AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRAVE HEX — “VERMIAN DEATH”

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Aug 192025
 

(written by Islander)

It’s rare to find debut albums that seemingly come out of nowhere which are as coherently conceived and masterfully rendered as the forthcoming first album of the Helsinki death metal band Grave Hex. Although the band only came together in 2024, the album makes it obvious that they quickly coalesced in what they wanted to do and knew almost instinctively how to do it.

What they chose to do is reflected in both the name they picked for themselves and the title of the album — Vermian Death — which is to say, they chose to make primal, worm-ridden death metal that’s equal parts stupendously crushing, hideously festering, and chillingly spectral.

They’re not reinventing any wheels, but they’re really, really good at the gargantuan and gruesome artform they’ve embraced — as you’ll have the chance to experience for yourselves through our full streaming premiere of Vermian Death today, in advance of its August 22nd release by Night Terrors Records and Cavernous Records (two labels whose names fit very well with this music). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): प्रलय (PRALAYA) — “BEYOND THE TATTERED CURTAIN OF UNSPEAKABLE MADNESS”

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Aug 192025
 

(written by Islander)

We are about to present a full stream of the debut album from प्रलय (Pralaya), a Polish two-person formation consisting of Demoniac (vocals, guitars, bass, effects) and Thisworld Outof (drums). Entitled Beyond the Tattered Curtain of Unspeakable Madness, it will be released on August 23rd by Ancient Dead Productions.

Ancient Dead calls the music a “Black and Death Metal monument of despair, bestiality and blasphemy in its purest form,” and a “conflagration straight from the depths of mighty Yama’s underworld” that “will eat you alive.” Of course, we have our own thoughts about what Pralaya have accomplished with their devastating music, but first we want to share the results of our own investigation of the band’s name. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEMIURGON — “APOPTOSI”

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Aug 182025
 

(written by Islander)

“Demiurgon whip up a storm almost literally with their kind of ferocious, unbridled death metal. Hurtling towards the listener at ridiculous speeds, it stirs up a variety of emotions usually of the violent kind. Mostly though, there is sheer trepidation listening to the forceful nature of their music, and strangely, at the same time an innate sense of awe witnessing the control they have over the entire catastrophic event.”

We don’t usually yield the floor to the oratory of record labels or PR agents when discussing a band’s new music, having a pronounced preference for our own rhetoric, but that paragraph quoted above was too on-point to ignore. It’s from the promotional materials disseminated by Transcending Obscurity Records in support of Demiurgon‘s new album Miasmatic Deathless Chamber, which T.O. will release on September 26th.

How on-point is their description? You probably already know if you’ve heard either of the two advance tracks released from the album so far, but you’ll certainly find out today through our premiere of the third one — “Apoptosi“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSSALIS — “SENESCENCE”

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Aug 152025
 

(written by Islander)

Before we all barge or stumble our way into the weekend we have one more song premiere to share with you, an eye-popping track named “Senescence” from a forthcoming five-song EP by the Atlanta-based death metal band Abyssalis.

Entitled Adaptation, the EP will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records in an album-length package that also includes the band’s 2023 debut EP The Mountain, making for an 11-song statement of Abyssalis‘ capabilities. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MASS PUNISHMENT — “ENEMY WITHIN”

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Aug 152025
 

(written by Islander)

Today we’re premiering both a hard-hitting new song from the New Jersey-based metal band Mass Punishment and a hair-raising video for it. The name is “Enemy Within“.

This new song follows on the heels of the band’s latest album, Proving Grounds Devastation, which was released last fall. Mass Punishment describe the theme of the song this way: “When you are infiltrated by those who seek to hold you back, cause you harm and celebrate your failures. Face your enemy within, and conquer them.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRUEL BOMB — “CRUEL BOMB”

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Aug 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Ferocious speed, riffs with mean hooks, beats with spine-shaking groove, howling mad vocals, hardcore belligerence, and enough flash and flair to keep listeners on their toes in between wanting to body-check someone in a mosh pit. In essence, that’s what the Pennsylvania thrash band Cruel Bomb bring to the table in their self-titled debut album which will see release tomorrow (August 15th).

To flesh this out, let’s take the album’s second track and lead single “Target Neutralized“, which arrived with a video that lets us see (through strange lenses) these marauders in action. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ANTHRODYNIA — “UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS EMANATING FROM WITHIN”

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Aug 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Anthrodynia is a new two-person band formed last year in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, uniting the talents and experience of Derek Orthner (Begrime Exemious, Azath) and Durell Smith (ex-Mahria, ex-Kuroi Jukai). Their music, as captured on their blood-congealing and blood-rushing debut album Unspeakable Horrors Emanating From Within, manifests a love for both death and doom metal and a shuddering aptitude for marrying the mauling, miserable, and supernatural qualities of those genres.

Undeniably well-named, the album will be released this Friday, August 16th, by Nameless Grave Records, but you’ll have a chance to listen to all of it through our full streaming premiere today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRIGSGRAV — “GHOSTS”

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Aug 122025
 

(written by Islander)

Let’s be honest, life is mostly a trudge from one mundane thing to another, flowered by moments of happiness, the petals soon enough fallen and stepped on by the need to keep moving — unless your shit is even worse than that and is more like one fall after another that makes you wonder how you keep getting upright, until you can’t.

Let’s be honest, this is also why so many of us search for experiences that banish the mundane, seeking our personal bouncers at life’s barroom door that won’t let the soul-draggers in. The musical banishers come in different shapes and sizes. Some just pump your heart and muscles full of electricity; some fire up your imagination; some give voice to your hurts and hopes.

Krigsgrav do all of that, and have done so for a long time. They do it again on their forthcoming eighth album, the perfectly named Stormcaller. They call it “the best album of our career thus far”, and while every long-running band says that about every new album, this claim is honesty in advertising. We have proof in the song we’re premiering today: “Ghosts“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INFERNAL THORNS — “BLACK FLESH”

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Aug 122025
 

(written by Islander)

When I listen to music I know I’m going to write about I don’t do it the way “normal” people do (I use the term loosely because I know our usual visitors would abhor being labeled that way, and with good reason). I tend to jot down words and phrases, trying to capture what I’m feeling so I can write about it.

That didn’t happen when I listened for the first time to the Infernal Thorns song “Black Flesh“. I didn’t freeze up, but something like the opposite of freezing, caught up in the sheer flood of adrenaline in the bloodstream, marveling at the hellishness of the heat and the bolting changes, muscles twitching from all the diabolical musical barbs, and not one word jotted down.

It was so much hellish fun, such a bacchanal of barbarism, that I didn’t keep track of how many times I listened before reminding myself I needed to organize some thoughts as a way of introducing our premiere.

But fuck, I guess I just introduced our premiere. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRAIN DEAD — “SPEED LASER PENETRATION”

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Aug 112025
 

(written by Islander)

Prepare to put your higher faculties on hold for a few minutes. That won’t require any conscious decision on your part after you press Play below, because the song we’re about to premiere will wake up your reptile brain and light a fire under it. It will then romp and run wild and body-check your thinking mind into the wall of your skull.

The Italian satanic speed metal band responsible for this song make no pretenses. Hell, they named themselves Brain Dead! As you’ll learn for yourselves when you listen to “Speed Laser Penetration,” the music is “stripped down” and feral, nothing fancy and nothing clean, as nasty as a wolverine pack with rabies. But it’s also damned compulsive – your reptile brain will thank you – and your thinking mind will probably appreciate the break too. Continue reading »

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