AN NCS PREMIERE: KRIGSGRAV — “DREAD THE NIGHT”

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Jul 202021
 

 

One of our favorite bands, Krigsgrav, will be returning on August 6th with a new album named The Sundering, to be released through Wise Blood Records. This is their sixth full-length since 2004 and features a revised line-up that now includes not only David Sikora (drums, bass, backing clean vocals) and Justin Coleman (vocals, rhythm guitars, ambient noise), but also new lead guitarist Cody Daniels, whose name will be familiar to many of us as a member of Giant of the Mountain.

If there is a spiritual center to Krigsgrav’s amalgamation of black metal and melodic death/gloom, it is the portrayal of bleakness. In Justin Coleman‘s words, “Krigsgrav is based around beauty in darkness, our stoic internal reflection and just the smallest amount of hope that can still be found, even at life’s darkest moments.” He further explains that The Sundering in particular “is based around the dread of a natural event occurring and having no control, but trying to find the means to pull yourself together to get through it all. It is about personal perseverance in the face of absolute crushing odds that should not allow it. Our lyrical content is almost consistently about our place in this world, and how finite and fragile our existence is.”

One concrete source of this thematic focus was the devastating hurricane that decimated the then-thriving island city of Galveston in Krigsgrav’s home state of Texas in 1900 — a stunning assault of nature than left 8,000 dead in its wake. If only that were a never-to-be-repeated event, but as we all know, extreme weather events have become relentlessly more common and are likely to be an ever-present part of our experience for a long time to come. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARX ATRATA — “SUCCESSION”

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Jul 202021
 

 

After three full-length albums the one-man atmospheric black metal band Arx Atrata from Nottingham, UK, joined forces with Bleakwinter Shrine for a split release named The Warrior Cycle that was revealed in April of this year. Unlike Arx Atrata‘s previous works, this was an instrumental record, but nevertheless it was one that told a story. Arx Atrata‘s alter ego Ben Sizer explains it:

“The Warrior Cycle was unusual in that although it was an instrumental release it was built around a strong narrative theme, the idea coming from Bleakwinter Shrine as a way to unify our work on the split record. With no lyrics to explain it, we decided to have the storyline included in the liner notes to give listeners some additional context and help them paint the imagery in their minds while listening to the record. But there was a realization that we could go further and show the storyline visually, setting the music to a short video that really captures the essence of the theme and provides an interpretation of the events within”.

It’s that video that we’re helping to premiere today, and it really is extraordinary. The narrative theme that inspired the music is tragic, and although the events are set in an ancient time, it resonates all too powerfully in our current age. The song in the video, “Succession“, plays upon the heartstrings with mastery, and the beautifully rendered video makes the impact of the music even more heartbreaking and deeply memorable. We’re truly honored to share it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOMAN IS THE EARTH — “BREATH OF A DYING STAR”

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Jul 192021
 

 

Five years have passed since Woman Is the Earth‘s last album, Torch of Our Final Night. It’s possible that some of you are thus new to this South Dakota group. If you are, Andy Synn‘s SYNN REPORT on the band wouldn’t be a bad way to get caught up, since it includes reviews and streams not only of that last album but also the three which preceded it. In that extensive essay he summed up their music as a special “blend of grim grandeur and metallic majesty”, “a brand of Black Metal that’s as heavy in atmosphere as it is in aggression, with songs that meld writhing riffage and rolling drums with passages of acoustic contemplation and ambient meditation, all without falling prey to the more generic tropes and clichés of the over-saturated ‘Post Black Metal’ scene”.

And now five years later we are about to receive a new album, which should be regarded as a signal event of this half-finished year. Entitled Dust of Forever, it will be released by the distinctive Init Records on August 20th, and is a timely reunion of these two musical forces since this year marks the label’s 20th anniversary.

Not long ago Invisible Oranges premiered the new album’s first single, “Spiritual Rot“, and today it’s our great pleasure to present the second one, “Breath of A Dying Star“, which happens to be the track that immediately precedes “Spiritual Rot”. Happily, we have a Bandcamp stream that allows you to hear them back-to-back. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KROSSFYRE — “RITES OF EXTERMINATION”

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Jul 192021
 

 

What we have for you today is the complete premiere stream of one of the most exhilarating and explosive albums of the year so far. Anyone who’s heard this Barcelona band’s 2017 debut EP Burning Torches won’t be shocked to hear that, but even devoted fans of that EP are going to have their eyes opened wider and their jaws dropped lower by what Krossfyre have achieved on the rip-roaring Rites of Extermination.

