AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ESTRANGEMENT — “DISFIGUREMENTALITY”

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Nov 212022
 

We’re about to premiere an extraordinary album in its entirety. We’re also about to open the floodgates on a waterfall of words, in an unnecessary and probably fruitless effort to explain why it’s extraordinary.

Where to begin? Maybe by saying that although you will see genre labels affixed to the music of Australia’s Estrangement on their album Disfigurementality — principally referring to it as a blending of funeral doom and classical music — there’s no kind of shorthand reference that could be accurate. To borrow from the press materials, “Funereal-Flamenca-Nuclear-Jazz-Fusion-End-of-World Music” comes closer to the mark, but still falls short.

Does it go too far to claim that Disfigurementality is unique? Well, you’ll be the judge of that, but in our estimation that’s what this music really is, something so astonishingly eclectic, so wildly creative, and so mind-blowing to hear that it really does seem unparalleled in the annals of extreme doom. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TURBID NORTH — “SLAVES”

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Nov 212022
 

 

From the birth of our site (exactly 13 years ago today!) one of our founding principles was, and still is, to write only about music we enjoy and want to recommend. Of course, that doesn’t mean everything we’ve written about stands on equal footing. Based on their growth and consistent achievements we’ve put some bands on higher pedestals than others, and few have garnered the kind of praise over many years that we’ve heaped upon Alaska-born, Texas-based Turbid North (see for yourselves).

Almost exactly seven years have passed since the release of Turbid North‘s last album Eyes Alive. But even seven years weren’t long enough to dim the memory of that record, or for that matter its predecessor Orogeny (from 2011). As proof of the point, our own Andy Synn listed a new Turbid North record as one of his “most anticipated albums” of 2017… and of 2018… and probably would have continued doing that if we hadn’t scrapped the early-year “most anticipated” columns.

Well, you can imagine the burst of excitement we experienced when Turbid North at last announced that they would release a new full-length on January 20th of the coming year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FAITHXTRACTOR — “LIFE ABNEGATION”

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Nov 182022
 

As long-time fans of metallic extremity are well aware, the revival of old school death metal that began in all its many shapes over the last decade or so has reached the proportions of a flood tide. Like other kinds of retro revivalism the results have been mixed, ranging from bland nostalgia worship to music that manages to authentically breathe new life into the old traditions without morphing them into something unfamiliar. Updated production values may be added to the mix, or a sprinkling of new ideas capable of seizing attention.

And in some cases, current bands are just so outlandishly good at what they’re doing that your thoughts don’t drift away into “hell, I’ve heard this a hundred times before”, because you’re too busy getting your head wrecked and your nerves ignited.

Which brings us, as a prime example of that, to the criminally under-noticed Faithxtractor from Cincinnati and their new album Contempt for a Failed Dimension, which will get a January 20th release through Redefining Darkness Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FROZEN DAWN — “OATH OF FORGOTTEN PAST”

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Nov 182022
 

It’s our great pleasure today to premiere the second advance track from the forthcoming fourth album by the Spanish band Frozen Dawn, their first one in five years. Entitled The Decline of the Enlightened Gods, it will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records.

As its title may suggest, the new music of Frozen Dawn plays out on a grand stage. It’s well capable of scathing and scorching the senses, but it continually soars to ravishing heights of startling magnificence, and the melodies play moving lead roles in the unfolding pageantry.

These are the kind of stirring songs that not only get hearts pounding (and breaking), but also prove to be intensely memorable. Not for naught is it said that Frozen Dawn pay tribute to the likes of Dissection, Necrophobic, Sacramentum, and Naglfar, and the choice of cover art by the late great Mariusz Lewandowski is also entirely fitting.

The song we’re presenting today, “Oath of Forgotten Past“, is a great example of all the qualities noted above. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: BOB MALMSTRÖM — “SEGLA MED SATAN”

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Nov 172022
 

There’s something admirable in standing fast against powerful headwinds, even when the position may cause some to cringe.

Bob Malmström staked out their position long ago as the true originators and crowned kings of “borgarcore”, and they have taken delight since 2010 in jabbing their fingers into the eyes of standard “against the system” punk mentality by celebrating the benefits of Dom Perignon, lap dances by pretty girls, fast cars that can be run by you instead of over you, and favorable swings in the stock markets. Maintaining that position in recent years has gotten tougher, but these Swedish-speaking Finns haven’t backed down. In the context of their new EP Segla med Satan they write:

It’s 2022 and everything is going to hell. The stock market is tanking, the waves are full of poisonous algae porridge and in the east a mad tyrant force-feeds his brain virus to the people like a Frenchman force-feeds geese. The world is on the brink of an abyss…. Salvation is not what anyone expected, nor asked for, but it gives you the Zen to ski down the slopes of the Alps waving your middle fingers to the poor. We’re ready to rock the gold teeth out of your mouths.

Punk is for poor losers. Folk metal is for stupid losers. Bättre folk metal is for rich geniuses! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOLOK — “THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND”

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Nov 172022
 

“Can you imagine the raw savagery of early Black Metal mixed with monolithic Death Doom, a pinch of Crust Punk and some spastic Plasma Pool type of EBM all placed inside a jar? Wolok did, they made a molotov of it and they are now ready to throw it at us all and see the world burn”.

That’s a tag-team wrestling match of words from Brucia Records, who will be releasing Wolok‘s new album The Bilious Hues of Gloom on December 8th. It’s a valiant effort at linguistically trying to grapple Wolok‘s music to the mat, as well as a sign of how difficult it is to do that. Brucia also leaps from the turnbuckle with this characterization:

“Too Punk for Black Metal, too Doom for Punk, too Industrial for Doom… deranged, demented and disjointed… bipolarly shifting from majestic to decrepit and back for all of its duration… completely psychotic….” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE INFERNO DOLL — “RENFIELD”

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Nov 162022
 

For everyone who’s seen Tod Browning’s 1931 film Dracula, the demented and tormented face of Renfield as portrayed by Dwight Frye is likely one of the most unforgettable images. The character himself, in both Bram Stoker’s novel and that film, is a haunting figure, seduced to the point of madness by the influence of his master and a craving of blood, and ridden by guilt in his momentary moments of lucidity.

Though arguably a minor character in that horrifying tale, Renfield has nevertheless become a source of fascination and inspiration for some artists, one prominent example of which is Barbara Hambly‘s 2006 novel Renfield: Slave of Dracula, which presents some twists on the original tale and some intriguing explanations about the turmoil of his being torn between good and evil.

Calgary-based Laura “Inferno” Vargas is another artist for whom Renfield has become a fascination. Drawing in part on Hambly‘s novel for inspiration, she has used her guise as The Inferno Doll to create a song in his name, which we’re premiering today in advance of its November 18th release as a single, along with a video that presents its own twists. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SPEGLAS — “TIME, FUTILITY & DEATH”

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Nov 162022
 

What we have for you now is an enormous surprise, and one we hope you’ll find as wonderful as we have. It’s not as extreme as most of what occupies our attention around here (though it does have its moments of barbarity), but we’ve found it a perpetually eye-popping and captivating record.

The subject is Time, Futility & Death, a new EP by the Swedish group Speglas that will be released on November 18th by Pulverised Records. It follows their first release, another EP, by a very long seven years, long enough that maybe even enthusiastic fans of that first recording may have forgotten the band. The new release will prove a vivid reminder of their talents, and should attract a lot of new adherents among adventurous listeners, if only the word will spread. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OMNIFARIAM — “THE SUMMONING”

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Nov 152022
 

Time flies when you’re having fun. Time also probably flies when you blindly stumble into the path of a rushing freight train.

What brought that morbid thought to mind? Well, you can guess from the title of this feature. It’s the obliterating new EP The Summoning by the Puerto Rican death metal band Omnifaiam, and in particular the EP’s powerhouse opening song “Deceivers of the Bleak“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VARGSHEIM — “IN THE TOWER OF IVORY”

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Nov 152022
 

Over a career that now spans more than 15 years the German band Vargsheim have made their music a home for wolves, but these wolves have proven to be surprising shape-shifters as well. Black metal runs through their veins, but this trio — the brothers Kaelt and Harvst and drummer Naavl (all of whom are live members of Imperium Dekadenz) — clearly have many other musical interests, and continue finding ways to indulge them under their banner.

That observation proves most true in their forthcoming fifth album In the Tower of Ivory, which will be released on December 9th by the band’s new label Crawling Chaos. We have a thrilling example of what they’ve accomplished in today’s premiere (through a video made by Kaelt) of the new record’s title song. Continue reading »

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