Sep 112015
 

Genevieve-Escapism

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a song from the new album by Maryland’s Genevieve, coming soon from Grimoire Records.)

Much like Dark Descent, Grimoire Records has really been on a fucking roll as of late. They’ve somehow managed to release several of my favorite records of the year. And it would seem from the press I’ve seen elsewhere for Dendritic Arbor, Bearstorm, and others that it’s not just our site that has been latching on to all the great things the label is doing. So with that being said, we are very proud to let you hear a song called “Charnel Flow”, the first song to drop from Grimoire’s next release, an album entitled Escapism by a Maryland group known as Genevieve.

Don’t let their innocent-sounding name fool you, because Genevieve’s music dwells in the very pits of despair and disgust. They traffic in a particularly dark blend of black and death metal that’s very noisey and stomach-churning. Listening to “Charnel Flow” brings to mind the warped riffing and unconventional nature of Portal in its death metal moments, which is intertwined with equally warped and odd black metal passages that remind me of the deliciously twisted black metal band Imperial Triumphant. Continue reading »

Sep 102015
 

Bleed-The Hatred Inside

 

Are you feeling kind of sluggish and bored? Are the people around you making you yawn and/or want to strangle them? Could you use a full-throttle adrenaline ride and the opportunity to yell “MARCH MARCH MARCH KILL KILL KILL” for all your worth? Okay, we can arrange that right now — because we’re bringing you the premiere of “Hate March Kill” by the band Blëed from Edmonton, Canada.

The song comes from the band’s new album The Hatred Inside, which will be released on September 29. And it will definitely get your engine running. Continue reading »

Sep 102015
 

Locrian

 

Relapse Record released the latest album by the Chicago-Baltimore experimental trio Locrian in late July. Entitled Infinite Dissolution, it’s a concept album based on the frightening (but all too plausible) prospect that the world is on the brink of a new wave of mass extinction of species, one that could lead to the extinction of our own.

The album is richly varied in its sound, both harsh and sublime. Through music, it traces a narrative inspired by the album’s disturbing central idea. Perhaps unexpectedly, the album’s penultimate song, “Heavy Waters”, is buoyant and bright, a shimmering, uplifting, cathartic piece — something you could dance to.  It could be seen as a hopeful possibility — the chance of a rebirth for life if (and maybe it’s just a question of when) humanity succeeds in wrecking all that’s around us now.

“Heavy Waters” has been out for months, of course, but what we have for you today is brand new — the premiere of a mind-bending video created by George Moore, an abstract interpretation of the music that’s as much fun to watch as the music is to hear. Continue reading »

Sep 092015
 

Fractal Generator-Apotheosynthesis

 

Sometimes the name that a band chooses for itself can be a significant clue to the kind of music they make. The name Fractal Generator sounds kind of cybernetic and machine-like, although fractal repeating patterns across multiple scales of size are evident in nature as well as mathematics. But then consider further that the members of this band from Sudbury in Ontario, Canada, identify themselves by number: 040118180514 (bass, vocals), 040114090512 (drums), and 102119200914 (guitar, vocals). And then consider that the name of their debut album is Apotheosynthesis.

It may be fun to speculate about what all these names signify about the music, but I’m afraid we’re going to spoil some of the fun by premiering a Fractal Generator song from the new album. The song’s name is “Face of the Apocalypse”. It may not sound exactly like what you’re guessing. Continue reading »

Sep 082015
 

RAISING THE VEIL - 2015-CD-COVER

 

Back in June we happily premiered a song named “Qubit Computed Multiverse” from Bosonic Quantvm Phenomena, the debut album by a multinational band named Raising the Veil (we also premiered a stream of the album), and today we’re equally happy to help bring you the debut of the band’s official lyric video for that same song.

For those who are new to the band, despite our best efforts to spread the word about them, the line-up includes Austrian vocalist George Wilfinger (Monument of Misanthropy, Disfigured Divinity, ex-Miasma), Canadian guitarist Daniel McLellan and bass-player Denis Landry, and Necrophagist drummer Romain Goulon. Together, they’ve created some brain-scrambling, pulse-pounding, progressive-minded tech-death capable of re-wiring your neurons and firing their synapses at will. Continue reading »

Sep 072015
 

In Twilight's Embrace - The Grim Muse front HQ

 

The Grim Muse is the name of the third album by Poland’s In Twilight’s Embrace. It’s due for a September 15 release by Arachnophobia Records in this, the band’s tenth year of existence. Two excellent songs from the album have premiered so far (one featuring guest vocals by At the Gates’ Tomas Lindberg), but we have the pleasure of bringing you a stream of the entire album.

“Melodic death metal” may be the closest simple genre description for this music, but it’s also one that would be misleading to a lot of listeners, in part because there is considerable variety among the album’s 11 tracks and in part because the record’s overall atmosphere, like its name, is grim — and vicious. If we’re going to use that genre term, let’s at least call it Melodic DEATH Metal. Continue reading »

Sep 072015
 

Sanzu-Heavy Over the Home

 

(Andy Synn introduces our premiere of a new song and video from Australia’s Sanzu.)

If you’ve been paying even the slightest amount of attention to our site in recent months, you’ll no doubt be aware that Painless, the debut EP by Australian mechanoids Sanzu, is easily one of my favourite releases that I’ve heard this year. So much so in fact that not only did I immediately order myself a copy of the CD (that’s right… a real, physical copy!), I also plonked down some cash for a pre-order of the band’s at-that-point-untitled debut album.

So it probably won’t surprise you to hear that I’m extremely excited that NCS is able to bring you the debut song, and video, from that very same album, the enigmatically titled Heavy Over The Home.

The song in question – “Those Who Sleep In The East” – is a stunningly heavy piece of relentless sonic intensity… all rumbling, piston-powered guitar work, scorching, blowtorch vocals, and explosive, artillery-fire drumming, designed to simultaneously mesmerise and pulverise the audience over the course of almost six minutes of weapons-grade metallic firepower. Continue reading »

Sep 052015
 

Into Darkness-Sinister Demise

 

Germany’s Into Darkness trace their roots to the mid-’90s. Their debut album, Misfortunal Odes in D Minor, was released in 1997. The next full-length, an album named Dysphoria, appeared in 2012 — and now, 20 years after the band’s original formation, they are releasing a third album. The new one bears the title Sinister Demise, though the album reveals in striking fashion that Into Darkness are very much alive and as ferocious as ever. As an introduction to what Into Darkness have now wrought, we bring you the premiere of the album’s third track, “Throne Of A Thousand Miseries“.

The new incarnation of Into Darkness is still anchored by founding vocalist/guitarist Sebastian Längerer, but he is now joined by two newer faces — drummer Robert Witzel and bass-player Andreas Rigo. Together they form a well-oiled machine, and a very wicked one — and on this album they are joined by guest appearances from members of Necrophagist, Obscura, Blotted Science, and Nervochaos. Continue reading »

Sep 042015
 

Zillah-Serpentine Halo

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a song by a Scottish band we’ve been following for a while — Zillah.)

Scotland’s dissonant death metal juggernauts Zillah are a band Islander has written about several times here at NCS, and I’ve been a fan of them as well for many years. They are about to release their third full-length record entitled Serpentine Halo in early October through Sea Of Corruption Records. It’s especially exciting for me because it’s their first record since 2006 when they released an absolutely insane album called Substitute For A Catastrophe.

That record was way ahead of its time, and you should probably check it out as a further primer into the weird world of Zillah. If you enjoy “Made Flesh And Bone”, which is streaming below, check out their prior works at their Bandcamp:  https://zillah.bandcamp.com/album/substitute-for-a-catastrophe Continue reading »

Sep 022015
 

Serocs-Only When the Sky Was Opened

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a song from the new album by the multinational band Serocs.)

Ever since Serocs released their sophomore record, The Next, in 2013, I’ve been on pins and needles waiting for the follow-up that the band has long been teasing. While it would seem some shifting line-up issues from a vocalist standpoint were a large part of this delay, their new record, And When The Sky Was Opened, is finally going to drop before year-end through Comatose Music. I’ve been informed that the release date and pre-release info should be coming shortly in the days following today’s premiere of “Itami”. It’s a fantastic track that should pique your interest in this quite talented multinational act if by some chance you missed the boat on The Next or their previous works.

In the course of the wait for this record, the band made it clear that this would be a big step up for them, with a special emphasis on diversifying and growing their technical deathgrind sound while expanding the scope of their songwriting into bolder territory. While such statements didn’t make me think the Serocs I had grown to love would be no more, I was curious as to how big a shift in their sound And When The Sky Was Opened would be. Well, the proof is indeed in the pudding, and “Itami” is a damn fine introduction to what will surely be a standout record of 2015. Continue reading »