AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TENEBRIFIC — “LABYRINTH OF ANGUISH”

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Apr 032024
 

Tenebrific is a new band from Australia, a studio project created by Adam Martin of Golgothan Remains and Sarcophagum, in collaboration with Cris Bassan from Decrepid. Their debut release (in which they’re aided by some special guests) is an EP fittingly named Labyrinth of Anguish, which is set for release on April 8th.

The band have described the EP (quite accurately) as a release that “offers a glimpse into the abyss of existential despair, inviting listeners to confront their own inner demons and navigate the labyrinth of anguish.” “Throughout 22 minutes,” they say, “we summon monstrous and hallucinatory blackened death deformations that echo the howls of tortured souls and the whispers of malevolent entities.”

Over the course of three substantial tracks, the EP progresses as a single cohesive and carefully planned journey, one that really must be heard straight through to get the full effect — and fortunately, that’s what you’ll be able to do further down in this article as we premiere the full stream. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OSSILEGIUM — “THE GODS BELOW”

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Apr 022024
 

“In the days of antiquity, after the embers of a funeral pyre had died, the bones of the deceased would be gathered together in a funerary box and given a place of reverence to withstand the ravages of time. OSSILEGIUM stand upon these burnt offerings of the past while forging onward into new realms of darkness, where even light fears the eventual entropy of universal death.”

That’s an excerpt from the press materials distributed by Personal Records for this Chicago band’s debut album The Gods Below, which is set for release on May 3rd. We don’t usually copy/paste from PR materials, but maybe you see why we just did that — and why we’re doing it again next:

“Indeed, the record is aptly titled, for the alternately ice-cold / burning-hot majesty the duo unleash here reinvigorates noble old tropes – namely, the days when melody was married to death metal crunch and when leathery black wings enclosed it, flying far and free across a landscape of blue-purple emotion.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NUCLEAR TOMB — “PARASITIC (LIVE A LIE)”

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Apr 022024
 

Since August 9, 1945, the world has somehow dodged becoming a nuclear tomb, though at times that seemed inevitable. But don’t give up hope, it could still happen!

It certainly seems to be a vision embraced by the Baltimore band Nuclear Tomb, reflected not only in their own moniker but also in titles such as Terror Labyrinthian, the name of their new album, and “Fatal Visions“, the album’s second single following the title track.

The terrifying absurdities of our existence under the nuclear shadow, and a multitude of other self-created shadows, are also well-represented in Nuclear Tomb‘s music, which has been labeled “weirdo death thrash”, and we’ve got a fine example for you in our premiere today of the third single from the new album — “Parasitic (Live A Lie)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PHANTASMAL ABYSS — “THE SPAWN OF LYCAON”

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Apr 012024
 

It’s a silly day today, or rather, sillier than usual. But the silliness is superficial, a temporary skin-deep covering for deplorable conditions and events world-wide that will be every bit as wounding tomorrow as they were yesterday.

That’s a reality not lost on the Oakland band Phantasmal Abyss, whose new single that you’re about to hear they describe as a song that “presents a bleak, raw and savage sonic landscape that is consumed with darkness and ferocity”.

The name of the song is “The Spawn of Lycaon”, a title that invokes the mythological king of Arcadia who (per this source) “killed and cooked his son Nyctimus and served him to Zeus, to see whether the god was sufficiently all-knowing to recognize human flesh”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SREFA — “A DREAM, NEVER ENDING”

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Apr 012024
 

What we have for you today is the premiere of a song that carries us into an unnerving dreamscape, a venture into a hostile void that’s cold enough to chill the blood, venomous enough to create fear, and mentally afflicting in the way of an alien encounter — no fooling.

The song is “A Dream, Never Ending“, and it comes from the debut album Solstice by the Israeli black metal band Srefa, which will be co-released by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Australis Records (Chile) on April 26th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTAGONYZE — “HIDDEN WISDOM”

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Mar 292024
 

The Chilean death metal band Antagonyze first began coalescing in 2019, on the unknowing eve of a global pandemic. Despite the ensuing hardships of the plague, the band released a demo cassette in May 2020 (Echoes From Soul), but that year and the next year brought line-up changes even as the band continued to work on new songs.

Eventually they began to play new shows, and by the end of 2022 they decided to re-record the best songs of Echoes From Soul and added new songs to create a full-length work titled Interpretations of the Unknown Wilderness, which drew the attention of the great Mexican label Chaos Records.

That label will release the band’s debut album on April 19th, and as a sign of its marvels, today we present the album track “Hidden Wisdom“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VATICINAL RITES — “CORPOREAL AFFLICTION”

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Mar 292024
 

The UK band Vaticinal Rites made an extremely impressive debut with their self-titled EP in 2021, a definite silver lining to the black cloud of our pandemic existence, which was itself the awful spawning ground for the band.

As they explained then, they played “a visceral form of death metal inspired by the classic Floridian bands of the early – mid ’90s, with a special homage also paid to the European underground sound” and with lyrical and visual themes that “explore spirituality, loss, the occult and escapism”.

Those four songs (as we wrote at the time) were technically impressive and often lightning-fast, but also ferocious, heavy-grooved, and capable of generating supernatural auras.

It is thus very good news indeed that these London-based extremists are now returning with a debut album, Cascading Memories Of Immortality, which will be released on May 10th by Everlasting Spew Records — and very good news for us when we got the chance to premiere a song from the new album today. Its name is “Corporeal Affliction“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MONASTERY DEAD — “EGO SUM DOLOR”

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Mar 292024
 

Today we premiere a full stream of Ego Sum Dolor, the fourth album to emerge, after four years of work, from the Saint Petersburg death metal band Monastery Dead. It will be co-released on March 31st by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Australis Records (Chile).

If your Latin is rusty, the album’s title translate to “I am pain”, or perhaps “I am in pain”. Consistent with that title, the concept of the album is described as follows:

This is a story about a man doomed to experience all the suffering and torment destined for him in his life, here and now. He bears the burden of merciless retribution, which, like stigmata, he acquired by birthright, experiences pain and inflicts pain, is obsessed with destruction and destroys himself. His own wounds and those of his victims will never heal and will bleed forever.

Or to put it more succinctly: “The basis of the concept of the release is the idea that the real hell is our current existence on Earth.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MOUNTAIN SHADOW — “MOUNTAIN SHADOW”

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Mar 282024
 

As you can see, we’re premiering a full stream of the self-titled debut album by Mountain Shadow. In advance of the music stream we have delectable teasers to offer, beginning with this preview from Fiadh Productions, which will officially release the album tomorrow:

Mountain Shadow… is Pennsylvanian Folk Death Metal, existing between Archaic Death Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Funeral Doom & Bluegrass, exalting Appalachian Horror and the melancholic ruins of nostalgic America.

More teasers: The listing of instruments in the credits for the performances on the album, beginning with the two childhood friends who are the band’s members: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM/VIDEO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HIEROPHANT — “GATEWAY TO THE ABYSS”

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Mar 272024
 

In August 2022 Season of Mist Underground Activists released Death Siege, the very impressive fifth album by the Italian extreme metal band Hierophant. In his review at our site, Andy Synn noted that the album revealed the band “making an unexpected heel-turn away from the crusty, sludgy, Blackened Hardcore sound of their previous records to instead become a full-blown Black Metal band (albeit, one with a distinctly deathly tinge) in the vein of Death Fortress, Rites of Thy Degringolade, Panzerfaust“. Andy further wrote:

“[T]here’s no denying that this new, more blackened version of the band are still very, very good at what they do…. As a result I’d say this is the perfect jumping on point for potential new fans since – if the oppressive atmospherics and visceral sonic violence of closer “Nemesis of Thy Mortals” are anything to go by – Death Siege looks, and sounds, to me, like the beginning of a whole new era for the band”.

Following the release of Death Siege, Hierophant performed on some very big stages, honing their live rendition of the songs on Death Siege and burnishing their reputation. This led to the decision to record their performance at Hellfest 2023 in France, and to release it as Hierophant‘s first live album — Gateway to the Abyss — which will be released on Match 29th by the Dusktone label.

As icing on the cake, that show was also caught on film, and today we premiere the new album in tandem with an exceptional video. Continue reading »

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