AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABSENT RITUAL — “THE CRYPTIC DESCENT: A COMPILATION OF MADNESS”

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Mar 042026
 

(written by Islander)

The Eternal Death label bills the debut demo from NYC’s Absent Ritual as “outsider black metal”. But what does that mean? Isn’t all black metal “outsider” music at its core? Wasn’t that indeed what spawned it so many decades ago, as a rebellious reaction to death metal and other musical genres that were then captivating listeners?

Well, times do change, don’t they. You could make a claim that the bones of black metal have become ossified in some respects, to the point when many bands in the genre seem more conformist than they do rebellious. And so here in the current day, the description of Absent Ritual’s music as “outsider black metal” signifies that the band are following an unorthodox, idiosyncratic approach that isn’t hemmed in by strict genre boundaries, perhaps more true to the original animating spirit of the genre even though the music reveals surprising twists and embellishments.

You’ll understand what we mean when you listen to all three songs on their demo — The Cryptic Descent: A Compilation of Madness — which we’re now premiering in advance of its March 6 release date (a Bandcamp Friday, btw). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FOETOREM — “REBIRTH IN MORBID DISGUST”

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Mar 042026
 

(written by Islander)

In mid-January we premiered a song from Foetorem’s debut album Incongruous Forms Of Evergrowing Rot, preceded by some thoughts about human beings’ everlasting fear of inescapable death and our persistent nightmares 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.”

Those thoughts came to mind naturally when reflecting on the music of this Danish death metal band (whose name itself translates to “stench of decay”), because they’re so frighteningly good at rendering musical visions of human pain and putrefaction, so formidable in conjuring ruination, putridity, stench, and the hopelessness of being trapped by the kind of mindless violence from which there’s no escape.

And now here we are, about six weeks later, when across a large swath of the planet body parts are being scattered like dead leaves in a high wind and blood (and missiles) are raining from the skies — a fresh and foreboding reminder about the self-destructive savagery of humanity (as if one were needed). What better time to revisit Foetorem?!?

And that’s what we’re doing through our premiere of another abominable Foetorem song in advance of their album’s March 27 release by Everlasting Spew Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORTOPSY — “PUTREFACTIVE STATES OF THE HUMAN FORM”

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Mar 032026
 

(written by Islander)

Almost exactly five years ago we published an extensive interview by our Comrade Aleks of Québec musician Yves Allaire, aka evillair. The focus was on his band Nordicwinter, although the interview ranged beyond that as well. As the interview exposed, Allaire has been making metal music in a variety of different traditions since the early ’90s (Metal-Archives lists 10 current or former bands on his resume), but the atmospheric/depressive black metal of Nordicwinter clearly became his focus. Indeed, Nordicwinter has released five more albums since the time of that interview, including 2025’s Solitude.

Which makes the debut EP we’re now about to premiere from a new evillair entity quite a nasty surprise.

The name chosen for this new project — Mortopsy — points the way toward the EP’s music, as does the EP’s name: Putrefactive States of the Human Form. It is, in short, a formulation of pathological deathgrind and death metal inspired by the grisly early musical psychoses of Carcass and General Surgery, and it’s great. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTENT TO HARM — “DRAINED OF LIFE”

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Mar 022026
 

(written by Islander)

Some of us, but probably not many of us, have experienced some kind of physical trauma that forced us to recover while lying flat in a bed. Even fewer of us (probably none) used that prone time to learn how to play the electric guitar. But that’s what the Australian metalhead Matt Turkington did.

To flesh out more of the back-story, Matt was formerly the vocalist for Internal Devour, Splatterpuss, and Alter Idem. We’re told that he had to undergo multiple spinal surgeries that resulted in life-threatening complications, ultimately requiring surgeons to cut through his abdomen to access his spine and attempt to stabilize it. We received some photographic evidence of this: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: APOLAUSTIC — “TESTIMONY OF AN OBSOLESCENT WORLD”

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Mar 022026
 

(written by Islander)

We have been ardent fans of the Swiss metal band Stortregn and interested observers of how the band’s music has significantly evolved over the last 20 years. And so we became quite curious when learning that one of the band’s founding members and (until last year) a steadfast presence in the Stortregn lineup had embarked on a solo project, and even more intrigued to learn that its debut album would be released by Transcending Obscurity Records.

The artist we’re speaking of is the former Stortregn vocalist/guitarist Romain Negro, and he has named this new personal project Apolaustic, which the dictionary tells us is an adjective that describes being wholly devoted to, or concerned with, seeking enjoyment and pleasure.

But as signified by the album’s title — No Plenitude Without Suffering — the music isn’t some kind of hedonistic carnival. As T.O. rightly observes, “[a]fter experiencing the turmoil of life, the aching pain in the melodies is all too palpable.”

Until today, two songs from the album had been revealed, and today we’re bringing you a third one, wrapped in a stunning video. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WOLFBASTARD — “F.O.T.D”

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Feb 272026
 

(written by Islander)

Any year that brings us a new Wolfbastard record isn’t a complete failure, even a year like this one which is already turning into an abysmal beast — with 10 months left to go! In fact, the worse everything around us looks, the more fuel it adds to Wolfbastard’s fires.

Their newest release, arriving four years on from their third album Hammer The Bastards, tells you what’s coming right in the name: Satanic Scum Punks. And sure enough, it delivers a drunken brawl in Hell’s filthiest bar, where the denizens’ eyes are red, their teeth filed to points, and their blood-hunger ravenous. Get in, get fucked, or fuck off.

The song-names point the way too — such tracks as the opener “It’s Fucking Dark” (you can say that again), “Let the Bastards Burn”, “Blood on Steel”, “Drink for Hell”, “Fuck the Bastards”, and “Maniac Street Rats”. The name of the song whose video we’re premiering today — “F.O.T.D” — is a bit more obscure, but you’ll figure it out (it’s “Fuck Off Then Die!”). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARBARIC OATH — “SWORD AND SORCERER”

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Feb 272026
 

(written by Islander)

The German duo Barbaric Oath made their truly barbaric debut with a three-song demo in 2024 accurately named Attack Attack Attack!, and on March 27th of this year they’ll have their debut EP Sword, Sorcery, Vengeance released by Caligari Records.

As you might guess from the EP’s title, the songs thematically focus on fantasy from ’70s and ’80s cult films, as well as role-playing games like Heroquest. But the music isn’t what most people would imagine as “sword and sorcery” metal. For example, it’s about as far away from power metal as you could get. Instead, it’s a gutting, gouging, thunderously bone-breaking, and vocally unhinged attack of blackened death metal — “a sound more akin to the likes of Finland’s Belial, Mythos, and early Bolt Thrower” (to quote from the PR materials).

What we’ve got for you today is the premiere of “Sword and Sorcerer”, the second song to be revealed from the EP so far — and it’s likely to get all your nerves firing on full auto. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MOROS — “CONSUMED BY AGONY”

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Feb 262026
 

(written by Islander)

We’ve been avidly following the Philadelphia-based extreme metal band Moros since the days of their first EP in 2016, and now we reconnect with them because in March they will release their second full-length, aptly titled Cemetery Hallucinations.

In its current configuration, Moros includes founding guitarist/vocalist Jay Dost, founding bassist and backing vocalist John Hauser, and drummer Mike Howard. Over time, their music has stylistically evolved, moving from punk-infused sludge to the kind of dreadful and damaging music encompassed by their last EP and even more so by this new album. To quote Jay Dost: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYPTWORM — “INFECTIOUS PATHOLOGICAL WASTE”

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Feb 262026
 

(written by Islander)

We have observed before that only in the musical realms of death metal are adjectives like “grotesque”, “disgusting”, “regurgitating”, “mutilating”, “rotten”, “foul”, “putrescent”, and “maggot ridden” considered words of praise. Try publicly excreting those words on the music of Taylor Swift or Luke Combs and see where that gets you. But those are among the descriptors discharged on behalf of Me Saco Un Ojo Records and Extremely Rotten Productions for the forthcoming third album by the UK filth-mongers Cryptworm, and they cause salivation around here instead of disgust and repulsion.

The name of the new album is Infectious Pathological Waste, a title that would also cause most surface-dwelling music consumers to run for the hills — and they would run sooner and faster if they caught a glimpse of the album’s colorfully horrific cover art. We, however, are more than ready to dive into this diseased effluvium, maybe involuntarily swallow some of it, and see what happens.

You can have a big gulp yourselves, through our premiere of the new album’s traumatizing title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELA — “A REIGN TO CONQUER”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 252026
 

(written by Islander)

Almost six years after their previous album Vegvísir (November 2019), the Spanish doom metal band Hela have created a new album, A Reign To Conquer, that will be released on February 27th by Ardua Music and Tormo Records. Those six years were of course tremendously eventful in the life of the world (and tremendously disruptive), and Hela encountered their own internal challenges which delayed the completion of their newest work. But sometimes the struggle to overcome challenge leads to triumphs that smooth sailing never would have produced, and that’s true of A Reign To Conquer.

To be sure, as the labels rightly describe, Hela’s new album is still a voyage “through realms of shadow and sorrow” — a voyage that in some important respects will be familiar to fans of their preceding albums. But other changes will be noticeable. Among them is the appearance of Hela’s new vocalist, Raquel Navarro, and we should begin with her contributions as we start introducing our premiere stream of the new full-length today. Continue reading »

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