AN NCS PREMIERE: NÒTT — “WHITE. COLD. DEATH.”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 282017
 

 

Those of you who’ve been visiting us for years are quite familiar with our continuing admiration of the Minnesota band Amiensus, whose releases we’ve followed closely and written about frequently ever since the appearance of their debut album Restoration in 2013. And so we were intrigued when we learned that Amiensus frontman (and Fail to Decay bassist) James Benson had started a separate solo project named Nòtt as a vehicle for creating music that combines bleak and progressive elements of black metal.

We can now reveal that Nòtt’s debut album is nearing completion and is projected for release in January of the new year, and we can go further than that — because today we’re premiering the first single from the album, a song called “White. Cold. Death.“, which is now available for free download at Bandcamp. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MYSTAGOS — “DROWNING IN THE SEA OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Dec 282017
 

 

Roughly three months we premiered a remarkable debut album named Ho Anthropos Tes Anomias by the Spanish band Mystagos, which was subsequently released by Clandestine Faith. In an accompanying review, I wrote about the way in which spiritual inspiration and distinctive musical talent had come together in an unusually successful way: “The music itself has an otherworldly and occult resonance, channeling the exploration of dark mysteries, the exaltation of sinister forces, and the delirium of madness”.

Given the rare appeal of that album, we were excited to learn that Mystagos has prepared a new collection of songs, an EP entitled Pvrvsha, which is projected for release on February 1, 2018, by BlackSeed Productions., with great cover art by Opposition Artworks. It includes three black metal songs and four dark ambient songs, and today we have the good fortune to bring you the premiere of one of the black metal tracks: “Drowning In the Sea of Unconsciousness“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTO THE STORM — “MURDER MURDER MURDER”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 272017
 


A little more than one year on from their 2016 album Where the Merfalo Roam the sludgy rockers in Seattle’s Into the Storm will be returning in February with a new split album with another Seattle band, Smooth Sailing, and today we have a single from Into the Storm’s side called “Murder, Murder, Murder“.

They do say it three times in the title, but you’d get the picture even if the track were untitled. Based upon the sound alone, this is musical murder with a verve fueled by wild-eyed lust for blood splatter and bone splinters, and perpetrated not with the sneaky sharpness of a stiletto but with the brutalism of crowbars and sledgehammers. It’s an invigorating bruiser of a track for sure. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LOST TO THE WAVES — “CRUCIFIED”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 252017
 

 

This makes the second time this year that we’ve premiered a music video for a song by the Boston-area band Lost To the Waves. The first time, last spring, we debuted a video for “Remember Me“, a song that was then destined to appear on the band’s EP, Nightfall. Nightfall was released not long after, and today, as 2017 winds its way to an end, we present the video for another track off Nightfall — a song called “Crucified“, which features guest vocals by Donnie Lariviere (ex-Death Rattle).

The song starts digging its melodic hooks into your head right away, but it starts pummeling and battering pretty quickly as well, and vocalist Ben Lavoie sounds like he’s coming straight for your jugular, fueled by scorn and rage. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: L’HOMME ABSURDE — “CLEANSING THE TEMPLE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 252017
 

 

The 2016 album, Monsters, by the Russian band L’Homme Absurde was a compelling debut. Part black metal and part post-metal, both heavy as hell and completely captivating, it consisted of well-written songs performed with impressive skill that combined gripping, usually dark melodies, big rhythmic headbang triggers, and fiery, jugular-shredding vocal intensity.

It is thus welcome news that L’Homme Absurde will be releasing a second album next year, entitled Sleepless. And from that album we bring you the premiere of the band’s first music video. The name of the track is “Cleansing the Temple“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORTIS MUTILATI — “CREVANT-LAVEINE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 252017
 

 

Mortis Mutilati will welcome 2018 with The Stench of Death. That is the name of this French black metal band’s new album, the fourth one created by its mastermind and alter ego, Macabre, and its aroma will plague the air on January 1. A few songs have been released for listening so far, and today we have another one — “Crevant-Laveine“.

Consistent with the album’s title and with Macabre’s apparent attraction to funereal ceremonies and the beckoning of graves, “Crevant-Laveine” is steeped in gloom and infected with melancholy, but the song also experiences a kind of transformation, one that moves the listener’s mood in perhaps unexpected directions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: SONIC POISON — “COMBAT GRIND”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 212017
 

 

It’s fair to say that Caligari Records has had a banner fucking year in 2017, releasing extremely well-received albums and EPs by such bands as Rope Sect, Boia, Devoid of Thought, Ziggurat, Shaman Ritual, Uttertomb, Funeralium, and Amnutseba (among others). But the year isn’t (quite) over yet, and Caligari has one more release for us, one that will help bring the year to an end in a pile of smoking rubble. And that one last release is the second EP by the Finnish grinders Sonic Poison, which it’s our pleasure to premiere on its release date — which is today!

Entitled Combat Grind, this is Sonic Poison’s second release, following their 2016 debut (also released by Caligari), Harsh Demonstration…, and it reveals the work of a band who have surged ahead to new heights of mauling destructiveness. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PERPETRATÖR — “ALTAR OF THE SKULL”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Dec 202017
 

 

André Coelho has done a fine job rendering the artwork for Altered Beast, the forthcoming second album by the Portuguese thrash marauders in Perpetratör, which will be released by Caverna Abismal Records on January 31. The cover art captures both the entirely appropriate title of the album and also a sense of the music’s own rampaging ferocity.

However, although the music has the kind of wild and berserk energy as those mutant barbarians depicted on the cover, it’s fiendishly clever music as well — as catchy as chlamydia and executed with razor-sharp skill. And you’ll see what we mean when you kneel before “Altar of the Skull“, which is the song from Altered Beast we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: XAEL — “APATHY OF THE IMMORTAL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 202017
 

 

Xael is a new band from North Carolina, and they are nothing if not ambitious. Their debut album The Last Arbiter, which will be released next year by Test Your Metal Records, is a musical narrative organized around a sci-fi/fantasy saga created by Xael that takes place on a distant planet and whose protagonist is an immortal wayfarer chained to demonic entity.

The music itself has a theatrical, operatic quality with a scale and scope that matches the drama of the story line. And the band are planning to release two songs from the album each month as well as a series of videos that provide a rich visual depiction of the story as well — the first of which we present to you today.

Before we get to that video — for the song “Apathy of the Immortal” — some background information may prove useful. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COLOSSO – “REBIRTH”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Dec 202017
 

 

The fourth album by the Portuguese death metal band Colosso is entitled Rebirth, a title that could be understood in more than one way. Aside from the album’s lyrical themes, it marks a transformation of the band from a five-piece group to the studio project of Colosso’s founder, Max Tomé, who is supported on Rebirth by guest drummer Emídio Alexandre (The Autist, ex-Shadowsphere).

Rebirth will be released digitally and on tape and CD on February 25, 2018, and today it’s our pleasure to premiere the first single from the new album, which itself is entitled “Rebirth“. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries