AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BULLETBELT — “RISE OF THE BANSHEE”

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Sep 252014
 

 

(We thank New Zealand-based metal writer and broadcaster Craig Hayes for the following introduction to our premiere of a full stream of the new album by New Zealand’s awesome Bulletbelt.)

 

Bands like Diocletian, Vassafor, Ulcerate, and Beastwars have done a lot to spread various strains of New Zealand metal around the globe in recent years, and there’s no doubt that the nation’s heaviest music is infecting more fans than ever. Of course, those bands are just the tip of the iceberg, because the New Zealand metal scene is packed to the gunnels with a diverse range of virulent bands, all showing a diehard strength of will.

Case in point: Bulletbelt.

The Wellington-based five-piece features long-serving members from New Zealand’s metal community, and draws a riotous crossover crowd at home. Bulletbelt’s fiery full-length debut, 2012’s Down in the Cold of the Grave, was certainly framed by black metal, but thrash, traditional metal, and punk rock’s vicious bite were all given free reign, too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REXOR — “DEMIGORGON”

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Sep 252014
 

 

I suppose if I were a responsible person I would tell you to proceed with caution, like a traffic sign on a highway to hell that’s about to drop precipitously into a lake of blood. But instead, my advice is to take your seatbelt off and floor it — that’s the best way to experience the new song we’re premiering from Italy’s Rexor today, because that’s the way they drive, too.

Rexor’s debut album, Ain, appeared in 2008, and their most recent release was a 2012 EP named Nox Obscura Sortis. Their new album is entitled Ut Humanitatem Caedant, and its advent is nearly upon us. As a sign of what awaits within, we bring you “Demigorgon”. It begins with a prelude that’s heavy with an air of infernal majesty — and then it explodes. There’s really no other word for it.

The drumwork is off the hook, a frenzied, hyperspeed display of almost inhuman dexterity and vehemence. The riffs are like a hail of razors. The vocals are pure acid spray. But as this dynamic song progresses and begins to slow into a wounded stagger, the bass almost becomes the dominant instrument (at the very least it seized my attention). Harnessed together, all of these elements of the music deliver an experience that’s energizing, malignant, ominous, and draped in a melodic atmosphere of unavoidable doom. It’s black metal that’s ravaging and powerful. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLUT AUS NORD — “PAIEN”

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Sep 252014
 

Two years ago Blut Aus Nord produced their last full-length album, Cosmosophy, which brought to a resounding close the 777 trilogy. Every album in the trilogy drew praise from critics and fans alike, despite the fact that no one of them sounded quite like any of the others. Cosmosophy left wide open the intriguing question of where Vindsval would go next — though in fairness, with a band as inventive, idiosyncratic, and contrarian as this one, that’s always a question.

Where Blut Aus Nord have gone next is a new album named Memoria Vetusta III — Saturnian Poetry, which will be released by Debemur Morti Productions on October 10. Having completed the very personal 777 project, in which Vindsval chose to work alone, the new album features a new drummer, a human one named Thorns, as well as stellar cover art by none other than Kristian “Necrolord” Wahlin (with layout and illustrations by Dehn Sora). “But what about the music?”, you ask.

The reappearance of the Memoria Vetusta title will no doubt have fans thinking about the first two albums bearing that same name, despite the fact that Dialogue With the Stars followed Fathers of the Icy Age by roughly 13 years and Saturnian Poetry comes more than five years after the release of Dialogue. In short, this is no trilogy; unlike 777, these are not three parts of a single massive piece of music. But at the same time the resurrection of that title, which refers to memories of what is long past, was not done carelessly — as you will hear. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “THE ALONEST OF THE ALONE”

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Sep 242014
 

 

Earlier this month we featured the first advance track from Cobra Verde, the new album by Italy’s Hideous Divinity, and today we have the pleasure of featuring a second one, in the form of a lyric video. This track is named “The Alonest Of The Alone” and it features Dallas Toler-Wade from Nile and Narcotic Wasteland).

Cobra Verde will be released by Unique Leader on October 28 in the U.S. and on October 27 in the UK and October 31 in the EU. As we previously reported, it’s a concept record inspired by the 1987 German film of the same name directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski in his final collaboration with Herzog before his death. The album also includes a cover of “Last and Only Son” by Ripping Corpse (from their 1992 EP Industry).

“The Alonest of the Alone” is yet further proof that Cobra Verde will be an unusually accomplished rendering of sonic savagery, combining a lot of highly accelerated technical whiz-bang with a talent for pummeling grooves and seductive melody. It abundantly earns the appellation of “brutality” without falling into the cesspool of mindless wankery or commonplace brutishness. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELLISH OUTCAST — “HERESIARCH” (AND A REVIEW OF “STAY OF EXECUTION”)

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Sep 242014
 

 

(In this post we present Andy Synn’s review of the forthcoming second album by Norway’s Hellish Outcast and an exclusive premiere of the song “Heresiarch.)

It’s always nice to see a band you love progress and move forward. Whether it’s in terms of getting proggier and weirder, or just downright heavier and nastier, it’s always such a joy to watch them grow up.

Case in point: It’s been two and a half years since Hellish Outcast unleashed their debut album of fist-clenching riffage and throat-bursting agony on the world, but it’s clear that they’ve not been idle in the intervening time.

No, they’ve been sharpening their knives, honing their skills, and biding their time. And now they’re ready for war once again.

Faster, heavier… fundamentally darker and more malevolent than ever, Stay of Execution improves on the band’s debut in pretty much every way, drastically ramping up the kill-count with a merciless display of calculated lethality and an undercurrent of sinister, progressive melody. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: “MEDITATION ON EARTH” — FEATURING THE DEBUT OF “DEATH OBSESSION” BY APHONIC THRENODY

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Sep 242014
 

We have an unusual kind of premiere for you in this post, a collaboration between a visual artist and a metal band that is strange and hypnotic, and open to varying interpretations that depend on the imagination of the viewer/listener. The creator of the video is a Dutch artist named Jérôme Siegelaer, and the metal band is the multinational funeral doom collective known as Aphonic Threnody.

My own experience with Aphonic Threnody (whose members come from other well-regarded underground groups) goes back to 2011, when I came across their debut EP First Funeral (and wrote about some of the music here).  I wrote about them again (here) in a review of their superb 2014 split with Ennui entitled Immortal In Death. At last, the band have recorded a debut album entitled When Death Comes that’s due for release on the Doomentia label on October 31, and the longest song on that album, “Death Obsession”, is the soundtrack to this video. Or you could just as easily consider the video as a visual interpretation of “Death Obsession”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNDER THE PLEDGE OF SECRECY — “THE ONE EYED GOD PROPHECY”

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Sep 182014
 

 

(Austin Weber provides the following introduction to our premiere of a song by Germany’s Under the Pledge of Secrecy.)

I was made aware of Under The Pledge Of Secrecy quite recently, and at just the right time it seems, as this talented German band have a new album, Black Hole Mass Evolution, coming very soon. I heard their last album, The Convoluted Line, described to me as sounding like Between The Buried And Me stripped down to their early primal aggressive style, and while I hear that, I would say they are also equal parts early Dillinger Escape Plan and early The Red Chord. Their Facebook and Soundcloud describes them as experimental grind metal, and those three intertwined certainly encompass the feel and flow of their music.

This is high-octane musical rabies, a convoluted yet precise wrecking ball of grind and death metal — shot through with a strong melodic counterbalance. Their music has always eclectically drawn from a wide swathe of sounds, though this new album embraces a greater death metal focus — a trait inherent in the rampaging track “The One Eyed God Prophecy” that we are premiering today.

The first few seconds bring the triumphant evil of Behemoth to mind, until the song ignites into a white-hot fury of thunderous roars, a conveyor-belt approach of frenzied riff after frenzied riff, bustling bouncy bass lines that exhibit a keen presence in the mix, and lightning-fast drumming interlocking with the guitars in pure rhythmic bliss. A multitude of grind bursts ratchet the intensity ever higher, feeding the frenzy and fire of the song’s scorching death metal primacy. After the pummeling, the track fades out into a section that sounds like a horror film score, an effective slip back into the abyss. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FROM THE VASTLAND — “KAMAK”

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Sep 182014
 

From the Vastland began life as the one-man project of an Iranian multi-instrumentalist known as Sina, following the end of his involvement in the prolific Iranian black metal band Sorg Innkallelse. From the Vastland’s debut album, Darkness vs Light, The Perpetual Battle, was released in 2011. That was followed by Kamarikan in 2013 (which we reviewed here), and then by a striking live performance that same year at Oslo’s Inferno Festival (reviewed here), where Sina was joined onstage by a such luminaries as Thor Anders “Destruchtor” Myhren (Myrkskog, Zyklon, Morbid Angel) on second guitar, André “Tjalve” Kvebek (Pantheon I, Den Saakaldte, Horizon Ablaze) on bass, and Vegard “Vyl” Larsen (Keep Of Kalessin) on drums.

From the Vastland has now recorded a third album — entitled Temple of Daevas — and it’s scheduled for release by Non Serviam Records on October 6, 2014. For the new album Sina again composed all the songs, performed lead vocals, and laid down the guitar tracks. He was joined in the recording by Vyl on drums, Tjalve on bass, and by Terje Olsen (Chton, Khonsu) as a guest vocalist for backing vocals.

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of premiering (here) a stream of one of the new album tracks, “Wrath of Aeshma”, and today we bring you another one: “Kamak”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOODTEMPLE — “FORGOTTEN PRIDE”

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Sep 172014
 

On September 30, Sacrilege Records will release the fifth album by Austria’s Woodtemple, Forgotten Pride, and in advance of the release we’re giving you the chance to hear the album’s title track.

The song is both melancholy and inspiring, both meditative and surging. It includes folk elements, such as acoustic strumming and the sound of hand drums; a mix of Aramath’s cracked, harsh rasp and the soaring beauty of clean choral voices; a shining keyboard melody that moves in drifting waves throughout the song and jagged riffs that give the music roots in the earth to accompany the almost ethereal quality of the keyboard refrain.

The music is an atmospheric approach to pagan metal that preserves a sense of ancient conflicts and bloodied swords, with the dead and dying illuminated in the flickering glow of bonfires at night, yet inspires spiritual visions as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PISS VORTEX — “OF BODILY WASTE AND DESIRE”

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Sep 152014
 

 

I had a strong intuition that I would like the song we’re about to premiere before I ever heard it. Because the band’s name is Piss Vortex. And if that weren’t enough temptation (which it definitely was), the song’s name is “Of Bodily Waste and Desire”. (I was tempted to use yellow font for this entire post instead of using it selectively, but I decided to just let the music piss all over you instead.)

Piss Vortex are a newish band from Copenhagen, Denmark, who have recorded a self-titled debut album — because with a band name like Piss Vortex, you really don’t need to spend time trying to think up a more eye-catching name for your album. The debut consists of 14 tracks lasting 23 minutes and includes such other memorable song titles as “Voice of the Worthless”, “Beaten Womb”, “Organic Shrapnel”, “Shit Life”, and “Filth”. But “Of Bodily Waste and Desire” remains my favorite title.

You may be getting the idea that Piss Vortex give no fucks, and in some ways they don’t — for example, they sure don’t seem too concerned about conforming to specific genre constraints. “Of Bodily Waste and Desire” is eerie, discordant, explosive, and hammering — and difficult to classify. Continue reading »

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