AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SCORDATURA — “NOTHING BUT DUST”

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Mar 302021
 

 

In our man Andy Synn‘s review of the latest full-length discharge by Scotland’s Scordatura, he referred to them as “one of the heaviest, nastiest, bands currently operating out of the UK”. And he summed up that album (Mass Failure, released last September through Gore House Productions) as “a neck-wrecking, gut-churning, bowel-loosening bombardment of jagged riffs, technical twists, and gruesome, glass-gargling gutturals that floats like an atom bomb and stings like a beast.”

If by chance you missed that album, it’s definitely not too late to be consumed by it. And as a further inducement we’re now presenting an official video for “Nothing But Dust“, an album track from Mass Failure that (as Andy wrote) “could give early Cryptopsy a serious run for its money”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SCAFFOLD — “CODEX GIGAS”

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Mar 292021
 

 

As we all know, revivals by long-defunct metal bands are hit-or-miss affairs, even when the bands in question were vital in the spawning of much-beloved sub-genres within their countries (or globally) many decades ago. Talents fade, interests wane, sometimes the music seems like a pale re-tread, sometimes the effort to stand out again falls flat in a world that has moved on. But every now and then a revival proves to be a glorious occasion — and that has definitely proven true for the Serbian band Scaffold.

Born in Belgrade in 1992, the band put out their first demo that year and followed it in 1994 with a debut album named The Other Side of Reality. But by 1996 the band had dissolved, and remained dormant for a dozen years. After taking shape again in 2008, Scaffold began performing live once more, but new recorded music still didn’t surface until 2015, with the first of a few short releases.

However, on March 31st the second Scaffold album, Codex Gigas, will be released, 17 years after the first one — and it’s remarkably good. You’ll discover just how good it is today, because we’re presenting a full stream of all 8 tracks. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CORR MHÓNA — “AN TSLÁINE”

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Mar 292021
 

It has been a long wait for this Irish band’s second album — six-and-a-half years to be precise. It’s probably not the case that the two pairs of brothers (Quinn and Farrow) who form the line-up spent all that time working on their new full-length. Just figuring out how to live probably occupied a fair share of that time. Yet the new album, Abhainn, is one of those that’s unmistakably the result of tremendous care and craft, not the kind of thing that was ever hurried.

Corr Mhóna‘s continuing devotion to their homeland is also manifest in the new record. Abhainn means “river” in the Irish language, and it is indeed a concept album about water, and specifically the rivers of Ireland (each track is named for an Irish river). We’re told that “themes from the folklore and mythology attached to each river can be seen in the lyrics”, and that “the musical course of the album also follows that of a river — from the initial trickling spring, to the river growing in speed and weight as the body of water grows, to the final torrent that flows to the sea in peace”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVEYARD OF SOULS — “ERES LIBRE”

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Mar 282021
 

 

After nearly a decade of life the Spanish band Graveyard of Souls are approaching the release of their seventh album. That’s a heavy discography, one that includes nothing but full-length releases, and most of them coming in quick succession. But three years passed between the band’s previous album and this new one, Infinity Equal Zero. In creating it, the band sought to draw together aspects of their previous works, but also to give the new record its own identity, so that it is both familiar and new.

Infinity Equal Zero will be released on April 14th by Satanath Records and Negre PlanY. To help pave the way today, we’re premiering a remarkable song named “Eres Libre“. It is built upon the foundations of death/doom, wherein the influence of such old school sounds as Paradise Lost and Tiamat comes through, but the song has ethereal qualities that give it a mystical radiation, and it’s deeply moving and memorable as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DÏATRÏBE — “ODITE SERMONIS”

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Mar 262021
 

 

The French one-man band Dïatrïbe came into existence in 2019, “with the aim” (as its creator explains) “of creating radical and intense music, an extension of the French Orthodox scene.” Embracing the mysticism and spiritual subject matter of black metal, Dïatrïbe devoted itself to “the artistic exploration of something else, creeping and powerful like a fiery cloud, uncompromising with very clear guidelines, acceptance to let go to the unknown, the search for this unexplained vibration that grabs us between fear and fascination… an artistic vision of the unfathomable, indomitable abyss hidden behind all things”.

