AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVEDANCER — “THE DEVIL’S GARDEN”

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Mar 042022
 

There are SO many things to like about the Gravedancer video we’re about to premiere that it’s hard to imagine anyone not enjoying it — other than perhaps the trvest of the trve black metal kultists out there. And they’ve already got so many other things to be upset about that this is probably just one more drop in a rapidly filling bucket.

The music alone is a big attraction. Entitled “The Devil’s Garden“, the song is the closing track on this Arkansas band’s latest EP, Every Kind of Dog, which was released last October. It traverses some interesting and unexpected musical territory, especially given the general folk/Americana style of the tracks that precede it in on the EP. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AD NOCTEM FUNERIIS — “ABYSS III”

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Mar 032022
 

The title of the forthcoming third album by the Italian black metal band Ad Noctem Funeriis leaves no doubt that the band have maintained their blasphemous stance: Abyss, Fire, Brimstones will soon join the group’s preceding full-lengths, Satan’s March Black Metal (2015) and …Of Evil and Torment (2009). As those dates demonstrate, the band do not rush their releases, but instead take their time to ensure that the Hell they unleash on Earth is accomplished through carefully crafted campaigns.

That care shows strongly in the song we’re premiering today from the newest album in advance of its April 12 release by Symbol Of Domination Productions and Pluton’s Rising Productions. And you need not be a follower of the Left Hand Path to be swept away by its dark grandeur and incendiary power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISCHORDIA — “BODIES OF ASH”

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Mar 022022
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records does an exceptionally good job spreading the word about its releases to metal fans and the music press. In the case of the new Dischordia album Triptych, for example, four songs have already premiered ai different locations, and the release date is still almost two months away.

Today we’re adding to the word-spreading by presenting a fifth track premiere. There’s still some chance that a few of you haven’t paid attention to the new album, and even for those of you who have, in our humble opinion “Bodies of Ash” is one of the album’s many highlights. So here we are…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRIMORIUM VERUM — “THROUGH THE LABYRINTH OF TIMES”

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Mar 012022
 

The Russian black metal band Grimorium Verum trace their origins to the mid-’90s, and since then have released four albums, with a fifth one, Reall, set for release on March 31st by Symbol of Domination. Not surprisingly, the band’s long period of existence has been marked by changes in their personnel, as well as alterations in their musical approach.

Where they are today is strongly represented in their new 11-track full-length, whose name holds to the band’s tradition of picking single-word titles that begin with the letter R. It holds to other traditions of the group’s music as well, maintaining aggressive power but now with an enhanced use of trans-dimensional keyboard parts that open the mind to visionary realms that don’t seem human or even earth-bound.

You’ll understand what we mean when you hear the song we’re premiering today, “Through the Labyrinth of Times“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ILLUMINATION — “WORSHIP DEATH MORE THAN LIFE”

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Mar 012022
 

In a time marked by such a relentless torrent of new metal, adding to a sea of music that now spans many decades, what keeps ardent fans attentive and excited? In some instances it’s the thrill of new releases by bands who helped shape the course of the flood long ago and still survive. But in other instances it’s the excitement that comes from discovering unusual music by new groups, music that builds on tradition but takes the sounds in startling directions.

We have a great example of that latter phenomenon in the EP we’re about to premiere by the Brazilian band Illumination. It’s a tremendously accomplished debut EP that builds upon the band’s 2021 demo Occult Science, and its manifold successes are undoubtedly due to the previous experience of its three members, who have spent time in such bands as Nervochaos, Grave Desecrator, ColdBlood, Poem’s Death, and Aghory, among others.

The EP’s closest genre label might be atmospheric black metal, but as you’ll discover the music is a stylistic hybrid. A combination of the luminous and the lethal, it fits the band’s name, and it fits the name of the EP as well: Worship Death More Than Life. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EPIDEMIK — “NUKE WAR”

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Feb 282022
 

The Costa Rican band Epidemik released their debut EP, Murder By Command, in 2013. The group disbanded a couple of years later, and then revived but experienced a succession of line-up changes. At last a new line-up solidified, and the group began working on their first full-length, which is now ready for an April 4 release through the cooperation of GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and Sanatorio Records (Costa Rica).

The band self-titytled this first album not only because it signals the resurrection of the group but also because it represents a stylistic shift. The band’s original old-school thrash influences haven’t vanished, but now they’re blended with death metal ferocity and more technical twists and turns. As a preview of what the new album delivers, today we’re premiering a track with a timely title: “Nuke War“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FATHER BEFOULED — “KATABATIC DELIVERANCE”

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Feb 282022
 

At one time or another every human being will become personally acquainted with horror. The horror of disease (mental and physical), the horror of violence, the horror of dying and death, the horror spawned by our own imaginations — one or more or all, they wait for us, as unavoidable as the sunset.

Tremendous amounts of human energy are devoted to keeping them at bay (fruitlessly), but once encountered they’re not easily forgotten. People try to whitewash them away with philosophies and prayer, but those are like thin coats of paint on a picket fence long gone to rot. Other people stare at them with clear eyes, refuse to look away, and even embrace them.

Which brings us to the unholy Georgia-based death metal band Father Befouled and the song we’re premiering from their new album Crowned in Veneficum. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TRACKS FROM A NEW SPLIT BY WORMED AND COPREMESIS

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Feb 252022
 

Today Buried Zine and Stay Free Recordings are releasing a limited-edition split by two bands who’ve made brutality a hallmark of their music, albeit in very different ways: the Spanish band Wormed and the deceased New York band Copremesis.

Buried Zine has explained that they selected these two bands and recordings for this collaboration “to celebrate the diversity and extremity of the brutal death metal scene, in both musical styles and conceptual approaches: Wormed‘s progressive brutality, extreme musical precision and galactic themes contrast to the base perversity of Copremesis’ raw and darkly humoured ultra brutal death metal”.

The split features two previously unreleased live recordings by both bands, pressed into 7-inch vinyl records of varying colors, and to help spread the word about the release we’re presenting premiere streams of one performance from the split by each band. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HUMATOR — “CURSE OF THE PHAROAH”

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Feb 252022
 

 

More than a dozen years have passed since the Italian/German death metal band Humator released their debut album Memories From the Abyss, but with a revamped line-up in place, and armed with a musical arsenal of obliterating and head-spinning proportions, they’re returning with a second album named Curse of the Pharoah that was inspired by Egyptian mythology and classic fantasy. It’s set for a February 28th release by the Italian label Time To Kill Records, but we have a full stream of it for you today.

This long-awaited return truly is an explosive one. With a modern production job that delivers both bunker-busting power and mind-piercing clarity where needed, the album spawns references to such old-school masters as Cannibal Corpse, Monstrosity, Suffocation, Sinister, and Morbid Angel, as well as the likes of Dying Fetus and The Black Dahlia Murder. The music is ruinously brutal and technically impressive, but displays a deft use of dynamism and melody that gives the tracks character and contagiousness. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LIGFAERD — “HIERUSALEM”

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Feb 242022
 

 

Active since 2005 (and even earlier under the name Hrapp), the Danish black metal band Ligfaerd are about to unleash fresh hell on earth through the release of their fourth album in March via the German label Vendetta Records. The name of the album is Salvator Mundi, and today we present its stunning cover art and first advance track, “Hierusalem“.

In this new song the riffing flies like a swarm of razors over a measured beat, and a trilling lead leaps forth like tendrils of aural flame. Heavy and heaving chords also reverberate in tones of oppressive gloom, dragging and clawing at the senses while paving the way for scorching vocal vitriol. When the lead guitar erupts again, there’s a feeling of frantic despair and pain in its sound. But in this dynamic song, there’s still more to come. Continue reading »

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