AN NCS PREMIERE: BORGNE — “JE DEVIENS MON PROPRE ABYSSE”

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Feb 102020
 

 

Originally the solo project of Bornyhake (whose name has been associated with a significant number of other groups), but eventually expanding into a full band, the Swiss entity Borgne released their first album in 1998, and their path since then has resulted in eight more full-lengths. The most recent of those, entitled Y, will be released by Borgne‘s new label Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions on March 6th.

Borgne‘s musical hallmark has been the integration of industrial music into black metal, with an increasingly atmospheric quality that combines with the compulsive mechanical rhythms and intense, ravaging aggression. We have a prime example of these aspects of Borgne‘s music to share with you today, as we premiere the new album’s second track, “Je Deviens Mon Propre Abysse” (I Become My Own Abyss). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KOLOSSUS — “JOURNEY”

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Feb 072020
 

 

Although the solo project Kolossus has sprung from the mind of a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist (Helliminator) who is located in Italy, he has drawn his inspirations from such northern bands as Taake, Enslaved, Emperor, and Helheim, and has devoted himself to the creation of Black/Viking Metal. After a split (The invocation of Makt) with Manon was released in 2019, Kolossus has now recorded a debut album called The Line of the Border, which will be co-released on March 19th by Satanath Records (Russia) and The Ritual Productions (Netherlands).

For this debut full-length, Helliminator composed the songs and the lyrics, and performed vocals and all instruments other than the drumming, which was executed in astonishing fashion by Emanuele Prandoni (Anamnesi, Simulacro, Ancient). The album also features two guests on particular tracks, with Vicotnik (of Dødheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende) contributing vocals on the album’s first preview track, “Norge“, and a musician named Daisy who performs solo guitar on the track we’re about to premiere — an explosive song named “Journey“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AARA — “ARKANUM”

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Feb 062020
 

 

The best music doesn’t all succeed in the same way. Some of it induces contemplation, setting your mind free to rediscover long-lost memories or to imagine what you might become. Some of it produces a physical reflex so compulsive that it’s irresistible (and you don’t want to resist). Sometimes it provokes such a powerful emotional response that it banishes whatever you were feeling before and transports you, without volition, into intense new feelings that last beyond the minutes of the music.

The song you’re about to hear by the Swiss black metal band AARA succeeds in all of those ways.

That song, “Arkanum“, opens their new album En Ergô Einai, which will be released by Debemur Morti Productions on the 3rd of April, and it’s also the first glimpse of the music that the public will have. As early glimpses go, this one is a stunner, and it happens to include an introduction created by Vindsval of Blut aus Nord. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKJULT — “THE SIGHT”

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Feb 052020
 

 

Almost exactly two years ago we premiered a blood-freezing track from Progenies Ov Light, the second album by the Cuban black metal band Skjult, through which its lone member Conspirator channeled dark and devilish creative impulses. Now we have the good fortune of premiering a song from the band’s forthcoming third full-length, Lucifer Hominum Salvator, which is coming out on March 17th via Satanth Records.

While still driven by devotion to Luciferian anticosmic themes, Skjult has followed a path of musical progression, which was evident in the movement from the first album to the second, and is evident again through this third record, which Satanath correctly sums up as more melodic, less raw, impressively dynamic, and propelled more deeply into the depths of hell. The music raises memories of early Watain, Necrophobic, Valkyrja, and early Dark Funeral, and we have a prime example of these sensations in this new track, “The Sight“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INNO — “PALE DEAD SKY”

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Feb 052020
 

 

Undoubtedly, when metal fans first learn about the line-up of the Roman band INNO they will be attracted by the names of other bands on the members’ resumes — such names as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hour of Penance, Coffin Birth, and Novembre. In addition to kindling interest, those other names will likely spawn certain expectations about INNO’s sound. And what fans will then discover upon exploring the music is that INNO’s veteran members have chosen to pursue different interests in this project, and have turned their music in different directions.

Led by the commanding voice of Elisabetta Marchetti (ex-Stormlord, ex-Riti Occulti), INNO characterize their music as “dark metal” — an amalgam that includes ingredients of doom, gothic, and progressive metal — and they make comparative references to the likes of Katatonia, The Gathering, Amorphis, and Porcupine Tree. Their debut album is named The Rain Under, and it’s set for worldwide release by Time To Kill Records on February 20th.

What we have for you today is the exclusive premiere of a music video for the album’s third track, “Pale Dead Sky“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OATH OF DAMNATION — “I CURSE THEE, O LORD!”

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Feb 042020
 

 

On March 13th the Australian blackened death metal devastators Oath of Damnation will return to the battlefield with their second album, the well-named Fury and Malevolence. Gore House Productions will be the bearer of these seven tracks of unchained ferocity and pitch-black darkness, and we’re in the fortunate position of presenting the first publicly revealed track from the album today through a lyric video.

Entitled “I Curse Thee, O Lord!“, it’s the song that ends the album. As the band tell us, and as you’ll discover through the video, the track delivers “unrelenting savagery paired with a twist on the classical biblical tale of Abraham commanded by his god to sacrifice unto him, his son, Isaac. Unlike in the classic tale, here, no angels come to stay his hand. Press play and destroy!” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEAST OF REVELATION — “LEGIONS”

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Feb 042020
 

 

Last month I was induced to listen to the title track from the debut album of Beast Of Revelation (entitled The Ancient Ritual of Death) by the names in the line-up:  drummer Bob Bagchus (Hellehond, Infidel Reich, ex-Asphyx, Grand Supreme Blood Court, Soulburn, and more); guitarist/bassist A.J. van Drenth (Temple, Throne, ex-Beyond Belief), and vocalist John McEntee (Incantation).

On that title track McEntee‘s vocals are demented and disorienting, an expression of roaring and wailing wretchedness that raises goosebumps. And the music is absolutely crushing and authentically disturbing, heavy enough to pound your cranium into splinters and weird and woeful enough to fracture your sense of well-being too. Listening to it risks sore-neck syndrome and mental mutilation.

Given the resumes of the band’s members, none of this should come as a shock, even if the music itself creates shockwaves. And we have more of Beast of Revelation‘s merciless and morbid doom-death devastation for you today as we premiere the song “Legions” in advance of the album’s March 6 release by Iron Bonehead Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCHATTENFALL — “TOTENTANZ”

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Feb 032020
 

 

Unlike many other metal sites, we didn’t try to assemble a list of “most anticipated” 2020 releases as a way to help turn the clock from the old year to the new. It might have been a good idea (and we’ve done it in the past), but shortness of time and an abundance of other distractions prevented that. However, if we had created such a list, I have no doubt that Schattenfall’s new EP Das Verderben would have been on it.

I first drawn to this Germany-based band’s 2017 debut album Schatten in Schwarz because their line-up included two former members of the fantastic White Ward, and that album turned out to make a stunning impression. Perhaps even more stunning was the band’s second album (which included new vocalist Stefan Traunmüller of Golden Dawn, Rauhnåcht, Selenite, The Negative Bias, and Wallachia). I gave significant attention to the preview tracks as they emerged, and Andy Synn acclaimed the album in his review as one of his favorite black metal albums of the year so far, and home to manifestations of “gloriously melodic misery” that were “second to none”.

No wonder, then, that we have been excited for this new three-track EP — and equally excited to present the first preview track today, in advance of the EP’s co-release on February 28th by Redefining Darkness Records (North America) and Wolfspell Records (Europe). But you had best steel yourself before listening to “Totentanz“, because its emotional intensity is absolutely ravaging. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CARNOSUS — “DECEPTIVE AUTHORITY”

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Feb 032020
 

 

The Swedish melodic death/thrash band Carnosus are both young in age and youthful in their career, but their rapid progress has been unusually impressive. Their first EP, 2016’s The Universal Culmination (which they recorded with Tomas Skogsberg at Stockholm’s famed Sunlight Studio) opened a lot of eyes and ears, earning them an accolade from Sweden’s Close-Up Magazine as “the best unsigned band in Sweden” in May 2016. But it’s clear that there was still a lot of untapped potential in this group, because their debut album Dogma of the Deceased is a big step up over the EP, in both its songwriting and its execution

This time Carnosus recorded the album at Studio Fredman with producers Fredrik Nordström and Robert Kukla, and the record features memorable cover art by Vojtěch “Moonroot” Doubek. The album will be co-released on March 13th by Satanath Records (Russia) and Shirley Road Records (U.S.), and today we’re bringing you the lyric video for a powerful new single from the album named “Deceptive Authority“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLACK CROWN — “LAHAMU: THE AWAKENING”

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Feb 022020
 

 

When the passing of Necrophagia vocalist Killjoy effectively brought an end to that storied death metal band, Necrophagia bassist The Mountain VVitch eventually turned his unquenched musical impulses toward a new project named Black Crown. A demo named The Rise of Astaroth appeared without fanfare, but was noticed, and now Black Crown will release a debut album through the combined forces of Satanath Records (Russia), More Hate Productions (Russia), and The End Of Time Records (Ireland) on March 14. Entitled Caverns Of Thantifaxath, it includes nine demonic invocations, one of which we’re premiering today through a lyric video.

Black Crown self-proclaim their music “Black Ritual Metal”, and this new song, “Lahamu: The Awakening” does indeed sound like what the lyrics manifest — the invocation of a fearsome warrior demon. No solemn supplication this, but rather a conjuration made of fire and fury, of cold poison and ominous sorcery. Continue reading »

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