AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TALV — “ENTERING A TIMELESS WINTER”

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Oct 252017
 

 

The Italian one-man black metal project Talv makes no secret about the atmosphere created by the new third album that’s set for release on November 3 by A Sad Sadness Song (a sub-label of ATMF). It is clearly displayed in the cover art, in the album’s title — Entering A Timeless Winter — and in the names of the songs (“Dreaming A Funeral In Another Life”, “A Sad Moon Concealed By Pines”, and Sidereal Hypothermia”), as well as in Tarv’s decision to end the album with an ethereal ambient-music cover of a song (“Winterreise”) by Coldworld.

In short, this is a bleak and wintry form of musical sorcery, and to hear it is to slowly drown in a vast and rising lake of tears, one that’s frigid enough to slow the blood, cloud the emotions, and carry the mind away to places we might not often visit. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WARCALL — “BULLY BASTARD”

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Oct 252017
 

 

On Friday the 13th of this month Montreal’s WarCall released their fourth record, Invaders, a concept album based on humanity fighting back an alien invasion, with lyrical themes that focus on topics such as the importance of resisting oppression. What we have for you today is the debut of a lyric video for a track named “Bully Bastard“.

WarCall guitarist and backing vocalist Mat Simard sent us this comment from Europe, where the band are in the midst of a tour in support of the album: “The song shows a different side to the style of the album, more groove oriented. We wanted to do a lyric video from this one because the text is interesting, talking about standing up for what you believe in. I see it as a very very heavy rock song.” And it definitely is that. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVLSY — “PRIVATE SUITE”

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Oct 242017
 

 

“Post-Black Metal” is a particularly amorphous genre term, one that has been applied to everything from Alcest to Enslaved, from Sólstafir to Wolves In the Throne Room, from Oranssi Pazuzu to Harakiri For the Sky, from Altar of Plagues to Deafheaven. With such an expansive palette of sounds arguably encompassed by the term, it can leave a lot to the imagination, though a re-imagining of the boundaries of black metal may itself be the very core of the concept. Which brings us to the Lithuanian band DEVLSY and their forthcoming second album Private Suite.

It is a provocative and adventurous six-track affair, a compact 35 minutes of music that will be released by ATMF on November 3, but which we have the pleasure of presenting in a full stream today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: APOLOGOETHIA — “DE HUMANAE NATURA”

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Oct 242017
 

 

Javi Bastard (aka J.B.) is a man of many talents. He has been a creative force and accomplished performer in such excellent and stylistically diverse Spanish bands as Graveyard, Körgull the Exterminator, Krossfyre, Lux Divina, and many more. He is also a busy record producer under the banner of his Moontower Studios, with an extensive (and very impressive) list of albums that he has engineered, mixed, and/or mastered over the last 8 or 9 years. And now he can add one more splendid accomplishment to his burgeoning resume, and that’s the debut EP of Apologoethia. Entitled Pillars, it will be released by Invictus Productions on November 24, and we’re fortunate to present the premiere of a track from the EP named “De Humanae Natura“.

We’re told that J.B. began Apologoethia back in 2012 as a solo black metal side-project to develop musical ideas that didn’t fit with his main band, Graveyard. A few years later he enlisted the assistance of J.F. on drums, and then brought L.O. into the band as lyricist for the tracks he had composed. And now the first fruits of these efforts are being revealed. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE SOUND THAT ENDS CREATION — “YOUR MOM IS TOO BIG TO FAIL”

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Oct 242017
 

 

Do you remember what happened in 2008? When the U.S. economy came close to a meltdown that would have rivaled The Great Depression, and then dragged the global economy down into a trough along with it? Do you remember the government bailouts of giant companies that were considered “too big to fail”? The man behind The Sound That Ends Creation (hereafter, TSTEC) hasn’t forgotten, and to those corporate behemoths who had their hands out, he offers a pungent retort: “Your Mom Is Too Big To Fail“.

That’s the name of this one-man wrecking machine’s new song that we’re premiering today. It comes from his new album Fitting Through the Crawl Space Between Rhyme and Reason, which follows a debut album named We Are the Burden that was self-released in the summer of 2016. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ANIMA DAMNATA — “NEFARIOUS SEED GROWS TO BRING FORTH SUPREMACY OF THE BEAST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Oct 232017
 

 

Offerings of praise to Satanus and efforts to channel blasphemous rage against the constricting noose of religious piety are commonplace in extreme forms of metal, with widely varying degrees of sincerity and success. But you will find few if any albums this year that channel such inspirations with the degree of inhuman ferocity and stunning violence displayed on the new album by Poland’s Anima Damnata. Their dedication is relentless, their execution merciless, and the impact of what they’ve done is nothing short of breathtaking.

The name of the new album, set for joint release by Godz Ov War and Malignant Voices on November 1, is Nefarious Seed Grows To Bring Forth Supremacy of the Beast. It’s their third full-length in a career that began in the mid-’90s.

About halfway through the album during the first time I heard it I realized that my mouth was hanging open, and had been hanging open since a few minutes into the first track. Even then, despite looking like a carp out of water, I couldn’t close the gaping hole in my face. The sheer speed and unrestrained fury manifested in the music is simply stupefying.

And simply surviving the assault may be as much of a challenge for many listeners as the high standards of destructiveness that the band obviously set for themselves. But for those steely enough to run this gauntlet, you’re in for an exhilarating (and perhaps terrifying) experience as we deliver the premiere of a full album stream today. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVOID OF THOUGHT — “ASTRAL NECROSIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Oct 202017
 

 

If you don’t have access to a supplemental oxygen canister, you might want to hyperventilate before listening to this demo we’re about to serve up. Having eye-drops nearby would also be a good idea, so your orbits don’t dry out when they pop open and stay that way. A bib might be advisable, too, unless you don’t mind drooling on your shirt. I’m just trying to be helpful. You might thank me later.

The name of the demo is Astral Necrosis, and it’s the first release by the stunning Italian band Devoid of Thought, whose name could also describe the mental state of listeners exposed to the demo’s three tracks. If any coherent thoughts remain after listening, they’re likely to be along the lines of, “Holy shit, what did I just hear?!?”

Astral Necrosis will be released by Caligari Records on October 21, and we’re damned fortunate to introduce you to a full stream of the music right now. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: UHTCEARU — “TOWER OF SILENCE”

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Oct 192017
 

 

The Wisconsin melodic black metal band Uhtcearu self-released their second album, For Darkness To Subside, in late July of this year. As a DIY release with nothing more than word of mouth behind it, the album nevertheless garnered heaps of praise across a range of metal-devoted sites, both large and small, including our own, and it has justly elevated Uhtcearu’s profile as a band worth watching very closely. Sometimes quality alone is enough to carry the day, even in an age when it’s harder than ever for bands to be noticed in the absence of label backing or the persistent push of a PR apparatus.

But there are undoubtedly many listeners out there who still haven’t yet discovered For Darkness To Subside, and who would embrace the album if only it could be put before them. And that’s where this new video enters the frame as a vehicle for spreading the word further. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GENEVIEVE — “NO FOR AN ANSWER”

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Oct 172017
 

 

Two years have passed since the debut of Genevieve’s scathing debut album Escapism, and in connection with its release we premiered not only one of the first singles but also the album as a whole, which our Austin Weber described as “an invitation of nightmares and horror into our world”, “pitch-black and haunting”, a display of “immense hatred and chaos”, but also a record laced with surprises and overall “quite striking and brilliant” in its unconventional strategies.

Two years on, and Grimoire Records is gearing up to release the second full-length by this Maryland collective. Entitled Regressionism, it’s set for detonation on Black Friday, November 24, and we again find ourselves in the fortunate position of presenting a first taste of the new music, in the form of a harrowing experimental track named “No For An Answer“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORVIGOR — “NO REPENTANCE”

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Oct 172017
 

 

In many instances I have a decent idea what a band’s new song is going to sound like before I hear it, either because I’m familiar with their previous work or because it’s preceded by descriptive verbiage from press agents that ticks off genre boxes in a familiar way. But not so with Morvigor.

When I was given the opportunity to listen to the song you’re about to hear from this Dutch group’s new record, I went in blind, unfamiliar with their 2014 debut album and without benefit of any carefully crafted PR rhetoric. And the band’s own list of influences (ranging from Mayhem to Pink Floyd, and from Morbid Angel to Joy Division) was so diverse that it didn’t really help much — though it was certainly intriguing.

And then I heard “No Repentance“, and it felt like someone had stuck a live power line straight into my brain stem, by which I mean it is an absolutely electrifying surprise — one of the best new discoveries of this rapidly waning year. Continue reading »

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