AN NCS PREMIERE: LUNAR CHALICE — “IMMORTUAE”

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May 032022
 

The German black metal band Lunar Chalice, though composed of veterans, only came together in 2019, but they have wasted no time in making their mark. They promptly released the Walpurgis Dance demo in 2019, and quickly followed that with a pair of EPs — Night Poetry on 2019, and Medieval Cults of Heresy in 2020.

Now the band are finally delivering to us (through Iron Bonehead Productions) their first full-length, Transcendentia: The Shadow Pilgrimage. Even in a thoroughly saturated genre, it’s a frequently astonishing work — as if a gathering of alchemists had turned their magical talents from the transformation of metals to the sorcery of music.

The spells that Lunar Chalice create seem of ancient origin, as cold and mysterious as the moon whose name they invoke, but also frightening in numerous ways, in their jaw-dropping combination of ferocity, imperious domination, and unearthly eeriness, a union of feral hostility and nightmarish elegance. Such qualities stand out in the track we’re premiering today — “Immortuae“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VITAL SPIRIT — “STILL AS THE NIGHT, COLD AS THE WIND”

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May 022022
 

In the Faith That Looks Through Death, the 2020 debut EP of Vital Spirit (which we had the privilege of premiering), was a true gem. Black metal provided the backbone for the music, but it flourished through the fuel of other wide-ranging inspirations, both conceptual and musical.

The band is a Vancouver duo — guitarist/bassist/vocalist Kyle Tavares (Seer, Wormwitch) and drummer Israel Langlais (Wormwitch) — but the EP took shape in between Wormwitch’s 2018 and 2019 American tours, and thus it was animated by the lands to the south that these two saw and the histories of those places. “Harrowing ballads imbued with the enduring spirit of the Americas” is how they described that four-song EP, and through it they brought to life visions of the Old West and Southwest of the U.S.

After hearing that remarkable EP we hoped it wouldn’t be a one-off adventure but instead an excursion that would continue. “There is, after all,” we wrote, “a lot of source material in the history and landscapes of the Americas that’s yet to be mined!” We and a lot of other fans have gotten our wish, because on May 6th Vendetta Records and Hidden Tribe will release Vital Spirit‘s debut album, Still as the Night, Cold as the Wind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ERNIA — “HELIUM-3”

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Apr 292022
 

The Spanish band Ernia made a concept album about feeling bad. The full title is How to Deal with Life and Fail: A Guide to Self-Improvement That Doesn’t Work in the Slightest. Does that idea sound depressingly (but also hilariously) familiar?

With that as its concept, how does the album sound? Well, take in the cover art by by Xabier Sagasta, and consider that Ernia‘s lineup includes two members of Wormed, and you’ll have a couple of good clues.

“Grindcore” might be the easy genre choice, but it’s an inadequate descriptor. Ernia are certainly capable of laying a high-speed barrage of cathartic destruction on you, but they’re even more interested in giving you a head-spinning adventure in every track, with an approach to songwriting and execution that’s intricate, unpredictable, ecstatic, and every bit as wild and colorful as the artwork.

As proof, we give you a first listen to the song “Helium-3“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: HOLY DEATH — “MORAL TERROR VOL. 1”

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Apr 282022
 

It’s fair to say that we’ve been following the L.A.-based death-doom outfit Holy Death very closely ever since discovering their second EP in 2020 — following them like a panting dog scampering after a moving car, tongue wagging and slobber flying. In fact, the post you’re now reading marks the sixth time we’ve written about them in barely two years. Yes, we are big fans.

The occasion for today’s slobber is a new Holy Death EP, a two-song discharge entitled Moral Terror Vol. 1, so-named because it’s the first in a three-part series that the band plan on releasing this year. It’s set for digital release on April 29th, but we’ve got a premiere stream of its two diabolically punishing tracks today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BESTIALORD — “BLESS THEM WITH PAIN”

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Apr 282022
 

With two albums to their credit, released in 2018 and 2019, Bestialord may already be a name familiar to you, but for newcomers it’s a trio who came together in Wichita, Kansas in the fall of 2016. That trio — guitarist/vocalist Mark Anderson (ex-Manilla Road), drummer Chris Johnson (Sanctus Infernum), and bassist Rob Harris — pulled together strands of occult doom, primitive death metal, and other old-school influences to create some evil magic on those albums, but now they’ve got a third one on the way that might be even better.

The new album, Bless Them With Pain, is set for imminent release on April 29th by Satanath Records‘ label-partner GrimmDistribution, and today it’s our pleasure to share the title track with you. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THORIUM — “DANMARK”

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Apr 272022
 

The heavyweight Danish death metal band Thorium are just a few days days away from releasing their fifth album in a career that’s now more than two decades in the making. With Denmark, they again prove both their devotion to undying traditions of the old school(s) and their talent for making them come vibrantly and viciously alive in the here and now.

Students and lovers of death metal know that there’s not just one old school of the craft, and Thorium draw their influence from multiple institutions — from the chainsaw chugging and creepy eeriness of Swedish death metal to the faster and more vicious variants from the old Floridian scene, and more besides (including a bit of “blackening” on some tracks). They engage in mayhem, but make abundant use of punishing groove, and they have an ear for ear-worm melody that makes the songs catchy as well as gruesome and exhilarating.

And so it’s a genuine pleasure for us to host a premiere stream of Danmark in its entirety, in advance of the April 29 release by Emanzipation Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FERALIA — “UNDER STIGE / OVER DIANAM”

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Apr 262022
 

 

As the title of Feralia‘s new record suggests, it’s a two-part work, combining the album-length Under Stige with the EP-length Over Dianam. They are conceptually linked, focusing on “the rituality of Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Roman traditions”, but musically they are different.

The band and the label that will release it on April 28th (Time To Kill Records) characterize the two parts in gender terms: “As Under Stige is extreme, nocturnal, ritualistic and manly, Over Dianam develops in the opposite direction. Four folk-oriented tracks that carry more of a bright, ambient, feminine mood, overall giving life to a play of opposites that is the essence to the new album.”

However one might choose to classify and characterize these two companion works, the combination of them creates a fantastic listening experience from an extremely talented band, and one that we’re delighted to share with you in complete form today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEATHCRUSH — “UNDER SERPENTS REIGN”

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Apr 252022
 

The Sardinian band Deathcrush have been growing in hideous strength over the course of a career that’s now almost two decades long. For such a long life, their discography is relatively limited, with the most prominent releases being two studio albums and one live album (the sign of a preference for quality over quantity). Their third album, Under Serpents Reign, is now set for release on April 26th (tomorrow!) by Time To Kill Records.

If you knew nothing about the band’s music, their name alone would give you a clue. And most definitely, crushing death metal inspired by the likes of Morbid Angel, Immolation, and Deicide, has been a key ingredient in their blasphemous discharges of fury. But it’s not the only ingredient, as you would know if you heard the changes reflected in their second full-length, 2017’s Hell, as compared to their debut album Collective Brain Infektion (2013).

The new album seems like a continued evolution, one that integrates the more brutal ravages of the debut and the more blackened atmospherics of the second full-length, and then does even more to distinguish itself. You’ll have the chance to learn this for yourselves today as we present a full stream of Under Serpents Reign. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: SUNTOLD — “WORLD TORN ASUNDER”

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Apr 222022
 

Suntold named their debut album World Torn Asunder. The conceptual focus of the album is World War I, which did indeed tear the world asunder, killing and wounding 9.7 million military combatants and 10 million civilians. It wiped out almost an entire generation of young men and left an older generation humbled by grief and shame. And yet only two decades later the world convulsed in war again, propelled by the power-hunger and blood-lust of tyrannical leaders and fueled by the worst impulses of their citizens.

History continues to repeat itself. Once again, brutal conflict rages in Europe and atrocities are being inflicted on innocent civilians at the hands of a dictator and his conscripts. There is no clear end in sight, and significant risk that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will become even more decimating to the Ukrainian people and that the conflict will spread beyond its borders.

Unless they had a crystal ball, Suntold did not know the invasion of Ukraine would happen when they wrote and recorded World Torn Asunder. By a terrible coincidence, it is now depressingly relevant. World Torn Asunder reminds us of past horrors but also reminds us of the horrors that are still happening, and in the music it’s a stunningly powerful reminder, which we now share with you via our premiere of the complete album here on the day of its release. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VORAATH — “THE BARRENS”

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Apr 212022
 

 

Perhaps more than any other genre of music, metal continually intersects with science fiction and fantasy. We can leave to another day a discussion of why that is, and why so many metal fans are themselves also fans of sci-fi and fantasy in literature and cinema. The intersections have proven to be varied both in the style of the musical narratives and in their degrees of success. But when they work, they can be tremendously satisfying.

Which brings us to Voraath, an experimental death metal band whose line-up hails from the Carolina’s and includes members from Nile (Brad Parris), Xael (Joshua Ward), Rapheumets Well, Implosive Disgorgence, and Sweet Blood. They have conceived harrowing unearthly tales and narrated them through genre-bending music that is, in a word, spectacular. Moreover, they’ve wrapped the story lines and music in gripping cinematic videos, and we have one of those for you today which accompanies the Voraath song “The Barrens“. Continue reading »

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