AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ZERO SWANN — “GRAVE WAX HORTICULTURE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 172025
 

(written by Islander)

Those of you who follow our weekend roundups of new music are aware that I’ve made many discoveries (and then shared them) through perusing the recommendations of Rennie Resin‘s starkweather Substack. His most recent collection of recommendations included thoughts about a new album from a band named Zabus that’s principally the work of Jeremy Moore from Washington, D.C. He followed that offering with these words about a band whose song we’re premiering today:

Zero Swann is another splinter from Jeremy Moore and Benefactor comes two years after the Amon Zonaris release. This project has similarities to Zabus in its approach to sound, using copious amounts of reverb and delay and vocals forward in the mix. While Zabus is decidedly post punk given the psyche treatment, Zero Swann is its more sinister, noisier, atavistic twin. Almost free form and nightmarish in approach where songs are spasms and rattles rather than crafted and honed into shape.

That was my introduction to Zero Swann, framed as only Rennie can do, and one thing led to another… the other thing being today’s video premiere of “Grave Wax Horticulture” from Zero Swann‘s Benefactor album — which is being released today on the Saccharine Underground label. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAKNA — “ALLTID”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 172025
 

(written by Islander)

The story behind Sakna’s forthcoming album De Syv Dødssynder, and the reasons why it is both the first and last album by this Canadian project, are fascinating (maybe even jaw-dropping, given the quality of the music) but also deeply sad. We should begin with that story.

As we’ve been told, Sakna is the solo work of Canadian multi-instrumentalist Solemn, a work that began in 2006, when Solemn was only 14 years old, as a musical adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. By the age of 18, he had recorded all of the album’s vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, organs, and drums himself, drawing on such varied influences as Windir, Mournful Congregation, Emperor, Wolves In The Throne Room, Cor Scorpii, and more.

In 2011, Solemn took his own life, before anything was done to release the album other than Solemn leaking an early preview single (“Del I – Helvete”) to YouTube in 2009. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MALKASIAN — “OCCULT 5”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 172025
 

(written by Islander)

As we sometimes do, we’re going off most of our well-beaten paths with the song and video we’re about to premiere. No shrieking or guttural growling this time, but only singing. No blast-beats or brutality, but only the blues. But lest you think we’ve completely lost our way, these blues are very heavy — just as promised by the title of the album that includes the song — and very devilish too.

The name of the song is “Occult 5“, and it’s the latest single to be disclosed by the Denver band Malkasian from their new album Heavy Blues, which will be out on October 22nd. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DET — “DESTRUCTIVE ELITE TERROR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 162025
 

(written by Islander)

In case anyone is still puzzled by the meaning of the Finnish band DET‘s name, they’ve spelled it out in the title of their forthcoming debut album: Destructive Elite Terror.

The album is set for release by Dying Victims Productions on that most metal of dates, October 31st. It follows up DET‘s 2022 demo Death Night, their 2023 demo Vengeance, and their 2023 split with Krusifoitu. What we bring you today is the opportunity to hear — and get revved up by — the entire album. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PILE OF KNIVES — “LACERATION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 152025
 

(written by Islander)

This band from the Pocono Mountains region of Eastern Pennsylvania aren’t trying to fool anyone. They call themselves Pile of Knives. They named their first EP No Light. The name of their new one is Driven By the Blade, and its cover art is a photo of meat cleavers and a gutting knife on a blood-soaked backdrop.

Their music is also unabashedly bludgeoning and brutal, and when they’re not trying to beat the living hell out of listeners, they’re furiously cutting them up and spraying the remains with acid.

Well, that’s one way of trying to capture Pile of Knives‘ amalgam of slam, death metal, beatdown hardcore, and deathcore, which invokes the legacies of such bands as Skinless, Dying Fetus, Internal Bleeding, Origin, and Through The Eyes Of The Dead, but also the likes of Crawlspace, Final Resting Place, Shattered Realm, and No Zodiac.

We’ll try out some other ways of capturing the experience in print as we discuss a song from Driven By The Blade that we’re premiering with a video today. Its name is… “LACERATION“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEOGEN — “DESOLATION BESTOWED”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 152025
 

(written by Islander)

Just a couple of days ago we premiered a song by the one-person U.S. black metal band Storming off an album to be released on November 14th by Iron Bonehead Productions. We described that extensive track as a “spellbinding excursion” — immersive, ancient-sounding, glittering, haunting, and dangerous. And now we have a song from another U.S. black metal album to be released by the same label on the same day.

This time the band is Deogen, and the album is their second full-length, aptly titled The Graves and Ghosts of Yore. Although Deogen‘s fashioning of black metal significantly differs from that of Storming, there is in one sense a musical kinship, because it too is a kind of throwback in sound and style, and in its ancient and mythic moods — as you’ll discover by listening to “Desolation Bestowed“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRAINWAVE — “LOST MY WAY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Brainwave hail from Wellington, New Zealand, and they devote themselves to the kind of crossover music that blends thrash and hardcore, drawing influence from the likes of Drain, Mindforce, and Forced Order. Now a quintet, they’ll be releasing a record named Ill Intent on October 22nd, which follows up a sequence of short releases that began in 2020. In the band’s words:

“It’s an extremely personal record, albeit one set against the backdrop of a world tearing itself apart. It’s about hopelessness, the pain of loss, and the brutality of everyday life. But it’s also about conquering the summit, overcoming both yourself and your detractors.”

To help introduce Ill Intent to fans of heavy music (and this music is very heavy indeed), what we’ve got for you today is the premiere of a song from the new album named “Lost My Way“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EX CINERE — “NEGATIVE COMMEMORATION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Ex Cinere is the solo work of Joe Waller, who has also created music under the name Sarasvati and with Adora Vivos and Amiensus (among other projects and groups). The last time we wrote about Ex Cinere (and the first time) was near the release of a 2024 debut single called “Ācennan“, which was followed later that year by a second single named “Eorþblód“.

What we’re presenting today is a video for another single, “Negative Commemoration“, so named because its intent is to restore a bit of truth to the whitewashing of an ugly figure on a day set aside for his sanctification by people who enthusiastically still traffic in his ugliness. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEXAGRAF — “STERVEN IS VRETEN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 132025
 

(written by Islander)

We’re about to premiere a song from Walsen van hoop, the debut album from the Dutch duo known as Hexagraf that’s now set for co-release in December by Void Wanderer Productions and War Productions. To begin introducing it, we’ll share some of the evocatively worded background info provided by the labels:

Hexagraf is a dark, brooding musical project born from the collaboration between two Zwotte Kring members: Daan (Hellevaerder, Throne of Time, Duindwaler, Magistraal) and Floris (Schavot, Meslamtaea, Asgrauw, The Color of Rain). Their journey began when Daan contributed guest vocals to Schavot’s album Verstrikt in Halflicht. The creative chemistry during that session was undeniable, powerful enough to spark the idea for a new, shared project. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STORMING — “STARFIRE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Looking ahead to November, we welcome Iron Bonehead Productions‘ release of the second album by the U.S. black metal band Storming. Its name is Celestial Clear Moonlit, an evocative title for music that sounds outside of our own time and place.

But what time and place does the music occupy? It is located on the map of the listener’s imagination, and so each person’s vision may well be different. You can begin letting your mind run away with you by listening to the song from the album we’re premiering today, an extensive, spellbinding excursion named “Starfire“. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries