Premieres Archives - Page 436 of 481

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BEAUTALITY — “EINFALLEN”

Aug 202015

In February of this year we had the pleasure of premiering a song (“From the Abyss”) from the then-forthcoming second album by a London-based band named Beautality. The album’s name is Einfallen: A Tale Ov Torment & Triumph, and today we bring you the premiere of an official video for the album’s striking title track, “Einfallen“.

The video was directed, filmed, and edited by Dan Giannopoulos in his guise as Italian horror maestro Dario Pimento, and it includes excerpts from such horror films as The Satanic Rites of Dracula, Profundo Rosso, and Horror Express, along with appearances by Beautality’s mastermind David Ravengarde and Suzy Griffiths (aka Suzy Nola). The video is really a 14-minute short film that, in the director’s words, is “a nightmarish and visceral vision of lust, insanity and redemption”, telling the “brutal story of a love that goes too far”, “a love that takes a man to the very pit of hell”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VENOM PRISON — “PRIMAL CHAOS”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Aug 202015

For the second day in a row, we bring you a premiere that’s preceded by a striking piece of cover art, which again tests my completely irrational hypothesis that cool cover art usually means cool music. This cover was created by Raul Gonzalez (Morbus Chron, Skinfather, Master), and in this case the music is a new four-song EP by a band from South Wales in the UK named Venom Prison. The name of the EP is The Primal Chaos, and my completely irrational hypothesis has been validated once again — because Venom Prison’s music is really damned cool, too.

The EP’s title track will stagger you in your tracks right from the beginning. The massive, groaning riffs and potent drum strikes hit with tremendous power, as if designed to soften you up for all the ferocious, grinding death metal savagery to come. But Venom Prison don’t just deliver morbid, early ’90s death metal, they also mix in elements of hardcore. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOREPUNCH — “GIVE ‘EM HELL”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Aug 192015

I bet that cover art got your attention. It was created by Enrique Lopez Lorenzana and it graces Give ‘Em Hell!, the debut album by a band named Gorepunch that will be released by Seeing Red Records on August 25.

The band may be new, but the members have paid their dues in such bands as Aborted, System Divide, Fear Factory, and Malignancy — and if the cover art didn’t get your attention, I bet that info did. So now, perhaps you’re ready to find out about the music — which you can explore in depth by listening to our premiere of the entire album.

But first, why don’t you check out the album’s back cover, just to make sure you’re properly prepared and in the right frame of mind: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHRINE OF INSANABILIS — “RUINA”

Premieres 7 Responses »

Aug 192015

David Glomba’s cover art for the debut album Disciples of the Void by Shrine of Insanabilis puts to the test my pet hypothesis that cool album covers tend to be a sign that cool music lies within — and this cover is definitely wonderful.

For better or worse, there are few other advance clues about the quality of the music in the public domain — other than the fact that the album will be released by W.T.C. Productions (which is certainly another favorable sign). The band’s members are unidentified, the location of the band isn’t widely advertised (though they seem to be from somewhere in Germany), and I’ve been unable to find any previously released recordings of their music.

But you are about to get a very strong clue about the music, because we’re bringing you the premiere of the new album’s second track, “Ruina”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HORSE HEAD — “MISSIONARY”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 182015

Phoenix-based Horse Head came together in 2011, announced their own death in 2013, and have now resurrected themselves from the ashes with renewed purpose. Judging from the implements they’re wielding above, their purpose seems to involve cleaving and carving. But there’s no reason to simply draw inferences based on their culinary weapons of choice, because you can also listen to the song we’re premiering today, the title track to their self-titled debut which will be released in proper form for the first time next month.

The name of the EP and the song is Missionary. The song’s opening riff is a dismal little rocking teaser, but hardly adequate preparation for the steamrolling crushfest that follows it. It’s a heavy beast of a song, with a low end that’s as thick as tree trunks and a mid-section change of course that’s such a huge, lumbering headbanger that you better loosen up your neck muscles before you get there. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: “FROM THE HELLMOUTH”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Aug 182015

Back in May of this year we premiered a full stream of the first release by a new label named Redefining Darkness Records — an excellent EP by Vintage Warlords — and today we’re bringing you a full stream of the label’s second release. This one is a self-titled monster by the Cleveland band From the Hellmouth, which is set for release on August 28.

You have to hand it to this group for coming up with a band name that so accurately represents their sound. They also made wise moves in both illustrating the album with the masterful art of Zdzisław Beksiński and also having Alan Cassidy of The Black Dahlia Murder record the drums on this debut EP. Cassidy’s performance is absolutely decimating — a machine-precise, turbocharged, eye-popping percussive demolition project.

But the songs really demanded someone of Cassidy’s skill to complement all of the other head-spinning, utterly savage performances on the EP. The songs generally fly hard and fast, one blast after another of pugilistic riffs mixed with grisly tremolo-picked swarms, segmented by booming grooves that will both get your head moving (and loosen it from your spine). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PLANKS — “SHE IS ALONE”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Aug 182015

Hosting this premiere is a bittersweet event for me. On the one hand, the song is by a German trio whose music I’ve greatly enjoyed for many years — and it’s an excellent song. On the other hand, the song appears on what will be the group’s final album. The band is Germany’s Planks, the album is Perished Bodies, and the song is “She Is Alone“.

By some measures the song is not among the heaviest of Plank’s creations. But though it may not be quite as “crushing” as some of their songs (as that adjective is commonly used), it packs an emotional punch that can still stagger you.

The song is distinctive in other respects as well. Vocally, it’s a duet between the band’s Ralph Schmidt and Leonie M. Löllmann, vocalist of the German grind/crust band SVFFER. The song was inspired by another duet, one between Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue on “Where the Wild Roses Grow”, but though you can understand why the one may have inspired the other, “She Is Alone” proves to be more savagely wrenching than spooky. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TODESSTOSS — “VERWEHUNG”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 172015

The new seventh album by Germany’s TODESSTOSS is named Hirngemeer, a word you will not find in the dictionary, a kind of jumbled contraction of the German words “Gehirn” (brain) and “Meer” (sea), as if to express the idea of a mind at sea with all moorings lost and no compass to guide it. That turns out to be a fitting title, as you will learn when you hear our premiere of the album’s first track, “Verwehung”, which means “drift”.

The album will be released on September 25 by I, Voidhanger Records, a label with a proven impeccable taste for the unorthodox and the fascinating (and no real regard for genre boundaries). The album is about 75 minutes long, but consists of only three tracks. At more than 28 minutes, “Verwehung” isn’t the longest. And yes, we’re bringing you that song in its complete form, not the kind of edited version that often appears in place of long tracks for fear of overtaxing short attention spans. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KINNEFRET — “SALVATION”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 172015

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of a new song by Kinnefret from Oakland, California.)

Kinnefret were recommended to me by Ted O’Neill of Oblivion a few days ago, and after checking them out, I rushed to see if I could secure SOMETHING with these guys. I’ve only heard two songs, but I’m thus far 100% hooked. The low down: They’re from California, and three-quarters of the band are Iranian immigrants who fled so they could play metal. Artak Ozan, the band’s founder and central pillar has told me that he is actually a political refugee here in the US for having already gotten on the Iranian government’s bad side.

The music is death metal that touches on all eras of the style. There’s some old school stuff, some modern hyper-technical stuff, a good dose of melody, and some grotesque Suffo/Dying Fetus shit thrown in, all with an underpinning of distinct Middle Eastern influence and melodic tendencies. The music is wicked, and the guitar front — the thing I care most about — is playful, complex, and interesting. The dual vocal assault of Ozan and vocalist Chelsea Rocha is also pretty overwhelming, with Rocha having a beastly and powerful voice. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THROAAT — “BLACK SPEED”

Premieres 9 Responses »

Aug 142015

Invictus Productions is in the process of releasing Black Speed, the new (third) EP by Brooklyn-based Throaat, and we’re giving you the chance to hear all of it right here. And unless you’re giving CPR or performing brain surgery, you really should stop what you’re doing and listen to it right now.

Throaat’s music draws together some of metal’s most hallowed (and evil) traditions, from the sounds of Motörhead and first-wave black metal luminaries such as Venom and early Bathory to primal speed metal, thrash, and hints of occult rock.

Other modern bands pull from those same venerated wellsprings of metal, but Black Speed is exceptional in the quality of its songwriting, in the clarity and electrifying power of the performances and the production, and in the authenticity of the venomous spirit that breathes through the music. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries