AN NCS PREMIERE: HURONIAN — “EVER BURNING”

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Sep 102021
 

 

As we all painfully know, the pandemic has been an immense black cloud oppressively hanging over the globe with no dissipation in sight. Yet it has had silver linings, including the formation of new bands during lockdowns as creative impulses have still found ways to breathe.

The Italian trio Huronian is one such raging pandemic child. It first took shape through the will of DL and UMP in early 2020, with the inspiration of following in the path of classic melodic death metal and death/black metal manifested by such groups as Dissection, At the Gates, and Sacramentum. Eventually joined by drummer MM, they worked together remotely and recorded a demo that was digitally released last year, and now they’ve readied a debut album named As Cold As A Stranger Sunset that’s set for release on October 29th by the French label Dolorem Records.

This 8-track release is going to be an eye-opener, and you’ll understand why we think that when you listen to the album track we’re premiering today, which has the completely fitting title “Ever Burning“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOIDHRA — “SORROW GUIDES US ALL”

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Sep 102021
 

 

In May of this year the one-person black metal band Voidhra from southern Germany self-released its debut EP, Sorrow Guides Us All. No doubt some people discovered what a fantastic release that was, but it also undoubtedly passed under the radars of lots of listeners (sadly including us). But it’s about to make a much wider and deeper impression through a new release set for October 29th by the Crawling Chaos label.

To help spread the word we’re today premiering the title song from this four-track, 30-minute EP. It has become the basis for our own discovery of Voidhra, and what an astonishing discovery it has been. The song we’re premiering today channels tremendous visceral power, with an intense emotional impact, and its bleak yet incendiary melodies prove to be very memorable. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OBSCURA QALMA — “AWAKEN A SHRINE TO OBLIVION”

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Sep 092021
 

 

On November 14th, Rising Nemesis Records will release Apotheosis, the debut album of the Venetian extreme metal band Obscura Qalma, a record that provides the follow-up to their 2019 EP, Sheol to the Apeiron. Creating what the band describe as “blackened heavily orchestrated death metal”, they have drawn influence from the likes of Behemoth and Septicflesh, Death and Dissection, Hypocrisy and classical music, and film-score composers such as Alexandre Desplat.

But the band’s influences and inspirations are not limited to musical ones. They have created elaborate hybrids of sound in service of philosophical investigations that are equally elaborate. As the band explain: “”Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, as well as by contemporary figures such as Massimo Recalcati and James Owen Weatherall, Apotheosis (from the Greek meaning, “To Deify”) explores human existence in an epistemological solipsistic view. Elevated to divine status, from a higher point we can look at the external world as an unresolvable question rather than actually false.”

One single from the album has surfaced so far, and today we present a second one — “Awaken A Shrine To Oblivion” — which happens to be the track that closes Apotheosis. It manages to be both elaborately theatrical and chillingly unearthly, both futuristic and primeval, and it strikes with immense power. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DØDSDRIFT — “FÄHRDE”

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Sep 092021
 

 

By their own choice the black metal band Dødsdrift are a mysterious collective, one of those groups who prefer to let their music do most of the speaking. All we know is that that they were founded in 2018 in a northern area of Germany that borders the Baltic Sea, and that the 10 tracks on their new album Ødnis were inspired by isolation, loss, war, and the forces of nature.

But of course the songs do speak for themselves, and they do so in tremendously powerful ways. The music has a visceral impact, and leaves no ambiguity about the intense emotions that fuel the compositions and their performances. Those of you who discovered the band’s 2019 debut album Weltenszission already know this, and more will discover it through Ødnis.

Dødsdrift have chosen to release only one single in advance of the new album’s October 15 release by Vendetta Records, and we’re privileged to bring it to you today through an official video that’s as arresting as the track. The song opens the album, and its name is “Fährde“. Continue reading »

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

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Sep 082021
 

 

From their outward trappings and the way they talk about themselves and their music, you might not be inclined to take the Norwegian band Drittmaskin as seriously as you should. They seem to relentlessly make fun of themselves and under-sell what their music is capable of accomplishing. But pay no attention to that — instead, pay attention to the 12 tracks on their frankly astonishing new album Svartpønk. You’ll have your first chance to do that today, because we’ve got a full stream of the record in advance of the album’s October 8 release.

Trying to pigeonhole these new songs in genre terms is a confounding exercise. Svartpønk translates to “Blackpunk”, and there is indeed a hybrid of d-beat punk and black metal strongly at work here. But that’s not nearly an exhaustive list of the ingredients that Drittmaskin have joined together. They also pull from the wells of old-school thrash, arena-ready “classic” heavy metal, crust, death metal, and more. Some ingredients are more pronounced in some songs than in others, i.e., they are definitely not interchangeable, and that’s part of what makes the full run through the album such a relentless thrill-ride, but every song is a genre-bender. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVIANT PROCESS — “HOMO HOMINI DEUS”

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Sep 082021
 

 

About five and a half years ago the then-unheralded Québec City band Deviant Process released their debut album, Paroxysm. It caught our attention, much as an unforeseen meteor shower would. Our man Andy Synn wrote about it here, in a review that included this passage:

“Imagine if you will a band who marry the hi-tech riff-craft of Anata to the high-octane melodic intensity of Beyond Creation, with more than a dash of the unconventional hookiness of bands like Gorod and Hieronymus Bosch (RIP), along with a generous helping of pure, groovesome heaviness, and you’ll probably find yourself somewhere in the vicinity of what Deviant Process sound like. But… and here’s the twist… the Canadian quartet do all that, and more, without ever sounding derivative or predictable.”

