AN NCS PREMIERE: KYBALION — “MAKE THE WORLD BLEED”

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May 142026
 

(written by Islander)

We first encountered the music of the Italian black metal band Kybalion in 2024 through the release of their second EP, A Crippled Power. We found it a multi-faceted and relentlessly dynamic work, often driven by high-octane and constantly varying bass-and-drum work but with riffing that twisted and turned in intriguing and captivating ways.

Kybalion are now returning with a new EP set to arrive on June 5th through Non Serviam Records. Its title might seem to announce Kybalion’s musical mission for their new songs: Make the World Bleed. But both conceptually and musically its merits go deeper than mere ruthless exsanguination. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VERDUN — “LA LAME ET LA CHAIR”

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May 142026
 

(written by Islander)

On June 26th of this year Transcending Obscurity Records will release the third album by the French band Verdun, and their first one in a long seven years. Its name is Abyssal Womb. As the label describes, it represents an evolution of the band’s music into “a form of blackened sludge with a dissonant edge” — “mind-numbingly heavy yet catchy and direct, making it highly effective and memorable.”

Those are good descriptors. Verdun’s new music is humongously heavy and powerfully channels an array of damaged and dangerous moods with riff-driven compositions that get stuck in the head. Moreover, the songs incorporate contrasting melodic accents that are ethereal in tone, and the drum rhythms will routinely get a listener’s muscles jumping.

Two infectious songs from the album have already surfaced (and eventually we’ll have something to say about them below), and now we premiere a third one — “La Lame et la Chair“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TSAR STANGRA — “TAGA ZA YUG”

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May 132026
 

(written by Islander)

We always relish the opportunity to brandish the paintings of Paolo Girardi across the top of our page, especially when his artwork adorns music that’s as noteworthy as the album we’re focusing on today.

That album, Химните на разрушените светове (Hymns of the Broken Worlds), is the second full-length from Цар Стангра (Tsar Stangra), a Bulgarian pagan black/folk metal project based in Quebec City, Canada, who have dedicated themselves to forging a fusion of extreme metal and Bulgarian ancestral tradition.

The band was originally founded as a solo project in 2007, evolved into a full band, and released their debut album Небесният ковач (The Heavenly Blacksmith) in 2017. Much time has obviously passed since then, but Tsar Stangra is at last ready to reveal new works through this second album, which is is set for release on July 1, 2026 — a date (they tell us) that is “symbolically aligned with the celebration of July Morning, freedom, and Rock And Roll.”

To help spread the word about the new record, today we’re premiering a rollicking yet also sinister track named “Taga za Yug“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FOURNIER — “CAST ADRIFT”

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May 132026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we help introduce the death-metal-addicted among you to a formidable new force — a New Zealand trio named Fournier, whose self-titled debut EP will be released next month by the also formidable Caligari Records.

We’re told that Fournier were inspired not only by pioneers such as Morbid Angel, Immolation, and Timeghoul but also by contemporary artists like Hyperdontia, Phrenelith, and Engulfed, and they harnessed those inspirations to create tense, violent, and overwhelmingly oppressive death metal.

Many of those inspirations shine through in the song from Fournier that we’re premiering today, an exhilarating marauder named “Cast Adrift“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GLOOMY GRIM — “BORN IN FIRE 2026”

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May 132026
 

(written by Islander)

This is a song premiere that requires historical context because it is a musical celebration and memorial by the bandmates and family of a man taken from the world too soon.

The history begins in 1995 in Finland when Agathon started the black metal band Gloomy Grim as his solo project. In time he gathered other musicians around him, and over the following decades Gloomy Grim released seven albums, assorted shorter works, and several compilation records.

Over that time Agathon (aka Ykä) also became a key figure in other groups, including Airdash, Soulgrind, Thy Serpent, and Corporal Punishment, and he also performed on recordings by Barathrum and Walhalla, among other bands.

Agathon passed away from cancer in 2022. A memorial concert has now been organized, and it will be held at the Hellsinki Metal Festival’s See You In Hell club Bar Loose on August 6, 2026.

But in addition to that, a group of labels will release an album called Gloomy & Grim: A Tribute To Agathon on June 6th — a date that would have been Agathon’s 58th birthday and is the 30th anniversary of the release of Gloomy Grim’s first demo.

The final song on that album is a re-recording of Gloomy Grim’s “Born In Fire“, and that’s the track we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: XENOSIS — “SEA OF TEETH”

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May 122026
 

(written by Islander)

We heartily welcome the return of Connecticut-based Xenosis, who will have their fifth album Hermetic Transmutation released by Transcending Obscurity Records on June 5th.

We also enjoy imagining the looks on people’s faces when they get their brains scrambled by the music. Brain-scrambling will likely occur even among listeners who got their heads spun and bodies bruised by the band’s last album, Paralleled Existence, in 2021 — because Xenosis have somehow managed to level up the madness.

As proof of that, we offer you today an album track named “Sea of Teeth“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TOOMS — “LOWLANDER”

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May 122026
 

(written by Islander)

The cover image on Tooms‘ new album Karst might make most people wonder about the musical direction this trio from the west of Ireland decided to follow over the years that have passed since their 2020 full-length debut, The Orb Offers Massive Signals. It doesn’t seem to match up with the band’s reputation for creating progressive sludge metal that delivers punishing heaviness and oppressive gloom, digging deep into the muck of life.

It might make a bit more sense in the context of what the press materials circulated on behalf of the band’s label Cursed Monk Records say about Karst, referring to the guitars’ “rich, snarling effervescence beneath a crust of dried blood and dirt” and the music’s “sense of life, in all its glorious, torturous, filthy, vivid vibrancy”.

But Tooms’ appreciation of life’s gritty vibrancy and their perception of beauty within it is clearly quite different from what’s represented in a floral arrangement. To understand that, listen to “Lowlander“, the song from Karst we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HALTER — “HOLOCAUST JACKALS”

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May 112026
 

(written by Islander)

Six years after their last album, the Russian band Halter are returning this month with a new full-length. Titled Another Strong Hand For A Damned Land, it’s set for co-release on May 25th by Symbol Of Domination (Moldova) and the Russian labels Wroth Emitter and Arx Productions.

It brings to the table old-school death/doom tinged with touches of sludge, stoner, and gothic metal. It was written and recorded during difficult times in Halter’s country, times marked by the Covid pandemic, the strengthening of a tyrannical regime, and of course the brutal war.

Unavoidably, all of those events affected the music and the lyrics. The labels tell us: “Lyrically, through profound symbolism, the songs are filled with the experiences of recent years, an anti-war message, a desire for freedom, and bitterness over the fate of people in the region.”

What we have for you today is the premiere of a video for an immediately infectious and powerfully moving track called “Holocaust Jackals“, which is powerful on multiple levels. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FOGOS — “WYRM”

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May 062026
 

(written by Islander)

We are told that the name of the Barcelona-based black metal band Fogos was “inspired in the fires that enlighten the path of the dead and their main themes: paganism, nihilism, death and the decay of the human soul.” They began that daunting path of bloodshed and decay with their debut album Corpses and Ashes (2022), and now they continue onward with a new and even more murderous album named Of Wyrm And Men.

On the new album this band’s experienced lineup is augmented with guest appearances by Rider G. Omega from Obsidian Kingdom and our friend J. F. Fiar from Foscor and Jade. It also benefits from professional production, with recording accomplished at Moontower Studios in Spain and mastering by Dan Lowndes at Resonance Sound Studio in New England.

Of Wyrm And Men will be co-released on June 21st by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Poisoned Furrows Records (U.S.), and what we have for you today is the premiere of a stunning album track named “Wyrm“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VOIDTHRONE — “DREAMING RAT”

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May 052026
 

(written by Islander)

If we think of ourselves as listener-fish scurrying through the sea of our days and music-makers as throngs of fishers trying to catch our attention, what lures work best? For some fish it might be affectionate familiarity with a band’s previous music. Lacking such familiarity, it might be a genre description or a “for fans of” reference or an al-luring piece of cover art.

In the case of Voidthrone from the Pacific Northwest and their new album Dreaming Rat (set for release on May 8th), it might be all of that, but they have one additional lure — an intriguing concept underlying the album (or overarching it). They organize the album’s nine songs into a triptych of parallel “Arcs” which together create “a three-part cosmic death ritual”. Each numbered Arc has its own title, and we’ll get to those, but the three could be summed up with these words:

“a solar system burning through its lifespan, a civilization collapsing under its own complexity, and a parasite replicating itself across language, culture, and flesh”

Continue reading »

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