AN NCS INTERVIEW: VÉHÉMENCE

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Jun 262026
 

(On June 10th the Antiq label released Assiégé pour l’Eternité, a special recasting of the influential debut album by the French medieval black metal band Véhémence. In the following very interesting interview Comrade Aleks makes a deep dive into the changes wrought through this recasting with Véhémence founder Tulzcha and vocalist Hyver.)

The French band Véhémence was started as a solo project by Tulzcha, who decided to try his talent at this endeavor on his own. His first album, Assiege (2014), was noticed, and over time, Tulzcha formed a team, which today includes Antiq Records owner Leon Ghiselin (aka Hyver), drummer Thomas Leiner, and bassist Konstantin Korolev, whom you might recognize from Passéisme.

Over three albums, the project grew so much that it was decided to completely re-record the first album, revamping the arrangements, adding lead guitar parts, live drums, violin, flute, and more. Additionally, the lyrics were updated, now even more in keeping with Véhémence’s medieval fantasy, and, of course, the cover art was also updated. The songs remain recognizable, but at the same time, it’s impossible to ignore how they’ve changed for the better.

Tonight I invite you to the realms of medieval black metal with Tulzcha and Hyver as our guides. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DISTORTED REFLECTION

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Jun 192026
 

(In late February the Greek doom metal band Distorted Reflection released their second full-length through Iron Shield Records, and that led our Comrade Aleks to contact the band’s founder and guitarist/vocalist Kostas Salomidis for an interview, which we are happy to share with you today.)

Distorted Reflection was created by Kostas Salomidis, guitarist and co-founder of one of the first Greek doom metal bands, Sorrows Path. Kostas left his first band in 2022 due to creative differences, and the newly formed traditional doom outift, Distorted Reflection, released their debut, Doom Rules Eternally, two years later. The second full-length, Doom Zone, was recorded by Kostas, again with Vangelis Yal (bassist for prog metal band Fragile Vastness) and new drummer Thomas Zen.

Kostas performs not only as a guitarist but also as a vocalist now, and by the second album, he has made progress in his new role. For better or worse, Doom Zone’s eleven tracks fit into 38 minutes, and within this framework, Distorted Reflection offer a slightly revised formula of the first album. This collection of tracks, built on the foundations of doom and heavy metal, is energetic in spirit and filled with melodic themes that, despite their richness, are remarkably compact.

Let’s try to catch a glimpse in Distorted Reflection with Kostas himself. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEFILED

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Jun 162026
 


(all photos by Fukcrec Hbk)

(On June 12th Season of Mist released a new album by the long-persevering Japanese death metal band Defiled, and in advance of that our Comrade Aleks conducted an exceptionally good interview with Defiled founder/guitarist Yusuke Sumita, which we at last present today.)

Having started out in 1992, Japanese tech-deathsters Defiled have changed their lineup, sound, and, to some extent, style several times over the years. The last decade of the band’s career has been marked by a fairly regular stream of new releases, and their ninth full-length, Altered State, arrived right on schedule.

Although guitarist Yusuke Sumita is the only founding member of Defiled still in the fold, his three bandmates are also seasoned veterans, having spent between seven and thirteen years in the band. But even yet another lineup change is unlikely to derail Yusuke’s locomotive, which he, with gritted jaw, drives at full speed, demolishing barriers with concentrated, intense, and thoroughly technical death metal.

It’s barely a surprise, but despite its reputation and ambiguous cover art, the core motifs of Altered State are Orwellian visions of a present/future, but in the form of an open-to-interpretation idea of ​​the general psychological pressure and discomfort that society and the world inflict on us. At times this material sounds like an intense CrossFit workout, and while it’s sometimes hard to enjoy with such a tough workout, it’s achievable with the right amount of practice.

I’m glad that we had an opportunity to interview Yusuke, and I’d like to thank him once more for in-depth answers, which made this interview a pretty rewarding experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEFECT DESIGNER

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Jun 122026
 

(Anyone who has listened to Defect Designer, and perhaps especially their current album Depressants [released last month by Transcending Obscurity] will expect any discussion with them to be unusually interesting, especially if it includes insights into their creative process — and expectations are fulfilled in the following interview of Dmitry Sukhinin and Martin Storm-Olsen by our Comrade Aleks.)

I bet that you already had a glimpse here on the new metal of Defect Designer, so I’d prefer to avoid revisiting the band’s background. What we have now is Defect Designer’s fourth full-length Depressants, which continues a series of experiments in prog, death metal, and avant-garde music.

Dmitry Sukhinin is responsible for guitar, bass, and main vocals, as well as some of the music and lyrics; Martin Storm-Olsen has added banjo, mandolin, and twelve-string acoustic guitar to his arsenal this time around. Besides relatively new and extraordinary drummer Eugene Ryabchenko, this album also features female vocals (“Body Count of My Cow Tail”), and one of the three guest vocalists is Björn Strid from Soilwork (“Expiration Deferral Request Denied”).

Depressants sounds like an anthem of unbridled chaos, but in reality, it’s a meticulously crafted piece that has undergone a series of modifications at various stages. In fact, the band’s previous album, Chitin, was recorded literally in the middle of working on Depressants! So the songs were written unhurriedly, with all the necessary elements given due attention. Thus, the screaming death metal cacophony of “Butterfly Juice Straw” easily transforms into epic, melodic metal, while the magical, orchestral keyboard lines of “As the Terracotta Dust Settles”, on the contrary, are instantly dispersed by a rabid death metal overtone.

