AN NCS PREMIERE: NORNA — “MOTHER MAJESTIC”

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Jan 142022
 

Norna is a new formation, but one with veteran talent composed of Swedish hardcore pioneer Tomas Liljedahl (Breach, The Old Wind) and musicians Christophe Macquat and Marc Theurillat from the Swiss sludge/post-metal band Ølten. They joined forces in Norna only a year ago, but through the three singles that have been revealed so far from their forthcoming debut album they’ve quickly established themselves as a stupendously heavy band — heavy in the sheer enormity of their sound and in the punishing gravity of the emotions they channel through their music.

That debut album, Star Is Way Way Is Eye, is set for release on February 18th through Oslo-based Vinter Records, and today we premiere the fourth and final single in advance of the release. Entitled “Mother Majestic“, it reinforces all the earth-moving, soul-shaking impressions created by the first three singles. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GOLGOTHAN — “BOTTOMLESS PIT”

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Jan 132022
 

 

Last October we had the deviant pleasure of helping to announce the release of a debut album named Leech by the gore-drenched, horror-obsessed, Louisiana-based death metal band Golgothan, and to premiere the album’s first single, “Parent Organism“. And now here we are again, three months closer to the record’s February 4 release by Lacerated Enemy Records, foisting upon the world the second single from Leech. This one comes with a video that will endanger squeamish stomachs.

At this juncture the source of the band’s name bears repeating for those who might not remember. As disclosed by Metal-Archives, “A Golgothan (also called a ‘shit demon’ or ‘excremental’) is a fictional creature composed of human excrement. The creature derives its name from the hill where Christ was crucified; the collective suffering of the souls sentenced to death by crucifixion on that hill gives birth to the demon’s existence. The Golgathan rises from the collected offal secreted by each prisoner’s loosened bowels upon the moment of death”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAVENOUS DEATH — “THE ASCENDING CHASM”

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Jan 132022
 

 

The Mexican death metal band Ravenous Death chose a name for themselves that’s a vivid representation of the music they make. That’s not news to anyone who encountered the electrifying horrors housed within the band’s 2019 debut album, Chapters of an Evil Transition. There they quickly established themselves as a group devoted to the gruesomeness and evil of death metal from an older age, but with the kind of creative flair that kept it from sounding like a clone of their influences (which include the band Vomitory, whose song “Ravenous Death” was the actual source of the group’s name). And yes indeed, the music was both crypt-born and ravenous.

It’s trite (and often un-true) to proclaim that a band’s sophomore album is a significant step forward, especially when it follows a debut album as formidable as Chapters of an Evil Transition, but in the case of Ravenous Death‘s forthcoming hour-long second full-length, Visions from the Netherworld, it happens to be true. The band’s music is still supremely sinister and convincingly otherworldly, and still reaches heights of terrorizing insanity, but they have stretched their creative wings in ways that make the new album even more startling and memorable than its predecessor.

As proof of this claim, we present the premiere stream of “Ascending Chasm“, which is the new record’s longest track and the one that brings it to a close. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ECRYPTUS — “KYR’AM BESKAR”

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Jan 122022
 

The breathtakingly savage death metal band Ecryptus introduce themselves as “an elite group of assassins from Korriban, now based in Atlanta, Georgia. We dispense galactic death metal inspired by the Dark Side and brutal tales of the Canon Arcane.”

For those who may not be as steeped in the lore of Star Wars as the marauders in Ecryptus, one internet source discloses that Korriban “was the original homeworld of the Sith species and a sacred planet for the Sith Order, housing the tombs for many ancient and powerful Dark Lords of the Sith, and containing immense dark side power.”

And for those who may not speak Mandalorian, the title of Ecryptus‘ new EP — Kyr’am Beskar — means (what else?) “Death Metal” in the tongue of far-flung Mandalore. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DESCENT — “ORDER OF CHAOS”

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Jan 112022
 

 

The Boss HM-2 distortion pedal, and other devices that emulate its effects, are fantastic inventions. Similes for the sound abound, including the ubiquitous references to chainsaws cutting through dense wood. It also brings to mind someone gunning a big V-8 engine (do such things exist any more?) in a vehicle with a severely corroded, smoke-belching muffler, or maybe a junkyard car compactor working at full metal-mangling intensity. The deployment of the tone just makes everything sound more massively crushing.

That brand of distortion has become inseparably linked to old school Swedish death metal in all its gruesome, dragging, and scampering glory. But its uses extend beyond music devoted to death and supernatural horror, and in the case of Australia’s Descent (which features members of Snorlax, Resin Tomb, Feculent, Siberian Hell Sounds, and more) it has become a weapon in the discharge of violent, politically charged fury. In their case it’s also not the only weapon in their arsenal, nor is death metal the only genre ingredient in their music, because black metal and grindcore play prominent roles as well.

Maybe especially for those of who may think chainsaw discordance has worn out its welcome after so many years, Descent‘s new album Order of Chaos is worth your attention. And it definitely demands attention for any fan of metallic extremity who’s looking for a cathartic release through music of pulverizing, neck-ruining power and shuddering ferocity (coupled with effective use of gloom-drenched melody).

The album is set for imminent release on January 14th by Brilliant Emperor Records in cooperation with Redefining Darkness (CD) and Caligari Records (tape), and it’s our privilege to present its full streaming premiere today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECTOPLASMA — “APALLING ABOMINATION”

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Jan 102022
 

 

Anyone already familiar with the Greek death metal band Ectoplasma knows they are capable of inflicting a severe beating while simultaneously leading listeners through realms of grotesque, ghastly, and utterly unearthly terror. But what makes Ectoplasma stand out even more from the pack of current bands who revel in ghoulish vintage death metal is the extent to which they integrate attention-grabbing twists and turns as they drag and rush listeners through their sonic horror-scapes.

That talent has been the cause of us writing about them frequently in the past, including hosting a pair of premieres from their earlier releases, and it’s the cause of us doing that again today. This time we bring you the aptly-named “Appalling Abominations” from their forthcoming fourth album, Inferna Kabbalah, which will be released on January 24th by Memento Mori (CD) and Rotted Life (vinyl and cassette). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VAROSHAN — “…AND THEN THE RAINS CAME”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 102022
 

 

Tomorrow the Finnish label Elitbolaget will release …And Then the Rains Came, the debut album by the multinational band Varoshan, whose members are divided among Helsinki (Finland), Berlin (Germany) and Leeds (UK). But you won’t have to wait until then to absorb what it has to offer because we are now presenting its complete streaming premiere.

What it has to offer is a stylistic amalgam that combines the ethos of hardcore with diverse sonic vibes that bring to mind (as Elitbolaget suggests) the likes of Neurosis, slow-burning Converge, sludge-era Tombs, and Soilent Green covering Black Sabbath, i.e., music that’s “slow, dark, and gritty”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WOLFBASTARD — “HAMMER THE BASTARDS”

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Jan 072022
 

Anyone with eyes to see and a mind that hasn’t been brainwashed or turned into docile slag knows full well that the world is mainly ruled by bastards — bastards in the boardrooms, bastards in the halls of government, bastards in the church. They do what they want, they get their way, and they’re rarely held to account for all the ways in which they make the lives of the powerless so much more miserable than they need to be.

What ought to be done? Isn’t the answer obvious? HAMMER THE BASTARDS.

That’s the name Manchester (UK)-based Wolfbastard gave to their new third album, which is set for release by Clobber Records on January 14th, and they back that message to the hilt with their music, which is a feral and ferocious barrage of D-Beat, crust punk, black metal, and blackened hardcore that takes no prisoners and asks for no mercy.

The press materials for the record include an evocative summing-up of the sensations the album channels, and it’s worth quoting here before we give you our own impressions along with a complete streaming premiere: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OAR — “THE BLOOD YOU CRAVE”

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Jan 052022
 

 

The cover image on OAR‘s debut album The Blood You Crave is an evocative yet mysterious one, seizing attention through the juxtaposition of a vibrant blaze-colored swath of light (which might be interpreted as a window into another world) and a downcast figure perched on the edge of a daunting precipice. No less than the cover art, the music quickly seizes attention too, and doesn’t let go. It too blazes, and reveals harrowing emotional chasms.

Through six tracks and nearly 45 minutes of music these Australians embrace the hostility and aggressiveness of black metal but they give equal attention to the creation of mood and atmosphere, bringing into play ingredients of post-metal, doom, hardcore, post-punk, and shoegaze (among others). The songs all prove to be dynamic experiences, as is the album as a whole, and that versatility makes it even easier to get caught up in what’s happening, and to hang on ’til the end. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: COFFIN RITES — “BURIED IN BLOOD”

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Jan 042022
 

 

September 2021 brought the release of a new album named Human Erase by the Minneapolis-based extreme metal band Coffin Rites, preceded by a full premiere at Decibel, which rightly acclaimed the album as “one of the year’s most crazed black/death records”, but one that would also appeal to hardcore kids alike. “It has mood, menace, and a barrage of riffs like a doomsday air strike.”

If you haven’t heard the album, it presents a significant degree of diversity among the songs, each one telling its own story in different ways, and is well worth your time from beginning to end. But the way the album begins sets the hook hard and pulls you all the way in. It does that through the bone-smashing, flesh-scorching opening track “Buried In Blood” — and thus it makes a lot of sense that the band picked that song for the video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

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