AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SEVERED BOY — “TRAGIC ENCOUNTERS”

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Jul 122021
 

 

You might wonder how the Massachusetts duo Severed Boy chose their name after the quarantine gave birth to their collaboration. One of the two, Nicholas Wolf (the other is his Lunglust bandmate Reid Calkin), explains the choice:

“When I was writing the songs and starting to think about what the lyrical content would be, I wanted to focus on how people could be capable of acting out such horrible acts on each other – whether it’s not caring, or in this case, NOT KNOWING. There’s a sample from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in our drone track ‘Agony and Despair’. I started to fixate on the subject not having a conscience like the monster, or being able to just turn off the conscience. The name SEVERED BOY is the idea that someone could sever the actions of their mind from the actions of their body, and the consequences of doing so.”

Those consequences, as explored on the band’s debut EP Tragic Encounters, are among the absolute worst acts committed by the human mind and body. How the band address such abominations in their music is a question answered by our complete EP stream today, leading up to the record’s July 15 release by Caligari Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RISE TO THE SKY — “END MY NIGHT”

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Jul 092021
 

 

Rise to the Sky is the vehicle for the music of its sole creator, Chilean multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Sergio González Catalán. Though the project’s earliest releases emerged only in 2019, it has already assembled an extensive discography devoted primarily to atmospheric death/doom metal. The newest album, Per Aspera Ad Astra, is set for release on September 3rd by the Russian label GS Productions, and it’s the second full-length by Rise to the Sky that will see release this year.

But the tragic inspiration for the album is one that should be explained before we reveal the album’s second advance track today: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISKORD — “DIRIGISTE RADIO HIT”

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Jul 092021
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records has already revealed enough music from the mind-boggling new album by the Norwegian death metal band Diskord that perhaps most fans of adventurous metallic extremity are already well aware of what a wild and exhilarating trip it is. Yet perhaps we’ll still catch a few new ears today with our premiere of another astonishing track off the record — the name of which is Degenerations — in advance of its August 3rd release.

Diskord’s intricate and unpredictable music is capable of rapidly twisting and turning your mind so that it resembles a Rubik’s Cube prior to the beginnings of the puzzle’s solution. Everything within your head may feel lined up in the right order when you begin, but then Diskord spins it in reverse, creating a jumble of brilliant colors. In the case of the song we’re presenting today, “Dirigiste Radio Hit“, the music creates overarching moods of madness and ferocity, but how it does this is a source of considerable fascination and continuous thrills. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVOID OF THOUGHT — “SIDEREAL NECROSIS”

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Jul 082021
 

 

After releasing a pair of demos and a trio of splits, the time has at last arrived for the Italian death metal band Devoid of Thought to present a debut album — and it doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that it will give this band the kind of rapt attention that the music so richly deserves.

The fact that it’s being jointly released by such connoisseurs of metallic extremity as Everlasting Spew Records and Caligari Records is a dependable sign of the album’s quality, and the mind-blowing songs on Outer World Graves bear out their good judgment.

And speaking of seizing attention, the album’s cover art by View From the Coffin is guaranteed to do that — as will the track we’re premiering today in the lead-up to the release of Outer World Graves on August 27th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALD KRYPTA — “POSSESSED BY NOTHINGNESS”

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Jul 082021
 

 

Wald Krypta are a black metal duo hailing from the U.S. and Canada. To date, they’ve released two demos – Pandemic Winds (2016) and Lost Relic (2019), the former later released on cassette tape by the Eternal Death label – and two albums, 2018’s Nature Enigma and 2019’s Where None Remain, both also released on cassette by Eternal Death. Now they’ve readied a third album entitled Possessed by Nothingness, which will also be released by Eternal Death, on August 6th.

What we have for you today is the premiere stream of the new album’s title track, which seems to perfectly represent the core aspects of Wald Krypta‘s uncompromising musical devotions. Continue reading »

SUMMONER’S CIRCLE: AN ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT AND TRACK PREMIERE (“CHAOS VECTOR”)

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Jul 072021
 

 

Today it’s our devilish pleasure to help spread the word that on August 27th the Tennessee sextet Summoner’s Circle will release their third album, Chaos Vector. And to draw further attention to that welcome news, we’re also premiering an extravagant music video for the album’s equally extravagant title track.

The song itself is sonic alchemy, not merely because it creates a frightening atmosphere of dark magic being practiced and dangerous forces being unchained, but also because it blends together different sensations and stylistic ingredients from the realms of black, death, and gothic metal to create an experience that’s greater than the mere sum of its parts. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MÜTHERLOAD — “Ü”

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Jul 062021
 

 

After releasing three albums and an EP from 2005 to 2011, the melodic death metal band Heaven Ablaze from London, Ontario, called it a day and went on indefinite hiatus eight years ago. But one of the relationships within that group later created the seeds of something new. Years later, a chance encounter between guitarist Patrick Davidson and drummer Matt Ashton led to jam sessions, and eventually to the fleshing out of a complete new band with the addition of bassist Chris McKichan, guitarist Derek Haley, and vocalist Derek Lee (ex-Ataxia). They chose the name Mütherload.

Melodic death metal is still in the mix in Mütherload’s music, but so are ingredients of groove, thrash, and hardcore, so much so that references to Lamb of God wouldn’t be out of line. And as reflected in the band’s debut EP, Ü, which we’re premiering in full today in advance of its July 9 release, they’re capable of creating moments of sublime beauty — as well as discharging punishing fury. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BAXAXAXA — “KINGDOM ABLAZE”

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Jul 062021
 

 

Although the German black metal band Baxaxaxa released their first demo in the long-lost days of 1992, a decade passed before something new emerged (a split with Ungod), and then an even longer silence descended before the release of the Old Evil EP in 2019. Thankfully, the band’s creative fires have clearly been reignited, because yet another EP followed in 2020 (Devoted to HIM), and now we’re approaching the August 6 release date of their debut album Catacomb Cult on The Sinister Flame label.

Vital clues to the music on the new album are revealed in all the titles that have come forth since Baxaxaxa’s revival a few years ago. It is indeed the sound of old evil and of devotion to infernal occult power, with the overarching atmosphere of a death cult performing their sinister ceremonies in the deepest, darkest, and most haunted of catacombs. Further clues my be found in comparative references to such bands as Mortuary Drape, Root, Hungary’s Tormentor, early Samael, and very early Mayhem.

But the best clues come from the musical previews that have already surfaced and the one we’re bringing you today — a song named “Kingdom Ablaze“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FLAME, DEAR FLAME — “THE WOLVES AND THE PRIORESS PART I”

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Jul 062021
 

On July 23rd the Eisenwald label will release Aegis, the debut album of the German band Flame, Dear Flame. Thematically, it is a two-part tale, with each part musically focusing on different aspects of the band’s impressive talents. Because epic doom is one of those ingredients, our friend Comrade Aleks, best known for his doom-metal interviews for us and other publications, shares these thoughts about the album, in the lead-in to our premiere of a song:

“Brunswick, the city where Tijl Uilenspiegel was born, has fed a band who combine the spirit of good old traditional doom and acoustic folk alongside a witch’s charms. Obviously, any doom band with a lady on vocals easily receives the tags “occult” or “mysterious”, and it seems that Flame, Dear Flame aren’t going to be an exception. Down-to-earth riffs, episodic bleak folk-oriented tunes, and the out-of-this-world soaring voice of Maren Lemke distinguish the band from many others.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK MASS — “A PATH BEYOND”

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Jul 052021
 

The first thing that’s going to hook people’s attention to the new album by Boston-based Black Mass is Mike Hoffman‘s fantastic artwork, which evokes fond memories of the legendary Frank Frazetta. But it’s the savage thrill of the music on Feast at the Forbidden Tree that will set the deepest hooks.

This new record adds to a discography that includes two previous full-lengths, 2015’s Ancient Scriptures and 2019’s Warlust, and it’s set for release on September 10th by Redefining Darkness Records. What we have for you today is the album’s first preview — the premiere of an electrifying track named “A Path Beyond“. Continue reading »

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