AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS — “INFINITE UNIVERSE INFINITE DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 072021
 

 

Almost a quarter-century passed between the debut album from Journey Into Darkness and the second one, Multitudes of Emptiness, that emerged in 2020. But the creative fires were clearly burningbright, because now the third one — Infinite Universe Infinite Death — is already on its way. It will be released on September 10th by Spirit Coffin Publishing, and today we draw the curtain all the way back on this astonishing piece of star-faring musical theater through our full streaming premiere. In addition, we’re presenting complete track-by-track commentary by the band’s sole member, Florida-based Brett Clarin.

For those who may be new to this symphonic black/death project, it’s worth knowing that Clarin‘s roots in extreme metal are deep. Between 1987 and 1993, he played guitar in the death metal band Sorrow (formerly Apparition), which released two records on the Roadrunner label. After Sorrow called it quits in the mid-’90s, Clarin started Journey Into Darkness as an all-synth solo project, having been inspired by the intros and interludes on extreme metal albums.

After releasing that 1996 debut album (Life Is a Near Death Experience), he put the project on hold for a long time. When he resurrected it with that second album, he made Journey Into Darkness sound like a full band, though the synths still played distinctive roles. The same is true of this new album, though it’s fair to say that the darkness in the music is even more pronounced. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DETEST — “THE PROCESS OF DOOM IS ON”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 072021
 

 

The story of Detest is yet another tale which proves that death (metal) conquers time. If you check this Danish band’s history at Metal-Archives you’ll see that December 12, 1990, was the date on which Detest was founded, and you’ll further see that their initial demos were released in 1991 and 1992, and that their debut album Dorval was released in 1994. But following one more demo discharged in the following year,  fell into a very long silence. As they describe it, they fell prey to booze, drugs, and in-fighting about how their music should sound, and thus dissolved in 1996.

Yet their entombment was not to be a permanent one. 2014 saw some reunion shows, and in the years after that original guitarist John Petersen recruited and tested new members who would have the ambition and focus to bring new Detest music into the world. That led to the band’s 2019 EP A Moment of Love, and now the new Detest trio (which also includes bassist/vocalist Simon Springborg and drummer Danni Jelsgaard) have recorded their first album since Dorval more than 25 years ago.

The new album, We Will Get What We Deserve, is projected for release in November by Emanzipation Productions, and to whet your appetites for it we are today presenting a lyric video for an album track named “The Process Of Doom Is On“, which will be released as a stand-alone single this coming Friday, September 10th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRIM FATE / THE SOMBRE — “FROM ANCIENT SLUMBER / THE HORRID SILENCE THUS BEGAN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 062021
 

 

As amalgams of death and doom metal go, we’ll be so bold as to say that you won’t find a more formidable offering this year than the new album-length split by the Dutch bands Grim Fate and The Sombre. Entitled From Ancient Slumber / The Horrid Silence Thus Began (reflecting the names of each band’s side), it will get a CD and digital release by Chaos Records on September 10th, but we have a full stream of this ravishing experience for you today.

As you’ll discover, these two bands have different approaches in their explorations of death/doom, with Grim Fate‘s music more crushing and crippling and The Sombre‘s more entrancing (but still heavy as hell). This difference is part of what explains why the split is so tremendously good as a whole, and the rest of the explanation comes down to just how talented both bands are in the pursuits they’ve chosen for themselves on their sides of this split.

We have further thoughts about each band’s sequence of tracks (three from each of them), but of course feel free to skip ahead to the album stream so you will know more immediately what’s going on as you read. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AZOTHYST — “RITES OF ASCENDANCY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 032021
 

 

Shrouded in underground mystery, the Canadian black/death band Azothyst are at last prepared to reveal their first diabolical recordings to a largely unsuspecting public that will either cower in fear or become exultant in the throes of such madness: Their debut album Blood of Dead God will be released on October 1st by a coalition of labels led by Vault of Dried Bones.

As the first sign of the tumultuous yet perversely mesmerizing terrors within the album, today we present its opening track, “Rites of Ascendancy“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AEONS ABYSS — “PRELUDE TO TERROR”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 032021
 

 

Suitably on a Bandcamp Friday, today is the official release date for a new stand-alone single by the Melbourne-based death metal band Aeons Abyss. Fittingly named “Prelude To Terror“, it also serves as a ravaging introduction to the band’s sophomore album Terror Manifest, which is now set for release on November 5th. And to help spread the word, we’re premiering a lyric video for the track right now.

In crafting the new album, Aeons Abyss have built upon the work they began in 2017 and have drawn into play an array of stylistic ingredients that range from melodic death metal to experimental thrash/grind. But they’ve also drawn upon their skills as storytellers, with each track representing a card from the deck of Tarot and (as they reveal) delving into “what these characters mean, not just to the individual, but to all of society as we currently know it…. Terror Manifest explores what the world has made of us, and what acts of terror must be done to end the mental imprisonment thrust upon us by the greed of nations”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABSTRACTER — “ECLIPSE BORN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 032021
 

 

More than a decade ago the founding two members of Abstracter came together in Oakland CA under the influence of such bands as Amebix, Godflesh, Blut Aus Nord, Corrupted, and Disembowelment, with the objective of creating “dark, bleak, and suffocating music as a vessel to channel their obsession with the apocalypse and other nihilistic end-time visions”.

So say the press materials for Abstracter‘s new album, and those materials further expose the animating environments and philosophies that spawned such hopeless and harrowing visions: “…the world’s unravelling, ruin, darkness, annihilation, nuclear devastation, war, plague, and mankind’s fundamental existence as a plague and as a deeply flawed species….”

In the years that have passed since the band’s inception they have been on a continuing quest for ever more astonishing, cataclysmic, and authentic ways of expressing the most abominable aspects of human existence, drawing upon elements from black, doom, death metal, crust and drone/noise, and making their music increasingly more difficult to classify. That quest now reaches its apotheosis (so far) in Abstracter‘s latest album Abominion, which will be released by Sentient Ruin Laboratories on October 1st. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NORSE — “PARASITE WARMONGERS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 032021
 

 

If you think of the eight tracks on the new album by Australia’s Norse as pieces in a subterranean nightmare museum shrouded in gleaming black cloth, Transcending Obscurity Records has been pulling the shrouds away, one by one, to disclose what lies beneath. Four of these terrifying obsidian sculptures have been revealed so far. Today we’ve been allowed to expose a fifth one.

Well, that metaphor only works to a limited extent, because the eight tracks on Ascetic aren’t fixed in place like sculptures. They move in strange and frightening ways, morphing like a viscous metallic liquid that’s freezing to the touch. The music writhes and contorts, twisting in unexpected but relentlessly frightening ways. Even when the band use ambient and symphonic textures to create mysterious and mesmerizing visions, as they do most prominently in “Fearless Fifth Seeker”, there’s a feeling of alien menace lurking within those sonic astral planes. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HEADS FOR THE DEAD — “MANIAC”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 022021
 

 

Metalhead lovers of ghastliness in all its forms, but especially classic horror flicks from decades gone by, will have reason to rejoice when a new EP by Heads For The Dead hits the streets on November 5th.

Through two previous albums this group of metal veterans have already proven their devotion to supernatural subjects, but this time they’ve taken that a step further — providing their own reinterpretation of theme songs from movies such as Maniac, Halloween and The Thing. And as icing on this gory cake they’ve also recorded cover songs of tracks by Misfits and the Ramones.

What we’ve got for you today is the band’s homage to “Maniac“, presented through a video that’s replete with over-the-top lyrical pathology and an abundance of blood-drenched film clips. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OCCULSED — “CONCUPISCENCE OF FRENZIED HUMORS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 022021
 

 

We’re still banging the drum and yelling at the top of our lungs about Occulsed, with this being our third (but not the last) premiere of music from their debut album Crepitation Of Phlegethon. We’ve previously remarked about the intriguing wordplay reflected in the album and song titles, which have repeatedly sent us scurrying to the dictionary, and it’s true again with today’s new song: “Concupiscence Of Frenzied Humors”

For those who might have missed our previous premieres, shame on you this latest track vividly displays the band’s talents for creating electrifying visions of horror and disease, of madness and mayhem, and of blood-freezing intrusions from spectral realms. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SEEDS OF PERDITION — “SUFFERING OF THE DEAD”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 012021
 

 

On September 10th Horror Pain Gore Death Productions will release Suffering of the Dead, the second full-length by the death/thrashing barbarians in Philadelphia’s Seeds of Perdition. As the label accurately forecasts, it delivers a barrage of raw intensity yet also creates the kind of atmosphere that simultaneously makes it “a terror stricken journey into the darkness of mankind”. We have the pleasure of letting you experience this pulse-pounding trip for yourselves today as we premiere a full stream of the album.

Straddling a line between rough and ravaging and sharp and cutting, the fleet-fingered riffs are lividly savage and slashing. They’re anchored by viscerally thrilling work by the band’s rhythm section, who propel the songs with skull-snapping snare-work, war-zone double-kicks, and gut-slugging bass lines. And at the vehement vanguard of the attack are rabid (yet clearly intelligible) vocals that roar, bark, screech, and howl at the moon, occasionally doubled in ghastly duets; in all their ferocious manifestations they’re electrifying. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries