AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SCORDATURA — “LED INTO OBLIVION”

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Apr 242026
 

(written by Islander)

We heartily welcome the return of the Scottish death metal band Scordatura, whose music we’ve previously described as “a neck-wrecking, gut-churning, bowel-loosening bombardment of jagged riffs, technical twists, and gruesome, glass-gargling gutturals that floats like an atom bomb and stings like a beast,” and as “the kind of brutish and blistering treatment that our pathetic world so richly deserves.”

Six years on from their last album, the ruthlessly punishing Mass Failure, Scordatura have joined forces with Everlasting Spew Records to lead us into oblivion with a new full-length named… Led Into Oblivion… which we’re helping to announce today through the premiere of a video for the record’s brutally bombastic but also razor-sharp title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BRINGERS OF DISEASE — “SULPHUR”

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Apr 232026
 

(written by Islander)

If you heard the Bringers of Disease debut EP Gospel Of Pestilence it’s unlikely you’ve easily forgotten the experience, even though it was released 15 years ago. But maybe you never came across it. In that case, what should quickly seize your attention for the band’s debut album Sulphur are the people who made it.

The lineup includes founding guitarist Jason Phillips (ex-Acheron) and original vocalist Logan Madison alongside Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, ex-Nachtmystium, ex-Wolvhammer), drummer Zack Simmons (Goatwhore, Acid Bath), and bassist Jon Woodring (ex-Usurper, Bones).

On top of that, the album also features guest guitars on “First Born Of The Dead” by Nate Garnett (Skeletonwitch) and on “Flowers Bloom From The Prophet’s Skull” by Sonny Reinhardt (Necrot), and guest vocals on “Sacred Heart Of The Abyss” by Ben Falgoust (Goatwhore, Soilent Green).

Now that we have your attention with that information — which is probably all the inducement any lover of metallic extremity really needs to dive into Sulphur — we’ll present a full stream of the album, on the eve of its release by Disorder Recordings. But in the extremely unlikely event that someone wants to know more before spending time with the album, here’s more. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CNOC AN TURSA — “A CRY FOR THE SLAIN”

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Apr 222026
 

(written by Islander)

For those of us who were electrified and bewitched by Cnoc An Tursa’s first two albums, The Giants of Auld (2013) and The Forty Five (2017), the wait for something more from these Scots has brought its fair share of woe, because the wait has been so long. But even though it’s rarely true that all good things come to those who wait, something exceptionally good has at last arrived from Cnoc An Tursa, a new album named A Cry for the Slain.

The album richly rewards the long-suffering patience of the band’s fans. As their label Apocalyptic Witchcraft describes (and as we might have expected) it is “an evocative tribute to the history, the folklore, the unique magic of their homeland,” a compendium of songs “that bring together mourning and defiance, mystery and fear, pride and passion.” The band themselves have said:

“With this new album we feel like we are going back to our roots with a more guitar-driven style and bringing back some of the folk elements musically and lyrically which was the original inspiration for the band.”

Of course, we have thoughts of our own to share about the album (many of them), though the main purpose of this feature is to provide the chance for you to hear it in its entirety in advance of its release on April 24th by Apocalyptic Witchcraft. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVOID OF THOUGHT – “DEVOID OF THOUGHT”

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Apr 212026
 

(Andy Synn has his own thoughts about an album which is far from devoid of them)

I wasn’t supposed to be writing this article.

I’m serious… it wasn’t until yesterday when I name-checked this Italian Death Metal battalion in another review that Islander slid into my DMs to inform me that we had this premiere scheduled (which gives you some insight into the well-polished and highly-professional outfit we’re running here) and to ask whether I’d like to take a run at writing the accompanying review.

Luckily he caught me in the mood for even more weird, mind-warping Metal… which is exactly what Devoid of Thought have delivered on their long-gestating, highly-anticipated, self-titled second album.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAHVIRA — “ETERNAL WAR”

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Apr 202026
 

(written by Islander)

On April 23rd the Armenian black metal band Rahvira will have their latest album in a 20+ year career jointly released by Holy Mountains Music (Yerevan, Armenia), Underworld Echoes Records (Greece), and More Hate Productions (Russia), with official distribution by Satanath Records (Georgia). The album’s title is In the Darkness of Silence (“Լռության խավարում”).

Once again the band’s founder Tigran Rahvira is the sole songwriter, and the lyrics are again in Armenian. We’re told that the texts “explore the search for personal and national identity, the idea of struggle, reflections on life and death, and the necessity of spiritual rebirth.”

