AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RODENT EPOCH — “RODENTLORD”

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Oct 102018
 

 

The advance press for Rodent Epoch’s debut album, which emphasizes “the filth and fury for which Finnish black metal has become renowned”, its “crude ‘n’ rude aesthetic”, and its “rockin’ thrust”, is accurate as far as it goes, but in my humble opinion those evocative phrases really don’t do Rodentlord justice. The music certainly reaches cathartic heights of punk-fueled snarling, savage lust, and devilish depravity, and there’s a blasphemous, fuck-the-world sensibility to the lyrics, but there’s a lot more going on here, too.

Of course, you won’t have to take my word for it, since what we’re bringing you today is a full stream of the album in advance of its October 12 premiere by Saturnal Records, but I’ll nevertheless attempt to explain why the album amounts to so much more than raucous deviancy and carnal lust. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FROM THE VASTLAND — “AGAS”

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Oct 102018
 

 

Working alone (or mostly so), Sina began writing and recording black metal in Iran many years ago under the name From the Vastland, indulging his love of old school Scandinavian black metal in a place where the performance of such music was banned by the government. From the beginning, he has made the culture of his homeland a part of his creations, writing lyrical themes that draw upon ancient Persian mythology and history — epic tales of battles between darkness and light, good and evil, gods and devils — and weaving touches of Persian melody into the fabric of his songs.

Life for Sina took an unexpected turn when he was contacted by the Norwegian producer of the black metal documentary Blackhearts (eventually released in 2017) and became a part of that film, which in turn led to the opportunity in 2013 to perform at the Inferno Festival in Oslo, thanks in part to the work of a foundation established by Indie Recordings aimed at supporting bands who had spread their music in defiance of governmental oppression. There he was joined for the performance by a backing band that included such luminaries as bassist Tjalve (Horizon Ablaze, ex-Den Saakaldte, ex-1349), guitarist Destructhor (Myrkskog, Zyklon, ex-Morbid Angel), and drummer Vyl (Keep of Kalessin, Gorgoroth-live). And that in turn led to the opportunity for Sina to move to Norway, which he did in 2014.

From his new home in the cradle of black metal, Sina has continued to record and to perform at both Norwegian events and international festivals. His newest album, Daevayasna, will be jointly released on October 25th by Satanath Records (Russia) and The Eastern Front (Israel) — and today we present one of the new album tracks, entitled “Agas“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PA VESH EN — “CHURCH OF BONES”

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Oct 092018
 

 

Many of the more adventurous and steel-nerved among you will have already discovered the terrible wonders to be found in the music of Pa Vesh En. After all, in 2018 alone this remarkable black metal project from Belarus has already released through Iron Bonehead Productions the Dead Womb demo, a two-song 7″ named A Ghost, and a split album with Temple Moon. But all of those recordings were preludes to what you’re about to hear, a debut album named Church of Bones that Iron Bonehead will release on October 12th.

As the album’s title might suggest, these seven tracks sound as if they were recorded in a vast sepulcher far beneath the surface of the earth, all the shuddering and shattering tonalities drenched in reverb, the music profoundly haunting and deeply oppressive in the weight of the desolation it conveys. The album is sweeping in the scale of its apocalyptic grief and shattering in the intensity of the pain it channels into sound — an expression of emotional collapse that’s so profound it begins to seem majestic, an intense and immersive experience so all-consuming that it swallows up the listener, as if engulfed by the maw of a leviathan. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OBLIVION — “FORGOTTEN BROTHERHOOD”

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Oct 092018
 

 

As we reported last month, long-time NCS favorites Oblivion are returning with a new, self-titled album that’s currently slated for release on January 21, 2019. Also last month, the band released the new album’s first single, “True Awakening“, which was written (as they explained) “from the subjective perspective of the emerging ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) as it is first awakening and becoming aware of its powers and the world it inhabits”. Fittingly, the song’s long introductory passage exudes an aura of ominous foreboding as it methodically piston-pounds the listener’s skull and swirls about like artificial neurons growing and seeking connections.

“True Awakening” proved to be an explosive lead-in to the album, its rhythms eventually shifting into a galloping gear, the music surging, battering, and thundering, with ghastly vocals augmenting the music’s atmosphere of blistering and brutish violence, and a solo at the end, both queasy and questing, leading into one final obliterating onslaught.

