AN NCS PREMIERE: FORBIDDEN RITES — “JUDGEMENT”

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Oct 222018
 

 

A twenty-year gestation produces an unusually long wait for a new musical offspring, but in the case of Forbidden Rites it has produced some unusually good new music, rooted in the era when the early seed was planted but benefitting from the passage of time as well.

Under a different name, the band was first begun in 1996 by Mexican guitarists Carlos Martinez and Raúl Campos and drummer Hugo Olivos (Vomitile, ex-Inhearted), but two decades would pass before the band came back to life, this time joined by longtime friend Vlad Marin (ex-Xiuhtecuhtli) on vocals and bass. The results of their collaboration are encompassed by a debut album of black/death metal named Pantheon Arcanum, and in the run-up to its release by GrimmDistribution on November 7th, we’re premiering a track named “Judgement“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DØDSFERD — “DISEASED REMNANTS OF A DYING WORLD”

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Oct 222018
 

 

Our world is dying. With each sunset the planet draws closer to its inescapable extinction. It will of course survive our own lives, but what we collectively do may hasten its demise as a hospitable home for our kind and our co-inhabitants long before it becomes a barren cinder. Humankind so often seems determined to make a misery out of the wonders around us, and a ruin of our own best creations.

In seeming contemplation, and condemnation, of a bleak future, the new album of the Greek black metal band Dødsferd is named Diseased Remnants of A Dying World. The album’s title track is the record’s centerpiece in more ways than one. Set dead center in the running order, it’s also the album’s longest track and perhaps its most ambitious as well. In the ebb and flow of its powerful, mood-changing sounds it could be experienced as a far-sighted panorama painted in tones, a foretelling of human blindness, lost glories, and the pain of avoidable but uncorrected failures.

It’s our pleasure to present this immersive, emotionally gripping title song today in advance of the album’s release by Transcending Obscurity Records on December 14th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABIGORUM — “THE DARKNESS OF AEON”

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Oct 222018
 

 

Hallucinogens alter perceptions, thoughts, and moods by interfering with normal brain chemistry interactions, creating sensations and visions that may seem real though they are not — or perhaps instead revealing aspects of true reality that are hidden by the illusions of daily life. But the ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs and plant extracts isn’t the only way to become disconnected from your body and from what passes for reality, and to become more susceptible to visions. You could, for example, just listen to the music of Abigorum.

Abigorum is the name of a project from Saint Petersburg, Russia, that produces alchemical reactions using ingredients drawn from ambient music, black metal, and doom. It’s the creation of Aleksey Korolyov, who is also the label boss of Satanath Records and the founder of the ambient formation Satanath. Abigorum’s newest output, which is set for release on November 6th, is a split named Spectral Shadows with the long-running Australian project Striborg, whose music has evolved over time and now merits the label “blackwave”. From that split we present the premiere of “The Darkness of Aeon“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GATHERING DARKNESS — “THE INEXORABLE END”

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Oct 192018
 

 

It’s probably a common phenomenon among metal fans to make guesses about a band’s musical genre based on their choice of name. The name Gathering Darkness, for example, might suggest flavors of doom, and when the band first formed 20 years ago, their focus was indeed on a doom-drenched variant of death metal, as reflected in their first demos. But as the years passed, the sound changed, and the suggestion of a dark, atmospheric, doom-centric focus which the name might still convey is no longer reliable.

As the interests of this Spanish band evolved, the focus turned to brutal death metal, but that genre label might itself be a misleading indicator of what the group have created for their new EP, The Inexorable End, which is being released on October 21st in celebration of their 20th anniversary, and which we’re presenting in a full stream today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EDREMERION — “AMBRE GRIS”

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Oct 192018
 

 

I’ve been grappling with words, trying to find the best means of capturing the impact this new song has  made on my impressionable mind, and only an agreed deadline has brought my struggles to a halt. I wonder why I struggle, since you’ll be able to listen for yourselves, but I guess it comes from a need to share my enthusiasm in a way that honors the artists who brought it about. So, here we go…

The song here is the title track from Ambre Gris, the debut album by the French avant-garde black metal band Edremerion. Two EPs preceded this album, but the line-up has changed since those were released, and I confess that I haven’t heard them anyway. Even if I hadn’t learned through experience that the labels responsible for this release dependably make good choices, I would have checked out Ambre Gris based on the labels’ comparative references to the likes of Ved Buens Ende, DHG, Ulver, Fleurety, Virus, and Satyricon. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PANNYCHIDA — “HARMONIOUS MECHANISM”

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Oct 182018
 

 

After three years of toil, the Russian death metal band Pannychida have completed their new album, Missense Mutation, and it’s now set for release on October 31st by Satanath Records and More Hate Productions. And guess what? We have a song premiere for you, a track off the new album named “Harmonious Mechanism“.

It would be fair to characterize the music as old school death metal, but of what kind? The releasing labels recommend the music for fans of Death, Pestilence, and Suffocation, and that provides some guidance. As for this song, let’s just say that if you’re feeling sleepy when you begin to listen, you won’t feel that way after you finish. Despite a sudden onset of sore-neck syndrome, you might instead feel like careening off the walls in a burst of savage merriment (or at least nodding your head and smiling in evil satisfaction). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INDESIDERIUM — “THE CONQUEROR’S RETURN”

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Oct 172018
 

 

“The Conqueror’s Return” is the name of the song by the California black metal duo Indesiderium that we bring you today. The music’s mid-paced momentum and the almost stately cruelty of the riffs is consistent with the august occasion suggested by the song’s title, but you also powerfully sense in the music that there is blood on this conqueror’s hands that won’t wash off, and a smell of death in his nostrils that won’t go away.

“The Conqueror’s Return” comes from Indesiderium’s new album Of Twilight And Evenfall​.​.​., which will be released by Satanath Records on October 30th. On this album, the core duo of vocalist/guitarist/bassist Atrum Lorde and drummer/keyboardist Mattias are joined by guest lead guitarist Hell Messiah from the US death metal band Gravehill. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MASTER — “ENGULFED IN PARANOIA”

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Oct 172018
 

 

After a career that has spanned three-and-a-half decades (and counting) and more than a dozen albums, Master should need no introduction to die-hard fans of death-thrashing metal. What might be worth mentioning to any newcomers among you is that despite such a long and storied lifespan, Master show no signs of slowing down. As their new album Vindictive Miscreant shows in spades, this is a wolfpack on the hunt that sounds as feral and as blood-thirsty as ever. But the years of experience and craftsmanship show as well. You’ll get a solid taste of both the band’s unflagging, vicious energy and their songwriting and performance chops in the song from the new album we’re bringing you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CRYPTOPSY PLAY THROUGH “FEAR HIS DISPLEASURE”

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Oct 172018
 

 

Cryptopsy tell you to “Fear His Displeasure“, but if you want to know what real fear is, take a turn in a Cryptopsy mosh pit. Those of us who’ve seen Cryptopsy live over the last few years have witnessed the spectacle of the band (metaphorically speaking) regularly injecting their audience into a cyclotron, quickly spinning it up to extravagant speeds, and then smashing it apart so that all the occupants go careening into a roiling mass of human wreckage.

It turns out, however, that it’s almost as much fun to watch the band (or in this case, two of the members) without an audience, standing against a black backdrop, displaying the mechanics of what they do to create such bruising, bone-breaking, blood-spraying mayhem in a live setting. What we’re talking about is a new play-through video that we’re happily premiering today, which features Cryptopsy guitarist Chris Donaldson and bassist Olivier Pinard performing their parts of “Fear His Displeasure” off the band’s new record The Book of Suffering – Tome II. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MYOPIC — “PILLARS OF TIME”

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Oct 162018
 

 

The new self-titled album by the D.C.-based trio Myopic “tells the experience of a man wandering in a deserted earth, and near the end he finds the massive remains of an ancient civilization still standing, a monument of the past”. As the band go on to tell us, the track we’re about to premiere — “Pillars of Time” — captures that moment, which is also the inspiration for the record’s cover art, created by Casey Drogin.

The band’s description of the protagonist’s discovery, coupled with the visual imagery, creates a frightening vision of desolation and hopelessness. Entering the story at this moment, we don’t know what has left the planet a barren and lonely place, or what catastrophe has reduced a once prideful civilization to nothing more than those cold, hulking derelicts. But through the music we can feel the combination of raw, devastating emotions that such a terrible discovery might ignite. Continue reading »

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