AN NCS PREMIERE: GLOSON — “ANTLERS”

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Jan 052017
 

 

This is good timing. At our site we’ve recently started rolling out our list of 2016’s “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs”. Our 2015 list included a song by Sweden’s Gloson from their striking 32-minute debut EP Yearwalker. And now we have a new song to premiere from their forthcoming debut album Grimen, which is one we’ve been eagerly awaiting. Don’t be surprised if you see this song next year at this time, on our 2017 list.

We’ve already had one powerful clue that the dynamic power of Yearwalker wasn’t the result of random luck and didn’t represent a plateau of what Gloson were capable of achieving. I’m referring to the song “Cringe“, which appeared last fall. This new song, “Antlers“, provides further proof that Gloson have continued to move upward, even though they started their climb at a very high place already. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LASTER — “ONS VRIJE FATUM”

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Jan 042017
 

 

It would be an understatement to say that the new album by the Dutch band Laster represents a large step ahead of their 2014 debut. It is more like a running leap ahead, doing somersaults and back-flips in the air before sticking the landing. That’s not intended to take anything away from De verste verte is hier, which was very good, but Ons vrije fatum is the kind of musical marvel that opens your eyes as wide as saucers.

This new album will be released on January 9 by Dunkelheit Produktionen, and today we bring you a full stream of its seven remarkable songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AU CHAMP DES MORTS — “DANS LA JOIE”

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Jan 042017
 

 

Last June the Debemur Morti label released a most impressive debut EP (Le Jour Se Lève) by the French band Au Champ Des Morts, which we had the pleasure of premiering. In those first songs, the band proved themselves to be powerful sonic spellcasters, with a talent for creating dynamic, richly textured music with a black metal core that hit with riveting emotional intensity. Debemur Morti is now following that EP with the release of the band’s debut album Dans La Joie later this month, and we have for you today a stream of its title track.

Au Champ Des Morts was founded in 2014 by guitarist/vocalist Stefan Bayle (Anorexia Nervosa) and he is joined on this album by bassist/vocalist Cecile G. and drummer Wilhelm. As you can see, the album also greatly benefits by the striking cover art of Dehn Sora. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SWAMPCULT — “CHAPTER III – AL-AZIF NECRONOMICON”

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Jan 032017
 

 

In August of last year we premiered a song from an album called The Festival by the Dutch duo SwampCult. The album was eventually released in October, and both before and after its release it earned substantial praise from metal writers scattered around the globe, excerpts of which appear in a long list at the album’s Bandcamp page. Today we have a reminder of the album for listeners who may not yet have explored it, and a terrifying companion to the music for those who already have: the premiere of a video for the same song we had the pleasure of premiering last August, “Chapter III – Al-Azif Necronomicon“.

For the newcomers, The Festival is based entirely on a story by H.P. Lovecraft that bears the same name, which was first published in the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales magazine. The album traces that story from start to finish, with each song representing a different chapter in the unfolding narrative. In addition, the album is accompanied by a special story card for each song. Here’s the one for “Al-Azif Necronomicon”: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: INSULTERS — “METAL STILL MEANS DANGER”

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Jan 022017
 

 

The Spanish band Insulters named their new album Metal Still Means Danger. It includes songs named “Bang Your Fucking Skull”, “Here Falls the Hammer”, and of course “Metal Still Means Danger”. When you openly brandish so many over-the-top heavy metal tropes, you run some risks — and you’d better be able to back it up with something more than bullet belts, pentagrams, and even the right kind of spirit. Insulters definitely back it up, as you’re about to find out.

Metal Still Means Danger was officially released on January 1, 2017, by Unholy Prophecies and Equinox Discos, and we’re helping spread the word through the premiere of a full album stream. It’s a nasty nine-track hellride that will punch a lot of primal metalhead buttons, and yes, it is likely to cause an orgy of headbanging. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LA TORTURE DES TÉNÈBRES — “CIVILIZATION IS THE TOMB OF OUR NOBLE GODS”

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Dec 312016
 

 

This last day of an unusual and unsettling year marks the release of an unusual and unsettling album that it’s our pleasure to premiere for you. The album’s name is Civilization Is the Tomb of Our Noble Gods, and it was created by La Torture Des Ténèbres from Ottawa, Canada.

I’ve tried, but I haven’t succeeded, in stitching together my thoughts about the album in a coherent, organized form. The music defeats such efforts, or at least my own. More likely, I just haven’t yet reassembled the parts of my mind that were fragmented but also left spellbound by what I’ve heard. So I’ll just scatter my impressions before you like leaves that are still swirling in the wind. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FLESHMEADOW — “UMBRA”

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Dec 292016
 

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(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Norway’s Fleshmeadow and brings us a premiere of a full album stream.)

Ok. This is my REAL last 2016 review. I promise. And it comes with a stream premiere.

Fleshmeadow are in the vein of progressive AND technical black metal that I’ve fallen in love with. When I think of black metal I enjoy, I think of bands like Khonsu, Keep of Kalessin, Dark Fortress, Old Man’s Child. These bands are always doing interesting things, writing superbly crafted riff-storms of frigid ice comprised of foreign alien matter and scathing nihilism toward existence itself — and so is Fleshmeadow.

Fleshmeadow’s  Umbra came out on December 16th, so it’s another one of those releases that has come too late in the month to get its proper year-end recognition. That’s really sad, because if you like more deliberate, progressive, and machine-cold black metal, this might be the best black metal album released in 2016 that wasn’t Khonsu’s The Xun Protectorate. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TERRA TENEBROSA — “WHERE SHADOWS HAVE TEETH”

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Dec 272016
 

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Terra Tenebrosa’s new album The Reverses received a lot of attention at our site this year, as it did just about everywhere else in the ghetto of metaldom. We reviewed it not once but twice, the second time in the context of a feature on all of the band’s albums to date. We also had the privilege of bringing you the first full stream of the record, and NCS writer Andy Synn named it one of 2016’s Great Albums. And now, as this year is about to gasp its last breaths, we’re helping to premiere a video for a song from the album — “Where Shadows Have Teeth“.

For those who still may not have explored The Reverses, allow me to quote excerpts from our two reviews:

“The Reverses is as heavy, as dense, and as radioactive as a cache of transuranic elements. It’s a visit to a nightmare realm where the shadows have teeth, the surreal musical equivalent of a Hieronymus Bosch landscape, a vision of hell, or perhaps the exorcism of hellish visions. It sinks its talons into the twisted nightshades that grow in the darker corners of the human psyche and shakes them until they quiver with fearful and fearsome excitement.”

“From start to finish The Reverses is a mental and physical ordeal that spits in the face of the orthodox, and laughs manically at any suggestion of normality.”

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARSAFES — “ZIGGURAT”

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Dec 262016
 

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We’ve been following the creative pursuits of Moscow-based artist and sound engineer Roman Arsafes for almost as long as this site has been in existence. We first learned of him through the excellent releases of his band Kartikeya, and since then have followed his work through many other earlier and later projects in which he has either been a member of a group or a solo artist, including Nevid, Above the Earth, Zmey Gorynich, and of course Arsafes. Today it’s our pleasure to bring you the premiere of a new Arsafes single named “Ziggurat“, which is being released today via Bandcamp.

Roman composed the song, produced it, and performs all the instruments and vocals, with orchestral arrangements by William Graney. The single on Bandcamp comes not only with the full new song but also with an instrumental-only version of the track, plus stems for drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, and vocals. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABSCESSION — “THE FINAL FURNACE”

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Dec 242016
 

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On this 24th day of December, 2016, the thoughts of some people are turning to contemplations of peace on earth and good will to men (and women). Abscession are more intent on reducing the planet to a smoldering cinder. Their objectives are made manifest in the title of their new single, “The Final Furnace“, and even more undeniably in the music itself.

The song, which is being released in digital form today, is the first track from a forthcoming album that bears the working title Rot of Ages, and we present it to you in the form of a lyric video. It comes emblazoned with cover art painted by Mattias Frisk, frontman of Vanhelgd and an artist responsible for artwork on behalf of such other fine bands as Ghost, Miasmal, and Entrapment. Continue reading »

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