AN NCS PREMIERE: GORATORY — “EVOLUTIONARY WART”

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Aug 312020
 

 

Sixteen years is  long time between albums. Over the course of that extravagant span of time, which marks the distance between Goratory’s third record and the fourth one that’s going to be evacuated upon the world by Everlasting Spew Records in October, the members of Goratory went on to perform with such bands as Arsis, Deeds of Flesh, Job for A Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Despised Icon, Sexcrement, and Abnormality. Surely, they still have other things to do with their wicked time. So why now have Adam Mason (Vocals), Al Glassman (Guitars), Zach Pappas (Bass) and Darren Cesca (Drums) decided to resurrect Goratory’s brand of degenerating, grinding and schizoid technical Brutal Death?

Well, take a look around you. What better time than in the midst of the humongous shitshow that is 2020 for these deviants to bare their giant balls again? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ASTRINGENCY — “OF VACANT PLANES”

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Aug 282020
 

 

Today we’re helping spread the word about the release of the second album by the West Texas melodic death metal band Astringency, which follows their 2017 full-length debut, Sanguinarium. Entitled Of Vacant Planes, the album is an extravagant 11-track work that’s packed to the brim with intricate, technically adventurous, and tempo-dynamic performances, while incorporating evocative melodies that cross a wide emotional range.

Stylistically, the music draws from many wells, incorporating Scandinavian melodeath gallops, bursts of full-throttle thrashing, episodes of blackened malignancy and gloom, and a lot more. It’s definitely a “modern” take on the music of this old genre, and thus continues to breathe new life into it. As a further sign of that, Astringency call out the music of such bands as The Black Dahlia Murder, Fallujah, and Allegaeon as influences, in addition to the likes of Obscura, Deicide, and Cannibal Corpse. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORTA — “FÚNEBRE”

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Aug 272020
 

 

in late March of this year the Catalonian band Morta self-released their second work, a half-hour album (or EP if you prefer) named Fúnebre. There seems to have been a very limited vinyl release accompanying the digital version, but the Portuguese label Signal Rex obviously decided that such a gripping combination of ruination and revelation shouldn’t be allowed to languish in obscurity, because Fúnebre is now set for an August 28 re-release by Signal Rex on CD and tape.

Once you hear Fúnebre — as you will be able to do at the end of this post — it’s not difficult to understand why that decision was made. The album is devoted to black metal of an undeniably rough, raw, and riotous fervency, capable of manifesting bestial terrors, but the riffing is always targeted to evoking emotional responses, and the nature of those moods may surprise you. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LEBENSSUCHT – “A HOLE IN MY HEART”

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Aug 272020
 

 

(Andy Synn prepared the following introduction for our premiere of a video by the multinational band Lebenssucht for a song from their 2020 debut album.)

Is there any greater joy than discovering a band early on in their career and then following them as they grow, develop, and evolve into something truly special?

I suppose some people might say parenthood but… those people are wrong.

Case in point, we first came across the bleak malevolence of multinational Black Metal coven Lebenssucht way back in 2016, and even ended up hosting a premiere for their first video, “Beloved Depression”, not long after.

In April this year the band released their debut album, -273,15°C, which built upon the potential demonstrated on their EP by going even deeper, darker, and bleaker than ever, and today we’re once again pleased to host another video premiere for the group, this time for the record’s sinister second track, “A Hole In My Heart”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UPCDOWNC — “SCORE”

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Aug 262020
 

 

Although we believe that our site covers a pretty broad range of music, most visitors know when we’re stepping outside that range, climbing over the fences to take a look at something that lies on the other side. What’s usually inside the fences is a landscape of extreme metal, most of it with vocals that aren’t meant for tender ears, and most of it not meant for tender souls either. And to be honest, what lies on the other side is a universe of sounds far more vast than what’s inside.

It’s fair to say that we’ve climbed over those fences today — though maybe keeping one hand on the fence. Or maybe we’ve just pushed the fence a bit further out. The new album by Upcdownc that we’re premiering today definitely has connections to metal — the music does get plenty heavy, and picks its moments to make abrasive assaults on the senses. And as you’ll discover, some of the moods it channels (and there are a wide range of them) become very dark indeed.

But the album undeniably goes places we usually don’t, and for that it has become a refreshing discovery, one that’s persistently tantalizing and transportive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SPECTRUM OF DELUSION — “AWAIT THE TRANSITION”

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Aug 252020
 

 

We’ve already seen, at least twice over, that the Dutch technical death metal band Spectrum of Delusion (and their film-making allies) are extremely clever when it comes to preparing videos for their forthcoming second album Neoconception.

The video they made for “Into Another Formation” is still one of my favorites of the year. The fact that it was filmed in a single take is astonishing. The fact that they were able to pull it off while having a good time is all the more impressive. And their full-band playthrough video for “Through Mankind’s True Ambition“, in which they fly like crazy across their instruments (and roar in rage) in various placid locales is an enormous kick to watch.

And now we add one more piece of audio-visual entertainment to those, as we premiere “Await the Transition“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EVAPORATED SORES — “ROTE RESURRECTION”

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Aug 252020
 

 

Beginning in April and continuing over a period of weeks Evaporated Sores began teasing the music of their debut album Ulcerous Dimensions by posting disturbing lines of black poetry on their Facebook page, accompanied by unsettling imagery that gave further definition to the words. The lines alone were these, in the order they appeared:

Collapse is rebirth, is death, is nothing.

Cosmic indifference
Inconsequential toil

Birth, decay, death
A feedback loop

A poisoned sea swallows the land.

Existence regurgitated into the void

Marching heedlessly, pitilessly, blindly.

Crushed by the weight of a billion suns.

The last of the Facebook installments, with its accompanying photo, was this one: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VITAL SPIRIT — “IN THE FAITH THAT LOOKS THROUGH DEATH”

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Aug 242020
 

 

Before delving deeper into the sounds of Vital Spirit‘s debut EP, In the Faith That Looks Through Death, let’s begin with the band’s own stated list of musical influences: Ennio Morricone, Taake, Earth, Ulver, Marty Robbins, Dissection, Drudkh, Inquisition, and Wovenhand.

And then let’s add to that this list of their lyrical inspirations: Wovoka, Patti Smith, Chilam Balam, Townes Van Zandt, and the corridos of the Mexican Revolution (with subjects that range from Mayan cosmology and history, to Pancho Villa’s role in the Mexican Revolution, and Wovoka’s Ghost Dance movement).

Got that? Well, you probably don’t, because even though you can read all those names, comprehending how such disparate sources of inspiration could all work together in harness under the coaxing (and the whiphand) of this Vancouver duo is probably a challenge. But when you listen to the music, you’ll discover that it all integrates wonderfully well. And the fact that In the Faith That Looks Through Death doesn’t sound quite like anything else becomes a big part of its attraction. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: ONIRIK (“MELODIES OF REFLECTION AND PRAISE”) AND NOITE (“A COR DO FOGO”)

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Aug 242020
 

 

We have a rare double premiere for you today. We have combined them because the songs come from two albums that will be released on the same day (September 25th) by the same label (I, Voidhanger Records), and because the artist behind the two bands is the same man — the Portuguese multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Gonius Rex.

One of these projects is Onirik, and the track we’re presenting today comes from Onirik’s fifth full-length, The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity. The other project is Noite (the Portuguese word for “night”), and the song we now present is the title track from Noite’s debut album A Cor do Fogo (“the color of fire”).

Both songs are fascinating, and together they are even more fascinating because they are so different from each other in their style — though they are kindred spirits in their inspirations. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALSE GODS — “STAY FROSTY”

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Aug 212020
 

 

‘After releasing three EPs since 2015, New York heavy-hitters False Gods are anxious to release their debut full-length, No Symmetry… Only Disillusion, to the world. The result is a brash, bulldozing juggernaut, shifting between between melancholy and rage with the stroke of a riff.”

So says Seeing Red Records, which will release this crusher of an album on October 16th. But none of us need take the label’s word for it, nor Seeing Red‘s references to such compelling influences as Eyehategod, Crowbar, Godflesh, and Killing Joke, because the song we’re premiering today bears out these claims.

The song is “Stay Frosty“, and it does turn out to be as multi-faceted as you might now be expecting. And it really is a crusher that hits hard on multiple levels. Continue reading »

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