AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GOATBLOOD — “BLOODDAWN / ANNIHILATION OF THIS WORLD”

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Dec 132021
 

 

I’ve spilled many words about Goatblood over the years in a seemingly endless quest to describe just how maliciously ruinous yet gripping their music is. I have another opportunity today, because we’re premiering a new two-part album named Blooddawn​/​Annihilation Of This World.

Hatred, disgust, and violence have always seemed to be the dominating inspirations for this malefic duo’s bestial black/death metal ministrations, the more willfully offensive the better. The music’s not ostentatious or pretentious — quite the opposite, which is part of its primeval appeal. All those ingredients are again present and accounted for in this new album, but the two halves of it nonetheless present slightly different takes on the band’s core malignancy of sound. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THEURGIA — “IRRADIANT”

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Dec 102021
 

The Venezuelan black metal band Theurgia, now based in Bogotá, Colombia, has already built an impressive and continually ambitious and improving discography that consists of a 2015 EP (Anti perpetuo), a 2017 debut album (Transformation), and a 2020 split with Hacavitz and Veldraveth (Tercer nadir venenoso). Theurgia is now adding to those impressive records with a second full-length entitled VIRTUE, which will be released in mid-January by the Mexican label Vomit Records.

Trying to succinctly sum up Theurgia’s evolving music isn’t an easy task, but at a high level we can say that it has succeeded in creating haunting and disturbing occult atmospheric sensations and coupled those with viscerally powerful and significantly heavy rhythms and frighteningly impassioned vocals. The music is relentlessly dramatic, formidably savage, and immersive in its effects.

Those qualities (and others) come through again in the song we’re premiering today from VIRTUE, via a lyric video. Its name is “Irradiant“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIHILITY — “WILL TO POWER”

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Dec 092021
 

 

“Go numb and let your mind go black, let your soul be engulfed and captured by the void, then let this be the vessel for all your pent-up aggression and rage, for this is Nihility and this is the void.” And with those words Vicious Instinct Records introduces Nihility‘s new album Beyond Human Concepts, which is set for release on January 8, 2022.

This Portuguese quartet, who draw their influences from both death and black metal, trace their roots back to 2012 and made their blasphemous full-length debut with 2019’s Thus Spoke The Antichrist. The new album again combines ingredients in a powerful way, inspiring thoughts of Cannibal Corpse’s insane brutality, Death’s technical dexterity, and the bitter-cold melodies of such bands as Necrophobic.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for “Will To Power“, the second single to be released from Beyond Human Concepts — and it’s one that will kick your adrenaline into overdrive. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KVAEN — “THE GREAT BELOW”

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Dec 092021
 

 

Almost two years ago Black Lion Records released the killer debut album (The Funeral Pyre) by the Swedish band Kvaen. In the run-up to that release we premiered its title track, published an interview of the band, and launched a review by our Andy Synn which lauded the record as “a tight, forty-five (and a half) minutes of rip-roaring, Thrash and Speed injected, Black Metal that takes no prisoners and shows no mercy”. He wrote these words too:

“There’s just so much love, so much passion, so much fire (and ice) driving this album that you can’t help but fall in love with it. It’s fearless, shameless, and absolutely relentless, in its pursuit of pitch-black perfection, throwing in more riffs, more hooks, and more epic, extravagant solos (trust me, when you reach that point in the title-track you’ll know what I’m talking about) with the sort of reckless abandon that suggests its creator is either a madman or a genius (and I know which one I’m betting on). Inarguably one of the best albums, front to back, to have been released so far this year”.

And so we’re understandably pretty damned excited to help spread the word that Kvaen‘s madman/genius creator Jakob Björnfot (along with an eye-opening lineup of guests) is returning with a sophomore full-length that the same Black Lion Records has set for release on March 25th of next year. The new one is named The Great Below, and once again we’re delighted to host the premiere of its title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAMMERDRONE — “A TRINITY OF RAGE”

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Dec 082021
 

 

This has been a day of many premieres at our site but we have one more that should not be missed — a complete stream of a new concept EP by Hammerdrone from Calgary, Canada. Its title is A Trinity of Rage, and it’s fast approaching a December 10 release.

