AN NCS PREMIERE: IFRIT — “SALTS OF PENITENCE”

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Aug 062024
 

Every religious tradition includes demons, as if their authors couldn’t conceive of human beings alone being capable of the evils they inflict upon each other. Better to ascribe those evils to inhuman spirits from which humanity might be saved by appeals to other (divine) spirits, rather than by finding and healing their own better spirits.

In Islamic scripture and culture, the most powerful and malicious demonic entities are called ifrit, sometimes described as ruthless chthonic spirits made of smoke and fire.

When you listen to the music of the New Zealand band Ifrit, it’s no wonder they chose that name. Their formulation of death metal is both malevolent and eldritch, an expression of eye-popping violence and soul-sinking misery that seems to strike from another world.

And hear it you shall (that’s an order!), because today we present one of the four songs on Ifrit‘s debut EP Haunting Charnel Grounds, which will be co-released on September 6th by Brilliant Emperor and Gutter Prince Cabal. The name of this terror is “Salts of Penitence“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TYPHONIAN — “TOWARDS THE CHAMBER OF THE OMNIPRESENT MIND”

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Aug 052024
 

Shakespeare famously had one of his characters ask, “What’s in a name?”, suggesting that the naming of things is irrelevant. In the underground domains of metal where many of us spend our listening time, a band’s music is indeed vastly more important than the name they choose for themselves. And yet the name Typhonian is one that seizes attention, at least for some of us who are also drawn to the worlds of mythology — and monsters.

That name most prominently refers to the monstrous serpentine giant Typhon. One of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology, the hundred-headed winged creature sought to overthrow Zeus in a cataclysmic battle, but failed and was cast into deepest Tartarus, or in some accounts buried beneath Mount Etna where it subsequently caused devastating eruptions.

And so, choosing the name Typhonian inevitably sends signals (as you’ll see, so do the names chosen by the band members for themselves in their Typhonian union). But of course the music matters most, and it’s the music of the German band Typhonian that we turn to now. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SHEMHAMFORASH — “HEIR OF EMPTINESS (LIVE)”

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Aug 022024
 

Even for songs that have been out in the world a while, well-made music videos can open doors that listeners haven’t entered before, to find something previously undiscovered that proves to be arresting. That happened to this writer upon viewing and listening to the live video we’re about to premiere, and it will happen to some of you as well (and for those who are already dedicated fans of this band, it will be a welcome gift).

The band in question, Shemhamforash from Guadalajara, Mexico, are making their first appearance at our site, proving that although we make strenuous efforts to cover a multitude of bands, we still inevitably overlook worthy contenders — and the one song featured in today’s video premiere is definitely worthy of attention (ours and yours). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MASSA/GRAF — “GLOBAL/GENOCIDE”

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Aug 022024
 

Maurice de Jong‘s latest project MASSA/GRAF has me thinking about Lon Chaney, “The Man of a Thousand Faces”. Widely regarded as one of American cinema’s most versatile and powerful actors, Chaney was (as portrayed here) “renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup”.

De Jong doesn’t have Chaney‘s fame, but he has been a person of prolific musical guises, more than 40 of them according to Metal-Archives, perhaps best known for Gnaw Their Tongues and Cloak of Altering. And many of those guises, like Chaney‘s most famous ones in London After Midnight, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, have been dark, disturbing, even horrifying.

The article linked above includes something the great Ray Bradbury wrote about Chaney:

“He was someone who acted out our psyches. He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen. The history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that’s grotesque, that the world will turn away from.”

That too resonates when listening to some of De Jong‘s musical manifestations. (Put aside the fact that all but one of Chaney‘s films were silent movies and that De Jong is a sonic artist.)

What guise has De Jong assumed in MASSA/GRAF and the project’s debut album The/Deholyfied? Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INSURRECTION — “BLESS THE MACHINE”

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Aug 012024
 

In our past writings about the music of the Canadian death metal band Insurrection we’ve emphasized the obliterating nature of their assaults, the titanic grooves in their music and the pneumatic punishment they mete out, the slithering derangement of their melodies, and the tyrannical barbarity of their vocals. On the off-chance that their previous four albums left some remnants of human civilization still standing, they’ve decided to release a fifth one.

The new album, Obsolescence, will be released on Friday the 13th of September via Bam & Co. Heavy, and what we have for you today is a single from the album called “Bless the Machine”, augmented by a guitar-playthrough video for the song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SANCTUARIUM — “ABHORRENT EXCRUCIATION IN REPRISAL”

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Aug 012024
 

Only in the most miserable domains of death metal could adjectives like “fetid”, “putrescent”, “repulsive”, and “utterly disgusting” count as high praise. Trying to explain that logic to someone who isn’t already an aficionado of extreme metal would be like trying to teach math to a golden retriever, though a retriever would just keep wagging its tongue instead of rolling its eyes.

But we should acknowledge that while great achievements in musical repulsiveness have drawn applause since the early days of death metal (and especially creeping and crawling death metal of doom), that’s really never been the full story. Acclaim (at least when justified) has always depended on much more than simply sounding foul and spawning visions of putrefying corpses.

The Catalonian death metal band Sanctuarium understand this, and they practice their understanding extremely well, having put their finger on what made the OGs timeless in their appeal and then expanding upon it in increasingly surreal and heart-palpitating ways.

One proof of that is in the Sanctuarium song we’re premiering today, an extract from a new album that’s set for release in September by Me Saco Un Ojo and BlackSeed. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VILE RITES — “SENESCENT”

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Jul 312024
 

As you can see above, Justyna Koziczak created a truly stunning piece of artwork for the cover of the debut album by the California-based progressive death metal band Vile Rites. It also reveals the inspirational source of the album’s name — Senescence — and it creates a connection to the album track we’re premiering today — “Senescent“. Here’s the explanation we have from Vile Rites‘ founder and vocalist/guitarist, Alex Miletich:

The inspiration for the title track, “Senescent“, as well as the general theme of the album came from the life cycle of the octopus. For those that might not know, octopuses are born with no parental guidance (that we understand at least) and are forced to wander the waters alone. Once they are mature and find a mate, the female will lay her eggs and stay with them protecting and caring for them until they hatch, starving herself and ultimately dying in the process of creating new life.

Not only is this a profound symbol for the sacrifices that mothers make to create new life, but for the endless cycle of death and rebirth in general. We are born into the world with nothing but a vessel, and we only leave behind the legacy of what we’ve created. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OFFICIUM TRISTE — “ANNA’S WOE”

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Jul 312024
 

We are most honored today to premiere a song from Officium Triste‘s new album Hortus Venenum (which translates to “Poison Garden”). Few bands born in the obscure realms of doom/death metal have managed to live for 30 years, but this Dutch band have, and not merely whispering on life support but somehow gaining even greater strength and resilience of spirit on this, their eighth album overall.

Adorned with a magnificent Paolo Girardi painting, the album will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on September 6th. It includes eight songs, beginning with two of the three shorter tracks on the record (relatively speaking). Those two have previously premiered, and what we have for you today is the third one in the running order. More expansive than the first two, its name is “Anna’s Woe“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIGHTWRAITH — “WHISPERS OF DRAGONFLIES”

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Jul 302024
 

Two years ago we opened the floodgates on a lot of enthusiastic words about the multi-faceted music of the Denver-based metal collective NightWraith. Back then, the subject was the band’s album Offering, which their leader Benjamin Pitts described as a combination of “the heavy parts from bands like Carcass, and Enslaved” and “the warmth of classic bands like Thin Lizzy, and Blue Oyster Cult“.

That album was so engaging and memorable that we eagerly looked forward to what NightWraith might do next. What they’ve done next is create a new album named Divergence that will be released on September 13th by What’s Left Records. It’s even more ambitious than the last one, and even better.

In addition to helping spread the news about the new record, today we’re also premiering a video for its first single, a song intriguingly named “Whispers of Dragonflies“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FATHER BEFOULED — “IMMACULATE PAIN”

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Jul 302024
 

Any year that witnesses a new release from Father Befouled is a year doomed to experience new terrors, as if all the other terrors of human existence weren’t sufficiently severe. In the context of their jaw-dropping last album, 2022’s Crowned in Veneficum (for which we were privileged to host two premieres), we wrote:

Father Befouled revel in sounds of unholy terror in this new album. They display frightening mastery in their ability to combine visceral rhythmic power with music and vocals that radiate unearthly eeriness, blood-congealing horror, and ravaging madness — and the songs’ macabre melodic hooks get stuck in the head too.

That was then, this is now, and now we have a new Father Befouled EP to blot out light on the horizon. Its perfectly descriptive title is Immaculate Pain, and Everlasting Spew Records will inflict it upon us on Friday the 13th of September. Once again, we have a premiere, presented with a lyric video, to help usher in this malignant new beast. Continue reading »

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