Premieres Archives - Page 419 of 481

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRIMINAL — “SHOCK DOCTRINE”

Feb 092016

On March 11, 2016, Metal Blade Records will release Fear Itself, the eighth studio album by the band Criminal and the group’s first full-length since 2011. One electrifying song from Fear Itself (“Down Driven”) debuted near the end of last month, and now we bring you another one: “Shock Doctrine“.

The new album is the latest chapter in a story that began in about 1991, when Chilean guitarist/vocalist Anton Reisenegger founded the band in Santiago after the break-up of the Chilean death metal band Pentagram. After achieving considerable success during the ’90s, Reisenegger reconstituted the band following his move to the UK in 2001, and continued to release albums (including two on Metal Blade in 2004 and 2005). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAPHEUMETS WELL — “RESURRECTING THE BLOOD GATE”

Premieres 1 Response »

Feb 082016

Based in Hickory, North Carolina, Rapheumets Well are a group of storytellers who are in the process of weaving a complex science fiction saga through their music. The story began in their 2014 debut album Dimensions, and on March 18 it will continue through the release of their second album, The Exile. As sci-fi fans ourselves, today we’re pleased to bring you the premiere of a lyric video for the new album’s opening track, a song named “Resurrecting the Blood Gate“.

The band’s name is itself drawn from this interdimensional, world-spanning tale of conflict and perseverance. Within the fictitious universe of Sovael, ancient architects known as the Atai have aided in the propagation of sentient life throughout the cosmos. As the band explain, Rapheumet is the name of a deity personified as a trickster, “a master of portals and interdimensional travel” who “often creates chaos for unsuspecting voyagers”, and in the band’s name “Well” refers to gravity wells, “which like black holes are catalysts of change and gateways between the cosmic plains.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEVERED — “EDGE OF THE ABYSS”

Premieres No Responses »

Feb 062016

In recent years, Iceland has developed a reputation as a spawning ground for excellent black metal bands, but the country’s contributions to extreme metal go well beyond those black arts. And as convincing proof of that, I give you Severed.

I first came across the band’s music back in 2012 when they were using the name Severed Crotch. Even then, I was late to the party. By that point they had released a couple of demos in 2007 and a debut album in 2010 (The Nature of Entropy). Now brandishing a more truncated name (suggestive of more generalized and less crotch-specific violence), the band have recorded a new five-song promo that’s intended to lay the groundwork for their next full-length album.

The band have been gradually releasing songs from the album for streaming since last fall, and today we’re fortunate to bring you the fourth one, a track named “Edge of the Abyss“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HORRIFIED — “AMIDST THE DARKEST DEPTHS”

Premieres 11 Responses »

Feb 052016

The UK quartet Horrified released an impressive debut album in 2014 by the name of Descent Into Putridity. As the album’s name implies, the music was the kind of nasty, primal death metal that paid its respects to the likes of Autopsy and Pestilence. They’ve now completed work on a second full-length entitled Of Despair, which was mastered by Damian Herring (Horrendous) at Subterranean Watchtower Studios and will be released by Stormspell Records on March 25.

As you’re about to hear (and as you might even guess from the style of the album’s eye-catching cover art by Raul Gonzales), the band have broadened their musical horizons since their debut, taking inspiration from such Scandinavian greats as Dissection, Unanimated, and Sacramentum.

The band’s vocalist/guitarist Dan Alderson described the band’s musical approach for the new album in this way: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SACRILEGIUM — “VENOMOUS SPELL OF FATE”

Premieres 1 Response »

Feb 032016

Twenty years is a long time between albums. In such a span of time, musicians grow and mature as people, and inevitably the lives they’ve lived and the changes in their thinking will work their way into their music. That doesn’t mean the history no longer matters — for some bands it’s still a living, breathing part of who they are now, as people and musicians.

Twenty years ago the Polish black metal band Sacrilegium released their debut album Wicher, and on March 18 of this year, Pagan Records will release their second full-length, Anima Lucifera — a title that refers to a line from a poem by Leopold Staff (excerpts of which have also been used in the new Sacrilegium tracks). Leaving aside a single from the album that appeared last year (“Angelus“), it’s the first new music from the band since about 1999.

What we have for you today is a sign of where Sacrilegium stand today, a reflection of their past and their present, as we premiere a song from the album called “Venomous Spell of Fate“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTARAGE — “BATHEREX”

Premieres 15 Responses »

Feb 032016

Altarage come from Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain, a region of the country with a rich and fascinating history. Metal-Archives lists 138 active metal bands from the Basque Country, including such names as Virulency, Cerebral Effusion, Extirpation, Horn of the Rhino, The Rodeo Idiot Engine, and Knives — to name a few I know of and have written about. But I don’t know of any who sound like Altarage. And even when you leave that land far behind and lift your eyes to farther horizons, Altarage still stand out.

Their debut 7″ EP, MMXV, was released by Iron Bonehead last September, and even at only two songs long, it was an impressively powerful eye-opener. To sum up what I thought about it when I heard it last summer: “This is primitive, poisonous, electrifying music from a band that’s now squarely on my radar screen for the future.” We didn’t have to wait long for more. In just a few weeks, Iron Bonehead will be releasing the band’s debut album, NIHL, and we now have a track from the album named “Batherex” that embraces world-eating destruction with a voracious hunger. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TEMISTO — “SUCCUBUS”

Premieres 1 Response »

Feb 032016

In the middle of last month our writer Allen Griffin pounced like a panther on the self-titled debut album by Sweden’s Temisto, reviewing it with early enthusiasm using words such as these: “Temisto seem to simultaneously channel both pre-Entombed Morbid and Nihilist while also invoking more technical acts such as Atheist. At their fastest and most brutal, Temisto nearly reach Angelcorpse levels of kinetic violence.”

Allen’s review also made clear the reach of Temisto’s ambitions and the breadth of their musical scope, from the evocatively atmospheric to the utterly savage. In the latter category, he praised “Succubus“, a multifaceted song that he claimed might be the album’s most balanced track and might also prove to be its most satisfying. We’re fortunate now to give you a listen to precisely that song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CAMEL OF DOOM — “PYROCLASTIC FLOW”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Feb 022016

Since the founding of the UK band Camel of Doom by Kris Clayton almost 15 years ago, the band’s sound has evolved, though its iron backbone has remained doom. The results of that continuing growth and exploration are now reflected in the band’s most recent album, their fourth, which will be released by Solitude Productions on February 8.

Entitled Terrestrial, it’s a massive undertaking, with four songs ranging from almost 12 minutes to more than 14, along with four shorter tracks. Today we bring you one of those leviathan excursions, a song called “Pyroclastic Flow“.

Two of the song’s building blocks manifest themselves right away — distorted, pavement-cracking riffs; and a trippy bit of electronica that flickers in the background and is as intangible and strange as the riffs and drumbeats are physically dismantling. As those riff monsters continue to clobber our heads, Clayton cries the lyrics in a high yell, like a street-corner prophet announcing the end of the world. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WITCH OF THE WASTE — “I BET YOU’RE WONDERING WHAT I’M DOING WITH THIS HERE GAS CAN”

Premieres 1 Response »

Feb 012016

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a video from Vancouver, BC’s Witch of the Waste.)

After covering the latest Witch Of The Waste here at NCS last year, and then also placing it on my year-end list, I’d hope most of our audience is already aware of these brilliant Canadian noisemongerers by now. But if you aren’t, we are exclusively premiering a video for the closing song off last year’s fantastic EP, Made Of Teeth. So if you missed both of my prior posts about these guys, now is the time to tune in and turn it up loud.

To briefly summarize my initial assessment of Made Of Teeth, I’ll quote from my 2015 write-up on it here at NCS: “Like a modern spin on the chaotic metallic hardcore wave of old, Witch Of The Waste come across similar to phenomenal acts such as Burnt By The Sun, Dillinger, As The Sun Sets, and Ed Gein. Neither completely a metal or hardcore record, Made of Teeth straddles the line in a spazzy way that’s always interesting and unique. In addition Made Out Of Teeth also injects some grim and smashing black metal elements into their brand of sonic life-ending napalm.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TORMENTIUM — “FALLEN (IN DEFIANCE)”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Feb 012016

Tormentium have been poisoning the Pacific Northwest for more than a decade, cascading Cascadia with their own preternatural darkness through a sequence of demos, splits with Infernus and Cult of Unholy Shadows, an EP (Cursed Beyond Flesh), and live assaults. On March 25, Exile Music(k) will bring us the band’s debut album Bound To the Depths, and today we bring you the premiere of a song from the album named “Fallen (In Defiance)“.

The band have explained that Bound To The Depths “is a large body of work with a loose subjective theme: where the ‘depths’ represents something different in each piece… your inner demons, desires, convictions, and damnations. The lyrics are mainly story-like narratives, reflecting these themes through characters, and ultimately reflecting metaphorically through the listener. The album as a whole flows like a story as well, guiding the listener through the aether of darkness to events of rage, insanity, and sacrifice.” Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries