AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ASHEN — “RITUAL”

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Sep 022022
 

The four-man Australian death metal band Ashen made an auspicious first strike last year with their Godless Oath EP, a recording that our own Andy Synn celebrated with these words:

“The debut EP from Aussie death-dealers Ashen is one of the finest slabs of meaty, delicious Death Metal goodness I’ve heard all year, showing a reverence for the old-school which, smartly, never crosses over the line into shameless hero worship. With a hefty helping of heavyweight riffs, gargantuan grooves, and brutally barbed hooks, alongside a vocal performance positively dropping with grisly character, it’s one hell of an opening statement, chock-full of clever touches and killer moments, which promises great things for when the band finally drop their full length debut.”

Well, the time for that eagerly anticipated full-length drop is now approaching, with a release date of December 10th set by the same Bitter Loss Records that brought us the EP. The name of the album is Ritual of Ash, and to spread the word about it on this Bandcamp Friday (hint, hint, spend your money!), we’re premiering a video for the album’s first single, “Ritual“ Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VITTRA — “SATMARA”

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Sep 022022
 

Let’s cut to the chase:

What you’re about to see is a beautifully filmed and edited video that matches the frantic and fluid interpretive dance performance of a pair of lithe ladies with the hard-charging musical performance of the Swedish band Vittra, all of it interspersed with brief slo-mo frames that help make the experience even more interesting. Everyone gets a chance to shine, and shine they do.

The song that’s the subject of the video is “Satmara“, off the band’s debut album Blasphemy Blues, which is set for release on November 11th. Lyrically, it tells a tale of the intoxicating but ruinous powers of succubi. The music turns out to be damned intoxicating too, operating as musical adrenaline for the mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANZV — “ISIMUD”

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Sep 012022
 

The Portuguese band ANZV is only a few years old, but harnesses the talents of experienced veterans. Through their forthcoming debut album Gallas, they explore an incredibly chilling conceptual vision. The description they give is worth reading in full, and we’ll get to that later in this feature, but for now let’s sum it up as a journey into an underworld of nihilism and despair, a free-fall into the surrender of will and self, becoming nothing at all.

In portraying such harrowing visions ANZV intertwine death metal and elements of classic and post-black metal, and they do so in tremendously powerful and gripping fashion. One song from the album (“Inane“) has already had a lyric video premiere, and today we bring you a second song — “Isimud” — which comes with its own cover art that you can see above. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MONDOCANE — “HAMMAREN OCH SKÄRAN”

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Sep 012022
 

Last May I took a blind chance on the music of Mondocane, diving into this Stockholm solo project’s second album Gloria without any previous exposure to Mondocone‘s creations. That turned out to be a winning gamble.

The songs on Gloria range widely in their sensations, and the familiar tropes of black metal play only one role in the musical amalgams. Depending on where you are in the track list (as I wrote then):

“The songs race and they stagger. They slash and they swirl. They brandish a feral, devilish swagger and they weave powerful dark spells. They’re menacing and dismal, cunning and cruel, and they elevate like witches around a bonfire. The riffing is captivating, and the keyboards and electronica are adroitly used. I’m not adept enough to know if the drumming is live or programmed, but their visceral punch, augmented by a heavyweight bass, is magnetic”.

Little wonder, then, that I got excited to discover that Mondocane would be releasing a new EP today. Entitled Enigmata | The Eminent, it includes three new songs (Enigmata), and as a bonus it also includes three songs (The Eminent) first released in 2000 by a band named Goatworship in which Mondocane‘s creator performed drums and keyboards (the band also included two members of Sarcasm). What we have for you today to help spread the word about this split release is the premiere of one of Mondocane‘s new songs, “Hammaren och skäran“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SVART VINTER — “MIST”

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Aug 312022
 

Forecasts of a temperature drop radiate from Svart Vinter‘s new album Mist, communicated not only by the band’s name and the record’s title but also from the gray fog blanketing black forests on the album’s cover. Most of the world may be baking in record heat waves right now, but winter is as much a state of mind as a season.

It is, in fact, many states of mind. The season brings gale-force turbulence as well as oppressive chills, death and decay as well as huddled loneliness, and the kindling of fires in an effort to keep the dark and the cold at bay. In some areas it’s also a time of beauty and wonder. In all these ways the season itself reflects and spawns a range of moods. After the roasting many of us are now enduring, it may be more welcome than in many past years at first, before dread and difficulties settle in during the long months until spring.

Mist manages to capture many of the sensations of the dark season, sketching portraits of what happens to the Earth as it turns away from the distant blazing orb, but even more so portraying the human emotions that find their simulacrum in the outer world. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CATACOMBES — “LA BÊTE D’ACIER”

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Aug 302022
 

If you take a close look at the cover photograph for Catacombes’ new album Des Glaires et des Briques you’ll see that it depicts a wine bottle and a corkscrew resting on a rustic table. But you’ll also see that the wine-opener doubles as a knife, and shadows encroach along the borders. The title is rendered in an old gothic or medieval font and beneath it are words which Google Translate renders as follows: “Night falls and darkness seizes the dark alleys and busy onlookers…” Sun & Moon Records, the Transylvanian label releasing the album, invites us to “Pour a glass of wine and explore the genuine atmosphere of medieval obscurantism!”

What is one to make of all this visual and linguistic imagery? It’s suggestive of archaic themes and perhaps a degree of sophistication, but equally suggestive of nocturnal menace and maybe worse. Consider that the members of the band have chosen as their noms de guerre Le Démoniaque, La Damnée, and Le Vilain.

Well, we can’t help but engage in guessing games as a result of such intrigues, but it’s better to let the music speak for itself, and so let’s move directly into “La Bête d’Acier“, the song we’re premiering from the album today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZOMBIESHARK! — “GRIM REAPER GUTTERS”

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Aug 262022
 

(Chris Luedtke, a new NCS contributor, introduces our premiere of a new video and song from Zombieshark!.)

Depending on where one has been lurking in the underground, one might have noticed that cybergrind is on the rise. But if one hasn’t heard about the genre, a brief introduction: an experimental subsection of grindcore that is no holds barred. Blasts, hyper-blasts, nintendocore, noise, djent, breakcore, metalcore, death metal, electronica, pop — the genre does not care. But it revolves around a largely harsh, digital sound. And ZOMBIESHARK! here is one of many of the skull-exploding bands hovering in this orbit.

With an output dating back to 2012, ZOMBIESHARK! has been kicking out cybergrind for awhile. The Philadelphia, PA’s one-person output (Corey Curly) has picked up considerably since 2020. Self-described as hyper-death, ZOMBIESHARK! infuses grind, deathcore, and pop through a digital blender. The result is chaotic, catchy, and brutal. And their latest track “Grim Reaper Gutters” features guest vocals from Rob Accardi of Dr. Acula from the EP Born From A Wish. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CADAVEROUS — “I WANT TO KILL”

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Aug 262022
 

Although the Indianapolis death metal band Cadaverous only came together in 2021, this trio — guitarist/vocalist Jesse Curtis, bassist Alexander Farrington, and drummer Dre Duarte — have wasted no time in making their ghastly presence vividly known.

Their three-song debut EP Slam The Coffin Shut garnered heaps of praise from metal outlets and fans, and their gigs have included opening for such acts as Mortiferum, Obituary, Gruesome, 200 Stab Wounds, Kontusion, and more. Now they’re poised to build on that success through the September 23 release of a debut album named Remnants of Violence.

The horrifying cover art which we’re revealing today is a strong clue to the kind of gruesome and gore-stained music Cadaverous are making their own, but we have an even more startling clue in our premiere of a performance video for a single from the album, fittingly titled “I Want To Kill“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NACHTS — “KEIN MORGEN”

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Aug 262022
 

The German musician Wiedergaenger (a member of Total Negation, Absolutum, and other bands) has used his solo project NACHTS as a vehicle for moving through ever-changing sonic terrains.

Beginning in 2009, four demos and EPs have been released under that name, traversing lyrical themes that have included encounters in nocturnal in-between worlds, abysmal stories, and ruminations on death. Black metal has provided the musical framework, but through each release NACHTS has demonstrated an impatience with convention and an eagerness to explore different recording techniques and sound aesthetics.

The newest work of NACHTS is an EP named Kein Morgen (“No Tomorrow”) that will be released on September 30th on cassette tape by the Crawling Chaos label. It encompasses 7 tracks and 25 minutes of music, and today we premiere a video for the EP’s title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PÂLEFROID — “L’EFFONDREMENT” AND “MOS MAJORUM”

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Aug 252022
 

In January of this year the French one-man black metal band Pâlefroid made its first release, a three-song EP named Soleil de cendres. Pâlefroid is following that with a self-titled debut album, which will be released by the distinctive Antiq label on September 26th. It includes the three songs from Soleil de cendres and six more new songs. Today we present two of those previously un-heard tracks, “L’Effondrement” and “Mos Majorum“.

That previous EP revealed a multi-faceted dynamic, combining both incinerating vocal intensity and solemn spoken words, ravaging riffs that moved in momentous waves and slashed with feral power, fire-bright leads that flickered and entranced like sparks from a bonfire, and pulse-popping drum- and bass-work. The music ripped and ravished, whirled and levitated, was rough and raw, but was also grand, sweeping, and even elegant and elaborate in its channeling of melancholy moods of remembrance and desperation.

The EP’s music seemed to hearken back to a long-lost age (some might even be tempted to call it “medieval black metal”), but it also brought forth breathtaking ferocity and powerfully head-moving riffs with a visceral appeal (sitting still while the song “Pâlefroid” blazes and rocks is a particular impossibility). Through all three songs, the emotional power was intense — intense enough to put your heart in your throat and send your head spinning.

And that brings us to “L’Effondrement“. Continue reading »

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