SEEN AND HEARD: DARKENED, FALSE CHURCH, VĀMĀCĀRA, DJEVELKULT, DISQUIET, THE DAMNNATION, SUPERDEATHFLAME

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Mar 292022
 

 

I’m sure some of you noticed that I didn’t post anything at NCS last weekend, neither a new-music roundup on Saturday nor a Shades of Black column on Sunday. I was in my hometown of Austin, Texas, which was only my second departure from Washington since the pandemic began (the other one being a trip to Iceland last fall for Ascension Festival).

No reason to go into details about that trip, other than to say that it was packed with activities that led to late nights and hungover mornings, and I had no time to write anything for this site. I did have a little time to myself on Friday afternoon and used that to check out some new songs and videos. From that I assembled a tentative collection for a Saturday roundup, and even though I couldn’t get that done, I decided to stick with the list for today.

I enjoyed the hell out of all these songs when I first heard them — my kind of ear candy. I hope you’ll have fun with them too.

DARKENED (International)

This group of all-stars put out a hell of a debut album in 2020’s Kingdom of Decay, and early signs are that their new record will also be a rousing a success. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KANONENFIEBER, NOVICHOKE , SERPENTENT, LUMINOUS VAULT, NECRONIUM, BLOODHUNTER, THE VISION ABLAZE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 242022
 

 

High intensity is the hallmark of all the new songs and videos I’ve collected in this round-up, even in the one song I’ve included that’s not like any of the others.

KANONENFIEBER (Germany)

The real-world footage compiled in the video for Kanonenfieber‘s new song “Stop the War” is so powerful that it could be accompanied by a child singing a nursery rhyme and it would still be moving. But the song is every bit as powerful as the imagery. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: UFOMAMMUT, GALVANIST, MÅNEGARM, KATHAROS XIII, BOG BODY, SIGN OF EVIL, WOLFANGER & WOLFHEART, VREID, WORMROT

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Mar 192022
 


Ufomammut – photo by Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni

I hope your weekend is going well. Mine got off to a very good start this morning as I made my way through songs and videos that surfaced over the past week or so. By sheer good fortune, almost everything I listened to struck a chord, and the ones that rang loudest made its way into this big round-up.

I organized the selections in a way that made sense to me, capped by a shot of pure adrenaline. I’ll briefly tell you what to prepare for.

UFOMAMMUT (Italy)

Prepare for: a slow burn, a dreamy but sinew-triggering trip reminiscent of an old Pink Floyd space odyssey, with an increasingly fiery slug-fest as its destination. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MISERY INDEX, CLEARXCUT, AWAKENING SUN, NEMA, AKLASH

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Mar 152022
 

 

Drowning in new music and regrettably short on time to listen and write about it, I’ve decided to just grab five of the new things I’ve recently seen and heard to share with you today.

MISERY INDEX (U.S.)

I don’t know what came first in the creation of this new Misery Index song, the words or the music, or whether they were conceived together, but both are enraged. The politically charged lyrics begin this way:

Ancient ways ensnared in the monetary grip
Sons and daughters slaved by the wage and the whip
Our way of life crushed, as our lives drown in work
Is this what we’re to think, that a human life is worth? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: EXCERPTS FROM FIVE NEW ALBUMS JUST SET FOR RELEASE BY I, VOIDHANGER RECORDS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 122022
 

I spent hours yesterday (no exaggeration) assembling a list of new songs and videos that surfaced just since Monday. I kept at it, even knowing full well that as the list grew I was just making it harder on myself in deciding what to include in this Saturday round-up.

And then I remembered the legend of Alexander the Great and how he solved the seemingly insurmountable problem of untying a knot in the palace of the former kings of Phrygia at Gordium, a feat that was prophesied to make the knot-solver the eventual ruler of all Asia: He cut the knot in half with a single stroke of his sword.

I cut my own Gordian knot by deciding to focus on advance songs (all of which were revealed just yesterday) from just one label’s forthcoming releases. It’s a special label, as anyone knows who has indulged in its many past releases. In December its future became clouded with uncertainty when the label owner (Luciano) fell prey to covid and was hospitalized in intensive care, with his life hanging by a thread. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: COSMIC PUTREFACTION, EGREGORE, HÄXENZIJRKELL, AL-NAMROOD, SUNCZAR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 082022
 

 

I had a premiere scheduled for today that unexpectedly fell through, so I decided to scurry around and grab some new songs and videos for a round-up. The scurrying didn’t allow much time for writing, so you won’t find much of that here. I did try to create a genre-spread, because unlike me not everyone likes every formulation of metallic extremity. Have a listen, and pick your poison. (Some very good artwork in this collection too.)

COSMIC PUTREFACTION (Italy)

You’d know if someone slipped this poison into your drink, because it doesn’t go down easy. Prepare for churning, gut-punching, fret-leaping, brain-broiling death metal mayhem by a virtuoso practitioner (Gabriele Gramaglia, with help this time from drummer Giulio Galati). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SEPTICFLESH, VITAL SPIRIT, ANATOMIA, UNDERGANG, COME MIERDA, OTTONE PESANTE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 052022
 


Septicflesh – photo by Stella Mouzi

I wasn’t able to pull together any roundups of new songs and videos this past week, which means that today I’m only scratching the surface of what surfaced. It’s more like scratching just the top molecular layer of a solid block of steel. I’ll be back tomorrow to do some more scratching. Maybe some of your musical itches will be scratched too.

SEPTICFLESH (Greece)

Yesterday Nuclear Blast released news about a forthcoming album by SepticFlesh and a video for its first singe, “Hierophant“. It’s a conceptual song that begins a story which continues in the track “Self-Eater”.

This first part of the story (to quote band member Sotiris Anunnaki V) “depicts the experience of a high priest, acting as a human conduit between Heaven and Earth. Having never heard a single word from the mouth of God, he grows tired of preaching the preordained words of the clergy. He turns to performing primitive and powerful rituals that have been long forbidden, as he seeks the guidance of a chaotic elemental consciousness”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MESHUGGAH, FORNDOM, BLOODRED, SUFFER IN SILENCE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 262022
 

 

If we let a day go by without posting something, will anyone worry that a catastrophe has befallen us? Some technological breakdown or illness or death in the ranks of those of us who toil here at NCS? Oh, probably not. Maybe just mild disappointment would befall some regular visitors, rather than severe anxiety or anguish. Maybe others would welcome a break from the daily torrent of new sounds.

But life is disconcerting enough these days without the experience of even mild additional disappointment. And so… here are a few new songs and videos, just a few.

MESHUGGAH (Sweden)

It’s hard not to mention the appearance of a new Meshuggah song and video even though everyone likely to visit our site already knows about it, especially because the video is so intriguing (and frightenig). The song’s stuttering and shivering grooves are relentless, and very catchy, and it succeeds in creating a spacey, futuristic atmosphere in keeping with Meshuggah‘s history of providing what seem line soundtracks to the rise of hideous machine intelligence. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A DARK DAY: EVERGREY, INTOLERANCE, DESTRUCTION, QAALM, I AM THE NIGHT

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Feb 242022
 


Evergrey

We’re just a heavy-music site, but it’s hard to ignore what’s happening in Europe right now as the world takes another big step backward into a darker time. That has influenced my musical choices in this collection. The song titles and some of the album titles seemed particularly appropriate. As always, the music streams are mostly brand new, and very good, and varied enough to suit many tastes.

EVERGREY (Sweden)

The first song is a hard-charging, emotionally fiery, and ferocious track, with a glorious guitar solo in the mix — and of course it’s a well-earned exception to our rule about singing. Excellent video too. “Save Us” comes from Evergrey‘s new album A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament), out May 20 via Napalm Records. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: RALE, SUPPRESSION, CREDIC, BLACK FUCKING CANCER, LAMENT CITYSCAPE, INTIMIDATION DISPLAY, BELLGRAVE, PRIESTS OF PROMETHEUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 192022
 


Rale

Man, what a week. I couldn’t wait for it to end. One day after another when I got slammed by my fucking day job, a nasty reminder that NCS is a “hobby” for me (and everyone else here). It lives only when the rest of daily life permits it to live.

It didn’t take long before I had to abandon any close review of our in-box or other sources I turn to for new metal. I made no lists of new songs and videos to check out for a possible round-up, and I haven’t tried to catch up this morning. But I wanted to pick at least a few new songs to share at the site today, and wound up picking eight. I’ll tell you how I did that at the end of this post.

RALE (U.S.)

I decided to begin with “Grave Emperor“, a new single by this North Carolina death metal band, whose 2020 demo and 2021 EP Psychic Devastation I showered with praise when they came out. In the case of that EP I wrote: “These songs are so eccentric and intricately plotted that I’m tempted to call them ‘avant-garde’, but ‘progressive death metal’ is also certainly suitable (and you might be tempted to stick ‘blackened’ in there as well). Whatever label you might want to attach, it’s an exciting new work from a band that just get more and more worthy of very close attention.” Continue reading »

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