AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GROG — “VEGETATIVE TECHUMAN”

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May 162025
 

(written by Islander)

The battle-hardened Portuguese metal veterans in Grog have been plying their deadly craft since 1991, remarkably holding together the same lineup for the past 20 years despite the usual upheavals in personal life and the world at large, not to mention the constant upheavals in the realms of heavy music.

Grog aren’t trend-chasers, but they’ve not stood still like statues either. All those years of experience have fed into a notable precision of execution by these sonic executioners, and a twisted refinement of their songwriting — but without abandoning the mauling and bone-smashing brutality of their core death-grinding assaults.

Where all those years have led them is now captured in Sphere of Atrocities, Grog‘s fifth album and their first full-length in 8 years. It’s set for co-release on June 13th by Helldprod Records and Murder Records, and what we have for you today is a lyric video for the second song disclosed from the album so far — a weapon of extreme sonic destruction named “Vegetative Techuman“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HSPDN — “HEYDAY’S RUIN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 162025
 

(written by Islander)

In this feature we are taking a few large steps off the various beaten, broken, and thorn-shrouded paths we usually follow in our musical meanderings around here. The connections to those paths, such as they are, derive in part from the person who made the music you’re about to hear.

That person goes by the name “twi” in this new project, but we can disclose that the person is the Slovakian musician and vocalist also known as Twisted in the experimental industrial doom/death metal band 0n0, whose music we’ve written about repeatedly over the last nine years (here’s the proof of that).

The name of the new project is hspdn. hspdn‘s first release is Heyday’s Ruin, a four-song, 18-minute work set for release open May 23rd and self-described as “an EP about climate and personal crises”. What we have for you today is the premiere of its title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVEBORN — “TEMPORAL SANDS”

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May 152025
 

(written by Islander)

Four years ago we had the extreme pleasure of premiering the title track from Transmigrator, the then-forthcoming fourth album from the Boston-based death metal band Graveborn. That album was a significant step in the band’s ongoing evolution in their musical approach, a steadily progressing shift away from their deathcore roots and into a more stylistically multi-faceted and even more thrilling (but still brutalizing) experience.

Four years later, it’s clear that Graveborn haven’t stopped moving. Where their increasingly inventive momentum has led them is reflected in a new single we’re premiering today, presented through a fascinating animated video. Named “Temporal Sands,” this new song is a head-spinner of a high order — and a brutal bone-smasher too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EMPEIRIA — “IV”

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May 152025
 

(written by Islander)

The black metal band Empeiria (a word intended to mean “the un-tangible, the negation of limit”) arrive like some flaming meteor suddenly surging through a night sky.

A mysterious German duo who go by the names π and η, their first recording is a debut album that caught the attention of Vendetta Records, which will release it on June 6th. The album’s name is The Ascent: Szenen der Katharsis, and we have this description of its narrative progression:

The Ascent: Szenen der Katharsis is a tripartite concept album tracing the journey of the lyrical protagonist through three emotional stages: tormenting doubts and guilt (I–III), growing confidence (IV–VI), and existential realization (VII). The atmosphere and compositional approach of the seven tracks reflect these evolving themes.

What we have for you today is a premiere stream of the album’s fourth track. And we have this introduction of that specific song to share with you as well: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COMATOSE — “CONDEMN TO DARKNESS”

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May 142025
 

(written by Islander)

The last time we hosted the premiere of a song from the Filipino death metal band Comatose (here) we called the music “both diabolically frenzied and lethally vicious, both cold-blooded and wild,” a “combination of feral bloodlust and pre-meditated cruelty.”

That was a long 6 1/2 years ago, and the occasion back then was to help spread the word about their forthcoming second album The Ungodly Lamentations. Now, at last, Comatose are back with a new album and we’re back with them again, hosting another song premiere.

The new full-length is The Unhallowed Congregation, and it will be co-released on May 21st by Satanath Records (Georgia) and WP And RO Productions (Netherlands). The song we have for you today is “Condemn To Darkness.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PIECE — “DEMIGOD”

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May 142025
 

(written by Islander)

The Berlin-base sludge band Piece made their recording advent with a self-titled EP in 2017 and then followed that with a 2018 split, a 2021 single, and their 2023 debut album Ancient Greed. Another split (with Arsen) came forward the following year, and now Piece are ready with their second full-length.

The new album is Rambler’s Axe, and it’s set for release by This Charming Man Records on September 5th. To help spread the word, today we’re premiering a very cool video for the album’s neck-wrecking first single, “Demigod“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEWICHOR — “BARBED WIRE”

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May 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Two years after the release of their debut EP Ritual, the Siberian band Dewichor are returning with their first full-length album, No Tomorrow, which is set for release in August by Satanath Records. The “elevator pitch” for the album describes it as “the quintessence of black, death and post-metal, seasoned with the atmosphere of the end of the world.”

The label’s further pitch is to recommend it for fans of such bands as: Behemoth, Kriegsmaschine, Mgła, Batushka, Ultar, Grima, Gaerea, Schammasch, Belphegor, and Panzerfaust.

As quick pitches go, those are obviously very enticing, especially since these days it’s fairly easy to imagine living in a post-apocalyptic world before we expire (but hopefully not before this album’s release in August). It’s thus agreeable to have a soundtrack that (as the label promises) will “plunge us into a world of chaos and the absence of any hope for survival.” And of course those comparative band references create agreeable (and lofty) expectations too.

But let’s see how well the music of No Tomorrow lives up to these quick pitches. As a sign of that, we present the album’s fifth track, a stunner named “Barbed Wire“. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE: VEIA — “TUCHULCHA / IL RITORNO DI TUCHULCHA”

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May 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Frequent visitors to our site (and other people equally intelligent and tasteful) will know the names Thecodontion and Clactonian. If you don’t know those names, you can find out why I think you should know them by plowing through the volumes of words we’ve spilled about their music (collected here and here, respectively). Both bands are the brainchildren of Italian musician G.E.F., joined with other very talented friends in each group.

Now we have another name you need to know, another brainchild of G.E.F. This one is Veia. Under the banner of Veia G.E.F. is the vocalist and lyricist, joined here by bassist extraordinaire G.D. (also from Thecodontion) and exceptionally talented people from Svart Vinter and Veil of Conspiracy on drums and guitars.

Unlike Thecodontion and Clactonian, Veia is predominantly a vehicle for black metal. The band’s members have been at work on a debut album to be entitled Vacal, and they expect the recording sessions to be completed later this year. But to help introduce Veia to listeners, G.E.F. decided to release two “raw excerpts” from the album this month through his new-ish label Prehistoric Sounds, and we have premiere streams of both songs for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEFIANT — “LORD OF THE OPENING”

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May 122025
 

(written by Islander)

This year the Croatian black/death metal band Defiant will commemorate their 20th year of existence with the release of their fifth album Mammon Mantra. It’s set for discharge by Satanath Records (Georgia) and InsArt Records (UK) on May 17th, and to help pave the way we’re premiering a blaspheming lyric video for the album track “Lord of the Opening“.

Mammon Mantra follows the band’s last album Insurrection Icon by about seven years, though the band helped fill that long gap with the Ways ov Damnation split with DVVAD in late 2020 and the Vanguards of Misrule EP in 2022.

The new album is described as “the closest thing that the band ever came to a concept album; it explores man’s darkest desires and corruption ever since this creature stood on its two feet, from the dawn of time to the current events.”

The song you’re about to discover is definitely a dark and devastating creation, well-suited to our current age of damnation, but it’s also a multi-faceted head-spinner of a high order. And, it features guest vocals by Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan from Venom Inc./Atomkraft. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISEMBODIMENT — “STYGIAN OVERTURE”

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May 122025
 

(written by Islander)

WARNING: You are about to be stomped and gouged, bounced off the walls and lacerated, dragged into foul and choking cesspools and made witness to violent charnel-house abominations. Your pulse will pound, your head will move, your guts will churn. And you will smile broadly at every abuse to which you will be subjected!

These are our predictions for how addicts of foul and ferocious death metal will receive the song we’re now presenting from Spiral Crypts, the hotly anticipated debut album of Disembodiment from Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, which will see release in July via Everlasting Spew Records. Continue reading »

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