AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: GLOSON — “YEARWALKER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Apr 012015
 

 

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering the final track on the new album by Sweden’s Gloson. Now we bring you a premiere of the entire four-song EP: Yearwalker.

Gloson drive like a V-8 Interceptor across the wasteland, but not as fast. Speed is not the object, the destination is not the point. The point is the relentless hammering of the pistons set against the desolation of the surrounding vistas, and the hypnotic power of the melodies.

Gloson’s engine is driven by thick, vibrating sludge riffs, prominent bass lines, and spine-shaking drum beats. In each song the band establish a repeating motif in the low end and then drive it forward inexorably, relentlessly pounding their messages of gloom and woe like the chanting of a mantra. But as powerful (and powerfully hypnotic) as these repeating motifs are, they are not the whole story. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SULPHUR AEON — “GATEWAY TO THE ANTISPHERE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Apr 012015
 

 

It would be sad if Sulphur Aeon’s new album failed to live up to the vivid Lovecraftian power and richly imagined detail of the cover art that Ola Larsson created for it. Thankfully, the sound is more than a match for the imagery: Gateway To the Antisphere is one of the most terrifying, and hands-down one of the best, death metal albums of this year. Today we have the privilege of streaming it for you in full.

Sulphur Aeon have mastered the art of seizing the listener’s imagination and hurling it through an inter-dimensional membrane into a dark place where you feel the writhing presence of monstrous forms. They seem to have a direct channel to R’lyeh and the Outer Gods. At the same time, they are equally adept at crafting immensely powerful and electrifying death metal songs.

On a purely technical level, the instrumental and vocal performances, and the production, are exceptional. The flensing riffs are fleet and savage, the eye-popping drumwork is precise and varied, and the vocals are multi-hued but never less than voracious. The production delivers these combined forces with clarity and galvanizing potency. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LE CHANT FUNEBRE — “GHOSTS AT THE DEATHBED”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Mar 312015
 

 

Every metal fan has a mental list of musicians whose every creation they will check out, regardless of which band’s name flies on the banner above them. Jeff Wilson (Wolvhammer, Missing, Chrome Waves, Abigail Williams) and Neill Jameson (Krieg, Twilight) are two of the names on my list. When I heard they were collaborating together in a new project, I got a little surge of adrenaline in the bloodstream and an itch of curiosity in the brain. One thing led to another, and now the itch is partially scratched, but the adrenaline is still flowing: We bring you the premiere of “Ghosts at the Deathbed” by Le Chant Funebre.

This song is the title track on the band’s four-song debut EP, which will be released in digital form next month with a CD to follow, via Disorder Recordings and Black House Industries. In Le Chant Funebre, Wilson plays guitar, bass, and synth; Jameson provides vocals and drums; and guitarist Jason Phillips (Bringers of Disease, ex-Acheron) completes the line-up.

Given the nature of these musicians’ past projects, you might guess that black metal will play a role in the music, but this time that’s not the dominant style of the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AKHLYS — “BREATH AND LEVITATION”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Mar 312015
 

 

Naas Alcameth, best known for his work in Nightbringer, has had a separate project since 2009 known as Akhlys, whose second album will be soon released by Debemur Morti Productions. The new Akhlys album is entitled The Dreaming I, and as the title suggests, it was inspired by its creator’s uncommon dreams and the role of such lucid para-somnia experiences in esoteric belief and practice. One track from the album has previously premiered (“Consummation”), and today we have the pleasure of bringing you the debut of another track, the one that opens the album: “Breath and Levitation“.

Dreaming is the thematic subject of the album as well as the source of its inspiration, but we’re not talking about mundane, commonplace dreams — and the music is anything but mundane or commonplace. Clues to what lies within may be found in the name of this project. To quote from a recent interview by Nass Alcameth:

[Akhlys] was said to be the personification of the “death mist”, the clouding over of the eyes upon death, and in turn personified death, misery, despair, and so on. She was also said to have been an original personification of primordial darkness/night that existed before chaos. What we can determine from these fragments is that she was associated to both death and profound darkness, the two of which indicate a crossroads, or an inlet from life into the darkness beyond life. This crossing of the veil has much synchronicity with the crossing that can be experienced via certain lucid dream states and there is much intimacy between these parallels, that of death and of dreams.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCALAFREA — “THE BASTARD ONE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 302015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of another new song by Scalafrea.)

Recently here at NCS, we premiered a phenomenal track called “Perceptions Of Time”,  by Colorado-based Death Metal band Scalafrea. The track comes from their upcoming EP, Opposites In Polarity. I covered the band’s background and dissected the elements of their sound in that first Scalafrea premiere, so instead of rehashing myself, those who want some more information on the band can go here.

Since I’ve always been a big fan of Scalafrea, and really think that their latest material is an impressive experience worthy of getting hyped about, we bring you another new song entitled “The Bastard One”. For those unfamiliar with the band, they play a very hodge-podge and spastic form of technical death metal with a progressive bend that’s also very well-written. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KAVYK — “HYMNS AND HOLLOW WORDS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 302015
 

 

Kavyk is the name of a new band from Hammond, Louisiana, whose four members come from the ranks of Legions of Hoar Frost, Celestial Mechanics, Withering Light, Suspended Obscurity, and In Medias Res. They’ve recorded a debut demo that will be released later this year, and today we introduce you to Kavyk’s music through our premiere of one of the demo’s songs: “Hymns and Hollow Words”.

Over the last couple of years, song and album premieres have become a weekly staple at our site. Though we only feature them when we truly enjoy the music, the significant majority of them have come our way from record labels (both large and small). In this case, the song arrived directly from the band — and a brand new band at that. But the song immediately grabbed me, like a cat on a somnolent mouse. And like the cat in that metaphor, it quickly shot an adrenaline charge right through me as its teeth clamped down on my neck. It’s quite an awakening experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHINING — “FRAMTIDSUTSIKTER”

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Mar 272015
 


IX – Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends is the name of the new album by Sweden’s Shining, which is due for release on April 21 by Season of Mist, and today we bring you the North American premiere of the album’s third track, “Framtidsutsikter”.

Shining’s creative mastermind Niklas Kvarforth made the following comment about the song:

“Following similar paths as several other ‘ballads’ of ours, ‘Framtidsutsikter’ (‘Future Prospects’), melds all of them together into an epic journey in a downward spiral. Coincidence and the pure joy of creating something horrible made this song into what it is. Relying on a pulsating vibe of hopelessness and despair, this song is for me personally almost unbearable to listen to. That will make things extremely interesting when performing it live, and it will probably be considered as one of the darker turns in our two decades long career. All hail misery!”

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A FREE DOWNLOAD): HELLEBORUS — “COILS”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 262015
 

 

Brothers Jerred and Wyatt Houseman were formerly members of a brutal death metal band from Colorado named Execration. They have turned their talents to a new project — Helleborus — which is the scientific name for a genus of beautiful but poisonous flowers that bloom in winter. Their debut album The Carnal Sabbath will be released later this year, and today we bring you the premiere of one of the album tracks — “Coils” — plus the chance to download it for free.

Helleborus is a departure from the brothers’  previous work in Execration. It’s a psychedelic black metal project created to explore themes of sexual mysticism, the Qabalah, and the Esoteric.  About “Coils” in particular, Wyatt Houseman explains: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OUTRE — “ARRIVAL”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Mar 252015
 

 

Following the release in 2013 of a debut EP (Tranquility) and a split with Thaw, Poland’s Outre will see the release of their debut album Ghost Chants next month. Today we bring you a first taste of this new work as we premiere its final track, “Arrival“.

The combination of piercing and groaning tones that introduce the song immediately fashion an atmosphere that’s both eerie and ominous. The titanic, distortion-drenched pounding and dynamic, deranged vocals that follow only deepen the sense of impending calamity, and when the song erupts in an explosion of jagged riffing and blasting drumbeats, the tension breaks and the threatened destruction becomes a reality. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BREEDING FILTH — “EXHIBIT OF PERVERTED LUNACY”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 252015
 

 

(Austin Weber presents our premiere of a song by Indiana’s Breeding Filth.)

While talking to Dawn of Dementia guitarist Derick Harshbarger recently, he mentioned to me that he is a part of another new group from Indiana called Breeding Filth, and that they were close to having a single drop. So we at NCS are now proud to help spread the word about them with the premiere of “Exhibit Of Perverted Lunacy”, the debut song from their upcoming full-length, Perverse Devolution.

Anyone who is a fan of Dawn of Dementia will easily dig “Exhibit Of Perverted Lunacy”, especially because of a similar melodic focus on sheer darkness and skull-crushing fury. Stylistically, Breeding Filth are different — they have a more brutal/slam character than Dawn Of Dementia — but there is still a fair bit of technical death metal riffing woven in. Continue reading »

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