AN NCS PREMIERE: MIRROR NEURON — “INTERIOR SEMIOTICS”

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Nov 192024
 

(written by Islander)

As a band name, Mirror Neuron is an intriguing choice, and so is the artwork on this Toronto duo’s spectacular debut album, Great Content.

A “mirror neuron” is an actual thing, present in the brains of humans, primate species, and birds. According to The Font of All Human Knowledge: “A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron ‘mirrors’ the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting.” Its function has been the subject of much speculation, which you can read about via that link above.

As for the cover art, it’s a painting by Justyna Koziczak (used with her permission) called “Dante and Virgil in 4th circle of hell” (that’s the circle for the greedy).

But the intrigues don’t stop there. Consider the way the Mirror Neuron duo have characterized the music on their album: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LES CHANTS DU HASARD — “PARMI LES POUSSIÈRES”

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Nov 182024
 

Short-hand descriptions of Les Chants Du Hasard have included references to the project as a “French Blackened Orchestral/Operatic Ensemble” and to the music (even more succinctly) as “extreme opera”. Over the course of four albums, the most recent of which was released this past June, the project’s principal protagonist Hazard has found frequently eye-popping and unconventional methods of expressing extreme emotions such as anger, violence, darkness, and despair, with the goal of thoroughly submerging the listener in them.

Hazard has described the latest album, Livre Quart, in these words:

“I created LES CHANTS DU HASARD following a vision of a crawling and ugly opera, in which some light could be found, the same way that [French poet Charles] Baudelaire found beauty in ugliness. This idea has been with me on a daily basis since 2016, when I decided to give it a try and began composing Livre Premier. Livre Quart is the closest I’ve come to realizing this vision.”

As a reminder of what the album brings us, and hopefully to open new ears to its daunting phenomena, today we premiere a video for the record’s opening piece, “Parmi Les Poussières“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KILLING SPREE — “ALL THESE BELLS AND WHISTLES”

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Nov 182024
 

(written by Islander)

As a musical instrument the saxophone seems to live in a walled garden. Probably no other instrument is more uniquely associated with jazz. Other instruments used in jazz ensembles have regular roles in other musical genres, but the saxophone? Not so much.

And so when people hear a saxophone, it’s hard not to think of jazz, even when the performer isn’t doing jazz riffs or jazzy noodling. But of course a lot of the time that’s what the performer really is doing, even in a different musical setting, such as metal and rock, where some bands (especially the proggier ones) have brought in guest sax performers to add a little unconventional spice.

Of course a few bands in rock and metal have a saxophonist as a regular member of their lineup — but it’s a tiny percentage. And maybe that’s because of the “walled garden” effect: It’s hard not to think of jazz when you hear the instrument, and the number of ardent metal fans who also like jazz (and vice-versa) probably isn’t a huge contingent (mind you, this is a wild guess).

And that brings us to Killing Spree, a French drum-and-saxophone duo who’ve applied a battering ram to the confines of that walled garden. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A DEAD POEM — “IN FORGOTTEN DIMENSIONS”

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Nov 152024
 

(written by Islander)

Some people are still alive who remember a time in the early ’90s (because they witnessed it) when the now well-defined genres of extreme metal weren’t so sharply separated, when there was a commingling of styles such as gothic doom, black metal, and melodeath. Others who weren’t contemporaneous witnesses have experienced those moments by listening to such records as Paradise Lost‘s Gothic, Katatonia‘s Dance of December Souls, or Rotting Christ‘s A Dead Poem.

It is no coincidence that the Brazilian duo of Marlon Combat and Carlos Misanthropic chose A Dead Poem as the name of their band, because their aim was to grasp and revive the intertwined aesthetics of doom and black metal manifested by records such as those.

Their first efforts in that direction were captured in their Absence of Life EP self-released last year (and then released in a limited CD edition early his year by Cold Art Industry Records). That caught the attention of the eclectic Personal Records, which is now primed to release A Dead Poem‘s debut album Abstract Existence on December 13th.

Some of the songs from the album have already surfaced (and opened lots of eyes and ears), and today we’re bringing you another one, a stunner of a song named “In Forgotten Dimensions“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HOSTILIA — “POWER OUT”

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Nov 152024
 

(written by Islander)

We have a hell of a good story to share with you, one that’s probably well-known in the environs of Gothenburg, Sweden, but probably less well-known elsewhere, including here in North America. It’s the kind of story which reminds us that some of today’s best-known and most influential metal bands first seized attention decades ago as teenagers.

And, in addition to a hell of a good story, we’re also sharing one hell of a good song and video that features the young Gothenburg-based thrashers Hostilia.

First, here’s the story: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FURZE — “COSMIC STIMULATION OF DARK FANTASIES”

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Nov 142024
 

(written by Islander)

In April of this year the Trondheim-based “black psych metal” project Furze released a new album named Caw Entrance, its first full-length in six years. (We featured some crazed insights about it in our Comrade Aleks’ interview of Woe J. Reaper last July.)

Surely some significant amount of time would be necessary before he did something else under the banner of Furze, some period of recovery before his head could begin spinning again, and spinning ours — but NO! He quickly began musically self-medicating again, and the result is a second Furze album that’s now set for release tomorrow by Devoted Art Propaganda and Polytriad Fingerprints.

The new one is named Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies, which is a good description of the music and its apparent intent. You’ll see, because here on the eve of its release we’re presenting all the songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WULDORGAST — “COLD LIGHT OF REASON”

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Nov 142024
 

On Monday of this week we hosted the premiere of a song from Malevolent Lycanthrophic Heresy, the forthcoming third album by the Pennsylvania-based black metal band Luring that’s coming out December 13th on Iron Bonehead Productions. Luring is a member of “the Order of the Broken Sword,” a group of musicians who’ve apparently known each other for about 20 years. Another member of that circle, Azathoth’s Dream, released their debut album Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment on IBP last year, and we also hosted a premiere for that one.

And now we come to yet a third entity within the same circle, a duo who took the name Wuldorgast. They too now have a debut album set for release by IBP on December 13th, one named Cold Light, and today we’re again hosting a song premiere in support of the album. The title of this track is “Cold Light of Reason“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TOXAEMIA — “REJECTED SOULS OF KERBERUS”

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Nov 132024
 

(written by Islander)

Four years ago we premiered a couple of songs from Where Paths Divide, the eye-opening debut album of the Swedish death metal band Toxaemia that was ultimately released by Emanzipation Productions. We began one of those premieres with the following paragraphs, which four years later are still relevant:

“What causes a cult Swedish death metal band to come back to life after almost 30 years of silence? Not fame and fortune, at least not in the case of Toxaemia. Their roots go back to 1989, and their early demos and other recordings in 1990 and 1991 can legitimately be considered part of the pioneering sound of early Swedish death metal, but they’re not a household name in 2020. Rather than trying to cash in on a name, it’s a much better guess that this revival was spawned by one thing and one thing only: passion for the music.

“Sure, you might guess that nostalgia had something to do with it, but when you hear the music they’ve now made on a debut album that gestated this long, what you feel is fire and fury.”

Why are those words still relevant? Because the creative fire that fueled Where Paths Divide didn’t die away to embers. If anything, it has blazed higher in a new Toxaemia album named Rejected Souls Of Kerberus that we’re proud to present today, in full. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NARRENWIND — “KONIUGACJA”

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Nov 132024
 

(written by Islander)

The Polish band Narrenwind was started by Ævil and Klimørh back in 2018, and since then they’ve released four albums and a few EPs through Pagan Records and Ævil‘s Wheelwright Productions. In that time the style of their music has changed through experimentation with different facets of metal, and it will change again with the release of their fifth album, Gorzkie Plony, which the band call “a return to the spirit of our inaugural work”.

What we have for you today is the premiere of the album’s first single, “Koniugacja“, which will be released across most streaming services on December 15th. Notably, it features session drum-work by Anti-Christian, known for his work with Doedsvangr, Beaten to Death, and formerly Tsjuder.

The song draws attention for other reasons as well, including the lyrics, which are unusual for a blackened heavy metal band, and we’ll start there. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AUGUST MOON — “EXITUS”

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Nov 122024
 

(written by Islander)

Perhaps especially to those of us whose hair is now majority-gray, it’s always inspirational to see people who first started making metal when they were still “wet behind the ears” get that itch again many decades later — but most especially when they scratch the itch in ways that should make people of any age sit up and take notice. And that’s what happened with the three Finns who make up August Moon.

As teenagers, they first came together (along with other friends) in 1992, and under the name As Serenity Fades they put out a trio of demos and an EP from ’93 to ’96. But in that same period two of those people formed August Moon as a second band with a third friend, and that also resulted in a pair of demos in ’93 and ’94.

But both bands faded away… until the August Moon trio of bassist/vocalist Mikko Sorja, drummer/vocalist Tom Henriksson, and guitarist Peter Viherkanto started writing music again in 2014. This time, it took 10 years to release anything.

The first signs of what they’ve done in their revival were manifested in a four-song EP self-released this past January, and then a further single the month after that. And now they have a debut album, Something Eldritch and Macabre, set for a December 13 release by the distinctive Personal Records. Continue reading »

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