AN NCS PREMIERE: ZEALOT CULT — “SEA OF SUFFERING”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 042018
 

 

At the end of August I encountered “Blades of Jihad“, the first advance track from Spiritual Sickness, the debut album by the Irish death metal band Zealot Cult. Afterward, I suspected that I had a cretinous expression on my face while listening — mouth open, eyes glazed, perhaps a few rivulets of drool seeping out of my maw. The song begins strong, and the WOW factor only multiplies as the minutes pass.

Since then we’ve been given the opportunity to premiere a second advance track from the album, which you’ll find at the end of this post, below an assortment of borderline-demented verbiage. “Sea of Suffering” is a different beast than “Blades of Jihad“, but also left me gobsmacked. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HOLOCAUSTO EM CHAMAS — “לָשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 032018
 

 

Last year the Portuguese raw black metal band Holocausto Em Chamas  made a strong recording debut, first with the Sermões da montanha demo and then participating in a split with the Icelandic band Óreiða, both of them released by Harvest of Death. Now, the same label is poised to release the band’s debut album — לָשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ — on October 5th. Today we present the first public stream of the entire album.

It would be difficult to overstate the intensity of the terrors transmuted into sound through these 11 songs. Almost every song presents alternating sequences, interweaving different infernal ideas and arcane energies — from wretched, malignant doom to virulent black metal malignance (with tonalities of gothic horror rearing their head as well) — and all of them stinking of sulphur. The movements are narcotic and necrotic, murderously delirious and morbidly oppressive, and most definitely not for frail ears or fragile minds. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NEGATIVA — “XXI”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Oct 032018
 

 

The Spanish depressive black metal band Negativa seems completely committed to their philosophy, a dogma in which an inner turmoil of “dismal negativity, dread, and insurmountable misery” is channeled through the catharsis of nightmarishly wretched sound. They don’t reach out to make human connections, to offer empathy or invite sympathy. They don’t disclose their identities or their lyrics (nor name their releases or compositions), and their music — as you will discover — seems unreservedly nihilistic, and often quite unnerving.

Despite the dehumanizing and debilitating aspects of the band’s outward manifestations, the sensations revealed through the music do have the capacity to make intense connections with the listener, as if casting a black spell that makes Negativa’s nightmares your own, or perhaps reacquainting you with personal torments you thought you could lock away in a dark corner of your mind.

03 is Negativa‘s second album. It will be jointly released by Sentient Ruin and Nebular Carcoma Records on October 19th. What we bring you today is a track identified as “XXI“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ICHOR — “GOD OF THUNDER GOD OF WAR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Oct 022018
 

 

There is no escaping the long shadow of the Australian black metal band Nazxul in introducing Ichor and their debut album, God of Thunder God of War, which will be released by Seance Records on October 5th. The two members of Ichor — Wraith and Diablore — actually started the band in 1993, but put Ichor aside, after recording a demo, in order to focus on Nazxul, in which Wraith has been involved continuously since the beginning and in which Diablore (under the name Dalibor) was also an original member. In 2017 they decided to revive Ichor, and the results of their collaboration are what you’re about to hear.

We’re told that tehse two chose the name Ichor, the ancient Greek word for the fluid that runs in the gods’ veins, to express the concept that the only difference between humanity and the gods is a physical substance or principal, signifying that humanity can rise to the ranks of gods. But while the ancient Greeks may have furnished the name, this first album thematically focuses on Slavic paganism. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTIVERSE — “BLACK WAVES OF SORCERY”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Oct 012018
 

 

WARNING: Excessive metaphors ahead! I’ve tried to bottle them up, but this blood-boilng, nerve-firing new Antiverse song has forced them from my head like a tsunami. And the song strikes like a tsunami, too. (You, see, the flood has already begun.)

“Black Waves of Sorcery” is a full-on blast furnace of mad-thrashing intensity and explosive instrumental and vocal exuberance. As speedy and as thrilling as a rocket-powered roller-coaster, as vicious as a pack of racing wolves, and as imperious as trumpet fanfares and whipping banners soaring above a galloping war charge, the song could bring the dead to life, cackling with glee. But there’s a hidden, darker dimension to the track, as well as to the album that includes it (Under the Regolith, which is set for release on October 19th by Seeing Red Records). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AGONY KINGS — “FUTUREBURN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 282018
 

 

Ten years in the making, the self-titled debut album of NYC’s Agony Kings hit the streets in October of last year, delivering 13 tracks of high-octane crossover-thrash, which has been recommended for fans of Suicidal Tendencies, Anthrax, D.R.I, Dropdead, Cro Mags, and Napalm Death.

One look at the men in the band, and you can tell this wasn’t their first rodeo. For this band of brothers — vocalist Mike Stack (False Gods), drummer Bobby Grander, guitarist Jim Shearman, and bassist Matt Sazooki — Agony Kings was an outgrowth of their previous band, What Doesn’t Kill Me, and the album, as they say, has been “a perfect reflection of the trials and tribulations that have driven us for this last decade”. And for listeners, it’s a high-voltage kick in the ass. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SJUKDOM — “NAERVER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 282018
 

 

Let’s get to the point right up-front: The Sjukdom track we’re about to present is downright terrifying, so much so that you may find yourself holding your breath, and gasping by the end. It’s that relentlessly and nightmarishly vicious.

The name of the track is “Naerver“, and it’s one of seven that will be included on this Norwegian band’s forthcoming second album, Stridshymner Og Dodssalmer, which is due for release by Osmose Productions on October 26th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SOUL DISSOLUTION — “FADING DARKNESS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 282018
 

 

The song you’re about to hear is a wonderful surprise, in more ways than one. Before you get into the music, the outer trappings of the record might begin to form certain expectations — which ultimately become up-ended by the time the song ends.

You gaze at the cover of this EP, a photograph taken in May (by the band’s guitarist, bassist, and backing vocalist) on a misty morning in the Vosges region, France. You consider that the name of this Belgian band is Soul Dissolution, that the name of the song itself refers to darkness, and that the EP which includes it (set for release on October 18th) is named nowhere. And from all that, you might surmise that thoroughly gloomy and melancholy sounds are about to come your way. And at first, the music seems consistent with those expectations. At first. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LONESHORE — “EFFIGY”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Sep 272018
 

 

Loneshore began their musical journey together in 2014, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Drawing influence from such bands as Katatonia, Opeth, and Alcest, they have meticulously crafted a debut album named From Presence To Silence that will be released by BadMoodMan Music and Solitude Productions tomorrow (September 28th), and on the eve of that debut for which the band have worked so hard, we present a live performance video for an album track called “Effigy“.

The song is a long one (about 10 minutes), but completely engrossing, in part because it’s so multi-faceted, drawing together elements that range from doom to death metal to post-rock and prog, and in part because it’s so dynamic — and so alive with passion (which also comes through quite clearly as you watch the band members perform the song in the video). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VREID — “LIFEHUNGER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 272018
 

 

There was once a time when the music of Vreid could be characterized, at least at a high level, as melodic black metal or black thrash. Those days are pretty much gone. The expansion of Vreid’s music into more diverse territory has been an evolving process, evident from the changes that have occurred with each successive album, but the band’s new album Lifehunger seems more heedless of genre boundaries than any other, and the result is an ever-changing experience, richly embroidered with a multitude of musical styles, of which black metal is only one.

Lifehunger will be released tomorrow by Season of Mist, and today we’re helping premiere a full stream of the record — preceded by a few more words of introduction. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries