AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WINCE AND FRISSON — “KÄRRHÄXAN”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 242026
 

(written by Islander)

We would like to introduce you to the “dissoblack and death metal” band Wince and Frisson. They are a duo, one in North Carolina and one in New Jersey. Their names are not “Wince” and “Frisson”. One of them goes by Triumvir Kaleido, and the other is Steve Wiener, who is the artist behind Am I in Trouble? and a member of Eveale, Negative Bliss, and Ashenheart.

Triumvir is the group’s songwriter, guitarist, bassist, and vocalist. Triumvir also creates the band’s artwork and is responsible for the animated music video we’re about to share with you for their first single, “Kärrhäxan“. Steve programmed the drums and produced, mixed, and mastered the music you’re about to hear.

But to briefly go back to the band’s name, “wince” is a word that describes “a slight involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the body out of or in anticipation of pain or distress” (as a visitor to NCS, you probably knew that already), while “frisson” refers to “a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear, a thrill”. Why did they pick this name? You’re about to get some clues. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CENOTAFIO — “ACAUSAL ESCISIÓN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 242026
 

(written by Islander)

This seems like a good time to leap right into a linguistic preview of the song “Acausal Escisión” that you’re about to hear, and then come back to you with further details about where the music comes from.

You would be best advised to gulp lots of air before listening, because violent madness and dreadful misery reign in the song with punishing power. The madness comes first. Without prelude, Cenotafio explode in a stunning assault of light-speed blasting, viciously roiling and insanely shrieking guitars, monstrously malignant roars, and fanatical howls. It is an absolutely unchained, electrifying, and harrowing experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TERATOMA — “STERTOROUS WHISPER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 232026
 

(written by Islander)

If you’ve ever listened to the music of the German band Teratoma, as first captured in their 2021 debut album Purulent Manifestations, you know their choice of band name wasn’t some random shot in the dark. They clearly searched for a real-world representation of the hideous ghastliness they sought to channel in their death metal, and they found the teratoma tumor to be suitably horrid. (FYI, the term comes from the Greek word for “monster” plus the “-oma” suffix used for tumors.)

But even within their debut album Teratoma’s brand of death metal manifested other aspects of monstrosity besides sensations of horrid disease and blood-congealing creepiness. Like the tumor whose name they chose, the music was abominably multi-faceted.

Their new album, Longing Voracity, further expands those other aspects, as the album’s title itself foretells, and we have a prime example of what they’ve achieved achieves through our premiere of the album’s closing track “Stertorous Whisper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CALVANA — “SUMMER STORM”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 232026
 

(written by Islander)

We are told that the Italian black metal band Calvana was established in 2015 at the foot of the Calvana massif, an imposing mountainous ridge north of Florence, and that the band exists “solely to amplify the voice of the mountain as a singular, monolithic entity”. On March 20th Adirondack Black Mass will release Calvana’s third album, Sub Janus.

The press materials for the album evocatively describe the music:

As trend-free as ever, the record captures the primal rage of the peaks and the elemental wrath of nature, forged in the fires of old-school black metal. Rough and robust, their roiling screeds of fury remain as potent as ever, locating that ever-elusive balance between the cryogenic and the lava-like. All instruments hold equal weight in their rustic, all-analog soundfield – particularly bass guitar, an instrument often relegated to nonexistence in black metal – further grounding Calvana’s elemental nature.

You’ll be able to appreciate these claims by listening to the second song from the album released for listening so far, “Summer Storm“, which we’re premiering today with an unsettling lyric video. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BURIED SHALLOW — “RISE, I THE MARTYR”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Buried Shallow’s new single “Rise, I The Martyr” is not about golf. To oversimplify the lyrics, they are essentially about the joys of making heavy music and raging on stage. But someone had the genius demented idea to send these Australians out on the links for the song’s video, adorned in apparel that you’re unlikely to see on any course, public or private.

The result is a hell of a lot of wild fun, over on the “batshit crazy” side of the sanity scale. A large part of the fun is the brutal soundtrack to the increasingly brutal match, i.e., the song itself. Somehow it all works, or at least that’s our assessment. You can assess for yourselves down below, because (with big smiles) we’re premiering the song and video today in advance of the single’s official release on February 27th.

