AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERVAL — “BEELDENSTORM”

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Jul 232020
 

 

In early 2018 the Dutch atmospheric black metal band Verval opened a lot of eyes with their debut album Wederkeer. They didn’t pave the way to that full-length release with a sequence of demos or other shorter works, but simply sprang into being, though the album was the culmination of years of effort. Now this talented duo are returning with an astonishing new EP named Beeldenstorm. It will be released on July 24th — tomorrow! — but you’ll have a chance to become immersed in it today as we present a full stream of its three significant tracks, which together total almost 25 minutes of music.

Verval‘s two members — R. Schmidt (bass, cello, guitars, vocals) and drummer W. Damiaen — have been key participants in many other noteworthy bands, including Wesenwille, Laster, Mystagogue, and Sea of Trees. Only two of them here, but on Beeldenstorm they sound like an army, and what they’ve created will take your breath away. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RESIN TOMB — “BESTIAL”

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Jul 222020
 

 

If you’re an extreme metal band and you name a song “Bestial“, you’d better be prepared to back it up. You’d better find your inner animal and uncage it, and that animal had better be terrifying. Let’s put your mind at rest right away (before we give you a chance to wreck your mind): Resin Tomb back up that song title to the bloody hilt.

This death/grind formation from Australia have clearly found their higher calling, which is the delivery of stunningly ruinous sonic savagery. The band features members of Siberian Hell Sounds, Descent, and Snorlax, so it’s not a complete shock that they’re capable of the shocking assaults you’ll find on their self-titled debut EP, which will be released on July 31st by Brilliant Emperor Records. But we hasten to add that, as “Bestial” itself proves, they’ve not burned the playbook of effective song-writing, even though they do such a frighteningly good job of incinerating and fragmenting everything in their path. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DARKENED — “THE OLD ONES”

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Jul 222020
 

 

The term “supergroup” is over-used and sometimes not entirely accurate, but it does come to mind in the case of the multi-national death metal formation Darkened. At a minimum, no one would dispute that the band is rich in experience and with a line-up pedigree that’s immediately impressive. Darkened‘s collective resume certainly played a role in drawing the attention of fans to their 2019 debut EP, Into the Blackness, and then the music on the EP did the rest of the job, proving that the band’s members were earning their accolades all over again and intensifying interest in what they might do next under the Darkened banner.

What they’ve done next is a debut album that will be released by the same label that helped usher that EP into the world — Edged Circle Productions. The imposing title of the full-length is Kingdom of Decay, and it will hit the streets (like a warhead) on September 11th. One electrifying song from the album is already out, and now we’re presenting a second one that’s perhaps even more dynamic and multi-faceted but no less adrenaline-charged. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RUIN — “PLAGUE TRANSMISSIONS: VOL. 2”

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Jul 212020
 

 

The California death metal band Ruin released their first demo in 1991, and then nearly a quarter-century later they revived and re-formed. Since 2015 they’ve released two albums (Drown In Blood and Human Annihilation), but a much greater number of short releases, including EPs and splits. They’ve gotten into the habit of periodically releasing compilations that collect these shorter works, and the latest of those is what we’re bringing you today.

Plague Transmissions: Vol. 2, which will be released by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions on July 24th, collects Ruin tracks from a 2018 EP (Into Endless Chasms), a 2018 split with Anthropic, a 2019 EP (Death Tomb), a 2020 split with Abysme (Rotting Madness), and a 2020 EP (Infested Death) — 18 tracks at all. And a more vile and ghastly administration of obliterating punishment you could hardly imagine. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HATEFUL — “CALDERA”

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Jul 202020
 

 

Musical vulcanism, even in extreme metal, takes different forms. Death metal in particular is capable of doing an exceptionally good job in channeling explosive destruction, but it doesn’t always fully capture the transmutation of matter on a micro-level or the massive reconfiguration of mountainous landscapes on an epic scale that happen during and after the earth’s megaton upheavals. The Italian band Hateful, on the other hand, prove themselves capable of doing all those things in the song we’re presenting today.

How they create these sensations is a wondrous (and bewildering) thing to behold. Transcending Obscurity Records, which will release Hateful’s new album, Set Forever On Me, on September 25th, identifies some of the explanations in this way: Hateful’s music “includes elements of the early technical death metal bands like Atheist, Gorguts, Disincarnate and Death, powerful brutal coagulants such as Suffocation and Deeds of Flesh, and even the kinetic, ever-changing properties of bands like Spawn of Possession and Necrophagist.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SIBIREAL — “SYMBOLS”

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Jul 202020
 

 

As many of you know, we have a year-end list that’s devoted to highly infectious extreme metal songs. The song we’re premiering today from the debut album of Sibireal quickly jumped onto the candidate list — and not just this one, but another song that was the first track excerpted from the album. Today’s song is “Symbols“, and the one that preceded it is “The Way of Ego”.

The title of the album is Blood Color Sky, and it’s set for co-release on August 8th by the Ukrainian label GrimmDistribution (a label partner of Satanath Records) and the Russian label Wings Of Destruction.

Sibireal are themselves based in Russia, in the foothills of the Altai mountains, which The Font of All Human Knowledge tells us is “in the very center of Asia at the junction of the Siberian taiga, the steppes of Kazakhstan and the semi-deserts of Mongolia.” And thus perhaps it’s not surprising that although the musical backbone of Sibireal is thrashing black metal, their music sometimes includes the Altai harp, tambourines, and throat singing. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEATHNOISEFREQUENCY — “HORRID DIRGE”

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Jul 172020
 

 

Straight out of Saudi Arabia comes Deathnoisefrequency. That’s right, Saudi Arabia, not the easiest platform from which to launch a new musical project, and perhaps especially not one named Deathnoisefrequency. But that’s what the duo of Ghassan Al Fudail and Ahmed Mahmoud have done. Both of them have also been bandmates in a Saudi doom/death metal project named Grieving Age, but here they’ve turned in a different direction, one that’s described as “a limitless musical experiment with an all-encompassing creepy, dark and depressive atmosphere where noise and death metal are smashed together with reckless abandon”.

In 2016 Deathnoisefrequency released a single but have now re-surfaced with a debut, two-track EP named Horrid Dirge — which itself is merely a part of a forthcoming LP projected for release by the end of this year. Today is the EP’s official release date, and to help spread the word we’re premiering a full stream of the sounds. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DYSTOPIA A.D. — “SISYPHEAN EXISTENCE”

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Jul 172020
 


In Greek myth Zeus punished the Corinthian king Sisyphus for his hubris and trickery by forcing him to roll an immense boulder up a hill in the underworld, only for it to roll down every time it neared the top. This consigned Sisyphus to an eternity of useless effort and unending frustration, and his name has been associated with pointless or interminable activities ever since, and with goals maddeningly forever out of reach.

Drawing upon this concept, the New Jersey melodic death metal band Dystopia A.D. have crafted a song called “Sisyphean Existence“, which appears on their forthcoming second album, Rise of the Merciless, and it’s that song we’re presenting today in advance of the record’s July 31 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FORLORN WORLD — “THE SHADOWMANCER”

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Jul 172020
 

 

Let’s deal first with the elephant in the room: Forlorn World is the solo project of Josh McMorran, the principle figure behind the enormously successful UK extreme metal band Bloodshot Dawn. That fact alone will form immediate expectations about the music, even though Bloodshot Dawn‘s path has displayed its own twists and turns from album to album, the latest of which was 2018’s Reanimation.

And the connections to Bloodshot Dawn don’t end there — Bloodshot Dawn guitarist Morgan Reid makes a guest appearance on Forlorn World‘s debut album Umbra, and Bloodshot Dawn bassist Giacomo Gastaldi (also Darkend) also handled the bass on Forlorn World‘s debut.

So, why isn’t Umbra a Bloodshot Dawn album? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PROSANCTUS INFERI — “HYPNOTIC BLOOD ART”

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Jul 162020
 

 

Ohio’s Prosanctus Inferi will release Hypnotic Blood Art, their first album in seven years, on August 15th via Nuclear War Now! Productions. Founder and only constant member Jake Kohn (vocals, guitars) is joined on the record by drummer Jeremy Spears (who proves to be as hellishly good as Kohn himself is). According to the advance press, “Kohn sheds some of the technicality and velocity of his prior performances in favor of a heavier sound, reflecting, in many ways, a return to the band’s foundations”.

Moreover, lyrically and conceptually, Kohn also “harkens back to the band’s earlier days, with a focus on medieval and renaissance conceptions of Hell and damnation — topics that figured prominently on the demo recordings.”

The album’s first advance track, “Dark Scarp of Hell“, made a striking impression, something like a burning spike hurled into the head. And now we’re presenting the new album’s second single, “Hypnotic Blood Art“, which is no less compelling. Continue reading »

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