AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PHOBOPHILIC — “DIMINISHED TO UNBEING”

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Sep 052019
 

 

Like many (but not all) music writers, we prefer to concoct our own impressions and descriptive phrases for what we hear rather than lazily falling back on the PR verbiage that accompanies the music we receive, which isn’t exactly a disinterested assessment to begin with. On the other hand, sometimes the PR material nails it. A case in point: the press material for Undimensioned Identities, the impressive second demo by Phobophilic from Fargo, North Dakota. As recounted by Rotted Life Records and Blood Harvest Records, who will be releasing the demo in the U.S. and Europe, respectively:

“Undimensioned Identities is a tilted and deranged-enough variant of old-school death metal that it’s clear the four-piece are more focused on looking forward than backwards. Propelled by protean and corkscrewing riffs, the four tracks here are crafted with methodical precision, evoking majestic Lovecraftian horrors and creating cataclysmic maelstroms of madness and rot, while delivering a skillfully enunciated performance with a detailed production that never slips into the brackish sonic murk that’s typical of newer bands schooled on the seminal Incantation sound”.

Some nice turns of phrase in there, and better yet, it’s all true. Of course we have some words of our own, but better yet we have the premiere of a song from the demo named “Diminished To Unbeing“, presented through a video of the band’s performance of the song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RIPPER — “SENSORY STAGNATION”

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Sep 052019
 

 

If you’re unaware that Unspeakable Axe will be releasing a new Ripper EP on September 30, that means you haven’t been checking in with us every day (shame on you!). We’ve written enthusiastically about the first single from that EP here, and we’ve also reviewed the EP as a whole. In a nutshell, it’s fantastic. That should come as no shock to anyone who’s familiar with this Chilean band’s previous work, but what might be surprising is how much further they’ve spread their prodigious (dragon) wings through these five new songs.

The name of the new EP is Sensory Stagnation, which is an interesting title, because the music is instead the antidote to sensory stagnation. It’s hard to comprehend how anyone could be bored with the state of metal these days, though some über-elitists profess to be. But for any benighted souls who do think metal is stagnating, Ripper’s newest offering will wake you up just as effectively as taking a seat in Old Sparky and riding the lightning. As proof of that, we’re following up the EP’s first advance track with a premiere of the title song today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SLAUGHTBBATH

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 032019
 

 

You might be surprised to learn that the Chilean band Slaughtbbath hail from San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, a small countryside town that we’re informed has no metal scene at all. It is an unexpected source for the kind of absolutely electrifying and utterly ferocious power that this demonic trio have channeled through their amalgam of black metal, death metal, and thrash — a power surge that has punched straight through the red zone on their new album Alchemical Warfare, which will be released by Hells Headbangers on September 6th — and which we’re proudly premiering today.

The band waste no time releasing the whirlwind, opening the album through “Ritual Bloodbath” with the sounds of utter mayhem and then a lightning storm of brazen, blaring riffs, rampantly maniacal drumming, and utterly vicious vocal barbarism. Those sounds are delivered with explosive volume and intensity. The guitar leads writhe like fire elementals freed from their magical chains. The percussive propulsion is both turbo-charged and seems to change in the patterns and progressions from second to second. The vocalist ultimately resorts to wild screaming, caught up in the incendiary madness of this music — and who could blame him? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NACHTTERROR — “SEA OF DREAD”

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Sep 022019
 

 

Nachtterror‘s new album Judgement is one of those rarities that lavishly combines music and visual art, presenting a separate piece of painted artwork for each track — and it’s even more rare because the visual artist is also one of the band’s two vocalist/guitarists. You can see his album cover above — which we’re presenting for the first time — and after the jump you’ll see his evocative art for the song, “Sea of Dread” that we’re premiering today in the run-up to the album’s October 10 release by Hypnotic Dirge.

Judgement is this Saskatchewan symphonic black metal band’s first release since their 2015 split with Altars of Grief, entitled Of Ash and Dying Light. That split made a huge impact on those of us here at NCS, and on many other listeners. We had the privilege of premiering a track from that split by each band, and Nachtterror‘s contributions to the split displayed gripping dynamism in their compositions and an ability to create enveloping atmospheres of darkness around the ebbs and flows of intensity.

Since then, as this new song reveals, they’ve become even more accomplished in their craft, though that shouldn’t be surprising since Judgement has been nearly 10 years in the making. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IGNIVOMOUS — “SHACKLES OF THE DEMIURGE”

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Sep 022019
 

 

Within the wide-ranging expanse of death metal some bands devote themselves to music of monstrous, primeval power, ruthlessly savaging the mind with the sounds of violence, oppression, and horrifying degradation. The Australian band Ignivomous are within that lineage, and have been honing their evil craft for more than a decade. Their growing mastery is on full display in their new album, the first one since 2012’s Contragenesis. Entitled Hieroglossia, it will be released by Nuclear War Now! Productions on November 15th.

For this ravaging new album the band’s core membership of Sean Hinds (guitar), Chris Broadway (drums), and Jael Edwards (vocals) has remained in place, augmented by the recording debuts of guitarist Lewis Fischer (Altars) and bassist Chris Jordon (Inverloch, Eskhaton). Thematically, we’re told, “Heiroglossia continues Ignivomous’ investigation into topics of Philosophical pessimism, influenced by the works of Thomas Ligotti and E.M. Cioran, and Gnostic concepts of the fallen and hostile nature of the material world.”

Today we’re presenting a new song from Heiroglossia, but before we get to today’s premiere, let’s first consider a previously released song from the album, because you’ll encounter it first in the Bandcamp player below. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): EZKATON — “SHEEN AND MISERY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Aug 312019
 

 

We have a rare Saturday premiere, for a rare album, with a few words of introduction (okay, more than a few).

Building on the strength of three fine previous releases the Ukrainian atmospheric black metal band Ezkaton has completed a fourth one, a new album named Sheen and Misery. That’s what we’re presenting today through a stream of its 12 songs before the September 2nd release by Ashen Dominion. The title of the album itself reveals a great deal about the music, as does the record’s conceptual premise. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MYSTAGOS — “RITUAL”

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Aug 302019
 

 

We’ve been following the creations of the Spanish avant-garde black metal band Mystagos (formerly known as Chains Ov Beleth) with great interest since discovering the first two advance tracks from the band’s 2017 debut album Ho Anthropos Tes Anomias. Ultimately, we reviewed and premiered a full stream of that remarkable and multi-faceted musical tale of metaphysical divination. We also reviewed the fascinating follow-on EP by Mystagos, 2018’s Pvrvsha, which presented a changing patchwork of sensations that ranged from the harrowing to the surreal, though there was really almost nothing about the music that seemed commonplace or grounded in what we perceive as reality.

Now Mystagos has completed a new album named Azoth, which will be released on September 30th by the Spanish label BlackSeed Productions. Offered the opportunity to premiere a track from Azoth, we leaped at the chance. The new song “Ritual” is the one we bring you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WOUNDS — “METAMORPHOSIS”

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Aug 302019
 

 

In April of this year Everlasting Spew Records released the debut EP (Light Eater) of the Chicago quartet Wounds, which presents five tracks of technical death metal that not only manifest impressive dexterity and turbocharged energy but also succeeds in delivering skull-busting grooves and resonant melody. What we have for you today is the premiere of a playthrough video of one of those songs — “Metamorphosis” — which features performances by Wounds guitarist Rick Mora and bassist Franco Caballero.

In the video you’ll also hear the adrenaline-fueled work of drummer Nate Burgard, though not the vocals of frontman Norman Hale (we’ll give you a different way to experience his vocals after the video stream). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PATRONYMICON — “HAISSEM”

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Aug 292019
 

 

Get ready… get ready for your heart to start pumping hard, for the blood to race in the veins, for your brain to light up like wildfire. Those are the effects of the song we’re bringing you today from the new album by the demonic Swedish black metal band Patronymicon, which is set for international release by Osmose Productions on September 27th. Aptly entitled Ushered Forth by Cloven Tongue, it follows the band’s last album (All Daggers Toward the Sky) by six years, and proves that the time was not wasted.

The song you’re about to experience, “Haissem“, pitches the listener into the midst of the Wild Hunt. Launched by blaring chords, grim, heavyweight riffing, and mountainous drum detonations, it soon leaps forward in a racing scourge of vicious, flame-throwing guitars, thunderous drum tumult, and scorching screams, segmented by delirious writhing arpeggios and exotic, swirling solos. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE FIFTH ALLIANCE — “THE DEPTH OF THE DARKNESS”

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Aug 282019
 

 

In mid-July the Dutch genre-benders in The Fifth Alliance released a single named “Black”, the opening track on their new album The Depth of the Darkness. It made a stunning first impression on this writer (only a first impression, because I hadn’t encountered the band’s previous two albums, Unrevealed Secrets of Ruin (2013) and Death Poems (2015)).

“Black” amalgamates gigantic, heaving, low-end tones and bone-cracking drum beats; glinting guitar notes and wailing clean vocals; haunting atmospheres of shivering moodiness and building tension; and a thundering eruption of blackened ferocity that takes the seeds of pain in the music and makes them flower in thorns. In that eruption, the guitars buzz and boil in a grim torrent of sound as the rhythm section leaves wreckage in their wake, and the vocals vent scarring torment. After that storm of sound the music becomes spectral and chilling (the vocals even more insane), but seductive as well as disturbing. Those ringing notes you hear at the end don’t go away even after the silence falls.

Of course it is true, as most parents teach their obstinate children, that first impressions matter a lot. But what you do afterward can either undermine a brilliant opening gambit or prove instead that it was no fluke. So the question here becomes, did The Fifth Alliance build on “Black” across the remaining four substantial tracks on The Depth of the Darkness or deflate the lofty expectations created by that first single? You’re about to find out. Continue reading »

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