debut album by Finland’s Coffincraft will ensure that it gets noticed. But although eye-catching album art doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with ear-pleasing music, it certainly does in the case of In Eerie Slumber. And by “ear-pleasing”, I mean “skull-cleaving savagery”. If you doubt my word, dive into the song we’re about to premiere from the album — “Impious Spawn“.

In Eerie Slumber follows two previous EPs released by the band, 2010’s Bestial Conclusions and Shockwave of Truth from 2012. As before, Coffincraft channel the undead spirit of original Swedish and Finnish death metal from the early-to-mid ’90s, with a tip of the hat to bands like Bolt Thrower and Carcass as well. But the new album reflects an even more powerful mastery of the sound and style, and an approach to song-writing and execution that makes it sound vibrantly alive — and lethally evil. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: IN DREAD RESPONSE — “HEAVENSHORE”

Premieres 10 Responses »

Jul 222015

(We premiere a full stream of the new album by New Zealand’s In Dread Response, with the following introduction by TheMadIsraeli.)

Melodic death metal and metalcore have been intersecting with each other for quite a while now. I’ve been a proponent of the idea that this has mostly produced mediocre music that should be of little interest, often resulting in little more than watered-down melodic death metal with clean pop vocals, riffing that lacks any technical edge, and a boring breakdown here and there. But In Dread Response have always consistently done it right, taking exactly the best aspects of both styles. The technical edge, ferocity, and speed of melodic death metal are in play, combined with metalcore’s emotive sense of melody, energy, and a vocal style that comes off as more emotionally charged. Think of early Killswitch Engage with Jesse Leech, except IDR are definitely about the more ferocious aspects of heavy music. And there are no breakdowns or clean vocals to be found here. Zero.

Heavenshore is the band’s third album, and their best. I’ve not heard metal of the melodic sort this emotionally charged or this vicious in a long time. It’s also one of the few instances in which I truly feel an album is “perfect”, in the sense that there is no filler on it. Every song is distinct and equally great, and I never have an urge to skip to the next track at any point. This is as repeat-listenable as Alive Or Just Breathing or Slaughter Of The Soul, and I’ve been treating it as an album of like prestige since the IDR guys sent me the promo of it. Continue reading »

AUSTIN WEBER’S BEST OF 2015 SO FAR: PRIME CUTS FROM THE UNDERGROUND OF THE UNDERGROUND (PART 4)

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Jul 222015

(Here’s the final installment in a multi-part post that began last week, in which Austin Weber brings us his recommendations for some of the best albums released during the first half of the year. Part 1 is at this location, Part 2 is here, and Part 3 is here.)

Acrania

I know what some of you are thinking, that this is the somewhat well-known slam band from the UK who are also named Acrania. Well, it’s not. In fact, the UK Acrania broke up recently, and the one we are here to discuss today is based in Mexico City, having been a band far longer than the other Acrania anyways.

I first became acquainted with Fearless due to Eliran Kantor’s painted cover, which the artist shared on Facebook long before the album’s release. Yet, shamefully. I only got a chance to check out the record very recently. I’m really glad I did, because Acrania have a very interesting sound and take on mixing the old with the outlandish in pursuit of something new. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 60: BURDEN

Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT 7 Responses »

Jul 222015

(Andy Synn delivers the 60th edition of The Synn Report, reviewing the discography to date of Philadelphia’s Burden.)

Recommended for fans of: Ahab, October Tide, Celtic Frost

This was not the column I was supposed to be writing this month. Only an hour ago I was discussing with my NCS compatriots which of two particular bands to choose to focus on with this month’s edition of The Synn Report.

Yet the best-laid plans of mice and men so often go astray… particularly when you stumble upon an artist so good you just have to write about them. And that’s exactly what happened in this case.

Gloomy progressive Doomsayers Burden hail from the darkest depths of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, to be exact) and have, so far, produced two full-length albums and two stand-alone singles of dense, introverted Doom and groaning, cavernous Death Metal, each time employing subtle progressive touches and splashes of captivating melody to maintain a sense of bleak vitality and cleverly shift the dynamic of their lengthy compositions.

Granted, this sort of music often takes a real investment of patience and time from the listener, but when it’s this good it’s definitely worth it. In fact their most recent album, last year’s Without, is probably one of the most under-appreciated and under-rated gems I’ve heard in a long while! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BREEDING FILTH — “PRONOUNCED CANCER”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Jul 222015

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Breeding Filth from Lafayette, Indiana.)

Back in March, I helped premiere the first single from Breeding Filth, a Lafayette, Indiana-based technical brutal death metal act. For those who didn’t catch my post before, the band includes members of fellow Indiana tech-death wunderkinds Dawn of Dementia, which should tip you off to the talent and quality involved with their music.

While the band has yet to set a release date for their debut album, Perverse Devolution, they’ve tentatively stated to me that it will be dropping toward the end of the year. To ease the burden of this long wait, we at NCS are proud to show you another song off their record called “Pronounced Cancer”.

If you like your death metal frantic yet full of finesse, then consider “Pronounced Cancer” a metastasizing treat, aurally akin to being helplessly dropped into a fucking war zone. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: CARCINOMA — “CARCINOMA”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Jul 212015

I’ve been devoting almost all of my posts today to a series of short releases that I discovered since the end of last week. This is the fifth and final one.

CARINOMA

Carcinoma are based in Plymouth, England. I found out about them through a Facebook recommendation by Pyrrhon, who played with Carcinoma on the last show of Pyrrhon’s recently completed European tour.

Last weekend the band released via Bandcamp a two-song, self-titled single. The two songs are named “Rectify” and “Inner Tyrants Become External Parasites”. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SENTIENCE — “SPLINTER THE CROSS”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Jul 212015

I’m devoting almost all of my posts today to five short releases that I discovered since last week, all of them very strong, and this is the fourth of those.

SENTIENCE

I discovered New Jersey’s Sentience in April of last year thanks to a tip from Patrick Bruss (Crypticus), who knows a thing or two about old school death metal, coupled with these words from the legendary Dan Swäno, who knows a thing or two about the subject himself:

“One of the best SweDeath projects I have come across in the last 20 years”.

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE AND A REVIEW: ARPHAEL — “GUIDED BY LIGHT”

Album Reviews, Premieres 3 Responses »

Jul 212015

(In this post we present TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by the Ukrainian one-man band Arphael, along with a full-album stream.)

For me, this album represents a whole new evolutionary step for death metal. It would be hard to argue that Arphael’s music is nothing more than death metal, but it’s obviously the driving force behind his music. I feel like he sought to create something truly extreme and overwhelming in every sense, and he has already accomplished that goal.

I did a small write-up about the music not long ago, with a brief recommendation of his only album at that time, Ambigram, an album that threw more at me than I had any clue what to do with. Guided by Light is Arphael’s sophomore album, and it represents a dramatic step up in every way from his first album. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ALTARAGE — “MMXV”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Jul 212015

I’m devoting almost all of my posts today to a series of short releases that I discovered since the end of last week, and this is the third one of those.

ALTARAGE

Altarage are a Spanish death metal band whose debut 7″ EP, MMXV, will be released by Iron Bonehead on September 4 (and a tape release is coming from Sol y Nieve/ Sentient Ruin Records). The two songs on MMXV are “Altars” and “Vortex Pyramid”. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ACERO LETAL — “VELOZ INVENCIBLE / DURO METAL”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET 5 Responses »

Jul 212015

I’m devoting almost all of my posts today to a series of five short releases I discovered since last week, and this is the second of those.

ACERO LETAL

Acero Letal (“lethal steel”) are from Chile, which seems to be a hotbed of speed metal and thrash — and I do mean hot. The band released a demo in 2008, and in February of this year the most excellent Witches Brew released a two-song single from the band on black vinyl, with a download available on Bandcamp. The two tracks on the single are “Veloz Invencible” and “Duro Metal“.

Fairly late in my metal life, I’ve discovered a lust for old-school speed metal — maybe because I wasn’t listening to it when it had its genesis in the ’80s — and these two songs feed that hunger quite nicely, while bringing in other elements of “classic heavy metal”. Continue reading »

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