AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WSTRĘT — “ENLIGHTENED MISANTHROPY”

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Jan 292026
 

(written by Islander)

Near the end of last summer I came across a two-song debut EP named Subhuman Eschatology by the Polish band Wstręt. As I wrote at the time, it floored me. It was like someone spun the intensity dial until it wouldn’t go any further.

Those two songs warped together ingredients of black and death metal to create body-bruising blows and to inflict mind-shredding, needle-sharp riffing that dug in deep. The songs generated moods that were wrecking and wracked, terrorizing and tormented, exhilarating and oppressive, coupled with ragged, reverberating roars were heartless and harrowing.

Given the nature of that introduction to Wstręt, I found myself simultaneously frightened and thrilled to discover that Godz Ov War Productions would be releasing a second EP from them, this new one a 20-minute affair named Enlightened Misanthropy.

Now you’ll have a chance to form your own impressions about it through our full stream of these five new tracks in advance of the EP’s release tomorrow — though of course we have some impressions of our own to share first. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ZARAZA — “THE YEARNING MOUTH OF THE FOREST”

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Jan 282026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we help introduce people to a new raw black metal band, a two-piece outfit named Zaraza born from the hills of Appalachia and the decayed streets of the Rust Belt. These two, Azara and Mictlantecuhtli, introduce their their music with these words: “Rising from holler and rust, gnawing at the marrow of time, a blasphemy against life and cosmos, summoning shadows that devour memory and light” — or more succinctly as “Appalachian darkness, Rust Belt desecration”.

In the coming spring Zaraza will release a debut EP named …And You Will Remember This Winter through So Below Productions, and what we have for you today is a video premiere of its first single, “The Yearning Mouth of the Forest“, which includes a guest vocal appearance by Mor Grish of Ofstingan/Burial Oath. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SPLENDIDULA — “KILTE”

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Jan 282026
 

(written by Islander)

On April 3rd Argonauta Records will release a new album by the Belgian band Splendidula, whose music blends atmospheric black metal and suffocating doom. The album’s title, Absentia, is a fitting one because the music’s emotional core lies in the tragic absence of loved ones, including the sudden loss of bassist Peter Chromiak in 2022.

In December of last year we premiered a video for the Splendidula single “Echoes of Quiet Remain“, which included a guest vocal appearance by Aaron Stainthorpe, and today we’re premiering another Absentia single and video in advance of the song’s official release on January 30th. The name of this one is “Kilte“, and to introduce it we begin with the comments of Splendidula vocalist Kristien: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TARLUNG — “AXIS MUNDI”

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Jan 272026
 

(written by Islander)

As an older person who’s been smoking cigarettes since age 16 I feel like a band named TarLung was made for me. Though they probably have a natural following among coal miners, hash fiends, and people who do enough weed each day to stop a water buffalo in its tracks and haven’t changed their bong water since the Obama Administration.

With a name like that, I also expected this Viennese band’s music would be unhealthy, nasty, and possibly choking. And I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t entirely right either, because while their new album Axis Mundi does deliver crushing (and often nasty) sludge and doom, it includes many other captivating ingredients as well.

You’ll be able to understand that for yourselves because what we have for you today is a full premiere stream of the album in advance of its January 30 release by Argonauta Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DECIPHER — “LITANY”

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Jan 262026
 

(written by Islander)

On March 20th Transcending Obscurity Records will release θελημα (Thelema), the second album by the Greek black metal band Decipher. T.O. introduces the album this way:

Decipher released a sublime album in Arcane Paths to Resurrection, which was steely and composed, enriched with melodic undertones. It was the timeless kind of black metal that was largely inspired by the classic black metal bands and yet didn’t sound too dated. Two years later, the Greeks return with a new opus, elaborating on the music forged on that album, adding better nuance and structure to the songs whilst retaining the sound and appeal.

Allowed better expression, the songs are comparatively longer and have a narrative quality to them without straying too far from the core sound. The riffs are drenched in emotions without being overtly melodic as the music marches ahead resolutely with its steely demeanour. This is the kind of black metal that gets its priorities straight – with the right focus on riffs, feeling, intensity, and passion.

