AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TOXAEMIA — “BURIED TO ROT”

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Nov 172020
 

 

Let’s face it, nothing says death metal quite like the sight of writhing maggots ecstatically feeding on rotting flesh. Skulls hollowed out and stripped clean of their putrefying meat is up there too. You get plenty of such visions in the new Toxaemia lyric video we’re premiering today, along with roaches, fattened worms, ghoulish glimpses of the un-dead, and savage verbal proclamations that leave no doubt what will and won’t happen to you when you die.

As for the music within “Buried To Rot“, it’s another explosive outburst by this re-formed Swedish death metal band from their new album Where Paths Divide, which is set for release on November 20th via Emanzipation Productions, and yet another sign that passing decades have done nothing to dim the band’s ferocity or their ability to give your pulse rate a swift boot in the ass. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CONTRARIAN — “ONLY TIME WILL TELL”

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Nov 172020
 

 

There’s a lot to be said about the new Contrarian album Only Time Will Tell that we’re premiering today, from its concept to its composition and its execution. In a nutshell, those subjects involve heavy-metal escapism, wildly adventurous ideas, and extreme virtuosity — and all those aspects of the music are connected.

The album’s escapist qualities are certainly evident in its layout, artwork, and the lyrics through which the narrative unfolds. The artwork is lavish, and invokes the kind of intersection between fantasy, science fiction, and metal that has been a persistent feature of the genre for decades (if you’re uncomfortable being a nerd, then you’re a sub-par metalhead!).

And in the tale itself, Contrarian again use the adventures of their recurring protagonist “the cloaked contrarian” to convey ideas involving philosophy, theology, and science — this time by sending him on a travel through time in an effort to eradicate past sins and to bring about healing, while also raising the question whether time does indeed heal all wounds. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOATCRAFT — ANOTHER TRACK FROM “MEPHISTOPHELIAN EXORDIUM”

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Nov 162020
 

 

Almost two weeks ago we premiered a track from Mephistophelian Exordium, the forthcoming double-album by the “necroclassical” project Goatcraft which will be released by Hessian Firm on November 20th, and today we present a second one.

For those who may have missed the first premiere, which included a lot of background information about Goatcraft and this new release, Mephistophelian Exordium unearths demo recordings that Goatcraft‘s alter ego, the pianist and adventurous keyboardist Lonegoat, made near the beginning of his journey as a solo artist roughly ten years ago. Originally distributed to friends and acquaintances on CDR, those tracks are finally getting an official release on this album. The album also includes a 2015 radio performance that was broadcast live on-air by KSYM in San Antonio, Texas, as well as the song “Mephistophelian Exordium,” which was written and recorded in 2015 while Lonegoat worked on Goatcraft’s third album, Yersinia Pestis.

The track we’re premiering today, which appears on the album as “20 Untitled“, comes from that early demo compilation. It’s a long piece that was all improvisation, and the effect of listening to it as it mounts in intensity is both spellbinding and frightening. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GOLGATA — “RÅTTFÅNGARENS DANS”

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Nov 162020
 

 

The duo who founded the Swedish black metal band Golgata in 2014 were both born and raised in the southern part of Sweden, and we’re told that the landscape of their region became a vital part of their inspiration, which has carried through to the conception of their forthcoming second album, Tempel. Satanath Records, who will be releasing it on November 30, describes it as “a journey through barren landscapes on a quest for the remedy of this bitter state called living”, and a representation of “the beauty of the human darkness and how it sometimes is the only factor for survival”.

Satanath also recommends the music for fans of Skogen, Grift, and Fellwarden, among others, and those references are good signposts for Tempel’s immersive, melancholy atmosphere and the feeling of reverence that comes through the music, along with its sensations of panoramic sweep and unchained fury.

Today we’re presenting the third track from the album to be revealed so far, along with a strong recommendation that you check out the first two as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SPEEDKILLER — “CIRCLES OF BLOOD”

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Nov 132020
 

 

Based on this band’s name (Speedkiller) and their nation (Brazil), you might be expecting raw and ripping black thrash, or perhaps balls-to-the-wall speed metal, and Speedkiller do indeed give you high-voltage doses of thrash and speed, but their debut EP Midnight Vampire turns out to be a much more multi-faceted experience, in which the band also draw on elements of death metal and classic heavy metal — and a genuine talent for cooking up addictive melodies and hook-heavy riffs, and delivering the experience within a supernatural atmosphere.

Speedkiller leaped into this new EP after releasing only a couple of singles via YouTube, and when you hear it you’ll understand why both Helldprod Records and Edged Circle Records leaped at the chance to release it. Sadly, covid-related delays at manufacturing facilities have recently caused a postponement in the EP’s release date from December 11th to January 29, 2021, but to tide you over until then we’re presenting a track from the album today named “Circles of Blood“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BESTIALIS — “RITUS”

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Nov 132020
 

 

Just yesterday I was confessing that one of the reasons I’m so open to hosting premieres every day is a selfish motivation — because it affords the opportunity to discover new music from new bands that I might otherwise miss (and that you might miss too!). Sometimes those opportunities bring thrilling surprises, and today it has happened again through the discovery of a fascinating German black metal band named Bestialis.

