Islander

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UPON THE ALTAR — “PROFANATION’S VAPOR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Dec 102025
 

(written by Islander)

In thinking about the music from Upon the Altar’s side of a 2022 split with DeathEpoch, we wrote that it left “no doubt that Upon the Altar’s mission is to devour all light.” The music was often toxic, suffocating, granite-heavy, vicious, and vocally horrifying. They allowed very little wholesome light to shine in their second album, Descendants of Evil, which followed that split. What did shine through was the band’s talent for creating hateful musical horror — a complex of vile, malicious, oppressive, desolate, and violently furious experiences.

Those of us who’ve enthusiastically fallen beneath the previous malign assaults of this Polish band will be thrilled to learn that on December 12th Godz Ov War Productions will release a new Upon the Altar EP, a six-track manifestation of pitch-black ruin named Profanation’s Vapor — and even more thrilled to hear it today through our full streaming premiere. Continue reading »

DARVAZA: “WE ARE HIM”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 102025
 

(We present Daniel Barkasi’s review of. new album by the international black metal band Darvaza, released last week by Terratur Possessions. Band photography by Necroshorns.)

When attempting to think of an active band who embodies the essence of what black metal is, can, and should be, the name Darvaza should be at the forefront of thought.

Harnessing the tried-and-true of the genre’s originators, while imposing their own devilish defiance and musical ideals, the two-piece has blazed their own path since their 2015 EP The Downward Descent, and since have steadily cemented their place in the pantheon of darkness. Ascending into Perdition in 2022 set a high marker for the band, especially impressive with that being their first full-length – a release that even the most skeptical approve of without hesitation.

At long last, the wait for the eagerly anticipated album number two is at an end, with We are Him ready to be unleashed. With the weight of expectation hanging overhead, the question is if Darvaza can continue delivering as they have. No pressure.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE SECOND FOVEA — “CLAWS OF BENGAL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 092025
 

(written by Islander)

Today we’re touching base again (for the seventh time in the last four years) with The Second Fovea, a band originally birthed in India but whose members are currently spread among the U.S., India, and Canada.

Two of their previous singles which were the subject of all those previous writings focused upon wildlife — manta rays and snakes – but all of their songs, including those two, have carried socio-political messages, and most directly in the song “Headshot”, which was a potent condemnation of racism and hate crimes across the globe.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for a new single from the group, and as you can see, it’s devoted to Bengal tigers, and more specifically (as the band tell us), it’s “dedicated to the legendary Bengal Tigers of the Sundarbans in India — the world’s largest mangrove forest and one of the last remaining strongholds for this endangered species.” Continue reading »

CLEARING THE SLATE PART TWO: BRUTALITY

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 092025
 

(This is the second Part of what projects to be four record-review collections by DGR — collections of multiple reviews that are shorter by his standards than what you usually see from him — all of them intended to clear his slate in preparation for year-end lists to come.)

Part Two of this completely out of control yet still well-intentioned slate clearing comes to us as the result of yours truly realizing that a lot of his review collective consisted of some pretty overwhelming death metal albums.

On top of this, there’s still more but they’re being shuffled around as best I can because even then there were still one or two “surprise motherfucker!” late additions to the list that, in this case, served as good balance to the meteor impact albums that otherwise comprise this fucking monster of a collection. Knuckle dragging and neck snapping walk hand in hand among this collection, save for one surprisingly introspective battering in the middle, and it only clears the way for an even more steady pile of music to follow… and we haven’t even descended into the year end list depravity yet.

Send help. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FOSSILIZATION — “CREMATION OF A SERAPH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 082025
 

(written by Islander)

It is with terrible delight today that we help announce a new album by the tremendous Brasilian death/doom band Fossilization. It bears the name Advent of Wounds, and it’s set for release on February 13th by the ever-tasteful Everlasting Spew Records. The label rightly describes it as “a work of sheer ferocity and oppressive gloom” — “bleak, crushing and claustrophobic”, “a summoning of despair that drags the listener into a chasm where brutality and anguish entwine.”

In its current configuration, Fozzilization is still principally the work of V. (voices, guitars, bass) from the sludge/death/doom metal band Jupiterian, but now joined by  guitarist Z. Before we get to the main subject of this post — our premiere of the first advance song from Advent of Wounds — we want to share a statement by V. about this new album: Continue reading »

CLEARING THE SLATE PART I: THE ADVENTUROUS (DESSIDERIUM, OMNIVIDE, MECHINA)

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 082025
 

(This is the first Part of what projects to be four record-review collections by DGR — collections of multiple reviews that are shorter by his standards than what you usually see from him — all of them intended to clear his slate in preparation for year-end lists to come.)

Here’s how this happens: Inevitably at some point in November, year-end lists start dropping and the reality of the fact that the year is ending suddenly feels more “real”. The compulsion to cover everything begins to vanish and the compulsion to grid everything instead becomes stronger, yet the same imagined debts to bands that you’ve been listening to throughout the year remains.

I swore up and down this year that I wouldn’t do many articles like this and I like to pretend I held to that promise. If I intended to review a band, they received the full investment and treatment, rarely broken out into these articles where the reviews are a little more freeform, freeflowing, and more casually written. It was meant to reflect that I was taking time with these bands, which is why articles like this one tend to frustrate me. For the reader they’re an obvious blessing, given that it’s a much quicker series of recommendations, but it’s a gap I can’t mentally jump just yet. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SODALITY, GORRCH, THE RUINS OF BEVERAST, SAINTE OBYANA DU FROID

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Dec 072025
 

(written by Islander)

Greetings on another Sunday morning. As you can see, I have only four selections to recommend for today, but that’s mainly because two of them are complete albums just released on Friday, and thus it took me some time to get immersed in those and try to wrestle my thoughts about them into some kind of order. I’ve positioned those two as bookends around singles from two forthcoming albums.

I can’t say these choices were the kind that put me in a fugue state. Each one is very different from the others, and the shifts are pretty dramatic, maybe especially the changes wrought by the last one, the debut release of a band I knew nothing about before listening (unlike the first three). But I think you’ll also discover a kind of through-line that ties all four selections together, and I’ll touch on that as we go.

As always, I hope at least one of the four, if not all four, will resonate with you in some powerful way. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: NECROFIER, CONSUMPTION, EXIMPERITUS, DER ROTE MILAN, SMEARING, MARTIRIO

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 062025
 

(written by Islander)

For you music lovers out there who just crawled out from under a rock, yesterday was a Bandcamp Friday, the last one of 2025. During those 24 hours we received more than 300 e-mails in the NCS in-box, at least half of them Bandcamp alerts, and that’s not counting the flood of digital traffic that rolled in the day before. Many of the messages were about music that had just been released.

I figure I have about a 50/50 success rate in getting new-music roundups posted on Bandcamp Fridays, which for obvious reasons would be an ideal time for them. Yesterday goes in the failure column. Just couldn’t get it done yesterday, what with other distractions getting in the way and the desirability of allowing Andy Synn’s list-week pre-launch to be our last post of the work-week.

I do feel guilty, but would have felt guilty anyway: Even rounding up a handful of new songs yesterday wouldn’t have made a very big dent in the wall of new tracks that slammed down this past week. Today’s roundup is just a modest dent too, but hopefully sufficient to start your weekend off with a dented skull. As usual, I’ll attempt to do additional cranial denting (of a more consistently blackened variety) tomorrow. Continue reading »

THE SYMBOLIC HEALING TOUR 2025: DEATH TO ALL, GORGUTS, PHOBOPHILIC (SANTA ANA, CA 11/29/25)

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 052025
 

(Our friend Ben Manzella caught the November 29 stop (at The Observatory venue in California) of Death to All’s Symbolic Healing Tour 2025, with support from Gorguts and Phobophilic, and he gave us the following report, along with his own great photos of the event.)

Sometimes, a mixed lineup is good and needed. I’d say more often than not, I enjoy seeing a three- or four-band lineup so that I don’t know what to expect at the beginning of each set. This past Saturday was not a night without surprises, per se, but there was a definite focus. The focus this Saturday in Santa Ana was Death Metal, and Death to All’s now-finished Symbolic Healing Tour had arrived to provide a few hours of deadly music to a variety of ages in the crowd.

I think I saw one person arrive with around three or four of his kids for the show, and you could tell he was a diehard fan of the genre. It is fun to see a night that used to be an escape when I was a kid become a family night out for some, and I would have never guessed it would be possible. Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XXII: NOVEMBER TRANSFORMATIONS

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 052025
 

(Daniel Barkasi has delivered another monthly collection of reviews, and in this installment he recommends six records released in November 2025.)

An occurrence that comes along with this time of year – other than a lot of holidays – is an uptick in touring and shows. For the last month, we could have gone to at least 3-4 shows per week if able – a fine way to bow out of the Sunshine state. One of the last of which was Cattle Decapitation’s headline run (you can read the review and see my photographer wife’s photos here at NCS). She’s damn good, and it’s a blast to cover shows with her. We make a great tandem, both in this scenario and every other. With the US Thanksgiving holiday in the rearview, this serves as a reminder that I’ve got a ton to be thankful for. Don’t take anything for granted, folks! Continue reading »

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