AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: THORR-AXE — “GATES OF WINTER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  17 Responses »
Jan 082015
 

 

MetalSucks and American Aftermath have premiered individual tracks from Gates of Winter — the second album by Indiana’s Thorr-Axe — and those were tasty appetizers, but now we serve you the main course: a full-album stream.

When I first saw the cover of Gates of Winter, and coupled that with the band’s name, I’m afraid I got the wrong impression. I was expecting tongue-in-cheek, Viking-themed folk metal, with extra cheese. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

There is indeed a narrative concept that gives the album its structure — a tale loosely based on Norse mythology, with some high fantasy thrown in. As the band’s vocalist/guitarist Tucker Thomasson has said (here), “It’s full of frost giants, shit talking, a magic sword forged by a smith producing an incessant stream of f-bombs, and a metric fuckload of ice and snow.”

But the music, the music is something else again. It is no joke. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANCIENT WIND — “WITH HATE IN THEIR EYES”

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Jan 052015
 

Ancient Wind are from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, but you wouldn’t guess that from their music. The Chosen Slain is their debut album, but you wouldn’t guess that either — because it sounds like something produced by a band with multiple albums already under their belts. But judge for yourselves — because you’re about to hear the album’s first single, “With Hate In Their Eyes”.

Glenwood Springs may be nestled in the Rockies at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Roaring Fork River, a town where Doc Holliday spent the final months of his life and was buried, but there’s a lot of Northern Europe in Ancient Wind’s sound. They identify such bands as Amon Amarth and Immortal among their influences — along with the likes of David Alan Coe, Poison, and Anal Cunt. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: “MELENA’S MASK” BY SEWER GODDESS

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Jan 052015
 

 

You can’t find the word “painlust” in any standard dictionary, but it should be a word. If you think about it, it sums up a material part of the human condition. It’s also the name given by Boston-based Sewer Goddess to their new album. Today we give you an introduction to the musical concept of painlust through our premiere of the album’s first advance track, “Melena’s Mask”.

Sewer Goddess made their full-length debut through 2010’s With Dirt You Are One. That was followed by a variety of tape, compilation, and live recordings, but this new song reveals a further evolution of the band’s sound.

Following an introductory fog of static-saturated noise, the band bring down slow hammer blows of fuzz-drenched chords and industrialized percussive pounding. Dissonant guitar excretions writhe through the tumult, and machine-manipulator Kristen Rose howls and shrieks like a banshee tortured to the point of derangement. The song is like a death march, with ranks of the wretched being fed into the teeth of a soul destroyer. Both harrowing and hypnotic, it seems to function as a statement of intent for the album, and as a convincing embodiment of the lust for pain. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY — “HUNTER OF THE CELESTIAL SEA”

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Dec 302014
 

 

The Australian musician Dis Pater has been involved in a multitude of many-hued projects (I’m still very much looking forward to hearing more from his work in Dissvarth, mentioned here), but perhaps his best-known creations have appeared under the banner of Midnight Odyssey. 2011’s Funerals From the Astral Sphere was a very impressive debut album of atmospheric black metal, and next spring I, Voidhanger Records will bring forth the second Midnight Odyssey full-length, an album named Shards of Silver Fade. As the old year draws to a close, we give you a glimpse of what the new year holds in store as we premiere a song from Shards: “Hunter of the Celestial Sea”.

The notes we received accompanying “Hunter of the Celestial Sea” included these words:

The funeral doom grandeur of Tempestuous Fall and the dark-wave vibe of The Crevices Below — Dis Pater’s past projects — have been successfully injected into Midnight Odyssey’s cosmic black metal body, redoubling the emotional intensity and dark majesty of its melodies. The result is nothing short of an epic masterpiece, a visionary night voyage of approximately 2 hours and 23 minutes connecting our ancient pagan past with the apocalyptic feelings of a cosmic death.

“Each song has taken an immense amount of time and energy, so much that I have been left with little to no desire to even listen to music over the last 12 months or so. It combines elements of all my previous releases, from all my previous projects, a true convergence of styles and musicality. If this were the last Midnight Odyssey release, I would be very proud for it to be so.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHREDHEAD — “THE LIE”

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Dec 292014
 

 

Three years after the release of their debut album, the Israeli band Shredhead (who are now based in Berlin) are on the brink of releasing their second full-length, Death Is Righteous, via the Danish label Mighty Music. With a name like “Shredhead”, the band provide a strong clue to their chosen style of mayhem, but we’ll take away the guesswork by giving you a taste of the new album through our premiere of the album’s third track, “The Lie”.

The song does indeed deliver a potent guitar attack, but there’s as much powerhouse groove in “The Lie” as there is whiplashing thrash. In fact, the grinding bass and explosive drumwork make a very strong impression — sort of like the impression made by a crowbar applied vigorously to the back of the neck. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INVIDIOSUS — “OVERLORDS OF THE APOCALYPSE”

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Dec 232014
 

 

(In this post Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new single by Minnesota’s Invidiosus.)

You may have already heard the music of Invidiosus here at NCS this year through one of my previous posts about them. Their album from this year, Malignant Universe, often reminded me of Origin in places, although it also drew from all over the death metal spectrum and was also infused with some grindcore love. If you haven’t check that record out yet, you need to. To end your year with an ugly metallic present, the band recorded a new single called “Overlords Of The Apocalypse”, and asked us to premiere the video for it, which doubles as a song premiere since today is its release date as well.

The video was shot during an Invidiosus Halloween show, and it offers up an amusing gore-soaked twist on your typical performance music video. The band members and the audience are dressed absurdly, with D. Todd Farnham in a Satan outfit slappin da’ bass taking the cake. Guitarist Kevin Alter dressed up as bad guy Lo Pan from the legendary John Carpenter film Big Trouble In Little China comes in a close second.

As the video progresses, you see its story take shape; a hammer-wielding maniac who also carries a knife first murders the doorman, then proceeds to start violently killing members of the audience once inside. By the end of the video, the mysterious deranged assassin has murdered every single member of the audience. It’s done in a tongue-in-cheek way, and I thought it was a hilariously original concept. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: APOCROPHEX — “THE GREY”

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Dec 192014
 

 

(We bring you the premiere of a new song by New Jersey’s Apocrophex, with an introduction by Austin Weber.)

Earlier this year at NCS, I wrote about a two-man technical death metal group called Apocrophex. They are a new band, having just released their first material in February of this year, a two-song EP entitled Wheels Within Wheels that I discussed in that earlier post. Hot off the heels of that introduction to their world, they are giving NCS the opportunity to showcase a tantalizing new song, “The Grey”, as a teaser to their upcoming debut full-length, Suspended From The Cosmic Altaar (featuring cover art by Raul Gonzalez).

While they only have two members, with Justin Buell handling the guitar, bass, and drum programming and Pete Colucci providing the vocals, their music really does sound like the expansive and multi-faceted work of a full band, which is a testament to both their skill and their songwriting craft. I was already hooked on them from their first EP, but figured they still had untapped potential that would keep us interested in what their future might hold. Well, “The Grey” shows them tapping into that potential. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARCHAIC DECAPITATOR — “ETHEREAL ASPECTS”

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Dec 182014
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by a Connecticut band named Archaic Decaptator.)

2014 isn’t over just yet. But I am already on to 2015 releases, earlier than normal I might add. While getting a break would have been nice, when good metal music beckons, I try to answer its demented siren call and spread the word. Which is why I needed to write about Archaic Decapitator, a Connecticut-based death metal group, one who are fairly new to me.

I found out about the band because technical death metal badasses Formless quite recently posted a link to a newly released song of theirs, “Sublevels” (which I will embed below). I suspect they did so because their bassist, Craig Breitsprecher, is in both bands, and also does backing vocals in Archaic Decapitator. I’m pretty happy to have heard this audio recommendation, as this turns out to be yet another underground band worthy of championing.

I struck up by the idea of a song premiere, leading to this newly released eargasm, “Ethereal Aspects”. The impeccably badass song serves is an early teaser to the band’s upcoming EP, The Catherine Wheel. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BLOODMOON — “VOIDBOUND”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 172014
 

 

Bloodmoon released their debut album Voidbound near the end of last year on CD and tape, but it has now been remastered by James Plotkin for re-release on vinyl via Black Voodoo Records. I missed the album when it first came out, but have now had the chance to hear the vinyl remaster. The music is really unusual and really impressive, so much so that we’re happy to provide a platform for everyone else to hear the album as well.

The record is only three songs long, but the first two of those are monsters — with “Voidbound” coming in at nearly 18 minutes and “Back World” at more than 13. Even the shorter closing track “The Singing Flame” tips the scales at more than 7 minutes.

Unusual song lengths of this kind are often a sign of great ambitions. Unless your specialty is droning loops, filling such extravagant spaces with music that captures and holds the listeners’ attention is no mean feat. As an artist, you have to have something to say — something that merits all that time — and you have to say it well. There’s no question Bloodmoon are musically ambitious, and there’s also also no question they’ve got talent to match their aims. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARCHGOAT — “CONGREGATION OF CIRCUMCISED”

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Dec 172014
 

 

Twenty-five years on since their spawning in some Finnish hell pit, Archgoat are as bestial, as primordial, as blasphemous and unrepentant as ever. The proof is in their new album, The Apocalyptic Triumphator, from which we bring you the premiere of a barbaric new song: “Congregation of Circumcised“.

For a band whose roots in the underground go back a quarter-century, they have recorded only two other full-length albums, 2006’s Whore of Bethlehem and 2009’s The Light-Devouring Darkness. (their last EP, reviewed here, was Heavenly Vulva (Christ’s Last Rites) in 2011.) This was due in part to the band’s decision to become dormant for almost 11 years, submerging in 1993 and resurfacing in 2004. But if their releases have been few and far between, every one of them has made a mark. The new one may be the best yet.

As you’ll hear on this new song if you’re unfamiliar with the band, Archgoat have a distinctive and relatively unusual sound for a black metal group. Their strength is in mid-paced and even crawling tempos, and the mood of the music is often shrouded in a heavy cloak of doom. Angelslayer vomits forth his lyrics in deep, noxious croaks and grunts. Sinisterror’s drumming rarely reaches pyrotechnic levels of speed.  Their brand of ferocity shares almost as much DNA with death metal as with black. Continue reading »

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