AN NCS PREMIERE: ILL TIDINGS — “WORSHIP THE TEMPLE OF FLESH”

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Jun 092026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we turn our attention to the Vienna-based black metal band Ill Tidings and a song we’re premiering from their new album Seeds of Rebirth, which will be released by the esteemed Vendetta Records on June 26th. They have provided this précis of the album as a whole:

The album balances aggression and atmosphere across seven tracks, shifting between cold melodic passages, dense riffing and moments that feel almost ritualistic in tone. While earlier releases hinted toward collapse and finality, Seeds of True Rebirth approaches those ideas head-on, presenting what the band describe as “the apocalypse” itself.

As you can see above, the album’s eye-catching cover art sets the stage in frightening (and intriguing) fashion. The song you’re about to hear is also both frightening and uncomfortably intriguing, and even as a single song, its scope is indeed world-ending. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FINAL SELF — “LITURGY OF THE FINAL SELF”

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Jun 082026
 

(written by Islander)

As you can see, we are about to premiere an album by a group named Final Self. They are a death metal band from Tarnów, Poland, and Liturgy of The Final Self is their debut release.

We don’t have a lot of information to share about the band or what inspired them. Their very brief description of the music calls it “raw, dark death metal focused on intense atmosphere, existential themes, and destruction from within.” Beyond that, we have the identity of the band’s members and some notes about their resumes:

Eveq – guitar, bass (Breathe The Void, ex-Ingenium)
Ataman Tolovy – vocals (Turin Turambar, Genius Ultor, Mrome, ex-Stillborn, ex-Kult Mogił)
Krzysztof Klingbein – drums (Totenmesse, Belphegor live, ex-Vader live)

At least some of the names in those parenthetical notes will probably perk up the ears of our visitors, as they did mine. Yet for the most part we have to let the music speak for Final Self and what they’re about. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TRIAGE — “DECIMAL POINTS”

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Jun 052026
 

(written by Islander)

I want to begin this premiere feature with a personal note. While working on Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle a few weeks ago I witnessed what might have been the wildest musical riot of the entire event, a performance at the packed-to-the-gills Barboza venue by the North Texas grind band Triage. They created an absolute cauldron of chaos that left us wondering if the moshers would require emergency care and the venue would need structural repairs afterward.

Vocalist Champ Morgan led the charge, striding into the mosh pit and going on top of the bar while howling like a madman. You can get a quick taste of what happened through this reel on Instagram. (You should also check out this video of the Triage set at this year’s Maryland Deathfest.)

But the personal note also involves my own interactions with some of the band members when they weren’t performing. By my lights, and the lights of everyone else working the fest who encountered them, they were some of the nicest people we met there, perhaps especially that wildman Champ Morgan, who watched Black Breath’s performance with me at stage-side. They even reacted with good humor to my shit-talking (as a die-hard Mariners fan) about the Texas Rangers — which I couldn’t resist after seeing a Rangers cap in the Triage crew.

And so, when I was given the opportunity to premiere a song from a new Triage record today, I jumped at it faster than a jackrabbit with its ass on fire. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WOEWARDEN — “AS DEEP AS THE KNIFE GOES”

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Jun 052026
 

(written by Islander)

On June 12th the Dusktone label will release the fourth album by the Australian black metal band Woewarden (the first two were released when the band was known as Cancer). Titled The Roots Of My Neglect, the new one follows the band’s 2022 full-length, In The Art Of My Caged Existence. Dusktone describes it:

It is the natural successor to their previous work but is intentionally more visceral. Woewarden have maintained the melodic, melancholic approach to depressive black metal – inspired by the likes of Silencer, Psychonaut 4, and Insomnium — but they have injected a heavier, more abrasive edge reminiscent of the raw torment and fury of 90s Scandinavian legends like Dissection and Emperor.

We’ll also share Woewarden’s own description of how their new album compares to the last one:

The Roots Of My Neglect stands as a visceral evolution to our previous record, In The Art Of My Caged Existence. While its predecessor explored the isolation of a caged existence, this record examines what happens when that cage finally breaks – leaving us to carry the accumulated burdens of ourselves and others. We have pushed our melodic melancholy to its limit, fusing bittersweet arrangements with an abrasive, raw edge. From maniacal wails and screams of anguish to haunting croons, it is an exploration of neglect, both self-inflicted and external, and the rot that settles when hope is finally abandoned.

What we have for you today is a lyric video for a song off the album called “As Deep As The Knife Goes” — and we also have a statement from Woewarden about this specific track: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANGEST — “THICK, BLACK TAR”

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Jun 042026
 

(written by Islander)

Angest is a new name within the freezing and fiery realms of black metal, but its multi-national lineup quickly attracts attention. It includes two members of Détresse, two members of Humanitas Error Est, and the drummer for Cult of Erinyes and LVTHN.

At one time three of them performed with Lebenssucht, and their resumes also include former or current membership (including live stage sessions) in such bands as Enthroned, Dawohl, Einst, Goat Torment, Gevurah, Sabathan, Thanargonauts, and Towering.

The fact that their debut album Perpetual Anguish will be released by Vendetta Records (on June 26th) is a further signifier of quality. The name of the album is also a signifier, a sign of the night-dark nature of the music and the terrible emotions that fueled it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COPROLITH — “SENTENCED TO THE GRAVE”

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Jun 042026
 

(written by Islander)

The Canadian death metal band Coprolith clearly have no desire to mislead anyone about the kind of music they make. Their name is a word for fossilized feces. The music on their self-titled debut demo from 2023 (reviewed here) was grotesquely ugly and maniacally marauding. Their forthcoming debut album is named Putrescence. And just look at that cover artwork by Adam Kindred!

All the signals are there, open and obvious, signals warning of rotten-to-the-core death metal that’s foul, festering, and ferocious, the kind of dreadful musical monstrosities that greedily feast upon the intestines of such predecessors as Grave, Demigod, and Incantation.

So no, no experienced metalheads will be misled by what the new album offers, but many will relish just how expertly Coprolith bring their horrid visions to life. We have an example in our premiere today of the album’s opening track, a song called “Sentenced to the Grave“, in advance of the album’s co-release by Me Saco Un Ojo Records and Rotted Life Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AMBROTOS — “THE AGE OF TORTURE”

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Jun 032026
 

(written by Islander)

The Greek black metal band Ambrotos have had interesting and unusual lyrical themes from the beginning, having released a pair of EPs and a debut album (2022’s Transcendental Mastery) dedicated to pre-Socratic philosophy and ancient cosmology. With their forthcoming second album, Atrocious Chants, the band have shifted their lyrical themes, but they remain interesting — and the album’s cover art by contemporary Athenian painter Fanis Goulis points the way.

The album will be co-released on July 13th by Satanath Records and WP Productions. They offer this description of the new themes:

This new album delves into the fall of Constantinople and the decline of the Byzantine Empire, presenting a unique perspective that intertwines historical narrative with the religious beliefs and perceptions of the medieval era. At its core, the album explores the epic battle between Satan and Christ, offering a profound commentary on faith and conflict.

What we have for you today is the premiere of the album’s second advance track, “The Age of Torture“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTO DARKNESS — “URANUS”

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Jun 032026
 

(written by Islander)

We’ve been following the Italian death metal band Into Darkness for a long time — nearly 14 years, to be more precise. Beginning with a demo they released in 2012, we’ve written about their records eight times, most recently praising their 2023 EP, Cassini-Huygens. Those releases all took the shape of EPs and splits, but now Into Darkness finally have a debut album set for release on July 24th by Dying Victims Productions.

The name of the album is Route to the Other Side. Like previous releases, it was inspired by divulgative (popular) astronomy. In this case it is a concept record about the outer solar system.

The album’s song titles map a journey through those far reaches, beginning with “Jupiter“, moving on to “Saturn” and “Uranus” (the song we’re about to premiere), and eventually passing through the “Kuiper Belt” and onward to “Pluto“, and ending with the title song “Route to the Other Side“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NOTHINGNESS — “SKULL EVULSION”

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Jun 022026
 

(written by Islander)

Once again we find ourselves in the fortunate position of helping Everlasting Spew Records announce their release of a jaw-dropping new album. This time it’s the third full-length from the Minnesota-based purveyors of “Digressive Death”, Nothingness.

The name of the new album is Godslaughter, and it follows Hollow Gaze of Death (2019, Independent) and Supraliminal (2023, Everlasting Spew Records). Our friend Gonzo reviewed that second album for us, summing it up as “a dizzying, uncomfortable, and overall suffocating experience in interdimensional sonic terror.”

You could guess from the name of the new album (and the cover art) that Nothingness haven’t backed away from the nightmarish hostility of their musical conceptions. If anything, they have doubled-down. Here’s how Everlasting Spew previews the experience: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ILLWIND — “LUCIFER’S MULE”

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Jun 022026
 

(written by Islander)

Ill winds usually blow no one any good, or so the old saying goes, though in its earliest expression (before the meaning morphed) the writer John Heywood actually suggested that a wind unlucky for one person would bring good fortune to another. In the case of the Peruvian band Illwind, they have brought good fortune indeed through their debut album The Unfolding at the End of Light, which will be released on July 3rd by Personal Records.

Almost anyone who has come across the circulating press materials for the album is bound to be intrigued. For one thing, they disclose that the Illwind quartet includes members of such bands as Reino Ermitaño, Cobra, Arcada, and Argul. For another thing, the music is described as having an “idiosyncratic personality”, one steeped in aspects of traditional doom but also branching out in unexpected directions — such as closing the record with a cover of The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog”.

And then there’s this: Continue reading »

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