AN NCS PREMIERE: DEPLETED URANIUM — “BETA PARTICLES”

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Dec 142021
 

 

When does insanity begin to make sense? When you yourself begin to feel like you’re losing your mental moorings? When the whole fucking world seems to be going insane around you? Or when you realize there’s an appealing method to the madness you witness? Or some combination of all of the above?

These ruminations were spawned by listening to Origins, the new record by the brawlers and mad scientists in the Canadian band Depleted Uranium, which is set for release on January 28th of the coming new year. The music (which could be thought of as a blending of powerviolence and math metal) genuinely sounds insane — furiously so — and yet something about the experience makes sense. Not just because it sounds like people throwing away mental shackles and conventions, but also because the music simultaneously gets its hooks in your head. There’s a sense of order and precision of execution in it, at the same time as it seems completely disruptive of order. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KADAVEREICH — “RADIANCE OF DOOM”

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Dec 142021
 

 

On December 18th Godz Ov War Productions will release Radiance of Doom, the debut EP of the Russian blackened death metal band Kadavereich. Apart from a reference that the line-up includes members of Grond, Act Of God, and Gwarloth, Godz Ov War gave us no hints about the nature of the music the band had created when it asked that we host the EP’s full streaming premiere today. And thus the feeling of shock and awe that we experienced when listening to it was all the more stupefying.

In a nutshell, the sonic power of the EP is immense, and its impact is utterly devastating (but equally electrifying). It chokes the senses, blots out the ability to think of anything else, and becomes an all-consuming, bone-smashing, mind-mauling experience in remorseless destruction, abject terror, and paralyzing agony. If you’re looking for a transfixing visceral experience and don’t mind being subjected to ruthless audio ruination, you’ve come to the right place. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GOATBLOOD — “BLOODDAWN / ANNIHILATION OF THIS WORLD”

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Dec 132021
 

 

I’ve spilled many words about Goatblood over the years in a seemingly endless quest to describe just how maliciously ruinous yet gripping their music is. I have another opportunity today, because we’re premiering a new two-part album named Blooddawn​/​Annihilation Of This World.

Hatred, disgust, and violence have always seemed to be the dominating inspirations for this malefic duo’s bestial black/death metal ministrations, the more willfully offensive the better. The music’s not ostentatious or pretentious — quite the opposite, which is part of its primeval appeal. All those ingredients are again present and accounted for in this new album, but the two halves of it nonetheless present slightly different takes on the band’s core malignancy of sound. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THEURGIA — “IRRADIANT”

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Dec 102021
 

The Venezuelan black metal band Theurgia, now based in Bogotá, Colombia, has already built an impressive and continually ambitious and improving discography that consists of a 2015 EP (Anti perpetuo), a 2017 debut album (Transformation), and a 2020 split with Hacavitz and Veldraveth (Tercer nadir venenoso). Theurgia is now adding to those impressive records with a second full-length entitled VIRTUE, which will be released in mid-January by the Mexican label Vomit Records.

Trying to succinctly sum up Theurgia’s evolving music isn’t an easy task, but at a high level we can say that it has succeeded in creating haunting and disturbing occult atmospheric sensations and coupled those with viscerally powerful and significantly heavy rhythms and frighteningly impassioned vocals. The music is relentlessly dramatic, formidably savage, and immersive in its effects.

Those qualities (and others) come through again in the song we’re premiering today from VIRTUE, via a lyric video. Its name is “Irradiant“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIHILITY — “WILL TO POWER”

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Dec 092021
 

 

“Go numb and let your mind go black, let your soul be engulfed and captured by the void, then let this be the vessel for all your pent-up aggression and rage, for this is Nihility and this is the void.” And with those words Vicious Instinct Records introduces Nihility‘s new album Beyond Human Concepts, which is set for release on January 8, 2022.

This Portuguese quartet, who draw their influences from both death and black metal, trace their roots back to 2012 and made their blasphemous full-length debut with 2019’s Thus Spoke The Antichrist. The new album again combines ingredients in a powerful way, inspiring thoughts of Cannibal Corpse’s insane brutality, Death’s technical dexterity, and the bitter-cold melodies of such bands as Necrophobic.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for “Will To Power“, the second single to be released from Beyond Human Concepts — and it’s one that will kick your adrenaline into overdrive. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KVAEN — “THE GREAT BELOW”

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Dec 092021
 

 

Almost two years ago Black Lion Records released the killer debut album (The Funeral Pyre) by the Swedish band Kvaen. In the run-up to that release we premiered its title track, published an interview of the band, and launched a review by our Andy Synn which lauded the record as “a tight, forty-five (and a half) minutes of rip-roaring, Thrash and Speed injected, Black Metal that takes no prisoners and shows no mercy”. He wrote these words too:

“There’s just so much love, so much passion, so much fire (and ice) driving this album that you can’t help but fall in love with it. It’s fearless, shameless, and absolutely relentless, in its pursuit of pitch-black perfection, throwing in more riffs, more hooks, and more epic, extravagant solos (trust me, when you reach that point in the title-track you’ll know what I’m talking about) with the sort of reckless abandon that suggests its creator is either a madman or a genius (and I know which one I’m betting on). Inarguably one of the best albums, front to back, to have been released so far this year”.

And so we’re understandably pretty damned excited to help spread the word that Kvaen‘s madman/genius creator Jakob Björnfot (along with an eye-opening lineup of guests) is returning with a sophomore full-length that the same Black Lion Records has set for release on March 25th of next year. The new one is named The Great Below, and once again we’re delighted to host the premiere of its title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAMMERDRONE — “A TRINITY OF RAGE”

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Dec 082021
 

 

This has been a day of many premieres at our site but we have one more that should not be missed — a complete stream of a new concept EP by Hammerdrone from Calgary, Canada. Its title is A Trinity of Rage, and it’s fast approaching a December 10 release.

This newest record adds to a Hammerdrone discography that includes a pair of albums and a pair of EPs. It has been four years in the making and is being presented along with an original short story, “Eversor” (available as a bonus download via Bandcamp). The story revolves around the fictional second book of Revelation, in which is foretold the threat of Heaven’s destruction at the hands of Eversor, The Destroyer. Lyrically, the EP’s three tracks pick up where the short story ends and carries the narrative forward to its conclusion. Continue reading »

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 »

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