AN NCS PREMIERE: DÉTRESSE — “LES NUITS JAUNES”

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Sep 032026
 

(written by Islander)

This trio of talents from Austria and Québec who joined together to form Détresse introduced themselves just last year through a startling debut album named Pessimismes, released by Vendetta Records. We described its music as “emotionally raw, explosively cathartic, and unrelenting in its intensity”, but also as “saturated in agony and hopelessness”, “ruined as well as raging”, and wholly “engulfing” in its varying emotional torrents.

Pessimismes was an eye-popping, heart-stirring, and soul-sinking debut, so much so that it landed Détresse at Julfest in Austria earlier this year, followed by a two-week European tour alongside Miserere Luminis in April, and will put them on stages in another tour alongside Darvaza, Merrimack, and Helleruin in December 2026, which will include appearances at Eindhoven Metal Meeting (Netherlands) and De Mortem et Diabolum (Germany).

The December touring activity is prompted in part by Vendetta Records’ forthcoming October release of a second Détresse album — Misères. The press materials for the new record offer this description:

DÉTRESSE’s second album MISÈRES deals with the misery of mankind and human hardship. It explores how oppression, deprivation, and despair shape everyday existence, blurring the boundaries between past and present. Shaped in raw, unadulterated soundscapes it provides a journey to the darkest parts of humanity.

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering a song from the new album named “Verrottet“, and today we premiere another one — “Les Nuits Jaunes” — which features vocals and lyrics by a notable guest. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AMAROK (AND ANDREW BLACK) — A REIMAGINING OF “LEGACY”

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Sep 032026
 

(written by Islander)

The Northern California metal band Amarok have demonstrated towering, far-seeing ambitions since their inception more than 15 years ago. With their self-titled debut EP in 2010 they began identifying their songs with Roman numerals. That EP was also more than 45 minutes long, spread across three songs. After a trio of splits, their 2018 debut album Devoured continued with the Roman numeral designations (which had continued on the splits), counting forward from VI through IX in a double LP that nearly reached ten minutes above an hour. And then in 2024 they released their second album Resilience, another double LP (X through XIII) that again exceeded an hour of music.

Over the course of those extensive releases Amarok has moved from funeral doom into a hybrid of doom and black metal, while also continuing to narrate evolving reflections on the natural world, the dangers created by human folly and oppression, the suffering caused by great loss, and a search for transcendence and hope through determined perseverance.

Over the course of those monumental releases Amarok have also made a lot of talented friends and admirers (in addition to amassing a devoted following of fans), the evidence of which will be revealed in a follow-up to Resilience named Overcome.

Overcome is yet another double-album, and is perhaps best considered as a companion to Resilience. Set for release on September 25 by Toronto’s Hypaethral Records, it includes ten remixed and reimagined interpretations of the five songs on Resilience by notable artists from across the experimental and extreme metal spectrum — two different versions of each of those five songs (which is how you get from five to ten tracks). Those ten artists include Ethan Lee McCarthy (Primitive Man), Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum), and Andrew Black (Mizmor/Hell live), as well as Sinuous Void, Only Now, Collapse, Gridfailure, DJ Eons One, Mirroriddian, and Auto Seer.

One song from Overcome has already been revealed, and today we premiere a second one — a reimagining of Amarok’s “Legacy” by the afore-mentioned Andrew Black. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WINCE AND FRISSON — “TUMULT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 022026
 

(written by Islander)

In February of this year we helped introduce listeners to Wince and Frisson, a “dissoblack and death metal” duo consisting of Triumvir Kaleido from North Carolina and Steve Wiener from New Jersey. In February we premiered a striking animated video created by Triumvir (who’s responsible for all of the band’s artwork) for the song “Kärrhäxan” from Wince and Frisson’s then-forthcoming debut album Tumult. What we’ve got for you today is a premiere stream of that album in its entirety in advance of its September 4 official release..

Wince and Frisson introduce the album with these words:

Tumult – a virulent cocktail of extreme metal genres. Seven tracks, all blackened and swathed in dissonance. It gets to the point immediately and offers no rest to the listener until its conclusion. All the while, guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Triumvir Kaleido maniacally spews warped interpretations of his experiences with religious and psychological abuse, and struggles with mental health.

But of course we have our introduction to what you’re about to hear. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BESOTTEN — “CRUENTATION”

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Sep 012026
 

(written by Islander)

Let’s cut to the chase: The track you’re about to hear from the U.S. death/doom band Besotten is an absolute horror-show of a song, and one that turns out to be insidiously infectious — a brand of death metal that’s simultaneously as foul and festering as the corruption of unburied corpses, as feverishly devouring as swarms of enormous maggots, as soul-draining as incurable cancer, and as bone-smashing as a phalanx of battering rams.

It’s disgusting, ghoulish, and nerve-firing in its hostility, but we predict it will also really gets its blood-stained hooks stuck deep into listeners from a first run-through, and thus leave you besotted (couldn’t resist that). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LIFESWALLOWER — “DEFY MY WORLD”

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Sep 012026
 

(written by Islander)

The UK band Lifeswallower brings together four experienced musicians with disparate musical backgrounds who combine a wide ranges of influence from rock and metal. Today they are releasing their self-titled debut EP via the Prog On! Recordings label in Manchester, covering (in their words) “the blastbeat intensity of death metal, to the pacey riffage of thrash metal, whilst leaning into the mathematical complexity of prog with a side-serving of their own unique take on things”.

As a further preview of what the music brings, Lifeswallower recommend the EP for fans of Gojira, Morbid Angel, The Black Dahlia Murder, Sikth, and Tool.

To help spread the word about this release, we’re now premiering a sinister and intriguingly immersive video for a song from the EP called “Defy My World“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NONTINUUM — “AS I LEAVE THIS BODY”

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Aug 312026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we help pave the way for the return of the Australian black metal band Nontinuum after an extended absence, and so a bit of background may be useful.

They were originally founded in 2010 as a bedroom recording project rooted in atmospheric and depressive black metal, and their debut demo Dwelling In Oceans was released shortly afterward through Misanthropic Art Productions.

Two years later they made their live debut as a full band at Devil’s Arcana Festival and released their first full-length album, The Stars You Gathered, The Stars I Destroyed — and then Nontinuum seemed to disappeared.

More than a decade later, the original line-up reunited for a performance at Essence Festival in 2025 and are now working on the follow-up to The Stars You Gathered, The Stars I Destroyed.

The first sign of their new work is the song we’re premiering today in advance of its September 3 digital release — “As I Leave This Body“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TOMBSTALKER — “IRON WITHIN IRON WITHOUT”

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Aug 282026
 

(written by Islander)

We have some history with the Kentucky band Tombstalker, starting with an article back in 2012 about metal in Kentucky (here), following that the next year (here) with a review of their self-titled EP, then including some commentary in 2015 about their fine and ferocious debut album Black Crusades, and then gleefully helping spread the word here in 2017 about a new Tombstalker EP named Chaotic Devotion.

Today we renew our support of Tombstalker’s music with the premiere of a song from their forthcoming second album, the aptly titled Chaos Monolith, which will be released in various formats on September 25th by Awakening Records, Adirondack Black Mass Records, and Bat Magick Records. The song you’re about to hear is “Iron Within Iron Without“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HARD LESSONS — “GANGRENE”

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Aug 282026
 

(written by Islander)

On September 5th KingSide Records will release a new EP by the Danish metallic hardcore band Hard Lessons. It’s a six-track attack named Influx of Betrayal. One song from the EP (“Insufferable“) has already launched, and today Hard Lessons are releasing a second one, and we’re premiering a video for it just now.

The name of this new song, which features a guest appearance by No Grave, is “Gangrene“. In some ways it’s a sonic manifestation of infection, but it’s also a raging remedy for the rot. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKUMSTRIKE — “MASTERY OF SIN”

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Aug 272026
 

(written by Islander)

When you name your metal band Skumstrike you’re not trying to hide the ball. You’re sending a very clear signal that the music will make no pretenses to artistic refinement, thought-provoking intellect, or avant-garde experimentation. Instead, it brandishes the idea of leaping from the gutter, unclean to the bone, and attacking with no holds barred. But what kind of musical attack do they launch?

This Montreal trio gave us a ferocious idea of their attack with a 2022 debut album named Deadly Intrusions (well-named, that one), and now they’re reinforcing those deadly impressions with a second album titled Flawless Intrigue from Hell, which will be released by their new label Dying Victims Productions on September 25th.

As vividly described in the PR materials, the new music “combines a lethal dose of speed metal with the gunpowder roar of thrash and death metal,” “cross-contaminating the wild fury of Japan’s Sabbat with the abandon of early Slayer and Bathory“.

Those aren’t empty words, as you’ll discover for yourselves through our premiere of the album’s second single, “Mastery of Sin“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PYRE OF DESCENT — “LOVE’S SOMBRE DEATH”

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Aug 272026
 

(written by Islander)

In early 2020 we hosted the premiere of a thought-provoking debut EP by the Berlin-based band Pyre of Descent. Later that same year they released another EP (Love’s Sombre Death), and now they have a debut album named Albedo that’s headed for release by two labels and the band this coming September.

The new album is described by one of those labels as “a mature form of occult/dark rock with some post-punk and gothic sensibilities, somewhere at the intersection of Fields of the Nephilim, The Devil’s Blood, and Aluk Todolo.” Based on that description alone, you can guess that it’s a fork in the road leading away from many of our usual beaten paths here, though not entirely divergent (as you will see).

One song from the album has been revealed already, and today we premiere a second one, “Love’s Sombre Death (Canto II)“. Continue reading »

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