AN NCS PREMIERE: DEAD SEASON — THREE SONGS FROM “PROPHECIES”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 292017
 

 

I suppose you could sum up the sound of Dead Season’s new album, Prophecies, as melodic death metal with abundant prog metal flourishes and a mix of harsh growls and soaring clean vocals with a power-metal vibrato. I prefer to think of the last scene in Thelma and Louise, when Louise punches the accelerator on that ’66 Thunderbird and they go rocketing off the cliff in a cloud of dust… but only if you could then imagine the car turning some acrobatic somersaults above that vast canyon and then zooming off into the clouds.

Along with some European sites, we’re helping to premiere three tracks from Prophecies today, three tracks out of the 12 that make up this hour-long album. And we’re also throwing in a video for a fourth track that debuted yesterday. All four of them make for a hell of an exhilarating ride. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PHOBIA — “PARTY IN HELL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 282017
 

 

You really couldn’t ask for a better time (which really means a worse time) for a new Phobia album. There’s a lot to be pissed about these days, and for a lot of us, one of the biggest reasons is squinting off the cover of the band’s new album, Lifeless God. Of course, these Orange County anarchists have always been pissed off, but I bet they’ve got more than the usual amount of fury to discharge at high speed in this sixth full-length.

Lifeless God comes out on June 2nd via Willowtip Records, and includes among its 20 tracks such titles as “Escalate To Madness”, “Human Default = Suck At Life”, “Everythings Vicious”, “Death To Freedom”, and “New 4th Reich” (you get two guesses what that one’s about, and one guess doesn’t count). It also includes a track named “Party In Hell“, which is the one we’ve got for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABKEHR — “I”

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Apr 272017
 

 

Abkehr is a reclusive duo from northern Germany, a new entity who are rising from the shadow lands of black metal with a debut EP named In Asche. It will be released on May 19th by Sentient Ruin Laboratories. The EP consists of four impressive tracks, one of which premiered at CVLT Nation not long ago, and we now bring you another one.

The tracks are unnamed, identified with Roman numerals, and the one we have for you is the opener. It proves to be an unsettling but charismatic way to begin In Asche. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AKERBELTZ — “A DEED WITHOUT A NAME”

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Apr 272017
 

 

Now more than 20 years into a varied musical career, Spain’s Akerbeltz has released more than a half-dozen demos and splits as well as five albums under the name shared by its sole creator. The sixth full-length, Satanic, is now set for a June 2nd release by the Spanish label BlackSeed Productions. As a sign of what the new album holds in store, today we present a stream of the second track in its running order, “A Deed Without A Name“.

Akerbeltz (the musician) has participated in a variety of other musical projects since 1989, not all of them in the vein of black metal. Among other endeavors, he has played guitar for Countess, Beheaded Lamb, and Harridan; appeared singing and playing drums in one song of a Sale Freux album; performed vocals for a Winter Frost demo; and has been the drummer for Körgull The Exterminator since the band’s inception. But Akerbeltz (the band) has been his oldest and longest-running project. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IRAE — “IN THE NAME OF SATAN”

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Apr 272017
 

 

Over the course of the 15 years that have passed since the spawning of Irae in the Portuguese black metal underground, the project has been prolific, with Irae’s music being released in two dozen demos and splits, as well as compilations, live recordings, and three full-length albums, with the last album of new music being 2008’s Hellnation. On May 12th of this year, Altare Productions will release a new album by Irae entitled Crimes Against Humanity. One track from the album (“Genocide Journey”) has debuted previously, and today we bring you a second one, the song that opens the album, “In the Name of Satan“.

Operating from within a Portuguese alliance known as the Black Circle, Irae’s sole creator Vulturius has pursued a nihilistic vision of malice and misanthropy, and in this forthcoming album (to quote Altare) Irae “explores the lawless aesthetics of hate, extermination of feeble mankind and allegiance to the Adversary”. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: AZIZA — “IMPOSTER” AND THE “MANA RAZOR” VIDEO

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Apr 262017
 

 

By their own account, Minneapolis-based Aziza play “Thunderpunk”, combining “sludge, hardcore, and heavy metal”. “We play buttrock for the thinking man’s metal head”. Aziza released a debut demo in 2014 named Thunderpunk? Jesus., and an EP in 2016 called High Hopes Are At An All Time Low. Now they’ve got a new EP on the way named Council of Straitjackets, and today we’ve got a dual premiere: the song “Imposters” from the new EP and an official video for the song “Mana Razor” off the last EP.

Let’s talk about the video first. It’s a hellacious amount of fun to watch, and to listen to. “Mana Razor” is a real ass-kicking bruiser of a song, with lead-weight riffs, gut-punching bass, and head-cracking drums doing their damnedest to fracture bones, and a vicious vocal squall that underlines the song’s bleak and violent undercurrents. Highly mosh-worthy, too.

The music may be a dark piece of battering nastiness, but the video looks like a hell of a good house party among friends. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ASSAULT — “THE FALLEN REICH”

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Apr 262017
 

 

After making their recording debut in 2011 with an EP named The Exceptions of the Rebellions, the Singaporean band Assault are returning with a debut album named The Fallen Reich, which features Mark Riddick cover art and is set for a May 10 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. Today we bring you a lyric video for the album’s title track.

While Assault are billed as a death/thrash band, this song is reminiscent of the ferocious style of fast-moving melodic death metal that erupted on At the Gates’ Slaughter of the Soul, due in part to the similarity of the vocals to Tompa Lindberg’s distinctive snarls. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: FUMIGATION / THE PATH TO R’LYEH — “INVASION”

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Apr 252017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new split by two Canadian bands, Fumigation and The Path To R’lyeh.)

Split releases are a great way to discover more than one new band at once, and even in the digital age, the split-release tradition runs strong in the metal world. So here we are today offering up an early stream of killer Canadian death metal from Fumigation and The Path To R’lyeh, two bands with quite different sounds within the death metal sphere. A yin and yang type release, if you will, one that I hope our readers will enjoy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYPT ROT — “EMBRYONIC DEVILS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 252017
 

Crypt Rot are a relatively new Ohio band whose line-up includes current and former members of such groups as Homewrecker and Scorched (with whom they’ll be releasing a split later this year). Their debut album Embryonic Devils will be released by Southern Lord on April 28th, and today we’ve got a full stream with which to violate your earholes.

The music on the album is a head-wrecking horror, but the album title could be misleading. These are not embryonic devils. Both Crypt Rot and their songs are full-grown, fully formed devils with a monstrous capacity for spreading pestilence, destruction, and an atmosphere of paranormal terror and derangement. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERMIN LORD — “MOURNING”

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Apr 242017
 

 

This marks the fourth time we’ve written abut the music of Seattle’s Vermin Lord. The first time was a review of the project’s excellent 2016 album Anguish, and then we wrote about a single that was released in January of this year, followed in March by our review and premiere of a two-song EP (Visions Of A Cursed Warlock). And now we’re spreading the word about Vermin Lord’s new album Mourning, which is being released today.

Part of what makes Vermin Lord’s music so intriguing (and this is certainly true of the new album) is its unpredictable blending of disparate musical influences. This album in particular brings to mind the term “baroque”, which in one of the word’s dictionary meanings refers to a style of artistic expression “marked generally by use of complex forms, bold ornamentation, and the juxtaposition of contrasting elements often conveying a sense of drama, movement, and tension”. Continue reading »

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