AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GEIST — “SLEEP DEPRIVED”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 212019
 

 

That photo up there, it’s a classic example of the calm before the storm — the members of Geist holding still for the camera. Even in that frozen moment, you get the sense of barely repressed menace, a perception of people who are much more comfortable exploding on stage than waiting while the timer ticks toward the detonation.

And man, these dudes from the northeast of England really are explosive. Through a feral mix of dark hardcore, crust, and metal, they channel emotionally raw and devastating sensations (and bone-busting force) through their debut album Swarming Season. And the video we’re premiering today for an album track named “Sleep Deprived” captures them in their true element, throwing themselves with utter commitment into the performance of the music (rather than waiting for the shutter to click). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CELL — “GOD OF THE NETHERREALM”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 202019
 

 

The Canadian black metal band Cell (based in Winnipeg, Manitoba) have an unusual origin story. Before there was a band there was an idea for a science fiction comic book, born from the imagination of guitarist/vocalist Hyperion. In thinking about how to bring the conceptual idea to life, he decided to use music as the vehicle instead, and from that turn in the creative path, Cell was born, and their musical narratives flow from those concepts.

With one album under their belts (2016’s The Frozen Moon of Erebath), Cell are now poised to release their second full-length, Ancient Incantations Of Xarbos. While black metal forms the backbone of the music, Cell have brought in elements of of death metal, hardcore, thrash, and doom to expand upon their cosmic endeavors.

All those elements are on display in the almost theatrically rich dynamics of the song from the new album that we’re presenting today, “God of the NetherRealm“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OKTAS — “SILFRA”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 202019
 

 

An okta is a unit of measurement used to describe the amount of cloud cover at any given location. The term has become the basis for the name chosen by a group of Philadelphia musicians led by visual and musical artist Bob Stokes (Drones for Queens) and including friends of his from previous bands — drummer Rob Macauley and fellow bassist Carl Whitlock of Dirt Worshipper, and minimalist composer Jason Baron from Cloud Minder, who plays the cello with Oktas.

Under that name they’ve recorded a debut self-titled EP that embraces a range of influences, from ambient minimalism to atmospheric black metal and epic doom metal, woven together with a cinematic edge. Lyrically “based in the filth ridden streets of south Philadelphia”, as Bob Stokes tell us, the words transport us “to a world destroyed by mankind’s own hubris, pllagued with endless war, constant natural disasters and humanity desperate for redemption”.

The EP is set for digital release on September 20th, which will coincide with an art show by Bob Stokes at the Grindcore House Cafe in Philadelphia in conjunction with Dark Arts and Craft. And in advance of the release it’s our pleasure to premiere one of the EP’s three tracks — “Silfra“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABYSMALIST — “REFLECTIONS OF HORROR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 192019
 

 

“18 minutes of eldritch lurch ‘n’ crunch“. Sometimes it’s hard to improve on a good publicist’s summing-up, and in few words that is indeed a very good description of the “crushing ruminations” (another stolen phrase) displayed across the four tracks of Abysmalist’s debut demo, Reflections of Horror. A solemn and shivering bow must also be aimed in the direction of Abysmalist for their selection of a title for the demo, because electrifying horrors live and breathe within its supernatural confines.

Formed by two veterans of the Bay Area crust and hardcore underground, Abysmalist indulge their affections for Bolt Thrower, Obituary, and other “pre-blastbeat death metal” from the early ’90s (one more stolen phrase), as well as an attraction to such authors as Clive Barker and Patrick Süskind, whose works provided lyrical inspiration. And like authors such as those, the eerie reverberations and ghastly vocals in their music send chills down the spine even as the band pound and eviscerate or drag us through dank crypts like rotten but still breathing corpses. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATOMIC WITCH — “VOID CURSE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 192019
 

 

The long-time disciples of the Cleveland metal and hardcore scene who formed Atomic Witch picked a good band name for their new musical endeavors. Their debut EP Void Curse couples the wild radioactive energy of a runaway nuclear meltdown with the weird and witchy feeling of a supernatural orgy. Together, the EP’s four tracks are supercharged with furious, pulse-pounding energy, head-spinning instrumental changes, and unhinged vocal intensity. The genre-bending EP creates a maniacal atmosphere, whole-heartedly indulging in a musical blood-spraying riot from beginning to end.