Oblivion has planned to release further singles every month from now up to the release date, and we’re getting to help spread the word about the second one today. The name of this one is “Forgotten Brotherhood“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NORDLAND — “THE ROOTS IMPALE THE DEAD”

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Oct 092018
 

 

The time has again arrived for us to check in with Nordland, the one-man black metal band from the damp east coast of England, whose distinctive musical contemplations of a pagan past and looming death have gripped our attention in past releases, the last of which was the excellent European Paganism album in 2017. Not one whose creative inspirations go dormant for long at a time (or maybe ever), Nordland’s creator Vorh has recorded a new album named The Dead Stones which will be released on October 24th by the Russian labels Satanath Records and More Hate Productions.

I wrote of the music on the last album that Nordland had “succeeded in maintaining connections to some of black metal’s most revered (and most copied) traditions, while also embellishing and changing the methods of expression in ways that stand out from the pack”, creating music that was “so complex, so intricate, and so kaleidoscopic in its changes that it also merits adjectives like ‘progressive’ and ‘avant garde'”. Nordland’s propensity for crafting ever-changing musical expressions that take listeners outside of themselves into a different imagined world is on display again in the song from The Dead Stones that we’re premiering today — “The Roots Impale the Dead“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INVOCATION OF DEATH — “THE ART OF THE DEFORMED”

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Oct 082018
 

 

It’s really hard for me to imagine that any died-in-the-wool fan of morbid, old school death metal won’t embrace the song we’re about to premiere by Invocation of Death — even the cold-hearted curmudgeons who sneer and sniff at anything recorded after about 1995. The song is just so brimming with gruesome life, and so packed with changing tempos and addictive riffs.

The song in question is “The Art of the Deformed“, and it closes Into the Labyrinth of Chaos, the debut album of this Salvadorian group (who originally called themselves Antares Death) which is set for release on October 18th by GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and Morbid Skull Records (El Salvador). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NOISE TRAIL IMMERSION — “REPULSION AND ESCAPISM II”

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Oct 082018
 

 

“Repulsion and Escapism” is a suite of torment and pain, agonized searching and bitter discovery. On the new album by the Italian band Noise Trail Immersion, Symbology of Shelter, the track is divided into two parts, and we have Part II for you today, presented through a lyric video that combines words, imagery, and sound into a powerful holistic creation.

If you managed to come across the first advance track from this album (“Mirroring”), which premiered at Invisible Oranges last month (or the band’s previous releases), then you already know the seriousness of NTI’s thematic focus, and the staggering intensity of their music, which IO accurately described as “infectiously visceral but, at times, utterly cacophonous”, with the album as a whole “play[ing] like one big emotional arcing narrative”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KVLT OF EBLIS — “PORTAL UTÉRICO”

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Oct 052018
 

 

Shades of red and black dominate the color scheme of the video we’re presenting, as the hooded, cloaked, and corpse-painted quartet in Kvlt of Eblis perform their musical conjurations, surrounded by candle smoke and skulls. This particular black spell is named “Portal Utérico“, and it’s the final track on this Colombian band’s debut album, Templo de la Serpiente Negra, which was released by Morbid Skull Records on August 31st.

As this coven of two women and two men immerse themselves in the performance of the song, it’s easy to become immersed in the sounds as well, especially when it becomes apparent that the shape of the music is changing as the minutes pass. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GLOOMY GRIM — “STARS ABOVE ME”

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Oct 052018
 

 

On October 20th GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and MurdHer Records (Italy) will release a new EP by the Finnish symphonic black metal band Gloomy Grim entitled Obscure Metamorphosis, and today we present the second track in the EP’s running order, “Stars Above Me“.

This makes the third year in a row when we’ve premiered music off different releases by this band, but a few words of introduction might still be warranted for those who are encountering their music for the first time. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INFESTUS — “THRYPSIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 052018
 

 

(On October 5th, Debemur Morti Productions will release the new album by the German band Infestus. Here, we present the premiere of a full album stream, preceded by Andy Synn‘s review.)

Read about, or write about, Metal for any appreciable length of time and you’ll probably notice that we talk about evolution a lot.

In particular, we frequently refer to (and argue about) the ways in which bands evolve, or choose not to evolve, over time, and the lengths they’re willing to go to in order to develop, refine, or maintain their sound.

Some bands, of course, are like sharks – musical predators perfectly suited to their environment, with no need (or desire) to change what they do or how they do it – while others are more mutable in nature, and don’t just embrace change, but actively pursue it.

Infestus are one such band. Continue reading »

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