AN NCS PREMIERE: VAHRZAW — “VULTURES”

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Nov 222021
 

In a career that dates back to the mid-’90s, Australia’s Vahrzaw have released a couple handfuls of short works and three full-lengths, with a fourth album now headed our way, courtesy of Transcending Obscurity Records. At a high level, their music could be branded as an amalgam of black and death metal, but they’ve brought so many other ingredients into play that “blackened death metal” doesn’t do an adequate job of summing up their stylistic achievements.

The song we’re premiering today from the new album is vivid proof of that point. In “Vultures“, Vahrzaw discharge devil-thrash — a turbocharged, adrenaline-fueled romp, scorching in its intensity, head-spinning in its elaborate instrumental acrobatics, and vicious enough to conjure images of rabid slavering beasts on the hunt. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SGÀILE — “IDEALS & MORALITY”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 192021
 

 

In many ways, the album we’re about to present is strikingly different from our usual musical fare at this site. Most obviously, the songs include only singing. Blast-beats are a rarity, and distortion is either completely eschewed or applied to a mild degree. The music often has more in common with prog-rock and hard-rock than heavy metal, and pulls from wells of classic heavy metal when it does venture into metal realms rather than dabbling in the sub-genres of extremity that occupy most of our attention.

And so you might scratch your head about what the album is doing here. Maybe you will wonder less after you’ve heard it. What it lacks in throat-cutting viciousness or mind-scarring abrasiveness it makes up for in so many other ways — in ways that make it utterly captivating. It has visceral “physical” power as well as the power to both channel and alter emotional states in gripping fashion, and it reaches heights of splendor that are breathtaking.

The name of the album is Ideals & Morality, and it’s the debut full-length of Sgàile, the solo project of Scottish multi-instrumentalist and vocalist extraordinaire Tony Dunn, whose resume includes work with such other bands such as Falloch, Cnoc An Tursa, and Saor. It will be released by Avantgarde Music on December 10th. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ZMARŁYM — “DRUGA FALA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Nov 182021
 

 

I write a lot of premieres, indeed one or more every damned day. I have many reasons for doing that, but one of them is the opportunity it affords to discover something I might otherwise miss, something out of the ordinary and invigorating, and that’s exactly what happened when we were invited to host a full stream of Zmarłym‘s debut album Druga Fala in advance of its November 21 release by Godz Ov War Productions. It struck me like a bolt from the blue, immediately captivating and head-spinning from the first listen.

The album title is Polish for “Second Wave”, and it does indeed mark this trio’s second release, following a 2020 EP, Ziemie jałowe. The fact that it’s only the band’s second effort makes it all the more remarkable. It provides a rich cornucopia of surprises, a truly adventurous black metal album that pulled this the listener in and didn’t let go. It has quickly become a 2021 favorite of mine. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BONE TOWER — “UNDER A VEIL”

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Nov 172021
 

 

What we have for you today is a freakish, fast-cutting video for an equally maniacal blast-furnace discharge of sound, courtesy of Nova Scotia’s Bone Tower. The song in the video, “under a veil“, is one of the eight furious barrages encompassed by the band’s decimating debut EP We All Will Die One Day, which was released on November 5th by No Funeral Records and Fresh Outbreak Records.

Here’s what the band have said about “under a veil“: “This song is pissed. There is more than one meaning, but it’s really written about the perception that you are always in the wrong, that who you are is a made-up persona, you aren’t good enough, and you should be exiled from everything positive in your life. This feeling couldn’t be further from the truth, and it is simply anxiety creeping in to say hello; A flurry of notes and blast beats being thrown at you really like to drive that idea deep into your head, though. Cower away under a veil of delusion.” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ERNTE — “THE ENDING VOID”

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Nov 172021
 

 

The plague year 2020 was the year that gave birth to the Swiss black metal band Ernte, but the pair who gave it life were not newcomers. V. Noir, who became the main songwriter and guitar player (and was also responsible for recording and programming), had spent almost 20 years creating dark ambient music, photography, painting, and graphic art. The other member, Witch N. (vocals, bass, violin), had played bass and violin in the doom band shEver (2003 – 2012, Svart Records / TotalRust Music) before she started as front-woman in the Swiss black/doom band Ashtar (since 2013, Eisenwald, Throne Records).