This newest record adds to a Hammerdrone discography that includes a pair of albums and a pair of EPs. It has been four years in the making and is being presented along with an original short story, “Eversor” (available as a bonus download via Bandcamp). The story revolves around the fictional second book of Revelation, in which is foretold the threat of Heaven’s destruction at the hands of Eversor, The Destroyer. Lyrically, the EP’s three tracks pick up where the short story ends and carries the narrative forward to its conclusion. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCHIZOPHRENIA — “SEA OF SORROW”

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Dec 082021
 

The Belgian death/thrashers Schizophrenia made their first appearance in our pages when our stalwart supporter eiterorm concluded a “Shades of Speed” column with a stream of their 2020 debut EP Voices, a record he exalted as an exercise in “fast-paced bludgeoning” that would encourage you “to headbang your brain out of your skull”.

Now we’re thrilled to help spread the word about Schizophrenia’s debut album Recollections of the Insane, which is due out on February 18, 2022. It sees the band again firing on all turbocharged cylinders, but getting even bigger, bolder, and more stylistically expansive than before, invoking vivid memories of such bands as Morbid Angel, Demolition Hammer, Slayer, early Sepultura, Dissection, Death, At The Gates, Obituary, Bolt Thrower, and Pestilence.

Today we’ve got a prime example of the album’s blood-rushing explosiveness and adept dynamism through our premiere of “Sea of Sorrow“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARÚS – “CHÂSSIS DE CHAIR”

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Dec 082021
 

(Andy Synn introduces a new song from the upcoming EP by French “Atmospheric Death Metal” maestros Barús)

Necessity, or so they say, is the mother of invention.

As such, we have the exigencies and restrictions of the last few years to thank – or blame – for Fanges, the upcoming new EP by Barús, which is scheduled to come out on December 31st via Aesthetic Death and Breathe Plastic.

And to prepare you for this highly-anticipated (by those in the know, at least) new release we have a premiere of the EP’s second song, “Châssis de Chair“, to share with you all. Continue reading »

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

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Dec 072021
 

 

Into the winter of the soul.
Into the ice.
Foreverblack meadow, embrace new dawn, on raven’s wing,
Hear winter’s song.

Many of us assume that December is an ill-fated time of year for the release of new metal records, what with lots of fans (and writers) being preoccupied with year-end lists and year-end life diversions. But on the other hand, the onset of darkness and cold that December heralds makes it an ideal time of year for the advent of certain kinds of music, the kind that delves into the darkness that comes as the wheel of birth and death rotates into winter — and it seems that RÖKKR‘s self-titled debut album is one of those.

The words quoted above are from the lyrics of one of the album’s five tracks. Further connections to the season are found in such song titles as “Blackest Dawn”, “Into the Ice”, and of course the closing track “Winter”. But how does the music itself form the connection? Today you’ll find out — though it probably isn’t what you would expect. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RAT KING — “MORBOSO”

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Dec 062021
 

 

In April 2017 at Seattle’s tiny Funhouse venue I witnessed one of the earliest live performances by Rat King (along with my first exposure to live performances by Seattle’s Rhine and Arizona’s Lago). I wrote about the show here, At that point Rat King was a complete unknown to me (the two key members, bassist/vocalist Daniel Racines and guitarist Ricardo Racines, had moved to Seattle from Ecuador), but they made an immediate positive impression.

At that point Rat King had a debut album (Garbage Island), an EP, and a split in their discography, and they released a second album (Vicious Inhumanity) in 2020. That second album reflected a change in style, moving toward a fast-paced and vicious blend of death metal and grind, and on their new EP Santa Hipocresía (set for release on December 10th via Within The Mind Records) they mainly stay in the fast and furious lane.

But not everything on the new EP is high-speed savagery, as you’ll discover through our video premiere today of a bludgeoning and sinister track called “Morboso” (“morbid” in English). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MAC GOLLEHON — “BRONX MOTOR INN”

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Dec 062021
 

 

Every musician has two voices, the one that uses the larynx and the other that uses the manufactured instrument they’ve trained themselves to play. Even in the case of musicians who can sing (or growl or scream), the voice they create through a collaboration with their manufactured instrument is often so much more expressive than the other voice, and even more capable of bringing emotions to life in ways that every other human being can understand.

How that happens is a grand mystery. People spoke and sang to each other millennia before the first musical instrument was created. And when instruments came into existence, what were they used for? To speak and to sing in a different but still recognizable way, and to mimic the beat of hearts and the throb of pulses. Sure, they can be used to create sensations we think of as utterly inhuman, but even then they’re still really being used to create voices our own throats aren’t capable of creating but that convey moods we all understand — even if what we understand are nightmares.

Which brings us to the subject of this post, brass musician extraordinaire Mac Gollehon. Continue reading »

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