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 »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HEAVING EARTH — “EARTHLY KINGDOM OF GOD IN RUINS”

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Aug 252022
 

When the Czech band Heaving Earth released their second album Denouncing the Holy Throne in 2015 our reviewer Austin Weber showered it with praise, writing:

“While their band name comes from the Morbid Angel song of the same name, and the band is indeed certainly steeped in early death metal influences, they come across with a sound all their own. Boatloads of killer serrated riffs are an integral part of the Heaving Earth experience, yet it’s their subtly erratic nature, off-kilter hairpin turns, and mountain-sized heaviness that keeps me coming back. That, and the way they come across as very dark and foreboding, very much in the mood and feeling that some of the most fucked-up and disturbing black metal channel so well.”

A long seven years later, Heaving Earth returned with a new album named Darkness of God that was released this past May by Lavadome Productions. Not surprisingly after such a long time, the band’s lineup has changed, but the music is still a striking experience, one that both exhilarates and challenges any sense of complacency.

The compositions are also challenging to perform, and demand a significant level of technical proficiency. Fortunately, Heaving Earth come well-armed for the challenge, and we have proof of that in the guitar playthrough video we’re presenting today, which features the formidable talents of lead guitarist Martin Meyer. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: MALAURIU — “DE NATURA OBSCRURITATIS”

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Aug 242022
 

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 on September 15th by the Italian label Black Mass Prayers.

To help spread the word about this new EP, we have already premiered a profoundly disturbing yet also frighteningly spellbinding song from it named “The Locust“, and today we reveal the whole soul-staggering work. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VISERION — “REBORN IN DARKNESS”

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Aug 232022
 

For their first new music since the 2021 album Natural Selection, the New York band Viserion (who took their name from Game of Thrones‘ resurrected ice dragon) chose to tell a narrative inspired by the the video game Destiny. They explain the choice in these words:

“Reborn in Darkness” is a story about rebirth, inspired by the character Oryx from Destiny. Oryx goes through transformations and becomes more powerful with each. This motif stood out to us particularly due to our own lineup changes. The instrumentation of the song was very raw and brutal as well, mirroring Oryx‘s campaign of destruction against the light.

With the influence of new members in the fold, this new song which we’re premiering today portrays the malice and heinous ferocity of its protagonist through a fusion of death metal, black metal, and hints of grindcore, and the combination yields an immersive and nightmarish experience that stays with you. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GREBER — “TREE CARVING”

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Aug 232022
 

The Canadian duo Greber have been making heavy and harrowing music for roughly 16 years. My first exposure to their hard-to-define creations was the 2018 album Cemetery Preston, which made me feel like like I’d been backhanded across the mouth, and then punched in the kidneys while having my skull hammered with a tire iron. It included other sensations, but the sense of experiencing marauding obliteration was the first and lasting impression.

Since then they’ve continued on with their campaign, such that their discography has swollen to four full-lengths and six splits. Their newest album, Fright Without, is marked for release by a group of labels on September 9th. It houses 10 tracks, most of them compact, for a totsl run-time that’s just shy of half an hour. Once again the band’s members — Steve Vargas (The Great Sabatini) and Marc Bourgon (ex-Fuck the Facts) confine themselves to drum and bass and share the vocals, with guests who contribute noise, vocals, and an actual guitar on one track.

So far, two tracks have been revealed from the new album, and today we add a third, which happens to be both the album closer and the shortest of the 10. Continue reading »

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