AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FROSTHELM — “SILENT AND DARK, THE EVERLASTING SKY”

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May 202015
 

 

There are many good things to be said about music videos which follow the release of an album that spawned them. Among other things, they bring to light music you might have overlooked or, in the case of the Frosthelm video we’re about to premiere, they can remind you of how dumb you were not to pay more attention to the album in the weeks leading up to its release. And by “you”, I mean “me”.

Frosthelm’s debut album The Endless Winter, which was released in March of this year, is absolutely excellent — a seamless blend of black metal and thrash that runs like a mega-sized electric dynamo and is almost as addictive as caffeine. You feel that urge to go back to it repeatedly, and thankfully the songs continue to deliver a biting surge of adrenaline even after multiple listens. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEUS OTIOSUS — “SIS MORTUUS MONDO”

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May 192015
 

 

I’ve been following the Danish band Deus Otiosus since 2011, when I first discovered (and wrote about) their 2010 debut album Murderer. Since then the band have released two more albums, 2012’s Godless and last year’s Rise. The band have begun work on their fourth album, which is projected for release in 2016, but in the meantime they’re releasing a special EP on May 26 via Germany’s Godeater Records. Entitled Sis Mortuus Mondo, the EP consists of two new songs, one of which is a preview of the next album and the other of which is exclusive to the EP. And today we give you the chance to hear both songs in advance of the EP’s release.

“Greater Horror”, the album preview track, is a giant hornet swarm of riffs driven by deeply grooved bass-and-drum thunder, a fusion of adrenaline-pumping thrash and carnivorous death metal malevolence. There’s a lot of fleet-fingered guitar and bass flash in this head-wrecker, including some incendiary soloing. It romps and then it staggers and then it jams the pedal to the floor again just in case it hasn’t already succeeded in tearing your head off. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CARNIVORA — “A VISION IN RED”

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May 192015
 

 

One thing leads to another. On April 27 we announced our sponsorship of a tour by West Virginia’s Byzantine with Mobile Deathcamp from Ohio. That led to our May 8 announcement of a follow-on tour by Mobile Deathcamp with support from Massachusetts-based Carnivora. And that led to what you’re about to hear — our premiere of a Carnivora song named “A Vision In Red” from their new EP The Vision.

The Vision is a four-track offering that follows the band’s 2013 full-length debut, Eternal, and “A Vision In Red” is the EP’s opening song. The song blends together riffs that alternately swarm and jab, a flurry of pugilistic drum strikes, and a couple of flickering, spiraling guitar solos that really light up the song like a Roman candle — not to mention a nimble, thrumming bass line and some bleeding-edge vocal excretions. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VALBORG — “SULPHUR VITRIOL ANGEL”

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May 192015
 

 

Valborg definitely march to the beat of their own drummer, and perhaps nothing could more clearly prove that point than the new song and video we are premiering today. The music is “Sulphur Vitriol Angel” and it comes from the band’s new album Romantik, which has just become available digitally and is due for release next month on vinyl via Temple of Torturous.

I recommend that you listen to the song at least twice — once while watching the video and once without watching. The video was created by German artist Soheyl Nassary, who also made a video for another Valborg song,  “Under the Cross”. As the band explain: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VORTEX OF END — “GOATPHALANX”

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May 192015
 

 

The French black metal band Vortex of End made their full-length debut in 2007 with In Satan and Plutonium We Trust, and they are now following that up with a second album entitled FVLGVR.LVX.TERROR, to be issued by Deadlight Entertainment. Today we provide a poisonous taste of the new album via our premiere of a track called “Goatphalanx“.

It would be tempting for me to sum up the song as a lethal strafing run of black metal warfare, because it does indeed include its fair share of slashing riffs, furiously blasting drums, and booming bass notes, together with enraged, tyrannical howls. But that would be an oversimplified description, because there’s more to the song than a goat-phalanx assault — which is a big reason why it’s so good. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: “SCORCHED” BY SCORCHED

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May 182015
 

 

Next Monday Unspeakable Axe Records will begin shipping the debut self-titled demo of Delaware death metal band Scorched, and in advance of the release we’re bringing you a music stream of the entire album — which is available for digital download as of today.

