AN NCS PREMIERE: HARMONIC CROSS — “MLIAOI”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jun 302015
 

 

At 6:30 a.m. on December 1, 1948, the body of a well-dressed man was found lying in the sand on Somerton Beach just south of Adelaide, South Australia. Sewn into a hidden pocket of the man’s pants was a scrap of paper, the final page from an edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on which these words were printed: “taman shud” (Persian for “finished”).

Following an appeal by police, a man in nearby Glenelg turned in the copy of the book from which the page had been torn, which he had discovered lying on the seat of his car. In the back of the book were faint pencil markings of five lines of capital letters, with one line crossed out. The letters were thought to be in code, but if they were, the code was never deciphered:

WRGOABABD
MLIAOI
WTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB

No cause of death was ever proven, though the coroner suspected the use of some undetectable poison. Nor was the dead man ever identified, despite intensive efforts by police that included worldwide distribution of the decedent’s photograph and other information about the body. The book itself appeared to have been an edition for which there was no record of its printing.

Fascination with “The Taman Shud Case“, also known as “The Mystery of the Somerton Man“, has persisted down to the present — and it has inspired the creation of a new album by a Virginia band named Harmonic Cross, entitled It Is Finished. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGAINST EVIL — “BULLETPROOF”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 262015
 

 

Against Evil hail from Visakhapatnam in India, and their debut album Fatal Assault is slated for release by Transcending Obscurity Distribution on July 20. The band previously unleashed the album’s last track “War Hero”, which led to their deal with Transcending Obscurity, and now that these plans are in place we give you the album’s penultimate song, “Bulletproof”.

In an era when every band must be obsessively slotted into the proper micro-genre, perhaps it’s best in this case just to call the music “heavy metal”. It’s got grooves, it’s got melodic hooks that prove to be sharp and memorable, it’s got a mix of soulful clean vocals and nasty jagged growls, and it comes with slick dual-guitar harmonies and an awfully tasty solo. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEFECT DESIGNER — “THE TERRIBLE”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Jun 262015
 

 

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

It seems like a long time since Defect Designer last appeared on our site in 2013 courtesy of Islander posting about them. Now in 2015, this multi-national death metal supergroup are set to release a scathing hellstorm of twisted fury on their soon-to-be-released record, Ageing Accelerator.

If you haven’t heard of these guys yet, you really need to. They are in my estimation one of the finest modern death metal acts, combining far too many influences to count into a formula that generates numerous deadly riffs alongside numerous unique, non-repeated segments per song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VALDUR — “BLESSINGS OF THE GOAT”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jun 262015
 

 

The mammoth Valdur from Mammoth Lakes, California, have a new album on the way entitled Pathetic Scum. Ten days ago we heard (and wrote about) a brief sample from one of the new songs, a track named “Blessings of the Goat”. Even those precious few minutes were a demonstration of Valdur’s skill in delivering massive, grisly, gruesome death metal with a thoroughly morbid and diseased atmosphere. And now we’re in the fortunate position of bringing you a stream of the entire song.

Pathetic Scum follows the band’s 2013 full-length, At War With, and features the addition of new guitarist Vuke. The band have relayed this message from their catacombs:

“Guitarist/vocalist Samuel is still with us so to speak, but he is so busy with personal/family matters at the moment. Vuke, new guitarist, is not a replacement, but a full time member of VALDUR. And for live dates this spring, Roskva will be on vocals again. And we have William on bass and Matthew on drums. We all appreciate anyone who takes the time in this world to have a listen to our music. It is built and molded by our own hands to the form and shape that we like. With these new songs, we give you something different yet again along the obscure VALDUR timeline…” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTARS OF GRIEF — “IN DYING LIGHT”

 Premieres  23 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

Exactly one week ago we had the pleasure of premiering for you a fantastic track by the band Nachtterror from their forthcoming split on the Hypnotic Dirge label with fellow Canadians Altars of Grief — and today we’re equally happy to stream for you one of the songs by Altars of Grief — “In Dying Light”.

Entitled Of Ash and Dying Light, the vinyl version of the split includes two songs by each band, and the digital version will also come with a bonus track by Altars of Grief and two bonus tracks from Nachtterror.

“In Dying Light” is a thoroughly engrossing piece of music, from the isolated opening guitar notes to the huge wave of sound that soon follows it, from the sweeping, exalted melody to the rippling, finger-tapped bass notes and gunshot drum beats, from the anguished snarls to the sombre clean vocals. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BEARSTORM — “AMERICANUS”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us the full streaming premiere of the new album by Bearstorm from Richmond, Virginia.)

Occasionally bands win the lottery, the stars line up perfectly, and you get a near-perfect band name and an idea for a sound that focuses on an as-yet-uncombined merger of musical styles. In such a rare moment, Richmond, Virginia-based Bearstorm was born.

Graced with more than an intriguing band name, Bearstorm are truly a whirlwind of creativity and gorgeous fury fused together in an inseparable union of awesomeness. Islander mentioned them in a post not too long ago, and so here we are with a full album stream to show you what this mindfucking new record called Americanus is all about. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SKINLESS — “BARBARIC PROCLIVITY”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

Of course, you’ve already grabbed a copy of the new Skinless album, Only the Ruthless Remain, and allowed it to gnaw off your leg, rupture your spleen, and rend your face into bloody tatters.

What’s that? You haven’t??? Well damn, maybe you need a little extra encouragement. We can arrange that. In fact we have arranged that, because we’re delivering right here, right now, a premiere of the band’s lyric video for the song “Barbaric Proclivity“, the title of which could hardly be a more apt description of what the song and the album exhibit, in spades. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ABNORMAL THOUGHT PATTERNS — “DISTORTION OF PERCEPTION”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Jun 252015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song and video by Abnormal Thought Patterns.)

California-based Abnormal Thought Patterns are in my estimation one of a rare breed of astonishing instrumental metal acts deserving of praise and much more press, yet who are somehow among the least-mentioned instrumental groups (which I don’t understand). The last time I wrote about them here at NCS was when I put the band’s 2013 record, Manipulation Under Anesthesia, on my lengthy 2013 year-end list. Fortunately, the band have a new record to engage with and be enamored by called Altered States Of Consciousness, which comes out June 26th through Lifeforce Records. Ahead of its release, we at NCS are proud to show you a new song/new video from this album called “Distortion Of Perception”.

The core of the band has always been the genius guitar/bass duo of the Tipton brothers (Troy Tipton on bass/ Jasun Tipton on guitar). I first fell in love with their Meshuggah-influenced prog/shred madness back in 2001 with their old (in a modern context way) pre-djent record, The Towers Of Avarice, by their previous band Zero Hour. Even their old drummer from Zero Hour, Mike Guy, continued along with them on this new soaring instrumental avenue paved with soulful chug ‘n’ shred done right (and far better than most others), and the band further includes second guitarist Jason Montero. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAISING THE VEIL — “QUBIT COMPUTED MULTIVERSE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 242015
 

 

In the wake of a successful crowd-funding campaign this spring, the multinational group Raising the Veil are preparing for the release of their debut album, Bosonic Quantum Phenomena, and today we’ve got for you the premiere of the album’s first single, “Qubit Computed Multiverse“.

The new album marks the band’s second release overall, following their 2012 EP Yucatanimvs. In its current configuration, the band 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 »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SATANARCHIST / RESIGNED TO FATE — A SPLIT

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 242015
 

 

The split we’re premiering today is an unusual one. One of the bands is alive and kicking (like a mule), one is defunct. One is as raw, raucous, and chaotic as you could want, and the other has a well-produced sound, with a lot of smartly crafted dynamics and stick-in-your-head melodies. And the split is a DIY effort that came to us out of nowhere.

But hang on to your seats, because if you like metal with megawatt energy that will give you an adrenaline-inducing rocket ride, plus enough interesting contrasts to keep you rooted in place, this thing is going to grab you hard from beginning to end.

Satanarchist, from Portland, Oregon, is the first of these two bands, and this split marks their recording debut. The second band, once based in Denton, Texas, is Resigned To Fate. They have a few things in common, including the fact that Satanarchist’s guitarist John was once a member of Resigned To Fate, plus the incorporation of thrash riffs in the melting pot of their respective sounds. But it’s still best to take them one at a time. Continue reading »

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