FALLS OF RAUROS / PANOPTICON SPLIT: A REVIEW AND AN NCS PREMIERE

 Album Reviews, Premieres  11 Responses »
Apr 032014
 

I first learned that Falls of Rauros and Panopticon would be joining forces for a split release back in December 2013, when Panopticon’s Austin Lunn accepted our invitation to write an article about his favorite releases from 2013. It’s a natural pairing. There is, for example, a deep mutual respect between the two bands. Austin Lunn wrote in that same article that Falls of Rauros are his “favorite current American band” and that their forthcoming 2014 full-length (Believe In No Coming Shore) “may be my favorite record ever”, and Falls of Rauros have called Panopticon’s forthcoming album “absolutely massive and stunning on all levels”.

Beyond the respect they have for each other, both bands have earned the respect of both critics and a dedicated following of fans: they are both quintessential American black metal bands, and not just because they happen to be based in Maine and (at least temporarily) Minnesota, respectively. They have successfully incorporated American folk traditions into their powerful and emotionally resonant music, so much so that you could call them American folk metal bands instead of black metal bands and I wouldn’t argue with you.

Yet you may be surprised by what you hear on the new split, as compared the sounds captured on each of the bands’ last albums and on the albums to come. Panopticon’s tracks are unquestionably an homage to Norwegian black metal traditions, while Falls of Rauros have, if anything, brought even more vibrant life and light into their songs. You’ll get a chance to hear both styles of music on display as we premiere one song by each band from this excellent split. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARBELITH — “REBIRTH”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 272014
 

Following up on their self-titled 2012 EP, Baltimore’s Barbelith are poised for the release of an untitled two-song 7″ EP by Fragile Branch Recordings. One of the songs (“Caverns of the Mind”) has previously debuted and today we premiere the second track, “Rebirth”.

Barbelith’s dark, genre-bending music as displayed on this new release melds together eerie ambience, black metal vehemence, raw hardcore rage, and shimmering guitar melodies that cross into post-rock territory. The resulting music is bleak and depressive, but quite riveting — and “Rebirth” is a fine summing up of the band’s unusual blend of styles. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): OWL — “INTO THE ABSOLUTE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Mar 272014
 

I discovered Germany’s Owl and their 2013 album You Are the Moon, I Am the Night through a guest post on our site last summer by KevinP. That was Owl’s second album, and I was hugely impressed by it. Now, this two-man band have completed a four-song EP entitled Into the Absolute, and I’m hugely impressed by it as well — so much so that we obtained the privilege of premiering its title track for you.

Owl’s Christian Kolf says that if that last album was drenched in the atmosphere of night, the new EP is “set right before dawn, when the first light appears,” with “a feeling of a new awakening”.  There are in fact moments of beauty in the music, most strikingly in the latter part of the long, stately closing track, “Unearthly Arcana”, but when these moments come, the atmosphere is one of deep melancholy. And if the EP as a whole stands on the brink of dawn, it is nevertheless still very much wrapped in the mantle of night. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INFECTING THE SWARM — “ABERRATED ANTIBIOSIS”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Mar 262014
 

At this site we focus our attentions on a broad range of metal, but if there is a common thread to all the music, it’s that it exerts a powerful pull on the emotions — and/or the viscera. The subject of this post is a band from Germany named Infecting the Swarm, whose debut album Pathogenesis will be released by Lacerated Enemy Records on May 5. And as you will learn from the new song we’re about to premiere, Infecting the Swarm is coming for your viscera.

The name of the song is “Aberrated Antibiosis”. Your first clue to what it holds lies before you in the album cover by Federico Musetti. Those creatures are humanoid, but not human. They look hungry. They look violent. They yearn for something that may be better left unsaid. All that is true of the song as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORBID FLESH — “EMBEDDED IN THE OSSUARY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 252014
 

Spain’s Morbid Flesh are about to follow up their 2011 debut album Reborn In Death with a new EP — Embedded In the Ossuary — and in cooperation with Germany’s Unholy Prophecies, we’re bringing you a full stream of the EP, right here, right now.

I was already primed to like this EP without hearing a note, based on the grim cover art (by Javi Castaño) and the fact that the band includes members of two other excellent Spanish death metal groups — Graveyard and Insulters. My interest was peaked by the first single from the EP — “Charnel House” — which we featured in this post in February. As it turns out, the rest of the EP fully justifies all those optimistic expectations.

Morbid Flesh have a potent ability to unleash rampaging death metal in the vein of Dismember, Entombed, and Grave, with huge grinding riffs, punishing percussion, spitfire soloing, and cruel, savage vocals — all of which unite to create an atmosphere of dread and menace. But the band bring something more to the table as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE — MORDBRAND’S “THAT WHICH CRAWLS” — AND A REVIEW OF “IMAGO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Mar 252014
 

I’ve been waiting eagerly for the time when Sweden’s Mordbrand would release a full album’s worth of songs, and that day is finally approaching. After a string of well-regarded splits and EPs (most of which we’ve praised in reviews on this site), their debut album Imago is projected for release in late April by Deathgasm Records and Doomentia Records. One song from Imago has already premiered, and today we’re sharing with you a second one: “That Which Crawls”.

