AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERMIN LORD — “MOURNING”

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Apr 242017
 

 

This marks the fourth time we’ve written abut the music of Seattle’s Vermin Lord. The first time was a review of the project’s excellent 2016 album Anguish, and then we wrote about a single that was released in January of this year, followed in March by our review and premiere of a two-song EP (Visions Of A Cursed Warlock). And now we’re spreading the word about Vermin Lord’s new album Mourning, which is being released today.

Part of what makes Vermin Lord’s music so intriguing (and this is certainly true of the new album) is its unpredictable blending of disparate musical influences. This album in particular brings to mind the term “baroque”, which in one of the word’s dictionary meanings refers to a style of artistic expression “marked generally by use of complex forms, bold ornamentation, and the juxtaposition of contrasting elements often conveying a sense of drama, movement, and tension”. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLURRING — “CLOUD BURNER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Apr 242017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us the full streaming premiere of the new EP by Blurring, along with an introductory review.)

 

After the breakup of Brutal Truth, the band’s members have continued on in multiple outfits, one of the finest of which is Rochester, New York-based technical grindcore act Blurring.

Blurring is a new vehicle for legendary bassist Dan Lilker (Brutal Truth, Nuclear Assault, former founding member of Anthrax, countless others) and multi-instrumentalist Erik Burke (Sulaco, ex-Kalibas, ex-Lethargy, countless others) on drums, combining their immense talents with other like-minded top-notch musicians to form one of the absolute best grindcore bands currently active.

While the band had some demos and other releases preceding their 2015 self-titled album, it was that release that really got me hooked on their complex and disturbing brand of grindcore. Some of you might have caught my review for it here at NCS; if not, now’s your chance to check out Blurring — don’t fuck up. The band is set to release Cloud Burner on April 28th, a fantastic five-song EP that we’re streaming early in full today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EVOKE THY LORDS — “LIFESTORIES”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 242017
 

 

(Reverend B., a metal musician from Siberian Russia, introduces our premiere of the new Solitude Productions album by his compatriots in Evoke Thy Lords, whose previous works we’ve also enthusiastically covered at this site)

Evoke Thy Lords are a name, as one would say, widely recognized in narrow circles. They are one of the oldest doom bands in Siberia, and they started off as followers of the doom/death wave that was still strong in Russia in those days, but with a twist — they used a flute very prominently in the music. Since those days, one could argue only that flute remained, as they had a very drastic change of sound they’ve been following for several releases now — stoner doom with a focus on the psychedelic aspects of the genre. First Drunken Tales, then Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!, and today, the plainly-named Lifestories reaches us. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INTERNAL BLEEDING — “FINAL JUSTICE”

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Apr 212017
 

 

For many weeks, today was the date set for Unique Leader’s release of a new single and an accompanying video by the long-running and tremendously influential New York death metal band Internal Bleeding. The name of the single, which is a preview of the band’s new album Corrupting Influence, is “Final Justice“.  And then, on the eve of this release, a tragedy happened.

Even long-time fans of Internal Bleeding may not have known that their drummer over the band’s entire decades-long existence, Bill Tolley, was a 14-year veteran of the New York Fire Department. Yesterday, April 20th, Bill Tolley lost his life after falling five stories from a rooftop while battling a two-alarm apartment fire in Queens, New York. He leaves behind his wife Marie and an 8-year-old daughter, Isabella. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SNARES OF SIXES — “THE MOTHER’S THROAT”

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Apr 202017
 

 

Five years ago, during a period of down-time in the affairs of the now-disbanded Agalloch, Jason Walton began working on a new musical endeavor, one in which he indulged a taste (and a yearning) for experimentation that has been manifested in differing ways through other Walton projects such as Self Spiller, Especially Like Sloth, and Nothing. The result is a head-spinning EP named Yeast Mother: An Electroacoustic Mass, which is about to be released under the name chosen by Walton for this particular endeavor — Snares of Sixes.

In order to achieve his kaleidoscopic visions for the recordings, stripped down to the four tracks that appear on Yeast Mother…, Walton enlisted contributions from a significant number of  artists, whose names we’ll list below. But first, here are a few reactions to the track from Yeast Mother… that we’re bringing you today in advance of the EP’s May 5 release by Crucial Blast. Its name is “The Mother’s Throat“ Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AMNUTSEBA — UNTITLED DEMO

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  18 Responses »
Apr 202017
 

 

“Amnutseba has risen from the gutters of the Parisian black metal scene to propose a glimpse into the vortex of insanity.” So say the mysterious figures behind this new band, and they have said little else except through the music on their first demo, which will be released today on tape by Caligari Records. But as you’re about to hear, the music speaks with a powerful and mesmerizing voice.

The demo is untitled, as are the four songs it includes (identified only by Roman numerals). The stream we’re providing runs like the tape, as one continuous track rather than divided into four separate streams, though you’ll be able to tell when one song ends and the next begins. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: JYOTISAVEDANGA — “DISINTEGRATION TO ABSOLUTE VOID”

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Apr 192017
 

 

Last fall the Indian label Cyclopean Eye Productions released the debut demo of a part-Indian, part-Russian trio who chose Jyotiṣavedāṅga for their name, a name that refers to the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, which we’re told is one of the earliest known Indian texts on astronomy and astrology. The demo has the evocative title Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejections. Cyclopean Eye is now releasing that demo in a CD edition that includes not only the original six tracks but also one previously unreleased bonus track, which we have the pleasure of premiering today.

This newly revealed piece of audio murder is “Disintegration To Absolute Void“. Drawing upon musical ingredients that include black metal, harsh power electronics, death metal, and the dying radiations of collapsing galaxies, the song is a shattering, staggering assault on the senses. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HIGHLAND — “TOWARDS THE ABSOLUTE”

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Apr 192017
 

 

Earlier this month I listened to the first advance track from Loyal To the Nightsky, the debut album by a Los Angeles-based black metal band named Highland, in part because this new album features cover art by one of my favorites, Luciana Nedelea. It turned out that the first single, “Abu Sindi“, was strikingly good. And now we have the good fortune to share with you a second song from this very promising album, “Towards the Absolute“, in advance of the album’s release on May 15th.

Highland is a trio of Armenian-Americans — Narek, Gevork, and Michael — who first began performing together in a speed/thrash metal band named Raze. But as time passed they turned their talents in a different direction, building upon the antecedents of Scandinavian black metal from the ’90s, with a self-titled EP in 2013 as their first work in this direction. They’ve performed with the likes of Absu, Vader, Bölzer, and Marduk, but I suspect this new album is going to elevate their profile even more substantially. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PRAYERS OF SANITY — “DEAD ALIVE”

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Apr 182017
 

 

Do you feel dead inside? Do you hate your job, and your few friends hate you? Has hope abandoned your life like an empty pack of smokes tossed from the window of a passing car? Does the future seem to hold nothing but a steep and lonely descent into scowling bitterness and a wasteland of forgotten dreams?

If the answer is yes, we’re sorry to say that we haven’t yet mastered the power to call for a re-deal on your life. But we can do one thing for you. At least for a few minutes, we can make you feel explosively alive, like you stepped on a live power line while ringing wet, with all the motherfuckers in your life cowering in fear at the fireball that your head has turned into.

Actually, we can’t do that — but Prayers of Sanity can. Just hit the play button on “Dead Alive” down below. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FRACTAL GENERATOR — “ABANDON EARTH”

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Apr 182017
 

 

Sometimes the name that a band chooses for itself can be a significant clue to the kind of music they make. The name Fractal Generator sounds kind of cybernetic and machine-like, although fractal repeating patterns across multiple scales of size are evident in nature as well as mathematics. But then consider further that the members of this band from Sudbury in Ontario, Canada, identify themselves by number: 040118180514 (bass, vocals), 040114090512 (drums), and 102119200914 (guitar, vocals). And then consider that the name of their debut album is Apotheosynthesis.

The album was originally self-released by the band in 2015, but it has now been embraced by Everlasting Spew Records, who will be giving it a CD release on May 19th. For those who may have overlooked the album in its original flowering, we have for you today a video for a multi-faceted track named “Abandon Earth” (and a reprise of another song unveiled not long ago by DECIBEL). Continue reading »

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