AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THORIUM — “THE BASTARD”

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Sep 182024
 

(We welcome French metal writer Zoltar to NCS, and he makes his debut here with the following introductory review of a new album by Thorium which we’re premiering in full today in advance of its September 20 release by Emanzipation Productions.)

Thorium is an interesting beast. Not exactly just another side-project nor a full band per se, they do rear their ugly head whenever their leader and main man Michael Andersen of Withering Surface fame feels like it. And as it turns out, looks like lately, the man does really feel like playing good old and no frills death metal. And it shows.

In a way, The Bastard isn’t just some kind of reaction against the few years and painful gestation of the last Withering Surface – although that did play a small role, but I digress. It’s first and foremost the 49-year-old Andersen‘s love letter to the classic sound he was raised upon back in the late ’80s and early ’90s when a less confident and juvenile, yet already passionate, version of himself started dabbling in the underground through tape-trading and his own Emanzipation ‘zine.

Early reports of an album meant to originally be titled Sverige (that’s ‘Swedish’ for you in, erm, Swedish actually) proved at first to be a tad misleading as suggesting a sound firmly stuck in the early ’90s Stockholm style of Entombed, Grave, and so on. Then again, whereas there’s barely any fuzzy outpouring of the famed HM-2 pedal to be found here nor any D-beat parts and though it was ultimately retitled, it still somehow makes sense. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ASGRAUW — “APADA”

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Sep 182024
 

(written by Islander)

At the end of October, just in time for Samhain night, the Dutch black metal band Asgrauw will return with their sixth album, Oorsprong. It is unusual in more ways than one, including its conceptual storyline — and it is indeed an epic story that the album tells. Drawing upon Mesopotamian mythology, it is described this way by the labels that will release it:

“The album’s narrative is inspired by the Annunaki, the ancient deities said to have come from the sky. Through a blend of storytelling and music, Asgrauw weaves a tale that highlights the legacy of these celestial beings and offers a perspective on the modern age as seen through their eyes, culminating in a dramatic portrayal of humanity’s fate.

“Asgrauw takes you through the stories of Anu and Alalu, Enki and Enlil, but also those of Gilgamesh and Nergal for example. How centuries of struggle for land and gold drove exotic species to turn primates into a slave civilization and by portraying themselves as divine beings, could keep them under control.”

Each song on the album is a chapter in this narrative about gods and men, and the rise and fall of empires, and we’re premiering a video for one of those musical chapters today — a song called “Apada“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AVERNUS — “GRIEVANCES”

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Sep 182024
 

(written by Islander)

The first new album from Chicago’s Avernus in 27 years, which will be released at the end of this week by M-Theory Audio, is something like the closing of a circle (and the opening of other circles). Having been formed in 1992, and with a couple of early demos under their belts, they caught the attention of Marco Barbieri at Metal Blade, who became primarily responsible for including them on that label’s Metal Massacre 12 compilation, and would have signed them to something bigger on Metal Blade if Barbieri had had his way.

Avernus did go on to release their debut album …Of the Fallen on M.I.A. Records in 1997, and they followed that with a few more demos plus an EP, but the band fell away, releasing no new music after 2003… until this year.

Barbieri is now the president of M-Theory Audio, and thus the label’s release of a new Avernus album is a reunion that’s been decades in the making. Avernus has itself experienced a reunion, with a current lineup on the new album that includes three of the band’s original founding members (Rick Yifrach, Erik Kikke, and Rick McCoy), plus James Genenz (also a member of Jungle Rot), who joined the band in 1997.

Reunions of any kind are generally occasions for reminiscing and nostalgia, but this reunion has led to something new, an album of new music made by people who necessarily are very different people than the ones who made …Of the Fallen and all those demos in the ’90s — different because time re-makes everyone, in ways small or large.

What this particular reunion has accomplished, you will discover today, because we’re now premiering a full stream of the new Avernus album. Its name is Grievances. and it is stunning. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GIGAN – TRANS-DIMENSIONAL CROSSING OF THE ALTA TENUIS

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Sep 172024
 

(Andy Synn gives his first impressions of the opening track from Gigan‘s upcoming new album, which we are premiering below in advance of the album’s October 25 release by Willowtip Records.)

If you’re not familiar with the extra-dimensional extremity of Chicago’s Gigan then you might want to check out both my Synn Report on the band from way back in 2016 and my review of their fourth album, Undulating Waves of Rainbiotic Iridescence, from 2017 (which was the last time we heard from them).

Trust me, you’ll want to be fully prepared for what you’re about to experience.

Because going into this one blind could well be hazardous to your health.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER — “BEFOULED COMMANDMENTS”

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Sep 172024
 


hideous cover art by Lucas Korte

(written by Islander)

Reckless manslaughter is a crime that would send you to prison for a very long time, unless you’re listening to the music of Reckless Manslaughter, which isn’t a punishable offense in most jurisdictions — at least not yet.

It must be said, however, that the forthcoming fourth album of this German death metal band, aptly entitled Sinking Into Filth, often sounds like intentional homicide (and the mutilation of the victims) rather than the recklessly negligent taking of life — as well as a descent into horrid depths where souls stripped of flesh now suffer.

You’ll see what we’re getting at when you listen to the song we’re premiering today in advance of the new album’s joint release by Memento Mori and Fucking Kill Records. The name of this evil song is “Befouled Commandments“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SØRGELIG — “INEXORABLE GREY”

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Sep 172024
 

(Written by Islander)

“In the lightless darkness of the world below, where the cold, grey waves of the river of forgetting lap against the shores of unceasing, stygian night, there the nameless and the soulless, tragic and deplorable, gather to exchange tales of bleak eternity and whisper secrets born of blood and promises. With sickle and stone they climb the thousand steps to moonlit night, there to gather the dreams of the sleeping, to reap the screams of the foolish and harvest the spirits of those who have turned the world of legends into a world of decay and ruination.”

With those chilling words Tragedy Productions sets the stage for its release of a new album named Φθορά by the Greek black metal band Sørgelig, which the label further describes as “a tapestry of tragic tales and blackest magic”, “a glorious exposition of blasting ferocity and freezing wickedness”, but also as including “haunting sounds that invoke unsettling imaginings of broken ghosts in empty ballrooms, spinning forever in dusty, tear-stained waltzes”.

To help set the stage further, today we bring you the second song from Φθορά to be revealed so far. Its name is “Inexorable Grey“, and Sørgelig introduce it with these words: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GORGERIN — “GORGERIN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 162024
 

(written by Islander)

As trained self-defense advisers we urge you, before listening to the EP we’re about to premiere, to armor up with ballistic helmets and kevlar vests, and hunker down behind the thickest steal plating you can find. You might also want to have some antiemetics on hand, and a strong sedative available for the aftermath too.

Okay, we’re not trained self-defense advisers or medical professionals, but we do know gutting and gruesome goregrind when we hear it, and that’s what Québec-based Gorgerin catastrophically discharge on their self-titled mini-LP, now set for release by Gurgling Gore on September 20th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ODIUM HUMANI GENERIS — “IDÉE FIXE”

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Sep 162024
 

(written by Islander)

Our site is not a well-oiled machine. Everyone here pretty much does what they want, with very little coordination. And so it is a complete coincidence that today we’re premiering a song from a new album named Międzyczas by the Polish black metal band Odium Humani Generis AND publishing a very good interview with its vocalist/guitarist Biały. I didn’t know that our Comrade Aleks was conducting that interview, but it arrived out of the blue just as I was beginning to work on this premiere feature. Kismet!

Aleks‘ interview, which will follow this premiere in about one hour unless a meteor strikes my home, provides insights about what inspires this Polish band and how they approach their music. Among other things, it tells us that the band took their name directly from Mayhem‘s song “My Death” from the album Chimera, but Aleks also identifies its even older source, an expression by the famous Roman historian Tacitus in his work Annales, a Latin phrase that literally means “hatred for humanity”.

In the interview Biały, referred to the concept — “Contempt for humanity, society, disappointment in the world, disappointment in oneself, and a constant rush towards an inevitable end”. But he also further explained:

“Of course, we don’t constantly walk around angry at humanity and the whole world, but every day there are more and more reasons why it would be better to escape somewhere where there is no one. In the face of the ever-approaching end, nothing in human affairs has any significance. The lack of meaning in life and in the world, the constant passage of time, are very important elements of our lyrics and the meaning of our music.” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EMERALD RAGE — “DRAGONBLOOD”

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Sep 132024
 

“Tolkien fans can bang their heads to this blistering speed metal track! With a dose of 80’s Megadeth and Testament, this song tells the Silmarillion tale of the dark lord Morgoth breeding his most lethal weapon and chief among Dragons, Ancalagon the Black.”

That’s how Ohio’s Emerald Rage introduce their song “Dragonblood“, for which we’re premiering a lyric video today. The track is from the band’s latest album, Valkyrie, which was released last year by Stormspell Records.

In keeping with the tale it tells, “Dragonblood” is a rush to hear, fast and flame-throwing, exultant and dangerous, and guaranteed to get your pulse pounding. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PILLAR OF LIGHT — “SPARED”

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Sep 132024
 

(written by Islander)

The members of the Detroit band Pillar of Light chose an evocative name for their group, one that describes an otherworldly image, suggestive of blinding wonder and perhaps even the appearance of divinity. Yet the image might also be perceived as daunting or frightening.

It turns out to be a name that’s fitting to their music, which is itself a multi-faceted experience capable of producing awe-struck reactions, but it must also be said that the musical edifice they’re constructing is as much supported by columns of obsidian rising from an abyss as pillars of light descending from on high.

That edifice, in its most fully realized form so far, is represented in the band’s debut album, Caldera, which will be released later this year by Transcending Obscurity Records. One single from the album (“Wolf to Man“) surfaced this past summer, and today we present another one as the fall encroaches. Its name is “Spared“. Continue reading »

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