AN NCS PREMIERE: VORGA — “THE CATACLYSM”

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Mar 112024
 

It’s a public relations cliché, and too often a misrepresentation, to say that a band’s new album is their best work yet. It’s as common to see regression as it is to witness true progress. But in the case of Vorga‘s new album Beyond the Palest Star, the cliché really does hold true — it represents a thrilling advance beyond what this German black metal band have done before (and what they’ve done before has been very good).

As proof of that claim we have for you the premiere of a song from the album appropriately named “The Cataclysm“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM AND VIDEO PREMIERE: NONE — “ALIVE IN SAN JOSE”

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Mar 072024
 

For those of you encountering None for the first time today, it began in 2015 as the solo musical project of Nicholas Mendiola from San José, California, now based in Los Angeles. The music is unconventional, and thus not easily pigeon-holed in genre terms. We can suggest that over time it has involved an alchemical interaction of black metal, neo-folk, industrial, and dark ambient ingredients, but for Nicholas “The Dark Gospel” is what he calls the music of None.

That term not only abjures explicit genre references, it also connects with None‘s conception of musical creation as a spiritual endeavor, as a never-ending search for the divine and an expression of its mystical presence both within ourselves as an animating force and external to us.

Last October None played their first hometown show in San José at The Caravan Lounge. There, Nicholas was joined in the representation of None by bassist and guitarist Nathan Nunes. They performed six songs, five of which were new and never-before heard. The show was recorded, and tomorrow (March 8th) it will be released as an album entitled Alive in San Jose. The show was also filmed, and today we’re premiering the video of None‘s live show, as well as the full album stream of the set. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): APOGEAN –“CYBERSTRICTIVE”

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Mar 062024
 

“Canadian tech/prog death metal group Apogean presents their inaugural full-length, Cyberstrictive, scheduled for 08 March 2024 via The Artisan Era on vinyl, CD, and digital. Marking the debut with the new vocalist Mac Smith (who recently served as the live vocalist of Decrepit Birth), the upcoming album poignantly explores the dark side of technology, shedding light on its poisonous effects on our lives.”

That’s the high-level introduction provided in the PR materials previewing this Toronto quintet’s first full-length, which follows their debut EP, Into Madness, released in June 2021. And here’s a further insight into the album’s conceptual themes, which is worth understanding in advance of listening to the album — which you’ll have a chance to do now: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OMNIVIDE — “COSMIC CONVERGENCE”

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Mar 052024
 

The New Brunswick band Omnivide was formed in 2020 by the members of a previous Opeth tribute project called Sunbird. In beginning to write their own original music, they didn’t leave the influence of Opeth behind, but they did add to it, drawing as well from the sounds of such bands as Obscura, Alkaloid, and Devin Townsend.

Where this evolutionary journey has taken them so far is summed up in a debut album named A Tale of Fire that will be released on March 22nd. Conceptually, the songs were in different ways intended to explore the cycle of death, rebirth, and new growth, with the purging and reanimating effects of fire as the symbolic instrument of the universal cycle, and that cycle speaks through the music as well — as you will soon see.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video (made by Andy Pilkington) for one of the cuts off the new album, a song named “Cosmic Convergence“. Continue reading »

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 »

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