AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DIGIR GIDIM — “I THOUGHT THERE WAS THE SUN AWAITING MY AWAKENING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Feb 072017
 

 

As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t agree to host premieres of music at our site until we have first listened to the music and concluded that it’s worth recommending to you, according to our own twisted tastes. When I began listening to what you’re about to hear, the band’s name was new to me and I had no clear idea what to expect. What I heard left me gasping and unnerved, emotionally stretched taut, and wide-eyed in wonder at what this mysterious duo had achieved. I felt myself enthralled by the unsettling sorcery of masters practicing a very dark but transportive art.

The band is Diĝir Gidim (whose location is unknown), and the title of the album is I Thought There Was the Sun Awaiting My Awakening. It will be released by ATMF on March 31, 2017. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THREE TRACKS BY STENCH OF PROFIT

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 072017
 

 

It’s not unusual for us to premiere new music. It is unusual for us to premiere three tracks from the same release at the same time. But that’s what we’re doing today — and it will take you a grand total of two minutes to hear them. However, if you’re like me, you’re going to spend more time listening to them again, and again. Once is not enough.

The names of these three tracks are “Mental Depravation” (28 seconds), “Know Your Shit Or Live In Ignorance” (71 seconds), and “The Dance of Deceit” (21 seconds). They are three of 18 tracks by the Venetian band Stench of Profit that will appear on a forthcoming split entitled New Doomsday Orchestration with fellow Italian destructors Mindful of Pripyat. The split will be released by Everlasting Spew on March 1.

You may remember the name Mindful of Pripyat, because we premiered two of the tracks from their side of the split in mid-January. Those songs were damned destructive. So are these three. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DDENT

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Feb 062017
 

 

The Parisian band DDENT began as the creation of multi-instrumentalist Louis Lambert and drummer Marc Le Saux. They released their debut EP Chien Noir in 2014. With Louis Lambert continuing as the sole composer of the music and the guitarist, DDENT has now expanded into a full four-person band, and on February 13 will release a debut full-length with a title in Arabic — آكتئاب — which means ektiheb, referring to melancholy, depression. Today we bring you a full stream of this new album in advance of its release.

The names of the eight album tracks are derived from Arab psalms, with words such as “Habouz”, “Arzel”, and “Houri” describing “the melancholy and depression of a horseman, a poet”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PERFIDIOUS — “ANCIENT VOICES OF THE PAST”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 052017
 

 

In less than 10 days Death Metal Industry will release Malevolent Martyrdom, the debut album of the death metal band Perfidious, whose members are based in Milan and Novara, Italy. Today we bring you the premiere of a track from this vicious album named “Ancient Voices of the Past“.

With a cavernous voice roaring and howling like an unearthed monstrosity that has been storing up hate for centuries, the rest of the band deliver an intensely infectious battery of jolting riffs and punishing rhythmic grooves. With guitar leads that seethe, slash, and shriek, the music has a sinister aura that becomes increasingly poisonous… even as it gets the listener’s head moving even more forcefully as it charges ahead. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HOLYCIDE — “ANNIHILATE… THEN ASK!”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 032017
 

 

The slaughter of all faiths… and the law… and greedy cash-hoarders. Open vats of radioactive slime. Flame-throwing tank attacks and skulls burned clean to the bone… and a tooled-up mutant coming for you next. The artwork by Andrei Bouzikov (Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch, Toxic Holocaust, etc.) sends a message, and the album title reaffirms it: Annihilate… Then Ask!

This is the debut album by Spain’s Holycide, a band originally conceived in 2004 by Avulsed’s Dave Rotten that eventually came to include guitarist Miguel Bárez, bass-player Dani Fernández, drummer Jorge Utrera, and guitarist Salva Esteban. They released their first EP, Toxic Mutation, through Xtreem Music in 2015, and now comes this new full-length with the war-torn artwork. Does the music live up to the carnage emblazoned on the cover? In a word, hell yes.

Okay, that was two words. Here are some more words, as an introduction to the album stream that we’re helping spread around today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): I AM — “LIFE THROUGH TORMENT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 022017
 

 

“No games, no bullshit, just straight in your face heavy metal. We wanted this to show who we are and what’s next. A direct reflection on each of our personal lives and what we see. This is Life Through Torment. We hope you enjoy.”

That is the invitation presented to you on a blood-encrusted platter by the hard-knuckled hands of I AM from north Texas, offering their new album to your ears. We have a full stream of the album down below, in advance of its release on February 10, preceded by these mangled thoughts about the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRIEGSZITTERN AND MINENFELD — A SPLIT

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 012017
 

 

In August 2015, I came across the debut demo of a German band named Kriegszittern that proved to be a huge — and terrifyingly good — surprise. As I expressed in a review: “This is ghastly, primeval death metal mixed with punk rhythms that generates a corrosive aura of indefinable horror while at the same time making you want to helplessly bang your head. It’s raw, raucous, and ravenous — and highly recommended.” Now, the same Caligari Records that released that demo on tape is bringing out the band’s new release — and this time it’s an LP-length split that includes not only new material by Kriegszittern but also the debut recordings of another very impressive German death metal band, Minenfeld.

What we have for you is a stream of the new tape in advance of its release this Friday, February 3. The song stream plays just like the tape would play (at least in its formatting), with all the Kriegszittern songs streaming as a single track (Side A) and all the Minenfeld songs streaming as a second track (Side B). Here are a few introductory thoughts about what you’re about to hear, to prepare you for the onslaught if nothing else. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAMSKARAS — “FUELSCAPE” (AND AN INTERVIEW)

 Interviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 012017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us this premiere of a new music video from Samskaras, along with an interview.)

Last we covered Montreal-based progressive death metal duo Samskaras, the band had just completed a new single, “Red Hill”, and we premiered the lyric video for it alongside an interview with the band’s vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, Eric Burnet (Unburnt, Derelict) in 2014. Just recently, the band dropped Asunder, a fantastic four-song EP, which shows the band experimenting with a lot of new ideas including the integration of tasteful clean singing in some of the songs.

In the spirit of keeping up with artists we’ve covered before, we’re happy to premiere a new music video today for “Fuelscape”. Eric asked if we’d be interested in pairing it with an interview like last time, and this one features some additional answers from their drummer Alexandre Dupras (Teramobil, Unhuman) too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MO’YNOQ — “FELL HEIR”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 312017
 

 

It’s not often that we reach out to a band and ask for permission to premiere a song, but that’s how this premiere came about. I had the opportunity to listen to the new EP, Bardo, by Mo’ynoq from Raleigh, North Carolina, which is scheduled for release on February 7, and I was tremendously impressed. I was anxious to write a review of Bardo, but we always like to include streams of music with our reviews to give visitors a more immediate sense of the sounds than mere words can convey — and in this case, neither of the tracks from Bardo had become publicly available for listening. So I contacted the band, and here we are.

Bardo includes two songs — “Fell Heir” (which you’re about to hear) and “Celestial Rebirth” — and it’s the band’s second release after their debut EP Anguish and Atonement last June. The new EP’s themes are centered on ideas of intermediate states, as a transition between forms, and the dynamism of the music vibrantly captures an urgent sense of change, though not necessarily for the better. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BARBARIAN SWORDS — “PURE DEMONOLOGY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 312017
 

 

The album Worms by the Spanish band Barbarian Swords was a late-year discovery for us made possible by a request from Satanath Records and Cimmerian Shade Recordings that we host a premiere of the album stream. Not knowing what awaited me, I explored the music before giving an answer — and was blown away. In an attempt to describe the music in the review that accompanied the premiere, I wrote:

“In its predominant forms, Barbarian Swords traffic in a twisted but very compelling hybrid of doom and black metal — nihilistic and barbaric, moldering and mesmerizing, and frequently unnerving. And there are massive headbang triggers lurking like landmines in the album, too.”

I put one track from the album, “Outcast Warlords”, on our list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, and today we’re happy to premiere the lyric video for another potent (and addictive) track from the album — “Pure Demonology“. Continue reading »

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