AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HORN — “MOHNGANG”

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May 122020
 

 

Over the extravagant span of eight albums, the most recent of which we’re streaming in full today, the German band Horn has marched forward on an increasingly distinctive path, diverging from where it began and now blazing a trail of its own through the tangled forests of black metal and entering a clearing in which Horn stands alone. That may sound like an overstatement, but the new album, Mohngang, is a stunning accomplishment that in all its variations and in the richness of its musical textures really is difficult to classify as standing shoulder-to-shoulder with many (or maybe any) other bands.

We’ll provide some further thoughts (and feeble attempts at descriptive verbiage), just to give you some clues as to whether Mohngang is going to strike a chord with you, but there will be no adequate substitute for simply listening to it now, just days before its release by Iron Bonehead Productions on May 15th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ESOCTRILIHUM — “ETERNITY OF SHAOG”

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May 112020
 

 

The mysterious French black metal entity Esoctrilihum, whose sole member goes by the name Asthâghul, has been prolific by common standards, releasing four albums from 2017 through 2019, and with a fifth one now due for arrival in this plague year of 2020. And yet listening to these albums reveals continual change. Rather than conscious exploration or experimentation, the albums seem more likely to be a reflection of the creator’s mental and emotional states as they existed at each moment, and the inspirations and impulses that then flowered. But regardless of the explanation, listening to the evolution across the course of these records has been fascinating.

The new album, Eternity of Shaog, is no less fascinating than its predecessors. It represents a distinct entity with its own atmosphere, and more pronounced melodic elements, presented through violins, piano, kantele, and synths. In its many accomplishments, it reaches a creative zenith in Esoctrilihum’s recordings — but only so far, because this project can’t help but foster increasing intrigue and increasingly elevated expectations, rather than any surmise that the next release will be “more of the same”.

With two pre-release tracks out in the world already, we are now in the fortunate position of adding to those insights about the music by presenting today the title track in advance of the album’s release by I, Voidhanger Records on May 22nd. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSSUS — “RELICS OF THE PAST”

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May 112020
 

 

2015 brought the release of the excellent debut album Into the Abyss of a Greek death metal band named Abyssus, a group that began life in 2011 as the solo project of Athenian vocalist and musician Kostas Analytis and now also includes guitarists Panos Gkourmpaliotis and Christos Liakos, bass-player Kostas Ragiadakos, and drummer Jan Westermann.

That album was preceded by a pair of EPs and a trio of splits, all of which were eventually released in a compilation entitled Once Entombed… Additional splits followed the release of the album, and in 2018 Death In Pieces Records released an Abyssus EP named Unleash the Storm from which we proudly premiered a track (“Operation Ranch Hand”) that ultimately made our list of 2018’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs (here).

2019 saw the release of yet another Abyssus split, a four-way conspiracy among Abyssus, Obsecration, Soulskinner, and Malicious Silence under the name Sign of the Covenant of Death. And now we’re in the midst of a new year and it’s time for more music from this tremendous death metal killing machine from Greece.

On July 6th, Death In Pieces Records will release a new Abyssus EP entitled Relics of the Past. Like the last EP, Unleash the Storm, it includes two new Abyssus songs and covers of three others, and we are once again handling a premiere from the EP. It’s the title track, “Relics of the Past“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SINISTER DOWNFALL — “BEHOLD DARKNESS”

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May 102020
 

 

In 2018 the one-man German funeral doom band Sinister Downfall made its full-length debut with Eremozoic, which was the first release by the Armenian doom label Funere, in collaboration with the venerable Japanese doom label Weird Truth Productions. We premiered a song from that beautifully crafted debut, a song that was staggeringly bereft in its moods, and staggeringly heavy, too. Much like the album as a whole, it was tremendously evocative in its emotional resonance and persistently spellbinding throughout.

Sinister Downfall‘s sole member Eugen Kohl has continued to hone his craft since then, while remaining true to the vision of melancholic downfall that flowed through Eremozoic, and the result is a new album named A Dark Shining Light that will again be co-released by Funere and Weird Truth. And we again have been given the opportunity to premiere a song, the aptly named “Behold Darkness“, which is the track that ends the album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A WORLD WITHOUT — “IN EXTREMIS”

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May 082020
 

 

Once upon a time deathcore took the metal world by storm, drawing in vast legions of fans through its amalgam of monster vocals, brutish atonal riffing, and more bunker-busting breakdowns than any militarized armory could possibly hold. Like most waves of popular music in any genre, it quickly became saturated and homogenized, and came close to drowning beneath a tide of cookie-cutter mediocrity. The elements of the music that didn’t seem to require instrumental skill spawned hordes of bands that also had no talent for writing actual songs either.

But it would be wrong to proclaim that deathcore is dead. Instead, it has evolved, as all living things threatened with extinction must. Rather than depending entirely on the old core elements (so to speak), the better bands have expanded their musical palettes, some of them moving more in the direction of pure death metal and others integrating elements of melody and atmosphere, along with increased technicality.

The Portland band A World Without, for example, has retained some of those core features but has intertwined them with other ingredients, and today we have an example of their musical amalgamations through the lyric video premiere of a song called “In Extremis“, which includes a guest appearance by vocalist Steve Tinnon from Within the Ruins. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVANGELIC — “ERSETU”

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May 082020
 

 

We have already written extensively about the new album Ersetu by the Italian death metal band Devangelic, just as we did about their previous releases. In this case, in addition to praising individual songs that have been previewed in the progress toward the album’s release, we published an enthusiastic review by our friend Vonlughlio, who summed it up as “a mandatory release for every brutal death metal fan”: These guys know their craft supremely well and have taken the time to create something special in their music that will pass the test of time”.

And indeed, despite how impressive Devangelic‘s first two albums were (2014’s Resurrection Denied and 2017’s Phlegethon), they have managed to elevate their music to an even higher (and more nuanced) plane of brutality with Ersetu. We are thus very excited to present a full stream of the record for you now, in advance of its May 15 release by Willowtip Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKELETAL — “BURNING HATRED”

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May 072020
 

 

Bitterness and Burning Hatred is the name of the new album by the Finnish death metal band Skeletal. The name also sums up the emotions that a lot of people are feeling these days — living under regimes that are leaving broke, hungry, and hopeless people to fend for themselves while gambling with their lives due to deceit and incompetence in dealing with the pandemic.

Those aren’t exactly healthy emotions, and a cathartic purging of them every now and then is probably a good idea. The Skeletal song we’re premiering today off the new album provides exactly that kind of experience. Rather than gloomily seething and poisoning itself with its own venom, the song is a tremendous thrill-ride, and the kind of music that makes you feel like you can hold your head up, bare your teeth, and survive anything. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SATHAMEL — “RAISE FLAME FROM ASH”

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May 072020
 

 

I slept on Sathamel‘s debut album Horror Vacui, but I’m awake to it now, thanks to the opportunity to present the following playthrough video for one of its electrifying tracks, “Raise Flame From Ash“.

Of course, playthrough videos were fixtures in the metal scene long before the current plague, but are now even more vital ways of allowing musicians and fans to stay connected. And, as in this case, they continue to be vehicles for introducing people to releases they might have missed. This is an especially good introduction (or reminder, for those who are already aware of this UK band’s work), because it’s a guitar playthrough for a song that’s a blazing guitar powerhouse (even though it’s a love song!). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NAXEN — “TO WELCOME THE WITHERING”

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May 062020
 

 

Following their very well-received EP To Abide in Ancient Abysses, the German melodic black metal band Naxen completed work on their first full-length, a record entitled Towards the Tomb of Times, and it is now set for release by Berlin’s Vendetta Records on June 5th. As described in the promotional materials for the album, over the course of four tracks spanning more than 47 minutes of music, the record “explores the weakness of mankind, the unavoidable loss and the inevitable failure of our species”:

“Acknowledging that all hope is lost and remains redundant in the end, transcendence is sought through fire, the perishment of flesh and death as the ultimate liberation. These feelings of existential disappointment, depression and despair flow through the melodies, revolve in the lyrics and are captured in the visuals (by Arjen Kunnen)”.

These are serious subjects, and the music is a match in its tremendous dramatic power — as you will discover through our premiere of the opening track, “To Welcome the Withering“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLIGHT — “ELSEWHERE & ELSEWHEN”

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May 062020
 

 

Rising from obscure underground dimensions within Montreal, and inspired by studies of esoteric dark arts, the occult black metal band Blight now invite us to enter their Temple of Wounds, a full-length necromantic experience that will be released by Svart Records on the 5th of June.

In April the band delivered a striking first impression of this, their debut album, by releasing a lyric video for a song called “A Violent Light“. It provided not only an insight into the band’s lyrical themes (which explore “deep facets of inner alchemical transmutation, and antinomian philosophies”), delivered with literary flare, it also revealed an eclectic and arresting dynamism in their music.

And now, we have the opportunity to provide a further sign of what looms within Temple of Wounds as we premiere a lyric video for another song from the album, this one named “Elsewhere & Elsewhen“. Continue reading »

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