AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRYPTIVORE — “CELESTIAL EXTINCTION”

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Mar 102022
 

 

Those of you who have spent years listening to death metal as it began to take monstrous shape in the first decade of the genre’s spawning and evolution will easily recognize the stylistic tropes that make up the musical arsenal brandished by Cryptivore‘s debut album Celestial Extinction. Drawing influence from early days of Amorphis and Carcass, Rottrevore and Grave, Cryptivore’s sound is a hybrid of death-metal brutality and explosive grindcore fury, all of it swathed in melodies that evoke haunted houses and horrifying crypts.

But this Australian band’s first full-length (which is the solo work of Chris Anning) is one of those releases where the familiarity of the ingredients in no way lessens the thrill of listening to it. You can see all the knives in the drawer, but once they start flashing and slashing in such remarkably dynamic fashion you get caught up in the spectacle. That’s a tribute to Cryptivore‘s own obvious knowledge of and love for the genre ingredients, but it’s also the result of top-shelf instrumental and vocal technique and a real talent for writing songs that feel like non-stop roller-coaster rides.

And so it’s a genuine pleasure to share with you a full stream of Celestial Extinction in advance of its fast-approaching March 15 release by Bitter Loss Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS — “HELL OF ETERNAL DEATH”

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Mar 092022
 

 

The Australian death metal band Beyond Mortal Dreams feeds from roots that extend back into the mid-90s, but with a discography whose dark flowering has been marked by fits and long silences. Following a pair of demos in the mid-2000s, they released a debut album (From Hell) in 2008, and then only a couple of short releases marked their path for the next 13+ years. But at last they have risen again with a second full-length named Abomination of the Flames that’s set for release by Lavadome Productions on April 12th.

Although the band hasn’t experienced the extent of line-up upheavals that are commonplace among other bands over such an extended interval, it’s inevitable that the passage of time has influenced the musicians — in their thinking about music, in their interweaving of influences, in their desires for what their music should become.

The result, as the Lavadome press materials describe it, is music that reveals an “eagerness to explore, destroy, and conquer in order to create”, “a grand tour of at times cinematic proportions” that is “bestial and brutal” but also “elaborate and intelligent”, and atmospheric as well as savage.

We predict you’ll remember those descriptions when you hear the song we’re premiering today — “Hell of Eternal Death“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FADEAD — “L’ESTREMITÀ DEL MONDO”

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Mar 092022
 

 

This coming April Lethal Scissor Records will release the debut EP of an Italian grindcore band who call themselves Fadead and whose experienced line-up includes Y. (Vomit the Soul, ex-Precognitive Holocaust Annotations), V. (Spells of Misery, Bolvangar, Vertebra Atlantis), and R.

The name of the EP is Terra Ferita, and it comes recommended for fans of Nasum, Cripple Bastards, and Napalm Death. To help spread the word about it, today we’re premiering a lyric video (in Italian) for a brutal assault named “L’estremità del mondo“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALAMH — “BLACKENED WAVES”

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Mar 082022
 


L-R: Dave Strba (guitar, backing vocals), Kyle Tayler (guitars, vocals), Kye Bell (bass)

 

Falamh, from North Bay, Ontario, Canada rose from the ashes of a previous band in 2019, and released their first EP (The Unbound Beyond: I) in 2020. Honing their blend of melodic black/death metal, they’re now readying the release of a second EP, which is due out on March 25th. Its title is Aeons Effigy, and what we have for you today is the premiere of the new EP’s second single, “Blackened Waves“.

As you’ll discover, it’s a moving and memorable song, but it delivers punch as well as pain, ferocity as well as desperation. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BURNED IN EFFIGY — “TREACHERY”

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Mar 072022
 


L-R – Mark “Smedy” Smedbron (Vocals) | Matt Watkins (Bass) | Eddie Dec (Drums) | Steve Bacakos (Guitar) | Mike Hisson (Guitar)
Photo Credit – Emily Fuschen (Dark Trix Photography)

When metal bands contemplate which of their songs would be a good subject for a playthrough video, they face an interesting choice. If they pick a technically demanding piece, the results can be especially impressive — but it’s a lot more challenging to achieve success. As you’re about to see and hear, the Chicago-based melodic death metal band Burned In Effigy didn’t shy away from the challenge.

The song they chose, “Treachery“, is by their own admission the most melodically and harmonically complex track on their recently released debut album Rex Mortem, which introduces the tale of a tyrannical king’s rule and demise. Bassist Matt Watkins tells us: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: 1/2 SOUTHERN NORTH — “HEARTS OF HADES”

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Mar 072022
 


Photo by Elena Vasilaki, Athens

The Greek artist Ifigeneia Derizioti, who goes by the name IDVex in her occult musical project 1/2 Southern North, has a remarkable voice. Like an aural chameleon, it’s capable of changing colors in dramatic, spine-tingling fashion. It is the most compelling feature of 1/2 Southern North‘s debut album Narrations of a Fallen Soul, and not merely because her expressions are such a rarity in metal and metal-adjacent genres. It would stand out in any genre.

But we hasten to add that her artistry extends beyond those wide-ranging vocal talents. It extends to the conceptual and lyrical narrative that she and her collaborators have created for this first full-length, and to her songcraft, which itself ranges widely in style, texture, and mood.

In terms that would be familiar to metal lovers, she draws upon the influences of black metal, doom metal, and avant-garde music (she calls it the “Black Noise of Doom”), but as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today, her creations extend beyond the realms of metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVEDANCER — “THE DEVIL’S GARDEN”

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Mar 042022
 

There are SO many things to like about the Gravedancer video we’re about to premiere that it’s hard to imagine anyone not enjoying it — other than perhaps the trvest of the trve black metal kultists out there. And they’ve already got so many other things to be upset about that this is probably just one more drop in a rapidly filling bucket.

The music alone is a big attraction. Entitled “The Devil’s Garden“, the song is the closing track on this Arkansas band’s latest EP, Every Kind of Dog, which was released last October. It traverses some interesting and unexpected musical territory, especially given the general folk/Americana style of the tracks that precede it in on the EP. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AD NOCTEM FUNERIIS — “ABYSS III”

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Mar 032022
 

The title of the forthcoming third album by the Italian black metal band Ad Noctem Funeriis leaves no doubt that the band have maintained their blasphemous stance: Abyss, Fire, Brimstones will soon join the group’s preceding full-lengths, Satan’s March Black Metal (2015) and …Of Evil and Torment (2009). As those dates demonstrate, the band do not rush their releases, but instead take their time to ensure that the Hell they unleash on Earth is accomplished through carefully crafted campaigns.

That care shows strongly in the song we’re premiering today from the newest album in advance of its April 12 release by Symbol Of Domination Productions and Pluton’s Rising Productions. And you need not be a follower of the Left Hand Path to be swept away by its dark grandeur and incendiary power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISCHORDIA — “BODIES OF ASH”

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Mar 022022
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records does an exceptionally good job spreading the word about its releases to metal fans and the music press. In the case of the new Dischordia album Triptych, for example, four songs have already premiered ai different locations, and the release date is still almost two months away.

Today we’re adding to the word-spreading by presenting a fifth track premiere. There’s still some chance that a few of you haven’t paid attention to the new album, and even for those of you who have, in our humble opinion “Bodies of Ash” is one of the album’s many highlights. So here we are…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRIMORIUM VERUM — “THROUGH THE LABYRINTH OF TIMES”

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Mar 012022
 

The Russian black metal band Grimorium Verum trace their origins to the mid-’90s, and since then have released four albums, with a fifth one, Reall, set for release on March 31st by Symbol of Domination. Not surprisingly, the band’s long period of existence has been marked by changes in their personnel, as well as alterations in their musical approach.

Where they are today is strongly represented in their new 11-track full-length, whose name holds to the band’s tradition of picking single-word titles that begin with the letter R. It holds to other traditions of the group’s music as well, maintaining aggressive power but now with an enhanced use of trans-dimensional keyboard parts that open the mind to visionary realms that don’t seem human or even earth-bound.

You’ll understand what we mean when you hear the song we’re premiering today, “Through the Labyrinth of Times“. Continue reading »

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