AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MALPHAS — “FLOODS (AN ACT OF GOD)”

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Feb 272019
 

A bit of demonological internet sleuthing reveals that Malphas is a Great Prince of Hell, a fallen angel second only to Satan, with forty legions of demons under his command. According to the lore, he was the 39th of the 72 Spirits imprisoned by King Solomon — but mistakenly freed by the Babylonians. He is a builder of great citadels, and deceives those who sacrifice to him in hopes of obtaining his intervention on their behalf. He is accompanied by crows and sometimes appears as a raven himself.

That information seems relevant in interpreting what you will see in the animated lyric video from the band Malphas that we’re presenting today, a video for the song “Floods (An Act of God)“, which is the third track on this Philadelphia band’s debut album The 39th Spirit, released last October by Via Nocturna. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACK ANVIL — “MILES”

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Feb 262019
 

 

On March 4, 2014, Selim Lemouchi took his own life at the age of 33. As the founding member and guitarist of The Devil’s Blood, in which he was joined by his sister Farida, Lemouchi created emotionally powerful occult rock music that was beautifully evil and haunting, a combination of darkness and grandeur that reflected and channeled Lemouchi‘s Satanic spiritualism. The music made strong and lasting connections with many listeners, and led to friendships among fellow musicians, among them, members of New York City’s Black Anvil. Their new EP, Miles, was created as a tribute to him.

Initially, Miles consisted of just the title track and a cover of Mercyful Fate‘s “A Corpse Without Soul”. Work on it was put aside for a time while Black Anvil focused their efforts on their 2017 album, As Was. After returning to Miles, the band wrote and recorded one more original song, the opener “Iron Sharpens Iron”, and recorded a cover of The Devil’s Blood‘s “Everlasting Saturnalia” to round out the EP. Working with their friend Steve Macioci of STB Records, the band have readied Miles for release in March, in remembrance of, and dedication to, their lost friend Selim Lemouchi. We have a full stream of the EP for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANOMALISM — “VICIOUS FICTION”

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Feb 262019
 

 

The cover art created by Erskine Designs for the debut EP by the Canadian tech-death band Anomalism would seem tailor-made as the backdrop for a lyric video about a song devoted to horrifying nightmares, and that’s exactly what we have here today. The name of the song featured in the video we’re premiering is “Vicious Fiction“, a full-throttle yet creepy dose of viciousness off Anomalism‘s EP Parasitic Spawn, which was released on January 4th.

Anomalism is a fairly new band, having coalesced only last year in the frigid wasteland of Winnipeg, Canada, with the evident aim of combining mauling brutality, head-spinning instrumental dexterity, insidious melody, and a taste for otherworldly horror — qualities that are displayed quite effectively through “Vicious Fiction“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ILLIMITABLE DOLOR — “HORSES PALE AND FOUR”

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Feb 252019
 

 

Illimitable:  without limits or an end

Dolor: a state of great sorrow or distress

In choosing the name Illimitable Dolor, this Australian quartet made their mission statement unmistakable, and their music lives up to the name, creating sensations of devastating loss in vast tides of sound that sweep toward horizons we’ll never reach. The title of their new album, Leaden Light, is almost equally evocative of what they’ve brought into being, a manifestation of funeral doom and death metal that’s crushingly heavy and ashen in its colors — not lightless by any means, but veiled by haunting vapors.

On the other hand, the album’s title is only partially evocative of the music’s moods, and perhaps a bit misleading, too — because there is nothing drab about it. To the contrary, its emotional power is immense, and it proves to be an immersive and completely enthralling experience. You’ll get a powerfully good sense of those qualities through the song we’re premiering today, in advance of the album’s March 20 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOATKRAFT — “GOATKRAFT’S COMMAND”

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Feb 222019
 

 

Sometimes the wishes we send into the void are granted. Last month, after hearing the first advance track off the debut album of the Norwegian deviants in Goatkraft, I publicly proclaimed that such a sulphurous spell of black pestilence had left me hungering for more, and since then my hunger has been fed by a chance to hear the album as a whole. What’s more, I have the opportunity to infect your mind with another new song from the same record (spreading infection is such a rewarding experience).

The song we present today is “Goatkraft’s Command“, and it further confirms Goatkraft’s command over the weaponry of bestial black metal, as fully and ferociously revealed on Sulphurous Northern Bestiality, which will be released by Iron Bonehead Productions on March 22nd. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LUCIFERA — “LA CACERIA DE BRUJAS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Feb 212019
 

 

It wouldn’t be wrong-headed to label the music of La Caceria De Brujas as “black thrash”, but that label really doesn’t do it justice. For most of its 39-minute duration, this fourth album by Colombia’s Lucifera is a brazen race, fueled by the kind of feral ferocity that most people have come to expect from South American devil-thrash, but there’s uncommon depth to this music. As fierce and scorching as the music is, it’s also loaded with melodic hooks, and it achieves a feeling of divine Bacchanalian glory — summoning visions of wild exultation, of spirits set free by sorcerous conjurations.

La Caceria De Brujas will be released by the German label Dunkelheit Produktionen on February 25th (with a vinyl edition coming the next month), and today we’re presenting a full stream of this remarkable album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MUSKET HAWK — “HEXAGON”

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Feb 202019
 

 

March 29th is the date set by Unholy Anarchy Records for the release of Upside of Sick, the third album by the Baltimore-based sludge/grind annihilators Musket Hawk. At least in name, this seems to be a perfect match of label and band, since the music is itself unholy anarchy.

Musket Hawk‘s rampaging music pulls no punches, capable of fragmenting skulls like skillfully deployed crowbars, and just as capably running your head through a gauntlet of raging firestorm chaos. We have a prime example of the kind of devastating and electrifying assaults they mount on the new album through our premiere of a track called “Hexagon“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DOWNCROSS — “MYSTERIES OF LEFT PATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 202019
 

 

Sometimes the opportunities presented to us for premiering new music leads to the discovery of enormously good surprises — to become captivated by music we might never have otherwise found. And this is one of those startling instances.

Downcross are a duo from Belarus — vocalist/drummer Ldzmr and guitarist Dzmtr — and what we’re presenting today (only one day away from its release by Saturn Sector Rex) is their debut album Mysteries Of Left Path. The only description of the music we had before exploring it was “anticosmic”, plus whatever might be inferred from their ominous masked and torch-bearing visages on the album’s cover. This led to a few guesses about the music — which turned out to be largely incorrect. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEATHSWARM — “SHADOWLANDS OF DARKNESS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 192019
 

 

Musicians who are passionate about the ravaging sounds of gruesome old school death metal face a constant challenge when they try to create such sounds themselves: How do you wade into such familiar territory, well-guarded by devoted fans of those traditions, and emerge with something that’s still really worth hearing? If we think we’ve heard it all before, what’s required to give us a fresh jolt of electricity, rather than just another formulaic emulation?

The Swedish band Deathswarm have compelling answers to those questions. To surmount the challenges requires (first and foremost) top-shelf song-writing, plus veteran performance skill matched with authentic spirit, and a grasp of tone and production technique that makes the music sound truly monstrous. And those are the answers that Deathswarm deliver through their fantastic debut album, Shadowlands of Darkness, which will be released on February 25th by Chaos Records — and which you can hear in its entirety below. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VESPERINE — “NOUS, SI PHOTOSENSIBLES”

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Feb 192019
 

 

Torment, turmoil, and tumult flow through the music of Vesperine, a sense of defiance and desperation, and glimpses of hope that are too often revealed as phantom dreams.

Vesperine have located themselves within a long lineage of French storytellers and poets, fueled by the spirit of such imposing national figures as Hugo, Lamartine, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and Verlaine, taking up “the eternal mantra of France and its passions”: “to hope, to sink”.

Musically, the sounds can be located within the darker spheres of post-hardcore and post-metal, with progressive and noise elements in the mix. References might be made to the likes of Amenra, Cult of Luna, Impure Wilhelmina, Neurosis, and Rosetta — but better than references, we have the music itself, one excerpt from their debut album Espérer Sombrer in advance of its March 22nd release through Apathia Records. The song we present today is “Nous, si photosensibles“. Continue reading »

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