AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARTIFICIAL BRAIN — “ABSORBING BLACK IGNITION”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Dec 162014
 

 

(We interrupt our seemingly endless series of year-end lists to bring you a video premiere by a band whose 2014 album is cropping up on many of them — with an introduction by Austin Weber.)

Let’s be honest, as far as metal releases go in 2014, few have been as praised and visible throughout numerous year-end lists as Artificial Brain’s Labyrinth Constellation. Thus, the remainder of this year shall be renamed The Year of the Brain. And for good reason! Getting to see them live this year was a mind-blowing experience for me.

While I don’t want to re-hash what I said in my review, I can sum it up as a highly creative album that keeps aggression and white-hot intensity at the forefront in spite of its progressive nature, keeping things oddly catchy while making sure each song has its own identity, effortlessly worming its way into your skull. A lot of metal critics pussy out on putting death metal releases on year-end lists, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw that Labyrinth Constellation has already appeared on so many. Not only that, but another big reason this is The Year of the Brain is because the band were featured in a clip on the CBS show Elementary; and hell, even Lucy Liu says the band’s name in the clip! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EMBRIONAL — “IN DARKNESS”

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Dec 112014
 


photo by Semen Turkowski

Embrional’s 2012 debut album Absolutely Anti-Human Behaviors was a strikingly impressive debut, a death metal barrage that was equal parts suffocating old-school brutality and technically impressive high-speed chaos. This Polish band have now recorded a follow-up album entitled The Devil Inside that shows every sign of being just as powerful, distinctive, and attention-grabbing. But judge for yourselves — you are about to hear our premiere of the album’s first advance track, “In Darkness”.

The song sounds absolutely monstrous, with a grit-caked, grinding tone that bespeaks a mountain of skulls being ground into splintered fragments — yet the production is also clean enough to ensure that every scalpel-sharp note and destructive drum strike hits home with unerring accuracy. The grim, serpentine melody in the song’s early minutes oozes an atmosphere of suppurating illness and inhuman malice, but the music also eventually explodes in a flurry of blazing fretwork and a barrage of drum munitions that is both frenetic and surgically precise. Fittingly, the vocal tirade is tyrannical and caustic. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE UNIVERSE DIVIDE — “DAY 4”

 Free Shit, Premieres  3 Responses »
Dec 112014
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us the premiere — and a free download — of a new song by The Universe Divide from Atlanta, Georgia.)

In their heyday, Canvas Solaris were an instrumental act of considerable skill and prowess, taking a death metal, jazz, and prog-infused path of constructing instrumental metal music that was far ahead of its time. It’s been a few years since that group bit the dust in 2011, though the band is writing new material, but that is a long ways away from coming to life.

What people familiar with that group may not know, is that two of its members, guitarist Chris Rushing and bassist Gaël Pirlot, have been crafting a new instrumental metal vision in their latest group, The Universe Divide. The band previously released an impressive EP in 2011 called Dust Settles on the Odontophobes, and they certainly carry over some of the aggressive nature of Canvas Solaris that is missing from a lot of instrumental metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEWITCHER — “SPEED ‘TIL YOU BLEED”

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Dec 102014
 

Bewitcher is a two-man band from Portland, Oregon, whose third demo release — a three-song offering entitled Midnight Hunters — will be coming your way on January 5, 2015. A few paragraphs from now, we’ll give you a chance to sample the demo as we premiere a stream of one of the new songs, “Speed ’til You Bleed”.

As you’ll soon find out, that’s an apt title for the song. It’s a rocking blast of thrashing blackened speed metal, a dirty, alcohol-fueled homage to the spirits of Venom and Motörhead that will get its hooks in you right from the get-go. The production is gritty enough to ooze old-school heavy metal vibes but not so rough as to obscure the shotgun drumming, the shine of the cymbal smashes, the spitfire soloing, the abraded filthiness of the raving vocals, or the sing-along compulsiveness of the lyrics. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHALICE OF BLOOD — “SHEMOT”

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Dec 102014
 

 

Sweden’s Chalice of Blood announced their arrival in the occult realms of black metal with a three-song demo in 2005 (Angelus Diaboli) and followed that with two split releases, including their excellent 2014 split with Israthoum on the Daemon Worship label. Early next year Daemon Worship will release the band’s most accomplished work yet, a five-song EP entitled Helig, Helig, Helig, and today we bring you the first taste of the new music through our premiere of a track entitled “Shemot“.

