AN NCS PREMIERE: INCONCESSUS LUX LUCIS — “CRUX”

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Aug 122014
 

Twenty-five years ago, even twenty years ago, only the clairvoyant could have foreseen that black metal would one day become a laboratory of alchemical experimentation, with its orthodox tropes used as ingredients in the creation of new potions to an extent perhaps unequaled in other metal genres. It’s an evolution filled with irony. Even today, there are legions of hidebound black metal fans who regard themselves as the keepers of the sacred flame; they pounce with bared claws on bands who dare to diverge from the orthodox ferocity of the original templates. Such people will probably turn their noses up at the music of Britain’s Inconcessus Lux Lucis. Their loss.

ILL is a duo consisting of W. Malphas (guitars, drums, vocals) and A. Baal (bass). Their debut album Disintegration: Psalms Of Veneration For The Nefarious Elite was released by Nomos Dei Productions, and they are now working on a second full-length to be released by I, Voidhanger Records in 2015. In the meantime, they have recorded a four-song EP entitled Crux Lupus Corona that I, Voidhanger will be releasing in October, accompanied by a beautiful booklet with artwork created by Bethany White. Today we’re fortunate to bring you the premiere of its second track, a song called “Crux”, as well as the comments of W. Malpas about the band and their music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PANTHEON I — “FROM THE ABYSS THEY RISE”

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Aug 112014
 

From the Abyss They Rise is the new album by Norway’s Pantheon I (whose line-up includes members of 1349, Trollfest, and Den Saakaldte, among others) and it will be released on August 14 by the band’s new label, Non Serviam Records. It begins with an EP of five new songs and ends with the band’s first demo recording, and it features wonderful cover art by Kjell Åge Meland.

We’ve already sung the praises of the album’s new songs via this review by Andy Synn, and today we’re happy to bring you the streaming premiere of the entire album.

Both decadent and splendorous, acid-drenched and haunting, feverish and slow-burning, the new songs mark a subtle but significant step ahead for a multi-faceted group whose brand of black metal has always been out of the ordinary. This new release presents a vista of the band’s progression over time, and it’s one we highly recommend. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSMAL LORD — “ANGELS OF PERSECUTION”

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Aug 052014
 

 

Louisiana’s Abysmal Lord chose well when they named their debut EP Storms of Unholy Black Mass. The five songs on this forthcoming release deliver an unstoppable deluge of massively destructive blackened death metal, a bestial onslaught that vividly creates an atmosphere of pestilence and unholy malignance. Yet the music is more than merely ruinous in its intent and effect. The riffs crackle with ebon energy, the drumbeats strike with bone-jarring immediacy, and the slithering, doom-stricken melodies prove to be unexpectedly seductive. As undeniably venomous as it is, listening to the EP is an electrifying experience.

Today we bring you a taste of what Storms of Unholy Black Mass holds in store, as we premiere the EP’s third track, “Angels of Persecution”. It rains unholy fire and brimstone from the skies in a torrential downpour of grinding, radioactive riffs, thundering percussion, and lightning-strike guitar solos, with ghastly vocals that vomit forth noxious clouds of sulfurous poison. The slashing storm breaks periodically, long enough for the band to deliver slow, skull-flattening hammer blows, just in case you missed the message: only doom awaits. And that rhythmic dynamism is a hallmark of the EP as a whole — Abysmal Lord are as adept at delivering crushing beatdowns as they are at mounting assaults of accelerated violence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PRIMORDIUM — “THE INCURSION”

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Aug 012014
 

 

Today we’re helping to premiere the first song from the debut EP by an Indianapolis band named Primordium. Entitled Aeonian Obsolescence, the EP is coming your way this September via Lacerated Enemy Records. We would have been interested in hearing it even if it didn’t come packaged with the distinctive artwork of Mark Cooper on the cover, but that art… speared us right through the chest. And the song we’re premiering — “The Incursion” — speared us right through the head.

Primordium unabashedly plant their flag in the camp of technical death metal bands such as Spawn of Possession and Deeds of Flesh, delivering an accelerated flurry of jabbing, swarming riffs, machine-precise bursts of hyper-speed drumming, and blasts of gruff, percussive vocals. The music conjures images of an alien insectile horde dislodged from their hive in a fury, but the swirling guitar harmonies and soloing that surface in the song exude an unexpected warmth — “The Incursion” is catchy as well as head-spinning and lacerating. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: “KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS EXHALEMENT”

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Jul 292014
 

 

Less than one week ago we had the pleasure of discovering the existence of Germany’s Khthoniik Cerviiks, whose debut demo tape entitled Heptaedrone will be released by Iron Bonehead Productions on August 15. At that time, two impressive tracks from the album were available for streaming, and after only a small amount of pathetic begging we obtained authorization to premiere a third one — because this band’s music really deserves to be spread like the mutant plague that it is, and we want to be help carry the infestation. The song we have for you today is the album’s first track, “Khthoniik Cerviiks Exhalement”.

We still don’t have confirmation that our guess about the meaning of the band’s name is correct, but muse upon it anyway: Our guess is that the band’s name is a variant spelling of the words “chthonic” and “cervix”, especially after learning that “chthonic” (which means subterranean) is from the Greek word khthon, a word for “earth”. Per The Font of All Human Knowledge, khthon “typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land…. It evokes at once abundance and the grave.” And then consider what exhalations may emanate from the chthonic cervix…

If your imagination is failing you, open yourself to the imaginings of the band, as the opening track exudes a disturbing fog of ghostly wails, obscure proclamations, and skittering noise. It makes for a fitting introduction to the unpredictable but wholly transfixing and otherworldly black/death savagery to follow. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LAGO — “CONCEDE TO OBLIVION”

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Jul 292014
 

We first came across Arizona’s Lago in early 2013 after discovering a two-song demo named Tyranny they had recently released. It made a strong impression in short order, and now the band are on the verge of releasing their debut full-length, bearing the same name: Tyranny. Today we bring you a taste of what’s coming with the intergalactic premiere of the album’s first advance track — “Concede To Oblivion”.

There’s a lot to like about this new song, from the high-voltage riffs, to the rumbling bass line, to the blistering drum work, to the flamethrower soloing, to the thoroughly cavernous vocals. Lago deliver top-shelf death metal, like some hellish blackened offspring of early Morbid Angel and Disma, fully armed with an arsenal of impressive technical chops and infectious hooks. The music is suitably ominous and fearsome, but performed with distinctive flair. From this song alone, Tyranny has vaulted onto our list of highly anticipated 2014 albums. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CANOPY AND HARASAI (AN ELEMENTAL NIGHTMARES SPLIT)

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Jul 282014
 

I’ve been following the progress of the Elemental Nightmares project since before it became public, writing about it for the first time in July 2013. It began as an effort to raise money for a subscription series of 13 splits on 7″ vinyl (with digital download options) featuring one exclusive song each by 26 up-and-coming bands from around the world. As the project evolved, the format changed, so that it will now consist of 7 splits on 10″ vinyl, with each split containing four songs instead of two. And, because of the new format, there will be 28 bands instead of 26.

In addition, Elemental Nightmares has offered the splits for sale on an individual basis, as well as subscriptions to the series as a whole, and the digital-only option is still available. To see the names of all 28 bands and for more info about purchase options, go here. The first of the splits will be released in early August; you can find the entire preliminary release schedule later in this post.

Earlier this year Invisible Oranges) premiered four songs that will appear on the fourth installment of the series, featuring music from Porta Nigra (Germany), Membaris (Germany), Ashencult (Philadelphia), and Vuyvr (Switzerland).Today, we’re delighted to premiere two songs of melodic death metal from one more of the 7 splits. The bands are Sweden’s Canopy and Germany’s Harasai. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DYSANGELIUM — “LEVIAXXIS”

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Jul 252014
 

The World Terror Committee (aka W.T.C. Productions) is such an aptly named label. They have a knack for unearthing bands whose music is indeed terroristic, and they have done it again with the impending release of a three-song demo by Germany’s Dysangelium. At the risk of causing the derangement of our readers, we are pleased to bring you the premiere of all three songs on Leviaxxis.

Dysangelium mount a vicious assault, armed with rapidly racing riffs shrouded in dissonance and distortion and an absolutely galvanizing rhythm section. The charging phalanx of swarming, scything guitars and pummeling drum-and-bass munitions is led by a tyrannical commander whose vocals are absolutely wild — a thoroughly impassioned assortment of unhinged roars, howls, and yells. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOCCON — “IMPERMANENCE”

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Jul 252014
 

 

We were really impressed by the 2013 debut EP (The Wither Fields) by Athens, Georgia’s Woccon and we’ve been anxiously awaiting the band’s debut album Solace In Decay, which is now scheduled for release on October 21, 2014, by Deathbound Records.  Earlier this year, Decibel premiered the album’s first single (“Giving Up the Ghost”), and today we’re bringing you a second one — “Impermanence”.

Tumbling drums and spiraling guitar notes announce the multifaceted song, which moves between passages that are shimmering and crystalline and moments of jolting, hammering power. Tyrannical, gravel-throated vocals deliver harsh proclamations as the band build an atmosphere steeped in melancholy, with melodies that are both beautiful and bereft. It’s another fine offering of melodic death/doom from an album that promises to be worth the wait. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACKWITCH PUDDING — “GODS OF GRUNGUS”

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Jul 152014
 

 

There’s some kind of party going on at the beginning of “Gods of Grungus”, the song we’re premiering today by Portland, Oregon’s Blackwitch Pudding. It sounds like a party that’s about to get way out of hand — and then the pounding starts, bones begin to splinter, and the splash of viscera begins to paint the walls red. Or at least that’s what I was imagining while I banged my head ’til the vertebrae began to disjoint.

The song is one of four that will appear on the band’s forthcoming EP, Covered In Pudding Vol. 1, which follows the 2013 debut album by these three robed wizards, Taste the Pudding. It’s a methodically pulverizing concoction, loaded with craggy monolithic riffs, gut-jarring bass and drum hammering, and vocals that are choked with gravel, booze, and the contents of a full ashtray. As this demented and doomed party continues, the guitar begins to squall and wretch like the victim of a ritual sacrifice. The song is a putrescent mass of riff infection, and it’s really damned easy to catch the disease.

If you’re in the mood for some filthy stoner doom that you can carry around in your head all day, look no further. Bonus points if you can figure out the song that these doom wizards are parodying. Continue reading »

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