AN NCS PREMIERE: HIDEOUS REBIRTH — “HAUNTING CARNAL ILLUSIONS”

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Oct 092017
 

 

Album art still matters, even in an age when physical editions have been significantly supplanted by downloads, as compared to even five years ago. They create mental associations with the music that often become lasting memories, especially when the art and the music are both excellent — and go hand-in-hand in creating a particular kind of impression.

Tony Koehl’s artwork for the new album, La Fosa Comun, by the death metal band Hideous Rebirth from Riverside, California, is undeniably eye-catching, and it also suits the music quite well. But you can judge that for yourselves, because we have a song for you, a track from the album named “Haunting Carnal Illusions“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MYSTAGOS — “HO ANTHROPOS TES ANOMIAS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Oct 082017
 

 

All music is connected to some kind of inspiration, from the most mundane (and even deplorable) to the most sublime. Some songs are the result of nothing more than cynical calculations intended to draw ears like clickbait draws eyes. Others seem like efforts to express (and perhaps exorcise) strongly felt emotions, either positive or negative. And still others can be understood as genuine efforts to channel a spiritual experience, or to create a medium for spiritual experience by others.

Of course, even when the inspiration for music is something commonplace and uninteresting, the music itself can still be appealing. And conversely, even when the inspiration is a blinding revelation, the music can nevertheless be colorless or even unlistenable. There’s no necessary correlation between the two, because songwriting talent and performance skill count for a lot. But when spiritual inspiration and distinctive musical talent come together, the results can be remarkable, as you will soon discover.

Ho Anthropos Tes Anomias is the debut album of Mystagos, and it will be released by the U.S. label Clandestine Faith on October 12. The album becomes available for pre-order today, to coincide with the label’s launch of a new web site, and we’re launching a full stream of the album today as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GREYTOMB — “FORCE MAJEURE”

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Oct 062017
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records has allied itself with a significant number of excellent extreme metal bands from Australia, including The Dead, The Furor, Illimitable Dolor, Somnium Nox, and Norse, and recently the Australian black metal band Greytomb has joined those ranks.

The band’s first recording was a 2015 demo, The Mourning Field, and they followed that with a debut album last year, A Perpetual Descent. What lies ahead is a new EP named Monumental Microcosm, which the band describe as “a serious transition from the music we were creating to what we will be creating” — “a new era of dark, cosmic and nihilistic art!” It will be released by Transcending Obscurity on December 19th.

Monumental Microcosm consists of three substantial tracks, one of which it’s our pleasure to present to you today: “Force Majeure“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PILE OF PRIESTS — “REDEMPTIONEM PER CRUCIATU”

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Oct 062017
 

 

I know exactly where I was (Anchorage, Alaska) almost two years ago when I heard the first track off Pile Of Priests’ debut album, Void To Enlightenment. I also know exactly how cold it was outside (1°F). I know these things because I pasted the data from my phone at the top of the post where I wrote about that song — a track that made me much warmer, and left my jaw hanging loose with some drool wetting my chin.

That track wasn’t the only jaw-dropper on Void To Enlightenment. And thankfully, that album also isn’t the last of the devil’s work that this Denver-based progressive death metal band have seen fit to do. They’re at work on a new EP, but in the meantime they’re releasing a new single that we’re premiering today through a lyric video, the title of which is “Redemptionem Per Cruciatu“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DE PROFUNDIS — “BEYOND THE THRESHOLD”

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Oct 062017
 


photo by Ester Segarra

 

The name De Profundis is one you will recognize if you’ve been a frequent visitor to our site (or have otherwise kept your antennae alert to the emergence of excellent metal), given that we have published positive reviews of their 2013 album The Emptiness Within, their 2014 EP Frequencies, and most recently (and most glowingly) their latest album, Kingdom of the Blind, released in 2015. Of that album, my comrade Andy Synn wrote:

“[T]his move towards a proggier outlook – more expressive and textured and, ultimately, more natural – has clear benefits for both the Prog and the Death aspects of the band’s sound. The heaviest moments benefit from a greater sense of focus and direction, while the band’s progressive side is given free rein to fully express itself, and, on a grander scale, the songs themselves feel simultaneously more streamlined and structured, yet also more complex and freeform, with a greater sense of fluidity and flow between moments of blast-fuelled fury and expansive, melodic creativity…. Kingdom of the Blind is by far the band’s finest hour, and every subsequent re-listen has only cemented this impression.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): DREADNOUGHT — “A WAKE IN SACRED WAVES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 052017
 

 

Adjectives and phrases like “multifaceted”, “intricate”, and “richly textured” leap to mind in reflecting upon the wonders of Dreadnought’s new album, A Wake In Sacred Waves, but they seem inadequate. The music is exuberantly and inventively kaleidoscopic, filled to overflowing with juxtapositions of sound and emotional resonance. In its elaborate and intelligently plotted variations, and in its ability to draw the listener deeply into its changing moods, it has few genuine rivals this year.

Trying to scale its dizzying heights and descend into its labyrinthine depths through mere words proves to be a daunting challenge. Fortunately for me (and for you), we have a full stream of the album for you today, just before its October 6 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WHEELFALL — “THE ATROCITY REPORTS”

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Oct 052017
 

 

To greater and lesser degrees, every track on the French band Wheelfall’s new album gets your head in a hammer lock and seizes control of your involuntary muscle reflexes. Remaining motionless as you listen is not an option. To greater and lesser degrees, every track is also unerringly bleak and disturbing. It’s the kind of black-hearted music that seems simultaneously to be clawing in a blood frenzy to get at your throat while also clubbing you senseless with a cold, machine-like determination and precision.

In reflecting on the album experience, “violent”, “hallucinatory”, “insane”, and “oppressive” are among the words that spring to mind. “Massively heavy” and “compelling” are other words that seem appropriate. The warmth of human kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and love — all of that has been brutally banished from Wheelfall’s musical realm, but man, what they’re doing here is electrifying. The Atrocity Reports keeps you on the edge of your seat, all nerves firing. Sometimes it feels like the world is coming apart, or at least your own sanity, but the allure is nonetheless (and perhaps perversely) irresistible. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARROWLANDS — “EMPTY HANDS GRASPING”

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Oct 052017
 

 

This Portland black metal band’s debut album Thane made an immediate favorable impression when I first began listening to it in 2014. As I described here, only two songs in, and I paused to buy it on Bandcamp. And thus it was a pleasant surprise when I learned that Barrowlands have completed work on a new album, Tynidr, which will be released on October 20 by Vendetta Records.

Guitarist Jay Caruso tells us about the album’s title and how it connects to the music: “Tyndir, a norse word for fallowed ground, speaks of the tension between nature and man and the realization that nature will ultimately reclaim all that man claims sacred.” Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SEER — VOL. 5

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 042017
 

 

Only three months ago Vancouver-based Seer released their first album, Vol. III & IV: Cult of the Void, from which we premiered two of its tracks. And thus it will undoubtedly come as a surprise to their fans that today, with no advance fanfare, they are releasing a further chapter in their evolving musical narrative, a new EP named Vol. 5. To help spread the word, we present a complete stream of the EP in this post. To introduce the music, we begin with this statement provided on behalf of the band:

“Despite releasing a full length record just this past July, Vol. 5 is the most accurate depiction of Seer as they exist today. The EP showcases Seer’s extreme metal influences more prominently than any other release in their discography. Recorded on the largely undeveloped Gabriola Island by Jordan Koop (Ahna, Wolf Party) and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Inquisition, Power Trip), the process has been the most organic and proved most fruitful of any of Seer’s recording sessions.

“Track 2 and 3 comprise the bulk of the EP, with track 1 and 4 acting as intro and outro respectively. Track 2 is an apocalyptic funeral dirge featuring more twists, turns, and layers than one might expect from sprawling, “big riff” songs of this nature. Track 3 is a more straight forward rock and roll tune with heavy emphasis on occult-rock guitar leads and astute interplay between harsh and clean vocals.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRACKHOUSE — “BE NO ONE, BE NOTHING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 042017
 

 

When you see a band name like Crackhouse and an album title like Be No One, Be Nothing, you don’t expect uplifting music. And in fact, this French trio traffic in the bleak reverberations of sludge and doom, amalgamated with body-moving riffs that provide a link to stoner metal. But such genre references, while useful, don’t fully prepare you for what Crackhouse have accomplished on this, their debut album. I certainly wasn’t prepared for the stunning intensity and wholly devouring experience that the music presents when I first listened to it.

On the surface, Be No One, Be Nothing can be intimidating. The idea of an album that’s more than 50 minutes long but is divided among only three songs that range in length from more than 11 minutes to more than 22 would cause many people to take a very deep breath. It might deter some people from giving the album an opportunity to join their rotations. I hope that doesn’t happen, because the record really is remarkable — and you’ll have a chance to discover that for yourselves through our premiere of a full stream today before its October 6 release by Argonauta Records. Continue reading »

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