AN NCS PREMIERE: SERENE DARK — “TRANCE OF DISINTEGRATION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 032020
 

 

After 12 years operating under the name Endemise, the Ottawa band Serene Dark had undergone so many line-up changes and alterations of musical direction that the time seemed right for a new name. They chose their new moniker, as guitarist Dale Sauve has explained, to reflect the band’s current musical approach — it “can be soothing and melodic at times, and dark and heavy at other times, so Serene Dark was a perfect fit.”

The band have also shed some light on the concept behind their new album Enantiodromia, which will now be released on July 17th (a virus-related postponement from its original street date): Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SANCTIFYING RITUAL — “SANCTIFYING RITUAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 032020
 

 

Germany’s Sanctifying Ritual first staked their black flag in foul underground soil with their first demo back in 2009. They followed that with another demo three years later, and then came the Storm of Devastation EP in 2013 — after which the band fell silent. But now they have come roaring back with a long-awaited debut album which bears the band’s name. It will be released by the esteemed Iron Bonehead Productions on June 5th, with a digital edition available that day, as well as CD and vinyl LP formats also becoming available.

The new album, which we’re giving you the chance to hear in full today, could easily have been given the title of the band’s first demo — Sadistic Death — because that’s the kind of feeling it breeds. The music incorporates a range of stylistic ingredients, but everything sounds saturated with evil — not cold and brooding menace but poisonous, rampant, and blood-spraying malignance, nothing you could reason with or resist, a combination of seething pestilence and knives-out malice, of supernatural riot and noxious rot. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WITCHING — “VERNAL”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 032020
 

(Accompanied by the following review written by Andy Synn, we present the premiere stream of Vernal, the new album by Witching, which will be released on June 5th. It features cover art by Alex Eckman-Lawn.)

Life often throws up some strange coincidences, does it not?

Case in point, we almost missed out on hosting the premiere for this album, the debut full-length from Philadelphia quintet Witching, as the initial invitation to do so wound up getting buried in our ever-overflowing inbox.

Wouldn’t you know it though, the same day I got in touch with Islander to see if we had received a promo for the album (having become enamoured with the handful of pre-release tracks available on the group’s Bandcamp page) we also received a follow-up email from the band’s PR rep, with the final result that we agreed to combine my review with the premiere you’re about to listen to.

Like I said, coincidence is a strange, but sometimes extremely satisfying, thing. Continue reading »

EVISORAX: THE PREMIERE OF THE “DRAW THE LINE” VIDEO AND A REVIEW OF “ASCENSION CATALYST”

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Jun 012020
 

 

We’re premiering a video here. It’s for one of 15 tracks on the new album, digitally released in April, by the British grindcore band Evisorax (with a vinyl edition coming from 7Degrees Records). But although you can find a track listing on Metal-Archives, the album is presented on Bandcamp as one track of nearly 28 minutes in length, and that’s exactly how it should be experienced — because it’s definitely not a “typical” grindcore record. Of course, you should watch and listen to the video, but definitely do not stop there.

The album, Ascension Catalyst, gradually builds toward an explosion of deranged off-planet warfare, which is insane when it happens, and then slows again at the end, descending into bizarre chaos. In between, things generally stay at a fever pitch — but not always. You really won’t see everything coming, in part because at some point your eyes may roll back into your skull. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE HALLOWED CATHARSIS — “KILLOWNER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 012020
 

 

Killowner is the new EP by The Hallowed Catharsis, who make their home in Vancouver, BC. Over the course of six compact songs they tell “the desperate story of the end of life for a mutated human pet of an elitist extraterrestrial master after she has lost her merit and attempts at having her breed prove futile”. Consistent with the narrative concept, the music itself seems extraterrestrial, and it’s a wild thrill-ride from beginning to end.

“Unhinged progressive death metal” is the formulation applied to the music by Lacerated Enemy Records, who will release the EP tomorrow (June 2nd), and you’ll understand why when you hear it. And hear it you can, because we’re presenting a full stream right now. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DESCEND INTO DESPAIR — “OPIUM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 312020
 

 

Opium, the new album by the Romanian funeral doom band Descend Into Despair, is a classic example of a musical river. It began somewhere high in the mountains (a collective of minds). As the waters flowed down, they picked up an increasing variety of ingredients and became enriched, eventually gathering in a vast array of sonic textures and changing moods as well as works of visual art. By the time it reaches the sea (what by all rights should be a sea of listeners), it has become a flow of great and branching power. And as it mingles with the waters of that sea, it will become something different again, as the listeners bring their own experiences and emotions into the interpretation of what they hear.

The album truly is vast — an hour’s worth of music divided into only three tracks — and both the scale of its dramatic power and the intensity of its emotional impact are sweeping. It’s also musically rich, both in the variety of its instrumental and tonal textures (many of which are foreign to the traditional experience of funeral doom) and in the spectrum of the voices. And like a great river, it has the capacity to carry listeners away across changing soundscapes, and to submerge them in its extravagant depths. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IRAE — “BETWEEN RUINS”

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May 292020
 

 

Over the course of the nearly 20 years that have passed since the spawning of Irae in the Portuguese black metal underground, the project has been prolific, with Irae’s music being released in three dozen demos, splits, compilations, live recordings, and five full-length albums, the most recent of which will be released by Signal Rex on the 20th of June.

Operating from within a Portuguese alliance known as the Black Circle, whose members also include Mons Veneris, Vetala, Decrepitude, and Rainha Cólera, Irae’s sole creator Vulturius has pursued a nihilistic vision of malice and misanthropy through a distinctive formulation that combines the aggressive abrasion of raw black metal with melodies of penetrating emotional power. On this new album, Lurking in the Depths, he was aided by session members on drums and synths, with the latter adding an important dimension to the music’s multi-faceted sound. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FORDOMTH — “SCIRE”

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May 292020
 

 

At least from a distance the vision I have of Sicily is a sun-drenched land, hilly and pastoral, surrounded by the brilliance of Mediterranean waters, culturally rich and filled with the evidence of ancient civilizations. To be sure, there are contrasts with those visions — aspects of human darkness and brutal violence (as there are wherever human beings congregate), and the looming menace of Mount Etna, whose active vulcanism still periodically casts black ash over this vast island.

It is the darkness that fuels the creations of the Sicilian band Fordomth, along with the inspirations of ancient esoteric mystery. The warmth of the sun does not touch their music, even though it often blazes. Instead, through a striking combination of black, death, and doom metal, Fordomth deliver explosive power, and create sensations of dread, despair, and revelation, with unnerving intensity.

Their new second album, Is, Qui Mortem Audit, is certain to leave deep and unsettling impressions that will linger long after its June 26 release by Auric Records — just as memorable as the gripping cover art created by Khaos Diktator Design. There, a Capuchin monk gazes into the abyss. The abyss is revealed through the music as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEFEATED SANITY — “IMPOSED CORPOREAL INHABITATION”

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May 282020
 

 

Fans of brutal and technical death metal should need no introduction to Germany’s Defeated Sanity. Still helmed by co-founder Lille Gruber (drummer and current guitarist), the band have been releasing savage and scintillating music since the mid-’90s, with five albums to their credit, the most recent of which — The Sanguinary Impetus — will be discharged by Willowtip Records on July 24th.

One track from the new album, “Propelled Into Sacrilege“, has previously been released, and today it’s our privilege to present a second one through an official music video in which the band perform the song. Its name is “Imposed Corporeal Inhabitation“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AMIENSUS — “A CONVOCATION OF SPIRITS”

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May 282020
 

 

Over time most ardent music fans learn to identify different experiences that provide listening thrills. There’s the pleasure of listening to new music from old favorites, even though those old favorites may not be bringing anything new to the table in comparison to their defined sound. There’s the delight of making new discoveries — finding new bands doing new things. And then there’s the pleasure that comes from following the progress of bands, like Minnesota’s Amiensus, who start strong and then evolve, becoming both more intriguing and even stronger as the years pass by.

We’ve been following the progress of Amiensus, essentially step-by-step, since the release of their 2013 debut album Restoration (which, by the way, has lost none of its appeal in the ensuing years). It was evident from the beginning that this was a very talented group of songwriters and musicians, and what has become evident since then is that they are confident enough in their talents, and exploratory enough in their interests, to branch out in ways that enrich their brand of atmospheric and progressive black metal. And that adds intrigue to the announcements of new Amiensus music.

The latest source of intrigue was the news that later this year Amiensus will be releasing their third album, Abreaction, through Transcending Records. We’ve all already had one interesting peek into the album, when the band released an acoustic version of a song called “A Convocation of Spirits“, and today we’re providing a further insight as we premiere a different version of that same song. Continue reading »

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