SHADES OF BLACK: DARK PLAGUE, PYRE OF DESCENT, LA BESTIA DE GEVAUDAN, MATAVITATAU, SPIRIT POSSESSION, SKELETAL SERPENT

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Aug 142026
 

(written by Islander)

As many of you will know, I usually post a column at NCS on Sundays with recommendations in the expanding orbit of black metal. I wasn’t able to do that last Sunday due to leaving home on the early side of the day for what turned out to be a cool birthday celebration in a forest for a friend. I had made some choices for the column by then, and wanted to carry through with them whenever I could this week, while adding a couple of songs I’ve discovered since last weekend.

But it took me nearly all week to get this finished. It comes to you on another day when I’m about to depart from home and computer for most of the day; I have a ridiculously early start on a journey to the Seattle airport for a long weekend vacation. I’m doubtful that I’ll be able to assemble the usual new-music roundups for this coming Saturday and Sunday, but we shall see.

In the collection you’re now looking at I’ve interwoven an album, an EP, and four singles. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SOLNEGRE — “IN THE STILLNESS OF THE WOMB (THE SOLIS EXTINCTIO SESSIONS / LIVE FROM DIORAMA SOUND)”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 102026
 

(written by Islander)

The Spanish band SolNegre first seized our attention here through their release in 2024 of a single song named Annihilation of the Self, which extended for more than 21 minutes. Our reviewer called it “a veritable odyssey of expressive, expansive, atmosphere-heavy Death Doom rich in both metallic weight and melodic depth”, “at times mournfully minimalist and melancholy, at others morbidly heavy (and not afraid to crank up the Death Metal influences)”.

SolNegre followed that last April with their second album, Anthems of the Grand Collapse, and that seized our attention too. Our review praised it as “[e]asily one of the best Doom (or Doom-related) albums of the year, possessing a scintillating sense of grandeur and a vivid artistic vision thoroughly befitting the similarly epic and evocative artwork that adorns its cover” — “a heavy album – both musically and emotionally – [but] also an album of surprising variety”.

However, along with bringing the triumph of that album, 2026 has proven to be a year of heartbreaking tragedy for SolNegre, an unexpected tragedy that occurred just before the live recording of the song and video we’re bringing you today. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DAWN OF DEMISE, WAYFARER, SVRM, DISHUMANE, TELESTERION, SLOTH HERDER

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 082026
 

(written by Islander)

I was able to spend a fair amount of time yesterday afternoon checking out new music I’d noticed over the past week, and made the choices you now see — though I again got a late start on the writing due to Friday night diversions that also went late. Here are just a few quick notes on what’s ahead:

I do enjoy making these roundups a roller-coaster ride, genre-wise. It was easier to do that with this one because the music that made the biggest impressions on me as I listened yesterday just happened to make a big spread of different experiences. You’ll see. If you’re not crazy about one thing, just keep on going, because the next thing will be a different kind of creature.

I’m not sure I will be able to post a SHADES OF BLACK column tomorrow. My wife and I are going to a birthday event for an old friend, and we’ll have to leave home well before I usually finish those columns. Maybe I’ll feel like making enough of a head-start this afternoon that I can get something ready, even if it’s short, before we head out. Or not. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TEMPLE WITCH — “MAKER’S BREATH”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 302026
 

(written by Islander)

We are very happy to welcome the doom metal band Temple Witch to our pages for the first time (and we think you’ll be happy about it too). They’re a trio based in Kent, Ohio and have released two albums so far, 2021’s Hand in Hand with Chaos and 2024’s Ocean Thousand, Mountain Thousand.

They also have a third album on the way now, one named Veiling the Void, and we’re helping introduce it by premiering a great video for a viscerally compelling song off the album named “Maker’s Breath“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARGUL — “KAMOG”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Surprises are often the spice of life, other than when the surprises involve things like getting T-boned at an intersection or having that mole turn out to be melanoma. But the song we’re about to premiere (and the whole album it comes from) has turned out to be a very happy surprise for this writer.

It’s a surprise because I wasn’t previously familiar with the band, and because their style of music is outside the kind of gnashing, gnarly, macabre, and malignant brands of extremity to which I usually subject my crippled ears. And it’s a spice-of-life surprise, because it turns out to be some of the most completely captivating music I’ve heard all year.

The band is Argul, a quartet from Lima, Peru, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Mauricio Guerrero, guitarist/vocalist Jose María Venturi, bassist Jian Holmes, and drummer Alonso Guerrero. They independently released a four-song demo in 2023, and now their debut album Soledad & Orgullo is set for release on August 21st by Personal Records. That album is the home of the remarkable song we’re now premiering, an enthralling track named “Kamog“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AZHIROCK — “EROTIC PANIC”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 132026
 

(written by Islander)

As we occasionally do, we’re about to step off our usual well-beaten musical paths and premiere a song whose changing facets include a lot of singing, a lot of industrial-strength groove, darting keyboards, and other features that might brand it as hard rock or maybe nu metal. But don’t worry, the song gets much more extreme too.

