AN NCS PREMIERE: SILVER KNIFE — “RESTLESS BLIGHT”

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Mar 182025
 

(written by Islander)

It’s fair to say that the forward-thinking European black metal band Silver Knife have underplayed their pedigree. They don’t seem to draw attention to the fact that the four-person lineup collectively includes members of some of the most formidable Belgian, French, and Dutch bands orbiting the sphere of black metal. Though Metal-Archives will tell you what’s on their resumes if you’re curious, they don’t trumpet those achievements, preferring to let their music do the talking.

That kind of confidence is merited, given the very impressive nature of Silver Knife‘s past releases — their debut album Unyielding/Unseeing in 2020, and their follow-on EP Ring in 2022. Their self-confidence is evident again in the epic nature of the six songs on their forthcoming second album, which is simply self-titled and is timed for release by Amor Fati Productions and Extraconscious Recordings to roughly coincide with the band’s second appearance at Roadburn Festival.

What we have for you today is a premiere stream of one of those songs (the second to be revealed from the album so far), a heart-bursting experience called “Restless Blight“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DORMANT ORDEAL — “SOLVENT”

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Mar 182025
 

(written by Islander)

No one tells anyone at our humble site what to write about. Everyone makes their own choices based on what appeals to them. Serendipitously, this produces a fairly wide span of musical coverage because the tastes of our writers don’t completely overlap, and sometimes diverge dramatically.

This divergence holds true among the three most senior NCS writers (Andy Synn, DGR, and myself), but there are some bands whose music all three of us whole-heartedly and enthusiastically endorse, and the Polish band Dormant Ordeal is one of those. All three of us have been loudly banging the drum for this band in our writing, going back to 2016 when they released their second album, We Had It Coming.

This year we get to renew our drum-banging because Dormant Ordeal are now set to release Tooth and Nail, their fourth album overall and their first for Willowtip Records, on April 18th. Our raucous hammering began as soon as the first single from the album was revealed, and continues today as we present a second one. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INSINERATEHYMN — “SEMPITERNAL SUICIDE”

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Mar 172025
 

(written by Islander)

The last time we got a chance to premiere a song from L.A.-based Insineratehymn, we began the introduction this way: “All is fire in the premiere we’re now presenting, from the very name of the band — Insineratehymn — to the conflagration consuming the demonic figures in the album’s fantastic cover art, and the blood-boiling heat of the song we’re premiering.”

The occasion that time was to help spread the word about this raging, rotten, and reaping death metal band’s second album Disembodied. The occasion today is to draw attention to their forthcoming third album Irreverence of the Divine in advance of its April co-release by Memento Mori and Rotted Life. To do that, we present the fifth track in the running order, “Sempiternal Suicide“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MOONFALL — “ODE TO THE RITUAL HILLS”

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Mar 142025
 

(Written by Islander)

The Finnish black metal band Moonfall trace their origins back to 2008, and their first demo to 2010. But there things ended for a decade until the duo reunited, releasing a new demo in 2020 and a split with Regere Sinister the following year. Now, at last, they’ve made a debut album named Odes to the Ritual Hills that’s set for an April 11 release by Iron Bonehead Productions.

Much could be said about the activities of the two performers (Goatprayer and Black Moon Necromancer) because both have been active over many years in a multitude of other bands, including Witchcraft, Ceremonial Torture, and Beherit. But rather than detail those histories and find linkages between them and what’s about to be available on the new album, let’s instead turn immediately to the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CLACTONIAN — “EVERLASTING PALEOLITHIC”

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Mar 142025
 

(written by Islander)

We have written frequently over the last seven years about the music of the Italian band Thecodontion, whose primeval and prehistoric thematic interests have been as interesting and erudite as their guitar-less but ever-evolving formulations of death metal. And so we were highly intrigued to learn last year that Thecodontion vocalist G.E.F. had started a new band named Clactonian, joined by Thecodontion drummer V.P. (also in SVNTH), Finnish bassist K.H.P.K. (from Ashen Tomb), and Italian guitarist B.Z. (Spell of Decay).

Like Thecodontion, the thematic interests of Clactonian are rooted in prehistory, and particularly the Paleolithic Age. The name itself is a term given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tools made by an extinct species of archaic humans who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago. (You can find more about here.)

Last summer we premiered Clactonian‘s debut demo, Dea Madre, whose cover art you won’t have forgotten if you saw it. The music followed a path of early bestial black/death metal that drew strong influence from Beherit but also should appeal to fans of Archgoat, early Bathory, and some bass-driven bands like Barathrum or early Necromantia for the slower sections.

And now we’re bringing you Clactonian‘s second demo, Everlasting Paleolithic, in advance of its official release on March 28th. Prepare for… PALEOLITHIC BLACK METAL OF DEATH! Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ALZHAGOTH — “AD FINEM”

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Mar 132025
 

(written by Islander)

What is “pagan death metal”? It might be death metal that lyrically honors and celebrates old pre-Christian mystical belief systems, or current non-theistic ones, without much other connection between the music and what inspires the lyrics. Or the connection might be deeper than the words. Or the words might open doors to an imaginary cosmos of recent origin but ancient trappings, accompanied by music designed to reveal what lies beyond the door.

Which brings us to the Italian “pagan death metal” band Alzhagoth. Thematically, they have created their own cosmogony, a vast cosmogony of chaos and even monstrosity, and a cult devoted to the dark god whose name is the name of the band. As for the music, they’ve explained in a recent interview:

“For us, chaos isn’t merely random, but filled with potential. Each element can become part of a subtle order, crystallizing into a track that reflects the darkness of Alzhagoth. In this way, the music becomes an attempt to capture eternity in a single moment, transforming turmoil into something sublime, in the romantic sense of the word.”

What this means in more concrete terms is revealed in Alzhagoth‘s debut album Ad Finem, which will be released tomorrow through Inertial Music, and which we’re now revealing in its entirety. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WOMBBATH — “BEYOND THE ABYSS”

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Mar 122025
 

(written by Islander)

We’re about to premiere the entirety of a stunning new Wombbath album, which will take listeners Beyond the Abyss.

Our French contributor Zoltar (Olivier Badin) has quite a history of writing about metal, and considerable familiarity with both Wombbath‘s previous works and some of the band’s members. Putting that knowledge to good use, he wrote an extensive introduction to the album which can be found on its Bandcamp page. If we were smart we would just cut and paste that mini-essay here instead of just leaving a link to it, and then embed the album stream to let the music speak for itself.

But being smart and having fun aren’t always the same thing. And so to have our own fun, here are some further elaborate thoughts about what you’ll encounter on this new album today, just a couple days away from its March 14 release by Pulverised Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VAMPYRIIYA — “GHOST OF MOON AND COSMIC NEBULA”

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Mar 112025
 

(written by Islander)

Vampyriia is the solo project of the Italian musician S. N. Nosfer. Even people unfamiliar with the project’s past works, which include a pair of demos, a debut album, and an EP, would take their clues from those names and the night-dwelling and bloodthirsty mythologies they invoke.

But the music of Vampyriia also seems to contemplate other more haunting and tortured sides of undead immortality, as reflected in the name of a new four-song EP — The Melancholic Charm Of The Moon — which will be released on April 24th by Void Wanderer Productions.

What we have for you today is the premiere of one of those songs, and its name is also evocative: “Ghost of Moon and Cosmic Nebula“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE INFERNAL DECEIT — “SCHWARZ”

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Mar 112025
 

(written by Islander)

Next month the always interesting Personal Records will release a new album by The Infernal Deceit, a German duo consisting of guitarist/bassist C and vocalist R, ably aided on the album by session drummer Jörg Uken. This new full-length, The True Harmful Black, is the successor to the band’s independently released 2021 album debut The Formless Graves (a vinyl release followed via Idiots Records in 2022).

Having overlooked that debut, the new album has provided our own introduction to The Infernal Deceit‘s talents, and it is (to put it mildly) a wonderfully eye-opening discovery. The “elevator pitch” is that the band have drawn inspiration from melodic blackened death metal from the mid-to-late ’90s. Delving deeper, the PR materials make comparative references to “prime Unanimated, second- or third-album Sacramentum, Darkside-era Necrophobic, the lone Vinterland album, ’90s Naglfar or Ebony Tears or Sweden’s Eucharist, or even In Flames‘ never-sullied The Jester Race.”

All of that is very enticing to people like us who found our way into extreme metal through bands such as those, but even more enticing is the immediate experience of The Infernal Deceit‘s new music, which is equal parts thrilling and chilling, ferocious and epic. We have a great example in the album track “Schwarz” that we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NOMADIC RITUALS — “FUST”

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Mar 102025
 

(written by Islander)

It often happens that we, like everyone else, find our first exposure to an album in a single song provided in advance of the album release, even when we later find ourselves premiering the entire record. That is what happened here in the case of Fust, the apocalyptic fourth album by the sludge/doom band Nomadic Rituals from Northern Ireland that will soon be released by our friends at Cursed Monk Records.

One of their early singles from the album was “Change“. It greeted our ears with clobbering beats and demonic snarls, with vicious sizzling tones and shrill demented decibels. The song’s mangling low-frequencies lurch like some enormous primeval beast; the vocals scream and bay at the moon; the beats crack and tumble.

The music also pounds like a sledgehammer and seems to moan in agony, and the beasts come out in the doubled vocals too. It might have ended there, but doesn’t: the drums vividly clatter; the guitars go off like sirens; the low end brutally gouges with gruesome claws; the voices scream bloody murder.

As a welcome sign placed before listeners, “Change” was very fucking intense, an experience in rage and ruin, like a welcome sign made of skull and crossbones. How indicative was it of the album as a whole? You’re about to find out. Continue reading »

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