AN NCS PREMIERE: WORMVEIL — “SAILS OF FLESH”

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Dec 082020
 

 

Jonny Pettersson seems to be a perpetually busy musician. The Metal-Archives list of active bands in which he’s a participant runs to more than 20 names, including Wombbath, Heads for the Dead, Pale King, and Henry Kane. And now MA will have to update its list, because Pettersson has given birth to a new project named Wormveil, in which he’s joined by his Wombbath and Pale King bandmate Jon Rudin performing the drums.

Wormveil’s debut outing is an album named Profane Excellence, which will be released in January 2021 by Hecatombe Records, and today it’s our pleasure to reveal a track from the album named “Sails of Flesh” — which includes a guest guitar solo by another one of Pettersson’s Wombbath and Pale King comrades, Håkan Stuvemark. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LACOLPA — “RELICS”

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Dec 082020
 

 

On the day of the Winter Solstice, the 21st of December, Brucia Records will release the second full-length by the Italian band LaColpa. Given the critical acclaim heaped upon the band’s first album, 2017’s Mea Maxima Culpa, both intrigue and anticipation have circled around this new one, the title of which is Post Tenebras Lux.

The album’s title translates to “after darkness, light”, but it is often difficult to imagine that any light will survive the nightmarish experiences that the band have crafted through their amalgam of blackened doom, drone, and improvisational harsh noise. Thematically, as the band’s label explains, “this new album outlines LaColpa’s philosophy of pain, deeply rooted in the human condition of eternal suffering”. In what we judge to be the band’s own words, the inspiration for the music is a harrowing philosophy: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE NOCTAMBULANT — “HELLRAZOR”

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Dec 072020
 

 

Black metal will probably always be principally associated with the cold climes of northern Europe. That is, after all, where the second wave originated and where it has achieved its greatest and most long-lasting popularity. Even as black metal has spread like another plague into almost every corner of the globe, much of the music still tends to gravitate toward the Scandinavian templates, even when bands come from places that couldn’t be more different.

One such place is southern Florida, where The Noctambulant make their home. With a trio of opening EPs under their belts and two albums, the last of which was 2019’s The Cold and Formless Deep, The Noctambulant had carved a black path that also drew upon Scandinavian traditions, albeit with an emphasis on hook-heavy melody as well as sinister, supernatural, and venomous atmosphere — and with a pronounced place for swaggering, hard-rocking heat.

Yet after five years of exploring the musical landscape of Black Metal, The Noctambulant have decided to adopt an aesthetic that they see as more authentic to their southern Floridian roots. “Being steeped in the traditions of Blues, Rockabilly, Goth rock and American Country”, they report that they have “found their niche in the Southern Gothic motif that they were raised around”. In a realm of pine forests and hot, oppressive swamps, they’ve changed course in a way that better reflects that environment.

As a sign of the band’s changed direction, we present a video for a new single being released today named “Hellrazor“, a video whose high production values contrast with the setting in which the band perform and a devilishly seductive figure cavorts. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIG ME NO GRAVE — “MORTUUS TEMPLARIS”

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Dec 072020
 

 

On December 15th of this waning year the Mexican label Iron Blood & Death Corp. will release the third album of the Russian “ancient death metal band” Dig Me No Grave. Entitled Under The Pyramids, it’s a 10-track onslaught whose song lengths are mainly in the three-to-four-minute range, and represents the work of the band’s new line-up of vocalist Alexey Rumyantsev, guitarist Nikita Smirnov, guitarist/bassist Ivan Mishin, and drummer Anatoly Schenikov (with appearances on some tracks by bassist Vlad Kotov and drummer Roman Galinov).

Today we present the new album’s fourth track, “Mortuus Templaris“, and if your ass happens to be dragging today, it will fix that problem quickly by providing a swift jolt of high-octane fuel for your nervous system. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEA SLEEPER — “GEORGE VAN TASSEL”

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Dec 042020
 

 

Today we’re premiering an official video for the second single from Nostophobia, the debut album of Portland OR’s Sea Sleeper, who have dfrawn inspiration from such diverse bands as Gorguts and Gojira, Mastodon and Blut Aus Nord. The song’s name is “George Van Tassel“. That name may mean something to some of you (the ones who are wearing tin-foil hats as they read this). For others, a bit of background is in order.

