AN NCS PREMIERE: JÄRNBÖRD — “GÖR OM, GÖR FEL”

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Jun 252021
 

 

Imagine having electrodes jammed into your neck and someone spinning up the voltage dial to full power while other marauders beat you with hammers, scamper about the room in savage ecstasy, and bray in your face with raw, vitriolic yells. You spasm, become savagely bruised, and yet it all feels fucking great.

That kind of vision might be what comes to mind when you listen to the title track off Järnbörd‘s new album Gör om, gör fel (meaning something like “do again, do wrong”), which will be released this year by Downfall Records. The album includes 10 tracks of fast and heavy grindcore and punk, plus a long 11th track that presents a remix of the first 10 tracks using harsh electronics and synth-filled landscapes of noise. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GALVANIZER — “THE EVER-CRESCENT”

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Jun 252021
 

 

Three years ago we had the ghoulish pleasure of premiering the debut album of the precocious Finnish death metal band Galvanizer, summing it up as “a full-throttle, titanically toned barrage”, with each compact song delivering “an electrifying death/grind rampage, each one spliced with grooves”. As we wrote then, “the music rips, romps, and pounds, and sometimes (but not often) it drops into a grisly, staggering lurch,” with the whole affair draped in “a morbid mantle of horror”.

Sanguine Vigil was indeed hellishly impressive, and so is their full-length follow-up, Prying Sight of Imperception. It’s so impressive that Me Saco Un Ojo and Everlasting Spew have again teamed up to release it, as they did the debut album, and so impressive that we’ve again signed on for a premiere in advance of the July 26 release date. Today’s revelation is “The Ever-Crescent“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SUFFER YOURSELF — “RIP TIDE”

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Jun 242021
 

 

During a falling or ebbing tide the outflow of water through constricted channels can create a powerful surge capable of carrying a person caught within it far offshore, or dangerously submerging them in the surging flow, with little ability to escape and find air once again. This phenomenon is called a rip tide — and when you listen to the remarkable new album by Suffer Yourself you will understand why they chose Rip Tide as its name.

This multinational funeral doom collective, which first began as the solo project of Polish musician Stanislav Govorukha and then blossomed, like a night-blooming flower, into a full band, has released two previous albums, 2014’s Inner Sanctum and 2016’s Ectoplasm. On this third one, they’ve expanded and altered their musical range in ways that bring them closer to the deathly terrain of such bands as Esoteric and Evoken — though it would be a mistake to push that comparison too far, because Suffer Yourself possess their own distinctive identity and have drawn within their music a multitude of stylistic and tonal ingredients that make each song different from the others and the album as a whole an unconventional experience.

You’ll be able to discover all of that for yourselves today, because we’re now premiering a full stream of Rip Tide on the eve of its release by Aesthetic Death. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LAETITIA IN HOLOCAUST — “HAIR AS THE SALT OF CARTHAGO”

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Jun 242021
 

 

2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the fascinatingly distinctive Italian black metal band Laetitia In Holocaust. To celebrate the occasion, the band have recorded a new three-song EP entitled I Fall With the Saints, and Brucia Records is releasing it on a limited run of tapes, along with a book that includes photos and an exclusive interview with the band covering much of their history. Today, in addition to sharing this news, we’re reviewing the EP and premiering one of its three songs, “Hair as the Salt of Carthago“.

For those who may only now be discovering this band despite their longevity, Laetitia in Holocaust was formed in 2001 by Stefano G. and Nicola D.A. That duo self-released two demos, one EP, and two albums before being joined by drummer Marcello M. for the release (by Third I Rex) of the remarkable (and enormously surprising) Fauci tra Fauci in 2019, which we had the thrill of premiering here. And they followed that with the release last year of the transfixing Heritage (via Nifihel Records).

It’s possible to make comparisons of this band’s idiosyncratic creations to the avant-garde stylings of a few other bands, but the truth is that they really don’t sound like anyone else I’ve encountered. Trying to sum up their music in succinct sentences would be a daunting challenge. Forgetting the music after you’ve heard it would be an impossibility. This new EP is a vivid demonstration of all that. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SIDEREAN — “LOST ON VOID’S HORIZON”

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Jun 232021
 

 

The Slovenian band Siderean began their career under the name Teleport, and as Teleport they released a sequence of demos culminating in 2018’s remarkable Expansion. Afterward came the name change, and a refinement of sound, which was displayed on Siderean’s 2020 demo, aptly named Sidereal Evolution, which was released by Edged Circle Productions. And now, at last, Edged Circle Productions will soon release Siderean’s debut album, Lost On Void’s Horizon.

In their Teleport incarnation, the band drew influence from the likes of Gorguts, Voivod, and Australia’s Stargazer, with musical connections to contemporaries such as Blood Incantation and Sacriphyx. But as revealed on that 2020 demo and even more so on the new album (which includes those demo tracks), they’ve ventured out into more mind-bending and off-planet dimensions, creating a combination of progressive and technical death metal that’s as fascinating and enthralling as it is disorienting.

Thus, it’s with a genuine thrill that we present a full stream of the album just days away from its June 25 release, preceded by our review. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): IRAE — “DANGEROVZ MAGICK ZPELLS FROM THE MESZIAH OF DEATH”

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Jun 222021
 

 

If you are familiar with the catalogue of raw black metal assembled by the one-person Portuguese band Irae, then you will have some idea what to expect from the band’s new EP, intriguingly titled Dangerovz Magick Zpells from the Mesziah of Death — but you will likely still be surprised. The music is in many ways as idiosyncratic as the title, and its effect on the mind is confounding.

Like much of raw black metal, and perhaps especially that produced by the Portuguese cults, the music is willfully abrasive — yet this EP still manages to be enthralling. The moods are often harrowing in their displays of inner torment, but equally capable of reaching heights of tortured grandeur. The garage-band sound of the drums is primitive, but the beats are invigorating and head-hooking. The songs generate auras of blood-freezing, supernatural terror, but somehow still harbor beckoning, magical melodies that are spell-like and seductive.

We have further, more detailed, thoughts below about the fascinating contrasts within these unsettling yet beguiling compositions, which are not soon forgotten, but we also have a premiere stream of the EP for you, in advance of its June 24 release by Signal Rex. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PRAYERS OF SANITY — “DOCTRINE OF MISANTHROPY”

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Jun 212021
 

 

Without healthy doses of experimentation and evolution, metal (like all forms of music) would stagnate. And of course where innovation succeeds it can be especially exciting. But that doesn’t mean that bands who faithfully honor tradition are doomed to fail — far from it. It depends on how good they are at what they choose to emulate — on the strength of their songwriting prowess, their instrumental skill, and the authenticity of their spirit.

Which brings us to the Portuguese band Prayers of Sanity. This trio — bassist Carlos, guitarist André, and vocalist/drummer Tião — joined forces for the purpose of reminding everyone that ’80s thrash metal was still alive and kicking. They took their cues from such classic bands as Exodus, Nuclear Assault, and Testament, while charging their music with the raw intensity of punk and hardcore.

But while Prayers of Sanity devoted themselves to an old genre loaded with stand-out names and die-hard fans, their music is anything but stagnant. Even fans who’ve grown jaded about thrash (and that includes this writer) are going to have their eyes popped open by this group’s newest album (their fourth full-length), Doctrine of Misanthropy. It’s so riotously explosive (yet sharply executed), so vicious, and so immediately addictive, that it provides a huge thrill from beginning to end. And we are thrilled to let you hear all of it today in advance of its June 25 release by Rastilho Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEFORMATORY — “BEYOND THE ABHORRENCE”

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Jun 212021
 

 

Let’s cut to the chase: Imagine filling a syringe with unadulterated adrenaline, sticking it straight into your carotid artery, and jamming the plunger down with as much force as you can muster. That’s the effect of listening to Deformatory’s “Beyond the Abhorrence“.

Driven by the mad weaponry of drummer Neil Grandy‘s almost relentless double-kick barrage and the rabid monstrosity of Charlie Leduc‘s cavernous bellowing, the song is a non-stop attack of mind-mutilating, pulse-pumping savagery. Leduc unleashes a plethora of macabre riffs and mutated leads, creating a multitude of frightening yet electrifying sensations, none of which are connected to a sane mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STRESS ANGEL — “FINAL DOOM”

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Jun 182021
 

 

The NYC-based duo Stress Angel began carving their musical path with an eponymous death-thrashing debut demo last year, but it’s now evident just how determined they are to make their own way, because their debut album reveals a turn in the path they began to blaze with that 2020 release.

The music on Bursting Church is an exercise in blackened thrash — and as previewed by the accompanying press materials, it is indeed characterized by “contorted riffery, pitiless battery, shrill screams, and frantic execution”. But by contrast to other participants in the genre, for Stress Angel it’s not all about how viciously we can rip and how fast we can slash and burn. The music also reveals an almost idiosyncratic approach to riff-craft that gives the songs a changing emotional resonance and an overarching atmosphere that’s supernatural and unmistakably sinister — as you’ll discover through “Final Doom“, the song we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s co-release on July 2nd by Dying Victims Productions and Stygian Black Hand. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NONE — “NEVER KNOW”

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Jun 182021
 

 

In the midst of all the metallic extremity that usually froths, blisters, and batters us around here, we have found NONE. It is musical extremity of a different kind, one in which neofolk and ambient ingredients play a more prominent role (along with many other elements, including influences from black metal and industrial), but no less arresting than the more ear-ruining assaults that are our usual bread and butter.

The mastermind behind NONE is the California-based artist Nicholas Mendiola, and on his new album Interdimensional War Poetry (released on June 4) he becomes the host and the voice for the entity that his project is named for — “the deity of his creation and the eternal version of himself”. The lyrics of the songs are evocative but mysterious. Sometimes they seem like a personal journal, tracing a quest through time and space, and often seeming to raise more questions than answers.

The music on the album itself sounds like a quest. It twists and turns in unpredictable directions, and its altering moods and changing sounds make it an easy one to get lost in, even though it’s also the kind of often-frightening experience that will trouble your dreams. We have a very good example of that effect in the song that’s the subject of the video we’re premiering today — “Never Know“. Continue reading »

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