What you are about to hear, on the day of its release by Vendetta Records, is the debut recording of this group, an EP named Ritus. The formidable success of the EP will be less surprising if you understand that Bestialis is the result of of a long-term artistic and spiritual conspiracy between two artists — vocalist Lastaurus and guitarist Absorber — who have been making music for 20 years; both of them are part of northwestern Germany’s Culthe Collectiv/Culthe Fest (Münster).

What they’ve achieved is both conceptually and musically tantalizing. In their lyrical focus, Bestialis focus on a concept “whose basic premise is to understand humans as – primarily and in the most positive way – animal beings, and thus, at its essence, to explore, proclaim and worship the bestia or beast in man.”. Ritus thus offers an introduction to this concept and puts into its narrative tales of prehistoric bull cults and Persian mythology (such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, provided in the band’s own reinterpretation). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): YSGAROTH — “STORM OVER A BLACK SEA”

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Nov 122020
 

 

It’s well-known that we host a lot of premieres at our site — every day, in fact. It requires a lot of effort since we always accompany them with reviews, and that can detract from other things we might be doing instead. But one reason we’re so open to them is the opportunity they provide to introduce not just you, but us as well, to music we might otherwise overlook. And sometimes, those opportunities prove to be rapturous discoveries — which is the case with Ysgaroth’s album Storm Over A Black Sea, which is set for release tomorrow.

Simply put, the album is an enormous surprise, an unexpected gem that arrives without much advance fanfare. It is, after all, this Vancouver trio’s debut album. But they’re not taking tentative steps here. The songs are remarkably ambitious in their construction and remarkably demanding in their execution. Fortunately, the instrumental skill displayed here is at a very high level, and the songcraft, while elaborately multi-faceted and wide-ranging in its stylistic scope, is thrilling to behold. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: RAMCHAT — “ZNELO LESOM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Nov 112020
 

 

There is a risk that Znelo lesom, the new album by the Slovak pagan metal band Ramchat, will fly under the radar of lots of listeners, when it should instead come across it like a comet in flight. It certainly made that kind of astonishing impression on this writer, who didn’t know what to expect going into it, having failed to pay attention to any of the band’s previous releases. But now this album is one that won’t soon be forgotten.

The songcraft of Ramchat is, for want of better words, idiosyncratic and mercurial. At a high level, it could be described as a fascinating amalgam of folk-influenced blackened metal and devilish rock that’s capable of generating (among other things) orchestral levels of grandeur, barbaric levels of savagery, bewitching episodes of sinister sonic sorcery, and heart-breaking moments of melancholy. In each song (no two of which are quite alike) the band pack an ingenious array of sonic sensations and moods, and while the changes are often unexpected, there is still a natural flow and integration among them which makes the progressions cohesive rather than jarring.

It’s thus a real pleasure to help put Znelo lesom on your radar screen through our full album premiere today in advance of its imminent November 13 release by Slovak Metal Army. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FUCK THE FACTS — “AN ENDING”

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Nov 112020
 

 

A well-educated metalhead friend once told me that the term “grindcore” wasn’t coined to capture the parts of grind songs where the bands chase you around like rabid barbarians, but for the slow sludgy parts where they catch you, pin you to the ground, and methodically beat you with hammers. He didn’t use those metaphorical terms — those are my own embellishments — but you probably know what I’m talking about.

I think at one point I probably researched the origins of the term, but I’ve forgotten what I found. Regardless, grind fans know this dichotomy between high-speed mayhem and down-shifted thuggery, and sometimes it’s tough to predict which aspect will generate the most violent mosh pit at a show (you remember mosh pits, don’t you, even if just barely?).

But in the case of the veteran Canadian band Fuck the Facts, it’s been evident for a long time that “dichotomous” egregiously under-represents their remarkably distinctive and multi-faceted approach to grind. In fact, there’s usually so much more going on in their music that some ingenious word-smith needs to come up with a different genre term for their music altogether. “Grind” really just doesn’t cut it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HORSEHUNTER — “NUCLEAR RAPTURE”

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Nov 102020
 

 

In November 2019 Magnetic Eye Records celebrated its first decade of existence by hosting the “Day of Doom” label showcase at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus Bar. That event featured nine bands on the label’s roster performing back-to-back, and the four headline sets were captured live by engineer Chris Johnson (Deafheaven, Summoner). On December 11th, Magnetic Eye will release those recordings in a series of four records entitled Day of Doom Live, each one devoted to the headlining shows from a year ago at Saint Vitus Bar.

The bands featured in the series are Elephant Tree, Domkraft, Summoner, and the Australian sludge-metal destroyers in Horsehunter, whose discography includes two full-lengths so far, 2014’s Caged In Flesh and their self-titled album released in 2019. Today we present one of the live tracks from Horsehunter’s Day of Doom Live release, and it proves that the band are just as devastating live as they are on their studio recordings — maybe more so. Continue reading »

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