But first, let’s have a look at the band in their usual finery: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SURTURIAN — “BLOOD WITCHERY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Are you tired of your face? Have you reached the point when you don’t even want to look in the mirror? Has the task of trying to mask your horror at daily life just become an exercise in futility? Would you prefer to just erase the slate and start over? Well, you’ve come to the right place, because we have a song for you today that will rip your face right off.

The song in question is “Blood Witchery” and the ripping is performed by the bloodthirsty Munich band Surturian. The track, which is being released today as a single, is the one that closes the band’s new album II – Hessian Spears, which is set for release on March 13th by Crawling Chaos Records. The album follows Surturian’s debut EP, I – The Eyemaster. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PRISON OF MIRRORS — “DE SEPULCHRIS OCCULTIS ET IGNE PROFANATIONIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 192026
 

(written by Islander)

De Sepulchris Occultis et Igne Profanationis (Of Hidden Tombs and the Fire of Profanation) is the second album (or EP if you prefer, since it’s on the borderline) from the Italian band Prison of Mirrors. It consists of two very long songs — “Chants Beneath the Shunned Shrines” and “The Devouring Fire of Demonic Doctrine“. It will be released by ATMF on February 24th. And you can listen to it today through our full streaming premiere.

While making references to “the desolate lines traced by the darkest Blut Aus Nord and Akhlys,” ATMF describes the record as “a work that is bleak, profound, suffocating, and all-encompassing: a sonic ritual that grants no respite and, like a slow-acting poison, will wound its listeners, consuming both mind and senses” — “a journey into the core of an abyss with no bottom, where every step drags you deeper, until nothing remains of former memories — only the faint echo of a consciousness undone.”

After that, you’ll be happy to know that the record is survivable, but the mental wounds it leaves won’t heal quickly. The experience is hallucinatory and labyrinthine, and around all of the many strangely curling corners something very unsettling and intense awaits, though the intensity manifests in different ways, leaving different scars. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LESOTHO — “A FLASHING ON PLAIN GLASS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 182026
 

(written by Islander)

Just two days ago we hosted the premiere of an instrumental metal song by Utah-based Osmium Gate. We concluded the introduction by proclaiming, “It really is one of those songs that’s so emotionally evocative, so viscerally soul-stirring in its impact, that vocals are unnecessary, and indeed would have risked distraction from all the other marvels had they been present.” Coincidentally, we’re now premiering another instrumental metal song, this time from the other side of our continent, and the same impression holds for this one: You won’t miss the vocals at all.

What we have for you today is the title song for A Flashing on Plain Glass, the intriguingly named forthcoming third album from the Boston-based instrumental post-metal trio Lesotho. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MARLUGUBRE — “SHE NIGH HIS DEATH”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 182026
 

(written by Islander)

By definition, “concept albums” are based upon narratives or themes that connect the songs. Most often, the concepts are represented lyrically. Often, the lyrics are written independently of the music, even after much of the music has already been written. Although listening to the riffs and melodies might inspire the lyricist’s development of concepts, sometimes there may be no evident connection at all between an album’s “conceptual framework” and what the songs sound like.

Which brings us to a new concept album by the Italian artist Marlugubre. The name of the album is Per Amor Nymphae, and as that title signifies (it translates to “Through the Love of the Nymphs”), the songs are based upon the mythical figures of nymphs. Deeply rooted in Greek mythology, the songs include tales of the primordial figure of Nyx from Hesiod’s Theogony, of Chloris, of the tragic myth of Scylla and Glaucus, and of perhaps the even more tragic story of Orpheus and Eurydice — which is the subject of the song from Per Amor Nymphae that we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s February 27 release by Dusktone. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): STRUP — “ABYSSURGE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 172026
 

(written by Islander)

The labels Rotted Life and Gurgling Gore have joined forces for the first time in a collaborative release of a debut album named Abyssurge by the Ukrainian band Strup, with a street date of February 20th. They describe the band as “a death grind assault unit blending the surgical brutality of death metal with the speed, chaos, and ferocity of grindcore”.

That description is true, but doesn’t completely capture all the musical ingredients of Abyssurge. Most prominently, Strup’s music is also hideously foul and abysmal as well as maniacally furious and brutally bludgeoning.

But you’ll soon see this for yourselves, because today we’re premiering a full stream of this Kyiv band’s debut — preceded (of course) by our own more detailed thoughts about what you’re about to encounter. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries