AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HORRID — “BEYOND THE DARK BORDER”

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May 302017
 

 

As I began to make my way through the masterful new album by Italy’s long-running Horrid, I nearly didn’t make it past the second track, “Cursed Dunes”. It wanted to live in my head to the exclusion of all else. It pained me to stop repeating the song in order to finish the album. And then I had the same experience over and over again as I came to each new track before reaching the end of Beyond the Dark Border.

And how about the cover art for the album? It’s just as attention-grabbing as the music has proven to be. Credit to Skaðvaldur for its creation — and credit to Horrid for bringing us one of the year’s best death metal albums. We are very happy to present a full stream for you today in advance of its June 1 release by Dunkelheit Produktionen. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEAD WOMAN’S DITCH — “WE ARE FORGIVEN”

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May 302017
 

 

I immediately recognized the distinctive handiwork of Luciana Nedelea on the cover of the new album by Dead Woman’s Ditch, Seo-Mere-Saetan, but only realized how well-chosen it was after hearing the bleak and blasted song we’re premiering from the album today. The song’s name is “We Are Forgiven“, but there’s no forgiveness in the music, unless perhaps it is the forgiveness that death brings to suffering.

The band’s name is no less interesting (and no less foreboding) than the artwork and the music. Dead Woman’s Ditch is the name given to the outer defense of an Iron Age earthworks in the Quantock Hills to the west of Bridgwater in Somerset, England. The band explain that the place earned its name in this way, though as you’ll see, its previous history seems to be just as shuddering: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGONIA BLACK VOMIT — “PARALLEL DESCANTING VISIONS”

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May 302017
 

 

Being unfamiliar with the previous recordings of Agonia Black Vomit (aka Agonia Blackvomit), my expectations about the band’s new album Cosmosatanic Wisdom were shaped largely by the band’s name and by the phrase “raw antichristian black metal” used in passing to describe the band’s earliest work. Yet whatever stylistic markers may have branded this Italian project’s previous recordings, its sole creator’s musical explorations have led him along interesting pathways, with results that are much less easily classifiable.

Before today, two songs from Cosmosatanic Wisdom have been revealed, and I’ve included streams of them below, but we also have the premiere of a third one for you in advance of the album’s June 20 release by Satanath Records’ sub-label Symbol Of Domination (Belarus) and Murdher Records (Italy). This one is named “Parallel Descanting Visions“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ASTARIUM — “HOSPITALITY OF DEMON”

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May 272017
 

 

Prepare to enter a strange, mad world of creeping horror and demonic delirium as we premiere a track from the new album Drum-Ghoul by Astarium, a one-man symphonic black metal project from Novosibirsk, Russia. Before offering a few thoughts about this particular song — “Hospitality of Demon” –I’d like to share a few words by Astarium that shed light on the tale told through the album:

“Lightning lit up the sky, covered with low clouds, the rain did not cease for a minute. I drove the horses drowning in the mud to the hill that was visible in the distance. Suddenly, a new bright flash lit up the bulk, which grew right in front of me from the darkness. It was the castle ‘Drum-Ghoul‘! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROHERESY — “SILENCE BEFORE THE STORM”

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May 262017
 

 

The Slovakian band Necroheresy have recorded a debut album named Asylum that will be jointly released on June 16th by the Belarusian label Symbol of Domination (Belarus) and two Russian labels, Wings of Destruction and Darknagar Records. Not long ago I wrote about the two tracks from the album that were then available for listening, soon after discovering them, and that led to what we’re about to do now — premiere a third track named “Silence Before the Storm“.

Those two previously released songs represent a kind of blackened death/thrash, with feral, blood-thirsty howls and deranged roars in the vocal department. “Consecration” (which is a free download) is a vicious, heavy, eruption of thrash on the brink of exploding into lacerating shards, which decelerates into a murderous mid-paced march before rocking and ripping in full throttle again. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: WRECHE — “WRECHE”

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May 252017
 

 

Tomorrow (May 26) Fragile Branch Recordings will release the self-titled album by the black metal duo Wreche, and today we premiere a full stream of the album for you.

This is an album I listed back in early January as one of my own eagerly anticipated 2017 releases. I didn’t expect it to sound like anything else, based on what I knew then about the band’s music, and indeed it doesn’t.

If you’re unfamiliar with Wreche, the lead instrument is the piano, accompanied by voice and drums. And by way of further introduction, I’ll quote this eloquent description of some of the sensations of the music: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIG ME NO GRAVE — “DIG ME NO GRAVE”

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May 252017
 

 

The members of Dig Me No Grave were all born and live in Vologda, Russia. Their debut album Cosmic Cult was released in 2014, and that was followed by several shorter releases. Their new album Immemorial Curse is set for a joint release on June 15th by Satanath Records (Russia), Sevared Records (U.S.), and Wings of Destruction (also Russia).

Two songs from the album have been released for listening so far, both of which we’ve written about previously, and now we bring you the premiere of a third one — which bears the band’s name: “Dig Me No Grave“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BUCKSHOT FACELIFT — “BOBBY BOY”

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May 242017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new single by NY’s Buckshot Facelift.)

For many of us, the metal scene is a family of its own, and when one of our own passes, we often try to pay tribute in some form, and in some situations help raise funds for their families who are left behind. As a band who have always viewed their local scene as their family, Buckshot Facelift are releasing a new song we’re premiering today called “Bobby Boy”, in honor of their local deceased friend Rob McAllister.

The song is a chaotic and interesting slice of weird, genre-bending grind, which is oddly the norm for Buckshot Facelift. It’s a raging elegy for a fallen comrade, one that’s played tightly, but in a free-flowing manner, cycling and rampaging through genres and passages with wild abandon like a drunken rhino on LSD. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SATANARCHIST — “TRIUMPH”

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May 232017
 

 

 

In June 2015 we premiered a split that was my first exposure to a Portland (Oregon) band named Satanarchist — and they made a damned strong impression, creating “a hell of a vicious racket with a boiling cauldron of ingredients that include elements of thrash, black metal, and crust, with a punk attitude that gives no fucks”. Earlier this month we happily discovered that Satanarchist would be releasing a debut album named First Against the Wall on June 2. The first single from the album, “Paradox“, peaked our interest very damned fast, and now we have another one for you today. This new track is “Triumph“.

As it has been in the past, Satanarchist’s music is still politically charged, and of course these days they’ve got a full tank of fury to gas up their righteous war machine — and they don’t mince words either. About this new song “Triumph“, they’ve commented as follows: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: URSINNE — “DEVIL MAY CARE”

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May 232017
 

 

During the first week of December last year our roaming eyes alighted upon a piece of very exciting news, i.e., that a death metal super-group had been formed under the name Ursinne, consisting of the uniquitous Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath, Ashcloud, Henry Kane, SYN:DROM) and Dave Ingram (Echelon, Down Among The Dead Men, ex-Hail Of Bullets/Bolt Thrower/Benediction). Now we have more details about this new project as well as the premiere of the first song from their debut album. The album’s name is Swim With the Leviathan and the song is “Devil May Care“.

The album will be released on August 20 of this year through Transcending Obscurity Records, and Ursinne’s line-up also now includes bassist Sonia Nusselder (Sepiroth, ex-Ecocide, ex-Shade of Hatred). On the album, Jonny Petterson performed all instruments (and he created the cover art as well) and Dave Ingram wrote the lyrics and gave his powerful voice to them., with a guest assist by Massacre’s Kam Lee on the track “Monsters In the Parasol”. Continue reading »

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