You’ll get an electrifying example of Atomic Witch‘s crazed and caustic indulgences in the title track from the EP, which we’re premiering today in advance of its August 30 release by Seeing Red Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TRIPLEMURDER — “CRAWL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 162019
 

 

The Ottawa band TripleMurder pride themselves on not being too beholden to any one genre of metal, but definitely devoted to putting big jolts of electricity through their followers, running them ragged, and leaving them black and blue as well. Integrating death metal, groove, and -core elements, along with a taste for accents of melody, they’ve completed a six-song debut EP named Pre-Meditated that will be released on September 20. Today we bring you the second single from the EP, which provides a good example of the band’s multi-faceted strategies.

The name of the song is “Crawl“, but it doesn’t crawl — far from it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COME BACK FROM THE DEAD — “JUGULAR I – HERETIC IMPALER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 162019
 

 

Two years ago we had the sadistic pleasure of premiering a heavy dose of foul, festering death metal off the last EP (Caro Data Vermibus) by the Spanish band Come Back From the Dead. Now we have the opportunity to present another premiere by the same group. This one comes from their new album The Rise of the Blind Ones, which like the previous EP will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records.

This new song — “Jugular I – Heretic Impaler” — is the stuff of horror. It makes it very easy to imagine macabre abominations lurching through the dark, shrouded by the putrescent stench of rotting flesh. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TALES OF THE TOMB — “NINE ELEVEN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 152019
 

 

“Every town has stories to caution or warn, every police officer has a seen a crime that keeps them awake at night, and every coroner has seen death in ways that the rest of us could never imagine. Murder, conspiracy, supernatural horror, and real-life terror are stains on the cutting room floor where Edmonton-based group Tales of The Tomb paints their canvas. Unified by the desire to have the grotesque power of 90’s era death and murder metal, Tales of The Tomb started as a thought that grew into an insatiable need to make extreme music.”

It seemed sensible to begin this introduction with the band’s own introduction to their genesis and inspirations. Originally formed in 2013 by guitarist/vocalist Corey Skerlak as a vehicle for carrying forward the kind of murder metal associated with Macabre, the band grew and reached the point of releasing their 2015 debut EP, Volume One: Morpras. Now the band have completed work on a second EP, Volume Two: Mendacium, which will be released on September 27th. As its title suggests, the EP concerns deception practiced in the context of destructive real-world events — “a collection of narratives surrounding government cover-ups, national lies and the heinous crimes committed amongst the shadows”.

One of those real-world events, and the ravaging warfare that followed it, are the subjects of the lyric video we’re premiering today for one of the songs on the new EP: “Nine Eleven“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALLOWING — “PHOSGENE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Aug 152019
 

 

Wallowing’s Orwellian vision of the future, as rendered through their new album Planet Loss, is harrowing. Constructed as a politically charged narrative of a small rebellion against an oppressive ruling regime which results in the end of civilization, the album is a single 32-minute piece of music divided into six sub-tracks — and they are every bit as harrowing as this UK band’s apocalyptic tale.

The album will be released on September 13th by Sludgelord Records and Black Voodoo Records. References are made, like a musical GPS, to Indian, Primitive Man, and Slabdragger. Further locational guides to Wallowing’s place in the underground include references to blackened sludge, grindcore, and noise. Where all those coordinates lead is a nightmare wasteland rendered through sound, where the physical demolition of civilization’s proud edifices is still in progress, and where sanity has already become a casualty. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GORILLA WIZARD: “MAPLE CRUNCH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 142019
 

 

The outward trappings of the sludge/stoner band Gorilla Wizard from Long Island, New York, almost dare you not to take them seriously, perhaps most especially the white-bearded, wizard-capped gorilla costume in which guitarist Bertrum (the Gorilla Wizard himself) performs while his bandmates Mikal (Bang Boom), Ry (Slap Bap), and Gabrel (Howl) kick up a ruckus around him. And no doubt, they’re having a shitload of fun with those outward trappings, and with the music itself. But don’t be misled: Although the music definitely is a raucous kick in the head, it’s far from silly. The songcraft is excellent, the performances are razor-sharp, and when you hear the band’s debut album, Tales from the Cauldron, you’ll understand why this fearsome foursome chose a name like Gorilla Wizard.

Two songs from the record have surfaced so far, and today we’re bring you a third one in advance of the album’s August 23 release date. The name of this new one is “Maple Crunch“. It will crunch your bones and wreck your neck, and it proves to be as addictive as a sugar high. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries