AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORGUE TERROR — “MORGUE TERROR”

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Jan 032024
 

Today we welcome to our site (and to the rest of the world) a horror-themed death metal band from Buffalo, New York named Morgue Terror. It’s the work of two death metal fanatics — Dave (guitars) and Steve (bass and vocals) — who found their thematic inspiration in the Terrifier franchise of slasher films and their main antagonist, Art the Clown.

The movies left such a deep and gory mark that the band’s name is derived from a pivotal scene at the end of the first movie when Art the Clown emerges from a body bag, delivering a fatal blow to the coroner.

And beyond that, the five songs on Morgue Terror‘s self-titled debut EP, which we’re premiering in full today in advance of its January 5 release, delve into the murders and characters portrayed in both Terrifier movies.

As for the music itself, it’s an amalgam of varying death metal tropes, with each song deploying them in slightly different ways to create a dynamic — and demented — listening experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NACHTS — “DU EWIGER HUND”

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Jan 032024
 

The German musician Wiedergaenger (a member of Total Negation, Vargnatt, Absolutum, and other bands) has used his solo project NACHTS as a vehicle for moving through ever-changing sonic and lyrical terrains.

Beginning in 2009, he has released five demos and EPs under the NACHTS name, traversing lyrical themes that have included encounters in nocturnal in-between worlds, abysmal stories, and ruminations on death. Black metal has provided the musical framework, but through each release NACHTS has demonstrated an impatience with convention and an eagerness to explore different recording techniques and sound aesthetics.

At last, NACHTS will be releasing a debut album in late March of this new year. Entitled Privileg, it will come our way via the cooperation of two labels, Crawling Chaos and House of Inkantation, and today we’re presenting its first single, “Du Ewiger Hund“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PANZERCHRIST — “ALL WITCHES SHALL BURN”

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Jan 012024
 

Around the world, today is a day of firsts, because a new year has begun to bloom. And so it is the first day when everything you do is the first thing you will do in 2024. Here at NCS, we have our first post of the new year, our first premiere, our first review, our first effort to help an extreme metal band begin tearing apart 2024 like the hated thing it will probably become.

And not just any extreme metal band, but one whose storied history began 30 years ago, took a decade-long pause, and then came roaring back in 2023. And yes, it was just last summer when the Danish death/black metal band Panzerchrist released their comeback album Last Of A Kind, which we proudly premiered here.

To prove that they have no intention of returning to hibernation, Panzerchrist are quickly following that album with a new EP named All Witches Shall Burn. Emanzipation Productions, the same label that brought forth the band’s auspicious comeback record, will be releasing the new EP on January 5th, and we’re again in the fortunate position of hosting a full stream today.

The new EP proves to be an excellent way of beginning 2024, because it will clear out the morning-after New Year’s Eve gunk from your head right damned fast. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNSOULING — “FLOATING KEY”

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Dec 292023
 

Unsouling is a new musical entity, a small needle in a vast haystack of metal. The project’s debut release might easily have been overlooked amidst all the straw no matter how vividly the needle gleamed, but a few important factors make that much less likely:

Specifically: Unsouling is the solo work of Feral Light‘s frontman and songwriter A.S. (Andy Schoengrund); the album was chosen for release by I, Voidhanger Records; and the cover art was created by the wonderfully talented Luciana Nedelea (don’t tell us cover art doesn’t matter because you’d be whistling in the wind around here).

So, this needle sticks out even before the playing of the first notes. Because of the music, it sticks out more like an impaling spear than a needle. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PHANTOM LUNG — “ABHORRENT ENTITY III: SOLIVAGANT”

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Dec 292023
 

Today, December 29th, the Toronto band Phantom Lung are releasing the final EP in a trilogy of EPs that share the name Abhorrent Entity. The full title of the new one is Abhorrent Entity iii: solivagant, and to help spread the word we’re presenting a full stream of it for you.

We’ve previously shared our thoughts about the first two EPs in the trilogy. In an effort to sum up the first one, which was released last March, we wrote that it is “massive and mauling… so ugly and unhinged, so combative and confrontational, so ruthless and so exhilarating, that we can’t help but love it, even if the attitude might be interpreted as ‘fuck off and die!’”.

The second one, Abhorrent entity ii: moribund, was no less confrontational. As we wrote of that one, it was a ruinously destructive sonic demolition job – savage, corrosive, ravenous, and a brute-force slugfest too, yet with musical elements that at times also made the song sound grim and unearthly. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BOUNDLESS CHAOS — “RIP OUT THE ROOTS”

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Dec 272023
 

We find ourselves on the bridge between the old year and the new, still reflecting on the ruins and glories of the past 12 months but also looking ahead to whatever degradations and marvels 2024 might bring.

One of those marvels is already blooming, like a viciously thorned black rose. Well, that’s one way of thinking about Sinister Upheaval, the debut album from Germany’s death/thrashing Boundless Chaos that’s set for release in January by Dying Victims Productions.

A better way is to envision a pitch-black red-eyed steed racing at you across the bridge from the gates of hell, confronting you with a choice: Vault onto it for a breathtaking, blood-pumping ride or get trampled.

You’ll see what we mean when you hear the new album track we’re premiering today: “Rip Out the Roots“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROTUM — “SHATTERED FLOW OF TIME”

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Dec 202023
 

Gaze upon the fabulously ghastly cover art for Necrotum‘s new album Defleshed Exhumation and you’ll know that death metal will follow.

The writhing and hook-lined tentacles, their shadows stretching into the endless distance, the skeletons immersed in putrefying fluids, all of it overseen by the sunken eyes of a looming death’s head, it all foretells gruesome horrors to come.

But what kind of death metal awaits us? Surely something rancid, surely something influenced by progenitors from the ’90s… and those guesses prove to be correct, but don’t go far enough, as you’ll understand when you hear the track we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s January release by Memento Mori. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIPYGUS — “THE DOVER DEMON”

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Dec 192023
 

The last time we premiered a song by Dipygus (here) we resorted to the word “macabre” not once but twice. Feeling somewhat nauseated, we also shared the results of our researches into the meaning of the band’s name and a particularly disgusting bodily infiltration referred to in the title of the song we shared.

We shared other info about this California band’s wide-ranging but thoroughly bizarre thematic interests, but not nearly enough. A more complete listing of those unusual interests would swell to extravagant proportions, but this time we’re going to provide the more complete exegesis… eventually… after we’ve dealt with the meat of the matter today, which is another Dipygus premiere.

But don’t overlook that historical record at the end of this article, because it’s highly entertaining Continue reading »

AN NCS TEASER PREMIERE: ABERRATION AND DIABOLIC OATH

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Dec 182023
 

Here, we’re doing something we almost never do — premiering brief excerpts from songs off a forthcoming release. Such things are mere teasers, even more teasing than the premiere of a complete song from an album or EP that you can’t yet hear in full.

So why did we cave in and sweep away our usual reticence to brutally tease our visitors? You’re about to find out. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE SEPT — “MMXXIII”

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Dec 152023
 

We’re at an inhospitable time of year for the release of new music. Ardent metal fans tend to be looking backward in reflection rather than keeping their eyes on what’s coming from the near horizon or noticing what just dropped in front of them, and of course everyone is immersed, whether in joy or misery, in the distractions and chores of the inescapable “holiday season”.

And yet, as always, the end of the year brings musical gems, even if they sadly may go unnoticed, and The Sept‘s new EP MMXXIII is one of those.

But let’s be clear up-front: This isn’t a pretty, sparkly gem. It has many facets, but their edges are jagged and may leave you bleeding if you’re not careful, and the colors are obsidian. Staring too long may also bring about madness. Continue reading »

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