AN NCS PREMIERE: IGNOBLETH — “PROSELYTE PIG I”

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Mar 162026
 

(written by Islander)

The Italian black/death marauders Ignobleth admit that their first EP, Voidspawn Sacrifice, could be likened to “Blasphemy and Archgoat worship”. But their sound and style have morphed since then, and the music on their forthcoming debut album Manor of Primitive Anticreation is a much more twisted, unpredictable, and unsettling beast — still capable of reaching ruinous heights of war metal bestiality but also transporting listeners deep into mind-warping and blood-freezing nightmare realms.

As a sign of these changes we have for you today the premiere of the debut album’s second single, “Proseylte Pig I“, in advance of the album’s release by Caligari Records on April 17th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CANDARIAN — “ALTARS AND ANCESTORS”

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Mar 132026
 

(written by Islander)

This is a tough day for people with friggatriskaidekaphobia, the fear of Friday the 13th, especially because we just had another one of those last month. But we’re about to magnify the fear of this day with a new song from the Costa Rican death-dealers in Candarian.

This song, “Altars and Ancestors“, is from the band’s debut album Trepanación, which will be dropped upon the world by Memento Mori and Me Saco Un Ojo on April 27th. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MULLA — “KEIDE ÓLIM OSYNDRA JÚREDI”

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Mar 132026
 

(written by Islander)

For reasons obvious to anyone with their eyes and ears open, the Middle East is the focus of great attention these days, the broad locus of a war whose boundaries seem to be continuously expanding with no clear end in sight (and a certain orange-toned deviant raving about the “honor” of killing people. The black metal band Mulla probably did not foresee this staggering conflict would be happening around the release of the video we’re now premiering, but it’s not as if the current conflagration hasn’t happened there before.

To be clear, Mulla is not a Middle Eastern band, despite some confusion about their location (which the band themselves had a hand in generating). This duo is located in Kazakhstan, their lyrics are in their native tongue, and they are not practicing Muslims.

Their goal, as they have explained, “is neither preaching nor criticizing, but rather creating a unique cultural hybrid, a simulacrum with its own powerful poetics.” “This is a conceptual journey through mythologized landscapes, where images of Islamic culture (calligraphy, philosophical motifs, linguistics) become the colors of a black metal painting.”

The video we’re presenting is for a song called “Keıde ólim osynda júredi” from Mulla’s latest album Jannan (released in December 2025). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TRAGOS — “BELLICUM”

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Mar 122026
 

(written by Islander)

We’re about to lead you off our usual well-beaten paths, or rather the French band Tragos will do that through their debut album Bellicum that will be released by Fetzner Death Records on March 13th.

Gazing at the album’s cover art will give you a hint about the music within, which is an exhilarating alchemy of savage and slaughtering death metal and classical elegance influenced by baroque composers such as Matteo Carcassi, Fernando Sor, Scarlatti, and Bach.

If you’re unfamiliar with Tragos, you might now be imagining heavy doses of keyboards or synthesized violins or cellos, or perhaps the kind of over-the-top bombast that some classically inclined death metal bands put forward, but you’ll learn that’s not what Tragos are up to. You might also be wondering how well their unusual fusion of beastliness and elegance will work, and you’ll get your answer (it works exceedingly well) through our complete premiere of Bellicum today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LAGO — “FODDER”

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Mar 112026
 

(written by Islander)

How long has it been? How long has it been since you first heard the Arizona band Lago, or last heard them? In my case the first exposure was 13 years ago when I heard (and was floored by) their two-song demo Tyranny. Ever since then, I’ve followed their releases closely and managed to catch two shows they played in Seattle, one in a small club almost 11 years ago and another at Northwest Terror Fest in 2018, both of them killer performances.

As for the last time I heard them, well, 2018 was also the last time they released an album — Sea of Duress (favorably reviewed here by our Andy Synn). A lot of time passed, but things looked up when Lago released a new single in 2024, “Millenia of Scourge“, which I thought represented a strong step forward from what they’d done before. It was also a promising sign that Lago’s creative cauldron had started to boil again.

And sure enough, Lago have a new album headed our way this year. Titled Vigil, it’s set for release on May 8th by one of our favorite labels, Everlasting Spew Records. As E.S.R. previews, the music is “a dense and suffocating descent into lacerating and surgically cold darkness,” channeling “the weight of dissonant and modern Death Metal while carving deeper into their own bleak and atmospheric sound.”

We also have a statement about the album from Lago themselves: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATLANTIC RIDGE — “OUR FAITH IS OUR STRENGTH”

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Mar 112026
 

(written by Islander)

Atlantic Ridge is the brainchild of Italian artist Giuseppe Emanuele Frisone, who will be known to our site’s visitors (and many others) as the person behind such heavy musical projects as Thecodontion and Clactonian. We’re told that the ideas for Atlantic Ridge came to him as long ago as 2019, and then took shape through years of work, with the help of the band’s second member instrumentalist Jacopo Gianmaria Pepe (from the progressive rock/death metal outfit Bedsore).

At last, Atlantic Ridge will have their self-titled debut album co-released in April by Void Wanderer Productions and Dusktone. The labels describe the music as “blending elements of atmospheric black metal and funeral doom metal passages”, evoking “alternatively rich atmospheres and desolate soundscapes”, and recalling “the immersive spirit of bands like Wolves in the Throne Room or Altar of Plagues, combined with the majestic heaviness of early Ahab.”

The album’s conceptual framework is also intriguing. Each of the six songs as we received them includes a parenthetical subtitle which points to a far-flung and mysterious locale on the Earth’s surface, which is consistent with the labels’ further description of the album as one that “represents both a physical and spiritual journey: a descent into the unknown, chasing the idea of reaching to the world’s farthest edges.”

What we’re bringing you today is the premiere of the first song to be revealed from Atlantic Ridge, “Our Faith Is Our Strength (Tristan Da Cunha)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ZERRE — “ROTTING ON A GOLDEN THRONE”

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Mar 102026
 

(written by Islander)

I always relish the opportunity to brandish the often bizarre and blood-curdling artwork of Paolo Girardi at the top of our site, and as you can see, we’ve seized the opportunity to do that again today.

This ghastly painting also happens to be a literal representation of the title of the album that it adorns — Rotting on a Golden Throne. That album is the fourth full-length from the German high-octane neck-wreckers Zerre, which is now set for release by Dying Victims Productions on March 27th.

What we have for you today is an official video for the new album’s explosive title song. But before we get to it, here’s the label’s preview of what the new album brings us: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SINCE THE DEATH — “HE KEEPS FORGETTING”

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Mar 102026
 

(written by Islander)

We are now about to present a song that’s furious and frightening, a beastly manifestation whose formidable sonic and emotional powers are compulsive at a visceral level.

This song, “He Keeps Forgetting“, is the first to be revealed from a new album named Entangled by the Swedish band Since The Death, which existed as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Oscar Rask since beginning in 2016 (joined by various guest musicians on different releases) but has now expanded in a way that will bring Since The Death on stage for the first time this year.

Entangled also marks the band’s first record on the Norwegian label Nordic Mission Records, which has set Entangled for release on April 24th. As the label describes, “Musically, Since The Death operate at a fierce intersection of death metal, thrash, and black metal, fusing aggression with precision and atmosphere while maintaining a careful balance between cohesion and contrast.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NIFROST — “LIVSKRAFT”

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Mar 092026
 

(written by Islander)

“Hailing from Jølster, Norway, Nifrost return with a masterful display of melodic and epic black metal. Following the well-received Blykrone and Orkja, it is now time for Briseld. Once again, the legacy of Windir and the seeds planted by Enslaved and Borknagar have borne fruit in a new collection of songs.”

And that is how the Dusktone label begins to introduce Briseld, which is now set for release on March 20th. As a truly soul-stirring example of what the album brings listeners, today we premiere its second single, “Livskraft”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MUERTO — “WILDERNESS”

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Mar 092026
 

(written by Islander)

On April 17th Transcending Obscurity Records will release the third album by the doom-laden Mexican black metal band Muerto. Its evocative name is Eclipsed Realms — evocative because the music itself seems to transport listeners into un-real realms of perpetual shadow, there to be overcome by an array of harrowing and haunting experiences.

Two songs from the album have been previously revealed, and today we bring you a third one — “Wilderness“. Continue reading »

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