AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GUINEAPIG — “CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD”

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May 192022
 

Most ardent fans of extreme metal have at least a passing impression of the sub-genre known as “goregrind”, and others have been eating it up ever since Carcass released Reek of Putrefaction, reveling in the disgustingly distorted gutturals, the frenzied tempos and thuggish breakdowns, the down-tuned riffage, the blasting percussion, and the lyrical devotion to splattered viscera and forensic pathology. But however much you think you know about goregrind, the Roman trio Guineapig are about to open your eyes wide all over again.

They made their first mark with the 2014 debut album Bacteria, and yes, it displayed a fascination with splatter movies, medical experiments, and rare diseases, while inflicting traumatic levels of musical punishment. But that was 8 years ago, and the band’s new album Parasite, which will be released next month by Spikerot Records, is definitely a step up. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THIRTEEN GOATS — “RETURN TO RUIN”

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May 182022
 

The words and animated visuals in the lyric video you’re about to see reflect utter disgust with the vile and lying regimes that have dominated many nations in recent years, and proclaim only one answer: Bring it all to ruin, and start again. And in the electrifying song you’re about to hear, Vancouver-based Thirteen Goats begin the process themselves, by doing their furious best to pulverize everything around them and burn it to the ground.

This new song, “Return To Ruin“, is the first single from Thirteen Goats‘ forthcoming debut album Servants of the Outer Dark, a gut-punching and head-hooking offering of death metal that borrows liberally from many of the genre’s subsets, as well as bringing in elements of thrash, black metal, and grindcore. The band introduce the album in these words: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OKTAS — “COLLATERAL DAMAGE”

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May 182022
 

In September 2019 we had the great pleasure of premiering the debut EP of Philadelphia-based Oktas, a fascinating record about which we spilled a flood of words and attempted to sum up as one that embraced a wide range of influences, “from ambient minimalism to atmospheric black metal and epic doom metal (and maybe a bit of gloomy post-punk in the mix, too), woven together with a cinematic edge”.

Hundreds of books have already been written, and thousands more will be written, about what has happened to the world in just the two years and eight months since that EP was released, a time filled with traumatic upheavals, many of them unforeseen and others foreseen but blindly ignored. Certainly not the easiest time for the making of new music, among all the other traumas. But it’s good to see that this band persevered, as others have, and now they have a new album on the way and we have another premiere to support it. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VIOLENTOR — “MANIFESTO DI ODIO”

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May 172022
 

 

Imagine turning the key in the ignition of a hulking road machine, feel your bones vibrating from the power building within it, and then having the thing take off of its own accord, slamming you back against the headrest and threatening to cause your heart to explode from your chest as it blazes ahead like a rocket fueled by hellfire.

That’s one way of thinking about the riotous onslaught of Violentor‘s new album Manifesto di Odio, which will be released on May 20th by Time To Kill Records. Speed metal and thrash are this Italian band’s weapons of choice in their campaign of defiance and rage, augmented by “blackened” armaments of blasting drums and merciless swarming riffs. It’s the kind of furious high-octane thrill-ride that will get your own motor running fast and hot. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OUR DYING WORLD — “VEIL OF THE REAPER”

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May 162022
 

 

We’ll make you a solemn promise: Whatever condition you happen to be in now (unless you’re in a coma), the song and video we’re about to present will make you feel orders of magnitude more alive, accelerating your heart-rate, igniting your fast-twitch muscles, and spinning your head like a glorious top. And for those of you who want your music to attack like a pack of rabid dogs, it fills that need, too.

The song is “Veil of the Reaper“, and it comes from Hymns Of Blinding Darkness, the forthcoming second album by the Los Angeles band Our Dying World. The new album marks a significant departure from the music on their full-length debut, Expedition, moving in directions that may spawn memories of such bands as Children Of Bodom, Nightwish, and Dimmu Borgir, and you’ll get a vivid understanding of that when you hear “Veil of the Reaper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TISHINA — “Јутро Последњег Дана”

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May 162022
 

 

Tишина (“Tishina” or “Silence”) is a new melodic doom/death project founded by Serbian musician Branislav Panić, known for his work in the blackened death metal band Bane. Under the banner of Tишина, he has drawn upon the influence of such bands as Saturnus, October Tide, Mourning Beloveth, and Doom:vs, among others, and the results are now captured on a debut album named Увод… (“Uvod…” or “Introduction…”), which was inspired mainly by a book of poems named Nad Vodama Aheronta by the Serbian author Predrag Rava.