But first, a review of Imago.

If you’re a Swedish death metal addict, Imago is your fix. It is both steeped in the familiar musical traditions of the genre and enlivened by Mordbrand’s own creative twists and turns. If you think you’ve heard it all before, think again. Listening to Imago is like spending time with an old friend you thought you knew inside and out, and then being surprised by something you hadn’t noticed before. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KONKEROR – “I, MONOLITHIC”

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Mar 242014
 

In October 2012, NCS writer TheMadisraeli went bonkers over the debut album by a band from the outskirts of Detroit named Konkeror. He threw around comparisons to the likes of Melechesh, Nile, Vader, Obituary, and Immolation and concluded by praising The Abysmal Horizons as “a collection of songs that prove potent enough to compete with even the most legendary of death metal veterans — it’s impressive, it’s vicious, it’s sophisticated, it’s badass.”

Now, Lacerated Enemy Records is on the verge of re-launching Konkeror’s debut worldwide with brand new eye-catching artwork by Mark Cooper (above), in physical as well digital formats, and including Konkeror’s recently recorded cover of Bolt Thrower’s “Cenotaph” as a bonus track. And to help add fuel to the launch we’re premiering the band’s official video for the album’s first track, “I, Monolithic”. To borrow TheMadIsraeli’s words about this song:

“A foreboding acoustic intro followed by a doom riff with badass solo work ushers in a torrent of blackened death metal ferocity.  The riffs here just catch your ear, attach to your memory like leeches, and mummify you from the inside out…. After this song alone, you’ll feel like someone just hit you with a truck.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BENEATH — “CHALICE”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 212014
 

In early February we featured the fetching piece of cover art by Raymond Swanland that you see above, along with the fetching news that Iceland’s Beneath would be releasing a new album named The Barren Throne, via Unique Leader on April 29. We’ve written frequently about Beneath. To quote our chum Gemma Alexander, who interviewed members of the band in Iceland a couple of years ago, they are fairly new, but the musicians behind the name are some of the heaviest hitters in Icelandic metal.

“[W]ith Unnar Sigurðsson of Ophidian I fame on guitar, and with drums provided by Atrum’s Ragnar Sverisson, Beneath came out swinging in 2009, winning Iceland’s first Wacken Metal Battle. An EP followed in 2010, with their first full-length, Enslaved by Fear, released [in] July [2012]. Needless to say, all of the usual metaphors involving blunt force trauma apply.”

Beneath have a new vocalist since their last release — Benedikt Natanael Bjanason (also with Azoic) — and we’re delighted to give you a first listen to him and to what Beneath have cooked up for their new record as we premiere the official lyric video for “Chalice”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE AND A REVIEW: DEAD IN THE MANGER — “TRANSIENCE”

 Premieres, Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Mar 202014
 

Transience is the name of the debut EP by a mysterious new group named Dead In the Manger. Although the band has not publicly disclosed their identities or location, nor even shared much information about themselves with 20 Buck Spin — the label that pounced on this EP after hearing it and will be handling the release on April 29 — their music says all you need to know.

The EP consists of six songs, entitled “Parts I – VI”, and it’s a multi-headed beast. “Part I” for example is a slow guitar instrumental, the slightly distorted notes conveying a somber, affecting melody while deep in the distance the vocalist howls in a throat-bursting agony.

“Part II”, on the other hand, races from the starting gate, driven by a swirling, swarming lead guitar melody and a high-speed drum assault. And that brings us to the song we’re premiering today: “Part III”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTIVERSE — “BETHLEM”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 202014
 

Antiverse is a band of old friends from Minneapolis who have been involved in other musical projects since the 90s but have now united under the Antiverse name to release Cosmic Horror. To be clear, Cosmic Horror is the title of their debut album (due for release on April 8), though it could also appropriately describe the forces summoned by their music. At the end of this post we’ll give you and the rest of the world a first taste of the album as we premiere a song named “Bethlem”.

The band’s guitarist and backing vocalist Carl Skildum described the album’s concept this way: “It reflects our interests in dystopian science fiction and horror, and humanity’s tenuous place in the universe. The name Cosmic Horror obviously is a tip of the hat to Lovecraft although none of the songs specifically address his literary creations, just the general feeling of dread and a sense of being taken unaware by events far beyond our ability to comprehend. It’s a loosely organized grand tour of mayhem, with scientific hubris, North American folklore and cryptids, and otherworldly invaders all taking their turns.” Continue reading »

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