AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): REPLACIRE — “THE CENTER THAT CANNOT HOLD”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 202024
 

Behind every album there is a tale — of course there is. Sometimes the tales are mundane, but in the case of Replacire‘s new album The Center That Cannot Hold, the story brings to mind the  travails of Sisyphus, that benighted figure from Greek myth whom the gods punished for cheating death by forcing him to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top.

In legend, the fate of Sisyphus is one of eternal toil. but fortunately Replacire did eventually manage to reach the summit and stay there, not only completing this new album but also achieving a new summit in their music.

We’ll give you an excerpt of information about why the completion of the album turned out to be such a struggle, but our main mission today is to present a full stream of the album on the eve before its June 21 release by Season of Mist. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CEREMONY OF SILENCE — “PRIMAEVAL SACRIFICE”

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Jun 192024
 

On July 19th Willowtip Records will release Hálios, the second album from the Slovakian death/black metal band Ceremony of Silence. The label’s introduction of it is very intriguing:

Hálios represents the unborn luminous radiance, the all-pervading immutable light of the Universe, and our fundamental inherent nature. It is the thousand-rayed Sun, always in motion, but unchangeable, the axis mundi manifesting the sacred within our temporal world and serving as a bridge to the mythical time. The album sets forth on an eerie journey to this sacred dimension, reenacting the old stories inspired by the essence of the ancient Indo-European mythology, entwined in the obscure visions and dreams.

This introduction suggests that the music will be even deeper in its development of profound, soul-stirring atmosphere than this band’s first full-length, 2019’s Oútis (reviewed here), and that is indeed true. But it’s also true that Ceremony of Silence are still capable (indeed more so) of mounting head-spinning shock-and-awe assaults on the senses. Both the first single from the album and a second one we’re premiering today with a lyric video are proof of all that. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ADELON — “RESURGENCE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 192024
 

Metaphorically speaking, most metal bands have a core stylistic foundation around which they might then add other embellishments — or not. To switch up the metaphor, they might have a fundamental DNA, then spliced with other genetic strands to create a hybrid of sound — or not.

In the case of the Swiss band Adelon, whose four-song debut EP Resurgence we’re premiering today in advance of its June 21 release, they point to the strong influence on their music of Gojira and Decapitated, suggesting that their own foundations are themselves a multi-faceted structure of death-metal groove and technicality, even before they add additional embellishments and hybridized strands (which indeed they do, in abundance).

By the time all the hybridizing is in place, it becomes considerably more difficult to separate foundation from everything else that goes into the final edifice, which is in fact much less of an edifice than a constantly morphing dreamscape, in which prog-metal and even elements of jazz play significant roles, along with all the obliterating grooves and the tech-death fireworks. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CAILLEACH BHEUR — “CAILLEACH BHEUR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 182024
 

On June 28th Fiadh Productions will release the self-titled debut album of an unorthodox black metal band named Cailleach Bheur. They prefer to remain anonymous, but as their Scottish Gaelic name suggests (more about the name later), we’re told that all the members were based in Scotland 15 years ago, and one or more still are.

The themes of the album were also inspired by Scottish mythology and folklore, and the music has been in development for quite a long time – more than 10 years. Before we get to the music itself, in all its many eye-popping permutations, we’ll share with you a little more background about the album that we’ve been provided: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK HOLE DEITY — “SWARM ATTACK”

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Jun 172024
 

For those of you who may be colliding with Black Hole Deity for the first time today, the band was formed in Alabama by Cam Pinkerton and Chris White, who were co-founders of the cult death metal band Chaos Inception. Cam then recruited Alec Cordero from the death metal bands Cruelty Exalted and Calcemia for lead-guitar duties and finally got none other than Mike Heller of Malignancy, Fear Factory, and Raven to handle the drumwork.

We had our first collision with them back in 2020, when they released their second single, “Railgun Combat” (writing about it here), and then had the pleasure of premiering their debut EP Lair of Xenolich the next year. As we wrote then, that EP (which was released by Everlasting Spew Records) was “an explosive assault that’s a pure adrenaline rush, as well as one that inflicts megaton levels of stunning destructiveness”:

“Listening to the EP, it’s very easy to imagine that you’ve been teleported straight into an alien war zone where advanced technologies are being deployed with both machine-like precision and breathtaking ferocity.”

Lair of Xenolich was such a breathtaking spectacle (and even more enjoyable for sci-fi nerds like us) that it was terrifically good news to learn that Everlasting Spew would at last be bringing us a Black Hole Deity full-length. Its name is Profane Geometry, and today you’ll have a chance to be assaulted by three of its tracks, one of which (“Swarm Attack“) we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTOLERANCE — “RITE OF PASSAGE”

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Jun 172024
 

The ongoing revival of “old school death metal”, which in fact is the refurbishing of many schools, continues apace with the impending release of the second album by the Spanish band Intolerance.

Intolerance are a Zaragoza-based group who have already proven their ability to breath new life into the hideous old genre, building their own throne of putrefying skulls with a 2016 demo, a 2020 EP, their first album Dark Paths of Humanity (2022), and now a new full-length monstrosity aptly named Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void which will be co-released on July 22nd by Memento Mori and Godz Ov War Productions.

For more concrete reference points, the PR materials for the album refer to a solid foundation influenced by early Bolt Thrower, Grave, Asphyx, Morgoth, Entombed, Convulse, Obituary, and Unleashed, but now embellished with “ever-darker hues and an almost-evil melodicism” that “puts them closer to the likes of classic Unanimated, Dismember, Hypocrisy, Desultory, and earliest Necrophobic“.

But as concrete reference points go, nothing beats the music itself, and we have some of that for you today as we premiere the new album’s fourth track, “Rite of Passage“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOLFDOM — “THE REAPER”

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Jun 142024
 

The last time we premiered music from the multi-national band Wolfdom we emphasized “the band’s talent for interweaving black metal terror and anthemic heavy metal”: “Wolfdom manage to punch the guts, to swagger like a feral beast, to attack with unbridled viciousness, and to send their music into high-flown realms of devilish glory”.

At that time, the occasion was the impending release of Wolfdom‘s 2022 debut album Moonlight Misanthropy, and now we’re happy to spread the news that Wolfdom are returning with a follow-up full-length, this one believably named I Belong To Satan, which is set for digital release on July 31st by the Ukrainian label GrimmDistribution.

And once again, today we’re the bearer of a song premiere, a fiendish and hook-filled romp named “The Reaper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRYPTICY — “THE WATER STREET BUTCHER”

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Jun 142024
 

I have not seen The Poughkeepsie Tapes, the 2007 American pseudo-documentary horror film about Edward Carver, aka the Water Street Butcher. After doing some reading about it (e.g., here), I’m confident I never will, because I don’t have a strong stomach and would like to continue sleeping well at night.

I would guess, however, that the Spanish death metal band Krypticy have seen the movie, and probably more than once, given that the song from their new album which we’re premiering today is named “The Water Street Butcher“.

What have they done with this ghastly inspiration? And what kind of black hole is that tiny figure on the album’s striking cover being inexorably pulled into? Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ABIGORUM — “EFFORTLESSLY INTO THE DARKNESS (MÜHELOS IN DIE DUNKELHEIT)”

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Jun 132024
 

Abigorum was founded by Aleksey “Satanath” Korolyov in Saint Petersburg, Russia more than a decade ago. Since then, much has happened to the band, both in its membership and location as well as its musical evolution, which could be called atmospheric black metal but has involved other genre explorations.

Abigorum now consists (as it has for some years) of Korolyov, who moved from Russia to Georgia in March 2022, and his German collaborator Tino “Fluch” Thiele. And their new third album, Foretaste of Justice, is a sign of further evolution. The band explains

Foretaste of Justice is an important chapter in the history of the project, whose genre has changed again, becoming even more melodic and epic. Comparing it to the previous works, the band’s departure from deliberate roughness and gloomy rawness in the music to well thought-out song structures and creating a spiritually uplifting atmosphere is clearly noticeable.

The sound itself did not become light, but retained anger and pain, especially in the lyrics. The album absorbed all the experiences and thoughts of the musicians over the years, which makes it truly philosophical. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MIASMIC SERUM — “INFECTED SEED”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 132024
 

Let’s ponder for a moment the name of the Italian band whose debut album we’re about to premiere. “Miasmic” is an adjective that refers to an unpleasant and oppressive atmosphere, or an odor that is noxious and foul. In this context “serum” would seem to refer to a fluid or exhalation that is itself foul, or when administered would produce the feeling of miasma, though perhaps it also might be interpreted as a means of treating miasma.

Of course, the serum being administered by this Italian death metal trio, whether noxious itself and/or curative, is music. Further clues to the nature of the musical serum might be found in the title of the album — Infected Seed — and in the names of songs such as “Near-Death Visions”, “Lethal Bite”, and “Lost Control”. Even one of the interlude tracks on the album is named “Neurotoxic Venom”.

Fittingly, the album will be released (on June 14th) by labels named Night Terrors Records and Chaos Records. In addition to all these clues about the inspiration for the music, we also have the following insights provided by Miasmic Serum, the band itself: Continue reading »

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