And now Deviant Process are returning at last, this time with a new album entitled Nurture on the Season of Mist label. It might not be as big a surprise as its predecessor was, because we already know what they’re capable of doing, yet it’s still a stunner. As SoM rightly proclaims, Nurture will be a big turn-on for “those obsessed with the likes of classic Death, Cynic and Pestilence as well as contemporaries Obscura, Beyond Creation and Fractal Universe“.

Two singles from the album have been released so far, and today we bring you a third one: “Homo Homini Deus”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS — “INFINITE UNIVERSE INFINITE DEATH”

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Sep 072021
 

 

Almost a quarter-century passed between the debut album from Journey Into Darkness and the second one, Multitudes of Emptiness, that emerged in 2020. But the creative fires were clearly burningbright, because now the third one — Infinite Universe Infinite Death — is already on its way. It will be released on September 10th by Spirit Coffin Publishing, and today we draw the curtain all the way back on this astonishing piece of star-faring musical theater through our full streaming premiere. In addition, we’re presenting complete track-by-track commentary by the band’s sole member, Florida-based Brett Clarin.

For those who may be new to this symphonic black/death project, it’s worth knowing that Clarin‘s roots in extreme metal are deep. Between 1987 and 1993, he played guitar in the death metal band Sorrow (formerly Apparition), which released two records on the Roadrunner label. After Sorrow called it quits in the mid-’90s, Clarin started Journey Into Darkness as an all-synth solo project, having been inspired by the intros and interludes on extreme metal albums.

After releasing that 1996 debut album (Life Is a Near Death Experience), he put the project on hold for a long time. When he resurrected it with that second album, he made Journey Into Darkness sound like a full band, though the synths still played distinctive roles. The same is true of this new album, though it’s fair to say that the darkness in the music is even more pronounced. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DETEST — “THE PROCESS OF DOOM IS ON”

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Sep 072021
 

 

The story of Detest is yet another tale which proves that death (metal) conquers time. If you check this Danish band’s history at Metal-Archives you’ll see that December 12, 1990, was the date on which Detest was founded, and you’ll further see that their initial demos were released in 1991 and 1992, and that their debut album Dorval was released in 1994. But following one more demo discharged in the following year,  fell into a very long silence. As they describe it, they fell prey to booze, drugs, and in-fighting about how their music should sound, and thus dissolved in 1996.

Yet their entombment was not to be a permanent one. 2014 saw some reunion shows, and in the years after that original guitarist John Petersen recruited and tested new members who would have the ambition and focus to bring new Detest music into the world. That led to the band’s 2019 EP A Moment of Love, and now the new Detest trio (which also includes bassist/vocalist Simon Springborg and drummer Danni Jelsgaard) have recorded their first album since Dorval more than 25 years ago.

The new album, We Will Get What We Deserve, is projected for release in November by Emanzipation Productions, and to whet your appetites for it we are today presenting a lyric video for an album track named “The Process Of Doom Is On“, which will be released as a stand-alone single this coming Friday, September 10th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRIM FATE / THE SOMBRE — “FROM ANCIENT SLUMBER / THE HORRID SILENCE THUS BEGAN”

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Sep 062021
 

 

As amalgams of death and doom metal go, we’ll be so bold as to say that you won’t find a more formidable offering this year than the new album-length split by the Dutch bands Grim Fate and The Sombre. Entitled From Ancient Slumber / The Horrid Silence Thus Began (reflecting the names of each band’s side), it will get a CD and digital release by Chaos Records on September 10th, but we have a full stream of this ravishing experience for you today.

As you’ll discover, these two bands have different approaches in their explorations of death/doom, with Grim Fate‘s music more crushing and crippling and The Sombre‘s more entrancing (but still heavy as hell). This difference is part of what explains why the split is so tremendously good as a whole, and the rest of the explanation comes down to just how talented both bands are in the pursuits they’ve chosen for themselves on their sides of this split.

We have further thoughts about each band’s sequence of tracks (three from each of them), but of course feel free to skip ahead to the album stream so you will know more immediately what’s going on as you read. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AZOTHYST — “RITES OF ASCENDANCY”

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Sep 032021
 

 

Shrouded in underground mystery, the Canadian black/death band Azothyst are at last prepared to reveal their first diabolical recordings to a largely unsuspecting public that will either cower in fear or become exultant in the throes of such madness: Their debut album Blood of Dead God will be released on October 1st by a coalition of labels led by Vault of Dried Bones.

As the first sign of the tumultuous yet perversely mesmerizing terrors within the album, today we present its opening track, “Rites of Ascendancy“. Continue reading »

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