AN NCS PREMIERE: FALAMH — “BLACKENED WAVES”

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Mar 082022
 


L-R: Dave Strba (guitar, backing vocals), Kyle Tayler (guitars, vocals), Kye Bell (bass)

 

Falamh, from North Bay, Ontario, Canada rose from the ashes of a previous band in 2019, and released their first EP (The Unbound Beyond: I) in 2020. Honing their blend of melodic black/death metal, they’re now readying the release of a second EP, which is due out on March 25th. Its title is Aeons Effigy, and what we have for you today is the premiere of the new EP’s second single, “Blackened Waves“.

As you’ll discover, it’s a moving and memorable song, but it delivers punch as well as pain, ferocity as well as desperation. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BURNED IN EFFIGY — “TREACHERY”

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Mar 072022
 


L-R – Mark “Smedy” Smedbron (Vocals) | Matt Watkins (Bass) | Eddie Dec (Drums) | Steve Bacakos (Guitar) | Mike Hisson (Guitar)
Photo Credit – Emily Fuschen (Dark Trix Photography)

When metal bands contemplate which of their songs would be a good subject for a playthrough video, they face an interesting choice. If they pick a technically demanding piece, the results can be especially impressive — but it’s a lot more challenging to achieve success. As you’re about to see and hear, the Chicago-based melodic death metal band Burned In Effigy didn’t shy away from the challenge.

The song they chose, “Treachery“, is by their own admission the most melodically and harmonically complex track on their recently released debut album Rex Mortem, which introduces the tale of a tyrannical king’s rule and demise. Bassist Matt Watkins tells us: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: 1/2 SOUTHERN NORTH — “HEARTS OF HADES”

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Mar 072022
 


Photo by Elena Vasilaki, Athens

The Greek artist Ifigeneia Derizioti, who goes by the name IDVex in her occult musical project 1/2 Southern North, has a remarkable voice. Like an aural chameleon, it’s capable of changing colors in dramatic, spine-tingling fashion. It is the most compelling feature of 1/2 Southern North‘s debut album Narrations of a Fallen Soul, and not merely because her expressions are such a rarity in metal and metal-adjacent genres. It would stand out in any genre.

But we hasten to add that her artistry extends beyond those wide-ranging vocal talents. It extends to the conceptual and lyrical narrative that she and her collaborators have created for this first full-length, and to her songcraft, which itself ranges widely in style, texture, and mood.

In terms that would be familiar to metal lovers, she draws upon the influences of black metal, doom metal, and avant-garde music (she calls it the “Black Noise of Doom”), but as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today, her creations extend beyond the realms of metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVEDANCER — “THE DEVIL’S GARDEN”

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Mar 042022
 

There are SO many things to like about the Gravedancer video we’re about to premiere that it’s hard to imagine anyone not enjoying it — other than perhaps the trvest of the trve black metal kultists out there. And they’ve already got so many other things to be upset about that this is probably just one more drop in a rapidly filling bucket.

The music alone is a big attraction. Entitled “The Devil’s Garden“, the song is the closing track on this Arkansas band’s latest EP, Every Kind of Dog, which was released last October. It traverses some interesting and unexpected musical territory, especially given the general folk/Americana style of the tracks that precede it in on the EP. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AD NOCTEM FUNERIIS — “ABYSS III”

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Mar 032022
 

The title of the forthcoming third album by the Italian black metal band Ad Noctem Funeriis leaves no doubt that the band have maintained their blasphemous stance: Abyss, Fire, Brimstones will soon join the group’s preceding full-lengths, Satan’s March Black Metal (2015) and …Of Evil and Torment (2009). As those dates demonstrate, the band do not rush their releases, but instead take their time to ensure that the Hell they unleash on Earth is accomplished through carefully crafted campaigns.

That care shows strongly in the song we’re premiering today from the newest album in advance of its April 12 release by Symbol Of Domination Productions and Pluton’s Rising Productions. And you need not be a follower of the Left Hand Path to be swept away by its dark grandeur and incendiary power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISCHORDIA — “BODIES OF ASH”

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Mar 022022
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records does an exceptionally good job spreading the word about its releases to metal fans and the music press. In the case of the new Dischordia album Triptych, for example, four songs have already premiered ai different locations, and the release date is still almost two months away.

Today we’re adding to the word-spreading by presenting a fifth track premiere. There’s still some chance that a few of you haven’t paid attention to the new album, and even for those of you who have, in our humble opinion “Bodies of Ash” is one of the album’s many highlights. So here we are…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRIMORIUM VERUM — “THROUGH THE LABYRINTH OF TIMES”

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Mar 012022
 

The Russian black metal band Grimorium Verum trace their origins to the mid-’90s, and since then have released four albums, with a fifth one, Reall, set for release on March 31st by Symbol of Domination. Not surprisingly, the band’s long period of existence has been marked by changes in their personnel, as well as alterations in their musical approach.

Where they are today is strongly represented in their new 11-track full-length, whose name holds to the band’s tradition of picking single-word titles that begin with the letter R. It holds to other traditions of the group’s music as well, maintaining aggressive power but now with an enhanced use of trans-dimensional keyboard parts that open the mind to visionary realms that don’t seem human or even earth-bound.

You’ll understand what we mean when you hear the song we’re premiering today, “Through the Labyrinth of Times“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ILLUMINATION — “WORSHIP DEATH MORE THAN LIFE”

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Mar 012022
 

In a time marked by such a relentless torrent of new metal, adding to a sea of music that now spans many decades, what keeps ardent fans attentive and excited? In some instances it’s the thrill of new releases by bands who helped shape the course of the flood long ago and still survive. But in other instances it’s the excitement that comes from discovering unusual music by new groups, music that builds on tradition but takes the sounds in startling directions.

We have a great example of that latter phenomenon in the EP we’re about to premiere by the Brazilian band Illumination. It’s a tremendously accomplished debut EP that builds upon the band’s 2021 demo Occult Science, and its manifold successes are undoubtedly due to the previous experience of its three members, who have spent time in such bands as Nervochaos, Grave Desecrator, ColdBlood, Poem’s Death, and Aghory, among others.

The EP’s closest genre label might be atmospheric black metal, but as you’ll discover the music is a stylistic hybrid. A combination of the luminous and the lethal, it fits the band’s name, and it fits the name of the EP as well: Worship Death More Than Life. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EPIDEMIK — “NUKE WAR”

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Feb 282022
 

The Costa Rican band Epidemik released their debut EP, Murder By Command, in 2013. The group disbanded a couple of years later, and then revived but experienced a succession of line-up changes. At last a new line-up solidified, and the group began working on their first full-length, which is now ready for an April 4 release through the cooperation of GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and Sanatorio Records (Costa Rica).

The band self-titytled this first album not only because it signals the resurrection of the group but also because it represents a stylistic shift. The band’s original old-school thrash influences haven’t vanished, but now they’re blended with death metal ferocity and more technical twists and turns. As a preview of what the new album delivers, today we’re premiering a track with a timely title: “Nuke War“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FATHER BEFOULED — “KATABATIC DELIVERANCE”

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Feb 282022
 

At one time or another every human being will become personally acquainted with horror. The horror of disease (mental and physical), the horror of violence, the horror of dying and death, the horror spawned by our own imaginations — one or more or all, they wait for us, as unavoidable as the sunset.

Tremendous amounts of human energy are devoted to keeping them at bay (fruitlessly), but once encountered they’re not easily forgotten. People try to whitewash them away with philosophies and prayer, but those are like thin coats of paint on a picket fence long gone to rot. Other people stare at them with clear eyes, refuse to look away, and even embrace them.

Which brings us to the unholy Georgia-based death metal band Father Befouled and the song we’re premiering from their new album Crowned in Veneficum. Continue reading »

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