AN NCS PREMIERE: VERTHEBRAL — “BEYOND THE GARDEN OF CREATION”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 252017
 

 

Prepare yourselves for a death metal rocket-ride that may leave your eyes rolled back in your head, your teeth bared in your frothing mouth, your head banging in a fury, your body convulsed in a seizure.

Okay, that may be overstating things a bit — but it’s not much of an overstatement, because Verthebral are already a ferocious, turbocharged machine despite their relatively young ages, and based on their debut album Regeneration, Verthebral’s future looks very bright.

To help spread the word about these death-dealers from Paraguay, we’re premiering a track from Regeneration named “Beyond the Garden of Creation” in advance of the album’s fast-approaching release by the triumvirate of Satanath Records, More Hate Productions, and Final Gate Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FUNERAL DESEKRATOR — “THE DESCENT”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 252017
 

 

One of the constant challenges in writing about music is coming up with different ways of describing the sensations provoked by sound. When the music is unusually vibrant and exhilarating, as this song is, it’s an even bigger challenge; the same old overused words can diminish the message. That’s one reason we always try to include the music streams. But of course these challenges won’t stop me from trying.

The song we’re premiering in this post is “The Descent“, one of five explosive tracks on First Desekration, which is the debut demo by the French band Funeral Desekrator. It will be released next month on tape by Atavism Records. If you’re looking for a scorching new blast of black thrash, this will fix you up. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZURVAN — “HALLUCINATION”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jun 242017
 

 

Three years on from the release of their last album, the Persian black metal band Zurvan have completed a new record named Gorge of Blood, which will be co-released on June 28 by Satanath Records (Russia) and The Eastern Front (Israel). What we have for you today are streams of two previously released songs from the album plus our premiere of a new one named “Hallucination“.

Zurvan first came to life in Iran as the project of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Nâghes in 2009, and in 2012 the band became a two-person strike force with the addition of drummer Taromad. The band is now located in Germany, but as you will discover, the music is still very much connected to the Oriental musical traditions of their homeland, yet at the same time firmly rooted in the rebellious and ferocious antagonism of black metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: SINNERANGEL – “SINISTER DECÁLOGO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 232017
 

 

On June 25th — two days from now — GrimmDistribution will release the new album by SinnerAngel, a group that first came together more than a decade ago in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The album’s name is Sinister Decálogo, which refers to “a precise set of ideas that conform to the sinister side of the human existence”. The album also “deals with themes about the allegorical double human morality, the need for approval and dependence of the deities to assert themselves, the constant fear of the earthly and the passing”.

Today we are pleased to present a full stream of what turns out to be an unusual album, one that incorporates a variety of musical influences that reflect the wide-ranging interests of the band’s members. Lacking any clearly defined genre boundaries and with a tendency to experiment, the band have grasped the term “dark metal” as a description. Of course, like the music on this album, that term has no precise definition. And so we’ll offer a few more words of introduction, though no one will blame you if you just skip right down to the album stream and dive in. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVESITE — “POSTMORTEM FETAL EXTRUSION (COFFIN BIRTH)”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 222017
 

 

“Neverending Trail of Skulls” could well serve as the name of the path followed by extreme metal from the late ’80s up to the present and beyond, but instead it’s the name of the second album by the Italian band Gravesite, whose line-up includes members of the late lamented Undead Creep, as well as Haemophagus and Cancer Spreading (among others), and whose fixation with horror is spread all over this new record.

The album is set for release on August 1 by Xtreem Music, and what we bring you today, swaddled in bloody rags, is a song bearing the gruesome title “Postmortem Fetal Extrusion (Coffin Birth)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRANADA — “ALMAS VENDIDAS”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 222017
 

 

The song you’re about to hear doesn’t follow the path you probably think it’s going to follow from the way it begins, and the variations in its course are one reason it’s so appealing (but not the only reason).

The name of the song is “Almas Vendidas” and it comes from the new fourth album by the Argentinian band Granada. Entitled Sincronizado, it will be released on June 23rd by Satanath Records‘ sub-label Symbol of Domination. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVESLAVE — “SLIT THROAT AND GARROTE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 212017
 

 

Well, you can’t say Graveslave have given you no warning about the foulness of the new music video you’re about to see. They did name the song “Slit Throat and Garrote“. And they did name the album from whence it comes Sick/Nasty. And then there’s that cover art.

But just in case you’re a bit slow on the up-take, let’s just put it right out there: Don’t watch this video right before you eat. Probably should’t watch it on a full stomach either… unless watching someone being strangled with their own intestines improves your appetite or your digestion.

Sick/Nasty is this Minneapolis-based death metal band’s first album, which includes guest vocals by Cryptopsy’s Matt McGachy on the opening track. We first encountered them through our premiere of a funnier and less gruesome video last year for the band’s single, “Strange Days”, and before that they assaulted listeners with a 2015 EP named Wormtongue. They seem to have been just warming up with those previous releases, because this new track is an even more serious body-mangler and brain-twister. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ISRATHOUM — “BETWEEN THE MAZE AND THE TURMOIL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 212017
 

 

Israthoum was given birth in Portugal in the early ’90s under a different name, apparently conceived by draconic powers, schooled in Qlippothic mysteries, and sharpened as weapons. Relocating to The Netherlands, the band has released two albums to date and a handful of shorter releases. Now, five years after their second album, Israthoum is on the brink of releasing their third full-length (through Altare Productions), bearing the title Channeling Death & Devil. Today we bring you the first single from that album, a track called “Between the Maze and Turmoil“.

It was that second album from 2012 that turned us on to Israthoum’s manifold powers, and our writer Andy Synn praised it in his review with words such as these: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TORO — “PAINTING WITH SHADOWS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 202017
 

 

It’s such a pleasure to experience an inspired and inventive joinder of visual and musical art, one in which the imagery itself seizes and holds attention and also meshes beautifully with a powerful and evocative sound. As most of us who are consumers of metal videos know, that’s a rare feat — but we have one of those successes for you today, as we present a brand new video for a song called “Painting With Shadows” by the Atlanta sludge/prog-metal band Toro.

The song comes from the band’s debut EP Departure, which was mixed by Matt Bayles, mastered by Ed Brooks, and released in the spring of this year. And if you missed it, the video provides a bracing reminder that it’s an EP well worth our time (we’ve included a stream of the EP along with the video). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: URN — “CELESTIAL LIGHT”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jun 202017
 

 

Take a good look at the cover of the new album by the Finnish power trio Urn, and fix your mind on the album’s title — The Burning — because when you hear the song from the album we’re premiering today, you’ll feel as if you’ve been pitched into a pit of fire.

The Burning will be released by Iron Bonehead Productions on July 28. It’s the band’s fourth album in a career that reaches back to the mid-’90s, but the first album in nearly a decade. In that time, the band came apart but was then re-formed by founding bassist and frontman Sulphur, joined on this new album by guitarist Too Loud and drummer Revenant. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries