AN NCS PREMIERE: GRUESOME — “SAVAGE LAND”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Mar 192015
 

 

We’ve been beating the drums for Gruesome’s debut album on Relapse Records, Savage Land, since first hearing a couple of early songs that emerged last June. Earlier this month Relapse premiered the album’s fourth track, “Hideous”, and today we’ve got the pleasure of bringing you the debut of the title song.

Gruesome’s membership roster is damned impressive. It includes Exhumed’s Matt Harvey; ex-Malevolent Creation drummer Gus Rios; Possessed guitarist Daniel Gonzalez; and Derketa bassist Robin Mazen. The idea behind their joining together is equally laudable: Their collective mission was to record music in tribute to Chuck Schuldiner and the almighty Death. Fittingly, they turned to illustrator Ed Repka (Death, Megadeth, Massacre, Athiest, et el) for the gruesome cover art. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A FREE DOWNLOAD): ANIMALITY — EP

 Free Shit, Premieres  7 Responses »
Mar 182015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli provides the following brief introduction to our premiere of the new EP by Tennessee’s Animality — with a link to a free download of the music.)

We posted a premiere of a song by these Tennessean tech death/deathcore bruisers a bit back, and I’m proud to present not only a stream, but a free download of their newest EP. It’s a self-titled one, and I think you’ll really enjoy it. It’s three songs of purely merciless bludgeoning, and Animality are particularly gifted at administering this kind of punishment. I hope you enjoy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OBSEQUIAE — “AY QUE POR MUY GRAN FREMOSURA / AUTUMNAL PYRE”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Mar 182015
 

 

The music on Obsequiae’s debut album Suspended in the Brume of Eos was a magical spanning of widely separated musical eras, as if the band had discovered the secret of being in two places at once, widely separated in time, and finding a communion of the spirits of each age. It was a remarkably imaginative work, something deeply felt and beautifully realized. Everyone who fell under its spell has been waiting for what would come next, and our patience is about to be rewarded.

On May 12, 2015, 20 Buck Spin will release the band’s second album, Aria Of Vernal Tombs. Fittingly, as the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere approaches at the end of this week, we are proud to bring you the premiere of not one but two new songs from this brilliant new album. They are the album’s first two tracks: “Ay Que Por Muy Fremosura” and “Autumnal Pyre”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCALAFREA — “PERCEPTIONS OF TIME”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 162015
 

 

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

Today we have an incredible new song to share with the fine readers here at NCS. The track in question, “Perceptions Of Time”, comes from a new EP, Opposites In Polarity, by Colorado-based technical death metal trio Scalafrea. I’ve been following this band for several years after stumbling onto them through Metal-Archives. While they might not be the household name they should be, these guys have previously released an EP and a full-length that are head and shoulders above most of their peers in their style of metal.

The reasons they are so good bring to mind parallels to what Cephalic Carnage have done so well: They have a hodge-podge style that draws from all over the musical map and they couple that style with a penchant for writing songs, as Cephalic Carnage used to do, that are rather non-linear and that generally avoid repeating parts. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABOMINATOR — “THE BRIMSTONE NUCLEUS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 132015
 

 

Australia’s Abominator have been awfully quiet. More than eight years have passed since their last album, The Eternal Conflagration. But at long last they have a new one named Evil Proclaimed that Hells Headbangers is slated to release on March 24. This will be their fifth album overall, in a career that stretches back 20 years.

We’ve previously featured the album’s title track, and today we bring you another — “The Brimstone Nucleus”. It’s a four-minute barrage of machine-gun percussion, deep, thrumming bass rumble, and venomous, grinding riffs. The lead guitar writhes like a serpent attempting to consume itself and explodes in spurts of flame-throwing solos, while the vocalist barks and growls like an enraged mastiff. But while merciless attack is the principal strategy, the band also punctuate their slashing assault with an off-pace segment that oozes with a sickening pestilence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: APOPHYS — “MISCREANTS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 122015
 

 

This is a song made especially for you, and you know that because the name of the song is “Miscreants”.

It comes from an album entitled Prime Incursion by the Dutch band Apophys, an album soon to be released by Metal Blade that we’ve been eagerly awaiting since first learning that it was in the works, our eagerness only magnified by the interview we did with the band’s vocalist Kevin Quilligan earlier this year (and yes, we’re mentioning that because we think you should read it).

As for the song, you will enjoy “Miscreants” even if you’re not convinced that it was named for you. The pummeling begins immediately with a phalanx of hammering riffs that seem dedicated to pounding you into the ground like a nail driven through wood, and the start-stop jackhammering doesn’t stop. The music is a ticket straight to headbang city, but that’s not all it is. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THEORIES — “BURNT CONCRETE”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 112015
 

 

On March 24 Metal Blade Records will release the debut album of Seattle’s Theories. It’s an event that makes me very happy, in part for reasons that may not mean much to most people who hear the album. For one, I know all of the people in the band, some better than others, and they’re the kind of people who make you happy for their success (getting signed by a label like Metal Blade would certainly qualify as success in most people’s books). For another, I’ve seen the band perform live, everywhere from Seattle to Maryland Deathfest XII to Denver Black Sky II, and they seem to be even more perfectly destructive each time I see them.

So, with that said, you can imagine how fucking delighted I am that we’re premiering the lyric video for a song called “Burnt Concrete” off Theories’ debut album Regression. It’s the opening track and it starts off the festivities with a full-bore blast of grindcore fury. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INFESTING SWARM — “DER LAUF DER ZEIT”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 112015
 

 

Infesting Swarm are a German band formed in 2007. Their first demo, released in 2011, delved into the depths of blackened death metal, but their their debut Desolation Road, which will be released through Art Of Propaganda on March 30, reflects musical change of course. In this post you’ll have the chance to sample what the new album holds in store as we premiere the album’s sixth track, “Der Lauf der Zeit”.

The song is a long one, in excess of nine minutes, and it makes full use of the time. The music employs the racing, ripping ravages of a black metal assault, with raking tremolo riffs, blasting drum beats, and flesh-rending howls. But it’s also a deeply atmospheric piece, with big moving waves of bleak melody that bring down heavy clouds of sorrow verging on despair, parted by piercing rays of light. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ÖXXÖ XÖÖX — “ÄBŸM”

 Premieres  12 Responses »
Mar 112015
 

 

Öxxö Xööx are a French band whose members are Laurent Lunoir (music, lead vocals, visual design), Rïcïnn (Laure Le Prunenec) (vocals, live bass), and Isarnos (Thomas Jacquelin) (drums), with studio engineering by Igorrr (Gautier Serre) of the band Whourkr. I first came across them in 2011 in one of my irregular MISCELLANY excursions and wrote about their unique debut album Rëvëürt. On May 26, Finland’s Blood Music label, which seems to have a knack for signing bands whose music is well off the usual beaten paths, will be releasing the second Öxxö Xööx album, Nämïdäë. In this post we’re premiering the seventh track from the album — “Äbÿm” — and I predict you haven’t heard anything like it, unless perhaps you’ve heard Rëvëürt.

Some things haven’t changed since that first release: The band still have an affection for umlauts. The band are still speaking their own language (their name is a binary representation of the number 69 [in binary code, 0110=6 and 1001=9], which (among other things) relates to flipping life on its head, to turn bleakness into light). They still have an extravagant talent for combining visual with musical art (as you’ll soon see), and their music is still avant-garde, with a capital A and a capital G. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VELD — “WORLD IN OBSCURE”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Mar 102015
 

 

I have a theory that cool album art tends to correlate with cool music. It’s not always true, of course, but I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been drawn to the sound of a new album through the artwork on its cover. When I saw the cover that you’re now looking at — which was created for the new album by the Polish/Belarusian band Veld — I was powerless too resist the urge to explore the music. And that turned out to be a very good call.

The album’s name is Daemonic: The Art of Dantalion and it will be released next month by Lacerated Enemy Records. In this post we have the pleasure of premiering for you a lyric video for a song from the album named “World In Obscure”. If you enjoy storming, tyrannical death metal that’s as bludgeoning as it is blisteringly fast, and as alien and exotic as it is physically jolting, this is one you don’t want to miss. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries