AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OMNIARCH — “PATHFINDER”

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Apr 142020
 

 

Omniarch come our way from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and they don’t come timidly. Their formulation of technical and progressive death metal absolutely blazes with exuberant spirit, technical virtuosity, and turbocharged energy, while incorporating memorable melodic and atmospheric accents. It’s the kind of music that will likely find welcome among fans of such bands as Revocation, Inferi, and The Black Dahlia Murder.

Omniarch’s self-titled debut album will be released on May 8th, and today we’re giving you a glimpse of all the qualities mentioned above as we premiere the song “Pathfinder” (and in case you missed it, we’re again presenting the album’s first single, “Ohm Cairn“). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PHOBOS MONOLITH — “OKTOBER (LUNAR ECLIPSE)”

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Apr 142020
 

 

“When the Light Will Fade“, the title track and first single released from the debut EP of Phobos Monolith, quickly demonstrated the band’s precocious mastery of ingredients that are vital to the appeal of doom-influenced melodic death metal: craggy low-end weight, jolting rhythms, a vocalist who possesses a deep and ravaging growl that’s spine-tingling to hear, and most importantly a talent for crafting forlorn melodic hooks that make an immediate and lasting impression. In addition, consistent with the band’s thematic interests in the mysteries of space-time and the multiverse, they created a sound that hinted at the vastness of the cosmos, accented by ringing keyboards that sparkled like starshine.

That song made a very positive first impression, and now we’re able to bring you a lyric video for a second single, entitled “Oktober (Lunar Ellipse)“, in the lead-up to the June 29 release of When the Light Will Fade by Pest Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TITAAN — “ITIMA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 132020
 

 

In the broadest and most simplistic terms, the monumental new album by Titaan is a sequence of startling juxtapositions of sound and atmosphere. A single track of more than 46 minutes in length, Itima operates like a musical flux capacitor, capable of sending listeners through time into an ancient age as well as far into the future. And the music is itself constantly in flux, flexing between states of overpowering, densely layered chaos and mystical yet morphing ambient drift into wondrous and blood-freezing realms.

As in the case of Titaan’s debut album Kadingir, the project’s alter ego Lalartu (whose identity and location remain a mystery) has worked alone, which makes the extravagant achievements of Itima all the more jaw-dropping. It is evident that this massive composition required meticulous planning and is the result of extensive attention to detail, everything well-calculated to pitch the listener into a gigantic and perilous labyrinth of sounds and sensations that seem completely divorced from mundane earth-bound existence.

To be sure, the full experience requires patience, but on the other hand it doesn’t take long to become transfixed by what’s happening, and to lose track of time as the music’s rituals hurl you without warning across millennia and into mystifying dimensions both nightmarish and celestial. Today we’re providing the chance to lose yourself in the labyrinth of Itima through a fukll stream of the album in advance of its April 16 release by ATMF. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FROM THE VASTLAND — “KHAN E AVAL”

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Apr 122020
 

 

Working alone (or mostly so), Sina began writing and recording black metal in Iran many years ago under the name From the Vastland, indulging his love of old school Scandinavian black metal in a place where the performance of such music was banned by the government. From the beginning, he has made the culture of his homeland a part of his creations, writing lyrical themes that draw upon ancient Persian mythology and history — epic tales of battles between darkness and light, good and evil, gods and devils — and weaving touches of Persian melody into the fabric of his songs.

Life for Sina took an unexpected turn when he was contacted by the Norwegian producer of the black metal documentary Blackhearts (eventually released in 2017) and became a part of that film, which in turn led to the opportunity in 2013 to perform at the Inferno Festival in Oslo. There he was joined for the performance by a backing band that included such luminaries as bassist Tjalve (Horizon Ablaze, Svartelder, ex-1349, ex-Den Saakaldte) guitarist Destructhor (Nordjevel, Myrkskog, ex-Morbid Angel), and drummer Vyl (Whoredome Rife, ex-Keep of Kalessin, Gorgoroth). And that in turn led to the opportunity for Sina to move to Norway, which he did in 2014.

From his new home in the cradle of black metal, Sina has continued to record and to perform at both Norwegian events and international festivals. His newest album, The Haft Khan, will be jointly released on April 30 by Satanath Records and Iron, Blood And Death Corporation — and today we present a lyric video for the new album’s opening track, “Khan e Aval“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KURNUGIA — “PERVERT THE PIOUS”

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Apr 102020
 

 

Hell of an album cover, isn’t it? Kudos to Mark Cooper (Mindrape Art) for that. And kudos to Kurnugia for making the kind of music that merits such ghastly supernatural visuals. “Evil, rotting and heinous death metal” is how the Memento Mori label’s publicist describes this Cleveland band’s new album, Forlorn and Forsaken, and that’s a dead-on description.

