AN NCS PREMIERE: RIVERS OF NIHIL — “MECHANICAL TREES”

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Sep 182013
 

On October 15 Metal Blade Records will release the debut album by Rivers of Nihil — The Conscious Seed of Light — and today we bring you the premiere of the album’s sixth track, “Mechanical Trees”.

We’ve been following this Reading, Pennsylvania band since January 2012, close on the heels of their second EP, Temporality Unbound. We didn’t know for sure what the future would hold in store for them, but the potential was undeniable. And, as things turned out, that potential blossomed into a contract with Metal Blade last December and then an intense recording session in St Petersburg, Florida, with Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) at his Mana Recording Studio in March. And now we have the results.

The Conscious Seed of Light began with the idea that it would be the first of four albums, each one reflecting a particular season of the year. Vivaldi meets death metal? Bassist/vocalist Adam Biggs explains that this debut album “is intended to be representative of Spring and explores various themes concerning new beginnings, growth, and an attachment to the natural world in a post-human Earth.” That’s right — post-human. It is a death metal album after all, one graced by the cover art of Dan Seagrave, which isn’t exactly the typical imagery of spring. As guitarist Brody Uttley observes, “What we see on the cover is a landscape of a world that doesn’t need mankind, we are relics here, and the sun is the only true master.” Continue reading »

VASALLO: “BLACK SWAN EVENTS”

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Sep 062013
 


(photo by Brandon Hunt)

What I’m about to say won’t come as a complete shock to those of you who read NCS regularly, but it may still be a challenge to wrap your mind around it:  Nick Vasallo, lead vocalist and songwriter for the excellent technical death metal band Oblivion, has a Ph.D. in Music, is a professor at Cal State Polytechnic University (Pomona), and is a composer of classical music whose works have been performed internationally.

But even if you knew all that, you may not know that one of Vassalo’s compositions, and the one that earned him his Ph.D., represents a collision of heavy metal and classical music, and then ultimately a synthesis of the two. The name of the piece is Black Swan Events, and later in this post you’re going to see and hear the premiere of a video of its performance in Berkeley, California, on August 17, 2013.

The integration of metal and classical music in this concerto goes well beyond the fact that it was written for electric guitar, drum set, and orchestra. The integration occurs at a much deeper level, as I’ll do my best to explain in a moment. But first, it may help to know where the title of the work comes from. Continue reading »

BURNING GHATS: “SOMETHING OTHER THAN YOURSELF” (A REVIEW AND A SONG PREMIERE)

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 062013
 

The one thing Vancouver’s Burning Ghats have always had going for them is the capacity to trigger an explosion of abrasive mayhem. They sound like they’ve got high-octane gasoline for blood that someone ignites with an acetylene torch right before they kick into gear. But as time has passed, they’ve become ever more interesting, and their debut album, Something Other Than Yourself, is their best music yet.

It takes a special kind of talent to rip through 10 songs in 20 minutes, with more than half of them coming in at slightly more than a minute or less, and have each of the songs sound like they mean something. They’re like members of a big violent family — you can see the DNA all the cousins share, but they’re each distinctive. Not that you’d want to have a sit-down dinner with this family, at least not without putting away the breakables and all the sharp things.

What they share: discord and dissonance, feedback galore, hardcore fury, crust-punk chords, kidney-punching bass, drums that clatter and hit the d-beat, and vocals bled raw, like a throat being cinched with barbed wire. (Oh man, are the vocals good.) Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THEATRE NOCTURNE – “NEPENTHE AND LAVENDER”

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Jul 172013
 

When we got the chance to premiere the new music video from Buffalo, New York’s Theatre Nocturne, we jumped on it. Not only is “Nepenthe and Lavender” a killer song, the video itself is also riveting to watch.

As for the music, it’s flat-out explosive — a jet-fueled rampage of blackened death metal that’s a sure-fire headbang trigger. It lets all of the band’s talented performers strut their stuff, and they’ve definitely got the right stuff: razor-edged riffing and fiery soloing, gut-rumbling bass, munitions-grade drumwork, and feral howls. And you gotta love the spine-jarring bass lead that takes center stage in the song’s mid-section.

But there’s more to the music than a pleasing amount of technical flash and a healthy dose of ravenous brutality. “Nepenthe and Lavender” is also a dynamic, well-written song with a catchy melody, the sort of thing that pulls you back for repeat listens. And the production quality is excellent.

