AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DISPLAY OF DECAY — “VITRIOL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Oct 172023
 

This makes the fourth time we’ve premiered music from the Edmonton-based death metal band Display of Decay since 2014. The last time, in 2018, we began this way:

If you imagine Display of Decay as a big rocketing road machine with a roaring jet engine in place of the usual pumping cylinders (and that’s not hard to imagine at all), the brakes obviously failed a few hundred miles ago, to the vicious glee of the blood-lusting demons at the controls. When you listen to their new album, Art In Mutilation, it’s patently obvious that they’re having a howling good time, and their full-throttle, take-no-prisoners enthusiasm is highly contagious.

Five years later, Display of Decay are finally following up Art In Mutilation with a new album (their fourth full-length) named Vitriol, which will be released by Gore House Productions on October 20th. The album title alone suggests that the band’s music is no less bloodthirsty than it was before. If anything, they’ve doubled-down on the slaughtering — but not at the cost of what makes their music simultaneously so damned contagious. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VOICE OF RUIN — “THE LAST FEAST”

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Oct 162023
 

At our site we’ve been enthusiastically following the progress of the Swiss band Voice of Ruin since 2014, which was when we hosted the first of two premieres we’ve done for them over that span of time — and now we’re adding a third one.

The occasion for this latest revelation of new music is the approach of the band’s fourth album, a record entitled Cold Epiphany that’s now set for release on December 1st. It follows by four years the band’s last full-length, Acheron, a record our review described as “melodic death metal’s melody mixed with thrash’s technicality and hardcore punk’s energy and punishing aggro beatdowns”.

As even that brief excerpt suggests, and as our review of Acheron explained in greater detail, the music of Voice of Ruin has always been difficult to classify, and the new album hasn’t made the task any easier. But the band’s willingness to pull from different stylistic wellsprings in different ways has also been a continuing source of their appeal.

That remains true on the new album, for reasons you can begin to appreciate through our premiere of a video for a song named “The Last Feast“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ASKESIS — “BEYOND THE FATE OF DEATH”

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Oct 162023
 

Today marks the third time we’ve premiered and reviewed a release by the Venetian band Askesis. The first was their 2016 debut EP The Path to Absence (here), and we followed that with their 2018 demo Black Ontology (here). Now we have a full stream of their debut album Beyond the Fate of Death, which is set for release on October 20th by Time To Kill Records. It’s a concept album inspired by “The Myth of Sisyphus”, a 1942 essay written by the philosopher Albert Camus.

“Dawn of the Current Inferno” was the first single from the album. The band described its inspiration in these words, which we share here because they also seem to provide insights into the album as a whole (as we hear it):

“‘Dawn of the Current Inferno‘ serves as a testament to the power of artistic expression to push boundaries and challenge societal norms. It encourages us to embrace the enigmatic and the unexplained, reminding us that within chaos, there’s a hidden order waiting to be discovered. This composition is an invitation to embark on a journey of introspection, where we confront our own biases and preconceptions, and ultimately find a deeper connection to the world around us”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRUEL FATE — “DESCENTE AUX ENFERS”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 132023
 

The name of the song you’re about to hear is “Descente aux Enfers“, which translates to “descent into hell”. The Canadian death metal band Cruel Fate, who included the song in their forthcoming second album Destin Cruel, chose the title well, for it truly is a descent into the realms of Inferno.

The song is less than four minutes long, but Cruel Fate still make it a journey, with each stage of the descent capturing a different manifestation of hellish horrors, all the while shaking and bludgeoning the listener like a ragged toy in the grasp of a demonic child. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOID — “SELF ISOLATION”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 132023
 

For people who suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia today is a very bad day, a Friday the 13th, and one that dawns in the spookiest month of the year. But in the pentagram-loving world of metal, of course, it’s an excellent day to reveal new music, perhaps exceeded only by Samhain itself.

New music is indeed what we have for you today, a song from a new album by the UK avant-garde black metal pioneers Void, whose lineup features members of Dødheimsgard, Atramentum, and Dreams of the Drowned.

The album’s name is Jadjow, and it’s set for release on December 7th by Brucia Records. The song we present today is “Self Isolation“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THETAN — “GRAND OLE AGONY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 122023
 

Genre descriptions throughout the vast world of music can be useful. The micro-world of metal alone has dozens, many of them segmented by hyphens or backslashes in an effort to put a little more flesh on the linguistic bones. As an enticement (or a warning) they’re better than nothing at all for fans harried by time, but they can be deceptive too, because of their limitations.

“Powerviolence”, for example, is the most common descriptor used for the music of Nashville’s Thetan. To flesh that out, you might also see references to early hardcore or even European black metal from the ’90s.

But whatever thoughts those descriptions might provoke, consider also that this duo have crossed over to work with hip-hop emcees such as Kool Keith, Ultramagnetic MC’s, and LIL B. Consider further that the opening track of Thetan‘s new album, which will be released on October 13th, includes a monologue by Tennessee rap icon Crunchy Black of Three 6 Mafia.

Then contemplate the fact that the album also includes cello performances by Leslie Fox-Humphreys (a.k.a. Americana/folk soloist The Bandit Queen Of Sorrows), violin performances by Ashley Mae of Lost Dog Street Band, and the sounds of a harmonica being played by Benjamin Tod of the Lost Dog Street Band.

And wait ’til you find out who appears and what happens in the album’s closing track. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CORAX B.M. — “ZOPHOS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 122023
 

The Athenian black metal band Corax B.M. made their recording debut last year on Pagan Records, with an EP named Spread the Occult. It featured a guest vocal appearance by The Magus (Necromantia, Yoth Iria, etc.) on the song “Anilliagos”. Live performances followed, and the band also turned their diabolical energies to the creation of a debut album.

Their dark arts have borne evil fruit, in the form of a full-length named Pagana that will be released on January 26, 2024 via The Circle Music (also known for their release of records by Necromantia, The Magus, Thou Art Lord, and Autumn Tears).

As a shuddering sign of what the album presents, today we premiere a lyric video for a song called “Zophos“, which is the track that closes the album. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CROWDEAD — “EVERYTHING ENDS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 112023
 

On October 13th the Italian band (from Mantua) Crowdead will release their second album, Tearing Your Soul Apart. It was born, we are told, from “a moment of despair,” with each track conveying “a sensation of unease towards a world that, more often than not, is unfair”. They “take a trip inside ourselves among charred bodies, condemned souls, and grinning demons”.

Dark sentiments, to be sure, perhaps especially for a band whose music is branded “groove metal,” and they’re further reflected in the theme of “Everything Ends“, the album track we’re premiering today through a well-made official video. As the band explain:

“Everything Ends” shows how everything can come to a close, and how a person can end up coughing blood so as to not suffer anymore. With this video we want to show that humans are willing to destroy themselves as long as other people can be happy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NAHASHEOL — “BRINGER OF DIVINE ECSTASY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 112023
 

Nahasheol announced its mysterious existence last year with an EP named Kaaosoth, and soon this band’s diabolical powers will be fully revealed through a debut album named Serpens Abyssi that will be released by Argento Records and Wolves of Hades on November 3rd.

The herald of the music is the striking cover art you see at the top of this page, created by Cayo Farias. Like the album’s title, it captures the daunting and dangerous presence of a great abyssal serpent, surmounted by an evil eye, with the presence of death surrounding them. It’s an unholy, esoteric, otherworldly, and dangerous vision, and so is the music.

As a sign of what the album will bring listeners, today we premiere a song from the album named “Bringer of Divine Ecstasy“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ILD — “DEN SORTE KUNST”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 102023
 

The children keep dying and returning to the cradle. Teeth shine between timbers and lights dance on marshes. Whose hand closed the wicket? Why is the last apple moving? The kindling still catch fire, but the potency of the black arts seems to have waned of late. Smoke always escapes.

With those words the Nortwegian band ILD announce their second album Kvern, which is now set for release on November 3rd by Vendetta Records, and then they flesh out those evocative yet cryptic words with a track list that reads as follows (the translations are our own, so blame us for any errors):

1. “Den sorte kunst” (the black art)
2. “Til gjeste” (for guests)
3. “Opp i røyk” (up in smoke)
4. “Det trekker så kaldt” (it’s so cold)
5. “Ognåskaldudø” (even if you die)
6. “Over flammehavet” (over the sea of flame)

The mysteries of the meanings still remain, and frightening mysteries lurk within the music as well, though the moods of them may still be familiar to all who are being slowly ground within the “rusty mill of life” (to pull from Vendetta‘s own preview). And indeed the title of the album itself is the Norwegian word for “grinder”. Continue reading »

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