Those in search of “atmospheric” black metal or sweeping melodies that tug on the heartstrings will have to look elsewhere. “Shemot” is red of tooth and claw, a predatory assault that’s more interested in ripping out the heart and devouring it. Driven by relentlessly blasting drums and the buzzing whir of fiery tremolo riffs, the music radiates venomous energy, its dark melody full of malevolent threat, the cracked-glass vocals uttering hateful proclamations with bestial vehemence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ADVERSARIAL AND PAROXSIHZEM — NEW MUSIC FROM “WARPIT OF COILING ATROCITIES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Dec 042014
 

 

When I first learned that Vault of Dried Bones would be releasing an album-length split by Adversarial and Paroxsihzem, entitled Warpit of Coiling Atrocities, I simultaneously experienced both a thrill and a chilling sensation, like a burst of adrenaline as the blood started freezing in my veins. I haven’t yet heard the complete results of this destructive alliance, but I have heard two of the songs on Warpit, and I got the thrill/chill all over again, big time. Now you’ll get a chance to hear them, too, as we  bring you the premiere of one song by each band from the split.

Both of these Toronto bands’ last releases came out in 2012 — Adversarial’s split with Antediluvian (reviewed here) and Paroxsihzem’s self-titled debut album. Both of them were hellholes of violence and depravity, which is to say they were excellent. So are these two songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHED THE SKIN — “THE SKAPHE OF CHRIST / REBIRTH THROUGH BRIMSTONE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Dec 032014
 

 

You may not be familiar with the name Shed the Skin, but chances are you’ll recognize the names of some of its members.  This Ohio-based band is new, but the line-up includes drummer Kyle Severn (Incantation), guitarist Matt Sorg (Ringworm), vocalist/guitarist Ash Thomas (Vladimirs, Faithxtractor), bassist Ed Stephens (Ringworm), and Brian Boston (ex-From the Depths) on keyboards. Hells Headbangers will soon be releasing their debut two-song EP and today we’re bringing you a stream of the first track:  “The Skaphe of Christ / Rebirth Through Brimstone”.

Shed the Skin took shape when Sorg and Severn played together in a tribute to Cleveland’s Blood of Christ at a memorial show for their friend Tom Rojack (Blood of Christ’s 1993 promo EP included the song “Shed the Skin”), and then decided to forge ahead by recruiting the rest of the band’s impressive line-up. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRETIN’S “STRANGER”

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Dec 012014
 

 

Eight years ago Cretin made a big splash with the release of their debut album Freakery, but eight years in the world of metal seems like an ice age, and it’s a long time in the lives of human beings, too. As good as Freakery was, trying to predict what this band would accomplish with their new album Stranger would have been a fool’s errand. But there’s no more need for guessing games — Stranger is on the verge of being released, and you’re about to get the chance to hear it from start to finish.

Spoiler alert: it’s really, really good. It might be the best grind album of the year. It’s certainly one of the best metal albums of 2014. Now augmented by the addition of guitarist Elizabeth Schall (Dreaming Dead), Cretin are once again a force to be reckoned with. Continue reading »

AN NCS FULL ALBUM PREMIERE: CORBEAUX — “HIT THE HEAD”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 012014
 

 

Corbeaux are a French quartet consisting of two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer — and (almost) no vocalist. Their debut album Hit the Head is being released today, and we’re bringing you a full stream of the album’s six songs.

It might be enough to say that if you’re a fan of bands such as Russian Circles, Pelican, and If These Trees Could Talk, you will enjoy this album. But it deserves more than drive-by name-dropping. Especially for a debut album, Hit the Head is a dynamic and engrossing experience.

Both within each song and through the album as a whole, the music ebbs and flows, with changes of pace, volume, and mood that will keep you involved and interested. Anchored by distorted, grinding bass notes and precise but ever-changing drum rhythms and creative fills, the songs spin out a wide array of absorbing dialogues between the dual guitars. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GENOCIDE SHRINES — “SUBTERRANEAN KATACOMB, TERMINATION TEMPLE (HENOTHEISTIC PRIMAL DEMIURGE)”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Nov 272014
 

Those vicious Canadian purveyors of Total Death, Vault of Dried Bones, have been preparing once again to open their bomb bay doors and rain destruction from the skies, and their new weapon of choice is a Sri Lankan band appropriately named Genocide Shrines.  This new release from the Vault Cult’s label will be the band’s first full-length album, and its title is Manipura Imperial Deathevokovil (Scriptures of Reversed Puraana Dharmurder).

As an introduction to what this album holds in store, we bring you today the premiere of the album’s third track, “Subterranean Katacomb, Termination Temple (Henotheistic Primal Demiurge)”. Those who may be familiar with the band’s 2012 Devanation Monumentemples EP or the Mahabharat Terror Attack split with Manifestor released last spring may still not be prepared for what it will do your peace of mind (it will leave it in pieces).

Continue reading »

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