AN NCS PREMIERE: MALLEPHYR — “W.Y.I.D.”

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Oct 162018
 

 

Womb of Worms is the new second album by the Czech black/death band Mallephyr, whose Russian and Czech labels (Satanath Records and Murderous Production, respectively) recommend for fans of Svart Crown, Behemoth, Dissection, and Outre. The album will be released on October 29th, and the track we’re revealing today is “W.Y.I.D.”

For those new to Mallephyr, the song provides a great introduction to their talents, presenting an electrifying display of well-crafted dynamism and full-bore zealotry, combining the bone-fracturing weight of death metal and the speed and ferocity of black metal in a full-throttle attack (with a well-timed digression) that’s intricate, chaotic, groove-some, and a guaranteed fire-starter for your nervous system. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): XUL — “WHAT LIES HIDDEN”

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Oct 152018
 

 

In writing about this British Columbia band’s two previous releases, their 2012 album Malignance and their 2015 EP Extinction Necromance, I tended to lose control of my metaphors, because their blackened melodic death metal had a tendency to make me lose control of my mind, at least temporarily. Their sound was so explosive, so jet-fueled, so technically impressive, and so rampantly ferocious, that any kind of calm and clinical analysis was beyond my capabilities. The music did display intensifying twists and turns and alluring melodic nuances, but the enduring memory is of the pure blood-rushing energy of the attack.

At last, Xul will be releasing a second album. Entitled What Lies Hidden…, it’s now scheduled for release on October 19th, and it’s our pleasure to present a full stream of this electrifying album today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SINISTER DOWNFALL — “ASHES OF TIME”

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Oct 152018
 

 

It will become immediately apparent, through the song we’re about to premiere, that the shadowed ranks of funeral doom practitioners spread across the globe must make way for another band in their vanguard. The band is Sinister Downfall, the work of a single individual who in this debut album has already demonstrated an impressive mastery of these very dark arts.

The name of this beautifully crafted album is Eremozoic, and it is the first release by a promising new Armenian doom label called Funere, though it will also be jointly released by the more venerable Japanese label Weird Truth Productions. And in advance of that November 28 release, the song we bring you today is “Ashes of Time“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGOS — “GLORIOUS RETURN”

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Oct 142018
 

 

Former NCS writer KevinP named the debut EP of the one-man Greek band Agos (the work of Van Gimot from Virus of Koch and Carrion before that) one of his “Albums of the Month” for January 2015, praising it in these words:

“This is mid-paced death metal with a blackened feel, but it’s so much more than that. Guitars have a huge sound to them, just enough grandiosity mixed with the perfect amount of filth. Vocally cavernous with reverberating hellfire (aka, a cool echo effect). It’s hard to get super-jazzed about new bands these days, but once in awhile something comes along that just screams out for attention. Hopefully this is just a small sample of what the future holds for this band.”

And here we are, almost four years after the release of that Irkalla Transcendence EP, welcoming the (glorious) return of Agos and sharing with you a song from the band’s debut album, Aonian Invocation, which will be released on October 28 by the triumvirate of Satanath Records (Russia), Deathhammer Records (Cyprus), and Heathen Tribes (Germany). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEKATA — “PSALM”

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Oct 132018
 

 

We have a rare Saturday premiere for you, and we fervently hope that word of it will spread like wildfire despite the fact that people seem to spend less time browsing for new music on weekends than during weekdays. The name of the track is “Psalm” and it’s one of six songs on the debut album by a Russian death metal powerhouse called Hekata.

Following the release of a debut EP (Dirge) and some line-up changes, these three men and one woman are now based in Saint Petersburg, where they’ve crafted a staggeringly powerful album in which elements of black metal and crust have been woven into a titanic death metal framework. Entitled Ruin, it will be released on October 27th by a consortium of three labels: Satanath Records (Russia), More Hate Productions (Russia), and Hecatombe Records (Spain). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEKAGRAM — “MAY FLIGHTS OF DEVILS GUIDE YOU HOME”

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Oct 122018
 

 

I think it might be best to begin the introduction to this premiere with a few words of warning.

Without any advance preparation, the music immediately assaults the sense, so intensely and so abrasively that the impact is shattering… and for some of you, it will be unpleasant. The layering of high, mind-searing tremolo riffing erupts in an immediate boil, coming in rippling waves of frightening urgency, with a no less urgent snare drum persistently driving the rhythm. There’s virtually no low-end heft in the sound at all, which is made even more incinerating by absolutely terrifying, brain-scarring, reverb-drenched shrieks.

So there — you’ve been warned. And now I’ll explain why you should stick with the song despite the way in which Dekagram starts this musical bonfire. And yes, this album (or EP, depending on where you draw the line) is one song — one 22-minute composition that goes places you probably won’t expect. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COGNITIVE — “FRAGMENTED PERCEPTION”

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Oct 122018
 

 

Let’s cut to the chase: Prepare for a brain-twisting, spine-fracturing experience. It’s not even really a chase; at some point you’re more likely to just stop running and stand there, gasping and gap-jawed, as this demon-eyed musical jack-rabbit with a rocket strapped to its back leaves you in the dust.

The band is Cognitive, their album is Matricide, Unique Leader will release it on October 26th, and “Fragmented Perception” is both the name of the song and a summing-up of where it will leave your own mentation. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KÅABALH – “THE COMPLETE DARKNESS”

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Oct 122018
 

 

Following the dissolution of the French death metal band Torture Throne in the spring of 2016, former members of the band went on to form a monstrous new entity named Kåabalh, and on October 26th Dolorem Records will release their self-titled debut album. What we have for you today are the hideous sounds of “The Complete Darkness“, the album’s fourth track out of six.

This new song is a massively heavy and deeply malignant bone-breaker, a lurching, heaving death metal beast that radiates inhuman malice and the stench of decaying flesh. All human warmth has been banished; the horrors of death have been embraced. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ADVERSO — “EX INANIS”

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Oct 112018
 

 

Black metal isn’t a linear axis, with more of “this” on one end and more of “that” on the other, or a spectrum whose shades move smoothly through varying degrees of deepening darkness. Perhaps a better analogy would be a constellation of moons in differing elliptical orbits around a hostile, burning planet with chaos at its core.

Adverso’s new demo, Ex Inanis, tends to provoke such cosmic comparisons. Unmistakably, there is chaos at its core, and in its own orbit it travels in a ranging course toward ever-freezing reaches of isolation and hope-extinction but also looping inward toward the heart of its energy, crossing into dimensions where flames of dangerous glory heat it to a vibrant shine. But it might just as easily be taken as a merciless mirror to the inner turmoil, torment, and aspirations of a single soul. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HUMANITY ZERO — “RULER OF THE ULTIMATE VOID OF CHAOS”

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Oct 112018
 

 

Originally the solo project of musician Dimon’s Night, the Greek band Humanity Zero produced six releases from 2008 through 2014 — roughly one per year. More time than that passed before the band released its Withered In Isolation album in 2017, and that stretch of years brought about not only changes in line-up but also significant changes in sound. Where previous recordings embraced death metal in the vein of such bands as Death, Hypocrisy, Unleashed, Nile, and Immolation, Withered In Isolation took a turn in a more doom-dominated and atmospheric direction, as reflected in a song we premiered last year, which included grieving guitar melodies and the soulful lament of a violin.

The band have quickly followed last year’s album with a new one that will hit the streets on October 26th. Entitled Proselytism, it again reflects a change in line-up — Dimon’s Night has now taken over all the instruments, and he’s joined here by new vocalist/lyricist Kydoimos (Misanthropy Apotheosis) — as well as a further evolution of sound, presenting music that (in the words of the labels handling the release) “is slower, deeper and haunting yet more atmospheric and punishing than any other Humanity Zero release”. Continue reading »

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