AN NCS PEMIERE: ANNIHILATION RITE — “DAMNATION CROWNS”

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Apr 182022
 

The name of the debut album by the German band Annihilation Rite is World Below, and that is where it takes us — to a blood-freezing subterranean domain of merciless terrors, endless torment, and utter downfall. It’s a cold nightmare world where bones are smashed and minds are ruined, and also a summoning of the Lord of Darkness to ascend, and retaliate against life.

This new entity is the solo work of Entweider, who is also a member of Crypt Witch, Dark Fields, Necrochaos, Sinister Downfall, Urschmerz. The music is branded black metal, but draws from death and doom metal as well, in order to make its rendering of ferocity and fear even more apocalyptic. And Annihilation Rite has written its rites in long form, in ways that become hideously spellbinding.

As a tangible sign of all these qualities, we have for you today the premiere of an album track named “Damnation Crowns“, in advance of World Below‘s April 28 release by Satanath Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: APARTHIVA RAKTADHARA — “NADA OF CREATION COLLAPSES ONTO PRIMAL BINDU”

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Apr 182022
 

Aparthiva Raktadhara‘s 2018 debut demo Agyat Ishvar popped a lot of eyes wide open, including ours. Even at only 12 1/2 minutes in length, it struck like a nuclear-tipped missile, often breathtakingly fast, cyclonic in the intensity of its riffing, and berserk in the ferocity of the vocals. Yet the frontal assault of the music didn’t completely obscure its intricacy or its insidiously seductive effects. It left us as intrigued as it did obliterated.

Now we’re about to have an even more formidable demonstration of this trio’s powers, because on May 20th Iron Bonehead Productions will release their debut album Adyapeeth Maranasamhita (আদ্যাপীঠ মরণসংহিতা). It was received, as the band explain, “as a burning revelation of riktata, realized within our hearts as we meditated under a Bodhi tree by the Ganges in Chanak, Uttar Kalikshetra, in fall 2019.”

Now that revelation has taken its complete form through sound, and we bring you part of that experience in today’s premiere of the album’s closing track, “Nada of Creation Collapses Onto Primal Bindu“. We think you’ll be quickly convinced that this isn’t like any other death metal you’re likely to hear this year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISHARMONY — “THE CYNIC AND THE BEGGAR”

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Apr 182022
 

During 2017 and 2018 we devoted quite a lot of attention to The Abyss Noir, the second album by the Athenian metal band Disharmony, whose multifaceted musical textures have drawn comparisons to the sounds of Nevermore, Sanctuary, Judas Priest, Iced Earth, and Anthrax. Five years later, Disharmony are returning with their third full-length, Gods Made of Flesh, and it deserves a lot of attention to.

In its conceptual focus the music revolves around “the different kinds of Enslavery we all have to confront since the time we are born,” with each song reminding us of “the Divinity of our Spirit and the Chains it entails”. In the sounds themselves, Disharmony‘s influences and inspirations lead them into a captivating fusion of styles and sensations — which you’ll discover for yourselves through our premiere today of “The Cynic and the Beggar“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MORGUE SUPPLIER — “MY PATH TO HELL”

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Apr 152022
 

Chicago-based Morgue Supplier don’t rush things. The band’s roots go back to a group named Jugular Appetizer with one 1999 demo to its name, but after changing that name to the current one Morgue Supplier have put out only two albums and a pair of EPs over the last 20 years, with significant amounts of time in between them. Now they’ve got a third full-length on the way, six years after the last one. Its name is Inevitability.

Respect should be owed to a band whose music over the course of two decades has remained as vicious, as hate-fueled, and as abrasive as Morgue Suppier‘s — if anything, it’s grown even more unabashedly confrontational, even more unreservedly hostile, even more mentally discombobulating, like an increasingly difficult test of their listeners’ fortitude in body and mind.

On the other hand, as you’ll discover from the song we’re premiering today — the aptly named “My Path To Hell” — the band’s music also presents numerous unsettling fascinations, like drugs you know are potentially ruinous to your health but are still powerfully addictive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTHEMS OF ISOLATION — “AS PAZUZU RISES”

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Apr 152022
 

On their forthcoming debut album Apocalyptic Portrayals, the Iraqi duo Anthems of Isolation demonstrate a formidable power to create music that’s simultaneously spellbinding and unnerving. It’s steeped in moods of despair and downfall, and harrows at any sense of well-being like the swing of a scythe against fragile shoots of wheat, but its measured beats and celestial melodies are also undeniably hypnotic.

The music is sinister and perilous, tension-filled and tormented, and yet it’s easy to fall into the cold and shining void-space of these sounds and then find it difficult to escape. You’ll discover this for yourselves by listening to the three tracks we’re streaming below, one of which we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s co-release by Satanath Records and More Hate Productions on April 23rd. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CLEARxCUT – SONGS OF DESIRE ARMED

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Apr 152022
 

(Andy Synn presents Songs of Desire Armed, the upcoming second album by CLEARxCUT)

While my love of Hardcore has been well-documented by now, there are still certain things about it which don’t always sit right with me (and I don’t just mean karate-dancing in the pit, whose ignorant, “look at me”, attitude has always seemed antithetical to the communal mindset of the genre).

In particular, despite supposedly being founded on principles of brotherhood and community, a lot of Hardcore bands/fans can be rather elitist and exclusionary – especially when it comes to emphasising the “brother” part – and while there have been a lot of moves towards changing this in the years since I first got into the genre, there’s still a fair way to go until Hardcore as a whole will be able to truly say that it practices what it preaches.

There are, however, still a lot of bands who both talk the talk and walk the walk, and CLEARxCUT – a vegan, anarchist, anti-fascist and straight-edge Metallic Hardcore collective made up of, among others, both current and ex-members of Implore, King Apathy, and Heaven Shall Burn – are unequivocally one of those bands, expressing their beliefs and ideals not to exclude or impugn others but to engage and inspire by example.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE TROOPS OF DOOM — “ANTICHRIST REBORN”

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Apr 142022
 

 

The stars have aligned on Antichrist Reborn, the debut album by The Troops of Doom from Brazil. There are many stars within the underground firmament who have joined forces to create the album, and the music itself reaches us like lights across a void from a distant time, gleaming like brilliant obsidian arrays lit by hellish flames.

Among the human stars are the troops of doom themselves — former Sepultura guitarist Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz, bassist/vocalist Alex Kafer (Enterro, Explicit Hate, ex-Necromancer), drummer Alexandre Oliveira (Southern Blacklist, Raising Conviction), and guitarist Marcelo Vasco (Patria, Mysteriis, and acclaimed graphic artist for the likes of Slayer, Kreator, Machine Head, Soulfly, and Hatebreed).

In addition to them, the album includes guest performances by João Gordo (Ratos de Porão) and Alex Camargo and Moyses Kolesne from Krisiun.

And that still doesn’t touch every point in the constellation. The album was mixed by Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) at the The Abyss Studio and it was mastered by Jonas Kjellgren at Blacklounge. Moreover, the cover art was painted by Sergio “AlJarrinha” Oliveira, the artist behind the original artwork for Sepultura‘s Bestial Devastation. And physical editions of the album will be released by Alma Mater Records, the label owned by Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro.

All those stellar names seize attention, but for serious metal listeners only the music will count — as is only right. The names build expectations, but those hopes must be fulfilled in the sounds or the album will soon be forgotten.  We’ve already hinted at our own opinion — that Antichrist Reborn won’t soon be forgotten — but you can decide for yourselves today because we’re presenting a full stream of the record on the eve of its April 15th release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLASPHEMATORY — “FLOODED GRAVES”

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Apr 142022
 

The New Jersey death metal band Blasphematory boasts a line-up that includes members of Abazagorath, Death Fortress, and Altar of Gore, and for anyone who knows the music of those bands there should be no further encouragement needed to check out Blasphematory‘s forthcoming second album, aptly titled The Lower Catacombs, even if you missed their first full-length (2019’s Depths of the Obscurity).

But perhaps all those names may have eluded some wanderers among the tombstones and sepulchral crypts of dank and devastating death metal or the freezing moons of black metal. Or maybe the music of Blasphematory alone has escaped the attention it deserves. Certainly, The Lower Catacombs deserves a lot of attention. It’s as macabre as the cover art, and turns out to be as addictive as it is filthy and ferocious.

The song we’re presenting today, “Flooded Graves“, is unmistakably soiled in its sound, and it’s also preternaturally maniacal, a ghastly, hard-charging barrage that’s a huge thrill to hear. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FADEAD — “TERRA FERITA”

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Apr 132022
 

 

Later this month Lethal Scissor Records will release the raging 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, last month we premiered a lyric video for a brutal two-minute assault named “L’estremità del mondo“. Today we prolong the assault by un-caging the entire EP so it can run rampant through your skull for… a whole nine minutes. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELIOSS — “L’INSONDABLE CRÉPUSCULE DES MORTS”

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Apr 132022
 

 

Today marks the third opportunity we have seized upon since 2017 to help spread the word about the music of Helioss through a music premiere. Today the subject of the premiere is a song called “L’insondable crépuscule des morts” from this French band’s forthcoming fifth album Contre ma lumière, which is set for release by Satanath Records on April 21st.

Once again, Helioss mastermind and multi-instrumentalist Nicolas Muller directed the enterprise, again joined by vocalist D.M. (Celestial Swarm, Gravefields, etc.) and guest drummer Mikko Koskinen (The Lifted Veil, Proscription). And once again Helioss has pushed its expanding musical boundaries of progressive black/death metal outward into even more inventive and genre-bending territory. This newest song premiere from the album, which comes with a lyric video, provides an extravagant demonstration of that. Continue reading »

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