AN NCS PREMIERE: IN THE FIRE — “ALLURING PARASITE”

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Mar 052024
 

On April 13th, through the cooperation of Satanath Records (Georgia) and Fetzner Death Records (Germany), the U.S. extreme metal band In the Fire, whose lineup includes members of Azure Emote, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Castrator, Hypoxia, and Fragile Body, will release their third album, Test Of The Pendulum Blade — and the test proves to be deadly effective.

Attempting to sum up the stylistic influences in these 12 new tracks is a challenge, because the band so seamlessly integrate many different ingredients, ranging from death to black metal and from head-hooking thrash to blistering technical mind-benders, and with an obvious love for epic heavy metal that also emerges.

As a result, the songs all become roller-coaster rides, and not just in the number of stylistic and tempo twists and turns they provide, but in their changing moods as well, blood-thirsty barbarism one moment and sorcery the next (and those are just examples).

We have a fine sign of what we’re trying to explain in the song named “Alluring Parasite” that we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE LAST OF LUCY — “EMPYREAL BANISHER”

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Mar 042024
 

The global arms race within the sphere of technical death metal proceeds apace, with many participants striving for nuclear-strength blast fronts of notes and beats moving so fast they challenge comprehension. This makes it more, not less, needful for bands operating in that sphere to do something… different… something not only comprehensible but also imaginative and, well, out of the ordinary.

Which brings us to The Last of Lucy. The last time we hosted a premiere of one of their songs (2 1/2 years ago in the run-up to release of their second album, Moksha) we described it as “an extremely vicious, often unearthly, yet undeniably captivating sonic creature”, “elaborate in its creation of menace and mayhem, and far from commonplace”. Now we all get to see what they’ve done creatively in the intervening time.

What they’ve created is a new album named Godform, which like Moksha is adorned by the artwork of Pär Olofsson, even more jaw-dropping now than before and no less-mind-bending. As you’re about to discover, that’s also true of this California band’s new music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WREKTOMB — “UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER WITH NATURE’S ORDER”

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Mar 042024
 


Photo by Spider Digits Studio

One look at the three members of Baltimore-based Wrektomb would lead aficionados of extreme metal to expect death metal steeped in horror and gore. But while the band’s music is indeed gut-gouging and ghastly, it’s also far more than that, revealing other dimensions you’d never guess at from their abominable, blood-stained appearances.

Those listeners who encountered Wrektomb‘s debut EP, Hollowed Socket Nystagmus in 2021, already have some idea of what we’re hinting at, but their debut album, Bovine Mockeries of Human Posturing, is an even more powerful display of just how many different musical facets Wrektomb have worked into their macabre gems.

As a prime example, today we premiere the song “Unexpected Encounter´s With Nature´s Order” in advance of the album’s release by Personal Records on April 5th. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OPPRESSIVE DESCENT — “SULFURIC WRATH”

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Mar 012024
 

As you may know, Oppressive Descent is a black metal band from Portland, Oregon whose sole member Grond Nefarious has been a member of many other notable bands, as a quick glance at Metal Archives demonstrates. But Oppressive Descent is obviously far more than a side project, with a plethora of releases to its name beginning in 2016. That extensive discography includes five albums, the most recent of which is set for release on March 4th by Inferna Profundus Records.

The name of the new album, Sulfuric Wrath, stands as a big banner proclaiming the nature of the music within. But as you’ll learn through our premiere stream of the entire record on this Bandcamp Friday, it offers much more than corrosive burning rage — though it definitely does offer that as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TRIJUMF — “TRIJUMF ILI SMRT – TRIJUMF”

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Feb 292024
 

This makes the third time this week that we’ve premiered an album set for release on March 1st (a Bandcamp Friday) by the UK label Death Prayer Records (the others being from Ilat Mahru and Celestial Sword). The subject today, very different from the preceding two, is the debut album by the Bosnian black metal band TRIJUMF. Its title is TRIJUMF ILI SMRT – TRIJUMF (“Triumph or Death – Triumph”).

We don’t know much about the band, including who is in it, but we can infer from the group’s name, the album’s title, and the song names that their motivation derives from the atrocities that wrecked their country during the so-called Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995, and perhaps from even older conflicts. To triumph is the order of the day, and “NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET” is the epilogue.

In giving voice to their inspirations TRIJUMF‘s album provides four very long songs, ranging in length from 9 1/2 minutes to nearly 12, and in a word, they’re all remarkable. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SVART LOTUS — “SOM ET VONDT ÅR”

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Feb 282024
 

This makes the third time in almost four years that we’ve had the privilege of premiering music by the distinctive Norwegian band Svart Lotus. It’s been a privilege because every time has given us the occasion to be surprised, and each surprise has created further intrigue about what will come next.

Now what comes next is the band’s second album, Som et Vondt År. It will be released on March 1st by Hellstain Productions, but you’ll have the chance to hear all of it today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CELESTIAL SWORD — “NOCTURNAL DIVINITY”

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Feb 272024
 

Following Celestial Sword‘s release of its second album Dawn of the Crimson Moon in 2021, this enigmatic U.S. black metal solo project released a flurry of splits in what remained of that year, and one more in 2022, but then nothing in 2023. The pause suggested that some new evil was in the works, and sure enough, it has taken shape in the form of a new album named Nocturnal Divinity that’s now set for release by Death Prayer Records on March 1st.

For those who might only now be learning about Celestial Sword, Nocturnal Divinity provides a fine jumping-on point, as well as an enticement to go back and experience the music that preceded it. As for jumping on, you can do that right now because today we present a full stream of the new record.

Of course, if you want to pause mid-jump, suspended in air, you can peruse our thoughts about where you’ll be landing on the far side. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ILAT MAHRU — “INCIPIT AKKADIAN”

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Feb 262024
 

Ilat Mahru is a black metal entity shrouded in mystery.

In the Encyclopaedia Metallum and on the Bandcamp page for the entity’s debut album Incipit Akkadian, the band’s location is identified as Egypt, a rare spawning ground for black metal, though the reference also could have been “Ancient Egypt” (a less geographically specific and more spiritually attuned location).

Whether the band in its recordigs is a single person or more than one is a question un-answered. The source of the band’s name is also a conundrum. Trying to find its meaning or derivation through googling proved fruitless for this searcher.

Perhaps some of these mysteries were answered for metal-lovers who attended Estonia’s Howls of Winter XI underground black metal gathering which took place in Tallinn earlier this month, because Ilat Mahru performed there. Or maybe questions were still left unanswered.

Well, we should probably allow the band to preserve its mysteries as long as they care to, and just be content with the music — though it has mysteries of its own, as you’re about to discover for yourselves through our premiere stream of Incipit Akkadian in advance of its March 1st release by Death Prayer Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COMPRESS — “FORMOSUS”

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Feb 232024
 

Born in Massachusetts in the year 2022, Compress released a debut demo that same year that got tagged most prominently with black metal, crust punk, and hardcore. It’s well worth tracking down (you’ll find it here), as long as you’re ready to be pounded into jelly and scared out of your mind.

That demo was and still is a ruinously intense experience, viscerally slaughtering and mentally combustive, accented by doses of apocalyptic harsh noise in case your brain hadn’t already been sufficiently sliced and seared.

Anyone who ran into that demo, and got run over by it, will experience fearful thrills from the news that Compress are now back, with a debut EP entitled The Final Level of Consciousness that’s set for a March 15th release by Eternal Death. And it’s that pulverizing and petrifying album that’s the source of the song named “Formosus” we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MOON INCARNATE — “NEMESIS”

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Feb 232024
 

We have a pair of treats for you today, with our only regret being that we’re not offering them on Samhain Night, when they would more naturally aid in opening the portal between worlds of the living and the dead. On the other hand, as you’ll see, they’re capable of making every night feel like Samhain beneath a full moon.

Those two treats are the first songs revealed from Hymns to the Moon, the debut album from the German duo Moon Incarnate. These two, Christian Kolf (Valborg) and Matin Vasari (Beyondition), joined forces under the influence of the early works of the Peaceville Three – Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema – as well as early Amorphis, Tiamat, Katatonia, Samael, and Moonspell.

They may also have been under the influence of demonic possession, because this is blood-freezing and blood-pumping doom/death of a very high order. Continue reading »

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