AN NCS PREMIERE: SVART LOTUS — “UNDERGANG”

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Mar 082021
 

 

What we are about to present is, among other things, a fascinating case study in how talented musicians can take a song by a different artist with a dramatically different style from their own and transform it into something new — something of their own — while still retaining a connection to the original. Of course, you could just call it a “cover”, but that seems like an inadequate label for the kind of wonderful interweaving of artistry that has been created here.

The song in question is “Undergang“. It was written and originally recorded by a Norwegian folk musician named Stein Torleif Bjella, and it appeared on his 2013 album Heim For å Døy. The cover of the song, which we’re now premiering, was created by the Norwegian black metal band Svart Lotus, and it adds to the already significant proof that Svart Lotus isn’t just another black metal band, but a particularly distinctive one that goes its own (very captivating) way.

By way of background for those just now discovering the band, allow us to repeat a few things we wrote the last time we premiered a Svart Lotus single: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE AND A REVIEW: SCITALIS — “AWAKENING”

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Mar 052021
 

 

Today the black metal band Scitalis from the north of Sweden make their debut with an EP named Awakening that’s being released by Vendetta Records, and to help spread the work we’re presenting a full stream of its six ravaging tracks.

Presented through a clear and powerful production (which makes effective use of channel shifting), the music is persistently pitch-black in its temperaments, though it explores them in dynamic fashion and with piercing, mood-altering melodies that become key ingredients within changing episodes of upheaval and surrender. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DECLINE OF THE I — “DIEV VIDE”

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Mar 052021
 

 

When writers characterize a piece of music as “ambitious”, that might mean different things to different people, but usually signifies an effort to reach beyond what is commonplace, perhaps through the use of unusual techniques or the creation of rare sounds but more often by trying to more fully engage the listeners’ imaginations and emotions — to create a sensation that takes them places far beyond mundane experience. In all those ways (and others), the new album by the French post-black metal band Decline of the I is ambitious, and it greatly succeeds in realizing those ambitions.

The name of the album is Johannes, and its ambitions actually extend beyond what we hear. For example, there can’t be many black metal albums out there which (as this one does) take their inspiration from the works of Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. And this album is also the beginning of a new trilogy, following this band’s completion of a previous one, which was inspired by the works of French surgeon and neurologist Henri Laborit.

We’ve already written about the first song that was revealed from the album (“The Veil of Splendid Lies“), and today we bring you a second one in advance of the album’s March 26 release by Agonia Records. Its name is “Diev Vide“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GREY AURA — “MARIA SEGOVIA”

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Mar 042021
 

 

You can guess even from gazing at the cover art for Grey Aura‘s new album (by Dutch photographer/artist Sanja Marusic) that you may be about to experience something that’s well off the usual beaten paths, and that turns out to be undeniably, unmistakably, true.

The album’s name is Zwart Vierkant, and it will be released on May 7th by Onism Productions. In creating it, this Dutch band from Utrecht have crafted a fascinating, hard-to-categorize musical narrative that is bound to a novel written by Grey Aura’s Ruben Wijlacker which follows the journey of an early 20th-century painter through Europe, a character who has become obssessed with the Russian art movement Suprematism.

Onism has provided a description of the album, which we’re going to share with you because it really does provide a good introduction to the music — but we will also be giving you a chance to actually listen to some of the music, through our premiere of the album’s opening track, “Maria Segovia“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ORECUS — “THE OBLITERATIONIST”

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Mar 042021
 

 

On March 12th the Swedish modern death metal band Orecus will follow up their 2016 Conclusion EP with a debut album accurately named The Obliterationist through Violent Groove (a label whose own name is entirely fitting for this band’s music). Today we present a full stream of the album, preceded by a preview of what you’ll be in for.

Orecus choose to begin the album with the title track, and it provides an explosive introduction to their terrifically destructive and disturbing strategies. It delivers jolting and jabbing riffs with pile-driving power and savage energy, accompanied by gritty, ferocious, belly-deep growls and attention-grabbing drum rhythms, which often provide a counterpoint to the rapid-fire riffing and which, in the chorus, transform into maniacal blasting as the music soars in delirious, blazing fashion. The song builds up to an even more brutalizing and compulsive hammer-sequence whose piston-driven blows will send your head pumping like an oil derrick. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STONE HEALER — “WHENCE SHALL I”

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Mar 032021
 

 

We are surrounded these days by so much new music, perhaps in part an unforeseen by-product of lockdown days and an abundance of pandemic-provoked anxieties. Much of it is very good, even when the artists aren’t pushing boundaries, or maybe only nudging them a bit, like an elbow bump.

But every now and then we hear something that really makes us sit up straight and take notice, something that pulls together different stylistic ingredients in unexpected ways that shove through boundaries. And when that’s done by people who are unusually gifted instrumental performers but who also bring undeniable emotional power to their song-writing, well then it’s almost like a lightning strike through the top of your head.

And that brings us to North Carolina-based Stone Healer, whose new album Conquistador is all of those things and more. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ABSCESSION — “RAT KING CRAWL”

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Mar 032021
 

 

It is time to hail our ever-present companions the rats, who have become even more visible and aggressive during the pandemic lockdowns, when both public human presences and their refuse have diminished. As one report noted, “Rats are coming out of hiding. They’re taking to the streets in broad daylight and invading homes in a desperate search for food.”

And so the timing seems perfect for us to present Abscession‘s lyric video for their song “Rat King Crawl”, which is off their forthcoming second album, Rot of Ages (coming later this spring via Transcending Obscurity Records). And what better way to exalt the rats — and their hunger for human flesh — than through an electrifying dose of ravaging Swedish death metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): REQUIEM FOR OBLIVION — “HINDSIGHT 2020”

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Mar 022021
 

 

Almost four years have passed since we last heard from Requiem For Oblivion, who make their home in Erie PA. Their last album back then, Burning Nation, was a head-spinning fusion of technical and progressive death metal that was multi-faceted, unpredictable, and electrifying. And now the band is returning… and some things have changed.

Requiem For Oblivion have marked their return with a new EP named Hindsight 2020 that will be released on March 5th, and which you’ll be able to hear for yourselves through our premiere of a full stream. Trying to sum it up as a challenge, but here’s a stab at it:

The music is mechanistic and merciless in its destructiveness but also freakish and twisted in its bizarre and surprising contortions — a display of cold machine power dialed up to titanic levels but operating within a state of untreatable psychosis. The grooves are so massive and punishing that they’ll tempt you to ruin your neck, but everything else about the music (and, to be honest, even the grooves themselves) will keep you (and your sanity) off-balance, to the point that by the end you may be asking, “What the fuck just happened?” You’ll wonder where you’ve been and how the hell you’ll find your way get back to where you started. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SACRILEGIOUS CROWN — “PLENILUNIUM CULT”

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Mar 022021
 

 

Raw black metal is a tiny and obscure niche within the greater world of extreme metal, but one with fervently devoted adherents among both performers and listeners. But as small as the niche is, the music within it isn’t all the same thing, any more than it is in other micro and macro metal realms. Some creators, for example, create abrasive and unpleasant assaults on the eardrums, relishing the antagonisms unleashed by such mutilating lo-fi attacks. Others follow different paths, and one of those is the intensely atmospheric one followed by the Italian one-man band Sacrilegious Crown.

Active since 2015, with three demos and two full-lengths in the catalogue, Sacrilegious Crown is about to release a new EP named Plenilunium Cult via Xenoglossy Productions, and we have a full stream of its remarkably chilling sensations for you today in advance of that March 5th release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNFLESH — “HOLOCAUST OF STARS”

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Mar 012021
 

 

Two years after releasing their debut album Savior, the New Hampshire extremists Unflesh are returning with a new album and a revised line-up. Entitled Inhumation, the new album, which is set for release on April 2nd, is the work of founding vocalist/guitarist Ryan Beevers (ex-Solium Fatalis) along with two new members: bassist Orion Hubbard (ex-Excrecor) and drummer Jeff Saltzman (Aversed, Allegaeon (live), Continuum (live), ex-Solium Fatalis).

In ways that match the album’s conceptual inspirations (more on that later), the music also reflects a more immersive and indeed atmospheric take on the band’s brand of death metal, which draws into play ingredients of black metal as well as eye-popping technicality.

To help introduce the album, what we have for you today is the premiere of one of the album’s most exhilarating tracks, “Holocaust of Stars“. Continue reading »

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