We use those words to begin introducing our premiere of Dïatrïbe’s debut EP Odite Sermonis because they succeed so well as a preview of the music to come — perhaps especially in their reference to the “unexplained vibration that grabs us between fear and fascination”, because that is indeed what these six tracks achieve in striking fashion. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE PLAGUE — “FESTERING IN SICKNESS”

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Mar 252021
 

 

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, The Plague erupted from cemetery earth in 2017 with a debut EP appropriately named Mass Genocide, and then honed their grisly blades with live performances in support of such bands as Angelcorpse, Master, Entombed AD, and Ensiferum (among many others). And now the time has almost come for them to reveal their debut album Within Death, which will be released on April 21st by Bitter Loss Records.

The music of this full-length debut does indeed live within death — death metal of the old school to be precise, of a particularly mauling and murderous, gruesome and ghastly variety. Powered by that beloved chainsawing guitar distortion, propelled by bone-smashing drumwork, and elevated into rarified air by truly astonishing vocal madness, The Plague‘s music is electrifying. We have little doubt that (as the advance press claims) it will strongly appeal to fans of classic Dismember and Entombed as well as more recent entrants such as LIK and Entrails.

The band have released a couple of singles from the album already, and today we’re presenting another one — “Festering In Sickness“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FUCKER — “BASTARD LIAR”

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Mar 252021
 

 

As historical artifacts go, the forthcoming compilation of music by the Russian band Fucker (entitled Dichlofos) is an un-earthing of sounds that’s unlikely to generate global headlines. It may be immediately meaningful only to a collective of nostalgic Russian fans, but though I knew nothing about Fucker before being introducing to this new comp, I’m still getting my own feelings of nostalgia from the music, and so agreed to make this premiere today.

Fucker’s music is sometimes pretty far off the usual beaten paths at this site. The vocals do get harsh, but mainly consist of singing in the tracks we’re presenting, and those tracks are far more rock ‘n’ roll and old school heavy metal than the kind of extreme stuff we usually spread around. But on the other hand, the songs do pack a visceral punch, and they’re definitely devilish. But before we get to the music, a history lesson is in order, one with its fair share of tragedy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NUCLEAR WINTER — “THE HARVEST MOON”

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Mar 242021
 

 

The Zimbabwean metal band Nuclear Winter (the solo work of Gary Stautmeister) is following up its last release, the 2020 EP Stormscapes, with a second full-length named Greystone. It’s projected for release via the South African label MMD Records on May 21 of this year. In the lead-up to the album release Nuclear Winter has begun releasing stand-alone singles from the record. The first of those was “Corridor of Shells“, and today we present a second one, “The Harvest Moon“.

Nuclear Winter‘s music has evolved, and as Stautmeister has commented, this new release is “more electronic” than the previous EP and displays improved production values, but still employs an amalgam of industrial and melodic death metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UTBURD — “STORIES OF WORLD WINDS”

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Mar 242021
 

 

Story of Frozen Souls is the name of the forthcoming third album by the Russian atmospheric black metal band Utburd. It is a concept album which takes as its historical subject matter the early exploration of Antarctica, encompassing the journeys of James Ross, Ernest Shackleton and Robert Scott, seasoned with Edgar Poe’s novel (his only complete novel) about the adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

Anyone who has done any reading about these explorations is aware that they are replete with tales of heroism, foolhardiness, terror, madness, and death, all of them shrouded in bitter cold and oppressive darkness. How has Utburd attempted to capture such sensations in sound? We have an example today in our premiere of the album’s eighth track, “Stories of World Winds“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HYMNR — “PART III”

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Mar 232021
 

 

Providing only a glimpse of its extravagant talents last year, the black metal band Hymnr (a trio of unknown locations) will soon reveal the full flowering of their unearthly wonders through a debut album named (fittingly) Far Beyond Insanity. With a release date of April 23rd through Saturnal Records, the album consists of four long tracks ranging from 8 to 13 minutes in length, and today it’s our great pleasure to premiere the longest of them.

Both the band and the album have a conceptual focus (the tracks on Far Beyond Insanity are identified only as Parts I through IV), though the concept is mysterious (as is the music). We are told only that “the concept of Hymnr is its own tale of the tragic path that has led the world, humanity, and religion down this downwards spiral that this cosmic plane has become.”

Every Part in this tale of how everything ended up here is so fascinating (and disturbing) that the experiences become transfixing — and that is certainly true of Part III, the piece that we’re presenting today. Continue reading »

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