AN NCS PREMIERE: SCHIZOPHRENIA — “SEA OF SORROW”

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Dec 082021
 

The Belgian death/thrashers Schizophrenia made their first appearance in our pages when our stalwart supporter eiterorm concluded a “Shades of Speed” column with a stream of their 2020 debut EP Voices, a record he exalted as an exercise in “fast-paced bludgeoning” that would encourage you “to headbang your brain out of your skull”.

Now we’re thrilled to help spread the word about Schizophrenia’s debut album Recollections of the Insane, which is due out on February 18, 2022. It sees the band again firing on all turbocharged cylinders, but getting even bigger, bolder, and more stylistically expansive than before, invoking vivid memories of such bands as Morbid Angel, Demolition Hammer, Slayer, early Sepultura, Dissection, Death, At The Gates, Obituary, Bolt Thrower, and Pestilence.

Today we’ve got a prime example of the album’s blood-rushing explosiveness and adept dynamism through our premiere of “Sea of Sorrow“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARÚS – “CHÂSSIS DE CHAIR”

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Dec 082021
 

(Andy Synn introduces a new song from the upcoming EP by French “Atmospheric Death Metal” maestros Barús)

Necessity, or so they say, is the mother of invention.

As such, we have the exigencies and restrictions of the last few years to thank – or blame – for Fanges, the upcoming new EP by Barús, which is scheduled to come out on December 31st via Aesthetic Death and Breathe Plastic.

And to prepare you for this highly-anticipated (by those in the know, at least) new release we have a premiere of the EP’s second song, “Châssis de Chair“, to share with you all. Continue reading »

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

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Dec 072021
 

 

Into the winter of the soul.
Into the ice.
Foreverblack meadow, embrace new dawn, on raven’s wing,
Hear winter’s song.

Many of us assume that December is an ill-fated time of year for the release of new metal records, what with lots of fans (and writers) being preoccupied with year-end lists and year-end life diversions. But on the other hand, the onset of darkness and cold that December heralds makes it an ideal time of year for the advent of certain kinds of music, the kind that delves into the darkness that comes as the wheel of birth and death rotates into winter — and it seems that RÖKKR‘s self-titled debut album is one of those.

The words quoted above are from the lyrics of one of the album’s five tracks. Further connections to the season are found in such song titles as “Blackest Dawn”, “Into the Ice”, and of course the closing track “Winter”. But how does the music itself form the connection? Today you’ll find out — though it probably isn’t what you would expect. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RAT KING — “MORBOSO”

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Dec 062021
 

 

In April 2017 at Seattle’s tiny Funhouse venue I witnessed one of the earliest live performances by Rat King (along with my first exposure to live performances by Seattle’s Rhine and Arizona’s Lago). I wrote about the show here, At that point Rat King was a complete unknown to me (the two key members, bassist/vocalist Daniel Racines and guitarist Ricardo Racines, had moved to Seattle from Ecuador), but they made an immediate positive impression.

At that point Rat King had a debut album (Garbage Island), an EP, and a split in their discography, and they released a second album (Vicious Inhumanity) in 2020. That second album reflected a change in style, moving toward a fast-paced and vicious blend of death metal and grind, and on their new EP Santa Hipocresía (set for release on December 10th via Within The Mind Records) they mainly stay in the fast and furious lane.

But not everything on the new EP is high-speed savagery, as you’ll discover through our video premiere today of a bludgeoning and sinister track called “Morboso” (“morbid” in English). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MAC GOLLEHON — “BRONX MOTOR INN”

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Dec 062021
 

 

Every musician has two voices, the one that uses the larynx and the other that uses the manufactured instrument they’ve trained themselves to play. Even in the case of musicians who can sing (or growl or scream), the voice they create through a collaboration with their manufactured instrument is often so much more expressive than the other voice, and even more capable of bringing emotions to life in ways that every other human being can understand.

How that happens is a grand mystery. People spoke and sang to each other millennia before the first musical instrument was created. And when instruments came into existence, what were they used for? To speak and to sing in a different but still recognizable way, and to mimic the beat of hearts and the throb of pulses. Sure, they can be used to create sensations we think of as utterly inhuman, but even then they’re still really being used to create voices our own throats aren’t capable of creating but that convey moods we all understand — even if what we understand are nightmares.

