AN NCS PREMIERE: ILL OMEN AND SLAUGHTBBATH — “PESTILENTIAL HIEROPHANIES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 262016
 

Ill Omen Slaughtbbath split art

 

Two striking black metal bands separated by the Pacific have joined forces in a new split release coming out tomorrow on 7″ vinyl from Iron Bonehead Productions. The split’s title, Pestilential Hierophanies, is a conjunction of the two track names on the album, with Australia’s Ill Omen contributing “Whited, Pestilent Sepulchre…” and Chile’s Slaughtbbath providing “Inverted Hierophany”.

You can — and should — listen to both tracks below. I have a brief review first, and in a nutshell, this is one of the best splits I’ve come across this year.

ILL OMEN

The lone artist behind Ill Omen (“IV”) has quite a resume of participation in other groups, including his membership in Temple Nightside and previous work in Austere. Under the Ill Omen banner he has produced many short releases as well as three albums, including this year’s Æ.Thy.Rift. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GLOOMY GRIM — “A LADY IN WHITE”

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May 262016
 

Gloomy Grim-The Age of Aquarius

 

On June 6, Satanath Records will release a new album named The Age of Aquarius by the Finnish horror-prone black metal band Gloomy Grim. To whet your appetite for the album, today we bring you the stream of one of the new songs, “A Lady In White“.

This premiere marks Gloomy Grim’s first appearance at our putrid site, and so a word of introduction may be in order. The band first took shape in the mid-’90s as the solo project of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Agathon. Since then, Gloomy Grim evolved into a full band and have released six albums (including this new one), along with a few shorter releases. They have consistently been inspired by horror movies and their soundtracks, as well as by the darkness of life in general.

(Fair warning… there’s a band photo after the jump that’s NSFW.) Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GEVURAH — “HALLELUJAH!”

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May 252016
 

Gevurah-Hallelujah_Cover_750

 

The Montreal black metal band Gevurah made deep and lasting impressions in these quarters with their 2013 debut EP Necheshirion (discussed here) and their 2015 two-song demo Dialogue of Broken Stars (reviewed here). In less than 10 days the band’s stupendous debut album Hallelujah! will be released by Profound Lore Records, and we bring you the chance to hear all of it today.

The album is the creation of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/songwriter X.T. (who also recorded and mixed the album) and guitarist/bassist A.L. It consists of seven tracks and more than 60 minutes of music. As described by the band, “Hallelujah! is a seven-step spiritual journey of Alchemical transformation, through the death and rebirth of the Self as a pure entity of praise, a vessel for the powers beyond. It is an exhalation of worship, a humbling vow of unwavering devotion to the Lord of unbound Light.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: STORTREGN — “SINGULARITY”

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May 242016
 

Stortregn-Singularity

Singularity is the new album by the Swiss band Stortregn, and it’s an electrifying adrenaline rush from start to finish. The album will be released by the Dutch label Non Serviam Records on May 27, and today we give you the chance to hear all of it in advance of the release.

This is the band’s third album, and it sets a high-water mark for Stortregn, both in songwriting and in performance, as well as displaying a continued evolution in the band’s musical style. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EVNAR — “BLASPHEMIA MANIFESTA”

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May 242016
 

Evnar cover art

 

EvnaR was born through the collaboration between two brothers who were members of a Spanish black metal band named Between the Frost, a band whose roots were planted in the early ’90s — guitarist J.M. and vocalist R.M. They began work on EvnaR’s debut album roughly six years ago, eventually enlisting the aid of Slovenian drummer Robert Kovačič, who has performed with such bands as Scaffold, Belphegor, and Nothnegal. Their debut album E.V.N.A.R has now been prepared for joint release by Winter Demons and The Vinyl Division, and today we bring you the album’s opening track, “Blasphemia Manifesta“.

The sounds of a mounting storm begin this track, and then the music unleashes that storm in a torrent of flashing riffs and thundering drums. The music is blazing fast and intense, spurred on by a head-spinning lead-guitar performance and by feral, ferocious vocals. It’s the sound of barely contained chaos, a melding of black and death metal that gets the blood pumping immediately. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEVENTH XUL — “QLIPHOTHIC RITES OF DEATH”

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May 232016
 

seventh-xul_ep_gatefold.indd

 

Qliphothic Rites of Death has been seething in the underground for many years, like a vein of radioactive ore covered in deep black earth, waiting to be unearthed so that its arcane energies and spectral light could spread and be experienced. This week that will happen, as Iron Bonehead Productions releases this rarity on 7″ vinyl, and today we premiere both of its songs.

