AN NCS PREMIERE: ECTOPLASMA — “WHITE-EYED TRANCE: ENSNARED IN DEVILRY”

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Oct 072019
 

 

We have been clamoring about what a great year for death metal 2019 is turning out to be, with many strong releases already behind us and still more to come — and the forthcoming second album by the Greek band Ectoplasma is definitely one of those. Of course, death metal has morphed into many shapes over the decades since its earliest origins, some of them shiny and ornately filigreed, but Ectoplasma are devoutly dedicated to the old foul, fetid, and ferocious sounds, rooting their music in early ’90s death metal from both sides of the Atlantic, but also injecting it with a black magic devilry of their own conception.

Paranormal horror has played a significant role in the band’s inspirations, and that fixation persists in this new album, White-Eyed Trance, a concept record organized around lyrical themes threaded through the songs. And speaking of devilry, today we present another new song from the album, the seventh in the running order, named “White-Eyed Trance: Ensnared in Devilry“, in advance of the album’s CD released by Memento Mori on October 31st. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): XUL OV KVLTEN — “ENTROPIC INCREASE FROM THE OMEGA AEON”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 042019
 

 

We’re calling this a premiere, but that’s not strictly true. It’s more like a wake-up call to people who might have missed the album we’re streaming below, and an alert to both old and new fans that the record is being released today on CD for the first time by ATMF.

The album in question is Entropic Increase From The Omega Aeon, the second full-length by the formidable Chilean black metal band Xul ov Kvlten, which was first released as a digital download this past January. As one of the late-comers to the album, but now having become immersed in it, I am not a bit surprised that ATMF picked it up for a physical release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CTHONICA — “III VI: …NOT AS THOSE WHO SERVED AND PREACHED IN OBEISANCE”

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Oct 032019
 

 

The name of the abominable two-headed Venezuelan black/death entity Cthonica is an acronym, in its longer form manifesting as Claiming the THrone Of Noxious Illuminative CAtharsis. The members took their first steps under the name Okkvlt, but evolved and twisted their creative impulses into more ravaging forms under the name Cthonica, soon to be revealed through their debut album Typhomanteia: Sacred Triarchy of Spiritual Putrefaction.

The album is composed of three main tracks divided into acts, which represent three aspects or steps for what the band call “Spiritual Putrefaction”, or “pneuma-morphosis into corruption”: “Act I: The Chalice” (Will: To drink from the cup of Sin), “Act II: The Lantern” (Light: To enlight the paths of Acherontic teachings…), and “Act III: The Verb” (To Dare: As the alchemical / magical principle, to point the sword high and spread the seeds of damnation). We’re told that the remaining tracks result from the continuation of the first ones, all in order to “serve as bringers of the leviathanic breath (and winds) of Typhon towards Tehom”.

What we present today is Act VI, which represents a continuation of Act III. Its name is “…Not As Those Who Served and Preached In Obeisance“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WOLF’S SOURCE — “Ремиссия духа (REMISSION OF SPIRIT)”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 032019
 

 

Behind every metal album there is a story. Most such stories are unremarkable, usually of little interest except to die-hard fans of the bands, and often providing little insight into the music beyond what you could gather from simply listening. On the other hand, the story of Волчий Источник (Wolf’s Source) and this Russian project’s lone album Ремиссия духа (originally released in 2007) is like no other. It’s a story worth telling before we get to the music of the album, which we’re streaming in full at the end of this article.

In relating this narrative we’re dependent on what we’ve been told through the label (Goatowarex) that is releasing the album on vinyl for the first time on October 6th, and this is how the story goes (qouting from the promotional material): Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE DROWNING — “HARROWED PATH”

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Oct 022019
 

 

The Welsh death-doom band The Drowning have been active for more than 15 years, and in that time have released four albums and a pair of shorter releases, and the fifth full-length, The Radiant Dark, is now headed for a November 8 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. As a sign of what it holds in store we’re presenting today the premiere of the third track to surface so far, this one aptly named “Harrowed Path“.

This new song provides a great example of The Drowning‘s ability to meld emotionally dark melodies, shattering vocal intensity, and head-hammering aggression, channeling both grief and rage in powerful fashion. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DYSANGELIUM — “DEATH LEADING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 022019
 

 

Five long years ago we premiered the terrorizing second demo (Leviaxxis) by the German black metal band Dysangelium, and then had some very positive reactions to their debut album Thánatos Áskēsis, which followed later that same year. Now, at last, a second album is on the horizon like a looming storm.

