AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANGUISH — “HEREIN I BURN”

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Jul 152021
 

 

On August 4, 2021, Sun & Moon Records will release a new album by the “Necro Doom” band Anguish from Uppsala, Sweden. Entitled Doomkvädet, the album adds to a discography that includes a few shorter releases and the previous full-lengths Through the Archdemon’s Head (2012), Mountain (2014), and Magna est vis Siugnah (2018).

To help introduce the new album, today we’re presenting a lyric video for a frightening, soul-suffocating track named “Herein I Burn“, one that brings into play ingredients of traditional occult doom, but merge them with elements of death metal and other sonic elements that help create a truly unearthly and terrifying atmosphere. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ATRA HAERESIS — “PRETIUM?”

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Jul 152021
 

 

The song we’re about to premiere through a lyric video is one of those which we sometimes accompany with a warning — that you’d better take some big gulps of air before diving in, because it’s so exhilarating on so many levels that you’ll need the extra oxygen. And on top of that we should add the warning to loosen up your neck muscles, because its powerfully hammering grooves will trigger the good old headbang reflex in extravagant fashion.

The song we’re talking about, “Pretium?“, is a powerhouse track from the debut album by Atra Haeresis, an international black/death band that features members from such other projects as Ethir Anduin, Obscuration, and Навьяра, along with mastermind Alexander Dorokhin and a trio of guest performers. The album, named Pretium, is set for a joint release on August 26th by Satanath Records, Kryrart Records, and Death Portal Studio, and a tape edition will also be available through Void Wanderer Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELL STRIKE — “HELLSTRIKE”

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Jul 142021
 

 

The allure of some metal releases begins and intensifies even before you hear a single note. Sometimes that allure is even more intense when you don’t have a previous musical repertoire from the band that would more concretely tell you what to expect, which is the case with Hell Strike‘s debut EP Hellstrike.

In the case of this writer, the allure and the intrigue were first kindled by the pedigree of Hell Strike‘s line-up, which features members of Ascended Dead, Ritual Necromancy, and Bloodsoaked. And then it intensified upon seeing the EP’s cover art by Misanthropic Art (which turns out to be an effective visual rendering of the diabolical atmosphere of the sounds). And then the allure became greater still upon seeing comparative references in the press materials to the likes of Sadistic Intent, Grotesque (Sweden), The Chasm, Necrophobic, Mortem (Peru), and Order From Chaos.

Sometimes after becoming intensely enticed in such ways, we’re left downcast and disappointed after listening to the music. But as you’ve no doubt already guessed from our hosting of the EP’s full streaming premiere a couple days before its release, all the excited expectations were not merely fulfilled, but exceeded. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DUNGEON SERPENT — “WORLD OF SORROWS”

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Jul 132021
 

 

Who doesn’t love a breathtaking surprise? The sight of meteor showers blazing at night, a sudden murmuration of starlings overhead, the penetration of sun rays through heavy clouds… such things create a sense of wonder. Other surprises are more frightening and destructive — earthquakes, flash floods, gunfire going off in crowded gatherings, bombs raining on villages.

Such thoughts have come to mind in listening to World of Sorrows, the debut album of the death metal band Dungeon Serpent from Vancouver, British Columbia. It comes out of left field, preceded only by a two-track 2020 demo (though the demo itself was a very promising surprise). And like those other contrasting surprises mentioned above, it both inspires a sense of wonder and also inflicts breathtaking levels of sonic obliteration. The music is morbid, mauling, and merciless, but also home to both emotionally evocative melodies and the kind of pyrotechnic guitar mastery that drops jaws.

And there’s an especially big surprise at the end.

Little wonder that we leaped at the chance to present a full stream of the album today in advance of its July 16 release by Nameless Grave Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SEVERED BOY — “TRAGIC ENCOUNTERS”

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Jul 122021
 

 

You might wonder how the Massachusetts duo Severed Boy chose their name after the quarantine gave birth to their collaboration. One of the two, Nicholas Wolf (the other is his Lunglust bandmate Reid Calkin), explains the choice:

“When I was writing the songs and starting to think about what the lyrical content would be, I wanted to focus on how people could be capable of acting out such horrible acts on each other – whether it’s not caring, or in this case, NOT KNOWING. There’s a sample from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in our drone track ‘Agony and Despair’. I started to fixate on the subject not having a conscience like the monster, or being able to just turn off the conscience. The name SEVERED BOY is the idea that someone could sever the actions of their mind from the actions of their body, and the consequences of doing so.”

Those consequences, as explored on the band’s debut EP Tragic Encounters, are among the absolute worst acts committed by the human mind and body. How the band address such abominations in their music is a question answered by our complete EP stream today, leading up to the record’s July 15 release by Caligari Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RISE TO THE SKY — “END MY NIGHT”

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Jul 092021
 

 

Rise to the Sky is the vehicle for the music of its sole creator, Chilean multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Sergio González Catalán. Though the project’s earliest releases emerged only in 2019, it has already assembled an extensive discography devoted primarily to atmospheric death/doom metal. The newest album, Per Aspera Ad Astra, is set for release on September 3rd by the Russian label GS Productions, and it’s the second full-length by Rise to the Sky that will see release this year.

But the tragic inspiration for the album is one that should be explained before we reveal the album’s second advance track today: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISKORD — “DIRIGISTE RADIO HIT”

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Jul 092021
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records has already revealed enough music from the mind-boggling new album by the Norwegian death metal band Diskord that perhaps most fans of adventurous metallic extremity are already well aware of what a wild and exhilarating trip it is. Yet perhaps we’ll still catch a few new ears today with our premiere of another astonishing track off the record — the name of which is Degenerations — in advance of its August 3rd release.

Diskord’s intricate and unpredictable music is capable of rapidly twisting and turning your mind so that it resembles a Rubik’s Cube prior to the beginnings of the puzzle’s solution. Everything within your head may feel lined up in the right order when you begin, but then Diskord spins it in reverse, creating a jumble of brilliant colors. In the case of the song we’re presenting today, “Dirigiste Radio Hit“, the music creates overarching moods of madness and ferocity, but how it does this is a source of considerable fascination and continuous thrills. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVOID OF THOUGHT — “SIDEREAL NECROSIS”

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Jul 082021
 

 

After releasing a pair of demos and a trio of splits, the time has at last arrived for the Italian death metal band Devoid of Thought to present a debut album — and it doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that it will give this band the kind of rapt attention that the music so richly deserves.

The fact that it’s being jointly released by such connoisseurs of metallic extremity as Everlasting Spew Records and Caligari Records is a dependable sign of the album’s quality, and the mind-blowing songs on Outer World Graves bear out their good judgment.

And speaking of seizing attention, the album’s cover art by View From the Coffin is guaranteed to do that — as will the track we’re premiering today in the lead-up to the release of Outer World Graves on August 27th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALD KRYPTA — “POSSESSED BY NOTHINGNESS”

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Jul 082021
 

 

Wald Krypta are a black metal duo hailing from the U.S. and Canada. To date, they’ve released two demos – Pandemic Winds (2016) and Lost Relic (2019), the former later released on cassette tape by the Eternal Death label – and two albums, 2018’s Nature Enigma and 2019’s Where None Remain, both also released on cassette by Eternal Death. Now they’ve readied a third album entitled Possessed by Nothingness, which will also be released by Eternal Death, on August 6th.

What we have for you today is the premiere stream of the new album’s title track, which seems to perfectly represent the core aspects of Wald Krypta‘s uncompromising musical devotions. Continue reading »

SUMMONER’S CIRCLE: AN ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT AND TRACK PREMIERE (“CHAOS VECTOR”)

 Metal News, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 072021
 

 

Today it’s our devilish pleasure to help spread the word that on August 27th the Tennessee sextet Summoner’s Circle will release their third album, Chaos Vector. And to draw further attention to that welcome news, we’re also premiering an extravagant music video for the album’s equally extravagant title track.

The song itself is sonic alchemy, not merely because it creates a frightening atmosphere of dark magic being practiced and dangerous forces being unchained, but also because it blends together different sensations and stylistic ingredients from the realms of black, death, and gothic metal to create an experience that’s greater than the mere sum of its parts. Continue reading »

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