AN NCS PREMIERE: STATUE OF DEMUR — “TAMARACKS”

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Jun 052017
 

 

On June 16th the technical metal band Statue of Demur will release a new album named Alien Pacific, which follows their previous releases Slaterville (2010) and Subhuman Ataxia (2015). Today we bring you the new album’s opening track, “Tamaracks“.

Though composed of only three members, Statue of Demur sound like an army, though not necessarily one you might encounter in a parade on the streets of Calgary (their home) or embedded in the surrounding prairies and foothills of Alberta. Think instead of an army arriving in our orbit from somewhere out beyond the Kuiper Belt. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CULT OF THE HORNS — “MASS DESTRUCTION SUPREMACY”

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Jun 052017
 

 

June 26th is the date set by Symbol of Domination (Belarus) and Ira Militias Productions (France) for the release of the debut album by the French black/death band Cult of the Horns. Entitled Chapter I – Domination, it’s a 10-track, 41-minute manifesto of hatred for mankind, and today we have the premiere of the album’s first track following the introductory piece “March of the Tyrants”. The song we bring you is “Mass Destruction Supremacy“.

Chapter I – Domination is the work of Cult of the Horns‘ Bordeaux-based sole creator Mephisto, and it follows an initial 2014 demo named Hatred & Desecration and a 2015 split with the band Goatvermin. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEER — “ACID SWEAT”

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Jun 052017
 

 

In 2015, Seer from Vancouver, British Columbia, made their first mark on the musical landscape with an EP entitled Vol. 1 and followed that in 2016 with a second EP, Vol. 2. That same year, Art of Propaganda released a compilation (Vol. 1 & 2) that combined both EPs. And now Art of Propaganda is preparing to release Seer‘s first full-length album, a 45-minute monolith called Vol. III & IV: Cult of the Void.

Earlier this year we introduced a surreal music video for an album track named “They Used Dark Forces“, and today we bring you another track named “Acid Sweat” in advance of the album’s July 7th release date. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GLOOMY GRIM — “REIGN”

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Jun 042017
 

 

Almost exactly one year ago we premiered a song from The Age of Aquarius, the latest album by the Finnish horror-prone black metal band Gloomy Grim, and today we have yet another premiere from the band, but one uprooted from the distant past. It appears on a compilation entitled Fuck The World, War Is War!, which is a combining of the titles of the two early demos that it encompasses: The first five tracks on this new compilation come from the band’s first demo, Fuck The World, Kill The Jehova! (1996), and the next three tracks first appeared on the second demo, Friendship Is Friendship, War Is War! (1997).

When the first demo was recorded during the upheaval of black metal’s second wave, Gloomy Grim was the solo project of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Agathon. By the time the second demo was recorded, he had drawn to his side the female vocalist Whisper Lilith as well as guitarist Mörgoth and bassist Torso. The song we’re premiering today — “Reign” — was the final track on that second demo. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN — “KEZIAH LILITH MEDEA”

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Jun 022017
 

 

On this day Iron Bonehead Production releases Keziah Lilith Medea (Chapter X), the fourth album by the Chilean death cult Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and with dread and trembling we bring you a full stream of all 8 songs.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the album is being released on the anniversary of the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, which resulted in the imprisonment of more than 200 accused people, the execution of 19, and the perishing of still others during imprisonment. As developed not only through the music but also in the 12 pages of the album’s booklet, this new album had a specific conceptual underpinning. As the band has explained: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WEAPÖNIZER — “MALEFACTOR”

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Jun 022017
 


Photo by Zeela Aeschliman

 

There they are, sighting down the barrels of guns behind their shades, festooned with leather, gauntlets, and chains, brandishing bellies and bad attitudes. Yes indeed, Denver’s Weapönizer have returned, and they mean business.

“What kind of business?”, you might ask, if you missed their debut album five years ago and couldn’t guess from their demeanor. We’re about to give you some of that mean business through our premiere of “Malefactor“, which is the opening blast from Weapönizer’s new album, the well-named Lawless Age, in advance of its late-June release by 20 Buck Spin. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DARKFLIGHT — “CRUSHED”

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Jun 012017
 

 

Almost two decades into their existence, the Bulgarian atmospheric black/doom metal band Darkflight have completed a new album (their fifth) entitled The Hereafter, which will be released on June 22nd, and today we bring you the premiere of the album’s opening track, the well-named “Crushed“.

While Darkflight is a two-person band consisting of Ivo Iliev (vocals, guitars, synths, drums) and Milen Todorov (bass, clean vocals), the new album also features guest appearances by current or former members of Ars Moriendi (France), Hallows Eve (U.S.), and Eleven Drops To Sink Into (Bulgaria) — and former Hallows Eve vocalist Steve Cannon appears on the song we’re streaming today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ZEIT — “KONVERGENZ”

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Jun 012017
 

 

I’m approaching the passage of one full year since discovering the band Zeit from Leipzig, Germany, the encounter occasioned by a video filmed in an abandoned coal power station in East Germany. I thought of the video as a modern equivalent of the ruins made famous by Shelley’s famous sonnet about that long-forgotten “King of Kings”, Ozymandias, and I thought of the song as a grim, intensely foreboding, but also pulse-pounding experience.

The song was “Verloren”, drawn from the band’s 2015 EP Gram. It was an impressive outing in more ways than one, a fashioning of black metal with heavy strands of sound interwoven from other genres (principally sludge and doom). Now Zeit are on the brink of releasing their first album, Konvergenz, and we have the pleasure of streaming it for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACK URN AND SHRINE OF THE SERPENT

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May 312017
 

 

To be drawn slowly to your death in a viscous pool of quicksand beneath a pitch-black sky, with no one to hear your screams, must be a terrifying experience. If an earthquake were happening at the same time, with an upheaval of stone smashing your sinking limbs beneath the surface while demons howl in your mind, that combination of experiences might resemble the sensations of this split.

The two violent sludge/doom bands who have joined forces in this outpouring of affliction come from opposite sides of the U.S., yet based on the music, they seem to be kindreds in spirit, bound together in a joint mission to reap the souls of their listeners. The bands are Black Urn and Shrine of the Serpent, and their split will be released on tape by Caligari Records on June 2nd. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KASHGAR — “ERLIK”

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May 312017
 

 

This is not, technically speaking, a true “premiere”, but it may function as such for those of you who haven’t already tumbled, heels up and head down, over the excellent debut album by Kashgar. By way of background:

Kashgar hail from Kyrgyzstan, a country in central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west and southwest, Tajikistan to the southwest, and China to the east. Last August they self-released their self-titled debut album, which we overlooked when it emerged, but were reminded of it by our Norwegian friend Gorger in one of his installments of Beneath the NCS Radar only last month.

Now, Kashgar is going to get a physical release by the Satanath Records sub-label Symbol Of Domination (Belarus) with Murdher Records (Italy) — to be precise, the release date is June 21st. And so today we’re bring you a stream of a track from the album named “Erlik“, along with two other track streams previously released by Symbol of Domination. Continue reading »

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