AN NCS PREMIERE: HEAVY META — “BLASTOCYST”

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Jan 032022
 

 

Just because New Year’s Eve is now in our rearview mirror doesn’t mean we have to stop with the fireworks displays, and man, have we got a musical fireworks display queued up for you today, one that will pop eyes, drop jaws, and leave listeners in a state of (perhaps deranged) joy.

The source of the head-spinning adventure that awaits you is a track from the debut album by Heavy Meta (no, that’s not a typo) from Lowell, Massachusetts. Mana Regmata is the name of this mind-scrambling full-length, and it’s set for release on February 11th. It defies genre categorization because it pulls from so many different wells, both metal and not-metal. The band themselves, with tongues in cheeks, brand it as “blackened progressive cowboy nintendocore”, which is really just a way of signifying that labels don’t make much sense here.

Further evidence of that (apart from the music itself) can be found in PR materials for the album that are making the rounds, which ask you to imagine what would happen if Sikth joined forces with Every Time I Die, Botch, Voivod, Mr. Bungle, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Rush, while also dropping references to Candiria, Faith No More, Converge, Atheist, King Crimson, Coroner, Boss Keloid, and Abigor. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DUSK — “ANCIENT SHATTERED MOON”

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Jan 032022
 

 

The Pakistani band Dusk has deep roots in the dark earth of heavy metal. It was born in Karachi in 1994 under the name Carcinogenic as the brainchild of Babar Sheikh and released a first demo the following year. By 1999 Babar had formed a partnership with guitarist Faraz Anwar, and along with drummer Irfan Ahmed they released their debut album My Infinite Nature Alone in 1999.

After that Dusk released two more albums and a handful of shorter releases. There were line-up changes, and the band’s stylistic directions changed as well. As Metal-Archives sums it up, Dusk began as a death metal band, moved into doom, further evolved into makers of progressive music, and then turned to death/thrash. But as you are about to discover, Dusk have returned to their death/doom roots.

This year Dusk will release their fourth full-length in a career that now spans a quarter-century. Babar Sheik is still at the helm, but has been joined on the new album by drummer Halim (Tremor ov Kaos of Impiety), long-time comrade Mike Bloodcurse (Illemauzar) on bass, and guest appearances by both metal and non-metal artists. The album is entitled The Imaginary Dead, and today we’re premiering a stunning song from the album in advance of its release early this year by Cyclopean Eye Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DRUID LORD — “RELICS OF THE DEAD”

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Dec 312021
 

 

We can only guess at why Druid Lord and their label chose the last day of 2021 to reveal the title track from their new album, Relics of the Dead. But contemplating that title and marinating in the horrors of the music (which are both crushing and spellbinding, both chillingly ghastly and brazenly exhilarating) confirms the wisdom of the decision. This rotten year must be buried, though something equally ghoulish may rise from its grave, still plagued by the terrible relics of what is now nearly dead.

Through two previous albums and a sequence of intervening short releases these Floridians have proven their mastery of a particularly supernatural and titanically heavy variant of death-doom. The new album confirms their diabolical talents, but if anything delves even more deeply into the contrasting sensations of their music, harnessing sounds and moods that are unearthly and uncanny with the kind of earth-shaking force that threatens a listener’s skeletal integrity. Witness the song we’re presenting today. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KAPALA — “DOOMSDAY REQUIEM”

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Dec 272021
 

 

Few bands on the planet embrace and channel the violent destructiveness of War Metal with as much fanatic fervor as the Kolkata-based band Kapala. Their slaughtering amalgam of death metal and harsh noise seems to be fueled by hate and driven by a disdain for weakness of any kind.

And yet their talents are multi-faceted. There is much more going on within their creations than unapologetic sonic annihilation, and that makes their music fascinating and mind-altering as well as ruinous. It really doesn’t sound like anything else; indeed, linking it with War Metal, as that sub-genre is commonly understood, might be more misleading than descriptive.

Kapala‘s new 22-minute EP Doomsday Requiem is powerful proof of these points. It is indeed ruthlessly destructive and harrowing in its intensity, but its musical craftsmanship is also impressive, revealing nuances and embellishments that link it unmistakably to the ancient legends of the Indian subcontinent. The music creates an atmosphere of mysticism and spiritual possession, capable of inducing perilous trances.

Those qualities — and a panoply of killer riffs and electrifying rhythmic assaults — distinguish the EP from the kind of War Metal that might be cathartic on a first listen but doesn’t lure many people to listen more than once. But you don’t have to take my word for it. You can test out the truth of these statements for yourselves, because today we premiere a full stream of Doomsday Requiem in advance of its release by Dunkelheit Produktionen on the last day of this wretched year. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WITCHDEN — “RENEWAL”

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Dec 212021
 


Photo by David Rubene

Fair warning: You had better get your neck and shoulders loose before listening to the song we’re about to premiere on this winter solstice day. Hell, get your whole body loose, because “Renewal” will make you move, and your conscious mind will likely have no power over that impulse.

The song is a new one by Minneapolis-based Witchden, and it reveals a further progression in their ever-evolving manifestations of metallic extremity. With three full-lengths to their credit so far — Consulting the Bones (2012), Salt the Earth (2016), and Deus Nihil (2019) — our beloved Metal-Archives still brands them a Sludge band, but the truth is that their music has been increasingly much more of a hybrid than the Sludge label suggests — and “Renewal” makes that fact even more evident. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DØDSLEIE — “WHEN THE TRUTH GROWS”

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Dec 212021
 

 

The part-Swedish, part-U.S. black metal band Dødsleie, which features current and former members of Integrity, Broken Cross, and Unreal City (among others), made their first mark on the musical landscape in 2018 with the release of their self-titled demo. They have now prepared a debut album named Immortal Hand, which is set for release on February 11 by Bat Magick Records and Subversive Craft. It is intended (in the band’s words) “to serve as a guide to those lost souls who question conformity amidst the daily death of dreams”.

Unmistakably black metal, the album is nevertheless unorthodox. It is both feverish and gloomy, harrowing and eerily entrancing. As the press materials accurately portray, it will take listeners “on a fever dream journey beyond time and space”.

The opening track of Immortal Hand is a song called “When the Truth Grows“, and we’re premiering it today (through a surreal music video) as the first tangible sign of what the album holds in store. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DØDSKVAD — “KRØNIKE II”

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Dec 202021
 

 

With Krønike II, now set for a January 20 release by Caligari Records, the Norwegian death metal band Dødskvad continue on the journey through the old legends of their homeland which they began on Krønike I in 2020. Founder E.R. (Desolation Realm, Stygian Ruin) is still at the helm, joined by members of Obliteration and Sovereign (among other bands). Taking their inspiration from Norse myths, they’ve compiled four tracks, and they introduce the soundscapes with these words:

“In the midst of bloody battlefields; through thundering heavens; on the outer branches of the world tree; within the deep caverns beneath the roots. Across a blackened land, fate strikes dissonant chords.”

Dissonance does play a role in these songs, along with other ingredients that make them disconcerting. But every song is multi-faceted in ways that constantly will keep listeners on their toes — and rock them back on their heels, with heads spinning. True to the inspirations, the music also sounds otherworldly, manifesting strange and often terrifying visions, a changing pattern of cold dread and crazed exhilaration. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BENTHIK ZONE — “NA ILUMINAÇÃO DO PRESENTE”

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Dec 202021
 

 

The British label Onism Productions recommends the new album εἴδωλον (“eidolon” in English) by the atmospheric/progressive black metal duo Benthik Zone for fans of Esoctrilihum, Oranssi Pazuzu, and Darkspace. When I saw that I whispered a “hell yes”. Reading further, I saw that it was also being recommended for fans of Summoning, Blut Aus Nord, and Leviathan. Another “hell yes”.

And then I read that the instruments used on the album include didgeridoo, transverse flute, flute, berimbau, and hangpan. The band’s description of the inspirations and intentions behind the album created even more intrigue — but we’ll get to that a bit later.

Of course we have all learned to take FFO references with a few grains of salt, and to make up our minds based on the music itself. So that you can begin to make up your own minds, what we have for you today is the premiere of the first single from εἴδωλον in advance of its January 28, 2022 release. The song’s name is “Na iluminação do presente“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SIREN’S RAIN — “KEEPERS”

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Dec 162021
 

The folk metal band Siren’s Rain hail from Tacoma, Washington, just down the highway from our site’s home base. Their debut full-length, Rise Forth, was released earlier this fall, and it delves into themes of abandonment, betrayal, hope, despair, and resilience, while joining together elements of heavyweight metallic extremity and such folk instrumentation as mandolin, harp, and the nyckelharpa.

What we have for you today is the premiere of an official music video for a song off Rise Forth called “Keepers“. The video features the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. As vocalist Rena Hellzinger tells us, “We wanted to do a ‘metal band in the woods’ video, as this song is about protecting the environment”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FESTERDECAY — “ABORTICIDE”

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Dec 162021
 

 

If you haven’t yet discovered the wickedness of FesterDecay, they formed in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan in 2015 with the aim of reviving goregrind the way Carcass did it with their 1988 full-length debut, Reek of Putrefaction.

FesterDecay have already released two demos and a split with the band Crash Syndrom, and now they’re releasing a new single named Aborticide. To get an idea of what’s coming, the band say their intent was “to make your eyeballs rot while you are eaten by maggots and body fluids drain from every hole of your body while you get ready for something bigger and tastier!”

“To make this single even more delicious,” they say, “we also added some infested entrails, a delicate touch of juicy pus and a live version of the track ‘Maggot Bath’! Blueearghhhh!”

Okay, are you ready to become befouled? Because we’re now presenting the song “Aborticide” in all its disgusting glory. Continue reading »

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