AN NCS PREMIERE: INDUSTRIAL PUKE — “INDUSTRIAL PUKE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 112022
 

This is one of those song premieres where it’s tempting for us to just tell you, “Here — listen to this!“, because reading much more than that would probably take you longer than listening to the track. After all, the song barely clips the minute-twenty mark. But writing is what we do, and write we shall, but in a way that might give you a bit more to chew on than our impressions of this one song.

The song in question shares the name of this Swedish band — Industrial Puke — and it’s the one that slams the door shut on their debut EP Where Life Crisis Starts, which is coming out on September 16th via Suicide Records. The EP itself is a swift kick in the jaw, four songs that collectively fight with you for less than eight minutes. And hell yes, it’s a fight. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLASTED HEATH — “VELA”

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Aug 102022
 

“Vela is a blast of blackened chaos from distant galaxies, mastered by death metal legend Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Bloodbath). Imagine early Bathory mixed with Darkthrone’s grim eclecticism and Black Breath‘s punk grime. Mutate that sound with Lovecraftian psychedelia and you get this unforgettable album.”

That’s the PR come-on from Wise Blood Records for the debut album by Blasted Heath from Indianapolis. I thought, if that’s even pretty close to accurate I’m going to be very happy with this one. The preview checks a lot of the right boxes for my tastes. Another one got checked when I read guitarist/vocalist Kyle Shumaker‘s comments about the last three conceptually linked songs on Vela, which are about neutron stars (aka pulsars) and “Killanova” events in which two such stars in a binary system collide and potentially release “strange matter”.

And then there’s the fact that the band named the album itself for a pulsar that’s the remnant of a supernova that occurred 11,000–12,300 years ago, and the brightest pulsar (at radio frequencies) in the sky.

So, lots of reasons to be intrigued and attracted before hearing a single note. But, as always, it comes down to the payoff: Do these black/thrash cosmonauts deliver what’s promised? You’re about to find out. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NEKROTISK — “SULFUR AND ASH”

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Aug 082022
 

On the last day of 2021 the Minnesota-based extreme metal band Nekrotisk celebrated New Year’s Eve by releasing its debut EP, Apraxia I: Mors Certa. It was the solo work of Mehrunz Oel (aka Matt McGee), a six-track rendering of blackened death metal that impressively interweaves dire and hellish moods, searing and soaring riffage, jolting grooves, maniacally obliterating percussion, and crazed vocal tirades that are a fitting match for the frequent fretwork frenzies.

Mehrunz shouldered almost all the work that led to that EP, including recording, mixing, and mastering it and creating the cover art (with a guest appearance on the second track by James Benson of Amiensus and Chrome Waves). But his ambitions were greater than creating a studio project, and so in the coming months he assembled a talented live line-up and organized a first tour in June that took the band across the Northwest of the U.S., through Montana, Idaho, Washington, and back through North Dakota on the way home.

What we have for you today is a video that recaps that tour, set to the music of a riveting track from Apraxia I named “Sulfur and Ash“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INHUMAN DEPRAVITY — “BEYOND RHYTHM ZERO”

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Aug 082022
 

 

Let’s be honest: the Turkish band Inhuman Depravity are in a challenging place musically, and they consciously and confidently put themselves there.

They’ve chosen to embrace an old-school amalgam of technical/brutal death metal obviously influenced by the likes of Severe Torture and Deeds Of Flesh, Disavowed and Suffocation, Brutality and Sinister. They drop those names themselves. Those bands cast long shadows, and to stand in them risks remaining hidden, out of the light, because this style is so established and has been done so well before.

But even acknowledging the risks, it’s hard to fault the band for their choice of musical lineage. For one thing, this kind of music hasn’t gone out of style despite its age — people still hunger for it. For another, Inhuman Depravity are really fucking good at what they do. We’ve got the evidence of that today, through our premiere of the first advance song from the band’s forthcoming second album The Experimendead, which is Inhuman Depravity‘s first new music in a long seven years following their debut full-length. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MALAURIU — “THE LOCUST”

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Aug 052022
 

The Sicilian band Malauriu have been a prolific source of black metal and dark experimental sounds for almost a decade. As detailed in an interview of mainman Schizoid published here at the beginning of 2022, Malauriu have tended to release their music mainly through EPs and splits. In March of this year they departed from the tradition by releasing their second (self-titled) full-length, but they now return to shorter works with a new EP named De Natura Obscuritatis that’s set for release in mid-September by the Italian label Black Mass Prayers.

To help spread the word about this new EP, today we premiere a song from it named “The Locust“. Continue reading »

A REDEFINING DARKNESS ROUND-UP: HERUVIM, ROTBORN, CONCRETE ICON, ORBICATE

 Metal News, Premieres, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 042022
 

Regular visitors to our site are aware that roughly once a week we compile round-ups of new songs and videos that have seized our attention. The round-up you’re staring at now, however, is different from the usual ones.

In this instance we’re putting the spotlight on four recent or forthcoming releases from a single label — Redefining Darkness Records. And there’s another difference, because in some instances what you’ll be discovering are premiere streams of the music.

HERUVIM: SHADOWHEART EP

The first release we’re spotlighting has goals that go beyond giving you something (very good) to listen too. It’s the debut EP by a death metal band from Odesa, Ukraine, named Heruvim, and all proceeds from digital sales are dedicated to the support of the Ukrainian army in their fight against the Russian aggressors. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TOMB OF FINLAND — “COFFIN BOUND”

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Aug 042022
 

It’s not often that we premiere more than one advance track from an impending album release, much less three of them. But in the case of Tomb of Finland‘s new album Across The Barren Fields we’ve been offered the chance to do three, and have eagerly accepted the opportunity.

In the case of the first two songs we’ve presented, they were first released as stand-alone singles, and that’s true of the song we’re presenting today — “Coffin Bound“. It will be available as a digital single beginning on August 5th. But we’re also now getting much closer to the August 19th release of the album by UPRISING! Records in a variety of physical formats, and thus this latest single serves as a reminder of that. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ETERNALLY SCARRED — “STONE COLD BLOOD”

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Aug 032022
 

For those of you, like us, who haven’t previously encountered the one-man Armenian project Eternally Scarred, we’ve got what we think will be a big and welcome surprise for you today. The surprise comes in the form of two songs from Eternally Scarred‘s new album Echoes From Beneath, one that previously surfaced and one that we’re premiering today.

The songs are surprising in a couple of respects. The first is that the band has branched out from the stylistic markers of its debut album …Of Wisdom, which led Metal-Archives to label the music Melodic Death/Doom Metal. Those labeled ingredients are still a part of Echoes From Beneath, but there’s now even more going on in the songs, and the ways in which they take new forks in the path are thrilling (and kind of head-spinning).

The other surprise, for those of us who are encountering Eternally Scarred for the first time, is just how “muscular” and hard-hitting the songs are, how well-constructed and “catchy” they are, and how frighteningly intense the vocals become. Make no mistake, these are often grim and moody beasts, and capable of harrowing your souls, but they’ll get your pulse pounding too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DYSGNOSTIC — “BENEATH ABYSSAL PLAINS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 032022
 

The Danish band formerly known as Defilementory have made a bug “reset” — and we do mean BIG. A long eight years after the release of their debut album The Dismal Ascension, they’ve recorded a new album with a changed sound, changed their own name to mark the occasion, and will have it released by one of the most exciting metal labels now in operation (Transcending Obscurity Records), adorned by magnificently chilling cover art by Dawid Figielek.

The band’s new name is Dysgnostic, and the title of their first album under that name is Scar Echoes. As for their revised sound, we now have two indications of it. The first, presented through an official video last month, is a track called “Silvery Tongues“, and the second is the song we’re premiering today — “Beneath Abyssal Plains“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FERUM — “ASUNDER / ERODE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 022022
 

All fans of extreme metal know that Paolo Girardi is a painter who is capable of creating an extensive range of scenes and visions, albeit with a style that’s always immediately recognizable. What he has done for the cover of Ferum‘s debut album is a particularly ghastly and hideous visual nightmare. You can’t look away from it, though you might want to, and it’s hard to forget, try as you might. The question quickly presents itself: What will make your blood run more cold, that image or Ferum‘s music?

You’ll come to your own conclusion today, because we’re presenting a full stream of this debut album in advance of its August 19 release by Avantgarde Music / Unorthodox Emanations. The album’s name is Asunder / Erode. Continue reading »

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