AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RIPARIAN — “THE NUCLEAR UNCLEAR”

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Jan 292019
 

 

With their impending self-titled debut EP, Pittsburgh’s Riparian channel a ferocious zeal for musical carnage while displaying impressive technicality, integrating elements of death metal and grindcore, and dosing their rapidly veering rampages with moments of doom and gloom.

“Grimy, weird, and filth-soaked,” is one way that Grimoire Records describes the sound, and it is Grimoire that will release the EP on March 1st. Today we present an outstandingly unhinged track from the EP named “The Nuclear Unclear” through a music video with a beer-lover’s back-story. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VIMUR — “CONSUMED BY THE SOURCE”

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Jan 292019
 

 

Welcome, brothers and sisters, to another thrilling excursion into musical lands of fire and ice, with guides from Atlanta, where the people are no strangers to heat and may soon also find themselves enveloped in ice, thanks to the impending assault of a new polar vortex.

“Consumed By The Source” is the name of the song you’re about to hear, and it’s one of seven tracks of ravaging black metal on Triumphant Master of Fates, the new second album by Atlanta’s Vimur, who curse the wretched earth and seek salvation beyond the stars, in death. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VÉHÉMENCE — “PASSAGE DANS LES DOUVES”

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Jan 292019
 

 

Par le Sang Versé is one of the most thoroughly entrancing and gloriously vibrant metal albums I’ve heard in years, regardless of sub-genre. It seizes ancient folk traditions and hurls them forward into the modern age, but without letting go of the intense devotion to the centuries-old well-springs of inspiration that gave birth to this record. I do think it’s impossible not to be moved in some significant degree by this fervent music, and likely that most listeners will simply be swept aloft and carried away, as I’ve been.

Granted, this writer tends to get swept away by a wider range of extreme music, and perhaps more often, than many of you, yet the conviction is strong that the eight songs on this new second album by the French medieval black metal band Véhémence are so powerful in their capacity to ignite passion and fire the imagination that the band’s own unmistakable passions become highly communicable, if not irresistible.

Have I fallen whole-heartedly within the embrace of a seduction that you could shrug off? That’s a question you can answer for yourselves, because you’ll have the chance to listen to a new song from the album following a lot more introductory verbiage, plus three more tracks that were previously released in advance of the record’s release on February 10th by the distinctive French label, Antiq. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BACKSTABBER — “GEO ENGINEERING”

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Jan 282019
 

 

We live in an age when conspiracy theories of all stripes seem to have reached a zenith, and the Canadian death/thrash band Backstabber (from northern Quebec) seem to have embraced the ethos (or at least fervently portrayed it) in their debut album Conspiracy Theorist. Consisting of 10 tracks that explore themes of scandal, critiques of mainstream media, and of course conspiracies, the album will be released on February 15th.

Today we present a lyric video for one of their murderous aural attacks. Entitled “Geo Engineering“, it was inspired by a speech delivered at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2016 by then-CIA chief Paul Brennan. In the speech, Brennan spoke of a program that had attracted his personal interest called “Stratospheric Aerosol Injection”, through which seeding the stratosphere with reflective particles could reduce global temperatures at an estimated annual cost of $10 billion.

Though Brennan touted the idea as a means of combatting global warming, Backstabber foresee a different and more devastating outcome. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SE LUSIFERIN KANNEL — “VALTAKUNTA”

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Jan 282019
 

 

As you prepare to begin listening to this album, imagine finding your seats with other members of the audience in the midst of a blasted concert hall, surrounded by the ruins of a dead civilization (your own), beneath a roiling red sky streaked with cascading black clouds. Soon you will be enveloped by dense waves and gales of sound, as Se Lusiferin Kannel perform four larger-than-life symphonies of Luciferian exaltation and lunacy, apocalyptic catastrophe, and the heart-ache of death and desolation on a massive scale.

These four compositions, each of them as long as an EP, make up the body of Valtakunta (a Finnish word for “kingdom”), the 71-minute debut opus of these mysterious visionaries. It was first self-released digitally in October 2017, but on February 1st it will be presented by Signal Rex on CD and double-LP vinyl formats, remastered by Stephen Lockhart at Iceland’s Studio Emissary and featuring new cover art by Heresie Graphics. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HE COMES LATER — “ATONEMENT”

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Jan 252019
 

 

Much has been written by survivors of near-death experiences. As summarized in The Font of All Human Knowledge, in some instances survivors describe positive sensations of “detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light”. For others, there are “sensations of torment and torture”.

The Italian band He Comes Later explore a particular kind of near-death experience in their debut album, Cognizance (released last October), meticulously following the experience of a tortured protagonist who brings himself to the brink of suicide, and over the brink. Through remarkably evocative and eloquent lyrics, the songs trace the path into oblivion — and out again, with a second chance to go on, no longer despising the gift of life. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MIST OF MISERY — “HALLS OF EMPTINESS”

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Jan 252019
 

 

We have been following the Swedish band Mist of Misery for several years, beginning with a review and full premiere of their second album Absence in 2016, following that with an interview of the band, and writing about their follow-up EPs in 2017, Shackles of Life and Fields of Isolation.

All those releases presented multi-faceted trips of changing moods and varying energies, managed with a sure hand, which created a blend of haunting ambience, symphonic power, and blackened ferocity, while repeatedly displaying the band’s knack for driving home their penetrating and memorable melodies as they moved among changing shades of darkness. But now they’ve completed work on a massive new album that includes songs which are longer, darker, and more atmospheric than on any previous release.

The new album is named Unalterable. It’s nearly two hours long, and will be released as a double-CD by Black Lion Records on April 12th. Today what we have for you is an official video for the first-released song from the album, “Halls of Emptiness“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EGGS OF GOMORRH — “PRAYEGGRH”

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Jan 242019
 

 

Prepare to have your mind blown, because the song we’re about to present really is the kind of extravagantly explosive experience that will leave the most hardened listener pop-eyed, slack-jawed, and wondering “what the hell did I just hear?!?”

“Prayeggrh” is the name of this song, and it’s one of five (plus a bonus cover of an Arkhon Infaustus track) included on Outpregnate, a new MCD by the Swiss black/death metal band Eggs of Gomorrh, which is set for a March 22 release by the extremist French label Krucyator Productions. The outrageous cover artwork by Daniel “Nekronikon” Corcuera is enough to leave most people pop-eyed and slack-jawed, but it still might not be sufficient warning of the sounds that lie within. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OKKULTIST — “REINVENTING EVIL”

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Jan 232019
 

 

The Ides of March is the date set by Alma Mater Records (the label run by Moonspell’s Fernando Ribeiro) for the release of the first album by a quintet of Portuguese extremists who’ve taken the name Okkultist. Entitled Reinventing Evil, it delivers eight onslaughts of rabid death metal brutality, inspired by such progenitors as Master, Abomination, early Morbid Angel, Death, and Dismember — and today it’s our sadistic pleasure to bring you a stream of the album’s title track.

At the front of Okkultist is growler and screamer Beatriz Mariano, surrounded by lead guitarist Leander Sandmeier, rhythm guitarist Moisés Filho, bassist David Justin, and drummer The Lorke. They chose “Reinventing Evil” as the first sign of what the album holds in store because, as Beatriz tells us, “it’s a punch in the face — a small taste of the pain we have ready to bring you!” And yeah, it really is a powerhouse punch in the face. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SORDIDE — “LA PEUR DU NOIR”

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Jan 232019
 

 

We have been following the progress of the French black metal band Sordide since discovering and writing about the first preview tracks from their second album, 2016’s Fuir la lumière (escape the light), that appeared in advance of the album’s release. That led to the opportunity for us to host the debut of a complete music stream for that exhilarating record, which became one of this writer’s favorite releases of 2016.

Sordide have now completed work on a third album, the name of which is Hier déjà mort, which will be released on February 15th by Throatruiner Records, WV Sorcerer Productions, and La Harelle. Not long after that, Sordide will embark upon a European tour with the Dutch black metal band Turia, whom we’ve also praised repeatedly at our site. Today we provide further details about all this news, as well as a chance to listen to the opening track from the new album (following a prelude) entitled “La peur du noir“. Continue reading »

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