The name of the song, which is presented through a lyric video, is “Erotic Panic“. It’s from a conceptual album named The Killer I See In Me by the band AzhiRock, who originated in Tehran, Iran. The album is projected for release in 2027 by Satanath Records, and it will follow the band’s 2025 full-length, Echoes of Drifting Stones. Its concept is described in these words:

This album is about a person who has grown up in Terror, Pain, and sadistic family and society, Trauma which pushed him/ her to be a antisocial one…

He/She feels a killer is living inside….

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MOTHS

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Jul 082026
 

(We venture off our usual beaten paths today with the following very engaging interview conducted by Comrade Aleks with a member of the Puerto Rican band Moths, whose progressive metal goes off in very interesting and often unexpected directions.)

Things happen and it’s difficult to support each new release in time, but I believe that it’s better late than never, and today I’m belatedly announcing that Puerto Rican experimental outfit Moths have a second full-length album Septem, with each track of that dedicated to one of the seven sins. The idea isn’t new, but its execution sounds unique. I can’t say the same about the lyrics, however, as they pose the issue directly, without any frills, and yet the Moths’ essence is quite unusual.

The casual and flirtatious folk prelude “Sloth” could be anything but a prelude to a metal album. However, with “Envy,” electric guitar takes over, and the listener is treated to avant-garde and progressive witchy heavy rock. Moths’ new vocalist, Mariel Viruet, previously fronted a local tribute band and performed in a jazz band. Here, she showcases both trained jazz and extreme vocals, effortlessly channeling the track’s hard rock intensity.

“Greed” bursts in unexpectedly hard, predatory, and fast: Mariel growls out the lyrics and switches to her usual delivery. “Pride” follows the pattern of “Greed,” but this extreme, doomy metal piece is imbued with the prowess of progressive rock, with a loud, jazzy vocal and a wealth of instrumental nuances. The difference lies in the details, and Moths sounds disorienting in any case, and the extremity of “Wrath” is unique. Liquid prog parts mutate into fat riffs, growls alternate with jazzy and pop vocals, and all together it sounds bold, unusual, even provocative.

So, today, almost one year after Septem’s release, we managed to organize an interview with the band’s spokesman and bass-player Weslie Negrón. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: MONOLORD, ACID KING, MIZMOR – LIVE IN LOS ANGELES, JUNE 27, 2026

 Concert Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Jul 032026
 

(Kyle Doerksen is a very good photographer of varied scenes and subjects, as you can see here. He also has a taste for metal, and that led him to The Regent Theater in Los Angeles last weekend to witness performances by Monolord, Acid King, and Mizmor. We are greateful that he sent us the following report on the show and his accompanying photos.)

I arrived way too early, as I had never taken photos at The Regent and wanted to get the lay of the land. The room is an old theater from 1914 that operated as a high-end film house, a grind house, and then the logical conclusion: an adult movie theater. The theater eventually shuttered in 2000 and reappeared in 2014 in its current form.

A corridor leads you to two sets of double doors that open into the main room, with a bar to the left and right. A flight of steps down to the sloped floor makes for great sightlines but an awkward pit. There is also a fairly sizable upstairs that hosts another bar, a VIP area, and some sort of makeshift bleacher seating.

After a quick loop, I settled in up front and patiently waited for the show to start. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TORPOR — “ƉUNGEON ƉWELLERS”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 012026
 

(written by Islander)

We have devoted a lot of attention over the years to a UK band named Torpor, a point we mention because some of you may recall that coverage — and because the Torpor whose music you’re about to hear isn’t that band. But as you’re about to discover, although the names are the same, there’s no way anyone could confuse the music of the two groups.

Today’s Torpor is a Polish band originally formed in Warsaw under the prime influence of Bathory. They began making short releases in 2018, including a 2021 EP (The Ancient Tales), but now they’re primed for the release of a debut album by Dying Victims Productions on July 24th.

The new album, Ɖungeon Ɖescent, fully reveals the path they’ve been on. It could be considered “the idiosyncratic side of ancient heavy metal” or “swords & sorcery metal”, which are among the phrasings circulated on behalf of Dying Victims, but with spices of black metal in the mix; the classic Bathory influence still makes its mark too.

As a sign of what Ɖungeon Ɖescent presents, we’re premiering a thrilling album track named “Ɖungeon Ɖwellers“, one that creates an ancient atmosphere (swords and sorcery indeed) while getting listeners’ hearts pumping and leading them through a sequence of changing moods. And we’ll tell you right up-front that it features clean singing, which connects to the glorious old heavy metal traditions that this Torpor have embraced. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: AZIMUT, ONUS VITAE, HAINTGROVE, FLEHMEN POSITION, APHONIC THRENODY, CABINET, STAIN, MAGEFA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Just like this same time last week, I’m feeling overwhelmed by the volume of new music I want to recommend, and just like last week I’m resorting to some shortcuts so as to pack more into this column. It’s usually called SEEN AND HEARD, but you’ll probably understand why I change the title on Saturdays like this one.

I suppose it’s up for debate whether I’m really doing a favor to bands when the collection is this large. Maybe if I just focused on the usual four or six selections, more people would listen to all of it. Maybe most listeners won’t make it to the end or will skip over some of the music. But if I leave out something, it’s guaranteed that no one will find their way to it through their visits here. (Of course, I’m not vain enough to believe that coming here is the only way anyone discovers music.)

There’s probably no right answer, only doing what feels right in the moment. So, off we go…. Continue reading »

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