Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEFIANT — “LORD OF THE OPENING”

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May 122025
 

(written by Islander)

This year the Croatian black/death metal band Defiant will commemorate their 20th year of existence with the release of their fifth album Mammon Mantra. It’s set for discharge by Satanath Records (Georgia) and InsArt Records (UK) on May 17th, and to help pave the way we’re premiering a blaspheming lyric video for the album track “Lord of the Opening“.

Mammon Mantra follows the band’s last album Insurrection Icon by about seven years, though the band helped fill that long gap with the Ways ov Damnation split with DVVAD in late 2020 and the Vanguards of Misrule EP in 2022.

The new album is described as “the closest thing that the band ever came to a concept album; it explores man’s darkest desires and corruption ever since this creature stood on its two feet, from the dawn of time to the current events.”

The song you’re about to discover is definitely a dark and devastating creation, well-suited to our current age of damnation, but it’s also a multi-faceted head-spinner of a high order. And, it features guest vocals by Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan from Venom Inc./Atomkraft. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISEMBODIMENT — “STYGIAN OVERTURE”

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May 122025
 

(written by Islander)

WARNING: You are about to be stomped and gouged, bounced off the walls and lacerated, dragged into foul and choking cesspools and made witness to violent charnel-house abominations. Your pulse will pound, your head will move, your guts will churn. And you will smile broadly at every abuse to which you will be subjected!

These are our predictions for how addicts of foul and ferocious death metal will receive the song we’re now presenting from Spiral Crypts, the hotly anticipated debut album of Disembodiment from Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, which will see release in July via Everlasting Spew Records. Continue reading »

…AND OCEANS: “THE REGENERATION ITINERARY”

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May 122025
 

(We present DGR‘s review of the new album by Finland’s …And Oceans, which will be released on May 23rd by Season of Mist.)
When it comes to Finland’s …And Oceans, sometimes I wonder if there are black metal fans out there who get a thousand-yard stare whenever the band starts up due to being constantly tossed the unexpected on an almost visceral level. …And Oceans have never been shy about a love for industrial and electronics and it has become their calling card within the extreme metal world.

I also often wonder if perhaps people are telling the same stories I am, wherein you’re describing this ambitious and explosive song barreling through guitar part and riff after riff as if they were being given away, a wall of drums behind them, and ear-burning vocals lofted above… only to then get completely sideswiped by some out-of-left-field electronics that barge their way into the song as if every story finds its ending at “and then the keyboards began.”

…And Oceans are stubbornly and wilfully unconventional, burning as many musical bridges as they have built, and just as easily turning to dust every bit of conventional good will they might have bought. Continue reading »

CAUSTIC WOUND: “GRINDING MECHANISM OF TORMENT” (TWO REVIEWS)

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May 092025
 

(Our writers make their own decisions about what to review. Our editor tries to coordinate so that two people don’t review the same album. In this instance his wires got crossed, and so in this feature we have not one but two vivid reviews — by DGR and Chile — of Caustic Wound‘s new album, which is out now on Profound Lore Records.)

GRINDING MECHANISM OF TORMENT — A REVIEW BY DGR

Washington’s Caustic Wound was only ever built to travel this particular path. The sense of inevitability that comes with knowing the musicians involved with this group, and how much further down the path into the dankest corners of the pits of death metal with their grinding side project, is natural. The combination of parts – Motiferum, Fetid, Magrudergrind… – makes perfect sense; there was no way it wasn’t going to sound like this.

When Quill Onkko asks you “was it ever thus?” after seeing all possibilities laid out before him while you’re visiting the backroom of Cetus, it contains similar feelings evoked by all the possibilities that Caustic Wound could have sounded like, given the band members making up the roster here. It was only ever going to narrow down to this. Everything else was a smokescreen. Continue reading »

BENEDICTION (“RAVAGE OF EMPIRES”) AND CANCER (“INVERTED WORLD”)

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May 082025
 

(Todd Manning prepared the following dual reviews of the latest albums by two UK legends, Benediction and Cancer, out now on Nuclear Blast and Peaceville, respectively.)

Resurrecting old school bands can often be a hit or miss affair. At least half, if not more than half, fail to capture anything resembling the magic of their earlier years. However, for those who do pull it off, listeners are beyond thrilled.

For some of us, the early ’90s were one of the greatest eras of metal. The death metal bands from then created such amazing music, full of brutality and a unique atmosphere. While we often hear about Swedish, New York, or Floridian death metal bands, we can’t forget the great British masters as well. Carcass and Bolt Thrower, of course, top that list, but Cancer and Benediction were important as well, and they both have new albums out. Continue reading »

LIK: “NECRO”

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May 082025
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the latest album by the Swedish death metal band Lik, out now on Metal Blade Records.)

We are now eleven years and four full-length albums into the death-obsessed career of Sweden’s Lik and it feels as if the group have been ever-present in one form or another. Formed right as the OSDM and Swede-death resurrections were full steam ahead, Lik have been steadily present just under the surface of the wider metal world.

There have been some decently long gaps between the group’s releases as well; a quick glance over their musical timeline suggests a pretty traditional three years or so gap between material but it always seems as if the band are always there in one’s listening habits. Perhaps it’s the fact that many of its members are spread out among larger bands like Bloodbath and Katatonia, so it seems almost inevitable that you’ll find yourself musing “Oh hey, it’s one of the guys from Lik!”

Or it could be that despite their clearly prescribed formula and tribute-paying at the altar of gore, Lik have proven themselves to be savants in the genre of death metal and happen to be particularly good at this. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TURIAN — “BLOOD QUANTUM BLUES”

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May 072025
 

(written by Islander)

As you may know, No Clean Singing is a lead sponsor of Northwest Terror Fest, and its 2025 edition kicks off tomorrow in Seattle for a three-day run. It’s a stacked lineup, but one of the bands I’m most eager to see is the Seattle outfit Turian. And the timing is perfect, because they’re just a few weeks away from the release of their new album Blood Quantum Blues on Wise Blood Records.

Anyone who has followed the upward trajectory of Turian knows that they’ve never felt hemmed in by genre boundaries. Each release has seen them mixing influences together in often mind-boggling ways, and rarely in the same way. “Expect the unexpected” is good advice for going into what they’ve done so far, and an even better piece of advice in the case of Blood Quantum Blues.

But don’t take our word for it. Take the word of some of Turian‘s members: Continue reading »

FRACTAL UNIVERSE: “THE GREAT FILTERS”

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May 072025
 

(Today DGR circles back around to one of his favorite tech-death bands, the Parisian unit Fractal Universe and their new album The Great Filters, which was released by M-Theory Audio on April 4th.)

When did we settle on France’s Fractal Universe becoming tech-death’s younger brothers? Other than the part where it seems like they’ve discovered a fountain of youth and seem to appear perpetually young.

Founded in 2013, by the time of their second album Rhizomes Of Insanity Fractal Universe were already a polished and terrifically talented band, constructing songs out of guitar riffs just on the left side of bizarre and forever jagged as rocks slowly worn down by nature. Over time, they’ve become a being all their own that have absorbed as many influences as they themselves have influenced, each release some new permutating on a core sound honed well over the course of a decade.

Yet, it seems that the tale of Fractal Universe is just as much a tale of “well fuck you, I can do that too!” on every album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GVORN — “NECROMANTIC DREAM”

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May 062025
 

(written by Islander)

Roughly three years on from their debut album Keeper of Grief, the Russian band Gvorn will have a new EP named Lovecromancy released on May 13th by Satanath Records. It reflects a change in the band’s stylistic creativity as compared to that first full-length, a change heralded by the EP’s ghastly cover art.

While the debut of this group from Yekaterinburg included ingredients of funeral doom, they have mostly put those aside in favor of traditions of old school death/doom. But in case you assume they are merely plodding along in well-worn ruts, you will learn differently when you hear “Necromantic Dream“, the song we’re premiering today from the new EP. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ESCHATON — “HELLFIRE’S WOE”

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May 062025
 


cover artwork by Dave Melvin

(written by Islander)

Here we have a lineup that looks mighty impressive on paper and screens. To quote from Transcending Obscurity Records:

Technical death metal band Eschaton return after a gap of six years with a reinvigorated, star-studded line-up that undoubtedly elevates their sound to hitherto unexplored heights. They have none other than Christian Münzner formerly of Obscura and Necrophagist accompanying the band founder Josh Berry on guitars. For the vocals, they have enlisted the services of Mac Smith of Apogean and Abyssalis, and for the bass, they have brought on Scott Bradly from Inanimate Existence, while Darren Cesca of Pillory and formerly in Deeds of Flesh and Arsis continues to hold down the fort on drums.

Yes indeed, very impressive. That description might remind people (of a certain age) of a line from the movie The Dirty Dozen, in which Donald Sutherland’s pretend-general reviews ranks of well-dressed troops and comments to their commanding officer, “Very pretty, Colonel, very pretty, but can they fight?” We shall see…. Continue reading »

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