What we have for you today is the premiere of the second song to be revealed from the album so far, and its name in English is “Eternal War” (Հավերժական Պատերազմ). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOW — “DEATH WILL BE MY BRIDGE”

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Apr 202026
 

(written by Islander)

“Formed in late 2023 on Chicago’s northside, VOW draw from the melodic and emotional intensity of European death metal greats such as Eucharist, Gates of Ishtar, and Dawn, merging those influences with the urgency of hardcore and the metallic edge of the NWOAHM.”

That’s part of the introduction provided by press materials we’ve received for Vow’s debut EP, Death Will Be My Bridge, which they describe as their “first definitive vision of mournful, forlorn melodic death metal, crafted for dark nights and darkened skies”. Those materials also include statements by Vow guitarist Aaron O’Neill, including this:

While working out the new material I was very conscious of what our peers were doing and where we may or may not fit in. Ultimately, I grew tired of worrying what others would think and just wanted to create something memorable that would hopefully stand on its own regardless of what was happening around us.

I do not disguise my influences; without name-dropping there are flourishes of melodic death & black Metal, epic doom, heavy metal, USPM, and 2000s metalcore often all within the same song. My goal for this record was to weaponize our affinity for these styles in an original way that makes sense and is true to us.

As an even more immediate representation of Vow’s multi-faceted dynamics, what we have for you today is the premiere of the EP’s powerful title song in advance of the record’s May 15 release by Iron Fortress Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VAEOVON — “SPIRITUAL NULLIFICATION”

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Apr 172026
 

(written by Islander)

The origins of the phrase “elevator pitch” are murky, but the meaning isn’t. It refers to someone describing an idea to someone else who doesn’t have long to listen, or doesn’t want to give you much time. You’ve got the length of an elevator ride to get your point across and sell it.

In our field, record labels, publicists, and artists make elevator pitches too, usually in writing. Some are better at it than others. Sometimes the elevator pitch for a band’s music tells you pretty much all you need to know in deciding whether to check out the goods, especially when a band’s music isn’t much more complicated than a couple of quick paragraphs can capture. But sometimes the elevator pitch really doesn’t tell you (and can’t tell you) everything that makes the music worth hearing.

Which brings us to the New Zealand band Vaeovon and their debut album Spiritual Nullification. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELSLAVE — “BURNING REBIRTH”

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Apr 162026
 

(written by Islander)

This isn’t the first time we’ve premiered music from the Italian death-dealers in Helslave. We did it twice in 2021 in the run-up to their second album, From the Sulphur Depths, which we predicted (pretty accurately) would “become a huge favorite for fans of massive, marauding, deliciously gruesome old school death metal”.

And now here we are, five years later — five years of unpredictable and tumultuous change in the world at large, including a global pandemic that maliciously chose to explode right about the time when Helslave’s last album dropped. It would be surprising if Helslave itself had not undergone some change of its own, and in fact it has — a very exciting change — because the band have themselves a new vocalist in the person of Enrico H. Di Lorenzo from Hideous Divinity and Eyeconoclast.

We are also very pleased to announce that Helslave have recorded a new EP that’s projected for digital release on May 8th, and we have for you today the premiere of its first single, “Burning Rebirth“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MYLINGAR — “ÚT”

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Apr 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Recently we have been reminded by photos from the vicinity of the Moon that in many respects the Earth is a verdant, beautiful, and serene place. Closer to ground level, however, it still often remains ugly, violent, saturated with suffering, and shrouded by death. Of that we don’t need reminding, because the evidence is all around us, every day.

The music of the anonymous four-person entity known as Mylingar has always drawn its fuel from the worst that humanity has to offer and the perspective that the world is a killing machine, or so it seems when you listen to their ruinous black/death assaults. And now, nearly seven years after their last album, we’re reminded of that by a new one named Út, which will be released in cooperation with Amor Fati Productions on April 17th.

But as we’ll explain, and as you can now discover for yourselves, there’s even more going on in the album than you might expect based on Mylingar’s previous works. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AGELESS GATEWAY — “CORRUPTOR OF STARS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 142026
 

(written by Islander)

Lovers of science fiction, and especially renderings of cosmic horror, will find a lot to love in the conception of Ageless Gateway’s debut album Corruptor of Stars. It narrates a tale of massive parasitic alien infection of our solar system, and its warping of existence on a breathtaking scale.

In portraying these terrors, this Polish project’s sole creator Apparition interweaves atmospheric black metal with death, doom, and ambient influences to create a chilling and thrilling five-song experience with a compact run-time of 32 minutes, and we’re providing listeners the chance to become immersed in it today in advance of the album’s April 17 release by Godz Ov War Productions. Continue reading »

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