AN NCS PREMIERE: ORGREL — “AMOR FATI”

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Sep 142021
 

 

According to The Font of All Human Knowledge: “Amor fati is a Latin phrase that may be translated as ‘love of fate’ or ‘love of one’s fate’. It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one’s life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary”.

The same article links the concept of Amor fati to what Friedrich Nietzsche called “eternal recurrence”, “the idea that, over an infinite period of time, everything recurs infinitely”.

We ponder those ideas today because “Amor Fati” is the name of the second song to be revealed from Red Dragon’s Invocation, the formidable debut album by the Italian black metal band Orgrel, which is set for release by Iron Bonehead Productions on October 15th, graced with stunning cover art by Luciana Nedelea. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PLAGUEFEVER — “CAGE OF GODS”

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Sep 132021
 

 

A month ago we came across the title track to a debut record named Crude Implements by the Virginia “black ‘n’ roll” band Plaguefever, and we wasted no time blaring words about it, describing it as “a song that begins as a lurching, moaning death metal monstrosity and segues into a diabolical carnival of sinister swirling fretwork, scalding blackened howls, and skull-busting stomps. A fantastic debut by these Virginians….”

Having had our attention seized by that first excerpt from the album, we were thrilled by the chance to present a second track in advance of its digital release on October 14th and its limited vinyl release on October 29th via Elvte Kvlt Recvrds. This new song, “Cage Of Gods“, is more than twice as long as the title track. If “Crude Implements” was the band swiftly seizing you by the neck with primeval talons, “Cage of Gods” is the raptor spreading its wings and carrying you away to your demise. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: STHENO — “FIRE!”

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Sep 132021
 

 

Clues to the worldview, and the music, of the Greek band Stheno can be gleaned from the titles of their releases, which began in 2014: Damnation Is Forever, Wolfkind, Liberty Crawls in Waste, Primitive, and now their forthcoming second full-length, Wardance (which is set for release on October 8th via 7 Degrees Records and Chaos & Hell Productions.

Such a hostile and nihilistic perspective demands equally aggressive and relentless measures in the music, and in discharging their fury Stheno haven’t confined themselves within any neat genre boundaries, instead blurring the lines between grindcore, black, death, and other forms of metallic extremity. Their war-themed new album is the product of some line-up changes and includes Christian Chaco, frontman of German death-grinders Keitzer, on vocals.

What we have for you today is a video presentation of the third track premiere from the new album…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MRTVI — “II RHYTHM OF EMOTION”

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Sep 132021
 

 

On two nights, one in November 2015 and one in October 2016, the Serbian (but UK-based) experimental black metal project MRTVI made two improvisational groups of recordings — 11 songs on the first night and 14 more on the second. The work was completed in between MRTVI’s release of its second album (Negative Atonal Dissonance) and its third (Omniscient Hallucinatory Delusion). Rather than release the improvisational works then, MRTVI held them back in order to complete the trilogy of albums that had then been planned.

But now they will be released on October 1st of this year as the two parts of an album entitled Autology: The Shadow Work. Two of the combined 25 tracks have been disclosed so far, and today we present a third one, “II Rhythm of Emotion“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CLOUDS — “DEEPEN THIS WOUND”

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Sep 102021
 

 

The internationally composed doom-stricken band Clouds have amassed a large and devoted following among listeners on the strength of five albums released beginning in 2014, and their sixth one is now set for release on October 14th. Its title is Despărțire (the Romanian word for parting).

The album was created by a slightly revised line-up, and it includes guest vocal performances by both Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride and Mick Moss of Antimatter. Further details will be disclosed in the near future, but what we have for you today is the premiere of a stunning album track named “Deepen This Wound“, accompanied by a video for which a warning has been provided. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HURONIAN — “EVER BURNING”

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Sep 102021
 

 

As we all painfully know, the pandemic has been an immense black cloud oppressively hanging over the globe with no dissipation in sight. Yet it has had silver linings, including the formation of new bands during lockdowns as creative impulses have still found ways to breathe.

The Italian trio Huronian is one such raging pandemic child. It first took shape through the will of DL and UMP in early 2020, with the inspiration of following in the path of classic melodic death metal and death/black metal manifested by such groups as Dissection, At the Gates, and Sacramentum. Eventually joined by drummer MM, they worked together remotely and recorded a demo that was digitally released last year, and now they’ve readied a debut album named As Cold As A Stranger Sunset that’s set for release on October 29th by the French label Dolorem Records.

This 8-track release is going to be an eye-opener, and you’ll understand why we think that when you listen to the album track we’re premiering today, which has the completely fitting title “Ever Burning“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOIDHRA — “SORROW GUIDES US ALL”

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Sep 102021
 

 

In May of this year the one-person black metal band Voidhra from southern Germany self-released its debut EP, Sorrow Guides Us All. No doubt some people discovered what a fantastic release that was, but it also undoubtedly passed under the radars of lots of listeners (sadly including us). But it’s about to make a much wider and deeper impression through a new release set for October 29th by the Crawling Chaos label.

To help spread the word we’re today premiering the title song from this four-track, 30-minute EP. It has become the basis for our own discovery of Voidhra, and what an astonishing discovery it has been. The song we’re premiering today channels tremendous visceral power, with an intense emotional impact, and its bleak yet incendiary melodies prove to be very memorable. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OBSCURA QALMA — “AWAKEN A SHRINE TO OBLIVION”

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Sep 092021
 

 

On November 14th, Rising Nemesis Records will release Apotheosis, the debut album of the Venetian extreme metal band Obscura Qalma, a record that provides the follow-up to their 2019 EP, Sheol to the Apeiron. Creating what the band describe as “blackened heavily orchestrated death metal”, they have drawn influence from the likes of Behemoth and Septicflesh, Death and Dissection, Hypocrisy and classical music, and film-score composers such as Alexandre Desplat.

But the band’s influences and inspirations are not limited to musical ones. They have created elaborate hybrids of sound in service of philosophical investigations that are equally elaborate. As the band explain: “”Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, as well as by contemporary figures such as Massimo Recalcati and James Owen Weatherall, Apotheosis (from the Greek meaning, “To Deify”) explores human existence in an epistemological solipsistic view. Elevated to divine status, from a higher point we can look at the external world as an unresolvable question rather than actually false.”

One single from the album has surfaced so far, and today we present a second one — “Awaken A Shrine To Oblivion” — which happens to be the track that closes Apotheosis. It manages to be both elaborately theatrical and chillingly unearthly, both futuristic and primeval, and it strikes with immense power. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DØDSDRIFT — “FÄHRDE”

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Sep 092021
 

 

By their own choice the black metal band Dødsdrift are a mysterious collective, one of those groups who prefer to let their music do most of the speaking. All we know is that that they were founded in 2018 in a northern area of Germany that borders the Baltic Sea, and that the 10 tracks on their new album Ødnis were inspired by isolation, loss, war, and the forces of nature.

But of course the songs do speak for themselves, and they do so in tremendously powerful ways. The music has a visceral impact, and leaves no ambiguity about the intense emotions that fuel the compositions and their performances. Those of you who discovered the band’s 2019 debut album Weltenszission already know this, and more will discover it through Ødnis.

Dødsdrift have chosen to release only one single in advance of the new album’s October 15 release by Vendetta Records, and we’re privileged to bring it to you today through an official video that’s as arresting as the track. The song opens the album, and its name is “Fährde“. Continue reading »

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

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Sep 082021
 

 

From their outward trappings and the way they talk about themselves and their music, you might not be inclined to take the Norwegian band Drittmaskin as seriously as you should. They seem to relentlessly make fun of themselves and under-sell what their music is capable of accomplishing. But pay no attention to that — instead, pay attention to the 12 tracks on their frankly astonishing new album Svartpønk. You’ll have your first chance to do that today, because we’ve got a full stream of the record in advance of the album’s October 8 release.

Trying to pigeonhole these new songs in genre terms is a confounding exercise. Svartpønk translates to “Blackpunk”, and there is indeed a hybrid of d-beat punk and black metal strongly at work here. But that’s not nearly an exhaustive list of the ingredients that Drittmaskin have joined together. They also pull from the wells of old-school thrash, arena-ready “classic” heavy metal, crust, death metal, and more. Some ingredients are more pronounced in some songs than in others, i.e., they are definitely not interchangeable, and that’s part of what makes the full run through the album such a relentless thrill-ride, but every song is a genre-bender. Continue reading »

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