AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FALL OF STASIS — “BAAL ARISE”

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Feb 012022
 

The Montreal band Fall Of Stasis originally formed in 2014 with the intention of creating original music that couldn’t be defined by a specific genre, and in that they surely succeeded, as abundantly demonstrated by their forthcoming debut album The Chronophagist which will be released on February 25th.

We’re told that all the band members bring different influences to the table, and that all of them had creative input into every song, resulting in considerable variation from track to track and a melding of styles that include death metal, black metal, prog, and folk metal.

Such an eclectic approach has its obvious benefits in terms of attracting and maintaining the interest of listeners, but it also means that a single song premiere isn’t likely to provide a completely representative snapshot of the 50-minute album as a whole. Nevertheless, a single song premiere is what we have for you today, and although it’s a compact offering, it still gives you vibrant hints of the band’s eclectic creativity. The name of the song is “Baal Arise” and it’s presented through a demonic lyric video. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISFUNERAL — “ETERNAL”

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Feb 012022
 

Those French metal dudes up there look like they’re having fun, don’t they? But how are they having fun with their music?

You would have some idea if you caught their self-titled 2017 debut EP, which was a wild, slaughtering romp of d-beat-infused old school death metal, packed with heavyweight chainsawing riffs, neck-smacking drumwork, insane vocals, and soloing that was both berserk and psychedelic, but with a songwriting dynamism that also dragged the music into ghastly graveyard gruesomeness.

Redefining Darkness Records did catch that EP, and became obsessed with it (having finally heard it, we can understand why), to the point that the label had to sign Disfuneral for the release of their debut album Blood Red Tentacle on April 15th of this year. The EP really was tremendously good, and the song we’re premiering from the album today is a bright sign that the new album will be too. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: IDOL OF FEAR — “CHEIROTONIA”

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Jan 312022
 

 

The Canadian band Idol of Fear took their name from a quote in Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 movie Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal): “We must make an idol of our fear and that idol we shall call God.” They recorded a three-song demo in 2013, and followed that with two full-lengths, All Sights Affixed, Ablaze (2014) and Grave Aperture (2018). On March 11th, they will add to those with a third album via their own Somnolence Productions label. Its name is Trespasser.

The band believe it is their most powerful and cohesive album to date, and they anticipate that listeners will hear a clear progression from their previous work — and might be taken aback. They expect that it will come out of nowhere for many.

In addition to helping spread the word about the impending advent of this new full-length, we’re also providing a tangible sign of what it holds in story for listeners, through our premiere of a lyric video for a song called “Cheirotonia“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ULTRA SILVAM — “FÖRINTELSENS ANDEVÄSEN DEL II”

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Jan 312022
 

 

Seemingly out of nowhere, Ultra Silvam‘s 2019 debut album (The Spearwound Salvation) exploded my head and those of many other listeners like a drone strike on an ammunition depot. I immediately became an enthusiastic fan and ultimately put one of the album tracks on our list of 2019’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs (here).

And so it’s been a thrill to discover that these bloody-minded Swedes are returning with a follow-up full-length, which will be released in February on a multitude of formats by Shadow Records (distributed and marketed by Regain Records). Its name is The Sanctity of Death, and it’s even more dynamic and stylistically multi-faceted than its predecessor, but no less explosive, electrifying, or virally contagious. As a nova-like sign of all that, we give you the premiere stream of a delirious song with a mouthful of a title: “Förintelsens andeväsen del II: Den deicidala transsubstantiationens mysterium“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CEREMONIAL CASTINGS — “DESECRATION OF GRACE”

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Jan 312022
 

 

2021 brought the 25th anniversary of Ceremonial Castings, the passing of a quarter-century career during which the band produced nine full-length albums and a slew of demos, EPs, and splits. The two brothers who joined forces in this endeavor — Jake and Nick Superchi — decided to commemorate the anniversary in extravagant fashion, by re-recording 18 of their classic songs, as well as two completely new and previously unreleased instrumentals by Nick Superchi, and to release the material in the form of a double album.

The name of that album (and suitably so) is Our Journey Through Forever. It will see the bold light of day on February 25th via the Eisenwald label, and to help spread the word we are today presenting a stream of one of the re-recorded tracks, “Desecration of Grace” (which originally appeared on 2005’s Immortal Black Art). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KRVVLA — “X”

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Jan 282022
 

 

As we approach the end of 2022’s first month we bring you a full stream of one of the most relentlessly intense and unnerving albums that the new year has presented so far, The album is simply entitled X, and it’s the sophomore full-length by the Belarusian post-black metal band KRVVLA, which will be released on February 4th by Brucia Records.

Previously, the band had self-released one album and four EPs, but with X they have twisted their sound into even more harrowing directions, and have also added vocals for the first time, which only adds to the music’s terrorizing impact. As compared to what has come before, X is a more atmospheric work, but the atmosphere is one of utter calamity. The experience is like being engulfed almost non-stop in an overpowering maelstrom of dissonance and devastation — of rage, despair, oppression, and downfall. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VICIOUS KNIGHTS — “ALTERATION THROUGH POSSESSION”

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Jan 272022
 

 

Vicious Knights‘ debut album — Alteration Through Possession — is exceedingly well-named. The band sound possessed, and their music will indeed create both chilling and exhilarating alterations in your mind.

They produce these effects by invoking the old spirits of early Kreator, Destruction, Possessed, and Sepultura, and creating both lyrical and musical themes that conjure ancient horrors. It takes little time at all to realize that this Greek trio are both formidable songwriters, with an almost preternatural talent for crafting hooks while establishing atmosphere, and top-shelf instrumentalists.

And thus it’s with great pleasure that today we present a full stream of the album in advance of its imminent January 28 release by Dying Victims Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEEPER GRAVES — “THE COLOSSAL SLEEP”

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Jan 252022
 

 

We’re about to venture off our usual beaten tracks, lured away from the usual ferocity by music that beckons like ghost lights on the other side of our midnight walls of thorns and vipers. It conjures spells and splendid visions, and it often irresistibly quickens the pulse, but the lights are ephemeral and hopes are dashed where these alluring wraiths reside.

The allure of the new album by Deeper Graves that we’re about to premiere in full is powerful. The Colossal Sleep combines visceral rhythms and mesmerizing soundscapes that shine like moon-lit mists and reach heights of even greater splendor, but it harbors harsher aspects as well, and it doesn’t go too far to say that there is a deep and haunting darkness at its core. It often makes you want to bounce, but the gloom of sorrow persists. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INSINERATEHYMN — “INTRANSITIVE SANCTION”

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Jan 242022
 

All is fire in the premiere we’re now presenting, from the very name of the band — Insineratehymn — to the conflagration consuming the demonic figures in the album’s fantastic cover art, and the blood-boiling heat of the song we’re premiering.

That song, “Intransitive Sanction“, comes from this Los Angeles band’s second full-length, Disembodied, which has been readied for a February 25 release by Blood Harvest Records, in conspiracy with Rotted Life. As the accompanying PR materials correctly observe, the new album presents “a masterclass in ’90s death metal, from the spiraling vortexes of early Tampa to the sewage to come from New York, on to eerie emanations from Europe and the dissonance at the dawn of the new millennium”.

And thus the new album truly does represent a step up from Insineratehymn‘s promising debut in 2018, an elevation that becomes quickly apparent when you hear the lethally contagious “Intransitive Sanction“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VULCANO — “VULCANO WILL LIVE FOREVER”

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Jan 202022
 

 

The Brazilian extreme metal scene has spawned a seemingly endless stream of savage musical thrills for decades. Many metalheads may have discovered some of South America’s deadliest exports through the early works of the now-legendary Sepultura, but if you dig deeper you’ll discover (if you don’t already know) the band that might have been ground-zero of the Brazilian death metal movement. The name of that band, which has influenced generations of extreme metal artists not only in South America but in Europe, is Vulcano.

Those pioneering barbarians, whose influence extends to black and speed metal as well as death metal, can trace their origins back to the early ’80s. Since then, albeit with a significant recording hiatus that began in roughly 1990 and inevitable line-up changes, they’ve released a dozen studio albums, along with live albums and shorter releases. And now they’re rapidly approaching the release of their newest studio full-length (their 19th release overall), Stone Orange, which will be forthcoming on February 4th via Emanzipation Productions.

Today we have the privilege of presenting the premiere of a lyric video for the new album’s closing track, “Vulcano Will Live Forever” — and when you hear it, you can truly believe the song’s title. Vulcano‘s career spans 40 years now (with no sign of stopping), and there’s clearly still fire in the belly, napalm in the veins, and blood on the teeth. Continue reading »

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