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AN NCS PREMIERE: NACHTLIEDER — “LONELY MORTAL” AND “EVE”

Oct 192015

The Female of the Species is the second album by the Swedish one-woman black metal band Nachtlieder, due for release on December 7 via the always interesting I, Voidhanger label. What we have for you today is a somewhat unusual premiere of music from the album — featuring two songs instead of one.

These two songs — “Lonely Mortal” and “Eve” — appear back-to-back as the fourth and fifth tracks on the album. And they will give you a sense of how the music flows within the album, and of the contrasts that Nachtlieder has created. After you hear them, you may conclude that the peaceful, self-reflective quality of the photo on the album cover is a misdirection. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NYX — “GOING ON”

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Oct 192015

October 30 is the date set by Agonia Records for the release of Home, the debut album by a German duo (Blitz and Vinterbarn) who call themselves NYX. We’re helping introduce you to NYX through our North American premiere of a song from the album called “Going On”.

The backbone of this creative, multifaceted song is made from black metal, but it reveals other musical ingredients as well — and the overall effect of the music is dark, unsettling, and very engrossing. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABHORRENT — “A LIGHTNESS OF MIND”

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Oct 162015

Abhorrent are a death metal band whose members include bassist Erlend Caspersen from Spawn of Possession, drummer Lyle Cooper (Absurdist, ex-The Faceless), guitarist Marlon Friday (Absurdist), and vocalist Nick Brown. Their debut album Intransigence will be released by Willowtip Records on November 20th. We’ve already praised an advance track from the album named “Ifrit”, and now we bring you another: “A Lightness of Mind“.

This new song features guest vocals by Mephistopheles’ Matthew “Chalky” Chalk (ex-Psycroptic), and he’s not the only notable guest who contributes to the album: It also includes performances by Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder), Malcolm Pugh (Inferi, A Loathing Requiem), and Antonio Ascencio (Serocs). And as you can see, it’s adorned by cover art from one of our favorite metal artists, Timo Ketola. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GENEVIEVE — “ESCAPISM”

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Oct 162015

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of the scathing new album by Maryland’s Genevieve.)

By definition, escapism denotes an activity or fantasy used to distract us from our daily pain and boredom. So when Maryland-based black/death act Genevieve decided to call their record Escapism, it seems to have been used here more like the opposite of what the word means — as if its use here instead actually represents an invitation of nightmares and horror into their world as opposed to hiding in positive forms of escapism. I get the sense that with music as pitch-black and haunting as Genevieve’s, this reversal of the term’s meaning was done purposefully.

For all the immense hatred and chaos on display in their music, Genevieve do take time to offer reprieves from the chaotic storm bearing down upon listeners, in the form of sparse instrumentals called “Paradise I” and “Paradise II”, which open and close the record. Both are built upon Middle Eastern-sounding melodies and played with a slow, restrained feel, although “Parasite II” reveals a more drone-influenced soundscape overall, one that that creates a sense of mystery as it closes the intense journey that Escapism has taken you on. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: MORTAL TORMENT — “CLEAVER REDEMPTION”

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Oct 152015

The Greek death metal band Mortal Torment are celebrating their tenth anniversary of tormented existence by releasing their second album tomorrow via Gore House Production. And I think an opening round of applause is in order for the band’s choice of album title: Cleaver Redemption. And let’s have a second round of applause for the completely fitting cover art created by Athens-based Remedy Art Design (Keep of Kalessin, The Crown, Uncleansed).

Of course, the key question is whether applause is in order for the album itself. You can decide for yourselves, because we’re giving you the opportunity to hear all of it. With song titles such as “Epileptic Defecation”, “A Million Skulls To Bludgeon”, and “Fucked In the Eye Socket”, you will find some clues about what awaits you. A few more clues may be found in some of the names identified by the band as influences — Dying Fetus, Aborted, Benighted. Continue reading »

NAUGHT: “NAUGHT”

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Oct 152015

The members of the Phoenix band Naught have not disclosed their identities. The odds are high that they are human, but the music leaves room for doubt, for it is terror made manifest, doom made palpable — frigid, desolate, and harrowingly inhuman.

We bring you an exclusive stream of Naught’s self-titled debut, to be released in limited quantities by Battleground Records beginning tomorrow. Especially for a first full-length, it’s a remarkably accomplished and remarkably pitiless offering that all true fans of apocalyptic doom and sludge should embrace.

The self-titled album consists of three long tracks (“I, The Wraith”, “Firmament, Alight”, and “Oblation”) and one brief, unsettling ambient interlude (“A Looming Impermanence”). The music is spare and primitive, yet so well-produced and ingeniously conceived that it irresistibly opens the mind’s eye to vast barren vistas populated by the shades of the dead. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATRORUM — “CAMOUFLAGE”

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Oct 142015

As regular readers of our site know all too well, I get enthusiastic about new music on a near-daily basis, so verdant and varied is creativity in the world of metal. Rarely, there are days when I hear something so wild that I can’t even imagine how it was conceived, much less executed. Today is one of those days.

What you are about to hear is a song called “Camouflage” by a German duo named Atrorum. A person with good sense would stop now and simply invite you to press Play. Not being such a person, and feeling a compulsion to sing its praises despite also feeling completely inadequate to do so, I will continue. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZILLAH — “SERPENTINE HALO”

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Oct 142015

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of the lethal and fascinating new album by Scotland’s Zillah.)

As most of our readers are probably already aware, Scotland’s own death metal savants Zillah are a band we here at NCS really enjoy. Before the full album stream for Serpentine Halo that you’ll find below, we had previously exclusively premiered both album opener “Therefore I Am” and track three, “Made Flesh And Bone”. We are very proud to be able to let you hear the whole record ahead of its official release date this Friday.

Both of the songs we previously premiered offered an experience akin to injecting pure adrenaline and hatred directly into your skull. Yet calculating full-throttle rage is far from the only mode that Serpentine Halos cycles through. Several tracks that make up much of the second half of the record such as “Karras”, “Man Son Of Swine”, “One Thousand Stones Thrown Pt. 1”, and closer “He Who Knows All” temper their steamrolling nature with an experimental and brooding side that weaves in and out of the faster moments. This really adds a lot of dynamic tension to Serpentine Halo that really expands Zillah’s songwriting palette beyond the typical death metal focus on speed as a weapon — although the album’s other rage-centric numbers, which include “Something Done Cannot be Undone” and “Not All Of Me Shall Die”, are electrifying highlights as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEGEMON — “CREDO QUIA ABSURDUM”

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Oct 132015

The Hierarch is the fourth album by the French black metal band Hegemon and their first full-length in seven years. My comrade Leperkahn wrote about the first advance track from the album (here) in September, and today we bring you the premiere of a second one: “Credo Quia Absurdum“.

There is much about the song that summons images of a wolf pack tearing into its prey, with teeth flashing, blood spraying, and massed snarls splitting the air in a hair-raising frenzy. It’s pure black metal savagery, replete with thundering drums and slashing riffs. But as good as Hegemon are at delivering sonic barbarism, that’s only part of the exotic and esoteric adventure in this song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK GRAIL — “LA CIUDADELA DE SHIVA”

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Oct 092015

The Chilean band Black Grail have recorded a debut album named Misticismo Regrisivo. It will be released by Tyrannus Records on November 2, 2015. At the end of this post you can hear a song we’re premiering named “La Ciudadela de Shiva”. I thought of two ways to introduce it.

First way: You’re about to hear a sonic atrocity, a savage demonic manifestation intent on bring about ruination and degradation. Foul and sulfurous, it’s a “procreation of sounds worthy of a psychiatric center” in the midst of an arson attack, vividly conveying the furious agonies of inmates consumed by flame while hellish entities howl in ecstasy at all the fresh death. Continue reading »

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