AN NCS PREMIERE: MRTVI — “AS CONSCIOUSNESS IS HARNESSED TO FLESH PART 2”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 092017
 

 

And now for something completely different….

Form, order, familiarity, repetition — these are among the ingredients that the human mind seems to find most easily digestible and immediately appealing in musical compositions. But sometimes the music that makes the deepest connections with our brains (and our emotions) is unfamiliar, unpredictable, chaotic, iconoclastic.

The piece of music you’re about to hear is fascinating, and completely off all well-beaten paths. In a word, it’s wild — though part of its fascination lies in the dawning realization that as twisted and bizarre as the music is, it achieves a hypnotic effect. It gets its hooks in your head. Or maybe I should just speak for myself. Of course, you will decide for yourselves… but whatever you do, don’t pass this by Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DØDSENGEL — “RUBEDO”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
May 092017
 

 

Imperator was the third album of Norway’s Dødsengel, but it is the album that will set all expectations for their new record Interequinox. Those who were undaunted by its length and who immersed themselves fully in the wonders of those two and a half hours of music discovered a band who were driven by belief, who honored traditions, but who were also rebels — nonconformists in their art who carved their own magical path in an often rigidly defined domain.

Imperator may unavoidably set the expectations for Interequinox, but if you made the twisting journey through Imperator, then it should come as no surprise to learn that Dødsengel’s sensual left-hand path has led them to altered states of musical expression, though crafted with as much care and spiritual devotion as the esoteric opus that preceded it. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: BLACK HARVEST — “ATTRITION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 082017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us this premiere of the new EP by New York’s Black Harvest, along with some introductory impressions of the music.)

Some musicians are content to play within traditional sounds and genre boundaries, while others (Devin Townsend comes to mind) see all of music’s many genres as a vast palette that one can draw from and combine in new ways to paint a musical world all their own. This form of vast experimentation lies at the heart of all that Kishor Haulenbeek does, as both an incredibly talented visual artist and also as a musician with multiple musical projects that he has used to explore different facets of his interests, all of which convey an honest emotional feeling yet cover dramatically  different musical terrain.

Last year here at NCS, I finally got around to covering his fantastic mathcore-addled technical grindcore band Crisis Actor, and shoehorned in some coverage of his primary project, Black Harvest, at the same time. Today we’re bringing you an early stream of the group’s fantastic new EP, Attrition. Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT: OUR REVIEW OF “VERSVS 1” AND OUR PREMIERE OF “DIE GLOCKE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
May 052017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by The Monolith Deathcult, and we also present the premiere of a song from the album after the review. We apologize in advance to all our readers.)

Dedicated readers of the site will no doubt be aware of my long-running relationship with The Monolith Deathcult, dating all the way back to 2011 and encompassing, in the intervening years, numerous reviews, interviews, and tour dates (the most recent only a few weeks ago).

Heck, I even ended up helping the band rewrite the press release for this record simply because I didn’t think the original materials were up to scratch!

As a result you might be wondering whether this review is going to be full of bias, favouritism, and partisan hyperbole, to which I’d answer… of course it is.

In fact you’re probably better off thinking of this as a paid advertisement on behalf of Deathcult Inc.

Except I’m not getting paid…

And I’m actually going to be a bit critical in places… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEITY — “SACRIFICIUM”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
May 042017
 

 

I usually try to describe what happens in the songs we premiere. I’m not positive why I do that, since the whole point of a premiere is to provide a platform where people can immediately listen for themselves. I suppose it’s fun for me, even if it doesn’t contribute anything important to listeners. But in the case of this new song by the Canadian death metal band Deity that we’re premiering today, I was on the verge of giving up completely.

You see, “Sacrificium” is so blindingly fast and so technically jaw-dropping that attempting to provide even a rough linguistic map of its course is a fool’s errand. It’s a truly breathtaking rocket ride, a non-stop jolt of adrenaline, so blazing in its exuberance that trying to nail it down with words seems unjust, even if that could be done. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KALOPSIA — “SCORCHED EARTH AND BLACKENED SKIES”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 032017
 

 

May 19th is the date set by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions for the release of Angelplague, the third album by the New Jersey death metal band Kalopsia. And if you have no good idea what the music will be like, take a close look at that jolting cover art and contemplate the flames, the agony, the mutated horrors, the skyscrapers themselves transformed into demonic monsters.

The cover art is a real grabber, and so is the song from Angelplague that we’re bringing you today, fittingly entitled “Scorched Earth and Blackened Skies“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAPHEUMET’S WELL — “GHOST WALKERS EXODUS”

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May 032017
 

 

Many metal bands have embraced science-fiction themes for their music, some of them building entire albums around concepts and story lines rooted in the genre, some original and some taken from existing novels or short stories. But Rapheumet’s Well have dedicated themselves to their own science-fictional narrative arc in a way that’s unusually thorough and immersive.

The last time we premiered a song by these storytellers from Hickory, North Carolina, was in early 2016. At that point they were about a month away from releasing their second album, The Exile, which continued an interdimensional, worlds-spanning tale of conflict and perseverance that the band started with their 2014 debut album Dimensions. And now they’re continuing their grand narrative with a third album, Enders Door, which is set for release by Test Your Metal Records on May 26th.

And from that album we bring you another premiere, in the form of a 360-degree video. The song’s name is “Ghost Walkers Exodus“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTROPOFAGUS — “THE ABYSS (CHAPTER ONE)”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
May 022017
 

 

We really can’t get enough of Nekronikon’s cover art for the new Antropofagus album, M.O.R.T.E. – Methods Of Resurrection Through Evisceration. This makes the third time we’ve found a reason to brandish it on our site, the last time when we premiered the slaughtering supremacy of “Chants for Abyzou“, and now as a visual prelude to our premiere of another attack of pile-driving destruction from the album — a track named “The Abyss (Chapter One)“.

With each new song from the album, Antropofagus further prove their mastery at delivering death metal with head-hammering brutality and insidiously infectious hooks. The grooves are especially strong within “The Abyss”, and so is the cold-blooded, hate-filled savagery. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TEETHING — “AN OPEN LETTER TO MY BEST FRIEND”

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May 022017
 

 

If you’re not familiar with Madrid’s Teething, I’d suggest you have a neck brace handy so you can immobilize the cervical fractures while you seek medical attention after listening to this song. Borrowing some body armor before pressing “play” would be good idea, too. Have you considered writing a last will and testament? Instructions regarding cremation or coffin burial?

“Violent” and “destructive” might begin to describe “An Open Letter To My Best Friend“, but words like “unhinged” and “obliterating” are more accurate for this brand of grinding hardcore. I’ve thought of some more words, too. But first I suppose I ought to tell you that this song is only one of 12 assaults on the senses contained within Teething’s first full album, We Will Regret This Someday, which is being released by a consortium of labels in different formats, each of which should be classified as a weapon of mass destruction. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BUCKSHOT FACELIFT — “DON’T HANG FROM THE PIPES”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 012017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us this premiere of a video from Buckshot Facelift, and the following introduction.)

We’ve been covering New York/Long Island-based weirdo grinders Buckshot Facelift for several years now, and every time the band drops a new release, it’s always a thrill to see the new direction they go in. The group recently dropped their 4th album, Ulcer Island, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite grind releases of the year so far, chiefly due to how far outside of the short and straightforward grind norm the music is. Buckshot Facelift write very eclectic, intricate, and death-metal-heavy grind on the majority of the songs on Ulcer Island.

As mentioned in our previous writings about Buckshot Facelift, the band rarely perform full tracks of conventional grind, though there are a few cuts like that on Ulcer Island. Overall, the music includes a lot of separate and varied death metal influences, powerviolence, and some doom sprinkled about too.

We’re here today to premiere a music video for “Don’t Hang From the Pipes”. Musically, the track is a wild journey into death-metal-riddled grindcore, delivered in a unique way that doesn’t resemble what most people would think of as deathgrind. Continue reading »

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