AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ENEPSIGOS — “PAGAN RITES”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 122017
 

 

We’ve learned that any band in which the Norwegian artist Doedsadmiral is involved will be worth checking out. Those bands include Nordjevel, Svartelder, and Doedsvangr, and now there’s one more to add to the list. Under his guise as V.I.T.H.R, he fronts a new group called Enepsigos, in which he is joined by Straff (ex-Sarkom) on guitars and bass and Italian drummer Thorns, who has worked with Blut Aus Nord, Deathrow, Fides Inversa, Frostmoon Eclipse, and Darvaza (among others).

The debut album of Enepsigos is named Plague Ov Plagues, and it’s set for release on January 15 by Drakkar Productions. Last fall we wrote about an advance song from the album named “Manifestum”, and now it’s our pleasure to share with you a video for another song called “Pagan Rites“, created by Hugo Aribart. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BALFOR — “BLACK SERPENT RISING”

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Jan 122017
 

 

This past November we premiered a video for an impressive song called “Serpents of the Black Sun” by the Ukrainian band Balfor, and today we follow that with a premiere stream of the entire album which includes that song: Black Serpent Rising. The album will be released on January 15, 2017, by Drakkar Productions.

Balfor’s line-up includes current and former members of such notable groups as Khors, Raventale, and Hate Forest, and this new full-length follows the band’s last album, Barbaric Blood, by a long six years, with the 2013 EP Heralds of the Fall dividing the wait and significant line-up changes occurring over that interval as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SHAARIMOTH — “TEMPLE OF THE ADVERSARIAL FIRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  9 Responses »
Jan 112017
 

 

Within Temple of the Adversarial Fire, the Norwegian conjurors in Shaarimoth open a Pandora’s box of wicked marvels, delivering such a mind-bending display of esoteric extravagance that the album threatens to eclipse most everything else released in the early months of this new year. It will be disseminated by W.T.C. Productions on January 13, and today we’re privileged to bring you the premiere stream of the whole thing, in all its twisted magnificence.

More than a decade has passed since Shaarimoth’s last emergence, with 2005’s Current 11. In that time, Shaarimoth have not lost the spiritual sources of their musical inspiration; the fires of the Adversary unmistakably fuel the music. Through the course of all 11 tracks, it’s a wild and chaotic interdimensional trip, a fusion of death and black metal with a pronounced experimental bent and an exotic, esoteric atmosphere, and it’s so brazenly and exuberantly creative that it’s likely to leave you wide-eyed and gasping by the time you reach the end. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OSTOTS — “GAUEKO PIZTI (BEAST OF THE NIGHT)”

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Jan 112017
 

 

The Basque Country of Spain is home to Ostots, the solo black metal project of IA (also a member of Owl’s Blood) that began to take shape a dozen years ago and since then has released numerous demos, splits, and EPs, as well as two full-length albums. On January 12, Altare Productions (Portugal) and Skjold (Denmark) will jointly release a third Ostots album named Ezer Ezaren Araztasuna, and today we bring you a stream of its arresting first track, “Gaueko Pizti” (Beast of the Night).

“Gaueko Pizti” is made of contrasting textures and reflects contrasting sensations. It channels the ferocity of raw black metal in its moving waves of abrasive, distorted riffing and the harsh effect of the vocals, a conjoined pairing of gasping growls and strangled shrieks. But the song is also mystical and mesmerizing. In its atmosphere, it’s both isolated and defiant, somber and panoramic, ravaging and majestic. Its overall effect is captivating. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ECHELON — “LEX TALIONIS”

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Jan 102017
 

 

The second album by the super-group Echelon, entitled The Brimstone Aggrandizement, has received its fair share of attention in the many year-end lists we’ve posted this season from sources around the globe. Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath, Ashcloud, Henry Kane, Ursinne) put it in his Top 12. Vonlughlio from the Dominican Republic included it in a Top 50 list with the comment that “Mr. Ingram on vocals is at the top of his game with this performance — the man can do no wrong.” And here, from the chilly environs of Seattle, I’ll soon be adding a track from the album to a list I’ve been dribbling out this month. And now we have another reminder of why this album was one of the best death metal detonations of 2016, as we bring you a video for the track “Lex Talionis“.

I may be bending the usage of the word “premiere” in this post, because the album has been out since last month and the track you’re about to hear has recently been added to the Bandcamp player for the album. And although the video is new, it’s not as elaborate as most videos you may see here. But to be honest, any excuse will do for me to trumpet the attractions of The Brimstone Aggrandizement. If you’ve somehow missed our previous writings about it, feast your eyes upon Echelon’s line-up: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FRIENDSHIP — “BOTTOMLESS PIT”

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Jan 102017
 

 

The Japanese band Friendship seem to have an ironic sense of humor. Their music isn’t friendly. In fact, it’s about as far from friendly as you could imagine. “Crippling” would be a better description, as you’re about to find out.

On February 27, Sentient Ruin Laboratories will release an album named Friendship I & II, which compiles the tracks from two EPs that were previously self-released by the band. What we have for you is one of those tracks, appropriately named “Bottomless Pit”, which vividly exemplifies the disparate ways in which Friendship both electrify and dismantle their listeners. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELLCRAFT — “APOTHEOSIS OF WAR”

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Jan 102017
 

 

“Apotheosis” is one of those words that I would usually just skate by when I saw it, thinking I had a vague understanding of its meaning but never bothering to really learn the precise meaning. And then, after listening to the new Hellcraft album, Apotheosis of War, I had to find out exactly what the word meant. The dictionary defines it as “elevation to divine status”, and that made so much sense in the case of this album — because it’s undeniably and almost unrelentingly warlike, and it’s also divine.

Apotheosis of War is this Ukrainian death metal band’s third album and their first one since 2012. It will be released on January 13, and at the end of this post you’ll find our premiere of a full album stream. But first, I have to tell you more about how great this album is, because if I don’t, I might rupture some possibly significant internal organ. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: MAZE OF SOTHOTH — “SOUL DEMISE”

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Jan 092017
 

 

Today Maze Of Sothoth come blasting out of the north of Italy with the release of their debut album Soul Demise, and today we trigger the detonation with a premiere stream of all 10 songs.

We’ve already premiered one furious, utterly morbid track (“Seed of Hatred”) and followed that with a review of Soul Demise, in which our writer TheMadIsraeli praised the album as embracing “the most timeless of death metal’s elements combined with a refinement of its greatest decade”, challenging “modern death metal’s gratuitous excess” by defying its “excessive musical ornamentation”, and confounding expectations by upending “humanity’s innate need to find or maintain order”. It is, in his summation, “a powerful and vicious death metal record”. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VACIVUS — “NUCLEAR CHAOS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jan 092017
 

 

I first paid attention to the UK black/death metal band Vacivus when discovering their 2015 EP Rite of Ascension, much as one might pay attention to a nuclear air burst overhead, just before the shockwave hits. We delivered the premiere of Rite of Ascension in all its terrible glory, and today we bring you the premiere of another Vacivus EP, this one a two-song detonation named Nuclear Chaos that will be released in March on 7″ vinyl by Goatprayer Records. It can be considered a prelude to the band’s next full-length album, which this time will be released by Profound Lore Records.

I frothed at the mouth over this band’s last EP, writing of Rite that “it’s not for the faint of heart, but I think it will hold a strong appeal to fans of savage, void-faring death metal that brings both killer riffs and a poisonous, otherworldly atmosphere.” I also ventured the guess that it marked “the stunning appearance of a band whose name we expect to see praised throughout the dark places in the underground where ancient death worship is the order of the day.” The Profound Lore signing could be seen as confirmation of that forecast. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TURIA — “WATERZUCHT”

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Jan 092017
 

 

The Dutch black metal band Turia made a powerful first impression with their debut album Dor in 2015. Much of the music (which was recorded live) could be characterized as propulsive atmospheric black metal, with teeth — barbed with melodic hooks and relying on sequences of repeating movements that drove the music into your head like railroad spikes. But the album revealed other dimensions as well, including slower and gloomier ones, all of them equally seductive.

The band’s second album, Dede Kondre, will be released on January 23 by Altare Productions (12″ vinyl) and Haeresis Noviomagi (cassette tape). Its title track was released near the end of last year, and today we have the pleasure of bringing you a second song, “Waterzucht“. Continue reading »

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