AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELLS — “PARADISE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
May 122016
 

Hells-Paradise

 

Tomorrow — May 13 — Seeing Red Records will release Paradise, the debut EP of a Philadelphia band appropriately named HELLS, and today we bring you a full stream of its six head-wrecking tracks.

When you listen to the music, it will quickly become clear that Paradise is an ironic title. At a minimum, it’s a term that must be understood in context, maybe one reflecting a worldview in which being beaten senseless or asphyxiated brings a glorious release from a daily rain of shit. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ENLIGHTEN — “ILLVMANTITHESIS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 112016
 

Enlighten-Illvmantithesis

 

The Portuguese band Enlighten weave a special kind of magic on their new EP Illvmantithesis. The music is a species of black/death metal that’s more anguished and aching than poisonous and destructive, yet the music also conveys a  sensation of chaos and creeping derangement. It’s a deft balancing act, a blending of enthralling, atmospheric melody and abrasive tumult. It’s the kind of dynamic and multifaceted creation that helps Enlighten stand out strongly from many of their peers.

The new EP consists of two songs, both of which we’re streaming for you below. It follows last year’s Phösphorvs Paramovnt EP and the band’s 2014 debut single, Svlphvr Bread, and will become available in June. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WORMFOOD — “COLLECTIONNEUR DE POUPÉES”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  3 Responses »
May 102016
 

Wormfood-LEnvers cover

 

Fifteen years from the beginning until now. That is the measure of Wormfood’s existence, though the band’s composition has been boiled down and risen again during that time, coalescing around the vocalist/guitarist El Worm (Emmanuel Lévy). Posthume was this French band’s last album (in 2011), and the new one is named L’Envers. Some songs from L’Envers have appeared already, and we have another one: “Collectionneur de Poupées“.

The band’s members since about 2010 have also contributed creatively to such groups as Abstrusa Unde, Melted Space, Öxxö Xööx, and Régiment. If you know anything about those bands, or about Emmanuel Lévy’s work in Erdh, you’ll know that Wormfood doesn’t follow a straight path. And on this new album, they’re joined on their unorthodox course by guest artists Paul Bento (ex-Type O Negative, ex-Carnivore, Wrench) and Axel Wursthorn (ex-Carnival In Coal). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ELEANORA — “ALLURE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 062016
 

Eleanora-Allure

Belgium’s Eleanora launched their career in 2014, releasing both a split LP with Amenra and a self-titled EP, and today Consouling Sounds is releasing the band’s debut full-length, a 45-minute work named Allure. To introduce the album to listeners, we are helping to premiere a full stream of all four songs.

Those who are quick with their math will deduce that the four tracks on Allure are long ones — and they’re as intense, as multifaceted, and as involving as they are long. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IMPERIUM — “TITANOMACHY”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
May 062016
 

Imperium-Titanomachy

 

On May 7, Ultimate Massacre Productions will release the new album by the UK death metal band Imperium. Entitled Titanomachy, it’s thematically based on the epic conflict in Greek mythology between the Gods and the Titans, and we’re bringing you a full stream of the album today.

This is Imperium’s second full-length, following 2012’s Sacramentum. In the years since the debut, the line-up has changed, with founding guitarist Mike Alexander now joined on this new album by Doug Anderson, the drummer of Unfathomable Ruination and formerly a member of Bloodshot Dawn, on vocals. Together they’ve recorded a powerhouse of an album that musically captures the titanic devastation of the mythic conflict on which it’s based. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INFERNAL DIATRIBE — “DEMONIC GASPING MORTAL NIGHTMARE (WISDOM)”

 Premieres  15 Responses »
May 062016
 

Infernal Diatribe-Videha Mukti

The realm of Indian metal is larger and more diverse than many outside the subcontinent may know. In particular, it seems that few black metal bands from India have crossed the radar screens of listeners beyond the country’s borders. Today we are helping one such band to spread their manifestations of the left hand path to a wider audience.

The band is Infernal Diatribe, and they are based in Kolkata, India (formerly Calcutta). Their new album, Videha Mukti, will be released by Transcending Obscurity Distribution on June 5, and we have for you a stream of the opening track, “Demonic Gasping Mortal Nightmare (Wisdom)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MUSKET HAWK — “DESOLATE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 052016
 

Musket Hawk-Desolate

 

Every now and then, this question may cross the minds of metalheads with a certain bent in their listening (it even crosses what’s left of my mind on occasion): Why are we drawn to music that’s near-catastrophic in its ugliness and seems to revel in the abandonment of hope and the exaltation of violence? When music vividly catapults us into a war zone where everything is falling apart, why don’t we want to leave?

Well, don’t look at me for answers. I’ve only got questions. I’m thinking about those questions because I’ve been listening to Desolate, the aptly named new album by Baltimore’s Musket Hawk. It includes eight tracks from which mercy, remorse, and all vestiges of human kindness have been banished. Sanity doesn’t seem to be welcome either. But you travel these mean streets, and you’ll also perversely feel vibrantly alive.

This may not make sense, but maybe you’ll soon see what I mean, because a full stream of Desolate waits for you at the end of this post. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEEDNA — “WANDER”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
May 052016
 

Seedna-Forlorn

 

Forlorn is the name of the debut album by the Swedish band Seedna, and it will bring a wintry chill to the deep summer in the northern hemisphere when it arrives in July. Whereas some advance premieres for forthcoming albums amount to little more than tantalizing teasers, what we have for you today is a long, immersive excursion into the spellbinding darkness that lies within this album. If you give yourselves to it, it has the capacity to overpower your senses and take you far away from your earthly surroundings. The name of the song is “Wander“.

At more than 22 minutes, “Wander” is the album’s longest song and perhaps the best representation of Seedna’s power, but Forlorn contains six other tracks, including another long one (“Abyss”, at 11 1/2 minutes). If you fall under the spell of “Wander”, your journey is really just beginning. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HATESPIRIT — “BLOOD & POETRY”

 Premieres, Reviews  2 Responses »
May 042016
 

Hatespirit-Blood and Poetry

 

Finland’s Hatespirit are musically manifesting themselves without prior warning, as if bursting into existence like a form of spontaneous combustion. Their first release is their debut album Blood & Poetry, and it was discharged on May 1 via Altare Productions. This is not a timid first step, but a full, 12-song black metal explosion of hatred and disgust toward humankind, combined with a reverence for the mystical and fearsome power of the natural world. Below you can listen to the entire album.

The band’s anti-modernist lyrical philosophy is reflected in their music. At a time when many black metal bands have pushed their song lengths into marathon territory, Blood & Poetry’s tracks are compact and delivered with savage power; they hit like uppercuts to the jaw at the hands of a trained heavyweight. Or perhaps like simulacrums of volcanic eruptions, raging hurricanes, and twisting tornados happening one after the other inside your head. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZØRORMR — “THE ADVERSARY”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
May 042016
 

Zorormr-The Aftermath

 

After three full-length albums released over the last five years, the one-man Polish black metal band Zørormr will be releasing a new EP named The Aftermath on June 10 through the Via Nocturna label. What we have for you today is a track from the EP called “The Adversary“.

The Aftermath is a kind of retrospective on Zørormr’s career so far and a pause along its path into the future. It includes four tracks that were recorded during the sessions that produced the band’s last album, 2015’s Corpus Hermeticum, three of which have not been previously released, as well as two bonus tracks from the recording sessions for the first two albums, 2010’s Kval and 2013’s IHS. Continue reading »

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