AN NCS PREMIERE: CONSTRUCT OF LETHE — “TERRACES OF PURGATION”

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Jun 052018
 

 

Metal feeds a multitude of needs, both emotional and intellectual. At one end of the genre’s vast multidimensional spectrum, it can induce a dreamlike revery, guiding the mind in a gliding drift across astral planes. At another end of the spectrum, it can slug you in the neck and jellify the brain with explosions of chaotic savagery, playing upon our darkest fears. With the song you’re about to hear, we’re at that latter end of the span.

The song in question is “Terraces of Purgation” from Exiler, the powerful new death metal album by Construct of Lethe, which will be released on June 20 by Everlasting Spew Records. It features guest vocals by Enrico H. Di Lorenzo (Hideous Divinity). This is the second premiere from the album that it’s been our privilege to bring you, following “Rot of Augury”, and if you missed that one you’ll also have a chance to hear it at the end of this post along with the album’s first advance track, “The Clot”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JYOTISAVEDANGA — “THERMOGRAVIMETRY WARP CONTINUUM”

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May 302018
 

 

Although the subject is not free from doubt, the laws of thermodynamics can be understood to forecast a far distant future in which ever-increasing entropy leads to the heat death of the universe. Order devolves into disorder, chaos leads to extinction, and meanwhile the unexplored fifth dimension of our reality shadows the path of this lethal arrow of time.

These concepts have inspired the harrowing sounds of Jyotiṣavedāṅga, but mysticism holds a powerful attraction as well. This international entity, whose members consist of guitarist Sadist from the Indian band Tetragrammacide; H. from Russia’s Sickrites on synths, noise, and effects; vocalist AR, from the Kolkata band Banish; and Ukrainian drummer Dimitry Kim (Sickrites, Goatpsalm, Balance Interruption), is named after Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, one of the earliest known Indian texts on astronomy and astrology. In their music and lyrics, they seek an intersection “between light and obscurity, between science and superstition, between good and evil”, a place “between the pit of all fears and the peak of all true knowledge.”

How they have done this you are about to discover. Jyotiṣavedāṅga’s new album, Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum, will be released by Larval Productions on June 6th, and now we give you the chance to hear the full album in advance of its release. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KRAKOW — “BLACK WANDERING SUN”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
May 302018
 

 

In this post we happily present the North American premiere of a new song and a new video from the new album, minus, by the Norwegian alchemists in Krakow, which will be released by Karisma Records on August 31. And as a prelude, let’s begin with the band’s own words — in part because the final sentence seems particularly fitting in the context of this new song: “black wandering sun“:

“Following the laborious process of distilling two albums worth of material into one focused gem, we give you “minus”. The pinnacle achievement of Krakow’s thirteen-year existence. After a year of recording, shaping, re-recording and refining, “minus” has been reduced to the bare essence of who Krakow are as individuals, as a group and as story tellers. An album that defies any attempts at genre definition. This release covers the heavy, the subtle, the melodic, the atonal, the groovy, the sluggish, the dense, the airy, the naked, and always, always, the wall of sound where no light can escape.”

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AHTME — “SUBHUMAN REMAINS”

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May 292018
 

 

When last we visited Ahtme from Kansas City, Missouri, it was almost two and a half years ago, not long after they had signed with Unique Leader Records. At that time, Unique Leader was on the verge of reissuing the band’s debut album The Demonization and we were hosting the premiere of a video for one of that album’s demonizing tracks. The reissue was a paving of the way toward something new from the band, and at last, it has arrived.

June 1st is the date set by Unique Leader for Ahtme’s new album, Sewerborn, and we are in the happy position of again hosting a premiere, this time for the new album’s final track, a merciless but insidiously infection brutalizer named “Subhuman Remains“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: CAVEMAN CULT — “SUPREMACÍA PRIMORDIAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
May 292018
 

 

Yesterday, while recovering from a metal festival over lunch with six haggard friends, we somehow got off onto summing up each other’s personalities. Looking at a few of them I observed, “Some people wake up angry.” One friend chimed in, “Some people wake up anxious.” Another said, “Some people wake up irritated — at being awake.” No one mentioned waking up with blood on their hands and fire in their eyes; that’s how I imagine that the Floridians in Caveman Cult usually greet the day.