Увод… will be co-released on May 30th by Satanath Records, Hypnotic Dirge Records, and The End Of Time Records. As that day fast approaches, we are now presenting a song from the album named “Јутро Последњег Дана” (Jutro Poslednjeg Dana), which is a remarkable amalgam of sensations, both spellbinding and hard-hitting. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CARTILAGE — “THE DEADER THE BETTER”

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May 122022
 

 

After looking at the cover art for the new Cartilage album The Deader The Better, plus imbibing the band photos and the first few singles and videos for the record, I decided to imbibe large quantities of alcohol before writing what you’re about to read. For this album, I figured no one would want to read anything sober about the music, because the music isn’t made for sober people. Or I guess I should say that it’s made for people, sober or not, who want to get drunk on the wild riot that this album provides, even if you choose not to consume intoxicants of your own.

People come to extreme metal for lots of reasons, and there’s so much variety in extreme metal that it’s capable of feeding almost whatever you hunger for, and whatever mood you’re in, or whatever mood you want to get into. If you’re already feeling wild, this is one of those album’s that will push that up to potentially dangerous levels. If you’re a morose asshole, this will make you feel mean and even more disgusted about yourself. If you’re just somewhere in the middle, the mayhem will make you ruin your neck and smile through broken teeth and churning viscera.

The album may not be what your psychotherapist would order, but they’re groping in the dark anyway, and they probably didn’t take any courses in fucked-ed up death/gore, more’s the pity. Maybe we should begin a letter-writing campaign to places that teach counseling and psychology/psychiatry? Yeah no, that’s the demon alcohol talking. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TWO FACE SINNER — “SERVANTS OF BLIND FAITH”

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May 122022
 

 

Last year marked the 15th anniversary of the Perúvian black/death metal band Two Face Sinner. Across that span of years they released an EP and three albums of satanic blasphemy, and have shared the stage with the likes of Rotting Christ, Nargaroth, God Dethroned, and Belphegor.

Two Face Sinner‘s most recent album, Spiritual Nemesis, was released in 2020 by Non Serviam Records (on CD and digitally). As a reminder of its diabolical allure, last fall we premiered a lyric video for the record’s second track, “Satanic Altar“. One good turn deserves another, and so today we’re presenting another lyric video, this one for “Servants of Blind Faith“ Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LUX INCERTA — “DECAY & AGONY”

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May 112022
 

Last month the Parisian band Lux Incerta, whose name is a Latin expression which describes the moment light succumbs to darkness, released their first album in a decade via the Klonosphere label. Three years in the making, Dark Odyssey carries forward the influences that shaped the group’s genesis, which owed a debt to such bands as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Cathedral, but brings into play other genre ingredients as well, including prog, death, and post-black metal.

Thematically, the band built the new album around a concept that suggests a personal and exploratory journey into the depths of oneself, “on the border between darkness and light, between joy and sadness, life, and death”, to quote the words of the band. Lux Incerta have further commented: “It’s very special for us, and it takes on a fuller meaning since one of our own bandmates, Michel ‘Shervine’ Hejazy passed away a few weeks before hitting the studio. This album is dedicated to his memory.” And the album includes a couple of solos that Shervine recorded during the pre-production phase.

Dark Odyssey a powerful album, heavy in its emotional impact as well as its sound, and that’s evident from the song that’s the subject of a video we’re premiering today: “Decay & Agony“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOIMATON — “BILE”

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May 102022
 

With a 2019 demo and a pair of 2020 live EPs under their belts, the U.S. death metal band Voimaton are about to make a big step forward with a debut album named Profane Vestige that’s set for release on June 10th via Personal Records. It presents a selection of both previously released and new tracks that collectively demonstrate the band’s mastery of a particularly gruesome and bone-smashing form of doom-afflicted death metal.

The trio who make up the band — Dave Tibbets (vocals, bass), Pat O’Hara (drums), and Henry Fordney (guitars) — proceed together under a name that’s of Finnish origin and loosely translates to “powerless”, and while feelings of powerlessness and nihilism work their way into the songs’ lyrical themes, the music is anything but weak and defenseless, as you’ll learn from our premiere of the album track “Bile” — which is indeed a bilious piece of music, and a barbaric one.. Continue reading »

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