AN NCS PREMIERE: GODS FORSAKEN — “THEY CRAWL”

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Apr 092019
 

 

Judging by the daily news headlines, most gods may have forsaken most of humanity, but the gods of Swedish death metal have not forsaken Gods Forsaken. To the contrary, they seem to have possessed this band and to live through them in riotous joy. Their new album, Smells of Death, already seems poised to take its place in the pantheon.

For those who don’t already know, Gods Forsaken began with a veteran lineup consisting of guitarist/bassist Anders Biazzi (Just Before Dawn), vocalist Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath, Henry Kane, Ashcloud, etc.), and drummer Brynjar Helgetun (Just Before Dawn, Crypticus, Johansson & Speckman, Megascavenger, etc., etc.). The first album included some notable guest appearances, including solos by Gustav Myrin (ex-Blood Mortized). On this new album Mr. Myrin is again on board, this time as lead guitarist, and Alwin Bassphyx (Asphyx) joins in as rhythm guitarist. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SANGUE — “CULŚ”

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Apr 092019
 

 

I’m having trouble describing this album, Culś, because it has done something terrible to my mind, which didn’t work particularly well to begin with, but which is now quivering like a mouse in the corner of a small room occupied by a wolf from hell.

Sangue’s music is horrifying, cruel, hallucinogenic, remorselessly abrasive, and crushing. It is a summoning of bestial chaos and wretched catastrophe on a titanic scale. It raises the evil of perverse gods to a pinnacle. It scalds the senses and freezes the blood. It evokes a fight or flight response — but mainly flight. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IRON FLESH — “MALIGNANT KINGDOM”

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Apr 082019
 

 

(Andy Synn introduces our premiere of a track off the forthcoming new album by the French quartet Iron Flesh.)

This site’s relationship with French Death Metal fanatics Iron Flesh – originally the solo project of Julien Helwin (ex-Otargos), but soon expanded to a full-powered four-piece – goes back a couple of years now, beginning when we stumbled across their debut EP, Worship the Necrogod, and continuing through our coverage of the band’s follow-up, Scourge of Demonic Incantations, last year.

On a more personal level my own relationship (if you want to call it that) with Julien goes back to when he was filling in on drums for Mithras in 2016, which is when I first met him (and saw how good he was behind the kit), and I’ve been eagerly following his career ever since.

As a result it fell to me to pen a few words about “Malignant Kingdom”, the first track to be released from the band’s upcoming full-length debut, Forged Faith Bleeding, which we’re delighted to be able to premiere for you all today! Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SKULLDRIVER — “L.D.C.”

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Apr 082019
 

 

Skulldriver picked a damned good name for themselves, given the kind of music they crank out on their new EP, L.D.C. It locks into the part of the brain responsible for reflexive skull movement and takes over, rudely throwing the conscious part into the back seat and jamming the gas pedal to the floor while your head pounds like a piston. And in addition to packing in more grooves than is strictly legal, Skulldriver’s music is hotter than hell, meaner than a junkyard dog, and with enough non-stop high-voltage energy to power industrial turbines.

“Redneck metal” is what they call it, and the fact that they’re from southern Finland (Liljendal) rather than the southern U.S. doesn’t hold them back in the slightest. They’ve nailed down a mix of groove-laden thrash, hardcore, and backwoods, swamp-infested, roadhouse brawling, and it’s got a ton of primal appeal.

L.D.C. will be released by Elitbolaget on April 12th, and we’ve got a stream of all four tracks for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NOX DESPERATIO — “INCINERATIO ARCANA NOCTE”

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Apr 052019
 

One one level, on the surface, the new album by the Venezuelan black metal band Nox Desperatio screams “Fire!” The album title — Incineratio Arcana Nocte — and many of the song titles (all of which are in Spanish or Latin) make references to flames and to burning. But other superficial clues seem to point in a different direction. The band’s own name, the evocative cover art (by Bryan Maita), and other aspects of the album and song titles, bring to mind obscurity, despair, and haunting darkness. Perhaps, then, it’s to be expected that the music on the new album combines these two manifestations. What might be surprising is how the band do do it, and how emotionally powerful the results prove to be.

