AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERMÖRD — “NOSTALGIC PREDICTIONS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 062022
 

 

Ghoulish faces with hollow eyes gaze through marble portals, mouths agape at a hooded wizard drawing lightning from a swirling pool of infinity. It’s an eye-catching scene that Matt Lawrence has created for the debut album by Baltimore-based Vermord, one that creates an amalgam of sensations — of unearthly ghastliness, mind-bending magic, and fathomless mystery.

The visual certainly spawns a feeling of excited intrigue about the music that Vermord have created within the realm of Nostalgic Predictions, but for those who heard the band’s first EP, 2015’s Dawn Of The Black Harvest (which we premiered here) or the Dissimulation demo that followed it in 2016, the seeds of intrigue about what might come next were already planted.

Many years have passed by since then, but now the band are ready to show us what they accomplished during a period of hiatus — and they have a lot to show, through 13 tracks and an hour’s worth of music, all of which we’re presenting today in advance of the April 8 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THOS ÆLLA — “BACKWARDS AFTERBIRTH FLOWS UNTO DREAMING TEMPLES”

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Apr 062022
 

 

I, Voidhanger Records continues to prove that its owner’s musical interests are wide-ranging but persistently idiosyncratic. The releases usually don’t sound quite like anything else, because the artists almost always march to the beat of their own unusual drummers. And thus the label has become a home for adventurers, both those who make the music and those who listen.

The latest proof of this is Sempiternal Mobocracies, the forthcoming second album by Thos Ælla, which is the solo project of guitarist Derrik “Ghoul” Goulding from Father Befouled (who released a new album of their own just a couple weeks ago). And it truly is a head-spinning adventure, as you’ll discover for yourselves through the two songs we’re streaming for you today — one of them the first advance track from the album and the other a song we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTOLERANCE — “DEATH BEFORE SLAVERY”

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Apr 052022
 

Although we have no special insight into why this Spanish death metal band chose Intolerance for their name, we might guess from the music that they have no tolerance for weakness or mercy, nor for the manifold failures of humanity. Instead, their rank and rabid revels seem fueled by revulsion and rage. They see with clear eyes the Dark Paths of Humanity, and have so named their forthcoming debut album.

To be fair, the past for them is not a total graveyard of degradation and disappointment. They follow an inspirational beacon lit in the late ’80s and early ’90s by such bands as Bolt Thrower, Grave, Asphyx, Morgoth, Entombed, Convulse, Obituary, and Unleashed. That’s a broad swath of music from a now-hallowed age, and somehow Intolerance pay homage to all of it in crafting music that’s grimy and gritty, morbid and malicious, creeping and crazed.

In other words, they damned well know what they’re doing, and they do it damned well — as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today, which proclaims “Death Before Slavery“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BURIAL CURSE — “BURIAL CURSE”

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Apr 052022
 

The well-educated among you may say, “How is this a premiere? That Burial Curse EP came out in June 2021!” And so it did, both digitally and in a very limited run of tapes via Famine Records.

But the beast that was that EP refused to slink away into silence and instead continued to snarl and roar in such violating fashion that Dawnbreed Records picked it up for a reissue that will happen on April 8th in multiple formats. Not only that, the EP has had an upgrade in sound, thanks to a new mix and master by Alex from Obscured By Evil Productions.

So if you haven’t heard the EP before now, it’s a good time to discover it. And if you have heard it, you might now hear it in a way you haven’t before. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABHORRENT EXPANSE — “GATEWAYS TO RESPLENDENCE”

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Apr 042022
 

I confess that when I first read that all 10 tracks on the debut album of Abhorrent Expanse were improvised live, my reaction was one of “uh oh” anxiety mixed with intrigue. Improvisational music of any genre tends to be a mixed bag, but improvisational death metal? Maybe even riskier than usual.

On the other hand, the fact that this band’s members hail from such groups as Zebulon Pike, Celestiial, Obsequiae, and more, well that’s what kindled the intrigue, and even a rising feeling of optimism.

So what won out in the end? The pessimism born of being subjected to other unsuccessful experiments that proved to be un-entertaining exercises in musician self-indulgence? Or the intriguing hope that Gateways To Resplendence might live up to its name?

I suppose the answer is evident from the fact that you’re now reading this, and are about to have a chance to listen to all 10 tracks at this site before the album’s April 8 release through Amalgam Music and Lurker Bias. Why did the optimism prove to be justified? Read on…. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MROME — “BARBARIC VALUES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Apr 042022
 

 

Here at this site we haven’t paid nearly enough attention to the Polish band MROME. Even after marveling in print at their 2018 second album Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell, we said not a word about their next full-length, Leech Ghetto, which dropped in 2019, nor did we notice their debut album, 2016’s The Basement Sophisma.

Well, they have no use for record labels and they don’t work with a PR machine. They don’t tour and they’re uninterested in promo photos or social media. In their own words, they exist “to say FUCK YOU to messengers of dread and obedience”, and do this by making concept albums in which the music, the words, and the graphics are interrelated.

Metal-Archives labels them “Thrash Metal”, which is like calling a cut and polished emerald “a greenish mineral”. Yes, they’ve been known to thrash, but their musical evolution has turned them into something that’s significantly more multi-faceted. Even in the case of that 2018 album, we dropped references to Hail Spirit Noir, Mantar, and “infernal death rock” (not “deathrock”). Their newest album Barbaric Values, which drops today, is even tougher to pigeon-hole. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CULTIC — “WARLOCK”

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Apr 012022
 

Rebecca Magar is one of those people whose diversity of talent just make you shake your head, feeling humbled. I mean, look at that cover art up above that she painted for her band Cultic‘s new album, Of Fire and Sorcery. And then also look at her painted cover art for the band’s preceding debut album, High Command:

And then consider that she’s also Cultic‘s formidable drummer. And then further consider how marvelously interwoven her cover art is with the music she and her equally formidable husband Brian (guitar, vocals, keyboard, and arrangements) have made under the Cultic name — which we’ll give you an immediate chance to do through our premiere of the new album’s second single, “Warlock“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GVORN — “DEMONS IN ME LAUGH”

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Apr 012022
 

 

The Russian band Gvorn have made their home in the towering black castle of death-doom. They have become very comfortable there, confidently settling into a place that harbors discomfort and downfall.

The first single from their debut album Keeper of Grief showed just how comfortable and self-assured they have become. “Sounds From the Crypt” rings and rumbles, like the sounds of eerie celestial bells chiming and swirling over a monstrously heavy machine crossing a landscape of skulls. Commanding roars utter dismal proclamations from a deep abyss as the rhythm section slowly stomps and crushes and the chords wail and moan.

Agony spreads from the music like viscous leaking blood, but the band also create visions of cold, imperious cruelty and of soaring but chilling splendor and lonely grief. In its closing minutes, accompanied by the sharp crack of the snare, it becomes vast and utterly spellbinding. Continue reading »

SEER: OUR PREMIERE OF “LUNAR GATEWAYS” AND OUR REVIEW OF THE “VOL. 7” EP

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 312022
 

We’ve been closely following the expansive musical odyssey of Vancouver-based Seer from their first release in 2015, writing about that first EP and everything that has followed since then. It’s been a fascinating trip, because the band’s sound has continually evolved and because even the tracks on a single release have never all sounded the same.

From the start Seer have followed a naming convention for their releases, beginning with Vol. 1 and continuing through Vol. 6, which was the title of their last full-length in 2019. Since then the band have released a pair of singles, and now they’re combining those singles along with a brand new song in a new EP entitled Vol. 7, which will be released on April 15th by Hidden Tribe. What we have for you today is the premiere of that brand new song, “Lunar Gateways“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HASEROT — “INCANTATIONS AT DUSK”

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Mar 302022
 

The Houston death metal band Haserot named themselves after an ominous statue seated on a marble gravestone in Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetery; perched on the tomb of Francis Haserot and his family, it’s also referred to as “The Angel of Death Victorious”. Once you’ve seen that statue (and you can see it here), you won’t forget it. Once you hear Haserot‘s new EP Throne of Malice, it’s unlikely you’ll forget it either.

Haserot are a relatively new group, having come together in the last pre-pandemic year, but they have a veteran line-up that includes current or former members of Doomstress, Funeral Blues, Sanctus Bellum, Spectral Manifest, and Scrollkeeper. The experience shows in both the songwriting and the execution of this new EP.

The influence of ’90s death metal in the vein of Morbid Angel, Entombed, Bloodbath, and Carcass are evident, but the music hits like a combination of meteor strike and bulldozer rather than a rote repetition of what you’ve already heard before. It’s both a powerful reminder of what we loved about the past and a skull-cleaving, heart-palpitating illustration of what you miss if you confine yourself only to the old classics.

We have a riveting example of this point in the first single from the EP that we’re premiering today in advance of its May 27 release by Redefining Darkness Records. Its name is “Incantations At Dusk“. Continue reading »

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