AN NCS PREMIERE: SVARTIDAUÐI — “IMPOTENT SOLAR PHALLUS”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 262014
 

 

Iceland’s Svartidauði are perfecting the mechanics of tearing apart interdimensional membranes, exposing our ears to emanations from alien domains, while rocking very damned hard at the same time. Their latest offering, which will not be confused with the work of any other band, is a forthcoming two-song release from Daemon Worship Productions and Terratur Possessions entitled The Synthesis of Whore and Beast, and today we give you the chance to hear one of those two tracks: “Impotent Solar Phallus”.

Calling this music “black metal” feels unsatisfying. It’s too meager a description, and may in fact be misleading. “Impotent Solar Phallus” radiates reptilian menace, its exotic chords both disturbing and otherworldly, its booming/tumbling drumbeats conjuring images of a tribal ritual, as practiced by a tribe not found on this planet. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LORD IMPALER — “FINAL GATES” (AND A REVIEW OF “THE SERPENT SEAL”)

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 262014
 

 

This year the Greek melodic black metal band Lord Impaler are celebrating their 16th year of life. In that long stretch of time they’ve released four demos (the first one in 1999), two split releases, a full-length album, and an EP. I’ve previously reviewed both the album (2011’s Admire the Cosmos Black) and the EP (2013’s Babylon Whore) — both of which are very impressive — but I’ve never heard any of the earlier demo recordings. Now all of us are about to get a taste of them in new form.

On December 7 Lord Impaler will release a special anniversary EP entitled The Serpent Seal – Το Αρχέγονο Σκότοσ Επιςτρέφει, which includes re-recorded versions of four songs from their first three demos, and today we’re premiering one of those tracks: “Final Gates”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ASCENSION — “BLACK EMBER”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Nov 192014
 

 

I’ve been raving in recent months about a new two-song EP named Deathless Light by Germany’s Ascension, and as i noted in those write-ups, the band also have a new album on the way entitled The Dead of the World. Today, we’re fortunate top bring you a premiere of one of the new songs — “Black Ember”.

The album will be released by Season of Mist in North America on January 27, 2015, and is now available for pre-order at this location. As you are about to discover from this new song, the music is black metal of a very high order, music that’s savage and occult, dense and disturbing, but never less than fascinating.

It marks the band’s first album in four years, and it’s a welcome return. Check out “Black Ember” below. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORBOSIDAD — “EN LAS GALLAS DEL INFIERNO”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 172014
 

 

Morbosidad have been shaking the foundations of extreme metal since about 1993, releasing a host of splits and EPs as well as four albums. Their latest release, with a new lineup recruited by founding vocalist Tomas Stench, is a four-song EP named Tortura that will be released by Nuclear War Now! on December 15. On the final track, it features a guest appearance by Chris Reifert of Autopsy. It kicks all the asses.

That preceding paragraph appeared in my review of this EP, posted only yesterday. No music from the EP was publicly streaming when I posted the review, and so I requested the opportunity to share some of it with you — and my request was promptly granted: Today we bring you the premiere of the EP’s second track, “En Las Gallas Del Infierno”.

What I wrote about the EP holds true for this song —  it’s a jet-fueled, turbocharged, bat-winged, red-eyed race, from the machine-gun snare attack to the particle-accelerator fretboard assault. And the echoing vocals are thoroughly pestilential — a mix of tyrannical proclamations, ravenous howls, bile-drenched retches, and blood-spewing roars. As is true of the most lethal diseases, it’s also highly infectious. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LOTUS THIEF — “MISERAS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 132014
 

 

When someone describes an album by telling you that you’ve never heard anything like it before, you may greet such a claim with skepticism. So I’ll just say that I’ve never heard anything quite like Rervm before. It’s the debut album of a San Francisco band named Lotus Thief, and today we bring you the premiere of the album’s second track, “Miseras”.

Lotus Thief consists of two members, Bezaelith (Botanist, Mina Loy, The Night Falls) and Otrebor (Botanist, Ordo Obsidium). The fact that both have been involved in the unique music of Botanist may suggest certain musical associations, but Lotus Thief follows a different musical path, albeit one just as unusual. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SPECTRAL LORE — “QUIVERING” (AND A REVIEW OF “THE QUIVERING LIGHTS”)

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Nov 102014
 

On January 20, 2015, Bindrune and Eihwaz Recordings will release an unusual and unusually good split LP by a group of very talented composers and musicians — P.H. and U.K. of Germany’s Nachtreich and Ayloss of Spectral Lore from Greece — under the title The Quivering Lights. Today we bring you the premiere of one of the Spectral Lore tracks, “Quivering”.

The split is unusual because it is a genuine collaboration between the two bands rather than a mere compilation of independent recordings by each one. Each band recorded three songs, but the tracks are interwoven, with Nachtreich’s “Light” opening the album followed by the Spectral Lore song we’re premiering today. Two more Nachtreich tracks then follow (an instrumental piece named “Greyness”, and “Ghost Light”), followed by the last two Spectral Lore tracks (“Vanishing” and a final instrumental work, “Reflection”). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVOURING STAR — “DECAYED SON OF EARTH”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 102014
 

 

(In this post we’re helping to premiere a new song by Finland’s Devouring Star from their debut album, due for release by Daemon Worship Productions.  Austin Weber provides the introduction.)

Very recently here at NCS, I wrote about a Finnish black metal group called Devouring Star in my Recalcitrant Roundup series. Now that a small bit of time has passed, the band have found a label to call home — Daemon Worship Productions. In addition, through DWP they are on the cusp of releasing to the world a new five-song album, Through Lung And Heart. We and two other sites are giving you a first glimpse at this latest misanthropic offering through our premiere of one of the new songs — “Decayed Son of Earth”.

While Devouring Star may be said to generate a musical aura similar to that of Deathspell Omega, they do a lot to set themselves apart from mere hero worship. While most black metal hints at evil or masquerades as such, Devouring Star is the real, uglier-than-sin deal, with “Decayed Son Of Earth” serving as a carnal carnival of cataclysmic rage whose disgusting majesty cannot be ignored. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STEALING AXION — “AEONS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 082014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli provides the following introduction to our full-album streaming premiere of the new album by Stealing Axion from Tacoma, Washington.)

You may all remember I gave Stealing Axion’s debut Moments high praise (here) back in 2012. Their combination of djent, death metal, and progressive songwriting aspirations really hit a resonant note with me, to the point where Moments still gets a good amount of play time in my music listening. Now, we at NCS have the exclusive honor of streaming the band’s new album Aeons. A review from me will be coming later down the line.

Is Aeons better than Moments? That is hard to say. While the combination of djent/death metal/progressive elements is still there, Aeons see’s the band taking a much more atmospheric, and in a lot of ways (dare I say) doomy approach to the music. If you really want an answer to the question of Is it better?, I’d tell you it’s equally good in it’s own right — and that’s saying a lot. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TWO NEW SONGS FROM ABIGAIL WILLIAMS

 Premieres  20 Responses »
Nov 062014
 

 

It’s the time of year when people who make year-end lists start the tortuous mental process of sifting and ranking what they’ve heard. We’ll be doing that soon, but we’re also looking further down the road in anticipation of what 2015 will bring. And one record it will bring that’s already on our list of highly anticipated new releases is the next album by Abigail Williams.

Today we’re fortunate to bring you a couple of teasers for what the album holds in store, as well as some words from vocalist/guitarist Ken Sorceron about the new album.

What you’re about to hear are two early versions of songs that will appear on the band’s fourth album coming next year via Candlelight Records, the successor to 2012’s excellent Becoming: “Forever Kingdom of Dirt” and “Will, Wish and Desire”. The very talented line-up for these recordings is as follows — with one special guest: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEMON PROJECT — “AFTERGLOW”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 052014
 

 

Demon Project have risen from the spawning grounds of Novosibirsk in Siberian Russia, with two albums and two shorter releases to their credit since 2007, and now they have a new album entitled Revival that’s coming our way in December on the Italian label Revalve Records. Today we’re giving you a taste of the new music through our premiere of “Afterglow” — which qualifies as an exception to our customary Rule.

From my own limited exposure to music from Eastern Russia, I tend to think of doom before anything else, but “Afterglow” is a blazing burst of galloping melodic death metal, with hard-punching rhythms, flickering electronic enhancements, and an eye-opening guitar solo. But that’s not all. Continue reading »

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