AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND AN INTERVIEW): FIN’AMOR — “FORBIDDING MOURNING”

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Jul 022015
 

 

Fin’amor are a New York City band founded in 2008, and their debut album Forbidding Mourning is set for release on July 7. In this post you will find the premiere of a full stream of Forbidding Mourning along with an interesting interview of the band’s guitarist Julian Chuzhik that sheds light on the band’s history as well as the musical and lyrical ideas reflected in this new album.

Fin’amor’s members come from a variety of musical backgrounds, and the seven songs on Forbidding Mourning reveal a rich tapestry of interwoven styles. As Julian Chuzhik explains in the accompanying interview:

“I think it would be fair to say that we play doom-influenced death, just as much as it’s fair to say that we play doom-influenced ’90s pop or goth or classical; I think all the opinions could be valid. We don’t want to tell someone that you can’t like our music because we only cater to doomers or the death metal crowd or whoever. We all have very different musical backgrounds, but find common ground in the music that we make. In the end, I guess all that matters for us is that we write mostly down-tempo riffs.”

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AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MERCY BROWN — “NEWS COMPLAINT”

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Jul 022015
 

 

Mercy Brown is a new name to our site, but only because I’m late to the party — about three months late, in fact: The band’s self-titled debut album was released in mid-March of this year. It took the video we’re premiering today to turn me on to some music I’m damned glad I finally discovered. And sometimes that’s the best reason for post-release videos — to expose laggards like me to something they might otherwise miss completely. Another reason happens to be validated by this video, too: It’s as much fun to watch as it is to hear.

For those like me who are discovering the band for the first time, don’t be fooled by their name. It might make you think you’re in for some retro soul or funk music, but you’ll make a better guess if you happen to know about the bizarre “Mercy Brown vampire incident“, in which a young woman’s supposedly undead corpse was exhumed in Exeter, Rhode Island, in 1892 in order to remove her heart and burn it.

As far as I know, the four people in Mercy Brown are not vampires, and their fellow citizens in Spokane, Washington, haven’t yet come for them in the dead of night with pitchforks and torches. Let’s hope it stays that way. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: AIRLINES OF TERROR — “TERROR FROM THE AIR”

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Jul 012015
 

 

If you’ve been dropping by our site on even a semi-regular basis, then you’ve probably seen one or more of our three song premieres since May from Terror From the Air, the new album by Italy’s Airlines of Terror. If so, then it will probably come as no shock that today we’re delivering a full stream of the entire album. And if by some cruel twist of fate you haven’t yet heard what these dudes have accomplished, then you’re in for a treat.

Actually, you’re in for a treat even if you’ve heard all three of those previous song premieres, because one of the album’s strong selling points is that Airlines of Terror aren’t a one-note band. All of the songs on this album do have certain things in common — eye-popping percussion, addictive grooves, galvanizing riffs, and strong melodies (not to mention a lot of rapid-fire, carnivorous vocal extremity to go along with the technical flash) — but each song has its own distinctive twists and turns, and that makes the album a kick to hear from start to finish. The phrase “all killer, no filler” applies here. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WINDFAERER — “CELESTIAL SUPREMACY”

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Jun 302015
 

 

Time flies, and sometimes the good things it carries away, it brings back again with renewed pleasure. Almost exactly three years ago I stumbled across (and wrote about) an excellent EP entitled Solar by a New Jersey band named Windfaerer. I had forgotten about the band as the years rolled on, but the memories of that wonderful discovery have now been rekindled — because Windfaerer have finally completed their second full-length, Tenebrosum. Today we’ll give you a glimpse of what it holds in store as we premiere the album’s first track, “Celestial Supremacy“.

Windfaerer’s name signifies one who travels with the wind, and the album’s name — which draws from the archaic term for the Atlantic Ocean (“Mare Tenebrosum”), meaning “sea of darkness” — underscores the conceptual connection of the band’s music to the idea of setting sail upon unknown waters, with both perils and the hope of new discovery lying ahead along the path carved by the wind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ROTTING CHRIST — “ATHANATOI ESTE” (LIVE)

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Jun 302015
 

 

On August 21, 2015, Season of Mist will release a live double-album by Rotting Christ entitled Lucifer Over Athens. It was recorded in the band’s home city in December 2013, and it represents a wonderful summing up of this influential Hellenic black metal band’s long and triumphant career to date. Today we’re proud to help premiere from the album the live performance of “Athanatoi Este“.

There are precious few extreme metal bands who have persisted and flourished for as long a span of years as Rotting Christ. Over their nearly three decades of creating music, they have released consistently strong albums while resisting the temptation to simply rehash old glories. They have evolved and progressed, but without ever damping the Luciferian flame that burns fiercely in their songs. They earned their respect long ago, but they seem not to take that for granted — and they continue earning it with each passing year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HARMONIC CROSS — “MLIAOI”

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Jun 302015
 

 

At 6:30 a.m. on December 1, 1948, the body of a well-dressed man was found lying in the sand on Somerton Beach just south of Adelaide, South Australia. Sewn into a hidden pocket of the man’s pants was a scrap of paper, the final page from an edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on which these words were printed: “taman shud” (Persian for “finished”).

Following an appeal by police, a man in nearby Glenelg turned in the copy of the book from which the page had been torn, which he had discovered lying on the seat of his car. In the back of the book were faint pencil markings of five lines of capital letters, with one line crossed out. The letters were thought to be in code, but if they were, the code was never deciphered:

WRGOABABD
MLIAOI
WTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB

No cause of death was ever proven, though the coroner suspected the use of some undetectable poison. Nor was the dead man ever identified, despite intensive efforts by police that included worldwide distribution of the decedent’s photograph and other information about the body. The book itself appeared to have been an edition for which there was no record of its printing.

Fascination with “The Taman Shud Case“, also known as “The Mystery of the Somerton Man“, has persisted down to the present — and it has inspired the creation of a new album by a Virginia band named Harmonic Cross, entitled It Is Finished. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGAINST EVIL — “BULLETPROOF”

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Jun 262015
 

 

Against Evil hail from Visakhapatnam in India, and their debut album Fatal Assault is slated for release by Transcending Obscurity Distribution on July 20. The band previously unleashed the album’s last track “War Hero”, which led to their deal with Transcending Obscurity, and now that these plans are in place we give you the album’s penultimate song, “Bulletproof”.

In an era when every band must be obsessively slotted into the proper micro-genre, perhaps it’s best in this case just to call the music “heavy metal”. It’s got grooves, it’s got melodic hooks that prove to be sharp and memorable, it’s got a mix of soulful clean vocals and nasty jagged growls, and it comes with slick dual-guitar harmonies and an awfully tasty solo. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEFECT DESIGNER — “THE TERRIBLE”

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Jun 262015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Defect Designer.)

It seems like a long time since Defect Designer last appeared on our site in 2013 courtesy of Islander posting about them. Now in 2015, this multi-national death metal supergroup are set to release a scathing hellstorm of twisted fury on their soon-to-be-released record, Ageing Accelerator.

If you haven’t heard of these guys yet, you really need to. They are in my estimation one of the finest modern death metal acts, combining far too many influences to count into a formula that generates numerous deadly riffs alongside numerous unique, non-repeated segments per song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VALDUR — “BLESSINGS OF THE GOAT”

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Jun 262015
 

 

The mammoth Valdur from Mammoth Lakes, California, have a new album on the way entitled Pathetic Scum. Ten days ago we heard (and wrote about) a brief sample from one of the new songs, a track named “Blessings of the Goat”. Even those precious few minutes were a demonstration of Valdur’s skill in delivering massive, grisly, gruesome death metal with a thoroughly morbid and diseased atmosphere. And now we’re in the fortunate position of bringing you a stream of the entire song.

Pathetic Scum follows the band’s 2013 full-length, At War With, and features the addition of new guitarist Vuke. The band have relayed this message from their catacombs:

“Guitarist/vocalist Samuel is still with us so to speak, but he is so busy with personal/family matters at the moment. Vuke, new guitarist, is not a replacement, but a full time member of VALDUR. And for live dates this spring, Roskva will be on vocals again. And we have William on bass and Matthew on drums. We all appreciate anyone who takes the time in this world to have a listen to our music. It is built and molded by our own hands to the form and shape that we like. With these new songs, we give you something different yet again along the obscure VALDUR timeline…” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTARS OF GRIEF — “IN DYING LIGHT”

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Jun 252015
 

 

Exactly one week ago we had the pleasure of premiering for you a fantastic track by the band Nachtterror from their forthcoming split on the Hypnotic Dirge label with fellow Canadians Altars of Grief — and today we’re equally happy to stream for you one of the songs by Altars of Grief — “In Dying Light”.

Entitled Of Ash and Dying Light, the vinyl version of the split includes two songs by each band, and the digital version will also come with a bonus track by Altars of Grief and two bonus tracks from Nachtterror.

“In Dying Light” is a thoroughly engrossing piece of music, from the isolated opening guitar notes to the huge wave of sound that soon follows it, from the sweeping, exalted melody to the rippling, finger-tapped bass notes and gunshot drum beats, from the anguished snarls to the sombre clean vocals. Continue reading »

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