AN NCS PREMIERE: VOW — “DEATH WILL BE MY BRIDGE”

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Apr 202026
 

(written by Islander)

“Formed in late 2023 on Chicago’s northside, VOW draw from the melodic and emotional intensity of European death metal greats such as Eucharist, Gates of Ishtar, and Dawn, merging those influences with the urgency of hardcore and the metallic edge of the NWOAHM.”

That’s part of the introduction provided by press materials we’ve received for Vow’s debut EP, Death Will Be My Bridge, which they describe as their “first definitive vision of mournful, forlorn melodic death metal, crafted for dark nights and darkened skies”. Those materials also include statements by Vow guitarist Aaron O’Neill, including this:

While working out the new material I was very conscious of what our peers were doing and where we may or may not fit in. Ultimately, I grew tired of worrying what others would think and just wanted to create something memorable that would hopefully stand on its own regardless of what was happening around us.

I do not disguise my influences; without name-dropping there are flourishes of melodic death & black Metal, epic doom, heavy metal, USPM, and 2000s metalcore often all within the same song. My goal for this record was to weaponize our affinity for these styles in an original way that makes sense and is true to us.

As an even more immediate representation of Vow’s multi-faceted dynamics, what we have for you today is the premiere of the EP’s powerful title song in advance of the record’s May 15 release by Iron Fortress Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VAEOVON — “SPIRITUAL NULLIFICATION”

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Apr 172026
 

(written by Islander)

The origins of the phrase “elevator pitch” are murky, but the meaning isn’t. It refers to someone describing an idea to someone else who doesn’t have long to listen, or doesn’t want to give you much time. You’ve got the length of an elevator ride to get your point across and sell it.

In our field, record labels, publicists, and artists make elevator pitches too, usually in writing. Some are better at it than others. Sometimes the elevator pitch for a band’s music tells you pretty much all you need to know in deciding whether to check out the goods, especially when a band’s music isn’t much more complicated than a couple of quick paragraphs can capture. But sometimes the elevator pitch really doesn’t tell you (and can’t tell you) everything that makes the music worth hearing.

Which brings us to the New Zealand band Vaeovon and their debut album Spiritual Nullification. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELSLAVE — “BURNING REBIRTH”

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Apr 162026
 

(written by Islander)

This isn’t the first time we’ve premiered music from the Italian death-dealers in Helslave. We did it twice in 2021 in the run-up to their second album, From the Sulphur Depths, which we predicted (pretty accurately) would “become a huge favorite for fans of massive, marauding, deliciously gruesome old school death metal”.

And now here we are, five years later — five years of unpredictable and tumultuous change in the world at large, including a global pandemic that maliciously chose to explode right about the time when Helslave’s last album dropped. It would be surprising if Helslave itself had not undergone some change of its own, and in fact it has — a very exciting change — because the band have themselves a new vocalist in the person of Enrico H. Di Lorenzo from Hideous Divinity and Eyeconoclast.

We are also very pleased to announce that Helslave have recorded a new EP that’s projected for digital release on May 8th, and we have for you today the premiere of its first single, “Burning Rebirth“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MYLINGAR — “ÚT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Apr 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Recently we have been reminded by photos from the vicinity of the Moon that in many respects the Earth is a verdant, beautiful, and serene place. Closer to ground level, however, it still often remains ugly, violent, saturated with suffering, and shrouded by death. Of that we don’t need reminding, because the evidence is all around us, every day.

The music of the anonymous four-person entity known as Mylingar has always drawn its fuel from the worst that humanity has to offer and the perspective that the world is a killing machine, or so it seems when you listen to their ruinous black/death assaults. And now, nearly seven years after their last album, we’re reminded of that by a new one named Út, which will be released in cooperation with Amor Fati Productions on April 17th.

But as we’ll explain, and as you can now discover for yourselves, there’s even more going on in the album than you might expect based on Mylingar’s previous works. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AGELESS GATEWAY — “CORRUPTOR OF STARS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 142026
 

(written by Islander)

Lovers of science fiction, and especially renderings of cosmic horror, will find a lot to love in the conception of Ageless Gateway’s debut album Corruptor of Stars. It narrates a tale of massive parasitic alien infection of our solar system, and its warping of existence on a breathtaking scale.

In portraying these terrors, this Polish project’s sole creator Apparition interweaves atmospheric black metal with death, doom, and ambient influences to create a chilling and thrilling five-song experience with a compact run-time of 32 minutes, and we’re providing listeners the chance to become immersed in it today in advance of the album’s April 17 release by Godz Ov War Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE SCALAR PROCESS — “FAR FROM THE FLESH”

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Apr 132026
 

(written by Islander)

“Seductive”, “surreal”, “spellbinding” and “sublime” aren’t words usually deployed in describing the music of a band whose principle genre partition is technical death metal, even for an alliteration-addicted writer such as me. But those aspects of the song we’re about to premiere are precisely what make it stand out so memorably.

Those are also among the aspects of The Scalar Process’s new album Agnomysticism that led their label Transcending Obscurity Records to describe it as reflecting “simply staggering” progress beyond the band’s debut full-length Coagulative Matter five years ago.

To be clear, progressive tendencies and a penchant for creating mysterious and meditative moods were already evident on the band’s debut, and to be further clear, the new album still often includes instrumental performances of fast-paced, eye-popping dexterity, but the new one is far away from a non-stop thundering waterfall of notes and beats, and you need look no further than “Far From the Flesh” to find convincing proof of that. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOROTH — “REMNANTS OF A FORMER FORM”

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Apr 132026
 

(written by Islander)

We’re at the start of a new week here at NCS and it’s usually a good idea to get a running start unless you’re running into a throng of heavy traffic, so let’s rush right into the Voroth song we’re about to premiere and fill in the details once we’re on the other side, assuming we get to the other side unscathed.

Getting to the other side of “Остатки прежней формы” (Remnants of a Former Form) unscathed isn’t a foregone conclusion, because it’s as vibrantly wild as the cover art on the album that includes it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SUICIDE FOREST — “CRUSHING WAVES OF GRIEF”

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Apr 102026
 

(written by Islander)

The Arizona atmospheric/depressive black metal band Suicide Forest began life in 2016 as the solo project of A. Kruger. Following a sequence of demos and a live recording, the band released its self-titled debut album in 2018 and a second album (Reluctantly) in 2021, as well as splits and an EP.

The third album, 2025’s IX of Swords, marked Suicide Forest’s studio debut as a more complete lineup. It included a revisiting of demo-era material as well as a new instrumental piece and a cover of Ceremonial Castings’ “Sweet Misery I Foresee”.

With their creatives fires still blazing, the band have now completed work on a fourth album. Titled World of Decay, it’s set for release on June 5th. The band tell us: “World of Decay is a bit of a new beginning for Suicide Forest as it is the first full-length recorded as a three-piece. Though still building on the sound and themes explored in the ‘solo era’ material.”

Today we’re bringing you the premiere of the album’s monumental opening song, a stunner called “Crushing Waves of Grief“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INSANIA.11 — “ABYSSUS”

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Apr 102026
 

(written by Islander)

As another largely abysmal week in global events draws to a close, we’re premiering an animated lyric video for “Abyssus“, a song by the Italian extremists Insania.11 that draws its inspiration from Nietzsche’s famous quotation about what happens if we stare for too long into an abyss.

More specifically, the song “stares at the concept of Cupio Dissolvi, the fierce desire of self-destruction”. The lyrics, mostly in Italian, “are archaic and primordial invocations directed towards an Immortal Mother whose embrace is hard-edged.” To quote further from publicist materials we’ve received:

She’s the primigenial entity who’s ready to tear apart “questa prigione di carne” (this prison of flesh) with her “falce affilata” (sharp sickle)…. According to Insania.11’s protestation, this is the process of self-destruction necessary to be thrown again into the endless spiral of reincarnation.

The song progresses heavily step by step like an unstable, tortuous, dissonant and lacerating organism to harvest and transfigure the lessons tought by “Bardo Thodol – The Tibetan Book of the Dead” and extract from it a corrosive essence of sounds and images. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): URLUK — “MEMORIES IN FADE”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 092026
 

(written by Islander)

Last month we published an interview by our Comrade Aleks with the two members (U. and M.) of the Italian band Urluk, focusing on their new album Memories In Fade. Aleks introduced it with an explanation that although the band had remained true to their haunted lyrical themes, the music has changed direction significantly as compared to their last album More. Urluk’s U. acknowledged the change, commenting in the interview that “[t]he atmosphere surrounding Urluk today is less about aggression and more about reflection, decay, and memory — things slowly dissolving rather than burning violently.”

In the interview, the band’s members provided further insights into their music’s evolution from the doomed black metal of their last album. As U. described, “Memories In Fade draws from a broad palette: Post Black, Gothic Rock, post-punk atmospheres, touches of Dream Pop, and even hints of 60s folk-blues. Keyboards play a larger role this time, sometimes creating that bittersweet, almost life-affirming melancholy reminiscent of Type O Negative.”

What we have for you today is a full stream of this very interesting new album in advance of its April 10 release by Pest Records. Before we get to our own thoughts about it, let’s share one more excerpt from the interview which compares the new album with the one before it:

Conceptually, the albums are connected, but musically they stand quite far apart. More was still deeply rooted in black metal — dense, abrasive, and very direct in its emotional expression. Memories in Fade feels like the aftermath. If More was about the weight of experience, this new record is about the residue it leaves behind: fading memories, nostalgia, and the strange calm that follows turmoil. The sound has become softer in some ways, yet more vulnerable. Continue reading »

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