Once again, the band have stewed together a host of metal styles in a boiling cauldron, with black metal, thrash, and death metal being the most prominent. Benefitting from a more clear and cutting production, the music creates blowtorch heat and black powder explosiveness, whirling-dervish wildness and feral savagery, hellish grandeur and dire melancholy — and all of these experiences, save perhaps the last of them, simultaneously radiate an atmosphere of unchained devilry, of a coven of witches and warlocks spinning and levitating in the throes of diabolical possession. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVESLAVE — “NO CENTER”

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Jul 162021
 

 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

That opening stanza from Yeats‘ famous poem The Second Coming has sprung to this writer’s mind more than once over the last year, and came to mind again in thinking about the title of Graveslave‘s new album — No Center — and its title track, which we’re premiering today. But apart from what’s been happening all around us, the times have also had a way of hollowing people out, and it’s that aspect of existence that seems to be the song’s true focus. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FETID ZOMBIE — “BREATH OF THANATOS”

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Jul 162021
 

 

Almost five years have passed since Epicedia, the last album by Mark Riddick’s Fetid Zombie. That long stretch of time didn’t represent a hiatus, because Fetid Zombie continued releasing splits and EPs every year, but the time has finally come for a new full-length. Bearing the title Transmutations, it’s calendared for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on July 30.

Long before this new album it was evident that Riddick’s songwriting wasn’t going to stagnate with the passage of time. Instead, it has become increasingly exploratory and inventive, and those tendencies are in full bloom on the new album. While it may be true that classic death metal heaviness and ferocity are still at the core of the music, it wouldn’t be wrong to call Transmutations a progressive death metal thrill-ride.

As proof of that we’re presenting today “Breath of Thanatos“, an amazing song that’s a genuine kaleidoscope of sound, as elaborate and enthralling as it is punishing and frightening. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANGUISH — “HEREIN I BURN”

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Jul 152021
 

 

On August 4, 2021, Sun & Moon Records will release a new album by the “Necro Doom” band Anguish from Uppsala, Sweden. Entitled Doomkvädet, the album adds to a discography that includes a few shorter releases and the previous full-lengths Through the Archdemon’s Head (2012), Mountain (2014), and Magna est vis Siugnah (2018).

To help introduce the new album, today we’re presenting a lyric video for a frightening, soul-suffocating track named “Herein I Burn“, one that brings into play ingredients of traditional occult doom, but merge them with elements of death metal and other sonic elements that help create a truly unearthly and terrifying atmosphere. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ATRA HAERESIS — “PRETIUM?”

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Jul 152021
 

 

The song we’re about to premiere through a lyric video is one of those which we sometimes accompany with a warning — that you’d better take some big gulps of air before diving in, because it’s so exhilarating on so many levels that you’ll need the extra oxygen. And on top of that we should add the warning to loosen up your neck muscles, because its powerfully hammering grooves will trigger the good old headbang reflex in extravagant fashion.

The song we’re talking about, “Pretium?“, is a powerhouse track from the debut album by Atra Haeresis, an international black/death band that features members from such other projects as Ethir Anduin, Obscuration, and Навьяра, along with mastermind Alexander Dorokhin and a trio of guest performers. The album, named Pretium, is set for a joint release on August 26th by Satanath Records, Kryrart Records, and Death Portal Studio, and a tape edition will also be available through Void Wanderer Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELL STRIKE — “HELLSTRIKE”

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Jul 142021
 

 

The allure of some metal releases begins and intensifies even before you hear a single note. Sometimes that allure is even more intense when you don’t have a previous musical repertoire from the band that would more concretely tell you what to expect, which is the case with Hell Strike‘s debut EP Hellstrike.

In the case of this writer, the allure and the intrigue were first kindled by the pedigree of Hell Strike‘s line-up, which features members of Ascended Dead, Ritual Necromancy, and Bloodsoaked. And then it intensified upon seeing the EP’s cover art by Misanthropic Art (which turns out to be an effective visual rendering of the diabolical atmosphere of the sounds). And then the allure became greater still upon seeing comparative references in the press materials to the likes of Sadistic Intent, Grotesque (Sweden), The Chasm, Necrophobic, Mortem (Peru), and Order From Chaos.

Sometimes after becoming intensely enticed in such ways, we’re left downcast and disappointed after listening to the music. But as you’ve no doubt already guessed from our hosting of the EP’s full streaming premiere a couple days before its release, all the excited expectations were not merely fulfilled, but exceeded. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DUNGEON SERPENT — “WORLD OF SORROWS”

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Jul 132021
 

 

Who doesn’t love a breathtaking surprise? The sight of meteor showers blazing at night, a sudden murmuration of starlings overhead, the penetration of sun rays through heavy clouds… such things create a sense of wonder. Other surprises are more frightening and destructive — earthquakes, flash floods, gunfire going off in crowded gatherings, bombs raining on villages.

Such thoughts have come to mind in listening to World of Sorrows, the debut album of the death metal band Dungeon Serpent from Vancouver, British Columbia. It comes out of left field, preceded only by a two-track 2020 demo (though the demo itself was a very promising surprise). And like those other contrasting surprises mentioned above, it both inspires a sense of wonder and also inflicts breathtaking levels of sonic obliteration. The music is morbid, mauling, and merciless, but also home to both emotionally evocative melodies and the kind of pyrotechnic guitar mastery that drops jaws.

And there’s an especially big surprise at the end.

Little wonder that we leaped at the chance to present a full stream of the album today in advance of its July 16 release by Nameless Grave Records. Continue reading »

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