Premieres Archives - Page 377 of 481

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MARTYRDÖD — “HANDLÖST FALLEN ÄNGEL”

Dec 202016

I’ve already opened the floodgates to a torrent of words about Martyrdöd’s new album List. Count yourselves lucky — I could have gone on at even greater length extolling the virtues of the album. It remains one of my personal favorite releases of this year that’s about to expire. Insofar as I’m able to create any kind of objective distance from the music despite the immense, visceral impact it has had on me, I also think it’s one of the best albums of 2016. You may now be able to imagine my excitement at the chance we’ve been given to premiere the video you’re about to see for a song from the album, “Handlöst Fallen Ängel“.

List was released by Southern Lord on November 25. The video provides an excuse for people like me to urge other people who may not yet have explored List to STOP FUCKING AROUND AND DO IT. But happily, the video is a great stand-alone combination of sights and sounds, wholly apart from the excuse it gives me to hector you about this riveting album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ENDALOK — “ELDHAF”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Dec 202016

In August we wrote about the debut demo Englaryk by a mysterious new Icelandic band named Endalok, which was released by Hellthrasher Productions and Signal Rex in October. It made an immediate and powerful impression, delivering chilling but enthralling music that seemed to emanate from alien spheres and nightmare realms. And now Endalok have already come storming back with a new EP. Entitled Úr Draumheimi Viðurstyggðar, it will be released on January 20 by Signal Rex.

We discovered the first single from the EP in late November, a track named “Afskræming holds og sálar”, which felt like a trip through a wormhole, a weird and wondrous trip in which the listener senses vast dark panoramas flashing past, with ravenous alien creatures racing after you, howling their unhinged rage at your invasion of their domains. Today we have the pleasure of bringing you another song from the EP, this one entitled “Eldhaf“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRYPT OF SILENCE — “AWARENESS EPHEMERA”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Dec 192016

The deepening of winter in the northern latitudes provides an auspicious setting for the release of one of the year’s most staggeringly powerful doom/death albums, Awareness Ephemera, by the Ukrainian band Crypt of Silence. It is being released today by the prominent Russian doom label Solitude Productions, and to commemorate the release we’re bringing you a full stream of its four immense songs.

This is Crypt of Silence’s second album, following 2014’s Beyond Shades, and it is far and away their most accomplished release to date. It draws inspiration from the early albums of such esteemed progenitors as Mourning Beloveth and My Dying Bride, creating a listening experience that is emotionally wrenching and stunningly heavy. Bodies are being broken upon the rack, and hearts have broken as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTAR OF BETELGEUZE — “AMONG THE RUINS”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres 2 Responses »

Dec 192016

With the soaring popularity of the latest albums by Crypt Sermon and Khemmis, the stage seems well set for the advent of Among the Ruins, the new album by Finland’s Altar of Betelgeuze. It’s set for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on March 10, and today we bring you the premiere of its immersive title track.

Altar of Betelgeuze consists of bassist and growler Matias Nastolin (Decaying), guitarist and clean vocalist Olli “Otu” Suurmunne (ex-Decaying), guitarist Juho Kareoja, and drummer Aleksi Olkkola (Sclerosis, ex-Cardinals Folly). Their first album, an excellent one named Darkness Sustains the Silence, was released by the Memento Mori label in early 2014. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PRYAPISME — “A LA ZHEULEULEU”

Premieres No Responses »

Dec 192016

Three years have passed since the maniacal French ailurophiles in Pryapisme delivered their last album, Hyperblast Super Collider. To feed the hunger of their fellow inmates in the asylum, they released morsels of psychoactive sustenance last year packaged in an EP called Futurologie. But now it’s time for another full course. Let us allow the band themselves to introduce what they have done:

Here is our third album : « Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium », or the story of the birth of the Diabolic Cat who will end the human race. With more than 3 years of work, 10 songs, 57 minutes, 88 GB of audio, 861 tracks, and more than 99% of processor overload, this is our album of the immaturity!

Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium won’t be released by Apathia Records until February 3rd, but we have been selected as the conduits for a track from the album, an exotic and wondrous taste of the full mind-bending pandemonium that bears the title “A La Zheuleuleu“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELION — PROMO 2016

Premieres 1 Response »

Dec 182016

Have you been feeling sluggish lately? Beaten down and worn out from the travails of daily life? Sleeping poorly and waking up exhausted? So disheartened by the drabness of your existence that all the color has been leached from the passing hours, leaving your world a monochrome gray? If so, we have a sure-fire cure for you: Listen to Helion.

Helion was spawned in 2009 in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Massimiliano Cirelli. Helion’s full line-up now includes musicians from other bands, including Maze of Sothoth, With Out, Redneck, and Mortui Corpus. Together, this quartet have recorded a two-track promo that we’re premiering today, and it’s guaranteed to get your blood rushing and pop open your eyes like an electric shock. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COWARDICE — “NO SOVEREIGNTY”

Premieres No Responses »

Dec 152016

Some album titles seem to have little or nothing to do with the sound and atmosphere of the music. Some titles tell you a lot about what you’re going to hear. Without Condolence, the debut album by New Jersey’s Cowardice, is in the latter camp.

The title implies the existence of grievous loss or tragedy, and it also conveys a kind of cold fatalism as the response. Or I suppose it could be understood as a statement about the uncaring dice roll of daily existence — when you least expect it, life will fuck you without remorse, and without a comforting hand to assist in your recovery. The music offers no condolences either. It hits with the staggering force and wrenching agony of incurable desolation, and its visceral power and emotional intensity are compelling.

We have a sample of what I’m trying to describe, a song called “No Sovereignty“, which is the album’s opening track. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UR — “HAIL DEATH”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Dec 152016

I listen to a lot of new black metal every week. As most serious metal lovers are well aware, the genre has become remarkably diverse, so much so that I’d venture to say that it now encompasses more variety than any of the other well-recognized genres of extreme music — which is one reason I listen to a lot of black metal every week. Some branchings of this immense, gnarled, and thorny tree have gone off in experimental directions; others have twisted back down into the roots, intertwining with them to the point that the new growth is indistinguishable from the old.

The debut EP Hail Death by the Polish black metal band UR isn’t experimental, or mind-bendingly intricate. It honors certain aspects of the genre’s roots, yet it’s also not a re-tread of the dominant forms of the second wave. But among all the varied branchings of black metal that I’ve explored this year, it has proven to be one of the most enjoyable. I’ll explain why — but I wouldn’t blame you if you chose to skip past my verbiage immediately and jump straight to the player at the end of this post, where you can launch a full stream of the EP in advance of its December 15 release by Arachophobia Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LAGO — “CATACOMBS AND OCEANS”

Premieres 1 Response »

Dec 142016

We go back a ways with the Arizona death metal band Lago, back to the discovery of their very impressive Tyranny demo in January 2013. They released an even more impressive debut album of the same name in 2014, from which we had the pleasure of premiering the first advance track. And since then we’ve been waiting to see what Lago would do next.

What they’ve done next is collaborate with the Polish war machine Calm Hatchery on one of the best short releases of the year, a powerhouse vinyl/digital split released on December 2 by Selfmadegod Records (Poland) and Battleground Records (U.S.). For that split, each band contributed one song — but if you buy the vinyl split (as I did) you’ll discover that it comes with a code for a secret bonus track by Lago that turns out to be maybe even better than the two staggering monsters that are visible on the track list.

It’s really far too good to remain hidden, and so today we get to bring you the premiere of a public stream, just as Lago is releasing the track as a digital single. The name of the song is “Catacombs and Oceans“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IGNIS GEHENNA — “BALEFUL SCARLET STAR”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Dec 142016

Much of metaldom is swimming in year-end lists and either reflecting upon or exploring the glorious flood of music that engulfed our heads in 2016, but there are already plenty of signs that the flood will only continue in 2017. Our calendar for January is already marked with hotly anticipated releases, and one of those (circled twice in red) is the debut album by the Australian project Ignis Gehenna. The album’s name is Baleful Scarlet Star, and it’s scheduled for release on January 9 by the Australian label Séance Records.

During the first week in October I came upon the opening song on the album, “Serpent Oracle”, and wrote about it in a Shades of Black post at our site. I was initially drawn to the music by the fantastic album cover created by Vhan Artworks, and then the song turned out to have an equally striking effect. The intro is mid-paced and dramatic, and it remains grand and bombastic even after the eruption comes. There’s magnetic bass work in the song, as well as extravagant vocal viciousness, and the savage riffing is heart-swelling stuff with a triumphant, panoramic sweep. The fallen angel rises in terrible glory through this track.

Today we’re fortunate to bring you the album’s title song, which immediately follows “Serpent Oracle” in the album’s running order. It’s just as powerful and multifaceted as its predecessor. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries