AN NCS PREMIERE: DISTANT SUN — “KILL THE FREMEN”

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May 122015
 

 

Is that an awesome album cover or what? It’s by W. Smerdulak (Arkona) and it adorns the forthcoming debut album by Russia’s Distant Sun. To give you a taste of what it holds in store, we deliver the premiere of a song named “Kill the Fremen”.

Distant Sun claim a lot of influences, including Annihilator, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, and Rage, and their music tends to be a fusion of melodic European power metal and American speed metal and thrash. You’ll get a sense of that from this new song.

The speed-metal riffs are kings on “Kill the Fremen”, but the jolting, galloping, hard-jabbing riffs that are their partners are damned strong, too. Listening to this song is like sticking electrodes right into your ear canals and spinning the power dial up into the red zone. But the band also switch up the tempo and throw in an off-speed melodic segment that enhances the song’s dynamism, which is further embellished by the mix of snarls and clean song in the vocal department. And what’s not to like about a yell-along refrain of “KILL! KILL!”? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHIT — “SULPHUR THE RIGHT”

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May 112015
 

 

In the annals of “no fucks given”, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better example than a band who call themselves SHIT. Not “The Shit”, as in “this band is The Shit!”, but simply SHIT. However, as you’re about to find out, it’s obvious they do give a fuck about at least one thing — their music.

As proof of this, what we have for you today is the premiere of a song named “Sulphur the Right” from the second full-length by SHIT, entitled Scavengers Of A Dying Sun. The ominous symphonic overture in the song sets the stage, and what follows immediately is a flensing surge of black/death metal that alternately blasts like a storm, romps with a crust-punk rhythms, and stomps with steel-toed boots.

The music is loaded with mind-warping, dissonant riffs played at dazzling speed and blazing drum fusillades aimed straight at your skull. Skull fracture isn’t the only risk you will run when you hear this track — the thoroughly nasty vocals display the ravenous hunger of a beast ready to sink its huge jaws right into your throat. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VINTAGE WARLORDS — “THE INVISIBLE FOE”

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May 112015
 

 

We have the pleasure of premiering for you a full stream of the debut EP by Vintage Warlords in advance of its May 19 release by Redefining Darkness Records.

Vintage Warlords are a duo consisting of guitarist/bassist/drummer Thomas Haywood (aka Plaguehammer), who has spent time with the likes of Abigail Williams and System Divide, and vocalist Conor Byers. Together they have recorded three tracks of massively heavy, void-faring death metal that deserve your undivided attention.

The music exudes a thick pall of doom and desolation, conjuring nightmare vistas of blasted landscapes cloaked in perpetual night and inhabited by monsters. Whether trudging in a diseased crawl or pounding like sledgehammers, the riffs are massive, as are the thunderous drum strikes, and the dissonant melodies are thoroughly morbid. There are passages in the songs that are slow and groaning, like the exhalation of decay or the manifestation of some post-apocalyptic hallucination — and there are also passages that drive so hard and are so rhythmically compulsive that you can’t not headbang. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALBATROSS — “A TALE OF TWO TYRANTS”

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May 102015
 

 

I can’t see you but I know you probably have a confused look on your face, or you soon will. “No clean singing” isn’t an accurate description of the song by Mumbai’s Albatross that we’re about to premiere from their debut full-length Fear From the Skies. With rare exceptions, the singing in “A Tale of Two Tyrants” is all clean; vocalist Biprorshee Das even occasionally reaches for the skies in falsetto fashion. So what are we doing with “A Tale of Two Tyrants” on our site, besides confusing people? Well, I’ll tell you.

Because “A Tale of Two Tyrants” rocks really hard. Because the song is built on a foundation of head-snapping riffs and compulsive rhythms that will get you moving. Because there are mind-bending, arena-ready guitar solos in the song by the band’s trio of guitarists that will put a smile on the coldest face. Because as much of an immediate grabber as the song is, it tightens its grip even more as it unfolds, even when it slows near the end into an earth-shaking stomp. Because Albatross do traditional heavy metal very well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: HAAR — “THE WAYWARD CEREMONY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
May 082015
 

 

Following the release of two well-received EPs in 2010 and 2012, Scotland’s Haar have recorded an hour-long debut album that is being released by the Italian label ATMF.  The album’s name is The Wayward Ceremony, and we’re bringing you a full stream of all seven songs.

When I see that an album comes with cover art by Costin Chioreanu, I presume the music is going to be good. This may not be logical, but it turns out to be a completely valid inference in the case of The Wayward Ceremony. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: CORPSE GARDEN’S “ENTHEOGEN” (WITH AN INTERVIEW)

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May 082015
 

 

We’ve got a double-feature in this post. First, we bring you the premiere of a full-album stream for the second album by Costa Rica’s Corpse Garden — Entheogen — which is due for release on May 15 by Satanath Records and RTM Productions. And second, we have an interview with the band’s vocalist Felipe Tencio, who provides insights into the subject matter of the songs and the changes in the band’s sound since their debut full-length in 2012.

For those of you who are familiar with that debut album, Burnt By the Light, you’re in for some surprises. Entheogen (named for a chemical substance used in certain religious, shamanic, and spiritual practices) is a savage death metal assault, loaded with dark, vicious riffs, jolting grooves, exotic melodies, electrifying solo work, and horrific roars and shrieks. Though the tempo of the 13 songs on the album varies from fleet, furious rampages to grim, mid-paced barrages, to shimmering psychoactive dreams, the overall atmosphere of the album is ominous and occult, and the production of the music gives it the sensation of overwhelming power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEMIURGON — “PILLARS OF INVERTED CREATION”

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May 082015
 

 

Back in March I discovered a new lyric video for a song called “Rex Mundi” by Italy’s Demiurgon that knocked me flat, and today we have the pleasure of bringing you another new song from the band — “Pillars of Inverted Creation”.

The song appears on Demiurgon’s debut album Above the Unworthy, which was mixed and mastered at 16th Cellar Studios by the masterful Stefano Morabito and it features cover art by the masterful Pär Oloffson. It will be released by Ungodly Ruins Production on May 31, 2015. And this song will knock you flat, too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHAPE OF DESPAIR — “DESCENDING INNER NIGHT”

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May 062015
 

 

A decade has passed since the long-running Finnish funeral doom band Shape of Despair released their last album, 2004’s Illusion’s Play. Finally, they have emerged again with a new full-length work entitled Monotony Fields, which will be released by Season of Mist on June 16 in North America. The title track has already premiered at Decibel, and now we bring you another — “Descending Inner Night”.

The band have commented as follows about this new song:

“We have played this song under its working title ‘Unresolved’ only in the Ukraine and Russia so far. To complement the existing live recordings, we are now presenting the album version ‘Descending Inner Night’. This was the second track that emerged for the new album and combines both the old and new elements of Shape of Despair.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY — “STARLIGHT OBLIVION”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  6 Responses »
May 062015
 

 

At the very end of last year we had the pleasure of premiering “Hunter of the Celestial Sea”, an advance song from the new album by Australia’s Midnight Odyssey, Shards of Silver Fade, and today we’re equally delighted to bring you another. What you’re about to hear is “Starlight Oblivion“. It will require more than the usual amount of your time for a single song, but the time you invest will be repaid with handsome dividends. And I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t emerge from the experience in the same frame of mind and mood as when you begin the journey.

The song is more than 18 minutes long, one of eight in a double-album release that includes more than 2 hours and 20 minutes of music. It fully merits the adjective “immersive”. It’s a sweeping celestial voyage of shimmering ambient sounds, galvanizing rhythms, melodies that tug at the heart, and an array of vocal expressions that are all mesmerizing. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: POSSESSION — “CEREMONY”

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May 052015
 

 

“Belgium’s Possession are moving from strength to hideous strength. They began precociously with their 2013 demo (His Best Deceit), took forward steps with their 2014 EP (Anneliese — reviewed here), and have made even more progress with their second EP, 1585-1646. Equal parts morbidly atmospheric and  rifftastically raging, it’s an unholy union of black, death, and thrash metal that’s well worth adding to your musical arsenal.”

And that’s how I began my review of 1585-1646 in the middle of last month. I heaped more words of praise on top of this blazing pyre of music, but the main point of this post isn’t to see my own words again (no matter how thrilling that may be), it’s to let you hear another new song from this EP.  Continue reading »

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