Through Ernte they set about to invade the darker side of their listeners’ souls, drawing inspiration from the contemplation of ancient spirits as well as cold and barren landscapes, and the results have been captured in a debut album named Geist und Hexerei, which will be released by Vendetta Records on December 3rd.

What we have for you today is a video for an album track named “the ending void” that’s equal parts enthralling and intensely unsettling. As the band themselves tell us, “‘The ending void’ is maybe the darkest song on this album – it finally leads to the absolute nothingness, narrated by the last human being on earth”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIABLATION — “DES RUINES DE LA SOLITUDE ÉTERNELLE”

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Nov 162021
 

 

“Hell is in man, hell is man.” That could be considered a summing up of the debut album Allégeance by the French black metal band Diablation, and further, these commandments: “Reject your God, Erase your vows, Embrace the ineffable, Accept the Devil”.

Drawing upon the worship of the Devil as their essence, Diablation have created music that is an enthralling descent into darkness, a rendition of fealty and frenzy, of torment and pain, of unearthly splendor and diabolical peril.

As a riveting sign of their achievements, today we present the third track from Allégeance that has been disclosed so far in the path toward the album’s December 6 release by the distinctive French label Antiq. Its name is “Des Ruines de la Solitude Éternelle“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OLKOTH — “EIDOLON IN THE FLAMES”

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Nov 152021
 

 

Metal-Archives harbors a couple of U.S. bands named Olkoth. The one that’s releasing the song we’re about to premiere was formed in 2016 by Zach Jeter and Vance Jeffcoat (RIP 1981-2017) in Columbia, South Carolina, and now includes a four-person line-up that we’ll name later.

Olkoth have a three-song 2019 demo to their credit, and now this new single, which provides a preview of a new album that’s been in progress since 2020. The name of this new song is “Eidolon in the Flames“, and it’s a discharge of brutal, blackened technical death metal that will take your breath away. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VELDRAVETH — “ON THE PRECIPICE OF ENLIGHTMENT”

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Nov 122021
 

 

The Venezuelan black/death band Veldraveth have now reached their twentieth year of existence, and they commemorate the landmark with a new album, their fourth, which bears the name Martyrdom. It bears the hallmarks of experience and the spirit of ambition, generating visceral assaulting power but also elaborately creating a range of atmospheres that chill the skin and entrance the mind.

Martyrdom has been set for co-release by GrimmDistribution with More Hate Productions and Kuyen Producciones on November 29th. They recommend it for fans of Aosoth, Sinmara, Svartidauði, Mgła, Uada, Weapon, Antaeus, Cherontas, Abigor, Nightbringer, and The Ruins of Beverast.

Those are good references for what Veldraveth have achieved on Martyrdom, but an even better clue is the song we’re premiering today — “On The Precipice Of Enlightment“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK WHISPERS — “WEIGHING FADE AWAY”

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Nov 112021
 

 

Dusk is the third full-length of the Costa Rican depressive black metal band Black Whispers, which began as a solo project in 2013 and is now a full band that has made live performances.

The album represents an evolution in style. While it could still be considered a work of DSBM, it reflects avant-garde and experimental ingredients within a framework of raw black metal, and the results are captivating — as you will discover for yourselves through our premiere of a new album track named “Weighing Fade Away” in advance of the record’s November 28 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: POWER BEAST — “AMONG THE CARCASSES”

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Nov 102021
 

On November 26th the Leprotic Limb label will present a tape release of a dinosaur-themed split by two Pacific Northwest bands — Carnotaurus and Power Beast. The title of the split is Turonian Terror, named for the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch and for the monstrous creatures that roamed the earth in that period — such terrors as Raptors, Ankylosaurs, Pachycephalosaurs, and the sub-aquatic giant, Kronosaurus.

Carnotaurus, self-identified as a Mesozoic Death Metal band, has already premiered one of its own tracks from the split, and today we premiere one by Power Beast. Its name is “Among the Carcasses“. Continue reading »

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