AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEMELBESTORMER — “AETHER”

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Feb 192016
 

Hemelbestormer-Aether

 

Three weeks ago we premiered a video for a new song by a Belgian band named Hemelbestormer that drew a tremendously positive response. But as good as “After Us, The Flood” is, the experience of listening to that song along with the other three on the album is even more immense. And now you will have the chance to do that: Aether is being released today by Debemur Morti Prductions, and we are bringing you a full stream of the album.

As we explained at the time of that earlier premiere, “Hemelbestormer” is a Dutch word that in its literal English translation means “sky stormer” or “stormer of heaven”, but is also a name for someone with revolutionary views — an idealist, a maker of wild plans. In both senses of the word, it suits the music on Aether. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VIA VENGEANCE — “DEAD IN THE SNOW”

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Feb 182016
 

Via Vengeance-Harsh Conditions

 

Via Vengeance is an unusual band. The fact that it’s a solo project may not be that unusual, but Shane Ocell (who’s also the drummer in the Phoenix sludge group Sorxe) carries his music beyond the studio, performing guitar, vocals, and drums live — all at once, by himself, without the use of looping or other digital manipulation. The second album of Via Vengeance, Harsh Conditions, which has been gestating for several years, will finally be released on March 11 by Battleground Records, and today we’ve got one of the new songs for you:  “Dead In the Snow“.

On this song, Ocell isn’t going it entirely alone, as he usually does. A Storm of Light’s Josh Graham — who also created the cover art — makes a guest vocal and guitar appearance on the song (and interestingly, Ocell’s grandmother BJ Scott adds piano and clean vocal harmonies elsewhere on Harsh Conditions). When asked about Josh Graham’s appearance, Shane Ocell explained: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INVIDIOSUS — “NEUROTIC MISERY”

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Feb 172016
 

Invidiosus-Neurotic Misery

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Minneapolis-based Invidiosus.)

For regular NCS readers, Minneapolis tech-death mongrels Invidiosus should be a familiar name by now. To date, I’ve helped premiere two songs by them so far at NCS. The first was “Exacerbated Psychosis” off their 2014 full-length, Malignant Universe. The second was for a stand-alone single at the very end of 2014 called “Overlords Of The Apocalypse”. While the projections for release of an upcoming EP or new album are unknown to me, we do have another stand-alone Invidiosus song to share with you today. It’s called “Neurotic Misery”, and damn is it a lot of fun to hear in spite of its grim and bleak title!

Much like their last single we premiered, “Overlords Of The Apocalypse”, the music on “Neurotic Misery” is a bit different and evolved compared to how Invidiosus sounded on Malignant Universe. As I mentioned before, they’ve always had a hodge-podge sort of a sound, which I think works in their favor. Yet with “Overlords…”, and now “Neurotic Misery”, it seems the band is figuring out how to form a sound all their own out of their myriad of influences. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VICTORIAN WHORE DOGS — “I HAVE BECOME…”

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Feb 162016
 

Victorian Whore Dogs-Afternoonified

 

Victorian Whore Dogs are not a new exotic breed of canine, although you can’t help but wonder what such a creature might look like and how risky it might be to take them for a stroll in the park. No, Victorian Whore Dogs are a UK metal band from Guildford whose debut album Afternoonified is due for release at the end of March. What we have for you today is a rousing new video for a song from the album named “I Have Become…”

Last year the band won the Reading Bloodstock Metal 2 the Masses competition, which earned them the right to perform at the Bloodstock Festival on the New Blood Stage — and that’s where this video was filmed.

With a name like Victorian Whore Dogs, you don’t expect to see a band solemnly rooted in fixed positions on the stage, dishing out glacial drone to an equally rigid audience with arms crossed and eyes closed. And in fact, that’s not what happens. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORGUE SUPPLIER — “HEATHEN (THE THROES OF POISON)”

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Feb 142016
 

Mogue Supplier-cover

 

Morgue Supplier have been rotting away in some very dark urban crevice, festering for roughly seven years since the release of their 2009 EP Constant Negative. A whole hell of a lot of seething viciousness has been building up, and now it’s about to explode. On February 19 the band’s self-titled album will be released via Obscure Musick, and today we bring you a stream of the album’s opening track, “Heathen (The Throes of Poison)“.

The band’s roots go back to roughly 1997, when their original name was Jugular Appetizer, and in 2004 they delivered a debut album called Sociopath. Here in the present, the band’s only remaining member is vocalist Paul Gillis (Drug Honkey), and he’s joined on the new album by drummer/guitarist Eric Bauer (who’s been with the band since 2002) and bass-player Steve Reichelt. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ÉOHUM — “THE APATHETIC PLAGUE”

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Feb 122016
 

eohum-ealdfaeder-ep

 

Montreal’s Éohum have completed work on their second EP — entitled Ealdfaeder — and it’s now scheduled for release by Mycelium Networks on March 18. From this five-track, 30-minute release, we bring you today the premiere of a distinctive and moving song called “The Apathetic Plague“.

When you listen to the track, it may help to understand the thematic concept of Ealdfaeder and the reflections that inspired the music, because from the band’s perspective they seem to be inseparable. As Éohum’s founder and guitarist Jeremy Perkins explains, “The album speaks generally about the lost voice of past cultures who were colonized and the decaying relationship humanity has with nature due to the societies we live in. The loss of traditions we held and relationships we had with nature.” Continue reading »

NCS PREMIERE: EXTERMINATION TEMPLE — “PHYSICAL TORTURE”

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Feb 122016
 

Extermination-Temple-Lifeless-Forms

 

Are you sitting down? If you’re not sitting down, you should probably sit down. In a big heavy chair that’s hard for you to turn over. Maybe get someone to tie you to the chair, strap on a neck brace, and put a rawhide dog toy between your teeth so you don’t bite your tongue off. Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit, but since I know what’s coming, I thought it might be better to be safe than sorry.

The name of the song we’re premiering is “Physical Torture” and it’s the lead-off track from Lifeless Forms, a four-song 7″ EP recorded by a one-man Swedish band named Extermination Temple. The EP will be released on March 4 by Apocalyptic Visions, which is not only the name of the label but also a decent description of what you’ll have when you listen to this. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SUPREME CARNAGE — “SKIN TURNS BLACK”

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Feb 112016
 

Supreme Carnage-Sentenced By the Cross

 

In mid-December we had the pleasure of premiering a full stream of Sentenced By the Cross, the new album by Germany’s Supreme Carnage, which has now been released by Redefining Darkness Records. Today we bring you another Supreme Carnage premiere — the new video for one of the album’s hard-hitting songs: “Skin Turns Black“.

“Skin Turns Black” is a great example of why Sentenced By the Cross is so much fun. It affects your head in many different ways: It slugs you in the head; it gets your head banging; and it’s laced with a dark melody that gets stuck in your head. It’s death metal that’s both grim and galloping, mixing heavy grooves and racing riffs with seductive guitar leads and a scintillating solo. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ORACLES — “SCORN”

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Feb 112016
 

Oracles-Miserycorde

 

What do you get when you put Athenian-born, classically trained soprano Sanna Salou together with current and former members of Aborted, System Divide, and Abigail Williams? You get Oracles, a band whose debut album Miserycorde will be released by the French label Deadlight Entertainment on July 1. To give you an advance taste of what’s coming in July we bring you the premiere of a video for an album track called “Scorn“.

In addition to Ms. Salou, the Oracles line-up includes names that will be familiar to fans of extreme metal:

Sven De Caluwé (Aborted) – vocals
Sanna Salou (ex-Dimlight) – vocals
Mendel Bij de Leij (Aborted) – guitar
Steve Miller (ex-System Divide, Loculus) – guitar
Andrei Aframov (ex-System Divide) – bass
Ken Bedene (Aborted, ex-Abigail Williams) – drums Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INFERNAL CURSE — “LITANIES UNTO DJINN”

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Feb 102016
 

Infernal Curse-Apocalipsis

 

I discovered Argentina’s Infernal Curse when Iron Bonehead Productions released their EP The End Upon Us in 2014 (on Bandcamp here), which I gather represented an evolution in sound from their 2012 debut album Awakening of the Damned. Iron Bonehead is now poised to release the band’s second album, aptly entitled Apocalipsis, and it represents even further movement — not forward, or backward, but through some interdimensional membrane on a course that takes them (and us) into a realm where horrors reign supreme.

“Litanies Unto Djinn” is the album’s second track, and we bring it to you today, as a ghastly offering to the dark things the lurk in your mind. With the rhythmic tick of a cymbal and slow, dismal, distorted chords, the band launch the song with a foreshadowing of the doom to come — and then the true carnage begins. Continue reading »

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