AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LESATH — “SACRED ASHES”

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Jan 062020
 

 

On January 6, 2020, the label alliance of Casus Belli Musica and Beverina will release the debut album of a mysterious atmospheric black metal band named Lesath, whose location and membership remain undisclosed. The album’s name is Sacred Ashes. It consists of six tracks, but really four songs, because two of those four are divided into two parts in the track list.

In September of this year, Lesath (and subsequently the two labels) released one of those two-part songs, “Like the Wind“, which we reviewed here. In November we presented the second half of the other two-part song, “A New Life“, which like the first single was presented with its own artwork. And in December we added to these musical revelations with the premiere of the album’s title track, “Sacred Ashes“. Now, at last, we  have the opportunity to deliver a full stream of the entire album, which enables us to discover how these pieces and others all fit together. Continue reading »

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

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Jan 032020
 

 

“W.T.C. Productions is proud to present Vaeok‘s striking self-titled debut EP. A duo whose members currently hail from such highly regarded hordes as Sargeist, Kult ov Azazel, Nightbringer, Adaestuo, and Demoncy among others, Vaeok nevertheless emits its own nightsky majesty and mysticism.”

That was an announcement we and others in the metal press received last year, alerting us to the January 7 release of this debut EP. The mention of those other names with which the Vaeok duo of M.S. and VJS have been associated was enough to generate intense intrigue in these quarters about what they had achieved through this new collaboration (which we’re told actually had its genesis in the distant past). We eventually had our answer, and now you will have it too, through our complete stream of the EP’s four ravishing tracks. Continue reading »

AN NCS TRACK PREMIERE: BÜTCHER — “666 GOATS CARRY MY CHARIOT”

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Jan 022020
 

 

Even before you hear a single note, much of what has been publicly disclosed about Bütcher’s new album displays bone-deep devotion to the ancient deities of evil heavy metal — from Kris Verwimp‘s epic cover art to the album’s name (666 Goats Carry My Chariot), the band’s use of vintage analog gear in the recording of the music, and their stage appearance. But in the music itself, that devotion runs even deeper than you might guess, and crosses a rich soundscape of metal traditions that span decades, far more multifaceted than you might suspect if you’ve only heard of the reputation of these Belgians as a hell-for-leather speed metal band.

As the new album reveals even more vividly (and masterfully) than Bütcher’s previous releases, their music is an ingeniously conceived, carefully crafted, and brazenly executed hybrid. Classic speed metal from Germany and the U.S. shapes the backbone, but the music flourishes through the incorporation of epic heavy metal from the NWOBHM school, blazing black/thrash with roots in both South America and Australia, first-wave black metal, and certain sects of Scandinavian extremity from the ’90s. The results are continuously thrilling — and surprising.

In advance of the new album’s release by Osmose Productions on January 31st, today we’re premiering its title track, which provides an electrifying demonstration of what we’ve just attempted to describe. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WRECHE — “VESSEL”

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Jan 012020
 

 

Vessel, the film you are about to see, is a journey through a surrealistic dreamscape, a shifting montage of odd characters transforming themselves and moving through light and shade, in isolation and shoulder to shoulder with more “average” citizens who seem to take no notice of the quirky beings in their midst. It is a strange and unsettling vision, and a transfixing one (make sure you have 19 minutes to spare, because once you begin you’re not going anywhere else).

Welcome to Los Angeles. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RAPTVRE — “ECHOKAMMER”

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Dec 302019
 

 

The German band Raptvre picked a fantastic song to showcase in the video we’re presenting today. It displays so many of the attention-grabbing qualities that made their 2019 debut album Monuments of Bitterness one to remember (and which caused our own Andy Synn to herald it in a year-end list here at NCS).

The song is “Echokammer“, and the video (beautifully filmed and edited by Noel Auch and Julian Baron of Brainthrill Studio) captures Raptvre‘s performance of the song at the band’s album release show on November 23rd in Cologne. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE CANYON OBSERVER — “URN”

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Dec 232019
 

 

The last time we splashed The Canyon Observer‘s name across our page was 20 months ago, the occasion being a premiere stream of their latest album, NØLL, which was released by Vox Project (France) and Kapa Records (Slovenia) soon after. Now we have a new occasion to share the music of this talented genre-splicing Slovenian group, because tomorrow they will release a massive new single that serves as a gateway between the old and the new in terms of their musical creativity, and we’re presenting a full stream of it today.

This new track is named Urn, and it’s 17 minutes long. The band have told us this about how it was created: “We’ve always been intrigued by free forms and tried to accommodate that into our working method. The willingness to dive into the unknown, to trust each other enough to let go. The risk of failure that comes with this kind of musical expression is important and fulfilling and gives us more room for musical development.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GOATBLOOD — “APPARITION OF DOOMSDAY”

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Dec 202019
 

 

Two years ago when we premiered a demo by these two German devastators we wrote:

“There is little risk that you will be deceived about the music we’re about to present. The band’s name is Goatblood. The demo is named Gasmask Devastation Terror. The artwork depicts a bullet-draped demonic form shrouded in eldritch energies and fire. Biohazard and radiation warning signs would probably have been superfluous….

“Their brand of black/death metal is lo-fi filth, a toxic and insidious stew of grim, buzzing riffs, pounding chords, and muffled, clattering percussion. Solos leap from this morass of malignancy like crazed vipers made of flame and plutonium. The vocals are a roaring, shrieking horror — merciless and hollow-hearted….

“Goatblood haven’t forgotten the appeal of dynamics — but they also never lose sight of their lethal mission, which is to assault the senses and mangle the mind until it can see nothing but an apocalyptic wasteland.”

Since we wrote those words, Goatblood have released a 2018 EP (Arma Inferre), and now they’re on the verge of discharging their third full-length through Dunkelheit Produktionen. Fittingly entitled Apparition of Doomsday, it will bury the old year on December 27th — but we have a full stream of all its multifarious and nefarious depredations today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNHOLD — “BARREN”

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Dec 192019
 

 

Although I have many things to be proud of about what we’ve accomplished at NCS in helping spread the word about worthy music, I have many regrets too, one of which is our failure to pay more attention to the immensely accomplished Swiss band Unhold. That failure is all the more shameful because Unhold are now five albums deep into their career. The most recent of those, Here Is the Blood, was released in November 2018 by Czar of Bullets, and represents the pinnacle of their significant achievements so far.

Briefly summarizing the music on that album (or really, on any of its predecessors) is a daunting challenge, as is any effort to provide a pithy genre description. References to post-metal, sludge, doom, and hardcore might be useful, but don’t really give you much guidance about how fascinatingly Unhold have combined those stylistic ingredients (and others) in ways that dynamically create such a wide range of emotionally powerful and often transportive experiences, ranging from mesmerizingly beautiful to crushingly bleak and compulsively body-shaking — and much else besides.

But while we’ve regrettably neglected Here Is the Blood since its release, we do have a chance to make partial amends today by premiering a new single entitled “Barren” which was recorded in the same sessions that produced that album. This new single is not only well worth having in its own right but also should serve as an inducement for people who haven’t heard that album to check it out immediately. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE BASTARD WITHIN — “BETTER DEAD THAN FRIENDS”

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Dec 192019
 

 

Let’s cut to the chase: For a debut album, it’s astonishing just how good Better Dead Than Friends is. It would also be astonishing even if it were an album released by any top-shelf grindcore band far deeper into their career than the place where The Bastard Within find themselves, close to the beginning of their own. This isn’t completely shocking, given that the members of this group have made names for themselves in other bands already, but still… what they’ve accomplished on this first full-length is a big eye-opener.

Those members, spread around Italy and Switzerland, are vocalist CN Sid, guitarist Gianluca Sulpizio, and bassist Davide Stura, as well as American drummer extraordinaire Kevin Talley. And while all credit goes to them for Better Dead Than Friends, they’ve also augmented their formidable attack with an array of noteworthy guests on various tracks — Jason Netherton (Misery Index, Asphalt Graves), Trevor (Sadist), Juri Bianchi (Addiction, Any Face, Hayma), Mãra Lisenko (Mãra), and Stefania Minervino (Too Late, Cave, Spoiled). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COLOSSO — “PESTILENCE”

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Dec 182019
 

 

Visions of the Apocalypse have become one of the thematic staples of Death Metal, and for understandable reasons. For a genre of music that itself bears the name Death, and whose musical ingredients are capable (in the right hands) of creating sensations of destruction on a massive scale, the linkage is a natural one. But not all death metal bands drawn to the imagery of Revelation have explored the themes as thoroughly as Colosso has done on this Portuguese band’s newest release, or have so powerfully translated those horrifying visions into sound.

Entitled Apocalypse, Colosso’s new record consists of four tracks, each named for one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who in the prophecy of Revelation were set loose to ruin the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment. Today we’re premiering the opening track “Pestilence” in advance of the record’s release by Transcending Obscurity Records on February 14, 2020. Continue reading »

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