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 »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KERES — “HOMO HOMINI LUPUS”

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Feb 222024
 

As described by The Font of All Human Knowledge: “Homo homini lupus, or in its unabridged form Homo homini lupus est, is a Latin proverb meaning ‘A man is a wolf to another man,’ or more tersely ‘Man is wolf to man.’ It is used to refer to situations where a person has behaved comparably to a wolf. In this case, the wolf represents predatory, cruel, and generally inhuman qualities; in essence, the person is held to be uncivilized.”

The Italian black/death metal band Keres took that proverb as the name for their debut album which is due for release on February 23rd via Gruesome Records. It is, for them, a truth about the human condition that provokes disgust and rage. They define humanity as “the biggest plague on earth”:

“Over the centuries we killed each other for the most trivial reasons, hiding behind religion, political ideologies, false respectability and many other bullshit with the purpose of justifying what we have done and are still doing. But the truth is that our nature will always lead us to crave what we don’t have, bringing endless conflicts for this thirst of power, which will bring upon us our own demise. In the end, only ruins and dust of what we are will remain, this is our true legacy. We deserve extinction.”

Keres obviously don’t mince words. They don’t pull any punches in their music either, as you will discover for yourselves through our complete premiere stream of their new album today, on the eve of its release. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): COUNTING HOURS — “THE WISHING TOMB”

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Feb 212024
 

No matter where; of comfort no man speak:
Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth

That’s not the last time we’ll quote Shakespeare in this article, but we begin with that excerpt from Richard II for a reason, which you may understand when you hear Counting Hours‘ The Wishing Tomb, which will be released on February 23rd by Ardua Music.

These Finnish dark metal torchbearers have a way with words too. Here’s how they introduce this new album:

“The Wishing Tomb represents a cathartic journey. It’s an exploration of human frailty, dreams, and the unspoken. The tomb symbolizes both longing and release—the place where wishes crystallize and fade away. Counting Hours invites listeners to step into this cryptic space, where emotions resonate and time loses its grip.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OPIUM DEATH — “THE CONDEMNED”

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Feb 202024
 

On April 19th the Chicago-based extreme metal band Opium Death will release a debut album named Genocidal Nemesis. It’s an angry album, focused on hubris and its role in the downfall of humankind. The album’s cover art itself draws on this theme. As the band’s bassist/vocalist Donald Nadzieja explains:

For the significance of the album artwork, to us, it represents hubristic suicide, self-end caused by something you were foolishly convinced was a good thing. Obvious heroin reference but the guy on the needle was addicted to money and power. It is a common theme that happens throughout the album and we thought this represented that very well.

As you’ll see, this theme surfaces in the second single from the new album that we’re premiering today. Its name is “The Condemned“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LARES — “10 HYGIEA”

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Feb 202024
 

“Music Appreciation” is the name of a short horror movie by Lucas Milhomen that hasn’t been released yet. During the covid lockdown the Berlin-based metal band Lares were asked to collaborate on the movie by creating their own version of the main soundtrack theme written by the composer Eylül Biçe, and to perform it in the movie.

The name of the song that Lares made is “10 Hygiea“, and we’re presenting it today through a surreal video shot and edited by Paolo Lombardi that makes use of live footage from Lares‘ recent concert at Reset Club in Berlin.

The song is a stand-alone single, but it also serves as a wake-up call for people who have been waiting for a new record by this distinctive German group — and a new record will indeed arrive this coming spring (we have some details about that after the presentation of “10 Hygiea”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOHA — “RAVEN CRY”

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Feb 192024
 

A great deal of music across all genres is made in homage to what has come before it. It is the affection for something heard that provides the inspiration for something new. Often, this leads to mere mimicry at first, though sometimes it provides the foundation for subsequent originality. Sometimes, and more rarely, the homage is so striking, so eye-opening, that you almost forget where the inspiration came from, and we have an example of that today.

The young Croatian artist behind the black metal band Voha has made clear that in the making of Voha‘s new album Majestic Nightsky Symphonies, he drew inspiration from Dimmu Borgir as an important influence, but also was driven by inspiration from the likes of Emperor, Odium, Nokturnal Mortum, Obtained Enslavement, Sacramentum, Old Man’s Child, Vinterland, and Gehenna.

Creating symphonic black metal was the main goal, but Voha also used the album to express his love of fantasy tales, and so arranged it as a story of a Dark Lord and the Sorcerer who “helps him to regain the power of evil to forge new atrocity”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHADOW LIMB — “SNAKE MOUNTAIN”

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Feb 192024
 

We’re about to premiere a song that’s simultaneously sinister and seductive, crushing and narcotic, alternately bone-smashing and anguished. Somehow it’s both visceral and elaborate, and ultimately both very unsettling and irresistibly captivating.

The success of the California band Shadow Limb in creating such contrasts and then turning them into complements of each other is impressive, and so is their skill in drawing together differing genre elements in order to do so.

The name of the song, which appears on the band’s new album Reclaim, is “Snake Mountain“, and it’s likely we’d be thinking of snakes while listening, regardless of the title. Continue reading »

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