AN NCS PREMIERE: FOETOREM — “ESCALATING ROT”

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Jan 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Human beings have been beset by nightmares for as long as our species has been able to speak or write about them, and undoubtedly before then too. Blessed by intelligence (relatively speaking) and the ability to communicate, and plagued by the fear of inescapable death, we stumble through life hand-in-hand with frightening dreams.

Among the oldest and most persistent of horrors is the fear of being buried alive — in coffins, tombs, or beneath a weight of freshly turned earth, deprived of oxygen, unable to move, and with naught but worms or the natural liquification of flesh eagerly awaiting the heart’s final beat.

Visions of hideous death have (of course) also walked hand-in-hand with Death Metal from its earliest day, and some bands have wholly devoted themselves to rendering musical visions of human pain and putrefaction, conjuring ruination, putridity, and stench through notes, beats, and voices.

The Danish band Foetorem are one of the newest exponents of death metal oppressiveness, rot, and foulness — their name itself translates to “stench of decay” — and they’re so powerfully good at it that Everlasting Spew Records has joined forces with them for the release in March of their debut album Incongruous Forms Of Evergrowing Rot. To help spread the word, today we’re premiering the album’s first single, “Escalating Rot“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIABOLUS INCARNATE — “HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN”

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Jan 142026
 

(written by Islander)

Diabolus Incarnate is a long-running extreme metal project with roots in South Africa, now based in the UK. They were first formed in 2010, and Metal-Archives identifies a 2015 demo and a 2016 single as their output until now. Obviously, they haven’t rushed things, but now, 10 years since they arrived in the UK and with a current incarnation that brings together musicians best known for their work in other extreme metal bands, Diabolus Incarnate are ready to take a big step forward.

The band’s founder Dieter Engel is now accompanied by members of such bands as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Ingested, and Worm Shepherd, and we’re told that they have two EPs under way, with one at the mixing stage and another in pre-production. What we have for you today is the premiere of a fully finished single, “Human, All Too Human“, along with statements about the song by all four bandmembers. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HOLOTROPIC — “IN_DIVIDUAL – PT. I: ANIMAL”

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Jan 132026
 

(written by Islander)

This is something of a very long-awaited reunion for us. It was almost exactly 11 years ago that I became captivated by an album named permeate by a band from Slovakia named holotropic, an album that I briefly summed up as “a blend of technical death metal, progressive metal, jazz, Eastern melody, and crazy shit.”

That permeate album was very well-received both in the band’s home and abroad, and they supported it with performances in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. As time passed, the band’s lineup also changed, and currently members and ex-members of bands such as 0N0, God Defamer, and Catastrofy can be seen performing on stage with them. And while the time that has passed since holotropic’s last release has been significant, they did not stop writing new music, some of which they’ve incorporated into their setlists.

At last, the band are ready to release new songs. We’re told that they recently finished recording material for what should have been a shorter EP but in the end turned out to be 30+ minutes of music, and what we have for you today is an excellent sign of their achievements — the video premiere of the first part of a tripartite song named “in_dividual“.

(By the way, although my English training tells me to capitalize proper names and titles, I’ll defer to the band’s tendencies not to do that — except in this post title). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RAVENMOCKER — “INFALLIBLE”

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Jan 122026
 

(written by Islander)

Ravenmocker will be a new name for most of you. They are a melodic death metal band founded in Southern California just this year  by guitarist/vocalist Tom Tierney (formerly of Thrown Into Exile), joined by guitarist George Patmas (ex‑Dianthus), drummer Dylan Suierveld (Levinia), and bassist Will Buckley (Levinia, Anubis).

The band preview their music by identifying influences that include Children of Bodom, Insomnium, Amon Amarth, Kalmah, and Dark Tranquillity, but they also identify unexpected flavors brought into their collaborative songwriting process by each member — including aspects of country, jazz fusion, blues, funk, and classical choral music. And they were motivated in part by “a desire to carve out a culturally rooted identity inspired by Native American lore”.

To introduce themselves to the global metal community Ravenmocker will be releasing two singles — “Infallible” and “Where the Raven Flies” — that lead into their first EP, and what we’ve got for you today is an official video for the first of those songs, “Infallible“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ENNUI — “ANTINATALISM”

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Jan 082026
 

(written by Islander)

The world will end. All life will end. Each life will end, tomorrow, or the next day, or millions of years from now. What comes next? That question has occupied human thought almost more than any others — right after thoughts about what we must do to keep ourselves alive for one more day. What comes next?

The question remains the same, and it still evokes the same answers — either some vision of life everlasting or the acceptance of oblivion, with the fear of the latter seeding the growth of the former. But given how much suffering human lives must endure, one might wonder whether bringing new life into existence is a worthy act, regardless of what comes after its end.

That question lies at the heart of the new song by Ennui (from Tbilisi, Georgia) that we’re premiering today along with a captivating lyric video in conjunction with the announcement of the band’s new album Qroba, their first full-length in more than seven years. It will be released by Meuse Music on February 27th. The name of the song we’re presenting today is “Antinatalism“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BANISHER — “MANIFEST OF JUSTICE”

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Jan 082026
 

(written by Islander)

The death metal band Banisher was formed in Rzeszów, Poland, in 2005 by Hubert Więcek (DIETH, ex-Acid Drinkers live, ex-Decapitated). Since then, the band’s full lineup has also included members of such well-known groups as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Belphegor, Vital Remains, and Hate.

They have released four albums over the last 20 years, and now, after a six-year hiatus, a fifth one is set for release on January 30th by Selfmadegod Records. Its title is Metamorphosis.

To help introduce the new album, today we premiere a song from it named “Manifest of Justice“, presented with a lyric video. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROSEXUAL — “THE BRIMSTONE BROTHEL”

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Jan 072026
 

(written by Islander)

The last time we hosted a premiere by Philadelphia’s Necrosexual (damn, have seven years really gone by since then?) we immediately urged people to set aside any reflexive skepticism that might have been spawned by the band’s name, their shock-rock appearance, and the often macabre storytelling within their songs, and instead to dive into their multifaceted musical nastiness with open minds.

Yes, seven years have gone by since then, years that saw Necrosexual release a couple more EPs, a split, and a live album, but no new songs for roughly the last five of those years. As you can see from this post’s title, however, Necrosexual are returning. They have a new album set for release in late February, and its title pretty well sums up the current path of the world, at least as perceived by anyone who reads the daily news: Road To Rubble.

To help introduce the new album, what we have for you today is the premiere of its second single, “The Brimstone Brothel“. But before we get to that one, we have some thoughts about the first one, the aptly named “High Times In Hell” — as well as the same urging expressed in the first paragraph above. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EXIMPERITUS — “GOLDEN CHAINS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF INDIVIDUAL GREATNESS”

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Jan 072026
 

(written by Islander)

We haven’t forgotten that the full name of Eximperitus is Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum. How could we forget? And it’s obvious from their logo up there, isn’t it? But we’ll play along with the abbreviation, especially since that seems to be the preference of the band’s label Willowtip Records.

We also haven’t forgotten the 36-word title of this Belarusian band’s 2016 debut album, though we couldn’t recite it even at gunpoint, any more than we could recite Eximperitus’ full name. Their 2021 sophomore album — Šahrartu — was easier on the tongue, as were all the one-word song titles. Their forthcoming third album, Meritoriousness of Equanimity, is pronounceable, even though it quadruples the number of syllables compared to the title of the second full-length.

However, Eximperitus have mostly reverted to form in their song names on the new one. Many are quite long, and all of them are, for want of a better word… mysteriously exotic. Take, for example, the name of the song we’re premiering today — “Golden Chains for the Construction of Individual Greatness” — although it’s tidy compared to Track No. 7 on Meritoriousness of Equanimity:

“Molecular Disintegration of an Unattainable Solitary Will in a Vessel of Wisdom…as a Result of the Soul’s Aspiration to Break the Summed Up Set of Delusions of Reason… in the Course of a Personal Experience of Accepting the Imperfection of the World and Proving that Time Gets Rid of the Fragile and Leaves Invulnerable” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HARROWED — “BLOOD COVENANT”

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Jan 022026
 

(written by Islander)

I suppose I should make one thing clear right up front: The song we’re about to premiere is from a forthcoming album by the Swedish death metal band Harrowed, not the British metallic hardcore band Harrowed about whom our Andy Synn has sung praises here a couple times in the past.

The Harrowed that’s our focus today has an enticing pedigree, featuring as it does guitarist Tobias Alpadie, who has spent time in VAK and previously as a member of Tribulation’s live lineup (among other things), and vocalist/drummer Adam Lindmark, a member of Morbus Chron before their dissolution. Harrowed’s live lineup now also includes bassist Dag Landin (ex-Morbus Chron, Tøronto) and guitarist Estefan Carrillo (Hazemaze, Morbid Breath).

What’s coming our way in February is Harrowed’s debut album The Eternal Hunger, previewed on behalf of their label (Dying Victims Productions) as “a twisted mass of putrid filth, incorporating elements of old-school American and Scandinavian death metal, a lethal dose of punk riffage, and mind-bending weirdness (and even some shattered shards of skewed melody, if we’re counting).” That’s enticing too, isn’t it? Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAUFAR — “VIA NECROPOLIS”

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Dec 312025
 

(written by Islander)

Everything that happens today will be the last this or the last that or the last that other thing that happens in 2025. This is the last NCS premiere of 2025, and it’s a very good one.

To help ring out 2025 and to help ring in the New Year we’re premiering the first single and the title track from a new Graufar album named Via Necropolis. We present it with a lyric video that includes live footage of the band’s performances filmed across 9 different shows, including Wacken Open Air Festival.

Graufar, whose name is an old German word for the color “grey”, are a relatively new group but have quickly achieved some notoriety. Founded in 2020 in Linza, Austria, they released their debut album Scordalus in 2024 and in that same year won Wacken Metal Battle Austria and went on to place ninth in the international finals at Wacken Open Air. The forthcoming second album builds on these foundations. Continue reading »

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