AN NCS INTERVIEW: CRUST

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Sep 092020
 

 

(In this new interview — and a very good read it is — Comrade Aleks talked with Artur Filenko, vocalist and bassist of the Russian genre-bending band Crust, whose new album was released in August of this year.)

Crust from Veliky Novgorod, Russia, searched for their own working formula beginning in 2015 when their first, self-titled EP was recorded. Three more EPs and a full-length, The Promised Land (2019), led them to the sound they embody with their crushing new album …And a Dirge Becomes An Anthem released by [addicted label] / no name label, on which Vlad Tatarsky (guitars), Roman Romanov (drums), and Artur Filenko (vocals, bass) perform a nihilistic and driving combination of death-doom with some shades of black.

Recorded live at the studio, this material offers tasty old school vibes and severe delivery. I dig this album, so the interview with Artur was just a question of time. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HEX

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Sep 082020
 

 

(We present Comrade Aleks interview of Adolfo Cantoya, guitarist of the Basque Country band Hex, accompanied by the live performance photos of Panda Queen.)

Hex is a relatively new band from Bilbao, Basque Country, as it was started about eight years ago, but the band’s core is built by gents who have years of experience playing heavy music behind them. For example Hex’ vocalist Jonathan Pernía García started in the brutal death act Forensick back in 2001 and guitarist Adolfo Cantoya aka Drake did some thrash with Beer Mosh and From The Cross in the early ’90s. Together they’ve strode the path of death-doom since 2012, but it took five more years to record a new album after their debut full-length Deadly Sin (2014).

And so God Has No Name was released almost a year ago by Transcending Obscurity Records, but why not revisit this album together with Adolfo today? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ATAVIST

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Sep 032020
 

 

(We present Comrade Aleks‘ extensive interview of Chris Naughton from the UK band Atavist, whose new album III: Absolution was released in June by Candlelight Records.)

Sometimes they come back… Manchester-based Atavist was put on hold twelve years ago and almost by accident I learned that the band had reunited in almost its original line-up: Chris Naughton (guitars), Toby Bradshaw (vocals), Shane Ryan (bass) and Callum Cox (drums) who joined Atavist in 2006, soon after the recording of their debut self-titled album. They didn’t waste the time that elapsed in that long break between their 2008 split Infernal Procession… And Then Everything Dies and their new full-length work, III: Absolution but were instead playing in different extreme metal bands and honing their skills.

Released by Candlelight Records earlier this summer, III: Absolution represents Atavist at their peak, with the band bringing deep, devastating, and uncompromised doom-death battle in its slower and minimalistic form. They pay attention to arrangements and very rare decorative elements like cello or some samples, but overall it’s cold and bleak (in the good sense of the words) doom-death. We got in contact with Chris Naughton to learn more about Atavist’s return. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MEGALITH LEVITATION

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Aug 312020
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks spoke with a member of the Russian acid doom band Megalith Levitation, who just released a split album with Dekonstruktor earlier this month through Aesthetic Death, and are now finishing their second album.)

Megalith Levitation from the heavy industrialized Russian city of Chelyabinsk didn’t waste their time during the Covid quarantine. They’re low and they’re acid, as their doom is hallucinogenic and hypnotizing. Almost accidentally the trio found themselves having enough material for an EP and an LP, and the decision was made to unite in unholy collaboration with their Moscow-based colleagues Dekonstruktor. And so two bands united to commit new acid doom rites and to make close to total entropy by eating the universe alive. No way back, fuck life, they go further.

Megalith Levitation‘s SAA (vocals, guitars) was summoned, we ask, he answers. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOOM SESSIONS INTERVIEW: CONAN, DEADSMOKE, AND HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS RECORDS

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Aug 272020
 

 

(Earlier this year the Heavy Psych Sounds label announced a series of splits called Doom Sessions, and Volume I (released in mid-July) featured songs by the UK’s Conan and Italy’s Deadsmoke. This prompted Comrade Aleks to reach out to the label and the bands with a few questions, and we present the results today, along with music from the split.)

It’s important to keep some unity during this shitty time. Paradise Lost says “Faith divides us, Death unites us”, but indeed there’s a damn lot of things which divide us – politics, Covid, politics again, etc. Split albums always offer this sense of unity inside the heavy scene, and here we have one.

As Heavy Psych Sounds Records have launched a series of splits entitled Doom Sessions, I made the decision to support it with such short interviews as you’ll find below. Doom Sessions‘ first edition includes songs from the almighty crushing Conan (UK) and their younger sludgy brothers Deadsmoke (Italy). A few words from the label’s founder Gabriel Fiori (Black Rainbows band) clarify a few details about this series as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PRIMITIVE MAN

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Aug 142020
 

 

(Today is the day set by Relapse Records for the release of Primitive Man‘s new album Immersion, and it is thus a fine time to share with you this new interview by Comrade Aleks of the band’s vocalist/guitarist Ethan Lee McCarthy.)

Bad times for good guys and bad times for bad guys. It does not matter who you are when the world doesn’t stop crumbling down right beneath your feet. Extreme situations demand primitive reactions, just this basic set which kept our antediluvian ancestors alive, even as it seems we head on towards extinction with each step we’re forced to take by powers behind our backs. You can pray, you can speak your final manifest of disobedience… who knows if it counts?

In this environment the Denver-based crew of Neanderthal sludge-bringers Primitive Man come our way with their third full-length album, Immersion. We’ve searched for the source of its bitterness, ugliness, and anger together with Ethan Lee McCarthy (vocals, guitars) and here’s what we found. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CAULDRON BLACK RAM

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Aug 102020
 

 

(On the 22nd of May 20 Buck Spin delivered unto us a new Cauldron Black Ram album, and it is a very good one, capable of inspiring Comrade Aleks to reach out for an interview, which he has done with the band’s drummer and vocalist Denny Blake, and these are the results.)

These savage sea wolves of black and death metal from Australia are busy gentlemen. Each of Cauldron Black Ram‘s members has a bunch of other bands and projects, so it’s a miracle how they manage to keep all these bands and projects active. And this year Cauldron Black Ram’s fourth full-length Slaver was unleashed by 20 Buck Spin Records, bringing us stories of horror, death, violence and death again. I was lucky to catch one of the band’s founders, Denny Blake (drums, vocals), and despite my meager efforts and ignorance he has helped me to complete this interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SUNKEN

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Aug 072020
 

 

(Comrade Aleks returns to NCS with this interview of guitarist Keränen, co-founder of the Finnish band Sunken, whose debut album was released on July 10 by Argonauta Records.)

Sunken from Tempere, Finland was founded in 2009 by guitarist Keränen and drummer Korpi. They’ve chosen a path leading towards doom-death isolation from the start, but Sunken took shape very slowly: Jokipii (vocals, rhythm guitars) joined in 2013, Tuomi (bass) entered in 2017, and only since then has the real darkness started to take its form from sketches and the riffs that Keränen and Korpi had in their minds for years.

Song by song, their debut album From Slow Sleep Like Death grew, blossomed, and soon was discovered by Argonauta Records, who made the decision to support this ascetic doom choir. So I do as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KATAKLYSM (MAURIZIO IACONO)

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Aug 052020
 

 

We present an audio stream of DJ Jet‘s lively telephone interview with Maurizio Iacono, frontman of the renowned Kataklysm. Their new album Unconquered will be released by Nuclear Blast on September 25th.

The interview covers such subjects as the effect of the pandemic on Kataklysm and the band’s plans for the release and promotion of the new album,  its impact on the activities of other bands for whom Maurizio provides management services, and of course his insights into the music, lyrics, and artwork of this fiery new album and how it became a reality (as well as the status of work on the next Ex Deo record).

After the interview, also check out the video for the first single for the album, a track named “The Killshot“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND AN INTERVIEW): EXITIUM SUI – “THE SINISTER BUSINESS OF SELLING HOPE”

 Album Reviews, Interviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 052020
 

 

(Andy Synn introduces our premiere stream of a new EP by Exitium Sui, the solo project of ex-Deadspace frontman Chris Gebauer, and presents an interview of him as well.)

Exitium Sui may be a relatively new name, but if you’ve been paying attention to this site over the last several months you’ll no doubt have spotted our coverage of the band’s debut EP, Nuclear Sundown, as well as our preview of “Eviscerate My Withered Soul”, the first song from their upcoming album, Ad Personam (which I’ve heard in full, and it’s a suffocatingly dense and doom-laden slab of grim, blackened filth, make no mistake).

Today we’re bringing you an exclusive stream of The Sinister Business of Selling Hope, which finds the band’s sound pivoting away from the more doom-inflected approach of their first EP in favour of something more closely related to the pulsating blackened belligerence of Leviathan or Blut Aus Nord.

That’s not to say that these four tracks are a total departure from what has gone before – in fact, when the full album is released you’ll likely gain a much better appreciation of  …Selling Hope’s role in the band’s overall development – but suffice it to say that those looking for some seriously oppressive, shockingly aggressive, and crushingly claustrophobic Black Metal will do well to check this one out at the earliest opportunity.

So, please, read on for a full stream of the entire EP accompanied by a short but illluminating interview with band mastermind ES. Continue reading »

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