As for the video — filmed and produced by Doug White of Watchmen Recording Studios — it layers a montage of images of the dead over well-filmed, well-edited video of the band thrashing in a fire-lit space. The photos are from another era, solemn portraits of loss, the living and the dead side-by-side. Since “nepenthe” is a medicine for sorrow, a drug of forgetfulness in the ancient Greek, the imagery is fitting. Continue reading »

RAZORMAZE: AN NCS PREMIERE AND AN INTERVIEW

 Interviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Jul 082013
 

The “re-thrash” movement has been pronounced dead and gone by more than one observer, and it’s hard to argue with the proposition that the the vast majority of thrash revival bands who glutted the market over the last decade produced little more than formulaic music with some nostalgic appeal but no staying power. The bands who succeeded in capturing the imagination of fans, and who are still vibrantly with us, were the ones who bucked the trend by building something original and interesting on top of a thrash foundation — bands such as Vektor, Skeletonwitch, and Revocation. Now it’s time to add another name to that select list: Boston’s Razormaze.

With their forthcoming album Annihilatia, Razormaze have supercharged the thrash engine in ways that call to mind what their fellow Bostonians Revocation have accomplished — by extravagantly packing their songs with complex, head-spinning riffs and solos and interweaving elements of melodic death metal, groove, and even prog into the mix. The result is music that succeeds in being technically impressive and thoroughly interesting without sacrificing the blood-pumping speed and aggression of the thrash roots from which it grew.

Today we’re stoked to bring you our exclusive premiere of a new song from Annihilatia — “Something Like A War” — along with an interview of the band that we hope you’ll find as interesting as the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MAJESTIC DOWNFALL’S “WHITE DARK”

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Jun 202013
 

Jacobo Córdova may be best known in his guise as Mr. Jacko, the bassist/guitarist for Mexican death metal powerhouse Zombiefication. But he has another project, one in which he does everything, called Majestic Downfall. While Zombiefication has already produced one of 2013’s best death metal albums in At the Caves of Eternal, 2013 will also see the release of Majestic Downfall’s third album, fittingly entitled Three. It will come our way on July 15 via the completely dependable Chaos Records.  Today we have the privilege of bringing you a trio of Three premieres.

First, we’re unveiling the awesome cover art for the album (click the image above to see an even larger version). The artist is Norway’s Robert Høyem of At the Ends Design, who has created artwork for a long list of metal bands, including Shining, Iskald, Evoken, Kampfar, and Gravdal.

Second, near the end of this post we’ll show you Three’s track list.

And third, we’re giving you an exclusive listen to the first advance song from the new album — “White Dark”. Continue reading »

AN NCS FULL-ALBUM PREMIERE: (PSYCHOPARALYSIS) – “HUMAN DISPOSITION”

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May 292013
 

(We’re delighted to bring you a full-album stream of the new release by Finland’s (Psychoparalysis), and we precede it with this review by TheMadIsraeli.)

Who wants some old school early 90’s prog death? (Psychoparalysis) will have you covered pretty well on that front. Their debut album Human Disposition has me hooked, and I think it will hook you all as well. What we have here is old school goodness that calls back to the likes of Death, Atheist, Napalm Death, Pestilence, and Sepultura. It seems like regardless of what comes out that’s modern, polished, and boundary-pushing, my love ultimately still comes back to doing shit the old way. Something about the older sound of death metal just hits a note with me that I can’t say any modern-sounding band does as well. Maybe it’s the character, the ethos, or the fact that something about those bands just seemed to emanate an intensity we aren’t hearing as much nowadays.

Whatever the case, it’s obvious that (Psychoparalysis) have a passion for the brutal sounds of old, as I do. The album is pretty much a tribute to everything 80’s and 90’s on the brutality front. Opener “Throne Of Mammon/The Numbers Become My Enemies” is an immediate example of what’s in store — technical thrash riffing, death metal dissonance and excessive force, and prog song structures. (Psychoparalysis) have a very focused sound, and a recognizable one. It leans toward a vocal style that barely qualifies in the death metal realm, in the same harsh, thrash way that the vocals of Daniel Mongraine of Martyr do, dipping in and out of a bestial Barney Greenway-esque tone and back to harsh yells. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MEPHORASH — “ATRAMENTOUS UNGOD ASPECT”

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May 292013
 

Mephorash are a black metal band from Uppsala, Sweden, with two albums to their credit, both released by Grom Records — Death Awakens (2011) and Chalice of Thagirion (2012). They’re about to add to those accomplishments through a split release with Philadelphia’s excellent Ashencult, entitled Opus Serpens, and today we’re premiering the Mephorash track for the split, “Atramentous Ungod Aspect”. The song features guest vocals by Acherontas V. Priest of the occult multinational band Acherontas. In addition to the music, we bring these words from Mephorash:

“Our hymn is the most deep and profund work Mephorash has done so far.
The song channels a lot of powers and elements never seen in the chalice of Mephorash before.

To help manifest our unrelenting forces we got support from Acherontas V. Priest from the great and powerful black metal band Acherontas.
He has added a lot of movement needed for manifesting the forces this song is providing.
The lyrical work of this song is a personal journey and aspect provided by our brother Endless, who is an important piece and mind in Mephorash.
His work in Mephorash has been the final piece making this song what it is. Achieving what we have been aiming for during the whole journey.
Thanks to all involved and special thanks to Ashencult for this mindblowing collaboration.

Hails from Mephorash.”

Continue reading »

FULL ALBUM STREAM OF “DIDACT” BY MEANS END

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  6 Responses »
May 012013
 

(In this post we deliver unto you a full-stream of the new album by Sweden’s Means End, which we preface with the following introduction by NCS writer TheMadIsraeli. And yes, it’s an exception to our usual rule . . . the one about singing.)

Yes, it’s that time again.  It’s time for more thall.

Means End are the final link in a triad of bands who are all conjoined by “that word”, mainly because Vildhjarta, Uneven Structure, and Means End have all shared members at some point or another.  Something about this seems to have produced a certain magic that’s undeniable.  All three bands have taken a style of metal that at this point, in other hands, has become trite, overdone, and less appealing than chugging a jug of smegma and rotten milk, and somehow managed to rejuvenate it while establishing distinctive identities for themselves.  Means End certainly have a sound all their own.  Yes, they have recognizable influences (and who doesn’t in this day and age?), but what they do with those influences really shines and stands out.

The Didact is fifty-one minutes of jazzy, funky, rhythm-driven, progressive groove metal with one of the best vocalists in metal right now.  The music is cinematic, enigmatic, but still seething, with fangs dripping in battery acid.  It’s this band’s sense of dynamics, moving between the gorgeous and moments when they bring the hammer of thall down upon you, that really stands out.  The soft parts don’t really feel “soft” per se, because this band’s tendency toward ever-evolving key transitions produces more a sense of unease than a simple break from the heaviness.  However, when the heaviness does hit, it pretty much implodes your intestines. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HEAVEN SHALL BURN — “GODIVA”

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Apr 292013
 

Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn have a long history of combining their viscerally ravaging music with a commitment to social justice (and animal rights). They’ve found heroes in many places and dedicated songs to them, most prominently on the trilogy of Iconoclast releases that ended with 2011’s Invictus. Their seventh album Veto — due for North American release tomorrow — follows this theme, with tracks commemorating the works of an African revolutionary named Thomas Sankara (“Land of the Upright Ones”), theologian Walter Schilling (“Antagonized”), and the anti-fascist International Brigades who fought against Franco during the Spanish Civil War (“53 Nations”). But the opening track on Veto is dedicated to perhaps the most unusual of the heroes who have inspired HSB’s music.

Reaching back to the 11th Century, “Godiva” draws lessons from the Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry, England, to free the common people from oppressive policies instituted by her powerful husband, who ruled the region. Tired of her appeals on behalf of the suffering townspeople, the Earl of Mercer agreed to grant her requests on their behalf if she would ride nude through the town, thinking she would never do this. But of course, she did — or so the legend has it.

Risking embarrassment or personal humiliation to stand up for the rights of others may not be as dramatic as braving bullets or imprisonment, but the lesson about social conscience among the privileged seems no less relevant. As for the song itself, we’ll borrow from our recent review of this killer new album: “The band have never sounded more vital or alive than they do on fantastic opener ‘Godiva’, which builds from an opening of sublime melancholy into a veritable firestorm of scorching vocals and powerhouse riffs, revealing  a band as energetic, as pissed-off, and as driven, as ever.”

After the jump, get your first listen to “Godiva” via our premiere of Heaven Shall Burn’s official lyric video for Veto’s opening song. Continue reading »

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