AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BEATEN TO DEATH — “HALLWAY TO HELL”

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Apr 062021
 

 

Last September the eccentric Norwegian grindcore band Beaten To Death made a vinyl release of a new album named Laat maar, ik verhuis naar het bos (which Google translate renders as “Never mind, I’m moving to the woods”). In keeping with other enticing peculiarities about the band, they then made a digital release of the album — but divided its four segments into four EPs that emerged every other week during November and December.

Each of those four segments was ostensibly devoted to a different forest — the Dutch forest Mastbos, the Japanese forest 青木ヶ原 located northwest of Mount Fuji, the Norwegian forest Østmarka near Oslo, and the forest moon of Endor (of Star Wars fame). If it seems odd that a grindcore band would devote themselves to the beauties of woodland nature, it’s not entirely clear that they did, given the presence of such song titles as “Flatulence of Emotions”, “The Night Is Young and We’re All Out Of Nekro”, “Rectal Dark Ages”, “If Your Music Were A Blowjob It Wouldn’t Suck”, and the song that’s the subject of the video we’re premiering today — “Hallway To Hell“.

On the other hand, there are surprising moments of beauty in Beaten To Death‘s music, which is part of what makes their unusual approach to grind so enticing. Continue reading »

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

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Apr 052021
 

 

The creative energies of Swiss artist Bornyhake Ormenos seem boundless, and so multifarious that each impulsive surge of them may give rise to some new project, which seems to be the case in the spawning of his solo project Nivatakavachas.

Undoubtedly, this new menace has been gestating for some unknown period of time, building up its stockpile of evil power, but it is now ready to be revealed through a debut album named Ascraedunum, set for release by Satanath Records and Azif Records tomorrow (April 6th). One day early, we have a full stream of it for you. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PHRENETICUM — “DER STILLE ZERFALL”

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Apr 022021
 

 

On the 4th day of April the German black metal band Phreneticum will release their debut album Der Stille Zerfall through the collaboration of Satanath Records and Onism Productions, but you won’t have to wait until then to be consumed by it, because we’re presenting a full stream of all the madness today.

From the band’s inception in 2015 the line-up has varied, but this new full-length is the work of only two performers — vocalist Leichenfresse and multi-instrumentalist Tino Fluch (from Abigorum, Trond, and Wulfgar). As a hint of what they’ve done together, the releasing labels recommend the album for fans of Sarkrista, Imperium Dekadenz, and Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult. But here are a few more hints about what you’ll be experiencing: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GEXEROTT — “INSEMINATED”

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Apr 012021
 

 

Before hearing a single note I was magnetized by the brilliant title of Gexerott’s new album, Hallucinetic Violet Ignition, and the equally attention-seizing and entirely complementary cover art. Together they kindle intrigue while simultaneously creating an otherworldly chill, the first hints of danger swathed in violet allure. It turns out that the danger blooms in the music, in blood-freezing and mind-altering ways.

This new album is Gexerott’s third, and in it they continue to follow an occult spiritual path, translating ceremonies and epiphanies with roots in chaos-gnosis. The music is fundamentally black metal, but takes a visionary form that is genuinely unearthly, and deeply sinister in ways that may leave you feeling shaken, and maybe even poisoned. That is certainly true of the song we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s April 18 co-release by Satanath Records and Exhumed Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNIVERSALLY ESTRANGED — “DESPOILING SOULS OF FLESH ACROSS THE GALAXY”

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Apr 012021
 

 

Blood Harvest Records has unearthed a real gem. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that the label has caught a comet that came unexpectedly rocketing into the atmosphere from some distant constellation. Universally Estranged seems to have no prior releases, instead immediately blazing across the sky with a full-length that truly is eye-opening in both its extravagant adventurousness and its technical acumen, presenting a vision of sci-fi-inspired death metal that is (in the vivid words of the label’s publicist) “both cosmically levitational and grossly subterranean”.

Replete with bizarre but somehow fitting song titles, and wild cover art that’s also entirely suitable, Reared Up in Spectral Predation delivers one mind-boggling, bone-breaking escapade after another, collectively creating a pan-dimensional thrill-ride that’s likely to stand out from the pack this year even though it’s “just” a debut effort from what seems to be a solo creator (who also seems to prefer anonymity).

As an electrifying sign of what the album holds in store, today we allow you to witness the band “Despoiling Souls of Flesh Across the Galaxy“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PLAGUEWIELDER — “COVENANT DEATH”

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Mar 312021
 

 

We’ve been following the progress of Ohio’s Plaguewielder since discovering their 2017 single “Writhing in Mental Torment” almost exactly four years ago — a single that was the first release after their 2015 debut album Succumb to the Ash. The name of that single captured a through-line that continued emerging in the band’s music in the following years, feelings of hopelessness, frustration, and fury that always seemed to be fighting to get out into the songs — music as catharsis.

But the music itself has changed over the years, as Plaguewielder has found increasingly multi-faceted and expansive means of expression. In its creative evolution Plaguewielder has reached an apotheosis in Covenant Death, the album that we’re proud to premiere in full today. Undeniably the band’s best work yet, it’s also one of the most striking and memorable works yet to emerge in this still young and still wretched second year of the plague. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FUNEBRIA — “DAWN OF BLACK INERICON”

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Mar 312021
 

 

The last time we wrote about Funebria was almost six years ago, in connection with their second album, Dekatherion: Ten Years of Hate and Pride. We wondered if we had missed something in the many years since then, but no, there has been nothing new from this Venezuelan horde (now based in Colombia) — until now. And now they are looking ahead to April 17, when their third album, Death Of The Last Sun, will be released by Satanath Records in collaboration with Dark Terror Temple.

Based on what has been released from the album so far — including the track we’re premiering today — the music of Funebria is still a furious (and blasphemous) union of black and death metal, but even more dynamic, multi-faceted, and technically impressive than before. Today’s song premiere, “Dawn of Black Inericon“, is great proof of that. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NEKKROFUKK — “MYSTERIOUS RITUALS IN THE ABYSS OF SABBATH & ETERNAL CELEBRATION OF THE BLAKK GOAT”

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Mar 302021
 

 

Let’s cut to the chase: We’re premiering a full stream of the new album by Poland’s Nekkrofukk on the day of its release by Putrid Cult. Like the last album two years ago, the title of this one is packed with evocative words: Mysterious Rituals in the Abyss of Sabbath & Eternal Celebration of the Blakk Goat. In its music, it’s primitive, crushing, pestilential, and foul, a blending of doom and black metal that seems to have bubbled up like poisonous ichor from a by-gone age.

Rarely do the songs accelerate beyond an earthquaking, mid-paced stomp, or provide reprieve from their moods of cruelty, oppression, and plague. Never do the vocals reveal any sense of humanity, so steeped as they are in bestial expulsions of disgust and damnation. When other melodic accents come in, they create an atmosphere of supernatural horror, rather than casting the listener a life-raft. Heads will move when listeners hear the music’s enormous carnal rhythms, and as ugly as the experience is, you may nevertheless find yourself falling into a narcotic trance as the album unfolds — albeit one that’s infiltrated by terrors. Continue reading »

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 »

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