AN NCS PREMIERE: DEOGEN — “DESOLATION BESTOWED”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 152025
 

(written by Islander)

Just a couple of days ago we premiered a song by the one-person U.S. black metal band Storming off an album to be released on November 14th by Iron Bonehead Productions. We described that extensive track as a “spellbinding excursion” — immersive, ancient-sounding, glittering, haunting, and dangerous. And now we have a song from another U.S. black metal album to be released by the same label on the same day.

This time the band is Deogen, and the album is their second full-length, aptly titled The Graves and Ghosts of Yore. Although Deogen‘s fashioning of black metal significantly differs from that of Storming, there is in one sense a musical kinship, because it too is a kind of throwback in sound and style, and in its ancient and mythic moods — as you’ll discover by listening to “Desolation Bestowed“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRAINWAVE — “LOST MY WAY”

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Oct 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Brainwave hail from Wellington, New Zealand, and they devote themselves to the kind of crossover music that blends thrash and hardcore, drawing influence from the likes of Drain, Mindforce, and Forced Order. Now a quintet, they’ll be releasing a record named Ill Intent on October 22nd, which follows up a sequence of short releases that began in 2020. In the band’s words:

“It’s an extremely personal record, albeit one set against the backdrop of a world tearing itself apart. It’s about hopelessness, the pain of loss, and the brutality of everyday life. But it’s also about conquering the summit, overcoming both yourself and your detractors.”

To help introduce Ill Intent to fans of heavy music (and this music is very heavy indeed), what we’ve got for you today is the premiere of a song from the new album named “Lost My Way“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EX CINERE — “NEGATIVE COMMEMORATION”

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Oct 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Ex Cinere is the solo work of Joe Waller, who has also created music under the name Sarasvati and with Adora Vivos and Amiensus (among other projects and groups). The last time we wrote about Ex Cinere (and the first time) was near the release of a 2024 debut single called “Ācennan“, which was followed later that year by a second single named “Eorþblód“.

What we’re presenting today is a video for another single, “Negative Commemoration“, so named because its intent is to restore a bit of truth to the whitewashing of an ugly figure on a day set aside for his sanctification by people who enthusiastically still traffic in his ugliness. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEXAGRAF — “STERVEN IS VRETEN”

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Oct 132025
 

(written by Islander)

We’re about to premiere a song from Walsen van hoop, the debut album from the Dutch duo known as Hexagraf that’s now set for co-release in December by Void Wanderer Productions and War Productions. To begin introducing it, we’ll share some of the evocatively worded background info provided by the labels:

Hexagraf is a dark, brooding musical project born from the collaboration between two Zwotte Kring members: Daan (Hellevaerder, Throne of Time, Duindwaler, Magistraal) and Floris (Schavot, Meslamtaea, Asgrauw, The Color of Rain). Their journey began when Daan contributed guest vocals to Schavot’s album Verstrikt in Halflicht. The creative chemistry during that session was undeniable, powerful enough to spark the idea for a new, shared project. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STORMING — “STARFIRE”

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Oct 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Looking ahead to November, we welcome Iron Bonehead Productions‘ release of the second album by the U.S. black metal band Storming. Its name is Celestial Clear Moonlit, an evocative title for music that sounds outside of our own time and place.

But what time and place does the music occupy? It is located on the map of the listener’s imagination, and so each person’s vision may well be different. You can begin letting your mind run away with you by listening to the song from the album we’re premiering today, an extensive, spellbinding excursion named “Starfire“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): STARER — “ANCIENT MONUMENTS AND MODERN SADNESS”

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Oct 102025
 

(written by Islander)

The name Starer won’t be new to our regular long-term visitors. We’ve been avidly following and writing about this project (the solo symphonic black metal endeavor of Kentucky-based Josh Hines) off and on for the last five years, almost from the issuance of Starer‘s first singles in 2020.

In that time, Starer has released five albums and a multitude of shorter works. The fifth album, Ancient Monuments and Modern Sadness, was released overnight, and we’re sharing it at NCS today. Because the album has been out for some hours, this feature may technically be more of a “news” item and review than a premiere, but it’s close enough that I’m sticking with the post title. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HERMIT DREAMS — “DIRECTIONLESS GAZE”

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Oct 102025
 

(written by Islander)

And now for something completely different….

The always interesting Mexican label Chaos Records describes the music of Hermit Dreams as “experimental death/doom metal.” All those words are relevant — but especially the “experimental” part, because it’s the nature of the experiments that makes the music so unexpected, so distinctive, and just as fascinating as the cover art of their debut album Desperate Anomies.

A lot of death/doom provides soundtracks to personal or physical catastrophe and their abysmal aftermaths, but the music you’re about to hear goes off the usual beaten paths and into glades that really will make people think of a hermit’s dreams, a hermit from ancient myth who lives on the border of realms where the rules of our world have no sovereignty. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LUCTUS — “TAMSOŠVIESA”

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Oct 092025
 

(written by Islander)

Now almost a quarter-century into their lifespan, the Lithuanian black metal band Luctus are poised to release their fifth album Tamsošviesa (Chiaroscuro) via Inferna Profundus Records. As the band explain, it “marks a new passage in our journey through the ever-shifting borderlands of light and darkness,” representing “both a continuation and a turning point – a chapter where our path through the twilight sharpens into clear focus.”

The album is indeed a changing progression through realms of shadow and brightness, creating excursions within each song that are at times poignant and haunting, and at other times frighteningly diabolical and utterly ferocious. It’s a meticulously crafted work, viscerally powerful and hard-hitting but also frequently mesmerizing as it ranges from major tropes of black metal into sonic territories beyond those traditional boundaries.

We have a lot more to say about the album below, but the main point of this feature is to let you hear all of it for yourselves. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RED RIGHT HAND OF PLAGUE — “TRANSGRESS. SCAR. NUMEN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 082025
 

(written by Islander)

The cover art for the debut album of Red Right Hand of Plague is unusual, and intriguing, especially if you don’t know anything about the music of this Portland (Oregon) project. So is the album’s title: Transgress. Scar. Numen. So is this statement that appears on the album’s Bandcamp page:

IN THE EYE OF YAHWEH
HER ITHYPHALLIC REJOINDER

But really, I’m not sure anything could adequately prepare (or forewarn) people for what happens within the album. Labeling the music an amalgam of raw black metal and grindcore isn’t wrong, but that doesn’t come close to capturing just how wild the music really is.

In the paragraphs that follow, we’ll try to come closer, just for the hell of it, but you’ll have the chance to get really close because we’re premiering a full stream of Transgress. Scar. Numen today in advance of its October 10 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNCHURCH — “PILGRIMAGE TO ABYSS”

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Oct 072025
 

(written by Islander)

“UNCHURCH is an atrocity that emerges from the depths of the Chilean death metal scene in late 2022, where three entities form the strident disharmonies of this new act of violence manifesting from the abyss. Thus, this project, oriented toward anti-Christianity and harrowing death metal, with varied influences within the genre, is born, creating a tripartite conversation between primitive and technical metal, without losing the dark and bestial essence of death.”

That’s the introduction provided by the respected Mexican label Chaos Records, whose ears were caught by Unchurch via the band’s debut release in 2023, a self-produced EP rightly named Ode to Blasphemy. Having been invigorated by that sonic excursion into hell, the label is now set to release the self-titled debut album of these furious blasphemers on November 14th — and we’ve got the fiendish pleasure of premiering its first single today, a surging brain-exploder named “Pilgrimage To Abyss“. Continue reading »

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