AN NCS PREMIERE: NAGA — “ONLY A GOD CAN’T SAVE US”

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Oct 092019
 

 

On their new album, Void Cult Rising, the Neapolitan band Naga have created a meditation on death, not only the grief that comes from the loss of a loved one but also an apocalyptic vision of the end of all things. In approaching calamities of such vastly different scales through their music, the band have fused the bleak, gut-rumbling heaviness of sludge, the downcast resonance of doom, and the nihilistic acidity of black metal. The sound is grim and raging, crushing and inconsolable.

The opening track of the new album, which follows a 2014 debut full-length (Hēn) and a 2016 EP (Inanimate), is “Only A God Can’t Save Us“, a title that seems to be a dismissive play on familiar words, and the music suggests that we can’t save ourselves either. We have a stream of the song for you today, in advance of the album’s November 15 release by Spikerot Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PROFANE ORDER — “HEXED (DEFILING GOD’S CHILD)”

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Oct 082019
 

 

The channeling of fury and violence, boiling over into chaos, has been a strain of extreme metal for decades, reaching its apotheosis in sectors that combine “the cold and malefic grimness of black metal with the most bludgeoning strains of death metal and the blind terror of grindcore” (to quote from the press materials for the debut album that’s the source of the following premiere). At its most unhinged, these black/death abominations of sound become such willfully abrasive, brutally distorted assaults on the senses that sometimes they seem to have no objective other than winning an arms race for who can abuse listeners most sadistically.

Well, one person’s poison is another person’s meat. The musical rendition of large-scale violence, whether spawned by imaginings of biblical apocalypse or nuclear holocaust, or the mutilations of more conventional weaponry, can be thrilling. Whether it comes from the cathartic exorcism of our own violent impulses or the fight-or-flight adrenaline kick that comes from being in a war zone, even if your own life isn’t at risk, the excitement can be undeniable, despite (or because of) all the storming ugliness.

But when a band are capable of producing apocalyptic levels of violence AND doing that with actual riffs AND with melodies you can actually detect and remember (in a genre where “melody” is a dirty word), that makes them stand out. And that brings us to Montréal’s Profane Order. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: LES CHANTS DU HASARD AND MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY

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Oct 082019
 

 

Meaning no disrespect to all the other labels whose music we’ve become attached to over the years, it must nevertheless be said that the releases of I, Voidhanger Records are like no others. They are incredibly distinctive, often strangely so, and unpredictable in a way that makes each new announcement exciting. Part of this is the result of the richly idiosyncratic yet incisively perceptive tastes of the label’s owner, and part of it is undoubtedly the gravitation in his direction of musical creators who definitely march to the beats of their own drummers and whose creations often expand the mind in unexpected directions.

We are fortunate to present today two premieres that abundantly illustrate the truth of these observations. One comes from the new album by the French band Les Chants du Hasard, and the other from the new album by the Australian band Midnight Odyssey. Both of these are one-man projects whose releases continue to move from one precipice to the next, way up in rarefied air. Both will be released by I, Voidhanger on November 1st.

LES CHANTS DU HASARD: “CHANT VI – LA COURSE”

I became utterly enthralled by Livre Second before ever hearing a note. Simply reading the lyrical narratives of the nine Chants included in the album, each of which is something like a mythic short story or a “fairy tale”, captured me. The stories are mysterious, frightening, haunting, metaphorical, eloquent, and a bit like ghost hands that grasp and won’t let go. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NOX IRAE — “KNIFE UNDER THROAT”

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Oct 072019
 

 

From the ashes of two storied French death metal bands, Catacomb and Affliction Gate, a hellish new formation has arisen under the name Nox Irae. The combined experience of these veteran members, as well as the range of their interests, is lividly on display in the band’s new EP, Here the Dead Live, which will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on November 15th.

Transcending Obscurity has an extensive list of references as a jumping-off point for the music, dropping such names as Morgoth and Death, Demolition Hammer and Kreator, Asphyx and Bolt Thrower, among others. And it turns out to be a useful list once you listen to the music, including the song we’re premiering today. As “Knife Under Throat” proves, Nox Irae‘s song-writing talents are formidable, capable of creating music that’s bone-breaking in its heaviness, crazed in its savagery, ghoulish and sinister in its atmosphere, and highly contagious in the catchiness of its riffs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECTOPLASMA — “WHITE-EYED TRANCE: ENSNARED IN DEVILRY”

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Oct 072019
 

 

We have been clamoring about what a great year for death metal 2019 is turning out to be, with many strong releases already behind us and still more to come — and the forthcoming second album by the Greek band Ectoplasma is definitely one of those. Of course, death metal has morphed into many shapes over the decades since its earliest origins, some of them shiny and ornately filigreed, but Ectoplasma are devoutly dedicated to the old foul, fetid, and ferocious sounds, rooting their music in early ’90s death metal from both sides of the Atlantic, but also injecting it with a black magic devilry of their own conception.

Paranormal horror has played a significant role in the band’s inspirations, and that fixation persists in this new album, White-Eyed Trance, a concept record organized around lyrical themes threaded through the songs. And speaking of devilry, today we present another new song from the album, the seventh in the running order, named “White-Eyed Trance: Ensnared in Devilry“, in advance of the album’s CD released by Memento Mori on October 31st. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): XUL OV KVLTEN — “ENTROPIC INCREASE FROM THE OMEGA AEON”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 042019
 

 

We’re calling this a premiere, but that’s not strictly true. It’s more like a wake-up call to people who might have missed the album we’re streaming below, and an alert to both old and new fans that the record is being released today on CD for the first time by ATMF.

The album in question is Entropic Increase From The Omega Aeon, the second full-length by the formidable Chilean black metal band Xul ov Kvlten, which was first released as a digital download this past January. As one of the late-comers to the album, but now having become immersed in it, I am not a bit surprised that ATMF picked it up for a physical release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CTHONICA — “III VI: …NOT AS THOSE WHO SERVED AND PREACHED IN OBEISANCE”

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Oct 032019
 

 

The name of the abominable two-headed Venezuelan black/death entity Cthonica is an acronym, in its longer form manifesting as Claiming the THrone Of Noxious Illuminative CAtharsis. The members took their first steps under the name Okkvlt, but evolved and twisted their creative impulses into more ravaging forms under the name Cthonica, soon to be revealed through their debut album Typhomanteia: Sacred Triarchy of Spiritual Putrefaction.

The album is composed of three main tracks divided into acts, which represent three aspects or steps for what the band call “Spiritual Putrefaction”, or “pneuma-morphosis into corruption”: “Act I: The Chalice” (Will: To drink from the cup of Sin), “Act II: The Lantern” (Light: To enlight the paths of Acherontic teachings…), and “Act III: The Verb” (To Dare: As the alchemical / magical principle, to point the sword high and spread the seeds of damnation). We’re told that the remaining tracks result from the continuation of the first ones, all in order to “serve as bringers of the leviathanic breath (and winds) of Typhon towards Tehom”.

What we present today is Act VI, which represents a continuation of Act III. Its name is “…Not As Those Who Served and Preached In Obeisance“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WOLF’S SOURCE — “Ремиссия духа (REMISSION OF SPIRIT)”

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Oct 032019
 

 

Behind every metal album there is a story. Most such stories are unremarkable, usually of little interest except to die-hard fans of the bands, and often providing little insight into the music beyond what you could gather from simply listening. On the other hand, the story of Волчий Источник (Wolf’s Source) and this Russian project’s lone album Ремиссия духа (originally released in 2007) is like no other. It’s a story worth telling before we get to the music of the album, which we’re streaming in full at the end of this article.

In relating this narrative we’re dependent on what we’ve been told through the label (Goatowarex) that is releasing the album on vinyl for the first time on October 6th, and this is how the story goes (qouting from the promotional material): Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE DROWNING — “HARROWED PATH”

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Oct 022019
 

 

The Welsh death-doom band The Drowning have been active for more than 15 years, and in that time have released four albums and a pair of shorter releases, and the fifth full-length, The Radiant Dark, is now headed for a November 8 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. As a sign of what it holds in store we’re presenting today the premiere of the third track to surface so far, this one aptly named “Harrowed Path“.

This new song provides a great example of The Drowning‘s ability to meld emotionally dark melodies, shattering vocal intensity, and head-hammering aggression, channeling both grief and rage in powerful fashion. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DYSANGELIUM — “DEATH LEADING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 022019
 

 

Five long years ago we premiered the terrorizing second demo (Leviaxxis) by the German black metal band Dysangelium, and then had some very positive reactions to their debut album Thánatos Áskēsis, which followed later that same year. Now, at last, a second album is on the horizon like a looming storm.

Death Leading will be released by W.T.C. Productions on October 8th, and as you’ll discover through our premiere of a full album stream, it marks a triumphant return, presenting music of frightening power and wholly immersive effect, remorselessly carrying the listener ever deeper into an other-dimensional black vortex from which there is no escape, as mesmerizing as it is fearsome. Continue reading »

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