I guess if you’re one of those delusional souls who wake up smiling at the wonderfulness of life, or happen to be suffering from a cataclysmic hangover, Caveman Cult’s new EP won’t be the right way to get your game face on. But if you want music that will fuel your rage, vaporize your anxiety, squash your irritation, and put the look of a wolf in your eyes, Supremacía Primordial is a damned fine choice. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LELAHELL — “PARAMNESIA”

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May 252018
 

On their new album Alif the Algerian band Lelahell continue a conceptual narrative arc concerning the evolution of a character named Abderrahmane that has carried through their debut EP Al Intihar (2012) and their first album, Al Insane​.​.​. The (Re​)​Birth of Abderrahmane. The new album focuses on a variety of philosophical and spiritual subjects through the lense of ferocious, technically impressive death metal, accented by influences from the band’s homeland.

Alif will be released on June 15th by Metal Age Productions, and today it’s our pleasure to present a video for the album’s opening track, “Paramnesia“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VERANO’S DOGS — “DEADLY WHISPER”

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May 252018
 

 

The Campo Verano is a famous cemetery in Rome whose origins date back to the early 19th century, and includes catacombs that are far older. With the old burial site in mind, the Italian death/grind band Verano’s Dogs chose their name as a way of linking their music to death and to age-old traditions in which great hounds have guarded the land of the dead or ushered perished souls into the afterworld.

Consistent with this conception, Summoning The Hounds is the title of the band’s debut album, which will be released on June 15th by Metal Age Productions. Two singles have been released so far, and today we precent a lyric video for the third and last single prior to the album’s release. The name of this new advance track is “Deadly Whisper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GHOSTBOUND — “ALL IS PHANTOM”

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May 222018
 

 

Given our usual proclivities at this site, perhaps it’s best to begin by paying attention to the elephant in the room: Roughly 99% of the vocals on Ghostbound’s debut album All Is Phantom are clean. And there’s another elephant standing in our room, too: Metal is only one ingredient in the music, and not even the dominant one. Nevertheless, we’ve agreed to present the full streaming premiere of the record here today despite the fact that it goes well off our usual beaten paths — because it goes off our usual stamping grounds so very well, blazing its own trails in such remarkably vivid and memorable ways.

The band’s name was well-chosen, and so is the album’s title. The music wears its passionate and very human emotions right out on its extravagant, embroidered sleeves, to the point of becoming theatrical at times, but almost none of it sounds completely earthbound. Ghost-bound, indeed it is — edged with angst, shadowed by sorrow, haunted by death. And it’s also beautiful, inspiring,  even joyous. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OUBLIETTE — “THE PASSAGE”

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May 222018
 

 

Not for the first time, I’m grateful we have Metal-Archives, because it provides evidence that this Tennessee band is the only active one on the planet with the name Oubliette. And why is that worth noting? Because Oubliette is one of the most metal band names I can think of.

It’s an old word, a French one, its earliest recorded use dating back to 1374. Although another old French word — donjon — seems to have been the source for the English word dungeon, the oubliette was the true dungeon, at least as that latter word has come to be understood. The donjon was instead a castle tower, or “keep”. The oubliette was the dark, claustrophobic hole underground, often accessed only by a trapdoor or hatchway from the room above, where doomed wretches were imprisoned or tortured, some of those cells so small that lying down or even turning around was impossible. In time, as we are told, oubliettes became symbols of hidden cruelty and tyrannical power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAHON — “FAITH OF SAVAGERY”

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May 212018
 

Visions of mushroom clouds seem to shroud the headlines about North and South Korea these days. We fervently hope that all the trans-Pacific “fire and fury” lunacy turns out to be just overblown but ultimately empty rhetoric, but we have absolutely nothing against irradiating detonations if they come from speakers blasting the music of Sahon.

This South Korean thrash metal band kick up a righteous fury on their new album, Chanting For the Fallen, which will be released by Transcending Obscurity Asia on July 15th. But as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today (and another one that debuted previously), this long-running power trio are doing that in a way that isn’t a formulaic re-treading of what a long line of other thrash bands have done before them. Continue reading »

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