AN NCS PREMIERE: WRETCHED TONGUES — “MORTALITY”

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Feb 172022
 

 

Gaze upon Caelan Stokkermans‘ cover art for the debut album by Wretched Tongues and contemplate the agony of those naked figures in the clutches of their fiendish tormentors. It captures some of the visions spawned by the music, but not all. To do that, the imagery would need to include the discharge of massed machine-guns, the detonation of bunker-busting bombs, the madness of frantic, blood-lusting violence, and the wailing of lost souls.

You’ll understand this when you listen to “Mortality“, the latest single by these U.S. deathcore heavyweights from their album Ulter Praefinitum, and that’s an opportunity we bring you today through our premiere of the song in advance of the March 18 album release by Vicious Instinct Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CHALK HANDS — “LES JOURS PASSENT ET NE ME RESSEMBLENT PAS”

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Feb 162022
 

 

To help introduce their new album Don’t Think About Death the UK band Chalk Hands have put a big spotlight on the album’s first single, a song named “Les Jours Passent Et Ne Me Ressemblent Pas”. Five days ago they revealed the song through a fascinating animated video made by one of the band’s members (Tommy). And today we’re premiering another video for the same song, but this time it’s a film of a live performance.

The song is in French because that’s the native tongue of lyricist, vocalist, and guitarist Antoine. He tells us that he chose to write this one in French because it allowed him to express himself “in a more honest and unaltered fashion”, which was important because the inspiration was such a personal one for him.

The inspiration is signified by the song’s title. He explains: “The title comes from a French idiom which means something like ‘the days go by and aren’t alike’ (somewhat equivalent to the saying ‘tomorrow is another day’) but I’ve twisted a word to say ‘days go by and I don’t recognise myself’”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RUTTENSKALLE — “DEAD MAN”

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Feb 162022
 

Sometimes it’s abundantly obvious when a musician has made music primarily for himself, to indulge a personal passion for a particular kind of already well-established music and to test how well he can embrace and extend such venerable and venerated traditions. In such circumstances innovation isn’t the objective. Faithful worship comes first. But when it works, a personal endeavor like that can also reward listeners.

In a nutshell, that’s what Portuguese musician Paulo Soares did on Skin ’em Alive, the debut album of his solo project Ruttenskalle, which was released last October by Gruesome Records. The object of his affection and energies was old-school Swedish death metal in the vein of Dismember, Entombed, Carnage, Grave, and Unleashed.

The depths of his devotion are revealed in the album’s ghastly cover art, in the Swedish name of the band (which means “rotten skull”), in the abundant lyrical references to guts, gore, and macabre deaths, and of course in the sound of the music itself. And yes indeed, for ardent fans of this venerable genre, it brings rewards — one of which is the song “Dead Man” that’s featured in the music video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ET MORIEMUR — “OSHIMA”

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Feb 152022
 

 

The Czech band Et Moriemur have branded their music “existential doom”. Their label Transcending Obscurity Records uses the phrase “atmospheric doom/black metal”, while Metal-Archives has selected “atmospheric death/doom”. The one thing you can’t call it is “conventional doom”.

Certainly, the subject matter of their records has become increasingly unconventional. Epigrammata, their last album and their best to date, represented an attempt to cope with the dying or death of those they loved, but used lyrics in ancient Greek and also drew upon the Latin mass for the dead, with the album structured to follow the progression of a traditional Requiem.

Now Et Moriemur have ventured again into unusual territory. As its name suggests, their new album Tamashii No Yama (set for release on April 8th) draws inspiration from Japanese history, myth, and culture, and the instrumentation itself includes the shakuhachi as well as cello, harp, violin, and viola. It will also give Epigrammata a serious challenge as the best album these adventurous Czechs have produced to date. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GLEMSEL — “SAVN”

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Feb 152022
 

 

In 2020 the Danish black metal band Glemsel released their first two recordings, a 28-minute EP named Unavngivet (which means “untitled”) and a demo that had no title either, both of which we reviewed. Together they gave listeners a 10-song demonstration of the band’s capabilities — which were formidable.

Through those releases Glemsel demonstrated the ability to quickly carry listeners away. Collectively, the songs were persistently dark in their moods but included beguiling twists and turns. Among other things, they married discordant yet seductive melodies with hurtling drums and vicious vocals, and brought into play ominous, otherworldly, chiming guitars and dirge-like marches. They raced and ravaged in displays of ferocious ecstasy and painted panoramic portraits of heart-rending melancholy. All the while, the band embroidered their music with accents that made the experience even more riveting.

Those first steps left no doubt that Glemsel were very good, and left us eager for a full album, which is finally about to arrive. It does have a name (Forfader) and it’s now set for release on March 18th by Vendetta Records. Today we’re very happy to present its first (and only) single, a song named “Savn“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THOUGHT TRIALS — “FULL OF SOUND AND FURY, SIGNIFYING NOTHING”

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Feb 142022
 

 

What is it that is “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”? In the words of Macbeth after learning of his wife’s death, it is life itself — “a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more… a tale told by an idiot….”

There may be no speech in all of Shakespeare that is more laden with pessimism and despair than that one in Act 5, scene 5 of the great tragedy. That this phrase was chosen by Thought Trials as the title of this Buffalo band’s new album signifies something. As described by Thought Trials‘ sole creator Josh Martin, the album “is a study of the fragile human psyche and how our journeys are shaped by trauma and misadventure. Each song explorers a different facet of mental health, sometimes from a place of optimism – and sometimes not”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ΑΧΕΡΟΝΤΑΣ — “BELIAL – THE ENN OF BELIYA’AL”

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Feb 112022
 

 

The Greek black metal coven Acherontas has long been known for the vital connection between their occult spirituality and their music: Each fuels and guides the other. There is no reason to think that has changed (to the contrary, it hasn’t), but with their new album The Seven Tongues of ΔΑΗΜΩΝ the band have announced their entry into a new phase of existence, a final reincarnation and a new era of continuity that is in part signified by a new expression of their name: ΑΧΕΡΟΝΤΑΣ.

As captured in the album’s name, it consists of seven ritualistic hymns, expressed as offerings upon the altars of Seven Gods — a “Mission of Seven Hells and Seven Destinations” — still rooted in ancient esoteric sources. In the progression of the album, the third offering invokes the name of Belial — “Belial-The Enn of Beliya’al” — and we present it to you today through a diabolical lyric video. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELGE — “DEPRESSIVE WATERS”

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Feb 112022
 

 

The video we’re about to present features a song by the Danish black metal band Helge — a song that’s ferocious, intensely unnerving, and rhythmically riveting. It also features imagery that’s unnerving in its own way, even though much of it makes use of natural settings.

The name of the song is “Depressive Waters“, but the music, although unmistakably dark, isn’t what most people would consider depressive black metal, nor is it a portrayal of quiet suffering, inconsolable sorrow, exhaustion of interest and energy — or surrender.

Helge‘s mastermind Helge Nørbygaard has explained the feelings that the song is intended to capture: “When your head is spinning and thoughts so dark become your reality. Trying to release the pain and the skin becomes red. So far away from the heart, nothing but hate and despair. Then it’s all about how much you listen to your own heart, either you rise up or become history”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BECULTED — “GEBORGENHEIT”

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Feb 102022
 

 

Beculted began to take shape in 2018 in Darmstadt, Germany, and completed its current line-up in 2019. Pandemic-trapped behind their own individual walls, the band made the recordings in the fall/winter of 2020 that have now been assembled in their debut album Archaic Manifestations. which will be released on April 29th by the Cologne-based label The Crawling Chaos.

What we have for you today is a single from the album named “Geborgenheit“, which reveals in stunning fashion the ways in which the anonymous Beculted quartet have drawn together stylistic ingredients of doom and black metal to present experiences of dismal oppression, violent upheaval, and chilling unearthliness, painting portraits (as the label accurately says) of emptiness and rapture. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DAEMONESQ — “ALLURE AND GRANDEUR”

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Feb 102022
 

The name of the song you’re about to hear is “Allure and Grandeur“. The woman who wrote the lyrics and gave them life through her scorching voice has explained its inspiration:

“‘Allure and grandeur’ is a prayer to the goddess of destruction and renewal by a person that struggles with stigmata causing her to withdraw into an inner exile. By means of this prayer she reminds herself of what she believes in, summons her inner strength, and reignites the rage providing the vitality to fight back”.

That description connects to the name of the debut EP by the German black metal band Daemonesq that includes it — The Beauty of Letting Go — and the music powerfully connects as well. Continue reading »

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