AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABHORRENT EXPANSE — “GATEWAYS TO RESPLENDENCE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 042022
 

I confess that when I first read that all 10 tracks on the debut album of Abhorrent Expanse were improvised live, my reaction was one of “uh oh” anxiety mixed with intrigue. Improvisational music of any genre tends to be a mixed bag, but improvisational death metal? Maybe even riskier than usual.

On the other hand, the fact that this band’s members hail from such groups as Zebulon Pike, Celestiial, Obsequiae, and more, well that’s what kindled the intrigue, and even a rising feeling of optimism.

So what won out in the end? The pessimism born of being subjected to other unsuccessful experiments that proved to be un-entertaining exercises in musician self-indulgence? Or the intriguing hope that Gateways To Resplendence might live up to its name?

I suppose the answer is evident from the fact that you’re now reading this, and are about to have a chance to listen to all 10 tracks at this site before the album’s April 8 release through Amalgam Music and Lurker Bias. Why did the optimism prove to be justified? Read on…. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MROME — “BARBARIC VALUES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Apr 042022
 

 

Here at this site we haven’t paid nearly enough attention to the Polish band MROME. Even after marveling in print at their 2018 second album Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell, we said not a word about their next full-length, Leech Ghetto, which dropped in 2019, nor did we notice their debut album, 2016’s The Basement Sophisma.

Well, they have no use for record labels and they don’t work with a PR machine. They don’t tour and they’re uninterested in promo photos or social media. In their own words, they exist “to say FUCK YOU to messengers of dread and obedience”, and do this by making concept albums in which the music, the words, and the graphics are interrelated.

Metal-Archives labels them “Thrash Metal”, which is like calling a cut and polished emerald “a greenish mineral”. Yes, they’ve been known to thrash, but their musical evolution has turned them into something that’s significantly more multi-faceted. Even in the case of that 2018 album, we dropped references to Hail Spirit Noir, Mantar, and “infernal death rock” (not “deathrock”). Their newest album Barbaric Values, which drops today, is even tougher to pigeon-hole. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CULTIC — “WARLOCK”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 012022
 

Rebecca Magar is one of those people whose diversity of talent just make you shake your head, feeling humbled. I mean, look at that cover art up above that she painted for her band Cultic‘s new album, Of Fire and Sorcery. And then also look at her painted cover art for the band’s preceding debut album, High Command:

And then consider that she’s also Cultic‘s formidable drummer. And then further consider how marvelously interwoven her cover art is with the music she and her equally formidable husband Brian (guitar, vocals, keyboard, and arrangements) have made under the Cultic name — which we’ll give you an immediate chance to do through our premiere of the new album’s second single, “Warlock“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GVORN — “DEMONS IN ME LAUGH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 012022
 

 

The Russian band Gvorn have made their home in the towering black castle of death-doom. They have become very comfortable there, confidently settling into a place that harbors discomfort and downfall.

The first single from their debut album Keeper of Grief showed just how comfortable and self-assured they have become. “Sounds From the Crypt” rings and rumbles, like the sounds of eerie celestial bells chiming and swirling over a monstrously heavy machine crossing a landscape of skulls. Commanding roars utter dismal proclamations from a deep abyss as the rhythm section slowly stomps and crushes and the chords wail and moan.

Agony spreads from the music like viscous leaking blood, but the band also create visions of cold, imperious cruelty and of soaring but chilling splendor and lonely grief. In its closing minutes, accompanied by the sharp crack of the snare, it becomes vast and utterly spellbinding. Continue reading »

SEER: OUR PREMIERE OF “LUNAR GATEWAYS” AND OUR REVIEW OF THE “VOL. 7” EP

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 312022
 

We’ve been closely following the expansive musical odyssey of Vancouver-based Seer from their first release in 2015, writing about that first EP and everything that has followed since then. It’s been a fascinating trip, because the band’s sound has continually evolved and because even the tracks on a single release have never all sounded the same.

From the start Seer have followed a naming convention for their releases, beginning with Vol. 1 and continuing through Vol. 6, which was the title of their last full-length in 2019. Since then the band have released a pair of singles, and now they’re combining those singles along with a brand new song in a new EP entitled Vol. 7, which will be released on April 15th by Hidden Tribe. What we have for you today is the premiere of that brand new song, “Lunar Gateways“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HASEROT — “INCANTATIONS AT DUSK”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Mar 302022
 

The Houston death metal band Haserot named themselves after an ominous statue seated on a marble gravestone in Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetery; perched on the tomb of Francis Haserot and his family, it’s also referred to as “The Angel of Death Victorious”. Once you’ve seen that statue (and you can see it here), you won’t forget it. Once you hear Haserot‘s new EP Throne of Malice, it’s unlikely you’ll forget it either.

Haserot are a relatively new group, having come together in the last pre-pandemic year, but they have a veteran line-up that includes current or former members of Doomstress, Funeral Blues, Sanctus Bellum, Spectral Manifest, and Scrollkeeper. The experience shows in both the songwriting and the execution of this new EP.

The influence of ’90s death metal in the vein of Morbid Angel, Entombed, Bloodbath, and Carcass are evident, but the music hits like a combination of meteor strike and bulldozer rather than a rote repetition of what you’ve already heard before. It’s both a powerful reminder of what we loved about the past and a skull-cleaving, heart-palpitating illustration of what you miss if you confine yourself only to the old classics.

We have a riveting example of this point in the first single from the EP that we’re premiering today in advance of its May 27 release by Redefining Darkness Records. Its name is “Incantations At Dusk“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SUPPRESSION — “LIFELESSNESS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 302022
 

We’ve already been loudly banging the drum for Suppression‘s debut album The Sorrow of Soul Through Flesh. In a recent review for our site, Todd Manning dropped references to the likes of Monstrosity, Resurrection, Gorguts, Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, and most especially the legendary Death. summing up the album as “brutal yet technical, ripping yet atmospheric”. He further wrote:

They are students of their genre but easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best. The most complex moments never sound forced but serve the songs. It’s just a killer death metal album from start to finish.

I added my own two cents here about the first single from the album, “Monochromatic Chambers”: “Prepare for a full-throttle rampage, a turbocharged attack of maniacal drumwork, jittery, jagged, and jolting riffage, mercurial guitar leads, and utterly rabid vocals. When the band temper the onslaught, they deliver a fascinating prog-influenced instrumental jam.” From that track I got flashes of old Atheist and Gorguts as well as Dysrhythmia.

And so it’s a thrill for us to give one more push for a fantastic debut full-length by these Chileans, as we premiere the second single “Lifelessness” (a song with an incredibly deceptive name). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DAWOHL — “INSTITUTIONALIZED HATRED”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 292022
 

 

Seven long years after the French extreme metal band Dawohl erupted with their first EP, they are now returning with a debut album named Leviathan that will see release on April 22nd via Dolorem Records — and in a word, it’s stunning.

On this new album Dawohl draw upon well-springs of inspiration from both black and death metal, uniting them to create brutal and barbarous assaults that as ferocious as unchained demon wolves and as exhilarating as the thought of being chased by them. Not for naught does Dolorem Records recommend the album for fans of Zyklon, Hate Eternal, and Arkhon Infaustus.

We have a prime example of the heart-racing qualities mentioned above, and others, in the explosive album track “Institutionalized Hatred” that we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISSOLVE PATTERNS

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 292022
 

 

In their introduction to the self-titled debut album by the Belgian avant-garde black metal band Dissolve Patterns the Italian label Brucia Records recommends it for fans of Oranssi Pazuzu, Ved Buens Ende, and Fyrnask. For many of us, they really needed to say no more. Anyone who might make music that inspires such references would be worth checking out.

It turns out, thankfully, that those wonderful references are accurate, though other compass points also come to mind in following the album’s fascinating maneuvers (at the end of this article we’ll share an excerpt from another reviewer who drops names like Primeval Well, Feral Season, and The Silver).

The songwriting inventively mixes together ingredients of black metal, progressive music, and dark jazz, while also adding experimental accents. It does this in intricate and unpredictable ways, creating a musical amalgam that’s both elegant and assaulting, hypnotic and desperate, often steeped in melancholy and just as often calamitous. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRIDFAILURE featuring MAC GOLLEHON — “PIECES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 282022
 

Late last year we had the honor of premiering a video for a song off an EP named The End Is The Beginning by the renowned NYC brass musician Mac Gollehon. It was a diversion from our usual musical interests at this site, but so fascinating that we couldn’t resist. And truth be told, in its spirit and atmosphere it really wasn’t all that far away from some of those interests after all. Both seductive and seditious, the EP created a surreal experience drawn from a midnight other-world.

In its conception and its recording, that EP was the result of a collaboration between Gollehon and David Brenner, who has a variety of accomplishments to his name, including his work in the unpredictable and confrontational audio-visual project called Gridfailure.

What we knew then, but hadn’t yet fully explored, was that Gollehon and Brenner had already engaged in an even deeper and more disorienting collaboration, creating an album named Dismemberment Cabaret that Nefarious Industries released in May 2021. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries