AN NCS PREMIERE: GODLESS TRUTH — “THE EYECHAIN”

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Feb 212022
 

 

There are plenty of die-hard tech-death fans out there who seem to slather praise on any band who go fast and demonstrate the level of athleticism and dexterity that’s required to discharge thousands of beats and notes in a short span of minutes. For many other people, listening to that kind of music is an endurance contest, like trudging forward through a gale-force blizzard, head down and just hoping to find shelter as soon as possible. Even for those people, and maybe especially for those people, Godless Truth‘s new album will be a welcome discovery.

We don’t mean to suggest that Godless Truth is a new discovery for everyone. After all, this Czech band have been around since the early ’90s, and their new self-titled album is the fifth full-length in a career that’s approaching the end of a third decade. But 18 years have passed since Godless Truth‘s last album, and it’s been a dozen years since their last EP, so they may indeed be a new discovery for many.

Moreover, this new album is emerging at a time when blizzard bands have saturated the tech-death scene, many of them engaged in an ever-escalating arms race for speed and volume of notes and beats. In that context, Godless Truth‘s music is especially welcome, for reasons that are well-demonstrated in the song we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s March 4 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEATH ON FIRE — “THE DYING LIGHT”

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Feb 182022
 

 

Following up on their excellent 2021 EP Six Foot Box (for which we happily hosted a premiere), the Indiana-based metal band Death On Fire are today releasing a new two-track vinyl single as a prelude to their forthcoming album Burial Hymns.

Both songs provide a vivid reminder of Death On Fire‘s viscerally potent but intriguing musical amalgams, which often include stylistic traits from death metal, thrash, the blues, hard rock, and more. What we have for you now, presented through a lyric video, is a premiere of the title track from the new release, “The Dying Light“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SILVERN — “LORN”

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Feb 182022
 

 

The second pandemic year 2021 gave birth to a plethora of new metal bands. Was the birth rate higher than in the first plague year? Or the last “normal” year of 2019? Someone with time on their hands might study Metal Archives to get a sense of the answer. Of course not all the 2021 newborns were attractive, but the Ukrainian black metal project Silvern definitely is — the first steps are extremely promising.

Silvern has been at work on a debut album, and on February 22nd it will release the first single, a song named “Lorn” that we’re premiering today. It has intriguing lyrical themes. Silvern explains: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WRETCHED TONGUES — “MORTALITY”

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Feb 172022
 

 

Gaze upon Caelan Stokkermans‘ cover art for the debut album by Wretched Tongues and contemplate the agony of those naked figures in the clutches of their fiendish tormentors. It captures some of the visions spawned by the music, but not all. To do that, the imagery would need to include the discharge of massed machine-guns, the detonation of bunker-busting bombs, the madness of frantic, blood-lusting violence, and the wailing of lost souls.

You’ll understand this when you listen to “Mortality“, the latest single by these U.S. deathcore heavyweights from their album Ulter Praefinitum, and that’s an opportunity we bring you today through our premiere of the song in advance of the March 18 album release by Vicious Instinct Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CHALK HANDS — “LES JOURS PASSENT ET NE ME RESSEMBLENT PAS”

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Feb 162022
 

 

To help introduce their new album Don’t Think About Death the UK band Chalk Hands have put a big spotlight on the album’s first single, a song named “Les Jours Passent Et Ne Me Ressemblent Pas”. Five days ago they revealed the song through a fascinating animated video made by one of the band’s members (Tommy). And today we’re premiering another video for the same song, but this time it’s a film of a live performance.

The song is in French because that’s the native tongue of lyricist, vocalist, and guitarist Antoine. He tells us that he chose to write this one in French because it allowed him to express himself “in a more honest and unaltered fashion”, which was important because the inspiration was such a personal one for him.

The inspiration is signified by the song’s title. He explains: “The title comes from a French idiom which means something like ‘the days go by and aren’t alike’ (somewhat equivalent to the saying ‘tomorrow is another day’) but I’ve twisted a word to say ‘days go by and I don’t recognise myself’”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RUTTENSKALLE — “DEAD MAN”

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Feb 162022
 

Sometimes it’s abundantly obvious when a musician has made music primarily for himself, to indulge a personal passion for a particular kind of already well-established music and to test how well he can embrace and extend such venerable and venerated traditions. In such circumstances innovation isn’t the objective. Faithful worship comes first. But when it works, a personal endeavor like that can also reward listeners.

In a nutshell, that’s what Portuguese musician Paulo Soares did on Skin ’em Alive, the debut album of his solo project Ruttenskalle, which was released last October by Gruesome Records. The object of his affection and energies was old-school Swedish death metal in the vein of Dismember, Entombed, Carnage, Grave, and Unleashed.

The depths of his devotion are revealed in the album’s ghastly cover art, in the Swedish name of the band (which means “rotten skull”), in the abundant lyrical references to guts, gore, and macabre deaths, and of course in the sound of the music itself. And yes indeed, for ardent fans of this venerable genre, it brings rewards — one of which is the song “Dead Man” that’s featured in the music video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ET MORIEMUR — “OSHIMA”

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Feb 152022
 

 

The Czech band Et Moriemur have branded their music “existential doom”. Their label Transcending Obscurity Records uses the phrase “atmospheric doom/black metal”, while Metal-Archives has selected “atmospheric death/doom”. The one thing you can’t call it is “conventional doom”.

Certainly, the subject matter of their records has become increasingly unconventional. Epigrammata, their last album and their best to date, represented an attempt to cope with the dying or death of those they loved, but used lyrics in ancient Greek and also drew upon the Latin mass for the dead, with the album structured to follow the progression of a traditional Requiem.

Now Et Moriemur have ventured again into unusual territory. As its name suggests, their new album Tamashii No Yama (set for release on April 8th) draws inspiration from Japanese history, myth, and culture, and the instrumentation itself includes the shakuhachi as well as cello, harp, violin, and viola. It will also give Epigrammata a serious challenge as the best album these adventurous Czechs have produced to date. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GLEMSEL — “SAVN”

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Feb 152022
 

 

In 2020 the Danish black metal band Glemsel released their first two recordings, a 28-minute EP named Unavngivet (which means “untitled”) and a demo that had no title either, both of which we reviewed. Together they gave listeners a 10-song demonstration of the band’s capabilities — which were formidable.

Through those releases Glemsel demonstrated the ability to quickly carry listeners away. Collectively, the songs were persistently dark in their moods but included beguiling twists and turns. Among other things, they married discordant yet seductive melodies with hurtling drums and vicious vocals, and brought into play ominous, otherworldly, chiming guitars and dirge-like marches. They raced and ravaged in displays of ferocious ecstasy and painted panoramic portraits of heart-rending melancholy. All the while, the band embroidered their music with accents that made the experience even more riveting.

Those first steps left no doubt that Glemsel were very good, and left us eager for a full album, which is finally about to arrive. It does have a name (Forfader) and it’s now set for release on March 18th by Vendetta Records. Today we’re very happy to present its first (and only) single, a song named “Savn“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THOUGHT TRIALS — “FULL OF SOUND AND FURY, SIGNIFYING NOTHING”

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Feb 142022
 

 

What is it that is “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”? In the words of Macbeth after learning of his wife’s death, it is life itself — “a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more… a tale told by an idiot….”

There may be no speech in all of Shakespeare that is more laden with pessimism and despair than that one in Act 5, scene 5 of the great tragedy. That this phrase was chosen by Thought Trials as the title of this Buffalo band’s new album signifies something. As described by Thought Trials‘ sole creator Josh Martin, the album “is a study of the fragile human psyche and how our journeys are shaped by trauma and misadventure. Each song explorers a different facet of mental health, sometimes from a place of optimism – and sometimes not”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ΑΧΕΡΟΝΤΑΣ — “BELIAL – THE ENN OF BELIYA’AL”

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Feb 112022
 

 

The Greek black metal coven Acherontas has long been known for the vital connection between their occult spirituality and their music: Each fuels and guides the other. There is no reason to think that has changed (to the contrary, it hasn’t), but with their new album The Seven Tongues of ΔΑΗΜΩΝ the band have announced their entry into a new phase of existence, a final reincarnation and a new era of continuity that is in part signified by a new expression of their name: ΑΧΕΡΟΝΤΑΣ.

As captured in the album’s name, it consists of seven ritualistic hymns, expressed as offerings upon the altars of Seven Gods — a “Mission of Seven Hells and Seven Destinations” — still rooted in ancient esoteric sources. In the progression of the album, the third offering invokes the name of Belial — “Belial-The Enn of Beliya’al” — and we present it to you today through a diabolical lyric video. Continue reading »

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