You’ll have a chance to discover that for yourselves, because today we present a full stream of the album on the day of its release by Unpleasant Records (an enterprise of one of the creators behind the fantastic Venezuelan band Selbst), preceded by a few more thoughts about the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FILTHEATER — “A VEILED LOATHING THRONE”

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Apr 042019
 

 

So much filth. Drowning in it, every orifice clogged with it. What does it say about us, we consumers of extreme metal, that so many of us hunger for aural noxiousness like dogs drawn to the taste of their own excrement? Hold that thought…

Filtheater, in all the most immediately obvious ways, pander to those listeners who hunger for foul and frightening experiences. Their name, of course, but beyond that the title of their new album — Blight of Sempiternal Putrefaction — and such song names as “Malevolent Transcendence”, “Amorphous Bulging Appendages”, and the track we’re premiering today, “A Veiled Loathing Throne“.

But if you ponder those titles, and others such as “Monologues of Reverence”, “Vapors of Human Sacrifice”, and “Unwelcome Illuminated Curiosity”, not to mention the cover art,  you’ll find clues to other dimensions of Filtheater’s brand of death metal, which proves to be eldritch as well as toxic. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ORSO — “PANINOTECA”

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Apr 042019
 

 

I must begin with Orso‘s video for the song “Mitraillette“. I intended to blurt about it as soon as I saw it almost three weeks ago, but learned soon after that we would be hosting the premiere today of Orso‘s new album, Paninoteca, so I held my tongue (barely), with pincers. Now my tongue can wag.

In watching the video I had a difficult time concentrating on the music — not that you really need to concentrate, since you can feel the music quite powerfully in your core, even without focusing your mind — because of the video’s strange combination of humor, creepiness, and the ability to induce salivation. For several minutes I couldn’t quite figure out why it was making me uneasy, watching Orso‘s band members intently devour sandwiches, and then it hit me that their heads don’t move… and they have no ears, or at least none that you can see. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SINS OF THE DAMNED — “VICTIMS OF HATE”

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Apr 032019
 

 

Sins of the Damned began in Santiago, Chile, in November 2013 with the aim of creating speed metal with South American authenticity, and devoid of lyrics that might embrace fantasy. From 2014 through 2017 they released a series of demos and splits, and a 2017 compilation collected much of that work. Now they are about to release their first album, Striking the Bell of Death, with a due date of May 3rd through Shadow Kingdom Records.

On this new album, Sins of the Damned have created something iconic, something that summons so much of what has made fierce and fiery heavy metal so cathartic and so addictive for so many decades — and in the case of this band’s own style, so dazzling and grand. The song we present today, “Victims of Hate“, is a prime example of those qualities. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRYLLE — “GOTHIQUE ANJEVIN”

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Apr 032019
 

 

I remember being left in a state of gleeful astonishment when I first heard the music of The Pogues. There they were, playing raucous punk music with old acoustic instruments, with tin whistle and accordion, with mandolin and hurdy-gurdy, with banjo and bodhrán. They caught the spirit of punk and made it seem like a natural outgrowth of Celtic drinking songs and folk dances.

The music of Grylle leaves me in a similar state of gleeful wonder, translating the spirit (and some of the sounds) of black metal through ancient instrumentation and the enthralling accents of antique melody. The music and the inspirations may have been born within that most “outsider” of extreme metal genres, but Grylle has then stepped outside of even that, while keeping one foot in the black circle. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOREGÄNG — “CATHEDRAL OF CHEMICALS”

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Apr 022019
 

 

Juanjo Castellano strikes again, with a wonderful piece of artwork (augmented by a Mark Riddick logo) for the debut album by Goregӓng, a piece that’s both reminiscent of the great Kristian “Necrolord” Wåhlin and also captures the feeling of the album title itself: Neon Graves. And in turn, that album title is an entirely fitting preview of the music that Goregӓng have created, which is preternaturally vibrant and morbidly gruesome (among other things).

That the album is so sure-handed and so murderously exuberant should come as no surprise, given that Goregӓng is the work of two men — Jeramie Kling and Taylor Nordberg — who between them have resumes that include such names as Ribspreader, Wombbath, Venom Inc., and The Absence. After an introductory EP in 2017, they’ve now delivered a compelling full-length amalgam of death metal, crust, and grind. A couple of songs from Neon Graves have already surfaced, and now we’ve got one more for you. This one is “Cathedral of Chemicals“. Continue reading »

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