AN NCS PREMIERE: DEW-SCENTED — “AFFECT GRAVITY”

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May 222015
 

 

Germany’s Dew-Scented have been discharging blasts of electrifying death/thrash since the early ’90s and they’re now about to unleash their tenth album, Intermination, via Prosthetic Records. Today we bring you the premiere of the new album’s fourth song, “Affect Gravity“.

The dismal, dissonant sounds at the outset of the song are immediately arresting, but the music becomes downright explosive moments later when the full band joins the fray in a tumult of jabbing riffs, booming drums, hammering bass, and scorching vocal howls. It’s a turbocharged rocket-ride of a track that also includes a completely electrifying guitar solo. Heavy, venomous, galvanizing music that will shoot a megawatt charge of energy straight down your spine… and a hugely appealing teaser for the new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LYCHGATE — “AN ACOUSMATIC GUARDIAN”

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May 222015
 

 

In February of this year I came across the debut of a song from the new album by Lychgate — An Antidote for the Glass Pill —  that stopped me dead in my tracks. That song (“Letter XIX”) was so striking, and so strikingly different, that I became both intrigued and anxious to hear more. And now the time has arrived when we can all hear more, because we have the privilege of premiering a second track from the album: “An Acousmatic Guardian“.

Lychgate features the talents of vocalist/guitarist Greg Chandler (Esoteric) and guitarist/organist/keyboardist Vortigern (The One, Spearhead), as well as T.J.F. Vallely (Macabre Omen) on drums, A.K. Webb (Ancient Ascendant) on bass, and  guitarist S.D. Lindsley. Together they have created some very distinctive and unusually compelling music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNMOTHERED — “UMBRA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
May 212015
 

 

I continue to have a weakness for metal bands from Austin, Texas, the place where I was born and spent my formative years and to which I still return a couple of times a year. But I’m not so weak-minded about bands from Austin as to lose a sense of perspective about the music — and I’m pretty sure Unmothered’s new EP would have blown me away even if I’d grown up in Bangkok.

This new three-song offering is entitled U M B R A and it’s being released by Crowquill Records on May 26. Today we give you the chance to hear the EP for yourselves before jumping for it on the release date. Since you can listen for yourselves, I’m not sure there is much to be gained by writing about U M B R A, but I can’t help myself. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CONNOISSEUR — “POT HOLE”

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May 212015
 

 

When you’d like to smooth out the start of your day with a bong-load of assistance and you discover to your shock that your stash is as empty as the void in your forgetful head, what the fuck do you do? Some people might let out a long sigh and begin quietly weeping. That ain’t Connoisseur’s style, as you’ll find out in the video we’re premiering today for a song called “Pot Hole“.

The song comes from the band’s new album Stoner Justice, which is being released in June by Tankcrimes Records. Stoner Justice was originally released as an EP last year but has been remastered and expanded to fourteen tracks, including a professionally recorded live set from the Tankcrimes Takeover show on February 13, 2015. As you can see, the new album also includes killer cover art created in a collaboration by Skinner (Mastodon) and Hal Rotter (Atriarch, Cough, Eyehategod, Skeletonwitch, etc.). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MARUTA — “SLAYING JEHOVA”

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May 212015
 

 

Miami’s Maruta will soon see the release of their third album, and their first for Relapse Records — Remain Dystopian. In advance of the album’s street date, Relapse is rolling out five new songs from the album on five days in a row, and today we bring you the premiere of the fourth of those tracks: “Slaying Jehova“.

This is an absolutely savage minute-long assault of hyper-speed grind, an explosive rush of dissonant, raking riffs, near-inhuman drum fusillades, and beast-like roars. To be honest, it’s too much to take in on one listen, and the eerie guitar leads must have some psychoactive substance in them, because the first thing I wanted to do after hearing it the first time was to continue pressing play, without even consciously thinking about it. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FROSTHELM — “SILENT AND DARK, THE EVERLASTING SKY”

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May 202015
 

 

There are many good things to be said about music videos which follow the release of an album that spawned them. Among other things, they bring to light music you might have overlooked or, in the case of the Frosthelm video we’re about to premiere, they can remind you of how dumb you were not to pay more attention to the album in the weeks leading up to its release. And by “you”, I mean “me”.

Frosthelm’s debut album The Endless Winter, which was released in March of this year, is absolutely excellent — a seamless blend of black metal and thrash that runs like a mega-sized electric dynamo and is almost as addictive as caffeine. You feel that urge to go back to it repeatedly, and thankfully the songs continue to deliver a biting surge of adrenaline even after multiple listens. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEUS OTIOSUS — “SIS MORTUUS MONDO”

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May 192015
 

 

I’ve been following the Danish band Deus Otiosus since 2011, when I first discovered (and wrote about) their 2010 debut album Murderer. Since then the band have released two more albums, 2012’s Godless and last year’s Rise. The band have begun work on their fourth album, which is projected for release in 2016, but in the meantime they’re releasing a special EP on May 26 via Germany’s Godeater Records. Entitled Sis Mortuus Mondo, the EP consists of two new songs, one of which is a preview of the next album and the other of which is exclusive to the EP. And today we give you the chance to hear both songs in advance of the EP’s release.

“Greater Horror”, the album preview track, is a giant hornet swarm of riffs driven by deeply grooved bass-and-drum thunder, a fusion of adrenaline-pumping thrash and carnivorous death metal malevolence. There’s a lot of fleet-fingered guitar and bass flash in this head-wrecker, including some incendiary soloing. It romps and then it staggers and then it jams the pedal to the floor again just in case it hasn’t already succeeded in tearing your head off. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CARNIVORA — “A VISION IN RED”

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May 192015
 

 

One thing leads to another. On April 27 we announced our sponsorship of a tour by West Virginia’s Byzantine with Mobile Deathcamp from Ohio. That led to our May 8 announcement of a follow-on tour by Mobile Deathcamp with support from Massachusetts-based Carnivora. And that led to what you’re about to hear — our premiere of a Carnivora song named “A Vision In Red” from their new EP The Vision.

The Vision is a four-track offering that follows the band’s 2013 full-length debut, Eternal, and “A Vision In Red” is the EP’s opening song. The song blends together riffs that alternately swarm and jab, a flurry of pugilistic drum strikes, and a couple of flickering, spiraling guitar solos that really light up the song like a Roman candle — not to mention a nimble, thrumming bass line and some bleeding-edge vocal excretions. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VALBORG — “SULPHUR VITRIOL ANGEL”

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May 192015
 

 

Valborg definitely march to the beat of their own drummer, and perhaps nothing could more clearly prove that point than the new song and video we are premiering today. The music is “Sulphur Vitriol Angel” and it comes from the band’s new album Romantik, which has just become available digitally and is due for release next month on vinyl via Temple of Torturous.

I recommend that you listen to the song at least twice — once while watching the video and once without watching. The video was created by German artist Soheyl Nassary, who also made a video for another Valborg song,  “Under the Cross”. As the band explain: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VORTEX OF END — “GOATPHALANX”

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May 192015
 

 

The French black metal band Vortex of End made their full-length debut in 2007 with In Satan and Plutonium We Trust, and they are now following that up with a second album entitled FVLGVR.LVX.TERROR, to be issued by Deadlight Entertainment. Today we provide a poisonous taste of the new album via our premiere of a track called “Goatphalanx“.

It would be tempting for me to sum up the song as a lethal strafing run of black metal warfare, because it does indeed include its fair share of slashing riffs, furiously blasting drums, and booming bass notes, together with enraged, tyrannical howls. But that would be an oversimplified description, because there’s more to the song than a goat-phalanx assault — which is a big reason why it’s so good. Continue reading »

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