AN NCS PREMIERE: BARSHASKETH — “VACILLATION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 122018
 

 

Our fascination with Barshasketh began with the discovery of their remarkable 2015 album Ophidian Henosis, which in turn led to the exploration of their two preceding albums, 2013’s Sitra Achra and 2010’s Defying the Bonds of Cosmic Thraldom, and then carried us forward to their 2017 Sein/Zeit split with Poland’s Outre (which we premiered here). It was thus with a mixture of excitement and intrigue that we learned W.T.C. Productions would be releasing a new 54-minute Barshasketh album in January of next year — and that it would be self-titled.

Self-titled albums sometimes have a way of signaling a band’s re-birth, or of reaching a different kind of turning point in their progression. In this case, given the nature of the music on the album, it seems to represent not so much a re-invention of the band as it does a new zenith in what Barshasketh have achieved. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MO’YNOQ — “THE COLLECTOR”

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Dec 102018
 

 

Early last year I discovered Bardo, the then-forthcoming new EP by a black metal crew from Raleigh, North Carolina, named Mo’ynoq — and it made such a powerful immediate impression that I reached out to them to ask if we could premiere one of the tracks to accompany a review of Bardo (and you can find that here). Now Mo’ynoq have completed work on their debut album — Dreaming In A Dead Language — and once again I asked if we could host a premiere of one of the new songs in advance of its official release on January 11th. Once again, the band agreed.

I hasten to add that we don’t usually ask for the opportunity to host premieres. Almost all the time, the requests come to us. But the new Mo’ynoq album is so damned good, and so damned exciting, that I couldn’t resist. The song chosen by the band is the album’s second track, “The Collector“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AUTOMB — “MOURNED”

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Dec 102018
 

 

Earlier this fall Satanath Records (Russia) and Final Gate Records (Germany) released Esoterica, the debut album of the Pittsburgh-based black metal band Automb. We had the pleasure of premiering a track from the album in advance of its release, and now we’re pleased again to present an official video for one of the album’s many riveting tracks, a song called “Mourned“.

For those who may be encountering Automb for the first time, it began as a side-project of Necrophagia guitarist Serge Streltsov and vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Danielle Evans. After the untimely passing of Streltsov‘s Necrophagia bandmate Frank “Killjoy” Pucci (to whom this new album is dedicated), he turned his full attention to Automb, and he and Danielle Evans enlisted the aid of Morbid Angel drummer Scott Fuller to create Esoterica. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ENDOLITH — “ICHTHYS”

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Dec 072018
 

 

(Today our premiere is introduced by Andy Synn, and features a new video for a single from the new album by Endolith. The album will be released on January 18th by Rob Mules Records. The single is available digitally today.)

It’s been well-documented that Voyager, the astonishingly good debut by Norwegian Prog-Metallers Endolith, is one of my favourite albums of the last ten years, and one which I’m constantly trying to get more people to listen to… hint, hint.

However I’m just as hopeful that the band’s upcoming second record, the blood-pumping, brain-teasing, Chicxulub The Fossil Record, is going to become one of your favourites too once it finally hits the streets (and the internet) on the 18thof January.

Having heard the entire album already I can offer a few minor spoilers to help get your juices flowing, such as letting you know that it’s a warmer, more organic sounding affair than its predecessor, and while it’s also more melodic in many ways, it’s still just as groovesomely heavy and, arguably, a few shades darker too.

The band released the first taste of Chicxulub (whose title refers to the impact crater of the same name in Mexico where an asteroid or comet hit the earth precipitating an extinction-level event that wiped out the dinosaurs) back in July with the video/single “Rex”, and now we’re lucky enough to be able to present you a second helping of metallic magic in the shape of the new video by Steffen Normark for “Ichthys”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INNERO — “THE SHAMAN”

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Dec 062018
 

 

January 27th is the date established by Third I Rex for the release of ChaosWolf, the debut album from the Italian black metal band Innero, which was formed in 2016 by members of Malnatt and Bland Vargar. We are told that in creating the album Innero followed “a shamanic path of inner consciousness and renewal”, and thus it’s fitting that the first excerpt from the album, which we present today, is a song called “The Shaman“.

This is a song that wears the intensity of its emotions on its sleeve. The music is dramatic, and scarring, and seems to reveal the deep scars of its creators’ own suffering and disappointments. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DISCIPLES OF THE VOID — “DISCIPLES OF THE VOID”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Dec 052018
 

 

We’re well past the point when it’s possible to neatly classify black metal by national origin (if there ever was such a point). Yet when I think of Finnish black metal, images of thrusting goats and leering demons still come to mind, spawned by the feral, carnal viciousness deployed by some of the country’s best-known blasphemous deviants.

Those same images sprang to mind more than once in listening to the self-titled debut album by the anonymous Finnish duo Disciples of the Void, but mixed with other mental imagery, because the album is a multi-dimensional affair, one of those gripping surprises that is both atmospheric and rampantly physical in its sensations, successful in its appeal to base instincts and also evocative of less carnal and more august, but more frightening, visions.

After a handful of additional paragraphs by way of introduction, we will have a full stream of the album for your exploration in advance of its release by Primitive Reaction two days from now on December 7th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ACHERONTE — “TRASCENDENTAL WILL”

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Dec 042018
 

 

It may be wise to hyperventilate before listening to the song we’re premiering today, to enrich your blood with oxygen now rather than be caught gasping before you get to the end, because “Trascedental Will” is a no holds-barred, full-throttle adrenaline rush from start to finish.

The track comes from Son of No God, the second album by the Italian black metal band Acheronte, which will be jointly released on December 11th by GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and The Triad Rec (Italy). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: (THE TRUE) VEILED — “SELFCHASM”

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Dec 032018
 

 

In Blinding Presence is the debut album by the German black metal band Veiled, who refer to themselves as (The True) Veiled in an effort to distinguish themselves from other groups who have veiled themselves in the name of Veiled — though as you’ll discover, the music itself sets them apart.

The album will be released on January 7th by Into Endless Chaos Records, and today we present a track from the album named “Selfchasm“. That title, along with the album title, will seem like inspired choices once you’ve heard the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KONFLICT — “TRIGGER UNIVERSAL CONFLICT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 302018
 

 

On December 5h Cyclopean Eye Productions will release the new EP by the Sri Lankan noise terror trio Konflict, and today we present a full stream of all six brain-mangling body-mutilating tracks.

Crafted as “a blood-curdling retaliation against their homeland’s perpetual degeneration,” Trigger Universal Conflict is a dystopian sonic nightmare, a remorseless assault of harsh noise, grindcore, and black/death metal with devastating consequences. It lasts only 18 minutes, but long enough to leave a listeners shivering in fear, with heartbeats hammering and lungs gasping for air. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): COSMIC ATROPHY — “THE VOID ENGINEERS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 302018
 

 

(Today we premiere a full stream of the new album by Cosmic Atrophy from Biloxi, Mississippi, preceded by an introductory review by Vonlughlio.)

As you, my dear readers, already know by now, my small reviews usually focus on bands in the Brutal Death Metal genre (one of my favorites). Nevertheless, I do like other genres as well, such as Death, Black, Black/Death, and Doom Metal, just to name a few. But when given the opportunity to write for NCS,  I wanted to focus on a genre that could use more exposure. Also, Islander and the team of writers do a fantastic job in promoting/writing about all the main genres here.

With that being said, in my time here at NCS I have written about some non-BDM such as Mournful Congregation, whose release last year I was privileged to write a few words about.

This time around I am very fortunate to do a small write up for Cosmic Atrophy‘s sophomore album The Void Engineers. Simply put, it is for me how Progressive Death Metal should sound, and it has impacted me immensely. Continue reading »

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