AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE ZEPHYR — “AURA OSCURA”

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Nov 062023
 

As many of you already know, The Zephyr is a Mexican black/death metal band with a history that now spans 30 years. Like many bands of a similar lineage, this one was interrupted by a long period of silence, which occurred after their 2003 debut album Fake Measured Smile, a silence broken by the 2013 EP The Hate Remains the Same and The Zephyr‘s 2017 album Eternal Flames of Heaven.

Also like other bands whose roots are as deep as The Zephyr‘s, they’ve experienced lineup changes along the way, including one that occurred during the six-year gap between that last album and the new one.

And yes, The Zephyr now have a fourth full-length on the way. Entitled Aura Oscura, it’s projected for release in January by American Line Productions, and what we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for its title track, one that fully displays, even after all this time, a band at the height of their veteran songwriting prowess and performance skills. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SANCTUM SATHANAS — “INTO THE ETERNAL SATANIC DAMNATION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 032023
 

Well, strictly speaking, this isn’t a premiere. Due to getting our wires crossed, the album we’re writing about was actually released by Inferna Profundus Records two days ago. But what the hell, it will be a premiere for some of you landing at this page who haven’t yet discovered the album, so we’re forging ahead anyway.

And to be sure, Into the Eternal Satanic Damnation is an album worth discovering. It’s the debut full-length by the Chilean band Sanctum Sathanas, which is principally the project of Magister Nihilifer Vendetta 218 (aka Magus Xem Deitus) from Funeral Fullmoon, Blood For Satan, Faustian Spirit, and Vanagandr, joined for this album by drummer Unholy Tormentor.

You already understand, of course, that the album is a form of wrathful devotion to Lucifer (and indeed “Wrathful Devotion” is the name of the record’s closing track). Yet realizing that will still leave many questions unanswered about how the devotion is expressed and whether it will prove inspirational to listeners — questions answered today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: MANIPULATOR — “DRAWING SECRET CIRCLES”

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Nov 022023
 

You can tell from the title of this feature that we’re about to host an album premiere. But it’s not a typical album premiere — far from it.

Apart from the atypical nature of the audio experience, the noisemaker behind this project also created a video for the entire record, divided in a way that provides separate moving pictures for every one of the record’s 20 tracks. You’ll see the video below. In addition, we’re including the artist’s commentary about the songs.

But that’s not all. There’s also a video game that’s being released today — a free video game — with each level of the game play corresponding to a track on the album, and other experiences featured through Art Mode because some of the tracks don’t last long enough for you to do anything but stare.

Oh, and the record is also being released with an art book that features companion art pieces which visually tie-in with the music video and the video game. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CARCINOID — “MORBID CURSE”

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Nov 022023
 

The last time we premiered music from the Australian death metal band Carcinoid was four years ago, the occasion being the run-up toward their album Metastatic Declination. Back then we urged you to “prepare your hardened ears for a mutated offspring of death and doom that’s as foul as a rotting corpse, as punishing as a jackhammer applied to the spine, and as horrifying as a runaway cancer”.

Since then Carcinoid have released a couple of splits, and now they’re returning with a new record named Encomium to Extinction, which brings five new tracks and nearly half an hour of total music, thanks to an evil conspiracy between Me Saco Un Ojo Records and Headsplit Records.

Once again we have a premiere, and this time our best advice is to get your fucking necks loose. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DETHRONED — “VINUM CREATURAE”

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Nov 022023
 

The world inexorably revolves around the sun, and in time what was old sometimes becomes new again. So it is with the German black metal band Dethroned, a group whose roots stretch back to 1993 with the band Mysticism (and then became Dethroned in 1995).

Since then Dethroned‘s progression has been a continuing story of silence and revival, but beginning in 2016 their releases have become somewhat more consistent, with a debut album in 2017 (Bluotrunst), an EP in 2020 (Christentod), and now a second album named A Bridge to Eternal Darkness that’s set for release on December 1st by Dominance of Darkness Records.

What we have for you today is the premiere of “Vinum Creaturae“, the second song to be revealed so far from the upcoming album. In the video accompanying the song, lightning flashes and storm waves crest and crash against a rocky shore. When you listen to the music, you’ll understand the choice of those visuals. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PA VESH EN — “CATACOMBS”

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Nov 012023
 

In the late spring of this year the Belarusian raw black metal band Pa Vesh En released its fourth album Martyrs. Ever-prolific, Pa Vesh En is already returning with a fifth album, this newest one named Catacombs, and it’s being released today by Inferna Profundus Records.

What Pa Vesh En does from album to album is never entirely predictable, but one can predict that whatever variations might be introduced, the results will still be frightening, and so it is with Catacombs. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AEONIAN SORROW — “KATARA”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 312023
 

In the Pindus mountains of northern Greece there is a pass called Katara. We are told that according to the legend, “Katara got its name from a despot who around 1800 set out from Ioannina to go to Trikala city, but the bad weather in the area made it so difficult for him that he died on the way and he cursed the mountain”.

Many tragic stories have been written about this pass, and the Greek/Finnish doom-metal collective Aeonian Sorrow have now written their own, although their new album Katara, which will be released tomorrow, includes other stories as well — and it is dedicated to the memory of Georgia and Michail, beloved grandparents of the band’s singer Gogo Melone.

The lyric stories included in Katara do vary across the album’s seven substantial songs, all of them heart-felt, but they are stories of deep loss, despair, and anger — heart-breaking and harrowing, as well as heart-felt. Gogo has explained how they all came to be: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COLLAPSED MAINFRAME — “AGENDA 2030”

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Oct 302023
 

(Christopher Luedtke introduces our premiere of a track from a new concept album by Texas-based Collapsed Mainframe in advance of its release next month by Roman Numeral Records.)

Conceived in 2021, Collapsed Mainframe began with the mindset of pushing the boundaries of chaos and dissonance. Utilizing grind, death metal, and doom, the band forged its sound while steeping itself in a message of anti-government and concerns of technology, the topics of which paint the upcoming release Theatre of Tyranny.

The single we present today, “Agenda 2030”, begins with a thundering drum beat followed by a melodic, distorted guitar section; it goes on for a second before kicking up the speed and the harsh vocals hit. Collapsed Mainframe kick into a grindy section that’s jagged and tense. It persists in its aggression, then breaks up into a sludgy/noise-rock section. Things break up as the track goes on and dissolves. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: NIGHT HAG AND BURIAL — “UTTERANCES FROM BELOW”

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Oct 302023
 

All trve true metalheads have only one favorite holiday, and it’s not Valentine’s Day. It’s the one bearing down on us tomorrow night. Most of us already have our own personally curated playlists of heavy music for Halloween night, but we’ve got something for you today that should lead to a revision of your list.

What we’ve got is the full streaming premiere of Utterances From Below, a new album-length split by Virginia’s Night Hag and Italy’s Burial, which will be released on November 10th by Rotted Life Records. As the label proudly previews, it is indeed “a union of death, doom, and disgust”, one that “bridges the fertile gap between quotidian horrors and supernatural dread”. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEBEPHRENIQUE — “NON COMPOS MENTIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 272023
 

The Australian band Hebephrenique chose a name that may contort the part of your brain responsible for making sense of letters and checking new words into the vocabulary library. We’ll make it easier, since we’ve already done a bit of research:

Hebephrenique seems to be the French word (without accent marks) for hebephrenic, which refers to a “disorganized” type of schizophrenia, one “typified by shallow and inappropriate emotional responses, foolish or bizarre behaviour, false beliefs (delusions), and false perceptions (hallucinations).” So says this source.

That this is what the band had in mind when they chose their name is guesswork on our part, but their debut EP Non Compos Mentis provides circumstantial evidence that we’re on the right track. Continue reading »

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