AN NCS PREMIERE: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT — “KROKODIL”

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Feb 162015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by NYC’s Imperial Triumphant from their forthcoming second album, Abyssal Gods.)

Imperial Triumphant are not only one of the most important U.S. black metal acts currently active, truly carving their own stylistic path, but they are also important to the future of black metal. Not only do I not give two shits how presumptuous that sounds, but I am also very confident (as an overall largely un-confident person) in my assertion of both their unique skill and their liquefying intensity as musical operatives.

While their latest approaching album, Abyssal Gods, is overall a thoroughly vicious act of blasphemy packed with more memorable moments than many bands accumulate in a lifetime of albums, the song we are premiering today, “Krokodil”, is an even stranger and more off-beat track than the rest of the intricately composed yet grotesquely unfolding siren wails from hell that make up the rest of this ruthless record. Imperial Triumphant have always had a queasy, slower, droning counter-balance to their fury, infusing it with a needling sickness and a blackened nuance of psychedelia that puts you in a trance comparable to none. It’s exactly this facet of their sound in which “Krokodil” traffics. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: AETHYR — “CORPUS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 162015
 

 

Five years after their debut album Messio and three years after their last release of any kind, the Moscow doom band Aethyr have returned with a new full-length entitled Corpus. In advance of its February 19 release by Cimmerian Shade Recordings, we’re pleased to being you a full stream of the album in all of its staggering immensity. But I need to immediately apologize for calling Aethyr a “doom band”, because the music on Corpus is not so easily summed up.

Across the seven tracks and 50 minutes of music that make up Corpus, Aethyr integrate elements of black metal, sludge, and ambient noise into their core framework of titanic doom. The musical landscape changes as the album unfolds, but never leaves the blasted territory of hopelessness and ruination. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NEOLITH — “ENLIL”

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Feb 162015
 

 

One month ago we had the pleasure of premiering a decimating new song by the Polish band Neolith, a song named “Of Angel and His Orison” from the band’s new album (their fourth), Izi.Im.Kurnu-Ki. One good turn deserves another, and so today we are equally happy to bring you one more taste of this new record — an official lyric video for a song named “Enlil“.

The new song is yet another example of Neolith’s ability to deliver completely pulverizing blackened death metal. It begins slowly, with enormous groaning riffs and an immediately palpable atmosphere of frightful oppressiveness. And then the song erupts — a volcanic explosion of flailing riffs, hammering grooves, and primal roars and shrieks. The drumming punches holes through flesh at the speed of an automatic weapon, and just when you think the song can’t get much more destructive, a guitar solo ignites like a flamethrower. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BELOW THE SUN — “ENVOY”

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Feb 162015
 

 

On a September morning more than 37 years ago, the Voyager 1 spacecraft rose from the Earth on a mission that may have no end. In August 2012 it entered interstellar space, traveling father than anyone, or anything, in human history. Hurtling ahead at a speed of 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h), it passes further beyond our reach with each passing second, pushing forward deeper and deeper into the void.

From their own vantage point in the city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberian Russia, an enigmatic band who call themselves Below the Sun have taken the solitary journey of Voyager 1 as their inspiration, crafting a concept album entitled Envoy that stands as their musical introduction to this world. Today we bring you a full stream of this unusual and unusually accomplished debut work, preceded by this review.

Hearing the album, it’s difficult to believe that it’s the first musical output of this quintet. It has the earmarks of people who already know their craft quite well, and perhaps they do — they wear masks and they go by names they weren’t born with (Vacuum, Quasar, Entropy, Lightspeed, Void), so their histories are hidden. And thus the music speaks for itself. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DECLINE OF THE I — “LE ROUGE, LE VIDE ET LE TORDU”

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Feb 122015
 

 

The French band Decline of the I are nearing the release of their second album, a seven-track work entitled Rebellion. We’ve paid close attention to the music as individual tracks have been released for public consumption. Last October we wrote about the first advance track from the album, a song named “Hexenface”, and then covered the premiere of a second one — “Lower Degree of God’s Might” — in mid-January. Now we ourselves have the pleasure of bringing you a third example of what Rebellion holds in store.

The song we’re premiering is “Le rouge, le vide et le tordu” (“The red, the emptiness, the twisted one”), and it is yet another display of the diverse talents of the band’s principal creative force, multi-instrumentalist  A.K., who has also performed in such bands as Vorkreist, Merrimack, and Malhkebre. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEWERCIDE — “HYPOTHERMIA”

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Feb 102015
 

 

Talk about eye-catching cover art! What you’re looking at above is the creation of Tim Jacobus (Goosebumps) and it graces the new EP by Australia’s Sewercide, entitled Severing the Mortal Cord. This is the band’s sixth release overall, following a demo and four splits, and it delivers five full-throttle blasts of mayhem — one of which we’re about to premiere.

The song’s name is “Hypothermia”, but there’s nothing cold about it. It’s a gritty, brawling blast of high-voltage death/thrash loaded with a hornet swarm of vicious riffs, gut-punching bass, and rambunctious percussion — and highlighted by a fret-burning solo that will singe your eyebrows. In keeping with the balls-to-the-wall atmosphere of the music, the vocalist sounds like he’s on a straight liquid diet of lye and pure, concentrated ethanol. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVATHORN — “DOCTRINA FIDE”

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Feb 102015
 

 

As we’ve noted more than once at this site, the last 12 months have produced a stunning number of stunning black metal releases from Greece, and the flood of blood shows no signs of abating. On February 24, W.T.C. Productions will be releasing the second album by the Athenian band Devathorn. The new work, Vritra, follows the band’s Diadema debut by more than seven years, but the time has not been wasted. As proof, we offer a premiere of the album’s second track, “Doctrina Fide”.

Vritra is named for the great serpent of legend, the archetype of the draconic adversary, the bringer of chaos and liberation. Using this symbol of arcane knowledge and otherworldly fury, Devathorn have poured their musical devotion into a chalice of sulphur flame, where it burns with obsidian light. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: THE WHOREHOUSE MASSACRE — “ALTAR OF THE GOAT SKULL / VI”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 082015
 

 

The Whorehouse Massacre have been churning out catastrophic heaviness from the bowels of British Columbia since roughly 2005, with almost a dozen short releases, one full-length album, and a live recording to their credit. On February 20, Transcending Obscurity will release a compilation of the band’s most recent EPs under the title Altar of the Goat Skull / VI. It comes as a precursor to the band’s next album, which will be released by the same label, and at the end of this post you’ll have the opportunity to hear it in full.

But if you’re not already familiar with this band’s brand of sludge, I should probably warn you: Listening to this album all the way through risks severe spinal compression, concussion, bleeding in the brain, black eyes, and gradual suffocation. It’s a low, slow death inflicted by pulverizing riffs and gut-punching percussion. About the only light that escapes this maw of darkness are the sparks that come from the crash of cymbals. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OBLIVIONIZED — “CRY YOURSELF TO ASH”

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Feb 062015
 

 

The head-wrecking, head-twisting grind trio from London known as Oblivionized are nearing the release of their debut album Life Is A Struggle, Give Up, and today we’ve got the premiere of an official music video for one of the new songs — “Cry Yourself To Ash”.

We’ve been following Oblivionized pretty closely, reviewing their debut EP (here) back in 2011, their second EP (here) in 2012, and one of their contributions to a split with Plague Widow in 2013 (here). They’ve already amply proven their ability to vent fury with megawatt power and technical intricacy, but this track is a good example of the band’s ability to put some interesting twists and turns into their ferocity. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: THE VOMITING DINOSAURS — “WORSHIP THE PORCELAIN GOD”

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Feb 062015
 

 

When I heard the first two tracks from the new album by Virginia trio The Vomiting Dinosaurs, I wrote that they were a blast to hear — an open-throttle, ass-kicking combo of grind, thrash, and death metal bent on ramming your head right through the wall and into the furnace next door. Now that I’ve heard the whole album, I realize that I probably under-stated the album’s impact because I failed to include some kind of reference to carpet-bombing with napalm.

The band obviously have a sense of humor, which carries over from their name and the album’s title to the individual track titles as well, but the music is punishing — in a very good way. It romps between made-to-mosh, punk-inspired thrashing,  massively headbangable grooves, and flame-throwing grind eruptions. Continue reading »

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