AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GREY AURA — “1: GELIGE, TRAUMATISCHE ZIELSVERRUKKING”

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Jul 112017
 

 

We all have our metal comfort food, the genres we go to even when the performers aren’t doing anything too different from what’s been done for decades. And to be sure, a band doesn’t have to break any molds, or even chip them, to be worth hearing. Yet to varying degrees, we all have our antenna up for something that does break molds, but doesn’t simply leave you with a pile of shards, as if to proclaim nothing more than, “You see? We can break things!”

The demo you’re about to hear is indeed something that sounds very different from anything you’re probably accustomed to, and its ambitions go beyond the music itself. The explanation will take a few paragraphs, but I encourage you not to skip past them, because it’s a story that will explain and deepen the appreciation for what you’re about to hear.

And what you’re about to hear is 1: Gelige, traumatische zielsverrukking by the Dutch “post-black metal” band Grey Aura, along with the spoken recital of the first chapters of a book, in advance of its Bandcamp release tomorrow (July 12). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEVENTH GENOCIDE — “ASTRAL BLISS”

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Jul 112017
 

 

“Post-black metal” is a slippery term, calling up different sounds and moods to different people, and sometimes used simply for want of any better term to characterize music that’s not easily classifiable, but includes blasting drums and tremolo buzzing. Within the musical ambit of that label, it’s always best to listen when you can. And fortunately, we have some listening for you.

This song was crafted by a band who wear the “post-black metal” brand, but with the outlines blurred and blending into other influences as they put their own stamp on their creations. The song is “Astral Bliss” by the Roman quartet Seventh Genocide.

Let’s reverse the usual order of things and provide some impressions of the sound before laying out any further details about the band or the new album that includes this track. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCALPEL — “THE WOODSMAN (PART 2)”

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Jul 102017
 

 

“Death Metal is a visceral art that is dependent upon the extreme dedication of its loyal fans. We have no other purpose but to deliver a version of this art to those same fans like us, whose lives have been claimed by the likes of SUFFOCATION, CARCASS, and DEATH. It is in this vein that we construct our own brutal dirges, devoid of genre restriction and eager to explore the darker realms of music.”

And with those words, the flesh-eating New England morticians who call themselves Scalpel introduce their second album, Methods To Delusion, which was engineered by none other than Colin Marston (Gorguts) at the esteemed Thousand Caves Studios. It will be released by the band on July 25th.

Thematically, the album could roil strong stomachs, painting imagery of “crusted severed toes nailed to walls; humans covered head to toe in needles administering horrific psychoactive chemicals; an infant’s head being turned to apple sauce on a kitchen counter’s edge”, and other macabre grotesqueries. As for the music, we have some samples for your not-so-tender ears, including our premiere of “The Woodsman (Part 2)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GOD ROOT — “SALT AND ROT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 102017
 

 

While each of the four tracks on the new album by Philadelphia’s God Root could have a nerve-wracking and even devastating effect on your emotional well-being if heard alone, Salt and Rot was quite clearly planned as a unified piece of music, a single well-orchestrated descent into madness. Part crushing death ritual and part hallucinatory fall into a lightless abyss where there’s very little to hold onto, where fear and emotional breakdown are the fracturing orders of the day, the album is staggeringly powerful, stunningly bleak and disorienting, and also unforgettable. Before you know it, it has you in its clutches and pulls you into its calamitous and narcotically vaporous vortex, extinguishing the will to resist.

Salt and Rot will be released by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions on July 11th — tomorrow. To help pave this now-very-short path to its advent, we have a full stream today. My best advice is to set aside 33 minutes for uninterrupted listening, and then the rest of the day for recovery. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BONEHUNTER — “DIGITAL EVIL”

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Jul 072017
 

 

Thanks in part to the push provided by Hells Headbangers, Bonehunter’s debut album Evil Triumphs Again hooked a hell of a lot of fiendish listeners. It was a fairly unabashed tribute to the earliest works of Bathory, but this Finnish trio’s new second album pushes beyond that envelope, and does so in ways that pushes me to say, hell yes, evil triumphs again.

As an aside, nothing says metal like a werewolf with a big angry dick on the cover of an album, am I right? Unless it’s an album with an erect werewolf on the cover that’s called Sexual Panic Human Machine. An English grammarian might quibble with that stitching-together of words, but when you listen to the music, it makes perfect sense.

Take, for example, the song we’re premiering today — “Digital Evil” — in advance of the new album’s Hells Headbangers release on August 4th. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: ETHER — “THERE IS NOTHING LEFT FOR ME HERE”

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Jul 062017
 

 

Some people are tough, some are fragile… or so we think, though it’s closer to the truth to say that everyone is tough and fragile, alloyed in different degrees, and varying with our changing circumstances. And no one would deny that the human condition is perilous, given to challenging our toughness and sometimes breaking us apart when we least expect it.

Sludge isn’t the only metal genre that grapples with these low points, but as a vehicle for expressing the crushing blows that life can deal out and providing a catharsis for their emotional impacts, it can be among the most powerful. Ether’s second album, There Is Nothing Left For Me Here, is in that category. It is also full of unexpected musical textures, and also glimpses of beauty within the desolation and sense of abandonment that hang heavy over the very heavy songs.

The album will be released tomorrow — July 7th — and we have a full stream of the music for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: PARTY CANNON — “PERVERSE PARTY PLATTER”

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Jul 062017
 

 

Perhaps you remember the Scottish band Party Cannon from our premiere of a song exactly one month ago. They sometimes spell their name PaRtY-CaNnOn. Their logo looks like something you might find on a child’s lunch box. They refer to their music as “Party Slam”. And the name of their new EP is Perverse Party Platter (it will be released tomorrow — July 7th — by Gore House Productions).

If you listened to our premiere of “Keg Crusher“, you know that all of this is a bit of a misdirection. As I wrote then, that song is a “seriously ruinous piece of mayhem, a blast of death/grind and slam that’s hard and heavy enough to cause blunt force trauma and viciously destructive enough to leave the rooms in your mind lying in a smoking rubble.” “I mean, sure, it’s a lot of fun, too, but the kind of fun cats have playing with mice before biting down on their skulls and devouring their brains.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MIST OF MISERY — “BROKEN CHAINS”

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Jul 062017
 

 

Last August we premiered a full stream of the second album by the symphonic depressive black metal band Mist of Misery from Stockholm, Sweden. As I wrote then, Absence, is a multi-faceted trip of changing moods and varying energies, managed with a sure hand, “creating a blend of haunting ambience, symphonic power, and blackened ferocity, while repeatedly displaying a knack for driving home their penetrating and memorable melodies as they move among these changing shades of darkness.”

Black Lion Records released Absence, and on August 31st of this year Black Lion will release Mist of Misery’s follow-up recording, an EP named Shackles Of Life. This will be the first of two connected mini-albums, with a second one coming later under the title Fields of Isolation.

Shackles of Life includes seven songs and features guest vocals by Paolo Bruno of Thy Light, as well as cover art by Russian artist Alex Tartsus. Today, we’re helping to premiere a stream of the album’s third track, “Broken Chains“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: INVOCATION SPELLS — “THE FLAME OF HATE”

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Jul 052017
 

 

I became thoroughly hooked to the sulfurous, electrifying sound of the Chilean band Invocation Spells upon discovering their second album, Descendent the Black Throne (2016), from which we premiered the title track. It was a rare achievement, a galloping romp of speed metal riffs and gut-punching percussion trailing clouds of toxic smoke in its wake, capped by venomous vocals nasty enough to wake demons from their slumber, and as highly addictive as it was highly explosive. Now, in just a matter of days, Hells Headbangers will release Invocation Spells’ third album — The Flame of Hate — and we have a full stream of it for you now.

There are times when I read advance PR material about an album that’s so vivid and so accurate that I wonder, why should I even bother trying to describe the music myself?, because there’s no way I can match what I’ve already read. I had that feeling in reading these words about The Flame of Hate: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: MISTIGMA — “OMEGA MORTIS”

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Jul 052017
 

 

Never underestimate the power of cover art to attract listeners. Though not a musician myself, that’s one piece of advice I would place high on a list of recommendations for metal bands if anyone were to ask me (though I’m not holding my breath waiting for the requests to pour in). For example, I was eager to hear the debut EP of the Italian death metal band Mistigma based on one look at the cover created by View From The Coffin — and now here I am helping to introduce Omega Mortis to you.

In its actual physical format, the EP looks very good as well: Continue reading »

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