SEEN AND HEARD: THULCANDRA, ROTTEN SOUND, CATACOMB, LAMP OF MURMUUR, KAAL NAGINI, OSSAERT, MENSTRUAL VAMPIRES, BÜDDAH

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Feb 152023
 

I’m very happy about all the music in this mid-week roundup. I’m also very happy about the way it all lines up.

A big part of the fun of doing these collections is not just finding new songs and videos that I think are worth recommending, but also choosing the ones that either flow together well or instead ricochet off each other in unexpected ways. There’s a little bit of both strategies in what I chose for today, but mainly this roundup is designed to quickly elevate your adrenaline and then keep it surging. Lots of good cover art today as well.

THULCANDRA (Germany)

I searched out the first time we wrote about Thuldandra at this site. It was in June 2010, when NCS was barely seven months old. The occasion was an extensive review of the band’s 2010 debut album Fallen Angel’s Dominion, in which I included an extensive discussion of the band’s back-story, with notes about the C.S. Lewis space trilogy that was the source of their name. It was evident even then that they held the potential of becoming the truest heirs of Dissection. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: YSKELGROTH, PINCER CONSORTIUM, FLESHMEADOW, ILLUMINATED VOID

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Feb 112023
 

I had a fairly quiet Friday night, with just enough spirits over dinner to get loose but not enough to feel wrecked and disjointed this morning. Kept making my way through the first season of “Poker Face“, which is enormously entertaining through episode 4, and then another chunk of pages in the latest Murderbot novel, which I’m forcing myself to ration since I’ll be so morose when I have to wait for the next one.

Anyway, thanks for asking about my Friday night. Pretty sure that’s what those whispers were in my head. But now to drown out all whispers with a few more things I got into this morning. Yesterday’s roundup was heavy on the death metal, so I decided to branch out a bit today, while saving most (but not all) of the black stuff ’til tomorrow.

YSKELGROTH (Spain)

Well, as I said, I didn’t save all the black stuff for tomorrow. This first song was just too good a way to wake people the fuck up. It’s a head-spinning amalgam of symphonic grandiosity, bizarro-world guitar convulsions (with a few bracing gallops and insectile quiverings in the mix), full-throttle madhouse drumwork, bunker-busting grooves, and macabre vocals that stretch far to find so many ways to be ugly. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NIGHTMARER, BONE WEAPON, GRAND CADAVER, VADIAT, ANZV

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Feb 102023
 

This has been a rare week when we didn’t have at least one premiere on the calendar every day. That gave me the time to do not one, not two, but three round-ups of new songs and videos, including this one. And I ought to have time for a fourth one tomorrow.

The timing has been fortuitous, because the past week or two has been jammed with new singles and advance tracks from forthcoming records that have piqued my interest (and should pique yours), including the following four, with news of a new reissue at the end.

NIGHTMARER (U.S./Germany)

This tremendously impressive band moved from strength to greater strength over the course of their Chasm EP (2016), their debut album Cacophony of Terror (2018), and their Monolith of Corrosion EP (2021), and now they’re returning with a second album named Deformity Adrift that’s set for release on May 5th via their label Total Dissonance Worship in the US and Vendetta Records in Europe. Continue reading »

THE RETURN OF CULTHE FEST: APRIL 8-9, 2023 (MÜNSTER, GERMANY)

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Feb 102023
 

 

We’re helping to spread the word about the return of Culthe Fest on April 8th and 9th of this year in Münster, Germany, and it’s a triumphant return. The 2023 edition of the festival, which follows a covid-induced hiatus in recent years, features performances by 18 bands from 7 countries on three stages.

The music spans a range that includes black, death, doom, post-metal, and dark folk, and includes headliners Ultha and The Ruins of Beverast, and co-headliners Wolvennest and Sun of the Sleepless. Those are impressive names, but the entire line-up is impressive, and further includes Dawn Ray’d from the UK, Yovel from Greece (in what will be their first show in Germany), and German underground favorites Friisk and No Sun Rises, all of whom had originally been scheduled to play in 2022 before the pandemic forced a delay.

Below you’ll find notes about the complete line-up (most of whom we’ve enthusiastically written about at this site) and a lot more details about the entire event, which also includes a Dark Arts & Crafts exhibition. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ENTROPIA, WILD BEYOND, VANISHMENT, THE GRIFTED, MOROKH

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Feb 082023
 

As you can see, I was able to finish Part 2 of a mid-week roundup of new songs and videos that began here. Finish it I did, and I’m pretty happy with the musical twists and turns it will take you on, but I’ve still had to hurry a bit more than I’d like to get it wrapped up. Please leave typo corrections in the Comments.

ENTROPIA (Poland)

I’ve already written here about “Retox“, the first single from Entropia’s new album Total, and now there’s another one out in the world. This one is named “Final“.

Prepare to be seduced by intriguingly warped melodies that are both glittering and dissonant, a mercurial but bone-vibrating bass, larynx-lacerating screams, and whip-crack drums. The mood also grows darker and more grim, as well as more nerve-racking and unsettling, but a feeling of fire-borne resilience fights through. Another fascinating track from an always-adventuruous band. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DYING FETUS, BURNER, DISCREATION, COMMON WOUNDS, SLAWIA

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Feb 082023
 


Dying Fetus, photo by Scott Kinkade

Here we have a mid-week round-up of new songs and videos I want to recommend. I was very tempted to call it “PART 1”, because I have another collection already picked out. But I also have to finish the write-up for a premiere we’re hosting today, and I never know when my fucking day job will rear its head. So, I’ll refrain from promises and just hope the today’s second roundup works out. If it doesn’t I hope this will tide you over.

DYING FETUS (U.S.)

To start, here’s “Unbridled Fury“, a new Dying Fetus single (and video) that came out last Friday. I don’t suppose I need to say very much by way of introduction. Dying Fetus are an institution. Most everyone who visits this site knows the band’s music and knows whether they like it or not. The song will please those who do (it pleases me), and won’t interest those who don’t, because this is a rock solid Dying Fetus song. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CHAT PILE, HANGING GARDEN, KOMMAND, BACCHUS, SPIRIT POSSESSION

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Feb 042023
 


Chat Pile – photo by Juliette Boulay

For this Saturday’s roundup I decided to limit myself to single new songs and videos released in just the last few days. The first is in support of a 2022 album, and the rest are advance tracks from records due for release in March or April. I feel pretty confident in saying that I’ll have more to recommend through a Shades of Black column tomorrow, though I haven’t yet decided what to put in it.

CHAT PILE (U.S.)

Chat Pile probably don’t need more help getting noticed. Last year’s God’s Country popped up on most of the year-end lists assembled by notable mags and sites that get lots of eyeballs on them. But the band’s new video for the song “Tropical Beaches, Inc.” doesn’t have half a million views yet, so that needs some help. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ATHANATHEOS, DESERT STORM, BROUILLARD, AMPUTATION SPREE

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Feb 032023
 

It’s another Bandcamp Friday today. From my perspective, that’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s good for bands and labels because Bandcamp doesn’t take their usual cut from sales. On the other hand, my e-mail in-box (which is also the main address for NCS) gets deluged with Bandcamp-related messages and notifications, and that’s on top of the usual traffic of 200-300 e-mails to NCS per day. Trying to thoroughly crawl through all that takes more time than I have.

Still, because it’s a Bandcamp Friday I thought I ought to make at least a feeble head-start on the usual Saturday round-up. So here’s what I picked. Mind you, the songs definitely are not feeble.

ATHANATHEOS (France)

This French band is returning with a concept album named Cross. Deny. Glorify. It’s described as one “that follows the paths of three generations of Roman soldiers as they watch their empire decay from within in the wake of Emperor Constantine’s adoption of Christanity as its official religion”. All the songs are described as distinct and different in character, befitting this generation-spanning narrative. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VENOMOUS CONCEPT, THE BLACK MORIAH, AUSTERE, OROBAS

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Feb 012023
 


Venomous Concept

 

I have just enough time for a quick mid-week round-up of recommended new songs and videos. There have been a lot of new things this week so far, but that’s par for the course. These four happened to be among the ones I impulsively checkws out this morning. Hope you dig ’em all!

VENOMOUS CONCEPT (UK/U.S.)

I have a soft spot in my head heart for Venomous Concept, so I’m beginning with the new video for “Fractured“, the third one released in the run-up to their new album The Good Ship Lollipop.

The song was inspired by some troubles Shane went through during the upheavals of the pandemic and his efforts to pull the pieces back together. He wrote this, which will explain the imagery in the video:

“Music was always my comfort, but during this time my family needed me to be strong and I really wasn’t. I was breaking apart and trying to figure out how to put myself back together, and hopefully leave some of the bad bits behind. “Memories came—my childhood, my parents, my family, my children, my friends. Then the words to ‘Fractured’ came… I am still piecing myself back together, trying to be just good enough.”

Continue reading »

WEEKEND BLOG BREAK (SORT OF)

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Jan 282023
 


Astriferous

I’m taking a break from NCS this weekend, so there won’t be a big roundup of recommended new songs and videos today or a SHADES OF BLACK column tomorrow. I’m involved in a big party that’s going to happen tonight, and there are things I need to do to help make it happen. I also know from past experience that I won’t get back to the NCS island HQ until sometime early Sunday morning, and I won’t get back stone-cold sober either.

On top of that I hope to spend a little time trying to figure out which songs to include in the final two days of our Most Infectious Song list next week. (If you don’t know what that is, you can find everything I’ve chosen so far via this link). I’m hoping to figure out some way of doing that without losing my fucking mind, because I’ve still got dozens of songs I’d like to include.

Of course I recoil at the idea of posting anything at NCS without including music, and so although the main point of this post is to keep people from wondering whether a big blank space for this weekend isn’t the result of some personal catastrophe, here’s some music: Continue reading »

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