Death Leading will be released by W.T.C. Productions on October 8th, and as you’ll discover through our premiere of a full album stream, it marks a triumphant return, presenting music of frightening power and wholly immersive effect, remorselessly carrying the listener ever deeper into an other-dimensional black vortex from which there is no escape, as mesmerizing as it is fearsome. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SLUTVOMIT — “COPULATION OF CLOVEN HOOVES”

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Oct 012019
 

 

Seattle-based Slutvomit released their debut album Swarming Darkness six years ago through Invictus Productions, and left incinerated wreckage in their wake. Summed up by one prized reviewer (autothrall) as “dirty vest-slinging speed-death thrashing black madness”, it demonstrated a ton of high-octane energy, authentically barbarous and blasphemous spirit, and fiendishly impressive instrumental skill. In the years since then there have been some line-up changes, and as their new album proves, a lot of honing of their blades to an even sharper edge.

It’s commonplace for labels, publicists, and bands themselves to say that a group’s newest release is a step ahead of their last one, but here it’s verifiably true. Slutvomit‘s second album, Copulation of Cloven Hooves, again due for release by Invictus Productions (on October 4th), takes every good quality from their debut album and elevates it, while retaining the music’s capacity to set your hair on fire and race you ’til you’re out of breath. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHAOS MOTION — “PSYCHOTIC SPASM”

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Sep 302019
 

 

Looks can be deceiving. At least as captured in this photo, the three members of Chaos Motion appear calm and serious, albeit a bit menacingly serious, as if planning something potentially dangerous to your health. On the other hand, their music is absolutely mad — fiendishly inventive, thrillingly adventurous, relentlessly unpredictable, and fully capable of flipping your brain upside-down and inside-out.

Not for naught is the band named Chaos Motion, nor is it happenstance that their debut album is entitled Psychological Spasms Cacophony. Likewise, “Psychotic Spasm“, the title of the song we’re premiering today, are not empty words. Their label’s references to the likes of Gorguts, Portal, Origin, Wormed, and early Cephalic Carnage are not misdirections.

But maybe you’ve already figured all this out, since our premiere is the sixth in line leading up to the album’s October 18 release date. But if you haven’t already taken a ride on the Chaos Motion pan-dimensional roller-coaster, or even if you have, you’re in for an electrifying experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NEKROSITY — “VOID GAZER”

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Sep 272019
 

 

After a decade-long life that until today had yielded only two demos in 2913 and 2015, the Swedish death metal band Nekrosity have at last released a debut album, the name of which is Void Gazer. It’s the kind of release that obviously reveals not only a deep affection and understanding of death metal’s golden age (as represented on both sides of the Atlantic) but also a level of song-writing and performance skill that displays maturity (three of Nekrosity’s members are also current or former participants in Sadistic Grimnness, whose roots go back 20 years)… and a hell of a lot of hard work. It’s such a damned good album, and so capable of appealing to even jaded fans of old school death metal in its differing formulations, that we enthusiastically seized on the opportunity to help spread the word through this feature.

The reference points are indeed varied — from Grave and Asphyx to Autopsy and Death, from old Entombed and Necrophagia to Morbid Angel and Slayer (and a mention of Demonical among more latter-day bands isn’t out of place either) — but the proficiency with which Nekrosity fluidly combine those influences in Void Gazer makes the album stand out in the vast pack of bands that have been part of the death metal revival over the last decade. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: VENEREAL BAPTISM — “REPUGNANT CORONATION OF THE BEAST”

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Sep 262019
 

 

On the surface (and it’s the kind of surface you don’t want to touch without wearing surgical-grade antiseptic gloves), the South Texas black metal band Venereal Baptism is naaaasty. From their band name to the outrageous song titles on their new album Repugnant Coronation of the Beast, they just blare filth and depravity (and a complete disregard for modern mores and tender feelings) straight out of a bullhorn. It’s all so over the top in its offensiveness that it might even make you dubious about listening.

However, if you choose not to subject yourself to the full album riot that we’re premiering today on the eve of the record’s release by Osmose Productions, you’ll be missing a balls-to-the-wall thrill-ride, and one that proves to be fiendishly addictive. Continue reading »

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