Which brings us to the subject of this post, brass musician extraordinaire Mac Gollehon. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORDOM — “BETRAYED”

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Dec 032021
 

 

“Combining the leaden misery of funeral doom, the hideous unconventional songwriting of death metal and the monomaniacal disgust of black metal, Mordom prove themselves to be preternaturally gifted at transmuting their darkest moods into monstrous moments of crushing sonic majesty.”

Those words aren’t ours, but instead were crafted by Decibel Magazine’s Dutch Pearce when he reviewed this San Diego band’s debut demo about a year ago. However, the description is too on-point for us to ignore. We repeat them now because Mordom‘s debut album Cry Of The Dying World is fast-approaching its December 10 release via Transylvanian Recordings.

Like the demo, the album blends ingredients of funeral doom and death metal, but also includes elements of sludge, crust punk, and post-rock. Unlike the demo, it includes the work of drummer Nathan Gonzalez joining in with the band’s founder (and his Cessation bandmate) Max Hoffman, who decided to drop guitars almost entirely for this album and rely heavily on pulverizing bass tones, plus his own harrowing harsh vocals. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TORMENTOR TYRANT — “PRIMAL EVIL”

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Dec 032021
 

 

The tale of Tormentor Tyrant‘s inception points the way toward the kind of evil death metal they’ve laid down on their debut self-titled EP. We’re told that the band was born in late 2020, but that the seeds of the idea might be traced back even a few years earlier “to some obscure drunken nights when the trio had the innocent idea of ‘how cool would it be to just jam some early Deicide songs together?'”

From that starting point this Finnish threesome — guitarist/vocalist S. and drummer J. (who played together in such bands as Cataleptic and Solothus) plus bassist/vocalist M. (from Corpsessed, Tyranny, and Profetus) — moved on from playing cover songs to creating their own fiendish material, but still under the influences of the early demos and albums of groups like Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and Malevolent Creation, as well as the abrupt and unhinged bands of South America and Europe of the same era.

And hell yes, what they’ve made is thoroughly evil — death metal that’s grimy, grotesque, untamed, and savagely primal in its sound. We’ve got a great example of their formidable talents in a song off their forthcoming EP that’s fittingly named “Primal Evil“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HUSQWARNAH — “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY”

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Dec 022021
 

This is the time of year when ardent fans of metal, or at least the ones who enjoy bestowing accolades via year-end lists, are thinking hard about what they’ve been listening to over the last 11+ months. As all such list-makers know, it’s a time of year when December releases tend to get overlooked, even though the release schedule does tend to slow down some as we barrel ahead toward December 31st.

We’re probably as guilty of this as anyone else, but we’re still making an effort to keep at least one of our eyes focused on the horizons ahead, and the truth is that some very good records are still set for release this month, and Husqwarnah‘s debut album Front Toward Enemy is one of them. It’s so good that devoted fans of death metal might want to check it out before putting the finishing touches on their year-end lists.

And although we’re still a day away from the album’s official release, you can check it out right now, because we’re now hosting the premiere of Front Toward Enemy in its entirety. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLK OPS — “THE HEROIC DOSE”

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Dec 012021
 

 

Austin-based BLK OPS haven’t been prolific. Until now, following their formation in 2014, their discography consisted of a pair of 2017 splits (with Cave Bastard and KRVSHR) and a live album released just at the start of the pandemic in 2020. But though their output has been limited, their abrasive but cathartic amalgamation of hardcore, metal, and harsh noise has made a crater-sized impact, harrowing to hear but impossible to forget. And now, at last, we have their debut album, The Heroic Dose.

From what we hear, getting the album to the point of release — which will happen via Roman Numeral Records on December 3rd — has itself been a harrowing and frustrating ordeal. But the considerable time that BLK OPS spent working and re-working the record, that time shows itself in the outcome. The Heroic Dose builds upon all the qualities that made BLK OPS‘ splits so striking, and creates an even more daunting, elaborate, and demanding edifice of sound, which you’ll get to experience in its entirety today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HADAL MAW — “OBLIQUE ORDER”

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Dec 012021
 

 

Since 2014 Australia’s Hadal Maw have released two albums (2014’s Senium and 2017’s Olm) as well as a 2018 EP named Charlatan, and throughout that time we’ve followed them closely, as attested by the appearance of 10 different posts in which we’ve discussed their music since 2014. Now we have the chance to focus on them again, because at last they’re releasing a new record destined for detonation at the very end of this miserable year.

The clock continues to tick on the arrival of a new Hadal Maw album, but at least we now have a new four-song EP, the name of which is Oblique Order, and it’s the EP’s jaw-dropping title track that we have for you today. Continue reading »

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