According to The Font of All Human Knowledge, “Ufology is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most famously, extraterrestrial alien visitors).” According to the same source, the roots of this “pseudoscience” date back to the late 1890s but began to truly flourish after World War II. The lineage of ufologists is a long and colorful one, and certainly one of the more colorful and influential exponents was the man for whom this new song was named, American author George Van Tassel (1910-1978). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BURIAL OATH — “PAGAN FIRES”

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Dec 042020
 

 

It’s always a welcome day at our site when we have the chance to help spread the word about the music of Burial Oath. We had the pleasure of premiering and reviewing this Cleveland black metal trio’s debut album, Beyond the Vale of Shadowlands, back in 2017. It made a striking impression. The music was sulfurous and savage, but its ferocity was more than matched by the appeal of its dark melodies and the dynamism of its rhythms and energies. The next year the band released their second album, and we praised it as well:

“Subjugation of the Bastard Son was recorded live, and it has the sort of immediacy and visceral power of a powerhouse live performance. The vocals are persistently scalding in their intensity; the blazing, booming, and hard-rocking drumwork seizes control of your pulse; the deep bass thrum seems like a frantic heart; and the riffs are irresistible, whether the guitars are racing in a ferocious fury or jangling and jumping. The music is often black-hearted and bleak, but the energy is nevertheless explosive, and the hooks in these songs are razor-sharp…. It’s the kind of record that richly rewards a complete listen from start to finish because these dudes do such a fine job filling these songs with dynamic twists and turns, and giving each one its own memorable qualities.”

And now we’re excited to spread the word about Burial Oath again. The band are working on a new album that they plan to record by the end of the year, and as a sign of what they’re doing they’ve created a video for a new song called “Pagan Fires“, which we’re proud to reveal today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE LYLAT CONTINUUM — “ZERO”

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Dec 032020
 

 

The song you’re about to experience is named “Zero“, but maybe it would have been better named “Infinity”, not only because of the times when it becomes vast and mysterious but also because of the multitude of eye-opening permutations you’ll encounter along its elaborately labyrinthine path — not an infinite number, of course, but still dazzling in their diversity and cumulative impact.

The song is off a debut album named Ephemeral by The Lylat Continuum, a band whose talented line-up is now split between Colorado and California, and who enlisted Evan Sammons (Last Chance to Reason) on drums and bassist Jordan Eberhardt (The Contortionist, ex-Scale The Summit) as session musicians for the album. As already forecast, the music is an adventurous blend of ingredients, and is rightly considered a hybrid, described by the band in this way: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EVISORAX — “TERRIBLE VIPER”

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Dec 032020
 

 

On the first of June 2020 (which seems like five years ago in this time-fractured year) we reviewed the new album by the British grindcore band Evisorax, the title of which is Ascension Catalyst. Despite its multitude of tracks it was intended to be heard straight through. Nevertheless, we accompanied that review with the premiere of a video for just one of its many short, crazed blasts — and today we’re doing it again, presenting a new video for the song “Terrible Viper“.

The occasion for this new premiere is the impending release of Ascension Catalyst on vinyl by 7 Degrees Records. As you can see above, the original cover art by Soulsdue and the striking splattered vinyl that holds the music are brain-scrambling, which is exactly as it should be, given the nature of the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CROWN OF ASCENSION — “TWIXT ZERO AND INFINITY”

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Dec 022020
 

 

Twixt Zero and Infinity, the debut EP by the unorthodox UK black metal band Crown of Ascension, is an unusual, and unusual arresting, cornucopia of sounds and strategies. Its intrigue derives in part from the ingenious use of cello and piano, but also from the amalgamation of those distinctive ranging tones with jaw-dropping percussive tumult, droning guitar, gossamer cosmic ambience, and terrorizing vocal extremity. And thus the songs hint at the elegance and grandeur of chamber music, but within frameworks of shattering chaos, dreadful suffering, and eerie, luminous brilliance.

Crown of Ascension is a new project, but its mastermind is not a newcomer. It’s the work of Alexander White of Vessel of Iniquity and Uncertainty Principle. The EP will be released on December 4th by Xenoglossy Productions in a limited tape edition, as well as digitally, and we’re excited to premiere a full stream today. Our guess is that it’s not quite like anything you’ve heard this year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: 5 R V L N 5 — “WORLD OF FILTH – DISSOCIATION REMIX” (BY JUSTIN K. BROADRICK)

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Dec 012020
 

 

5 R V L N 5 is the name of a solo/collaborative electronic-based Industrial project created by Chicago’s Chuck Clybourne. 5 R V L N 5‘s first release was a five-track EP named The Black Mark, which appeared just as the pandemic was beginning to get into full swing in March of this year. Its harrowing soundscapes turned out to be a prescient representation of the miseries, the disgust, and the rage spawned by the months that have followed, as well as something like a desire for escape. As we work our way to the end of 2020, but with no imminent end in sight to everything that made it so rotten, it’s fitting that 5 R V L N 5 has arranged for new sonic experiences.

One of the tracks on The Black Mark is “World of Filth“. Tomorrow it will be re-issued in the form of a “maxi single” accompanied by two remixes, one by Sanford Parker (Corrections House, EyeHateGod, Statiq Bloom) and the other by Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Napalm Death). Earlier today Cvlt Nation premiered the “Deliverance” remix by Sanford Parker, and we’re now bringing you the “Dissociation” remix created by Justin Broadrick. Continue reading »

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