Asynchrony and extreme dissonance go hand in hand with harmony and classical music. Depressants is the carnage of “Daily Dose of Gloom,” the mandolin finale of “Repeated Aversive…,” the hard rock of “Expiration Defreral…,” and the sleepy prog haze of “Body Count…” A lot of everything to listen to, a lot of everything to dig, a lot of everything to discuss with the band’s main authors. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TARASK

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Jun 032026
 

(In April of this year Antiq Records released a new album by the French black metal band Tarask. Comrade Aleks was drawn to it, and followed up his listening with this interview of the project’s creator.)

I fell for this bait again and initiated an interview with the band, whose new album description included the adjective “Lovecraftian.” But the Toulon-based black metal duo Tarask has slightly altered its concept for their second album, Sitra Ahra, and now relies on occult metaphors as a means of expression towards consumerism and modern society.

Being doom-guy for most of my time, nowadays I lean towards black metal as a more focused and straightforward way of channeling this discomfort… and I had a lot of this today after reading just the headlines of up-to-date news. So I have to admit, that classic and atmospheric black metal of Sitra Ahra is a good soundtrack to this evening when I’m ready to share with you this interview we’ve done with H. P. K. (vocals, guitars, bass). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: EMINENTIA TENEBRIS

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May 262026
 

(Below you will find Comrade Aleks’ very engaging discussion with the humble founder of the French epic black metal band Eminentia Tenebris, whose latest album, their fourth, was released last year by Antiq Records.)

We always do our best to follow new releases and present our readers the most actual and up-to-date information, but life is life and it’s difficult to cover all releases we receive. So I found the digital promo of Eminentia Tenebris’ album Whispers of the Undying in the corner of my desktop. I immediately recognized the album’s cover art, as it looks like a manifest, it’s very metal to the degree of cliché, yet it’s remarkable and solid. Thus finally I paid proper attention to this album and enjoyed it a lot with its epic and cinematic black metal.

It could be a nostalgic vibe of some songs or their refreshing breath, but I believe that the decision to do an interview with Cryo, Eminentia Tenebris’ founder, was a right one. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CANDARIAN

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May 252026
 

(Our contributor Zoltar is back with us again, this time presenting his interview with José Pablo, vocalist and bassist of the Costa Rican death metal band Candarian, whose debut album was released in April of this year.)

Two out four members of CANDARIAN already play in Chile, eat your heart out? If you’re a classic and dark-sounding death metal freak like I am, you do know damn well that over the last few years, Chile has more or less taken the lead in that style, piling one after another bands with the right attitude, underground ethos, and shitloads of reverb this style requires. But there’s a new boy in town… Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: RESURRECTED

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May 042026
 

(On April 24th Testimony Records released the long-awaited and quite crushing eighth full-length by the German death metal band Resurrected, and that provided a timely reason for our contributor Zoltar to arrange an interview with the band’s sole remaining original member, Thomas Granzow. It was a very good discussion, as you can now see for yourselves.)

Thanks Satan for Germany. Let’s face it: back in the mid-’90s when listening to death metal became as fashionable as eating rusty nails for breakfast, they seemingly were the only ones to care – next to Poland and the Czech Republic to be fair, but a whole different level.

Since the hey days of MORGOTH, they may have failed to produce A-list contenders (and don’t get me started on what ATROCITY turned into post-Hallucinations will ya?) but the underground scene was nevertheless striving with blue collar defenders of the faith who had no problem whatsoever doing songs about zombies and serial-killers while covering early DEATH, like OBSCENITY, ANASARCA, MANGLED TORSOS, BLOOD, TORCHURE, PURGATORY…

 Many were quite derivative, most of them lasted an album or two before drifting away without anybody noticing, but on this desolate battlefield, surrounded by many of their fallen comrades, RESURRECTED – or more precisely their guitarist and main songwriter Thomas Granzow – soldiered on, no matter what. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GROND

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Apr 302026
 

(Today is the day when Xtreem Music releases a new album by the band Grond, and to coincide with that long-awaited event we’re publishing Comrade Aleks’ in-depth interview with Grond frontman and founder Kist. Below you will also have a chance to stream the album in full.)

Moscow-based Grond are stalwarts of the death metal underground and dedicated worshipers of Lovecraftian Horrors. After a huge break the band returns with a new full-length album, and needless to say it’s their most mature, most sophisticated, and most cold-blooded work to date.

Xtreem Music gave Grond the green light, and The Temple, a concept album based on Lovecraft’s story with the same name, but the guys are true to themselves and they offer you their own interpretation of the master’s classics. We interviewed Grond’s frontman and founder Kist, and I’m excited to share this interview with you. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SOULBURN

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Apr 272026
 

(The Dutch metal extremists Soulburn will release their fifth album on June 12th through Testimony Records, and that created a good opportunity for our Comrade Aleks to check in with Soulburn co-founder Eric Daniels. A great discussuion ensued, and you can check it out below along with the album’s first two singles.)

Dutch extreme metal act Soulburn was born 30 years ago after the first disbanding of legendary death-doom aggressors Asphyx whose core members Eric Daniels (guitars) and Bob Bagchus (drums) taught a new lesson of extremity with the devastating debut Feeding on Angels (1998). Years passed, and Eric is the only original Soulburn member now, although his bandmates Twan van Geel (bass, vocals), Remco Kreft (guitars), and Marc Verhaar (drums) are hardened veterans of the metal underground too.

Honestly, I didn’t expect any surprises from the band’s new album Quantifying Cosmic Doom but more good old blasphemous extreme stuff, yet the album strikes me not only with its high technical quality but also with a much wider concept, both lyrically and music-wise. The album is scheduled for the 12th of June by Testimony Records, so be forewarned! Quantifying Cosmic Doom this way comes.

I was lucky to get this in-depth interview with Eric himself, and there’s no better way to learn more about Soulburn than to read it. Continue reading »

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