AN NCS PREMIERE: SADISTIC GOATMESSIAH — “STAINLESS STEEL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 272025
 

(written by Islander)

If you’re not smiling already, your day must really be going wrong. How can you not smile at a name like Sadistic Goatmessiah? Oh, for sure, I can imagine some of you shaking your heads even if you’re grinning, dubious about the music that a band with a name like that might devote themselves to. More dubiety might result from the bandmembers’ nom de plumes: Morbid Goatpriest of Lust, Filth and Mayhem (vocals, guitars), Goat Primator (drums), and Goatess of Fire (bass).

But unclench your sphincters, expel your doubts, maybe take your clothes off. As you’ll discover when listening to the song we’re about to premiere, these three demons clearly had a hell of a lot of wicked fun making their debut album Violence, and you should share in their filthy revels without restraint. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ORDEALS — “SUFFER CURSED ORDEALS”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Aug 262025
 

(written by Islander)

Six years after their last EP (Choose Death, enthusiastically reviewed here by our Andy Synn), the New York black/death trio Ordeals are returning with their debut album, which has the hard-to-forget name Third Rail Prayer. It will be released on September 26th by Eternal Death.

Much like the kind of mental imagery conjured by the album title, Ordeal‘s new music is convulsive, but its electrified (and electrifying) spasms shake and twist in often unpredictable directions, providing a collage of dread, damnation, delirium, and doom that’s disturbingly distinctive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRUENTATION — “PRAYERS IN PISS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 262025
 

(written by Islander)

Damned Fallen Angels is the debut album of the New England black/death band Cruentation, whose lineup includes current or former members of Witch Tomb, Impenitent Thief, Hirudenia, Cemetery Lights, Martyrvore, Ninnixu, and Embryonic Cryptopathia (among others). The album is set for release by Iron Bonehead Productions on September 26th.

Upon hearing the album’s title track when it debuted in early July, we advised people to “prepare for a vicious assault of furiously battering percussion, heavily undulating bass lines, caustically churning riffage, and grotesque vocal abominations, piercingly accented by a lead guitar’s berserk screams.” But we also advised that the song was a two-headed monster:

“The song also slows, becoming a big stalking menace that’s dismally oppressive in its mood, but the riffing also heats up again, like inflamed carnivorous insects rapidly surging into flesh. These fashionings of frenzy and morbid gloom trade places until the end, a ghastly tandem for sure.”

And now we have another debut from the album, a song called “Prayers In Piss“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NYRAK — “LEVIATHAN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 252025
 

(written by Islander)

One of the reasons we enjoy hosting premieres is that they sometimes introduce us to bands we quickly realize we should have paid attention to before. The Belgian progressive black metal group Nyrak is now one of those bands, making their first (and long overdue) appearance among our shredded pages.

If we had been paying closer attention, we would have witnessed their evolution from a solo studio project created in 2021 by Belgian musician Guy Van Nieuwenhove (aka Nevel of Gotmoor) into a fully-fledged group capable of live performances. We also would have discovered the still-ongoing evolution of the music beginning with the debut album Malvs (2022) and continuing through a second album named Devourer of All (2024) and their Faceless Tyrant EP released this past spring.

But now we know who they are, thanks to this lyric-video premiere of a song from Nyrak‘s third album Phoenix Mortis, which is set for release on October 20th by Void Wanderer Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IMPERMANENCE — “SPIRITUAL WAR”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 252025
 

(written by Islander)

In rapid succession two songs have recently surfaced from a new album by the Polish blackened tech-death band Impermanence, one of which we’re premiering today and the other of which is a “near premiere”. The name of the album is Anicca. It’s derived from Buddhist terminology and signifies impermanence – which is why, in a sense, the album can be considered self-titled. The band further explain:

The lyrical layer explores themes of transience and the search for purpose in the world around us. The album’s composition begins and ends with the ticking of a clock, clearly marking both the start and the conclusion of the story being told. Each track presents a different narrative, offering a unique perspective on the somber aspects of human nature. This concept extends beyond the lyrics, shaping the band’s overall artistic identity.

The song we’re premiering today is “Spiritual War“, and it’s a real jaw-dropper. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLOOD TITHE — “THE MARTYR’S LAST PRAYER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 222025
 

(written by Islander)

Straight outta Boston come the death-metal/hardcore band Blood Tithe, the newest signing to Unbeaten Records, the long-running New York-based label started by Buddy Armstrong from Stigmata and Bulldog Courage.

They join a roster that includes Pure Bliss, All Out War, Edict, Cell, Bruiserweight, and Purgatory, among others, and have proved their mettle (and metal) on stage with such bands as Dying Fetus, Carnifex, Vomit Forth, Vital Remains, Kruelty, and Gulch. Their discography to date includes a demo, a pair of EPs, and a split last year with Misery Whip.

What’s on the horizon now via the Unbeaten label is a debut Blood Tithe album entitled Blood For The Starving God, and what we’ve got for you today is the video premiere of the record’s furious lead single, “The Martyr’s Last Prayer“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PLAGUEWIELDER — “BLOOD OF THE ASTRAL GATE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 212025
 

(written by Islander)

We’ve been following the ever-evolving music of Ohio’s Plaguewielder since early days, and today we continue our watch by premiering through an eye-catching video an excellent new song, “Blood of the Astral Gate,” the lead single being digitally released today from a two-part Plaguewielder EP that’s set to unfold in early 2026.

That two-part series will be entitled Year of the Plague, to be released by a new independent label named Mourning Shroud that will become the new vehicle for their music. As Plaguewielder portray what’s coming through the EPs, “the band descends further into the spiral of post-black metal, where anguish becomes ritual and melody bleeds into shadow. These offerings are steeped in decay, adorned with haunted hymns and the weight of forgotten aeons.”

With respect to the new song you’re about to hear, Plaguewielder have provided this statement: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNDERSAVE — “NARCISSITIC SUPREME ALIENATION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 212025
 

(written by Islander)

The Portuguese death metal band Undersave do not hurry. Originally formed in 2004, they released their debut album in 2012, and then a second one in 2018, and now roughly seven years later they will have a third one released in October by Transcending Obscurity Records. And while the lineup has undergone some changes during those two decades, vocalist and guitarist Nuno Braz has remained a steadfast presence since the beginning.

The name of the new album is Merged In Abstract Perdition. It’s an unusual name but it suits much of the music. “Perdition” refers to a state of eternal punishment and damnation, and that state of torment and darkness exists in the music too, but there is also an atmosphere of unreality, a degree of abstraction that creates an often surreal experience that’s sometimes unnerving and sometimes perversely hypnotic.

You’ll better understand what we’re getting at when you listen to the first two advance songs from the album and the third one we’re premiering today. Their titles are as interesting and as strangely suggestive as the album’s name. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KHATANO — “HATE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 202025
 

(written by Islander)

The music of the Czech band Khatano could be labeled a mix of heavy-grooved death metal and hardcore. But don’t leap to the conclusion that what they’re doing is “deathcore”, because it definitely is not that, as you’ll quickly discover from the song called “Hate” that we’re premiering today from Khatano‘s new album In Shackles.

The song is well-named because it does sound hateful — ferociously so. Panchlera Panchezzo‘s vocals are the most violently raging aspect of the track. They’re not death metal gutturals but instead a blast furnace of howling grit and raw fury. The other aspects of the song don’t pull any punches either — and they do punch very damned hard. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AFTER EARTH — “THROE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 202025
 

(written by Islander)

On September 26th the Swedish melodic death metal band After Earth will release their second album, Dark Night of the Soul. It builds upon the foundations of their debut full-length, 2023’s The Rarity of Reason, but represents a more ambitious and multi-faceted undertaking, and the work of a revised lineup.

Those heightened ambitions are reflected in the nearly 52-minute length of the new album, as compared to the 35-minute runtime of the first one. More importantly, it’s reflected in the range of the music, one example of which is provided in the song “Throe” that we’re premiering today along with a video of the band performing the song at SufferCity festival in Lidköping, Sweden earlier this year. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries