AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OATH OF DAMNATION — “IMHULLU”

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Jan 222021
 

 

Last February we had the pleasure of presenting a lyric video for a song by the Australian black/death ravagers Oath of Damnation. That song, “I Curse Thee, O Lord!” was an eye-popping thrill-ride, both eerily majestic and utterly hellish, both atmospheric and barbaric. And there were a lot more thrills awaiting listeners in the album that included it — the well-named Fury and Malevolence — which was released by Gore House Productions in March 2020, roughly six years after the band’s full-length debut. Months later, that record popped up on numerous year-end lists around the web, and now we have a vivid reminder of just how good the album is.

Fury and Malevolence is brimming with well-told tales of darkness, horror, and ancient mythologies, and one of the most compelling tales is “Imhullu“, the track that opens the record and carries the listener into an unearthly world of titanic struggle and gargantuan bloodshed. No wonder that the band chose that song as the subject of the video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERAL LIGHT’S “CONJOINT LIGHTLESSNESS” (AND A REVIEW OF THE NEW “CEREMONIAL TOWER” EP)

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Jan 222021
 

 

Last September at NCS Andy Synn devoted the 125th edition of his Synn Report (here) to the discography of Minnesota-based Feral Light, whose music he recommended for fans of  Tombs, Cobalt, and Wolvhammer. In Andy’s words, Feral Light (drummer Andrew Reesen and guitarist/vocalist Andy Schoengrund) “deal in a gritty, gruesomely groovesome brand of Black ‘n’ Roll which has, over the years, also developed an increasingly savage-yet-sombre (not to mention ever-so-slightly proggy) edge to it”.

The latest record in their discography as it existed at the time of Andy’s retrospective was the 2020 album Life Vapor, which he characterized as Feral Light‘s “darkest record yet”, a “more refined and more atmosphere-heavy album than either of its predecessors”, but also “even more focussed and ferocious”: “[F]or what it might lack (or sacrifice) in terms of bombastic hooks and swaggering attitude it more than makes up for in sheer intensity and potent staying-power, making for an overall more fulfilling, and no less thrilling, listening experience from start to finish.”

If you haven’t yet encountered Feral Light, you should definitely check out Life Vapor — but you really couldn’t go wrong with any of their albums. And thankfully, the band continue to forge ahead. On February 26th they will be releasing a new three-song EP named Ceremonial Tower, and today it’s our pleasure to premiere one of those three tracks — “Conjoint Lightlessness“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE (AND AN INTERVIEW): THE AMENTA — “AN EPOCH ELLIPSIS”

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Jan 212021
 

 

In early December we got a big but very welcome surprise when Debemur Morti Productions announced that they would be releasing a new album by the avant-garde Australian death metal band The Amenta (the band’s first full-length in almost eight years), and sprung upon us a video for the album’s first advance track, “Sere Money“. And now we’re springing upon you a video for the album’s second single, “An Epoch Ellipsis“, along with an interview of the The Amenta’s Timothy Pope which focuses on what you’re about to see and hear.

The name of the new album is Revelator, and Debemur Morti has set February 19th as the release date. As DMP rightly reports, it is “the culmination of nearly 20 years’ collective experimentation in nonconformist, dissonant, dynamic and electronically-lacerated Death Metal”. And although we typically resist just copy/pasting promotional texts written by others, the following passage does a very good job as an introduction to the manifold experiences the album presents: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VALGRIND — “FROM THE VISCERA OF DARKNESS”

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Jan 212021
 

 

We’ve been following the music of the Italian death metal band Valgrind for many years, and for good reason. But if you happen to be discovering them for the first time, despite how often we’ve written about them, they released four demos and an EP between 1995 and 2002 — and then seemed to go into hibernation until the appearance ten years later of their debut album, Morning Will Come No More. Another four years passed, and then Valgrind’s second album, Speech of the Flame, was released by Lord of the Flies Records. The wonderful 2017 EP Seal of Phobos tided over Valgrind fans until the 2018 appearance of the next album, Blackest Horizon, via Everlasting Spew Records.

And then last year brought us a new full-length, Condemnation, which was released in July through the Spanish label Memento Mori, who rightly characterized the record as “poignant, crushing and classy”. It was further proof of what the band’s discography had already revealed, i.e., that Valgrind aren’t content to remain stuck in one place. Even after all this time, they have continued to evolve, to challenge themselves, and to let their interests and ambitions lead them to create music that’s mentally and emotionally engrossing for listeners — as well as frequently eye-popping in its ferocity.

And now Valgrind will be independently releasing a new EP named From the Viscera of Darkness, and today we’re pleased to present a video for the title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HULDER — “GODSLASTERING HYMNS OF A FORLORN PEASANTRY”

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Jan 202021
 

 

Hulder’s debut album Godslastering Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry is a transportive experience. To be sure, it’s loaded with contagious riffs and head-moving rhythms, but it’s greatest success is in spurring the listener’s imagination, spiriting it away to settings that are far away from the mundane world. Many of those settings are the stuff of nightmares. Others are beguiling and bedazzling, but even then are beset by menace.

In your mind you may walk the halls of ancient castles inhabited by hellish princes and hostile wraiths, or wander through haunting midnight forests under a crescent moon. Your blood may be chilled by the emergence of vampiric creatures from an unsettling gloom, or quickened by the whirl of dancing — witnessing both peasants cavorting ’round a roaring blaze in a freeing moment, and minuets in imperious ballrooms long lost to the ages. But none of it seems real, and almost all of it feels sinister and perilous.

The combination of all these sensations makes the record electrifying, and one there’s no temptation to leave after you get into it. It’s thus with great pleasure that we present a full stream of it in advance of its January 22nd release by Iron Bonehead Productions. Continue reading »

WE ANNOUNCE A NEW PANOPTICON ALBUM AND PREMIERE ITS CLOSING TRACK “KNOW HOPE” (WITH AN INTERVIEW OF AUSTIN LUNN)

 Interviews, Premieres  12 Responses »
Jan 192021
 

 

In a new year that has already brought an over-sized share of awfulness in very short order, we bring you good tidings: By the coming spring, Panopticon will release a new album, through its steadfast partner Bindrune Recordings.

The name of the album is …and again into the light. It consists of eight songs encompassing 70 minutes of music. And today, in addition to the good news, we’re presenting a video for one of those eight songs. Entitled “Know Hope“, it’s the extensive track that brings this stunning album to a close.

We will have much more to say about the album in the coming days, but for now we’ll provide a brief preview, as well as an interview with Panopticon’s Austin Lunn which sheds further light on what inspired the album, the collaborators who were involved in making the music, and other details that ought to pique your interest (as if you weren’t plenty interested already). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRABUNHOLD — “HELDENTOD”

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Jan 192021
 

 

Take a good look at the cover art for Grabunhold’s debut album Heldentod, because it provides a few pertinent clues to the music. In elaborate fashion, the drawing depicts a blending of the supernatural and the medieval. A castle looms in the distance, banners flying in a cloud-cloaked mountain fastness. In the foreground a hellish king, surrounded by ghastly creatures emerging from the earth, gazes over long columns of dread warriors marching toward that distant fortress. And above it all, a crossed sword and mace adorn the ornate lettering of Grabunhold’s name.

Like the fantastical cover art, Grabunhold’s formulation of black metal is itself a blending of the supernatural and the medieval. It is itself cloud-cloaked and majestic, warlike and elaborate. It often rings with the resonance of ancient music, and it reaches spectacular heights, but it is also persistently shadowed by dread and sorrow. It merits the well-worn term “epic”, but there is an earnestness and sense of devotion in the music that prevents it from sounding calculated or “cheesy”. And its multiple facets are so memorable that it’s likely to have staying power over years to come.

Thus it’s with considerable pleasure that we present a full stream of the album in advance of its January 22nd release by Iron Bonehead Productions — preceded (of course) by a bushel of additional words. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEAD EXALTATION — “OMNIA MORS AEQUAT”

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Jan 182021
 


Photographer: Aditya Ranga

 

It’s our pleasure today to premiere the third single from Despondent, the debut album by Dead Exaltation, a technical/progressive death metal band from Pune, India, who drew their initial inspirations from the likes of Cryptopsy, Cattle Decapitation, Gorod, Spawn of Possession, and Cynic.

As those references suggest, the band’s music revolves around intricate structures and technically demanding execution, without sparing the brutality, but as you’ll discover from today’s song, those aspects of the sound are not the ends in themselves but techniques for achieving other objectives, and they are not the only techniques evident in the band’s multi-dimensional song-writing.

The album’s title itself perhaps embodies multiple meanings. It connects with some of the lyrical themes, but perhaps also with tragic events that occurred during the completion of the album. When recording began, Dead Exaltation were a trio — vocalist Satyajit Gargori, drummer Aditya Oke, and guitarist Mradul Singhal (who also doubled as bassist). However, before production of the album was complete, Mradul passed away. As a dedication to his legacy, Satyajit and Aditya resolved to complete the record. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BASILICA — “STARVE”

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Jan 152021
 

 

North Carolina-based Basilica took shape beginning in September 2016 through the desire of three music-school majors at Appalachian State University who wanted to form a metal band in the vein of Dying Fetus, Power Trip, and Code Orange. Those three — guitarist Cameron Price, bassist Chandler Bell, and drummer/vocalist Reilly Appert — originally took the name Golgotha, and the following year they welcomed drummer Brady Kennedy into the fold, allowing Reilly to move up front on vocals, and also changed their name to Basilica.

With two EPs to their credit under the Basilica name — 2018’s Orbit Has Ceased and 2019’s Weight — they’re now on the verge of releasing their self-titled debut album on Innerstrength Records. And in advance of that February 5th release we’re now presenting the album’s second single, “Starve“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HOLY DEATH — “CREEPING DEATH” (A METALLICA COVER)

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Jan 152021
 

 

Just after last Thanksgiving Day, our man Andy Synn wrote combined reviews here of the three EPs released in 2020 by Holy Death, who describe themselves as “three piece death doom out of the Nevada desert by way of Los Angeles”. Those EPs — Supreme Metaphysical Violence, Celestial Throne ov Grief, and Deus Mortis — revealed a multi-faceted and evolving approach, with the most recent of those EPs demonstrating that (in Andy‘s words) “the band continue to (somehow) get even harsher and even heavier as they grow in confidence and skill”.

With those EPs stacked up in very impressive fashion, Andy predicted “there’s a very good chance that the group’s next release will be their best yet!” What we didn’t know then but do know now is that Holy Death‘s next release (which we’re now premiering) is a cover song — a cover of Metallica‘s “Creeping Death“. Not completely surprising, since Deus Mortis closed with a cover (of Entombed‘s “Wolverine Blues”), but also kind of an intimidating choice as a song to cover. Continue reading »

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