If you were to see those PR materials, you would also find references to the legendary names of Immolation, Grave, Incantation, Autopsy, Entombed, Cianide, Morbid Angel, Dismember, Death, Unleashed, Deicide, and Benediction. A big list, to be sure, and also an appropriate one, because the veteran line-up of Kurnugia not only relish the formative sounds of those groups in the early ’90s, but also have a remarkable talent for allowing this range of foundational influences to flourish in their music in ways that would make all those bands damned proud — as you’ll see when you listen to “Pervert the Pious“, the absolutely electrifying song we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IN TENEBRIZ — “BITTER WINE OF SUMMER”

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Apr 102020
 

 

How long ago has it been since I read the great Ray Bradbury‘s Dandelion Wine? Long enough that the passage of years could be measured as a geologic epoch. And I hadn’t thought of the book in a very long time until seeing the title of the new album by In Tenebriz, Bitter Wine of Summer, and reading that the allusion to Dandelion Wine was no accident. That set my memory trolling back through the years, rekindling thoughts of that tale about the summer of two young boys in a fictional place called Green Town, and the experiences it captured of joy, sorrow, youth and old age, terror and fantasy, and the realization that death comes for us all. I re-discovered this passage from the novel, spoken from the mind of its protagonist:

“So if trolleys and runabouts and friends and near friends can go away for a while or go away forever, or rust, or fall apart or die, and if people can be murdered, and if someone like great-grandma, who was going to live forever, can die… if all of this is true… then… I, Douglas Spaulding some day, must…”

Drawing inspiration from Dandelion Wine is a rarity in the world of extreme metal (does anyone know of another instance?). The album’s cover art is, to put it mildly, also an exception. It is also connected to the music, as described by the labels who are releasing the album, but the words probably come from the man behind this Russian atmospheric black metal band: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATH COURIER — “AS HEAVEN BLENDS WITH ROT”

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Apr 092020
 

 

The name Death Courier has a history in the Greek metal scene that goes back to the first of their early demos in 1987, and with an extended break that began after the release of their 1992 debut album (Demise), that name is still alive. Their first studio after the band revived, Perimortem, was released in 2013, and now a long seven years afterward Transcending Obscurity Records has set June 5th as the due date for Death Courier’s third record, Necrotic Verses.

The first song released for listening off the new album was “Mourning Ecstasy“. It’s a fast death/thrashing escapade — an electrifying torrent of thunderous drumming, ecstatically vicious riffing that seethes and pummels, and vocals that sound like a rabid mastiff. It’s over almost before you know it, but the kind of song that leaves you hungry for more, which is why it made a good choice for the album’s first teaser.

But now it’s time for all you miscreants to be fed again, and we’re here to help stuff your head with graveyard nutrients as we premiere a song that reveals other dimensions of Death Courier‘s morbid and malevolent talents. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARMNATT — “DENSE FOG”

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Apr 092020
 

 

Like a lusting vampyric demon stinking of sulphur and hungry for innocent flesh, the Portuguese black metal band Armnatt have stoked their hate, strengthened their poisonous spells, and risen again from their catacombs with a second album, six years after their Darkness Times debut. This new one, Dense Fog, will be released on May 1st by Signal Rex, and today we premiere the title track.

As manifested through this new album, Armnatt have created music that is stripped-down, raw, and carnal, as well as supernatural, deeply sinister, and perversely seductive, its cruelty matched by its chilling charisma. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VALLEYS — “MOON CHILD”

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Apr 082020
 

 

Last October Tragic Hero Records released the powerhouse third album by the North Carolina metalcore band Valleys. Aptly entitled Fearless, it represented the culmination of a process of perseverance, with themes that focused on life-changing personal struggles, as well as symbolism directed to the country’s tumultuous political climate and social unrest, inspired by a desire to speak up for the marginalized among us who can’t be heard.

Today we’re presenting a mysterious (and eventually gore-ridden) music video for one of the most explosive and head-spinning tracks on the album, a song called “Moon Child“, along with an interview of the band that focuses on that video as well as the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DOWNCROSS — “CURRENT TOWARDS END”

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Apr 082020
 

 

The Belarusian black metal band Downcross made a startling debut with their first album, Mysteries of Left Path. To paraphrase what we wrote in introducing our premiere of the album early last year, every one of the eight tracks on the album was emotionally powerful, and powerful in the production of their sound. They included magnetically attractive melodic hooks and shifts among contrasting moods within each song — from cold-hearted to glorious, from bereft to barbaric, and much more.

There was also heavyweight heft in the low end, and tremendous, penetrating, gleaming vibrancy in the guitar tones (without becoming completely “clean” in their tone). The drumming rocked and romped as often as it thundered, and there were as many hook-laden strummed chords as the dense wash of blazing tremolo vibrations.

The duo of vocalist/drummer Ldzmr and guitarist Dzmtr quickly proved that their debut was no fluke, because their second album (which we also premiered last fall), What Light Covers Not, was also tremendously good, and further vivid evidence that Downcross are gifted songwriters. Continue reading »

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