AN NCS PREMIERE: STUPOROUS — “DECORATING THE WILLOW TREE”

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Nov 202023
 

“Stuperous,” in case you were wondering, is a word found in the dictionary. It means “stunned or confused and slow to react (as from blows or exhaustion)”. Synonyms include dazed, foggy, groggy, and lethargic.

A strange choice for a metal band name, you might think, especially a band whose music stands as an antonym for “stuporous”. Momentarily, you’ll see why we think that.

As for the band itself, it’s the brainchild of Floris Velthuis, whose name you might recognize as the main person behind the unorthodox black metal band Meslamtaea. In Stuperous he’s joined by trumpeter Izzy Op de Beeck, who’s also part of Meslamtaea, and singer Devi Hisgen, who we’re told works in psychiatry, a useful specialty in the context of the trio’s debut album Asylum’s Lament, given that the lyrics are about mental disorders and depression, based on true events in a psychiatric facility.

That album is now set for release on January 25th by Void Wanderer Productions and War Productions, and what we have for you today is the premiere of the album track “Decorating the Willow Tree“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DUSK — “BEACON OBSCURED”

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Nov 172023
 

You can tell from the name Dusk that this Wisconsin band got their start a very long time ago. Especially in the doomier sectors of the metal-verse, a name like that would have been seized early. Of course, as Metal-Archives shows us, 10 other bands from around the world also seized it, but none earlier than this group from Green Bay.

Metal-Archives also documents for us that many of the other early Dusk‘s no longer exist, some of them barely surviving past their first releases. And so it seemed with the Wisconsin band: They released a self-titled EP in 1994 and a debut album (…Majestic Thou in Ruin) in 1995, and then nothing new for 10 years after.

The silence was broken by a 2005 split with Aphotic (another Green Bay band), and then another long silence descended until the band re-formed in 2015 and the Dark Symphonies label then released Dusk‘s 2018 EP, Withdraw.

Twenty-eight years is a damned long time between albums, but at last we have a new one on the way from Dusk, a second full-length named Dissolve Into Ash that will be collaboratively released on December 8th by Dark Symphonies/The Crypt Vinyl and Dread Records, and as a sign of what Dusk has now accomplished we’re premiering an official video for the new album’s opening song, “Beacon Obscured“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STILLEKLANG — “SEHNSUCHT LAUERT”

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Nov 172023
 

At almost exactly this same time last year we had the pleasure of premiering a song from the first album by a captivating German melancholic black metal band named Stilleklang. That album, Tränen der Vergangenheit Part 1, was (as its title portrayed) the first part of a two-part work. And now the second and concluding part is ready for release and it’s again our pleasure to host a song premiere.

The songs on Tränen der Vergangenheit Part 2 date from the same period as the first album, both in terms of the compositions as well as the recording and mastering. On both albums Stilleklang‘s sole member Fabian Veith was joined by two guest musicians — Markus Röll (Gernotshagen, Herbstlethargie) on drums and M. on violin.

Last year we described Stilleklang‘s music as “a multi-faceted fashioning of black metal that’s elegant and poignant as well as harsh and livid” — both somber and tormented, spellbinding and wondrous. Those words come to mind again in listening to the long song from the latest album that we’re presenting today — “Sehnsucht lauert“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FOETAL JUICE — “GROTESQUE”

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Nov 162023
 

“Foetal Juice! Foetal Juice! Foetal Juice!”

OK, so some of you were born too late to get that warped reference to a certain excellent 1988 movie. The choice of name isn’t the only thing humorously warped about this UK death metal band, who make sure you know where they’re from in the spelling. Their outrageously vulgar song-naming traditions are even more over the top.

In fact, it’s likely that their putrid plays-on-words will be one of the first things that come to mind for anyone who’s encountered their previous releases. And make no mistake, they haven’t cleaned up their act on their new album Grotesque, whose title rigorously adheres to principles of truth in advertising.

But anyone who’s encountered their previous releases, and especially 2020’s Gluttony album, also know that Foetal Juice have a helluva lot more going on in their music than gruesome and raunchy humor. They could be reciting treatises on generally accepted accounting principles and the songs would still blast your head open like a cantaloupe on the receiving end of a shotgun.

And as you’re about to find out, there’ still more going on in Grotesque than we’ve already hinted at. Yes, it’s gross and traumatizing, and rabidly vicious, but it’s also galvanizing in the way of a big precision-made turbine. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ALTARS OF THE MOON — “THE COLOSSUS AND THE WIDOW”

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Nov 162023
 

Released in the summer of 2021, Brahmastra was the debut album of Altars of the Moon. It first turned some heads because of the identities of the people who made it: Nathan Verschoor (Uada), Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, Deeper Graves, ex-Nachmystium), and Heath Rave (Lotus Thrones, ex-Wolvhammer). It probably turned heads again when it became evident that the music was several big steps away from what might have been expected given the nature of the participants’ main musical endeavors.

Like other collaborations, this one was born in lockdown times, one of covid’s precious few silver linings. As a plague child, some might have expected it would quickly perish, a one-and-done union of talents. But time doesn’t heal all wounds, nor does it always still restless minds or silence voices. As it turns out, Altars of the Moon had something more to say.

And so now we’re on the verge of Disorder Recordings releasing a second Altars of the Moon album, this one named The Colossus and The Widow. The three collaborators came together again by long distance — Rave on vocals, Verschoor on guitars and synths, and Wilson on bass, guitar, and synth — but this time they were joined by another notable name, Alan Cassidy (The Black Dahila Murder), on drums. In addition, the new record features guest appearances on saxophone by Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) and on trumpet by Mac Gollehon (Duran Duran, David Bowie).

We’re now putting the results before you in full, preceded by our own thoughts as usual but also by these from Heath Rave: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HINSIDES — “HINSIDES HÖRS DJÄVULSKLOCKANS URKLANG”

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Nov 152023
 

Roughly two years ago we premiered the debut album from the Swedish black metal band Hinsides (whose name means “Beyond” in English). We spilled a great volume of words about that album, beginning with these:

“The album’s name is Under Betlehems brinnande stjärna, and it is a confluence of surprises that create what might seem to be paradoxical results, harboring music that at first blush is so willfully abrasive it might repel rather than attract, but turns out to be exhilarating and unexpectedly enthralling — even magical.”

Now we’re very happy to spread the word that Hinsides is returning with a second full-length, ushered from an infernal realm into our own by Shadow Records and Regain Records. The name of this one is Hinsides h​ö​rs dj​ä​vulsklockans urklang, which can be rendered in our own mother tongue as “From beyond the ancient chime of the devil bell is heard,”, and what we have for you today is the debut of its title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HORRIFIER — “DERANGED SANITY”

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Nov 152023
 

“Old school repulsive death metal from Oslo, Norway.” That’s how Horrifier themselves portray their music. Their label Personal Records drops references to the spirits of Repulsion and Autopsy as well as nods toward “the new wave of Norwegian deathrash” in the vein of Obliteration, Sepulcher, Inculter, and Condor.

Horrifier haven’t been around long, having come together only in 2022, and the members don’t look like they were alive when their major influences were laying down rotten foundations for death metal in the late ’80s.

But sometimes, and this is one of those times, something very good comes from people who aren’t trying to re-live their own distant youth but are right in the midst of it right now, and have found the right inspiration (along with bullet belts all ’round).

See for yourselves (or rather hear for yourselves) by lending an ear to Horrifier‘s “Deranged Sanity“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: NEURECTOMY — “OVERWROUGHT”

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Nov 142023
 

(Our old friend Austin Weber again returns to NCS, and this time he’s introducing our premiere of a new album by the technical/brutal death metal band Neurectomy.)

In the immortal words of Twin Peaks: “That gum you like is going to come back in style.”

Outside of the overwhelming and well-warranted love Archspire has garnered in the scene, technical brutal death metal that both leans into and focuses on extreme shredding, chaotic tempo shifts, and is just all-in on not giving a damn about being “listenable” has largely gone out of style.

And again, I know/love Archspire, and technically, Archspire is still sort of doing this, as is Origin, but overall this type of sound is sort of a now-lost sub-genre within technical brutal death metal. For a while there, it was a very active style thanks to Viraemia, Beneath The Massacre, Anomalous, Brain Drill, and countless others. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RANK AND VILE — “WORSHIP”

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Nov 142023
 

Four years after their debut album Redistribution Of Flesh, Portland’s ingeniously named Rank and Vile will detonate a new album named Worship on November 17th, with the pin pulled by Modern Grievance Records.

It really is an explosive weapon, this album, one that discharges a blast front of violent deathgrind but also inflicts bunker-busting grooves and is equally well-calculated to stir up electrified pits of sweat-soaked humanity in the pit.

The album is also well-timed, because its high-octane fuel is politically charged rage and its method is punishment. It is, first and foremost, a musical catharsis, a weaponized reaction that (in words from the label’s PR materials) “takes shots at flabby politicians, hypocritical religious fanatics, and fence-sitting sycophants”. Theocrats, autocrats, and plutocrats may not get the justice they deserve in the outer world, but they sure as hell get it in the inner world of this record. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSSAL RIFT — “THE EYE”

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Nov 132023
 

In case you missed Decibel Magazine‘s premiere of Abyssal Rift‘s song “The Scourge“, here’s a recap:

It’s every bit as frightening as the cover art above for this Ohio band’s debut album Extirpation Dirge. Hell, it’s even more frightening — both abyssal and extraterrestrial, abysmal and maddened in the sensations generated by the eerie reverberation of its swirling and swarming riffage, its strangely writhing leads, and the monstrous roars and ghastly screams welling up from catacomb depths.

But that’s not all. The song moves from hammering and scathing intensity into a wraithlike realm, where swaths of ambient eeriness surround glimmering and glittering notes and musing bass tones. Then the chords lurch like a behemoth, gargantuan and grim, heaving ahead as those horror-show vocals rise up once more and a guitar wails in agony. Continue reading »

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