To verify these claims, what we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for the album’s second single, a dramatically powerful and harrowing song called “Litany“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ENNUI — “DECIMA”

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Jan 262026
 

(written by Islander)

On February 27th Meuse Music will release a new album by the band Ennui from Tbilisi, Georgia. Titled Qroba, it’s the first full-length from the band in more than seven years. In early January we hosted the premiere of a song from the album named “Antinatalism“, and today we’re premiering a second song — “Decima“.

We’ll begin introducing it by again sharing this statement from the label and Ennui:

Qroba means “Vanishment”. It is a story of coming to terms with the inevitable, told through melancholy and contemplation. The fifth full-length album by Ennui blends atmospheric funeral doom and death metal with Georgian poetry and the spirit of the land it was born from. Slow, heavy rhythms, cold harmonies, and haunting melodies evoke a descent into stillness, where pain and peace become one. This is music about the beauty of disappearance, majestic, inevitable and timeless.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SKULLD — “ABYSS CALLS TO ABYSS”

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Jan 232026
 

(written by Islander)

Yeah, Skulld dropped the “e” from their name but it still sounds the same and it still accurately portrays how their music may leave you feeling, i.e., skulled, and you won’t need an exam in a blue concussion tent on your playing field to provide confirmation. Your inability to form a complete sentence will be sufficiently diagnostic (except for those of you have that problem all the time).

But in truth, Skulld’s new album Abyss Calls To Abyss has a great many other things going on in the music besides furiously ramming your head until you wake up to the most abominable conditions of life as many people must now endure it. Unquestionably, it is indeed a loud and angry deathpunk wake-up call, but it has deeper dimensions as well, in both its lyrical themes and its musical spectrum.

Below, we’ll dig into those depths and altering dimensions, but the main thing we’re doing is proudly giving you the chance to hear the album from front to back in advance of its January 30 release by Time To Kill Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TJAKTJADÁLVVE — “ENCOMPASSING NOTHING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 222026
 

(written by Islander)

For most people (definitely including this writer) the name Tjaktjadálvve will be a tongue-twister. Apart from wondering how it is pronounced, I also wondered what it meant, and so I spent some time searching for an answer.

One thing I found was an interview from last fall in a Hungarian publication of Matthew Bell, the Australia-born but Sweden-residing musician behind the black metal project he named Tjaktjadálvve. With some help from an online translation tool, I saw that Bell gave this answer about the word’s meaning:

The word means “autumn winter” in the Sámi language. A lot of my music is based on my experiences in northern Sweden, so the name seemed perfectly fitting. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KARLOFF — “REVERED BY DEATH”

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Jan 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Reportedly, the German band Karloff “formed in 2018 initially as a means for erstwhile Graveyard Ghoul member Tom Horrified to blow off some punk-oriented steam with a couple close comrades.” But they’ve obviously turned out to be more than a one-and-done “let’s do this for the hell of it” outfit.

Not only have Karloff followed up their initial 2018 demo with five more releases, including an EP, a handful of splits, and their 2022 debut album The Appearing, they’ve persistently evolved their music in ways that most listeners probably wouldn’t have expected based solely on their first couple of releases.

And they’ve done that again on their forthcoming second album Revered by Death, as you’re about to discover for yourselves based on our full streaming premiere of the record today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BARBARIAN — “REEK OF GOD”

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Jan 192026
 

(written by Islander)

From everything we’ve read about the members of Barbarian over the last 15 years or so, they’re a trio of die-hard metal maniacs whose heads are filled to the brim with music from a variety of classic eras throughout heavy metal history. They have also consistently demonstrated a rare ability to let that array of influences almost instinctively flow through their own songwriting in ways that are familiar but never formulaic, so much so that you never know quite what they’re going to do from one album to the next, or even within individual songs, except you know it’s going to light a bonfire in your head.

Undoubtedly, the songwriting process of these Italians begins with riffs — because the songs are usually packed to the brim with them — but it’s also clear they devote a lot of care to refinement of their initial ideas, with the objective of leaving no one bored, and least of all themselves.

To repeat, you never know quite what’s going to happen, or even which inspirations might work their way into the music, but you can be damn sure the results will be interesting… and exhilarating… and heavy metal to the core.

Which brings us to Barbarian’s new album Reek of God, which we’re excited to share with you from start to finish today in advance of its January 23 release by their new label Dying Victims Productions. Continue reading »

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