Qliphothic Rites of Death, originally recorded in 2010 and circulated then in small quantities, is the lone release of Seventh Xul, a unique collaboration between two luminaries of the Greek black metal scene — vocalist Acherontas V.Priest of Acherontas (and many other projects) and guitarist/bassist N.E.C.R.O of Burial Hordes, Enshadowed, and other groups — with session drumming by Fotis Benardo (Necromantia, ex-Septicflesh).

In the band’s own words, “The Ayin of Creation and Destruction Forces crowned this effort, and the necromantical vision took form in 2010 only for this release.The band split up immediately, as we felt that this was our only goal from the beginning. A unique release serving that period of wondering & isolation….” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CORBEAUX — “KIND WORDS”

 Premieres, Reviews  2 Responses »
May 232016
 

Corbeaux cover art

 

In December 2014 we had the pleasure of premiering a full stream of Hit the Head, the fascinating debut album by the French noisemongers Corbeaux, and today we’re fortunate to deliver a full stream of their full-length follow-up, Kind Words.

But there’s very little about this new album that’s kind. If anything, it’s more bleak, more unsettling, and more cataclysmic than its predecessor. It’s also even more accomplished and self-assured, even if you’ll find almost no solid ground on which to plant your feet or comfort for your addled mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NUISIBLE — “OUT COME THE WOLVES”

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May 222016
 

Nuisible cover

 

Formed in 2014 by two former members of the French hardcore band As We Bleed, Nuisible is a new enterprise whose debut EP Inter Feces et Urinam Nascimur  will be released by Deadlight Entertainment on June 23. It’s a seven-track affair, and today we introduce you to this onslaught with the premiere of a track appropriately called “Out Come the Wolves”.

Someone or something very much like a wolf is behind the mic, howling in a red fury on this stunner of a song, which moves from a bounding crust melee to a thrashing, pulsing broadside of electrifying punishment to a brutal meltdown that’s hard and heavy enough to split concrete. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SANZU — “HEAVY OVER THE HOME” (EXPANDED REISSUE)

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May 202016
 

Sanzu-Heavy Over the Home reissue

 

Australia’s Sanzu have garnered quite a bit of praise at our site (and just about everywhere else you might care to look within metaldom). Andy Synn proclaimed their 2015 EP Painless “one of the best releases I’ve heard this year… aggressive and abrasive, designed for maximum killing capacity”, and then heaped more praise on the band’s debut full-length Heavy Over the Home: “The overall package provides one of the heaviest, deepest, and most intimately rewarding (not to mention crushing) listening experiences I’ve had all year. Let’s hear it for Sanzu… the undisputed masters of southern hemisphere hydro-groove.”

Both the EP and the album were initially self-released, but now Listenable Records is re-releasing the music worldwide on CD and limited-edition orange vinyl. This new edition bears the title of the album — Heavy Over the Home — but includes the Painless EP as bonus tracks. As icing on the cake, the reissue edition comes with a revised version (above) of the eye-catching and memorable cover art that adorned the original. And we’ve got a stream of all the songs below. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SURROUNDING THE EARTH — “PART I”

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May 202016
 

Surrounding the Earth logo

 

Long-time followers of our site will be familiar with Nick Vasallo, but for newcomers in the audience, he is the lead vocalist and songwriter for the excellent technical death metal band Oblivion — and he has a Ph.D. in Music, he is the Director of Music Industry Studies at Diablo Valley College and Artistic Director for Composers, Inc., and he is a composer of contemporary classical music whose works have been performed internationally.

When last we featured him in these pages (here), the subject was a video for an experimental composition named “Inches From Freedom” performed by the guitar-and-drum duo known as The Living Earth Show (Travis Andrews and Andrew Meyerson) and two clarinetists — John McCowen and Gleb Kanasevich (yes, THE death metal clarinet cover guy).

Since then Vasallo (vocals/guitar) and those same four other musicians have formed a new project called Surrounding the Earth, and what we have for you today is a video for a 13-minute opus composed by Vasallo and performed by Surrounding the Earth called “Part I“. Continue reading »

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