AN NCS PREMIERE: AYYUR — “A CHANT FOR THE DEAFS”

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Feb 272023
 

Extreme metal finds fertile soil in nearly every corner of the globe, though the soil is undeniably less hospitable in some places than others. It is, for example, more difficult for such musicians to become noticed (and possibly more difficult even to indulge their creative interests) in a country like Tunisia, a land where many ancient cultures intersect in the northern-most geography of Africa. But there, Ayyur was born 16 years ago, and has managed to survive and, against all odds, even to thrive.

After Ayyur‘s inception, Metal Archives shows us that the project quickly released an EP, a pair of splits, and a demo in its early years, but then fell silent for nearly a decade. Beginning in 2018 Ayyur has returned, releasing three EPs with only two-year gaps between them (including last year’s Hidden Room Sessions I), and now the band has at last completed a debut album named Prevail, a title which seems to stand for what the band itself has managed to do.

We’re told by the labels which will release it that through this new album of blackened doom metal “the artist observes the desolating reality which surrounds them, finding a personal path and the answers to their own questions”. It is thus also described as “an intimate album, strongly introspective and ruthless at the same time, with lyrics sharp and pungent like blades”. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: KRULLUR — “DEAD LIVE!”

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Feb 242023
 

The world is obviously a very big place. Most of us will only glimpse relatively tiny corners of it in a lifetime’s worth of travels. Similarly, there are vast numbers of far-flung metal bands most of us will never get to see on stage, no matter how addicted we are to their music, and studio records just don’t often come close to capturing the explosiveness of some bands’ live performances.

Houston, Texas-based Krullur is undoubtedly one of those bands a lot of people overseas, or even in the U.S., will never get to see as they destroy venues with their crazed and crushing amalgams of thrash, death metal, punk, and grindcore. But what we’ve got for you today is the next best thing, the premiere stream of a record called Dead Live! that does an astonishingly effective job of bringing listeners right into the head-exploding blast zone. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HVRT – VERGISSMEINNICHT / NEZABUDKA

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Feb 242023
 

(Andy Synn presents a new track whose subject matter is painfully relevant on this particular day)

Did you know that today it’s been exactly one year since Russia invaded Ukraine?

If you didn’t… well, I wouldn’t necessarily blame you. It certainly doesn’t feel like the war has been going on that long, even though it somehow also feels like it’s been going on forever.

Let’s face it, the human brain has difficulty processing events like this, especially over long periods of time, and that goes double when we’re not being directly affected (and I won’t even pretend to understand what those actually in the war zone must be going through).

It’s an all too human response, and one which makes it all too easy to grow numb and jaded, to simply accept this as “the new normal” and forget what fuelled our anger and our abhorrence in the first place.

But the song/video we’re premiering today asks us, implores us, not to forget. Not to blind our eyes or cover our ears, but to heed the cries of the dead and the disappeared and to remember those who have been lost… because sometimes that’s all we can do.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FERUM — “DESOLATE VANTAA”

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Feb 242023
 

We have one hell of a ferocious and frightening video for you today from the death metal band Ferum for a song off their 2022 debut album Asunder / Erode. It’s a thrilling experience to watch and hear all by itself, but also a timely reminder of what this part-Italian, part-Estonian trio accomplished on that record.

The album is one we had the pleasure of reviewing and premiering here last August, shortly before its release by the Unorthodox Emanations division of Avantgarde Music. If you happened to see the cover art by Paolo Girardi (one of his most hideous creations), we wager that you haven’t forgotten it (it’s down near the bottom of this article, just in case). And if you heard the album, we wager you haven’t forgotten it either.

For those who might have missed out on Asunder / Erode, we’ll share a few of our comments about it later in this feature, but now let’s get right to the new video. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEAVEN’S DAMNATION — “STORMS, FLOODS AND FIRE”

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Feb 242023
 

One warning we occasionally give when we spread the word about new music is for people to take deep breaths before they listen. We’re doing it again now, and we really, really mean it this time.

The title of this new song — “Storms, Floods and Fire” — is its own warning siren, though perhaps it might have been more accurate if it had included “…At the End of the World.” It’s the first single to be revealed from the surprising self-titled debut album of the Danish band Heaven’s Damnation, just in time to seize attention before its March 3rd release by Vendetta Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DISGUSTULENT — “LOD”

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Feb 232023
 

You can guess from this Vancouver trio’s name that creating shiny and seductive music is not their mission. Instead, what you’ll encounter on their debut EP LOD is death metal of a particularly crushing, manic, and mind-mangling variety. But it would go too far to claim that their music is nothing but foul and fetid malignancy and decay, which might be another conclusion you leap to in considering their name. Vicious and voracious it is, but it’s strikingly dynamic and equally capable of creating head-spinning spectacles.

Though the EP you’re about to hear is Disgustulent‘s debut release, it doesn’t sound like anyone’s first effort, and indeed the band’s members have already made their marks in other formations, with guitarist/vocalist Vitharr and bassist Shawn Hillman also having performed as members of SVNEATR and drummer/vocalist Taylor McDonald lending his talents to Death Machine, Blackwater Burial, and Cranial Fungus.

They chose the name Disgustulent, by the way, from a Cerebral Rot song called “Crowning the Disgustulent”. And in its lyrical themes this first EP is based on the world and lore of Diablo (specifically Diablo 2). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARDENT NOVA — “SOUND THE HORNS”

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Feb 222023
 

Ardent Nova have done a fantastic job seizing attention in short order. There’s the band’s name itself, which promises both determined fervor and blazing splendor. Then there’s the attention-grabbing cover art (by neo sabbath) for the band’s self-titled debut album, which is simultaneously dark and brilliant, ominous and mystical.

And foremost of all, the two songs that have been revealed so far — as well as the one we’re presenting today — are pure heavy metal glory, earning Wise Blood Records‘ comparative references to the likes of Nite, Amon Amarth, viking-era Bathory, and the much more recent but equally striking work of Majesties.

For those of you who haven’t yet encountered Ardent Nova‘s tremendous music, it’s been a long time coming. It’s the solo work of Mike Pardi (Empty Throne, ex-Draconis), joined on the album by drummer Ryan Gallagher, and first took shape 22 years ago under the name Pagan Thunder. We’ll let Mike Pardi explain more: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LOTAN — “DIABOLIS VICTOR”

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Feb 222023
 

The Danish melodic black metal band Lotan, whose lineup shares members with Vanir, got off to an excellent start in 2021 with a pair of EPs, and we happily premiered songs from both of those. Now they have a debut self-titled album on the way, and in early December of last year and then again in January, they released two singles from the album, both of them with lyric videos. Today we present a third one, which will be released as a single this coming Friday, and it only confirms the album’s harrowing and haunting power.

The first of the singles, “Ignis“, blazes in daunting grandeur yet feels forlorn and even anguished. The vocals are scorching, the drums bring the thunder, and the song manages to dig its talons under the skin despite how emotionally unsettling it is. There’s also a moody and mysterious digression near the middle that adds to the song’s allure. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MAUDIIR — “L’ÉLOGE DU CUIVRE”

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Feb 212023
 

Solo musical projects present challenges, but also opportunities. Writing and performing songs without the collaboration of other musicians who might contribute ideas or at least be sounding boards for the principal songwriter, in addition to providing their own talents as performers, can create obstacles. Sometimes a solo artist’s ideas need improvement, or maybe need to be trashed altogether. And sometimes a solo artist’s performance talents fall short of what’s needed for even very good ideas to be expressed in ways that are appealing to listeners.

On the other hand, working alone provides complete creative freedom, and if the solo artist’s vocal and instrumental skills are up to the task, the results can more authentically represent the ideas (for better or worse) than trying to get multiple people to understand them and pull in the same direction.

Again for better or worse, complete creative freedom means that a solo artist’s music can twist and turn in different directions from one release to the next, because creative impulses don’t always follow a straight line or even a coherent progression. One person might stick with a defined style and hone it, but another might indulge more adventurous impulses.

Which is a long-winded way of bringing us to the latest EP by Maudiir, the solo project of the Montreal-based artist who goes by the initial F. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LUX NIGRUM — “ADAMAS VOLUNTATEM”

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Feb 202023
 

Lux Nigrum‘s 2019 debut EP Burning the Eternal Return (which we reviewed and premiered here) made a striking impression. The music channeled chaos, but not in the sense of some flailing, disorganized cacophony. There was a palpable sense of fierce wildness and burning devotion in the music, but an equal devotion to the crafting of excellent riffs, which had both emotional power and magnetic musical appeal.

And so it was very welcome news to learn that this Chilean band would be returning in 2023 with a debut album named Omnia Ab Uno, Omnia Ad Unum, to be released by Australis Records on April 28th. It is described as “a conceptual album based on the Acausal Spirituality and the mysterious duality of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death, dealing with the unification of everything as One, and it’s own dissolution towards Ain.”

Once again we’re honored to host a premiere, and this time it’s a lyric video for the new album’s concluding song “Adamas Voluntatem“. Continue reading »

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