Scorched consists of four full-length songs along with a brief intro track and two atmospheric interludes. On those four songs, the band more than live up to their name, delivering a scorching conflagration of feral death metal with style. The music has an old-school tone and viciousness and mixes full-throttle rampaging (with elements of crust/punk in the mix) with slower, staggering, doom-saturated lurches. There’s a skull-crushing rhythm section at work, along with riffs that thrash, chug, and eviscerate with equal potency. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TERMINUS EST — “HARBINGER

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May 182015
 

 

(Austin Weber provides this introduction to our premiere of a new single by the band Terminus Est.)

One of the coolest things about getting to write here at NCS has been Islander’s graciousness in allowing me to alert the metal masses to all the weird and new bands I know about that perhaps most people don’t. In the vein of this ongoing tradition, we are proud to bring you the debut single and first recorded song by newly formed international death metal supergroup Terminus Est.

The band was founded by Canadian native Edward Gryn, who plays guitar and performs vocals in the band. The group started out as a collaboration between him and drummer extraordinaire Hannes Grossmann (Alkaloid, ex-Obscura, ex-Necrophagist, etc.), and they had originally locked in Dominic “Forest” Lapointe (Augury, Teramobil, ex-Beyond Creation, Atheretic, etc.), but he had to bow out before writing his parts. So they recruited another highly skilled bass player, Oliver Pinard from Cryptopsy.

While the band is set to record their debut album this year, they wanted to show the world what they’ve been working on, and so today we premiere for you their debut single, “Harbinger”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEIN ZUM TODE — “WHITE SUPREMACHEESE”

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May 182015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Sein zum Tode.)

South Carolina based tech-metal mental grind patients Sein zum Tode are about to drop a new EP called Siamese Second Cousins Never Removed. To paraphrase how I formerly described them in my review of their 2013 debut beeep, imagine a fucked up merger between Psyopus and Mr Bungle’s creepier dark moments with some of their trademark carnival twists, and you arrive somewhere within the sonic realms of Sein zum Tode. As far as three-piece bands go, they create one hell of a ruckus, and it’s the interesting kind of ruckus if you weren’t able to piece that together from the preceding words.

Now that Siamese Second Cousins Never Removed is about to drop on June 2nd, we offer up a caustic sampling of it to you in the form of, “White Supremacheese”, and it’s a divine aural meeting between insanity and creative genius. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KAOS VORTEX — “TOMB OF THE UNDYING”

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May 152015
 

 

Kaos Vortex are a German band who hit our radar screen when we learned in 2013 that Fredrik Huldtgren from the fantastic Swedish band Canopy had become their new frontman. The band have recorded a debut album named Seeds of Decay that’s set for a May 22 release on CD and digitally by Bret Hard Records. Not long ago we featured a killer single from the album named “Terrorizer”, and now we bring you the premiere of an official video for another track: “Tomb of the Undying“.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that Kaos Vortex can be relied upon to deliver the kind of death metal that grabs you by the neck and shakes you all the way down to the soles of your feet. “Tomb of the Undying” begins hammering and howling right from the start, but it moves in different directions before reaching its finale. It includes jolting grooves, rapidly jabbing riffs, and slithering, serpentine lead guitar work that shrouds the punishing attack in a thoroughly morbid and sinister atmosphere. As expected, Fredrik Huldtgren’s deep growls and harrowing howls are beastly and voracious. Continue reading »

THE PREMIERE OF A NEW AMIENSUS SONG AND AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF AN AMIENSUS-WARSEID TOUR

 Metal News, Premieres  7 Responses »
May 152015
 

 

We’ve been following Minnesota’s Amiensus very closely, from their excellent 2013 debut album Restoration (reviewed here), to their split that same year with Oak Pantheon, entitled Gathering (reviewed here), to the release of their cover of Forefather’s “Wolfhead’s Tree” last fall, which we had the privilege of premiering (here). And now we’re delighted to bring you a stream of the first advance track from the band’s new album Ascension — plus we’re announcing an NCS-sponsored Amiensus tour with Wisconsin’s Warseid. First, the music…

AMIENSUS: “WHAT WORDS CREATE”

The new Amiensus song is “What Words Create”, the third track in order on Ascension. It’s a dynamic, multifaceted song — dramatic, atmospheric, sweepingly melodic, and also charged with hard-driving energy. And it gets stuck in your head very quickly. Continue reading »

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