AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WARCRAB — “DESTROYER OF WORLDS”

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Mar 232017
 

 

For my comrades and I here at our putrid site, WarCrab’s album Scars of Aeons was one of the biggest, brightest, and stupendously heaviest discoveries of 2016. Grant Skelton named it to his list of the year’s best death metal albums. I included a track from the album on our list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. And Andy Synn praised the album in his review with these pungent words:

“With a sound that can best be described as a humongous hybrid of the chugging, churning assault of classic Bolt Thrower, the swaggering, sludge-soaked grooves of Crowbar, and the sheer, merciless morbidity of Autopsy at their doomiest, Scars of Aeons is one heck of a weighty listen. There are riffs here which are heavy enough to break an elephant’s back, and slithering grooves as thick and meaty as an anaconda on steroids.

“In fact I’m surprised this album doesn’t come with an attached safety warning and a recommendation that listeners wear a hard-hat at all times in order to prevent cranial trauma. It really is that [expletive deleted] heavy!” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MICHEL ANOIA — “TWO MOUNTAINS”

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Mar 232017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new music video from the French band Michel Anoia.)

A bit over one year ago from now, Islander premiered the song “Two Mountains” from French metal maniacs Michel Anoia off their album Plethora, and the utterly demented and brain-melting experience of that song had me instantly hooked on their impossible-to-categorize and unique style of extreme metal. When premiering it, Islander astutely described it as “..like a musical Frankenstein’s monster assembled with bits and pieces of grindcore, technical death metal, psychedelia, and jazz. But simply stitching those words together falls short as a means of trying to capture the sound.”

If you missed it then, you’re going to want to check out today’s music video premiere for “Two Mountains”. It’s not a typical band performance music video. The well-shot black-and-white video for “Two Mountains” has a very rich and cinematic look to it, with choppy frenetic scenes to match the equally disturbing music. Hit play, and give in to the madness contained within, both visually and aurally. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ESCARNIUM — “WHILE THE FURNACE BURNS”

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Mar 232017
 

 

Last fall we had the pleasure of premiering Interitus, the new album by the Brazilian band Escarnium, in advance of its joint release by Redefining Darkness Records in North America and Testimony Records in Europe. And now both labels are bringing out a limited vinyl edition of the record. To pave the way for that, we’re helping premiere a new lyric video for a song off the album named “While the Furnace Burns“.

As vibrantly and viciously manifested on Interitus, Escarnium have developed a truly impressive, sure-handed mastery of evil, primal, old school death metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TAPHOS NOMOS AND URÐUN — “R.I.P.”

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Mar 222017
 

 

March 24th is the date set for the release of a stupendous album-length split by Pittsburgh’s Taphos Nomos and Urðun from Akureyri, Iceland, and we have a full stream of it today that you definitely need to hear. The name of the split is R.I.P.  — which doesn’t mean what you think it does.

The Taphos Nomos side of the split, which consists of three new songs, bears the title Rarely Investigated Phenomena, while Urðun deliver four new tracks of their own plus a cover of Autopsy’s “Charred Remains” under the title Rigorously Intensified Putrefaction. A few thoughts about each side follow, so you have a bit of advance warning about what you’re getting yourselves into. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOUNDED GIANT — “VAE VICTIS”

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Mar 222017
 

 

After releasing a demo and a debut album named Lightning Medicine in 2013 and a split LP with Goya in 2015, Seattle-based Wounded Giant have a new album headed our way via STB Records on April 1. The album’s name is Vae Victis, and that’s also the name of the song from the album we’re about to hit you with.

And make no mistake, it will hit you — hard. It simulates the experience of being beaten with a length of lumber at the same time as a psychoactive potion penetrates the blood-brain barrier and someone carves a message into your forearm with a razor blade. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SIGIL — “EVEN THE GODS WILL BURN”

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Mar 222017
 

 

Kingdom of the Grave is the debut album by a band from Austin, Texas, named Sigil. The album will be released on April 7 by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. We came across the album’s title track a couple weeks ago and featured it in a column here, and now we have the pleasure of bringing you another head-wrecker from the album: “Even the Gods Will Burn“.

Sigil is the brainchild of vocalist/guitarist Alex Citrone (who also created the cover art), and the band that recorded the album further includes bass-player Leda Ginestra, drummer Jeremy Hassel, and lead guitarist Andy Bonney (although Thomas Schlicht plays lead guitar in the band’s live line-up). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HUKUTUS — “METSÄ JA YÖ”

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Mar 212017
 

 

This premiere came about as all of them do: We were asked to help introduce a piece of music to the public. I listened to it first before answering the request, to decide whether I could in good conscience recommend it to our readers. I was already pretty sure the answer wold be yes before even reaching the 1:00 mark. By the time I had reached the end, I was scrambling to answer “Yes!” as fast as I could. It’s an emotionally powerful, intensely memorable song, the kind of song that has called me back to it many times since the first listen, and has put my heart in my throat each time.

The song is a single by the Finnish band Hukutus named “Metsä ja yö“, which the band tell us means “The Forest and the Night“. Like the song’s title, the lyrics are in Finnish. Here’s the rest of what the band have explained about the song: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAEMOPHAGUS — “STREAM OF SHADOWS”

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Mar 202017
 

 

I would like to name the members of the Sicilian band Haemophagus who participated in the recording of their new album Stream of Shadows, because each of them deserve a standing ovation and a cascade of roses on their stage (or perhaps more fittingly in their case, a cascade of body parts and blood splatter):

Giorgio (lead guitar, bass, vocals), Gioele (lead guitar), David (drums). (When the band perform live, Marco is the bass player, since Giorgio apparently has only two arms and hands instead of four).

And why do they deserve a standing ovation? Allow me to explain — and then I will present you the opportunity for a more direct understanding as we deliver the music on Stream of Shadows in all its riotous glory. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: POSSESSION — “BEAST OF PREY”

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Mar 202017
 

 

Belgium’s Possession are a rare band, one who established a distinctive, unholy presence with their very first release and whose music has only become even more interesting in a relatively short span of years. After establishing a beachhead with their 2013 debut demo His Best Deceit, they advanced forward with the Anneliese EP in 2014 (reviewed here) and the 1585-1646 EP in 2015 (reviewed here). And now we come at last to the band’s first full-length effort, Exorkizein, created by a line-up that now includes a new vocalist and a new bassist.

The album will be jointly released by Invictus Productions and Iron Bonehead Productions on April 7. Two striking tracks from the album, “Infestation – Manifestation – Possession” and “In Vain“, have already debuted, and today we bring you a third one — “Beast of Prey“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ALASTOR — “BLACK MAGIC”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 172017
 

 

It’s time once again for us to confuse the hell out of people who are visiting our site for the first time. And apart from the fun of sowing confusion and discord through defiance of our site’s title, we are finding our fun today in Black Magic, the new album by the Swedish doom band Alastor.

But it is a peculiar kind of fun, because the music itself is like a near-apocalyptic hallucination, a mesmerizing one that will stay in your head for a long time after taking the trip — and the trip is yours for the taking, because below you will find a full stream of the EP in advance of its March 18th release by Twin Earth Records. Continue reading »

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