AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MANOS SIX AND THE MUDDY DEVIL — “THE DEVIL WILL TAKE ME BY THE HAND”

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Jun 012022
 

 

As we all well know, the Devil is a central figure in the sprawling musical narratives of extreme metal, sometimes as a central figure and sometimes as the diabolical Muse who fuels the inspirations and philosophies of the artists. But of course the Devil is present across a wide span of other musical genres, from old-time gospel music to blues, country music, and much, much more. What Lucifer represents are ideas and feelings that know no bounds.

The Devil is certainly a powerful presence in the music of Manos Six and the Muddy Devil, and so even though that music is far, far beyond the soundscapes to which we usually devote our attention at this site, it is a kindred spirit to much of what occupies our attentions. The music is also captivating, which made it even easier for us to agree to the premiere we’re hosting right now. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATARAXY — “VISIONS OF ABSENCE”

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May 312022
 

The music of Ataraxy has become a confluence of heart-rending and hideous poetry, and violent, pulse-pounding turmoil. It brings together the soul-splintering downfalls of doom and the electrifying ravages of death metal, and shrouds those striking unions in an atmosphere that isn’t of this world, but seems instead to radiate from spectral realms that lie on the other side of death.

Even from their beginnings, Ataraxy have been very good, but the old cliche that “This is their best work yet!” is inarguably true in the case of this Spanish band’s newest album The Last Mirror, which will be co-released by Me Saco Un Ojo and Dark Descent Records. The songwriting here is both more refined and more unsettling — more elaborate, more prone to the creation of startling contrasts, and even more effective in drawing the listener down haunted and harrowing pathways of heartbreak, horror, and rampant savagery.

Everyone who has been paying attention already got a vivid sign of Ataraxy‘s multi-faceted achievements on this new album through the advent of its stunning first single, “Decline“, and today we bring you another sign via our premiere of “Visions of Absence“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SERPENT ASCENDING — “HYPERBOREAN FOLKLORE”

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May 302022
 

Serpent Ascending‘s new album Hyperborean Folklore is one in which a questing wanderer may travel far in the company of an unusually gifted guide and find wonders galore, both on the surface of the path and far below it.

The music is the work of a sole adventurer, the Finnish musician and vocalist Jarno Nurmi, who was once a member of Slugathor, Nerlich, and Desecresy. Because it is a solo work, the inspirations, the words, and the music are all inter-connected in ways that are rare for a full band, and here they all come together in truly extravagant and fascinating ways. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THRALL — “SCHISMS”

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May 242022
 

 

A dozen years have passed since the release of Thrall‘s debut album, Away From the Haunts of Men. Two more albums and an EP followed in relatively quick succession from this Australian band, but then came a near-seven-year interval that left a gap in new recordings, a gap that’s about to be filled in eye-opening fashion. The pandemic brought doom to millions, but renewed life to Thrall, and now their new album Schisms is ready for release.

The band’s founder Tøm Vøid has been its only steadfast member, with the recording line-up in constant flux from release to release. The new album features a big array of contributors around the founder, including current or former members of Gatecreeper, Noose Rot, Mar Mortuum, Myotragus, Cult of the Night, Ruins, and Dead River Runs Dry.

What has this collective accomplished on Schisms? There have been a couple of early clues via the release of the songs “Tyrant” and “Hollow”, but now’s the day when all will be revealed in full. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INNER DECAY — “INCUBI ET SUCCUBI”

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May 202022
 

In the lore of demonology incubi are male demons believed to engage in sexual intercourse with sleeping women, and succubi are female demons believed to have sexual intercourse with sleeping men. In both cases, these nightmare couplings rarely have a good end. And thus the song that the Chicago-based death metal band Inner Decay have named for these demon spirits is itself a seductive horror.

“Incubi et Succubi” is the second track to be revealed so far from Enter the Void, Inner Decay‘s forthcoming second album, which will be released by the Romanian label Pest Records. It’s the exhilarating follow-up to the band’s 2018 full-length debut, Souls of War, and finds founding guitarist Tomasz Bielski and vocalist Silvestre Flores in harness with a slightly revised but still formidable line-up around them. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: V.E.G.A.S. — “RESOLVE”

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May 192022
 

 

Somewhere among the philosophies of the band V.E.G.A.S., if they were ever to set them out in a complete manifesto, would likely be the maxim “familiarity breeds contempt”. That may explain why the membership and location of the band’s members (or perhaps just one member) are so obscure. I would like to think they really are based in Belize, as their Bandcamp page states, but that’s probably just a way of saying “where we are doesn’t matter in the slightest”.

The conviction that “familiarity breeds contempt” would also provide a partial explanation for the band’s morphing music. It resists mundane classification, and it changes enough that the chance to get thrown off-balance is one reason why some of us leap at their new releases. I don’t mean to suggest that they sound like a different band from release to release — there are definite through-lines to be sure (the words “rage” and “riot” come to mind) — but you still get the impression of a band who have no static “blueprint” and willfully refuse to be pinned down. Continue reading »

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 »

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