AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): IVOIRE — “URAGANO”

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May 042026
 

(written by Islander)

On May 8th the Italian metal band Ivoire will release their debut album Uragano. It began a long process of taking shape more than four years ago through a series of personal reflections written by the band’s founder Nicolò Lenoci, and then gradually evolved as he sought musical expressions for those ideas — musical expressions that ultimately moved between post-metal, sludge, and black metal influences.

When the time arrived for fully fleshing out the music and recording it, Nicolò (performing guitars and bass) was joined by vocalist Antonio Caggese, drummer Giovanni Solazzo (Turangalila, Duocane), and some guests whose contributions we’ll identify a bit later. Afterward, the band found its definitive line-up for live performances, with members we’ll also identify below.

Here is how Nicolò introduces the album: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARROGANT DESTRUCKTOR — “THE OLD SPIRIT REMAINS”

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May 012026
 

(written by Islander)

Initially formed in 2012 as a studio-only black metal band, Arrogant Destruktor from Birmingham (UK) eventually expanded into a full line-up and have released three albums and a few shorter releases in the ensuing years.

Since the release of their 2023 album Written in Blood from the Blade, they’ve enlisted a new vocalist, and the current lineup now has a fourth album — The Old Spirit Remains — set for release on June 19th by Satanath Records (Georgia) and The End of Time Records (Ireland).

What we have for you today is the premiere of a video for the new album’s dark and daunting title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: WAMPYRIC RITES AND NOIRSUAIRE — “CONSECRATION OF NOCTURNAL ENTITIES”

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May 012026
 

(written by Islander)

Two steadfast standard-bearers of vampyric black metal mysticism and nocturnal transcendence have joined forces on a new album-length split that will be released on May 5th by the Lithuanian label Inferna Profundus Records. These two are Wampyric Rites from Ecuador and Noirsuaire from France, and the authentic name of their split is Consecration Of Nocturnal Entities.

Each band has forged three songs for the album, for a total of 34 minutes of galvanizing, glorious, and grievous music, and it truly is a union of kindred spirits. On this Bandcamp Friday we’re giving everyone a chance to listen to all of it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): EVEALE – ENTER THE WOODLAND REALM

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Apr 302026
 

(Andy Synn is here to guide you on a journey… into the woodland realm)

There are lots of different factors one can use to analyse, criticise, and appraise a band… ambition, execution, innovation, intention.

But the one that’s more important than any of them – in my opinion, at least – is passion.

And make no mistake, Eveale is very much a passion-project for its members (whose work you may have heard in bands like Am I In Trouble? and Ashenheart) whose goal on Enter the Woodland Realm – which releases on Friday but we’re premiering exclusively here today – is to channel their love of Black Metal, in all its forms, into nine rich, evocative songs that pay tribute both to the history of the genre and to the glory of nature.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOREWORM — “NO REPRIEVE”

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Apr 292026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we’re a bit like a caboose pulled along at the end of a powerfully surging freight train, the train being the Canadian death metal band Goreworm rushing forward to the June 12 release of their second album Miasmic Solitude by Transcending Obscurity Records.

We’re a bit like the last car because three songs from the album have already debuted and we’re now premiering the fourth one — “No Reprieve” — though of course Transcending Obscurity might release more before we hit the June 12 mile marker.

On the other hand, the surging freight train analogy doesn’t completely fit the picture, because Goreworm’s music isn’t a straight-ahead, all-wheels-on-the-rails kind of affair, as you’ll soon witness if you haven’t already. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVEIR — “A FUTILE EXHORTATION”

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Apr 282026
 

(written by Islander)

For nearly a decade we’ve been recommending the recordings of the Brisbane-based black metal band Graveir, and we’re doing it again today. Their discography to date has included a pair of albums — Iconostasis (2016) and King of the Silent World (2020) — plus an EP and a pair of splits. And now they have a third album named The Festering Triad that’s set for release on May 29th by Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings.

As their label has accurately described, Graveir’s music has proven to be “bleak, violent and uncompromising.” It’s capable of evoking fury, chaos, and degradation, but also creating mind-warping melodic visions that are unearthly and even mesmerizing but also profoundly frightening. And here is how Apocalyptic Witchcraft describes their new full-length:

The Festering Triad, their third album, is a bleak vision of societal decay and corrupted power. Across eight tracks, bile-fuelled aggression surges through anxiety-ridden drums, convulsing guitars, and serpentine basslines—forming a suffocating, venomous descent into rot.

What we have for you today is a startling sign of just how accurate that description is, a song named “A Futile Exhortation“, which arrives with a tremendous video that captures many of the album’s dire concepts. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MASCA — “THE PERSEVERANCE OF SACRILEGE”

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Apr 282026
 

(written by Islander)

Masca is a new group that unites three long-time friends who have been involved in the Italian and international metal underground, with such names as Beheaded, Adversum, and Daemusinem on their resumes. They have recorded a debut album named Maskerie Filia Diaboli that will be co-released on May 22nd by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Underworld Echoes Records (Greece).

And beyond that we don’t have much other information to share about the band or the album, other than the labels’ recommendation of it for fans of Dark Funeral, Belphegor, Behemoth, and Immortal. That’s potentially useful in pointing the way to some kind of powerful amalgam of black and death metal, but we have a more immediate and tangible sign of what Masca have done through our premiere today of an album track called “The Perseverance of Sacrilege“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NON SERVIAM — “DÉESSE MORTE”

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Apr 272026
 

(written by Islander)

Five years after Le Cœur Bat (2021), and more than a decade after Un petit peu d’amour pour la haine, the genre-blurring French collective Non Serviam are returning with a third album named La Lune Dont Mon Âme Est Pleine, now set for release on June 12th.

The new full-length is described as “a symbolist concept album centered on the myth of Diana and Actaeon, exploring themes of the desire for the absolute, the violence it engenders, and the melancholy that follows.” And further:

Beyond the metamorphosed and tormented figure of Actaeon, the album also invokes Émile Henry, the late-19th-century French anarchist, as well as the apocalyptic goddess Kali, voiced by Mirai Kawashima (Sigh) in a powerful homage.

Those excerpts from the album’s press materials should create a sense of intrigue among listeners, even listeners who haven’t already been exposed to the shape-shifting musical nature of Non Serviam’s previous releases. They remain shape-shifters on the new album, and even more so, as you’ll discover from the new song and video we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEFECT DESIGNER — “SCORCHING THE RIVAL POGONOMYRMEX BURROWS”

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Apr 272026
 

(written by Islander)

From the standpoint of a listener the idea of a band like Norway-based Defect Designer taking their music to a higher level is a bewildering concept — because their music has been so continuously bewildering. They have used death metal as a laboratory for experimentation, with results that are eccentric, subversive, unpredictable, and dazzling.

For this listener (and I suspect for all their fans), Defect Designer’s music produces big smiles. Maybe they were smiling too when they named their new album Depressants, because it is a powerful anti-depressant, no prescription needed. At least based on early listening, it also comes across as their best work yet.

Yes indeed, they have found ways to take their music to a higher level, though how to linguistically define the unconventional countours of that new plateau is no easier than it has been in the past.

We’ve premiered songs from each of Defect Designer’s last three releases, and fortune has smiled upon us because today we get to do it a fourth time, linguistic challenges and all. Speaking of linguistic challenges, the name of the song you’re about to hear is “Scorching The Rival Pogonomyrmex Burrows“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MOLOSSER — “STRYCHNINE HILL”

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Apr 242026
 

(written by Islander)

Brisbane-based Gutter Prince Cabal has established a reputation as a go-to platform for exposing the world to killer underground metal from Australia and New Zealand, and they’ll continue doing that in May when they present the debut of NZ’s Molosser. Here’s the vivid language they use in introducing the record:

Set for release on May 11, the band’s self-titled debut EP Molosser arrives as a full-frontal assault, an uncompromising barrage of aggression that wastes no time in establishing its intent. From the very first moments, the message is clear: rip and tear, kill and maim.

Built on muscular riffs, punishing rhythms, and an atmosphere of pure hostility, Molosser is a record that pulls no punches. Every track surges forward with unyielding force, carving a path through anything in its way. There is no restraint here, only momentum, impact, and the raw satisfaction of destruction.

We’ll have a tough time competing with those words in describing the EP track we’re premiering today, but of course that won’t stop us from trying! Continue reading »

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