AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MÜTHERLOAD — “Ü”

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Jul 062021
 

 

After releasing three albums and an EP from 2005 to 2011, the melodic death metal band Heaven Ablaze from London, Ontario, called it a day and went on indefinite hiatus eight years ago. But one of the relationships within that group later created the seeds of something new. Years later, a chance encounter between guitarist Patrick Davidson and drummer Matt Ashton led to jam sessions, and eventually to the fleshing out of a complete new band with the addition of bassist Chris McKichan, guitarist Derek Haley, and vocalist Derek Lee (ex-Ataxia). They chose the name Mütherload.

Melodic death metal is still in the mix in Mütherload’s music, but so are ingredients of groove, thrash, and hardcore, so much so that references to Lamb of God wouldn’t be out of line. And as reflected in the band’s debut EP, Ü, which we’re premiering in full today in advance of its July 9 release, they’re capable of creating moments of sublime beauty — as well as discharging punishing fury. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BAXAXAXA — “KINGDOM ABLAZE”

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Jul 062021
 

 

Although the German black metal band Baxaxaxa released their first demo in the long-lost days of 1992, a decade passed before something new emerged (a split with Ungod), and then an even longer silence descended before the release of the Old Evil EP in 2019. Thankfully, the band’s creative fires have clearly been reignited, because yet another EP followed in 2020 (Devoted to HIM), and now we’re approaching the August 6 release date of their debut album Catacomb Cult on The Sinister Flame label.

Vital clues to the music on the new album are revealed in all the titles that have come forth since Baxaxaxa’s revival a few years ago. It is indeed the sound of old evil and of devotion to infernal occult power, with the overarching atmosphere of a death cult performing their sinister ceremonies in the deepest, darkest, and most haunted of catacombs. Further clues my be found in comparative references to such bands as Mortuary Drape, Root, Hungary’s Tormentor, early Samael, and very early Mayhem.

But the best clues come from the musical previews that have already surfaced and the one we’re bringing you today — a song named “Kingdom Ablaze“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FLAME, DEAR FLAME — “THE WOLVES AND THE PRIORESS PART I”

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Jul 062021
 

On July 23rd the Eisenwald label will release Aegis, the debut album of the German band Flame, Dear Flame. Thematically, it is a two-part tale, with each part musically focusing on different aspects of the band’s impressive talents. Because epic doom is one of those ingredients, our friend Comrade Aleks, best known for his doom-metal interviews for us and other publications, shares these thoughts about the album, in the lead-in to our premiere of a song:

“Brunswick, the city where Tijl Uilenspiegel was born, has fed a band who combine the spirit of good old traditional doom and acoustic folk alongside a witch’s charms. Obviously, any doom band with a lady on vocals easily receives the tags “occult” or “mysterious”, and it seems that Flame, Dear Flame aren’t going to be an exception. Down-to-earth riffs, episodic bleak folk-oriented tunes, and the out-of-this-world soaring voice of Maren Lemke distinguish the band from many others.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK MASS — “A PATH BEYOND”

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Jul 052021
 

The first thing that’s going to hook people’s attention to the new album by Boston-based Black Mass is Mike Hoffman‘s fantastic artwork, which evokes fond memories of the legendary Frank Frazetta. But it’s the savage thrill of the music on Feast at the Forbidden Tree that will set the deepest hooks.

This new record adds to a discography that includes two previous full-lengths, 2015’s Ancient Scriptures and 2019’s Warlust, and it’s set for release on September 10th by Redefining Darkness Records. What we have for you today is the album’s first preview — the premiere of an electrifying track named “A Path Beyond“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HINSIDES — “UNDER BETLEHEMS BRINNANDE STJÄRNA”

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Jul 052021
 

 

Last year Shadow Records introduced denizens of the underground to the Swedish black metal band Hinsides (which is the solo project of Ultra Silvam’s M.A.), through a split release with Monstraat. Only two Hinsides songs were presented, but enough to make a fiendishly promising impression. From there Hinsides went on to complete work on a debut album, which the same Shadow Records is now set to release on July 9th.

The album’s name is Under Betlehems brinnande stjärna, and it is a confluence of surprises that create what might seem to be paradoxical results, harboring music that at first blush is so willfully abrasive it might repel rather than attract, but turns out to be exhilarating and unexpectedly enthralling — even magical. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VURVARAT — “THEURGIA MORTEM”

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Jul 052021
 

 

“All good things come to those who wait.” That hopeful proverbial saying is attributed to the English poet Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie (1843-1905), under her pseudonym of Violet Fane. Yet the same poem that’s the source of the saying also includes this stanza: “‘Ah, all things come to those who wait’ / (I say these words to make me glad) / But something answers soft and sad / ‘They come, but often come too late.'”

It has been a long wait for Theurgia Mortem, the debut album of the occult French black metal band Vurvarat. One advance song from the album first surfaced in January 2018, and we premiered a second one in April of that year. At last, it will be released soon by Atavism Records, and thankfully patience is rewarded. It is indeed very good, and comes not too late. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VASSAGO — “ELITE OF SATAN”

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Jul 012021
 

 

Twenty-two years after releasing their debut album, Knights From Hell, the infernal Swedish slaughterers in Vassago have emerged with a second full-length, aptly titled Storm of Satan. In the interval two of its members devoted their attentions to the black metal band Lord Belial, but thankfully have now revived Vassago, which represents a very different vehicle for their talents — and Andy LaRoque of King Diamond joined them on lead guitar for this new hell ride.

The album is indeed a powerfully hellish amalgam of black and death metal, utterly devoted in its lyrical themes to the evil power of Satan (whose name appears in every song title), and utterly demented in the blitzing and blistering ferocity of its attack. Today, leading up to the record’s August 1 release by NWN! Productions, we have the fiendish pleasure of premiering its second single, “Elite of Satan“, which is a true firestorm of ravaging intensity. Continue reading »

KRYPTAN: A REVIEW OF THEIR SELF-TITLED EP AND THE PREMIERE OF “A GIANT LEAP FOR WHOREDOM”

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Jul 012021
 

 

The dumpster fire of the past pandemic year was wretched in countless ways, but most of us have realized that it also gave birth to a multitude of changes that were not all bad. Among other fortunate developments, the shutdowns and solitary confinements gave many experienced musicians the space to turn their talents in different directions, no longer wholly consumed by the feverishness of routines that might have marked the pre-pandemic age.

The Swedish band Kryptan represents one such new beginning. It is the brainchild of songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist Mattias Norrman, who is best known for his work with October Tide and Katatonia. But while the music on Kryptan‘s debut album does include recognizable traces of his other more brooding and doom-directed work, it is a vehicle for channeling the passions inspired by Scandinavian black metal from the ’90s, perhaps especially the influence of such bands as Dissection, Naglfar, and Marduk.

Kryptan‘s debut EP is et for release on July 23rd by Debemur Morti Productions, and today we’re providing thoughts about all four of its tracks, and premiering one of them Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EXPUNGED — “STOLEN LIFE”

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Jun 302021
 

 

The roots of death metal grew from rotten soil, and from its earliest phases there has always been an attraction to supernatural horrors. That attraction is vibrantly evident in the debut album of the Canadian band Expunged. But the creation of ghastly visions isn’t the only thing Expunged are very adept at doing on this new record. They also sound like a massive tank attack that’s capable of bringing crushing heaviness along with cemetery nightmares.

This new album, entitled Into Never Shall, will be discharged on July 30th by Hells Headbangers, and it’s being strongly recommended for fans of Nirvana 2002, Carnage, and especially Bolt Thrower. As proof that those references are entirely appropriate, and as a demonstration of the amalgam of humongous and horrifying sounds referred to in the preceding paragraph, today we present the album’s closing track, “Stolen Life“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SACRILEGIOUS CROWN — “TENEBRA I – THE PROFOUND SECRET OF ETERNITY”

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Jun 302021
 

 

On August 6th Xenoglossy Productions will unite the works of two of its close associates from the realms of raw black metal and dark ambient music — the Italian band Sacrilegious Crown and the Estonian band Illuminated Manuscripts. Those two solo projects have combined forces to contribute two tracks each to a split entitled Meditations on the Revenant Enigma, and Xenoglossy is making it available in an extremely limited cassette tape edition, and digitally.

Today we’re presenting one of the two creations by Sacrilegious Crown, whose most recent EP Plenilunium Cult we premiered and reviewed in March of this year (here). Like that EP, it is devoted to the creation of atmosphere, and it ushers the listener into an inhuman realm. Continue reading »

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