AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRUESOME — “GRUESOME”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Jun 112015
 

 

Given the amount of hype that the debut album by Gruesome has received both before and since its official release by Relapse Records in April, neither the band nor the album (Savage Land) may need an introduction. Yet the whole point of premieres like the one we’re about to bring you is the off-chance that someone out there may not yet have gotten the memo.

For those who are just discovering Gruesome, they’re a talented collection of artists who’ve honed their chops in many other groups, including Exhumed, Malevolent Creation, Possessed, and Derketa. And the album is an unabashed homage to the music of Chuck Schuldiner and Death.

What we’ve got for you today is an official lyric video for a song from Savage Land that shares its name with the band — “Gruesome”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AMBASSADOR GUN — “INVADERS”

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Jun 112015
 

 

My how time flies. The last time the name Ambassador Gun appeared on our site was more than two years ago, when we praised some of the music from their 2012 Prosthetic Records release Golden Eagle. Now, finally, this Minneapolis band have come roaring back with a new full-length named Tomb of Broken Sleep set for release this summer, and we’ve got one of the new tracks for you — a monster named “Invaders”.

There’s a reason for that blurred, fanged muzzle on the cover of the new album. You’ll figure it out pretty damned quick when you let “Invaders” loose in your head. It’s a hybrid barrage of death/grind/crust propelled by riffs so monstrously beefy that they’ll vibrate your teeth and by bass-and-drum blows that go off like warheads. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRONOS — “KLYMENOS UNDERWRATH”

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Jun 102015
 

 

Is it possible? Could the music on Arisen New Era be as stunning as the cover art? It might not seem possible, if you weren’t already familiar with Kronos. But those who are familiar with the three widely praised albums they’ve released so far know that this French band are quite capable of matching the sheer gob-smacking splendor of this artwork for their fourth one. The question is, have they done so? You’re about to find out, because we’re bringing you the premiere of a lyric video for the new album’s first advance track: “Klymenos Underwrath“.

The new song is a hallmark of what Kronos do so well — delivering torrential, brutalizing death metal with an almost tangible physical power while also crafting memorable melodies that flow through the surrounding carnage like shining waters through a conflagration. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRAQUEMAARD — “FONDEMENTS”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Jun 102015
 

 

The French band Braquemaard have completed work on their debut album, Pendu, traîné par une claie jusqu’à la potence, et mis en quart (“hang, drawn, and quartered”) and it will be released on CD by Antiq Records later this year. To introduce the band to you, and to give you an example of what the album will be bringing our way, we give you the premiere of a song named “Fondements“.

I have a feeling that a certain segment of our readers are going to eat this up, and that another percentage (probably larger) will run from it like forest animals in the path of a conflagration. And “conflagration” isn’t a bad way to describe the music either. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TEMPLE OF DAGON — “REVELATIONS OF THE SPIRIT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Jun 092015
 

 

I’m going to apologize in advance for a potential excess of enthusiasm about the new EP by Temple of Dagon that we’re about to premiere, but I can’t help myself and there’s no one here to stop me.

Revelations of the Spirit is one of the heaviest and most electrifying things I’ve heard all year. The riffs are massive. The guitar leads are infectious. The bass lines are pavement-cracking. The drum blows are spine-shaking. The vocals are raw and ravenous. The music is both savage and scintillating, fusing elements from a variety of genres, from crust/punk to thrash to concussive Bolt Thrower-style death metal. It’s a paragon of head-wrecking metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HOWLS OF EBB — “IRON LAURELS, WOVEN IN RUST”

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Jun 092015
 

 

The 2014 debut album of Howls of Ebb — Vigils of the 3rd Eye — was a strikingly distinctive collection of songs, reflecting a musical vision of otherworldly darkness and derangement. The band have now completed a successor, a mini-album named The Marrow Veil that will also be released by the I, Voidhanger label, and today we bring you an edited version of a song named “Iron Laurels, Woven In Rust“.

The complete version of the song is more than 12 minutes in length. The MLP’s opening track, “Standing On Bedlam, Burning In Bliss”, is almost 20 minutes long. Between them sits the only short track on this three-song offering, “Dusks Tyrannical Lore”, at 2:29. The significant length of the two longer songs isn’t the only difference between The Marrow Veil and Vigils of the 3rd Eye — this isn’t Vigils 2.0. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TRAPPED WITHIN BURNING MACHINERY — “DIVA PLAVALAGUNA”

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Jun 082015
 

 

Try to begin wrapping your minds around this idea: an hour-long doom metal space opera inspired by the Diva Plavalaguna — the “blue lady” from Luc Besson’s 1997 sci-fi film The Fifth Element. The idea is in fact a reality, because that’s what California’s Trapped Within Burning Machinery have created, and today we bring you the premiere of a song from the new album, named for the blue lady herself.

The new album, fittingly entitled The Filth Element, is the band’s second full-length, following 2012’s The Putrid Stench of Decaying Self. It began to take shape with a version of the song you’re about to hear and then evolved into an entire album of tracks that use characters from the movie as “hosts”, enabling the band to incorporate different stylistic elements in approaching the story from different perspectives. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISLOYAL — “GODLESS”

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Jun 082015
 

 

About one week ago we had the pleasure of premiering a new song by Poland’s Disloyal from their new fourth album, Godless. Today we deliver unto your ears a premiere of the entire mind-blowing album.

Disloyal have been around since the late 1990s, though the current incarnation of the band reflects significant changes in membership, with only drummer “Jaro” Paprota remaining from the group when it was first formed. The line-up now includes guitarist Artyom Serdyuk (Deathbringer, Thy Disease, Amentia, Woe Unto Me), bassist Kolya Kislyi, and vocalist Krzysztof Bendarowicz (Deathbringer).

Godless also manifests some stylistic changes compared to Disloyal’s previous releases, and the result is a creative death metal powerhouse that’s both savage and brain-twisting. Continue reading »

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

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 082015
 

 

About five weeks ago we had the pleasure of premiering a lyric video for the first single from a new album named Terror From the Air by the Italian band Airlines of Terror — and today we’re premiering the new album’s title track in advance of its June 25 release.

This new song is a powerful death metal storm front that manages to be both sweepingly atmospheric and viscerally electrifying. The off-the-chain drumming drives the music into the red zone from the beginning, accompanied by a frenzy of furious riffs and Demian Cristiani’s wolf-like howls. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VACIVUS — “RITE OF ASCENSION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  9 Responses »
Jun 052015
 

 

Vacivus are a UK band that rose from the ashes of an earlier group known as Dawn of Chaos. With a different line-up and a change in musical direction, Vacivus have recorded a five-track EP named Rite of Ascension that reflects their new focus. Today we bring you a full stream of the EP in advance of its official release.

The music on Rite of Ascension is in the vein of what today might be called “blackened death metal”, but might also be thought of simply as one of the vicious descendants of death metal progenitors such as Incantation. The five songs flow from one to another in an electrifying storm that ebbs and flows but is never less than heartless and scathing. It marks the stunning appearance of a band whose name we expect to see praised throughout the dark places in the underground where ancient death worship is the order of the day. Continue reading »

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