AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FERAL — “SPIRITUAL VOID”

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Jan 192022
 

(photo by Arbre E. Saldana)

The French crust/hardcore/grind band Feral chose their name for a reason that becomes obvious when you listen to their second album Spiritual Void. They attack almost relentlessly, with raw, no-holds-barred intensity — intensity that comes through in both the emotional fuel of the music and in its mauling and pulverizing sonic power. It is musical catharsis of a very high order.

The album is set for release on January 21st through Source Atone Records and Basement Apes Industries. For very good reason they recommend it for fans of All Pigs Must Die, Cursed, Napalm Death, and Trap Them (and we might add Misery Index and Rotten Sound to that list). You’ll understand the basis for those recommendations when you hear our premiere stream of the entire album… a handful of paragraphs from now. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PYRRHIC SALVATION — “REVELATIONS (OF AGONIES TO COME)”

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Jan 182022
 

 

Back in 2016 then-NCS writer Austin Weber (who later moved over to curate the “Tech-Death Tuesday” column for Metal Injection) unearthed a debut demo by a group named Pyrrhic Salvation which made a big favorable impression. As Austin wrote at that time, “This is some dense, eclectic, and multi-layered tech-death the likes of which few bands can conjure…. While I’m hardly jaded, it does take a lot to impress me, and the two songs on display here really have my jaw permanently dropped to the floor.”

Since then, Pyrrhic Salvation have expanded from an instrumental duo (guitarist Michael Altobello and drummer/fretless-bassist Sagar Nadgir) to a three-person unit that includes a vocalist (Chrisom Infernium of Veilburner). Though separated by geography, the trio have worked closely together to create a debut full-length that’s set for release on February 18th. The name of the album is Manifestum I, and today we’re helping spread the word through our premiere of an album track called “Revelations (of Agonies to Come)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELLFROST AND FIRE — “ACROSS THE BRIDGE OF TYRANTS”

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Jan 172022
 

 

Today we have the sadistic pleasure of introducing the third single to be revealed so far from the debut album of Hellfrost and Fire, which is itself named Fire, Frost and Hell. It harnesses the talents of vocalist Dave Ingram (Benediction), guitarist/bassist Rick “Dennis” DeMusis, and drummer Travis Ruvo (Echelon, Cropsy Maniac) — with guest guitar solos performed by Scott Fairfax (Memoriam UK, As The World Dies).

If you’ve caught up with either of those previous singles you’ll already know that the band’s formulation of death metal gives primacy to skull-smashing, spine-fracturing grooves, and backs up those highly compulsive rhythmic tirades with paranormal melodic accents and of course Ingram‘s belly-deep and thoroughly ravenous growls. As we remarked after hearing those first two tracks, “no bones will be left unbroken” — and this newest song is no more merciful. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SMOTHER — “CHAPTER IV – TYING THY NOOSE OF RUSTED CHAIN”

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Jan 142022
 

The black metal collective known as Smother are writing a musical saga in chapters, eventually to be joined by a book that is connected to the lyrics and audio experiences of those sonic chapters. The members of the collective have shifted, but are still anchored by drummer SD (Black Vice, Ravnblod), whose percussion tracks and conceptions are the foundation for what the other collaborators contribute.

Four musical chapters have been recorded so far (out of a planned 10 releases), and in each one the sounds have changed. The latest installment, Chapter IV – Tying Thy Noose of Rusted Chain – is the one we’re presenting in full today. For this newest work SD was joined by MW (Crown of Asteria) as principal vocalist and keyboardist, and by guitarist JV (Grst, Uruk), both of whom also participated in Chapter III.

What you now have the opportunity to experience is a single 41-minute track that’s being released by Red River Family Records. At a very high level (and potentially a misleading one), it could be considered atmospheric black metal, but it’s an experience that makes significant use of harsh and mentally destabilizing electronics and of ingredients from catastrophic doom metal. It’s capable of creating trance states, but more often is a manifestation of terrors, most of which don’t seem bound to an earthly plane of existence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NORNA — “MOTHER MAJESTIC”

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Jan 142022
 

Norna is a new formation, but one with veteran talent composed of Swedish hardcore pioneer Tomas Liljedahl (Breach, The Old Wind) and musicians Christophe Macquat and Marc Theurillat from the Swiss sludge/post-metal band Ølten. They joined forces in Norna only a year ago, but through the three singles that have been revealed so far from their forthcoming debut album they’ve quickly established themselves as a stupendously heavy band — heavy in the sheer enormity of their sound and in the punishing gravity of the emotions they channel through their music.

That debut album, Star Is Way Way Is Eye, is set for release on February 18th through Oslo-based Vinter Records, and today we premiere the fourth and final single in advance of the release. Entitled “Mother Majestic“, it reinforces all the earth-moving, soul-shaking impressions created by the first three singles. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GOLGOTHAN — “BOTTOMLESS PIT”

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Jan 132022
 

 

Last October we had the deviant pleasure of helping to announce the release of a debut album named Leech by the gore-drenched, horror-obsessed, Louisiana-based death metal band Golgothan, and to premiere the album’s first single, “Parent Organism“. And now here we are again, three months closer to the record’s February 4 release by Lacerated Enemy Records, foisting upon the world the second single from Leech. This one comes with a video that will endanger squeamish stomachs.

At this juncture the source of the band’s name bears repeating for those who might not remember. As disclosed by Metal-Archives, “A Golgothan (also called a ‘shit demon’ or ‘excremental’) is a fictional creature composed of human excrement. The creature derives its name from the hill where Christ was crucified; the collective suffering of the souls sentenced to death by crucifixion on that hill gives birth to the demon’s existence. The Golgathan rises from the collected offal secreted by each prisoner’s loosened bowels upon the moment of death”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAVENOUS DEATH — “THE ASCENDING CHASM”

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Jan 132022
 

 

The Mexican death metal band Ravenous Death chose a name for themselves that’s a vivid representation of the music they make. That’s not news to anyone who encountered the electrifying horrors housed within the band’s 2019 debut album, Chapters of an Evil Transition. There they quickly established themselves as a group devoted to the gruesomeness and evil of death metal from an older age, but with the kind of creative flair that kept it from sounding like a clone of their influences (which include the band Vomitory, whose song “Ravenous Death” was the actual source of the group’s name). And yes indeed, the music was both crypt-born and ravenous.

It’s trite (and often un-true) to proclaim that a band’s sophomore album is a significant step forward, especially when it follows a debut album as formidable as Chapters of an Evil Transition, but in the case of Ravenous Death‘s forthcoming hour-long second full-length, Visions from the Netherworld, it happens to be true. The band’s music is still supremely sinister and convincingly otherworldly, and still reaches heights of terrorizing insanity, but they have stretched their creative wings in ways that make the new album even more startling and memorable than its predecessor.

As proof of this claim, we present the premiere stream of “Ascending Chasm“, which is the new record’s longest track and the one that brings it to a close. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ECRYPTUS — “KYR’AM BESKAR”

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Jan 122022
 

The breathtakingly savage death metal band Ecryptus introduce themselves as “an elite group of assassins from Korriban, now based in Atlanta, Georgia. We dispense galactic death metal inspired by the Dark Side and brutal tales of the Canon Arcane.”

For those who may not be as steeped in the lore of Star Wars as the marauders in Ecryptus, one internet source discloses that Korriban “was the original homeworld of the Sith species and a sacred planet for the Sith Order, housing the tombs for many ancient and powerful Dark Lords of the Sith, and containing immense dark side power.”

And for those who may not speak Mandalorian, the title of Ecryptus‘ new EP — Kyr’am Beskar — means (what else?) “Death Metal” in the tongue of far-flung Mandalore. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DESCENT — “ORDER OF CHAOS”

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Jan 112022
 

 

The Boss HM-2 distortion pedal, and other devices that emulate its effects, are fantastic inventions. Similes for the sound abound, including the ubiquitous references to chainsaws cutting through dense wood. It also brings to mind someone gunning a big V-8 engine (do such things exist any more?) in a vehicle with a severely corroded, smoke-belching muffler, or maybe a junkyard car compactor working at full metal-mangling intensity. The deployment of the tone just makes everything sound more massively crushing.

That brand of distortion has become inseparably linked to old school Swedish death metal in all its gruesome, dragging, and scampering glory. But its uses extend beyond music devoted to death and supernatural horror, and in the case of Australia’s Descent (which features members of Snorlax, Resin Tomb, Feculent, Siberian Hell Sounds, and more) it has become a weapon in the discharge of violent, politically charged fury. In their case it’s also not the only weapon in their arsenal, nor is death metal the only genre ingredient in their music, because black metal and grindcore play prominent roles as well.

Maybe especially for those of who may think chainsaw discordance has worn out its welcome after so many years, Descent‘s new album Order of Chaos is worth your attention. And it definitely demands attention for any fan of metallic extremity who’s looking for a cathartic release through music of pulverizing, neck-ruining power and shuddering ferocity (coupled with effective use of gloom-drenched melody).

The album is set for imminent release on January 14th by Brilliant Emperor Records in cooperation with Redefining Darkness (CD) and Caligari Records (tape), and it’s our privilege to present its full streaming premiere today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECTOPLASMA — “APALLING ABOMINATION”

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Jan 102022
 

 

Anyone already familiar with the Greek death metal band Ectoplasma knows they are capable of inflicting a severe beating while simultaneously leading listeners through realms of grotesque, ghastly, and utterly unearthly terror. But what makes Ectoplasma stand out even more from the pack of current bands who revel in ghoulish vintage death metal is the extent to which they integrate attention-grabbing twists and turns as they drag and rush listeners through their sonic horror-scapes.

That talent has been the cause of us writing about them frequently in the past, including hosting a pair of premieres from their earlier releases, and it’s the cause of us doing that again today. This time we bring you the aptly-named “Appalling Abominations” from their forthcoming fourth album, Inferna Kabbalah, which will be released on January 24th by Memento Mori (CD) and Rotted Life (vinyl and cassette). Continue reading »

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