AN NCS PREMIERE: ROGGA JOHANSSON — “AT MOUNTAIN GARPE”

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Mar 172017
 

 

As always, no one will stop you if you decide to scroll down to the bottom of this page immediately and start playing the song by Rogga Johansson that we’re premiering, but if you do that I hope you’ll still come back up here to the top and continue reading. If you don’t, you’ll miss an interesting story, and as a further inducement, I’ll tease you with the name Demiurg.

That band was an honest-to-god death metal super-group (and by using the past tense I don’t mean to suggest they are defunct, because that would be unduly pessimistic). The line-up included Rogga Johansson as guitarist and vocalist, Dan Swanö as lead guitarist and keyboardist, Ed Warby on drums and vocals, Johan Berglund on bass, and vocalist Marjan Welman from the Dutch goth metal band Autumn.

They released three conceptually related albums beginning with 2007’s Breath of the Demiurg. The last one was 2010’s Slakthus Gamleby. As I learned when I devoted one of our Rearview Mirror posts to a stupendous song from that album earlier this year, Gamleby is the second largest locality situated in Västervik Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden, and is Rogga Johansson’s home, and “Slakthus” is Swedish for “slaughterhouse”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AMIENSUS — “GEHENNA”

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Mar 162017
 

 

We have been closely following the musical progress of Minnesota’s Amiensus, essentially step by step, since we discovered and then praised their wonderful debut album Restoration back in the early days of 2013. Since then, they have released (and we have reviewed) a split with Oak Pantheon, a single named “Wolfhead’s Tree“, their 2015 album Ascension, and another single named “Reflections“.

As we happily reported last fall, Amiensus have signed with Apathia Records for the release of a new EP this spring, and now we have further details about it as well as the premiere of a track from the EP named “Gehenna“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW AND A VIDEO PREMIERE: CURSUS (“HER WINGS COVER THE SKIES”)

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Mar 162017
 

 

(NCS contributor Comrade Aleks brings us both an interview with one of the two members of Texas-based Cursus and the premiere of an official video for a song from their forthcoming debut album.)

Texan sludgy and psychedelic doom-duo Cursus arrive with their massive self-titled full-length debut. The album will be released on vinyl on the 28th of April, 2017, via Artificial Head, but here — right alongside the interview that the band’s guitarist and vocalist CJ Salem provided to NCS, we have a premiere of the official Cursus video for their new song “Her Wings Cover the Skies”.

Deep, heavy, low-tuned, and ominous, Cursus remind us of different aspects of bands like Neurosis, Ufomammut, and YOB, but the duo of CJ Salem and Sarah Ann Roork worked out their own charismatic sound. These crushing and mesmerizing riffs are worthy of your attention. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BALFOR — “DAWN OF SAVAGE”

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Mar 162017
 

 

In mid-January of this year we had the pleasure of premiering a stream of Black Serpent Rising, the new third album by Ukrainian black/death metal band Balfor, in advance of its January 15 release by the French label Drakkar Productions, and now we have for you a new video of the band performing the song “Dawn of Savage“, filmed at their album release show in Kyiv.

For those of you who may still be new to Balfor, the line-up includes current and former members of such notable groups as Khors, Raventale, and Hate Forest. Black Serpent Rising follows the band’s last album, Barbaric Blood, by six years, with the 2013 EP Heralds of the Fall dividing the wait and with significant line-up changes occurring over that interval as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABATUAR — “ORDALÍAS DE HIERRO FUNDIDO”

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Mar 142017
 

 

We really do our best at this site to pay attention to metal bands from all over the world, but I do believe that this is the first time we’ve written about one from Panama. The band’s name is Abatuar, and it’s the solo project of a demon in human form who calls himself Cadaver. Abatuar’s debut album is Perversiones De Muerte Putrefacta, and it will be released by Dunkelheit Produktionen on April 17. We have the pleasure of defiling your ears and cracking your skull with a track from the album named “Ordalías de Hierro Fundido“.

Although this is Abatuar’s debut album, Dunkelheit previously released a CD in 2015 that compiled the band’s first two demos, Vejación de la Bestia and Fosa Común. On this new full-length, Abatuar rampages through a dozen tracks in 31 minutes, delivering a mix of flesh-eating ferocity and head-hammering physicality that’s best summed up as blackgrind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ASHEN HORDE — “THE ALCHEMIST”

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Mar 142017
 

 

Ashen Horde was spawned within the bleak, frost-bitten desolation of… Los Angeles. Originally the solo project of Trevor Portz, Ashen Horde has released a handful of EPs and two albums since 2013, and with an expanded line-up Ashen Horde is today releasing a new digital and 7″ vinyl EP named The Alchemist through their new label Transcending Obscurity Records. To commemorate the event, we have a stream of the two tracks on The Alchemist.

Joining Trevor Portz (who performs guitar and bass) on The Alchemist are vocalist Stevie Boiser and drummer Jeremy Portz. This new EP is a precursor to the band’s next full-length album, which will also be released by Transcending Obscurity, and it’s a mind-bending and unpredictable two-song trip. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELIOSS — “DERNIÈRE NUIT”

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Mar 142017
 

 

On March 24, Apathia Records will release Antumbra, the third album of the French duo Helioss. Apathia recommends the album for fans of Dimmu Borgir, Mirrorthrone, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Carach Angren, and Anorexia Nervosa. If you have trouble wrapping your mind around that collection of references as a clue to the music, we have a more tangible clue, a premiere stream of an album track named “Dernière Nuit“.

This new song, like the music on Antumbra as a whole, blends together elements from different metal (and non-metal) traditions, and does it in a way that produces music that’s both hard-hitting and ethereal, ferocious and panoramic. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: REPLACIRE — “DO NOT DEVIATE”

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Mar 142017
 

 

“A plethora of humongous, technical riffs, slamming, slithering drums, noodling, prog-inflected lead melodies, and vicious, guttural vocals which occasionally transform into a soulful, enigmatic croon when you least expect it” — that was a top-level description of the music on Boston-based Replacire’s new album, Do Not Deviate, written by my comrade Andy Synn in his review. He didn’t stop there, of course, because the album is so intricately plotted, so idiosyncratic in its interweaving of metallic musical styles, and so focused and razor-sharp in its execution that fairly summing it up in a few words is a task doomed to failure.

And while I do intend to repeat and paraphrase more from our review by way of introduction, and to share some perspectives from the band’s guitarist Eric Alper, the main point of this post is to bring you a full stream of the album so you can form your own impressions in advance of its March 17 release by Season of Mist. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: PANIKK — “DISCARDED EXISTENCE”

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Mar 132017
 

 

Discarded Existence is the second album by the Slovenian thrash demons in Panikk. It will be released on the Ides of March (the 15th) by Spain’s Xtreem Music, and we’ve got a full stream of the album for you today.

Panikk came into existence in 2008 and since then have released a first demo in 2009, a debut album (Unbearable Conditions) in 2013, and an EP in 2015 (Pass the Time).

With influences drawn from such Bay Area bands as Vio-lence, Forbidden, Forced Entry, and Exodus, Panikk unabashedly embrace an old school ethic, and a well-honed style that nonetheless sounds damned good in their capable hands. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DYNFARI — “SORGAREFNI SEGI EG ÞÉR”

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Mar 132017
 

 

In the years that have passed since the Icelandic band Dynfari released their debut album in 2011, Icelandic black metal has soared to global prominence. Since then Dynfari have expanded from a duo to a full band and have released two more albums, and now a fourth full-length entitled The Four Doors of the Mind is set for release on April 14th by Code666. It will further burnish the reputation of the band’s homeland as a source of compelling black metal.

What we have for you today is a single from the album named “Sorgarefni segi eg þér“, as well as insights about the album from Jóhann Örn, the band’s singer and one of its guitarists. Continue reading »

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