AN NCS PREMIERE: VERMÖRD — “DAWN OF THE BLACK HARVEST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Apr 102015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our full streaming premiere of the debut release by Vermörd.)

Recently here at NCS, I wrote about a Maryland-based blackened death metal outfit named Vermörd. I can thank Islander for this since he steered me toward them, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. While my initial assessment of the band was positive, it was based only on a single track “Derodidymus”, which left me wanting more — a wish that was soon fulfilled upon getting to hear all of Dawn Of The Black Harvest recently.

After listening to all of it, my favorable impressions of the band have only grown, and I think that many of our readers will appreciate their multi-faceted and monstrous approach to destruction and mayhem from start to finish. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KOSSUTH — “PLAINS OF THE SOARING DAGGER”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 092015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a song from Mictlan, the debut EP by an Indiana band named Kossuth.)

For reasons unknown to me, the state of Indiana has been a hotbed for killer death metal ever since I first got into metal around 2002. The first wave, in my opinion, was kick-started by the release of the now legendary Twilight Of The Idols by Harakiri, which was put out by Willowtip and is one of my all-time favorite death metal records,

In my time here at NCS, I’ve written extensively about death metal acts from Indiana, including bands such as Primordium, Dawn Of Dementia, and Breeding Filth. Now we can add another band, Kossuth, to that list of fresh new death metal talent coming from Indiana. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: XUL — “ORBIT OF NEMESIS”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Apr 082015
 

 

Are you sitting down? Okay, good, because if you weren’t, I would tell you to sit down, because what you’re about to hear will knock you over. Also, I’d recommend putting on some flame-retardent outer wear. Hell, if you’ve got asbestos-lined underwear and a Kevlar loincloth, those would be good ideas, too.

(WARNING: MIXED METAPHORS AHEAD)

This song, “Orbit of Nemesis” from a British Columbia band named Xul, is like a Formula One death metal machine whipping around one hair-pin turn after another, with you tied to the spoiler by a barbed-wire leash and with flames coming out the exhaust, close enough to burn off your eyebrows and incinerate your nose hairs. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BUCKSHOT FACELIFT — “LIVING GHOSTS OF THE NORTH SHORE”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Apr 062015
 

 

Last fall our man Austin Weber enthusiastically reviewed Living Ghosts of the North Shore, the new EP by a New York group with one of most evocative band names ever: Buckshot Facelift. Today we bring you the premiere of the band’s official video for the EP’s title track.

Before turning to the video, I want to excerpt Austin’s review, as an introduction for people who haven’t yet been exposed to Buckshot Facelift:

It’s clear from Living Ghosts of the North Shore that this is the work of a top-shelf grind band who don’t fall prey to one of the dangers that go hand-in-hand with the main strength of grind, a risk that so often becomes its weakness in lesser hands — favoring speed over memorable substance.

What Buckshot Facelift deliver here is a lot more diverse and off the beaten path, not falling within the typical punk end of the grind spectrum, nor delivering purely short songs. While there is a fair bit of death metal meat and heft to Living Ghosts of the North Shore, it’s not presented in a way that deathgrind typically sounds like, in style or in structure. As it appears here, it’s more like a monstrous slab of flesh surrounding and sloshing about between spirited grind bursts.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: KILLER REFRIGERATOR — “THE FRIDGE AND THE POWER THAT IT HOLDS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Apr 032015
 

 

WAIT!  DON’T LEAVE! Yes, I know you’re usually into the grymm and the kvlt, and you’re instinctively suspicious about bands whose names and album titles sound like they’re just goofing around — but suspend your skepticism for a minute and hear me out.

You see, I had the same initial reaction when we were approached about premiering this new EP. With a band name like Killer Refrigerator and a thematic focus on a war between humanity and the appliances that rule and control our lives, how could you possibly take the music seriously? While I acknowledge it’s true that we are indeed enslaved by our dependence on our smartphones, blenders, and toaster-ovens, would there really be anything worthwhile in songs named “Slaystation”, “Shower Thrashing Death”, or “Slave To the Easy-Bake”?

Turns out the answer is a resounding YES — that is, if you have a taste for thoroughly brain-twisting, ass-thrashing shred. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: IDOLATRY — “CLEFS AU CHAMBRE DE TRISTÊSSE (A KEY TO THE ROOM OF SADNESS)”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Apr 032015
 

Idolatry (photo be Pandemic Photography)

We have a video premiere for you. The song is brand new as well. It’s a stand-alone single by Idolatry from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and its title is “Clefs Au Chambre de Tristêsse (A Key To the Room of Sadness)“. It will appear exclusively on a split release with the Ohio black metal band Unrest. The video was created by Nashville-based NVS Productions, who has also produced videos for Wormreich (US), Hades (Norway), and Borgne (Switzerland).

Of course, you can skip the rest of this verbiage and just go hit the “play” button, but then you would miss a few warnings, which could be important for those with heart conditions or photosensitive epilepsy.

First, a warning about the music (or a teaser, depending on your tastes): This is grim, savage, skin-flaying black metal that cares nothing for trends. It is a horned salute to the regime of bands such as Gorgoroth, Behexen, and Sargeist. The music’s atmosphere is saturated with a sense of predatory menace and steeped in the ichor of gloom. When it’s not racing headlong in an explosion of barely controlled chaos, it’s stalking like a dirge. It’s also a riveting listen. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SERPENTRANCE — “THE BESEIGED SANCTUM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 022015
 

 

I first came across the Russian band Serpentrance almost one year ago because a Facebook friend had posted a link to their first single, a killing track named “Obeisance To The Antiquity of Sin”. Details about the band were virtually non-existent, but I wrote about the song and I became their 60th “like” on Facebook. Two months later, a second Serpentrance hymn surfaced, a track named “Aphotic Temples”, and I wrote about that one, too. I still couldn’t find any details about the band, though by then their Facebook presence had risen to 294 likes. The word was spreading by word of mouth.

More months passed, and then in February of this year I saw the announcement that those worshippers of Total Death in Canada’s Vault of Dried Bones had released the first Serpentrance EP, a limited cassette edition named The Besieged Sanctum. It includes both of the songs identified above (though the title of “Obeisance” has been shortened to “Sin”), plus two others — and today we shudder to bring you a premiere of one of those other songs, a monstrous offering of primeval death metal named “The Tongueless Oracle”. But first, a few words about the EP as a whole. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PAGANLAND — “THE VOICE OF THE CARPATHIANS”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Apr 012015
 

 

On April 27, Svarga Music will release the second album by Ukraine’s Paganland. Entitled Fatherland, the album is dedicated to Ukraine’s ongoing struggle against Russian encroachment to the east, while remaining rooted in Carpathian traditions. Today we bring you a premiere of the new album’s second track, “The Voice of the Carpathians”.

Though the band’s pride in their homeland and anger at the actions of its larger neighbor may have inspired the music, you don’t need to be politically engaged to be moved by it. “The Voice of the Carpathians” is blood-pumping, soul-stirring metal that feels genuinely heartfelt, and it’s easy to be caught up and carried away by the drama and the intensity of its fervor. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DAWN OF AZAZEL — “VASSALPLASTY”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Apr 012015
 

 

Six years after 2009’s Relentless, New Zealand’s long-running Dawn of Azazel are poised for the release of their fourth album, The Tides of Damocles, via Unique Leader Records. To give you fair warning of the death metal devastation to come, we bring you the premiere of a lyric video for the new album’s third track, “Vassalplasty“.

The new album was recorded, mixed, and mastered last year at Mana Recording Studios (Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal, Goatwhore) in Tampa, Florida by Brian Elliot and J.J. Hrubovcak, and they did a superb job capturing the band’s raw ferocity without obscuring the intricacy of their compositions or their technical skill as performers. And as further icing on the cake, the album cover features the typically striking artwork of one of our favorite metal artists, New Zealand’s Nick Keller.

The lyric video, produced by Scott Rudd Film makes full use Keller’s dramatic creation, which captures the album’s conceptual theme — “the ocean as a metaphor for the forces of life that constantly assail and erode the will of those who seek power”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATHBLOW — “MEANS TO AN END”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Apr 012015
 

 

About 10 days ago NCS contributor KevinP introduced us, in cryptic fashion, to a thrash metal band from Salt Lake City, Utah, named Deathblow, and their new EP The Other Side of Darkness. At that point, Deathblow had released the EP’s title track, and today we bring you yet another song:  “Means To An End”.

In that earlier post KevinP hinted at the EP’s thematic subject matter, but only in a way that would be understandable by those already in the know — which did not include yours truly. I had to do some googling to figure it out. I’m not going to give the game away, so I’ll just mention the name “Seinfeld” and move on to the music — which kicks massive amounts of ass.

From the way the song begins, you wouldn’t guess that you’re about to be thrashed within an inch of your life. It’s a lead-heavy, doom-drenched dirge — but it’s a fitting introduction, because the music stays heavy even when it erupts in a volcanic spray of molten riffs and thundering percussion. Continue reading »

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