CONJURER: A REVIEW OF “SIGILS” AND THE PREMIERE OF “ACROSS THE VOID”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 022019
 

 

(In this post Todd Manning reviews the new album by Indiana’s Conjurer, which will be released on April 5th, and introduces our premiere of a song from the album.)

There is a tendency in the world of Metal to try to overload every available inch of sonic space with brutality. It’s an understandable and often effective approach, but at times, bands who utilize a more stripped-down strategy are equally capable of blowing the listener’s mind and ears. It is this kind of sense of refinement that is evident in spades on the new album Sigils by Indianapolis-based Sludge/Doom quintet Conjurer.

For anyone familiar with their debut, Old World Ritual, their latest is not a radical departure from the sound they established there, but is a logical and powerful step forward. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEIPHAGO — “I, THE DEVIL”

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Apr 012019
 

 

“Avant-garde” might not be the first adjective that springs to most people’s minds in thinking about Deiphago. “Bestial”, “violent”, and “Satanic” might come first. But this band’s music completely fits the definition of “avant-garde”, which applies to works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox, characterized by nontraditional aesthetic innovation and a dedication to pushing the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm.

All of those qualities apply to Deiphago’s music, but never more so than in the case of their new album I, The Devil. Of course, the music is also bestial, violent, and Satanic. And of all the songs on this remarkable new album, perhaps none of them captures all these sensations as powerfully as the title track, which we present today in advance of the record’s April 30 release by Hells Headbangers. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: BOB MALMSTRÖM — “LÄNGE LEVE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 012019
 

 

We welcome the return of Bob Malmström to our putrid site! It may be April Fool’s Day, but that’s no joke. They really do have a new EP ready for release on April 5th (the name of which is Länge Leve) and we really do have a complete stream of it to share with you today.

Now, I do realize that, instead of applauding, the first reaction of many of you will be “Bob who?” After all, a long three years have passed since we last devoted attention to the band. But they are hardly newcomers to NCS, even though their music isn’t always right in our wheelhouse. In fact, hosting today’s premiere is something of a reunion, like the visit of cousins you haven’t seen in a long time, who set your house on fire the last time they came around. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CEREMONY OF SILENCE — “OÚTIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 292019
 

 

Oútis, the debut album by the Slovakian duo Ceremony of Silence, is one of the most mind-bending albums of the year so far, a display of such astonishing (and mentally destabilizing) brilliance that it is likely to leave a shivering gleam in the eyes of astute listeners even as they make their lists at the end of this year.

The album will be released by Willowtip Records on April 5th. We have already published an enthusiastic review by our contributor Vonlughlio, who called it “spectacular from start to finish”, “complex and extravagantly inventive at many times, straightforward and simple (and oppressive) at others”, but since we have the privilege of premiering a full stream of Oútis today, I can’t resist adding my own equally exuberant comments by way of introduction. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MOONSHADE — “SUN DETHRONED”

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Mar 292019
 

 

In October of last year Art Gates Records released the debut album Sun Dethroned by the melodic death metal band Moonshade from northern Portugal. As explained by the band, the album is “a conceptual work that deals with a two-sided personification of the human condition, in the form of two romantically involved main characters that symbolize the abstract concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’: Lenore and God of Nothingness, the latter represented in the album cover”. As Moonshade further explain:

“Throughout this piece a story is told of which the most important events are the death of Lenore (“good”), that leads God of Nothingness (“evil”) towards a spiraling descent into wrath and madness, eventually consuming all reality, including himself, finally abandoning his pitiful existence in a sea of regrets where, in essence, he mourns his lost love and mourns the innocence of his madness. In short, Sun Dethroned functions as a parabola that highlights the need for balance while firmly stating the cost of its absence.”

Today we present the premiere of a music video made by the talented Portuguese filmmaker Guilherme Enriques for the title track to Sun Dethroned. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EYE OF THE DESTROYER — “FACE DOWN”

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Mar 282019
 

 

Judging by the song we’re about to premiere from the new album Baptized In Pain by New Jersey’s Eye of the Destroyer, the band picked an accurate name for the record. Listening to “Face Down” feels like being beaten with crowbars.

In addition to being a cold-eyed, heavyweight bruiser, this hybrid of death metal and hardcore is a humongous headbanger. That effect kicks in pretty quickly, but not before the band opens the heavens with a thunderstorm of pummeling drums, rumbling bass, and dismal, ringing chords. Then comes the gargantuan, mercilessly hammering, teeth-loosening riff that will get your head going (and your skull cracking), at the same time as Joe Randazza‘s raw, scalding howls do their damnedest to burn the flesh off your face. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABDUCTION — “ALL PAIN AS PENANCE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 282019
 

 

Abduction is a one-man UK black metal band whose ravaging debut album To Further Dreams of Failure we reviewed (in part) in March 2017. The band also released an album last year, A Crown of Curses, and now this UK ravager already has a third one geared up for release tomorrow — March 29th — via Inferna Profundus Records. All Pain As Penance is the name of the new one, and we have a full stream of it for you today.

“Infinite Ancient Hexes” was the first track made available for streaming a few weeks ago. It seized attention immediately. On that track, as on all the others, A|V handles everything except drums, which were performed by session member EG. His drumming on that first song to be revealed from the album is powerful, driving the pace in a plundering fury while delivering neck-cracking fills along the way. Meanwhile, the riffing creates a dismal and poisonous atmosphere, a thick, desolating miasma of sound, parsed by chiming chords that are still moody but also hypnotic, and by an incendiary solo.

It made for an absolutely explosive, irresistibly head-moving herald for this album, notwithstanding the music’s aura of pestilence and wretchedness. It rocks as well as ravages, and it’s easy to get addicted to it very quickly. But there is so much more to come from this album following that opener. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AMBER TEARS — “WHEN NO TRAILS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 282019
 

 

It was only yesterday that I wrote about a song from the new album by the Russian pagan doom band Amber Tears [Янтарные Слезы]. I knew then that we would be premiering the entire album today, and I had planned to recommend the track much earlier than I did, but I couldn’t resist. “Sing the Wind, Sing the Raven” [Спой Ветер, Спой Воронis] such a powerfully captivating song, its mood so wintry and haunting, so steeped in sorrow down to the marrow, so deeply moving, yet so glorious.

What I knew then, and can prove to you now, is that the entire album is just as captivating as that opening track. Entitled When No Trails [Когда Нет Троп], it will be released by BadMood Man Records on March 29th — tomorrow! Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FALAISE — “A PLACE I DON’T BELONG TO”

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Mar 272019
 

 

A Place I Don’t Belong To is the third album by the Italian duo Falaise. It will be released on March 29th through A Sad Sadness Song, but we have a full stream of the album for you today.

The band’s first two albums, As Time Goes By (2015) and My Endless Immensity (2017), have charted an evolutionary course as Falaise has moved in a direction that may now cause many listeners to put them in the company of such bands as Alcest and Lantlôs, as they have fashioned an amalgam of sound that now includes depressive black metal, post-rock, and shoegaze. They are creating music of changing shades but persistent, unabashedly heart-felt, emotional intensity, and the new album finds them at the peak of their powers so far, delivering elaborately-textured and dramatically contrasting music that’s completely captivating. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TROLL — “LEGEND MASTER, BOOK 2: THREE EVIL WORDS”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  8 Responses »
Mar 262019
 

 

This is another day when newcomers to our site will become confused, or will complain about “bait and switch” tactics. For those folks, let’s be clear up-front that we do make exceptions to that rule brandished in our site’s name. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does it’s well-earned, as it is in the case of the song by Portland’s Troll that we’re premiering in this post.

The band’s frontman, Rainbo, really does have a remarkable voice — clear, strong, and capable of channeling varieties of emotional intensity with gripping force. In this new song, as in others from Troll’s new album, Legend Master, he pairs parts of his range to create harmonies of haunting power. His voice is a dominant presence in the music, but it’s far from the only appealing ingredient in the music, as you’re about to discover. Continue reading »

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