AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SEDNA — “SILA NUNA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 192025
 

(written by Islander)

Based on photographs, Cesena looks like a pretty place. A small city of roughly 100,000 people, it’s near the Apennine Mountains in Italy and about 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the Adriatic Sea on the east coast of the country toward the north. Of course, like every other place in Italy it has an extensive history, and its old architecture reflects that.

Cesena is home to the genre-bending black metal band Sedna. They have a new album that will be released in two days by the Dusktone label. The name of the album is Sila Nuna, a compound word of ancient origin that means “Sky and Earth”. But the language isn’t one of the many that have been spoken over time in the area of Cesena, or anywhere else in Italy. And you probably can’t guess what that language is, because it is so unexpected. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LOCUSTS AND HONEY — “SHADOW OF MY END”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 182025
 

(written by Islander)

The London band Locusts and Honey released their 28-minute debut record in May 2024. Its title was interesting (and still is): Teach Me to Live That I Dread the Grave as Little as My Bed. It was “inspired by the bog bodies of Ireland and Denmark – people of the Iron Age who were sacrificially hanged and found extremely well-preserved in peat.” They described it as “a meditation on death and living well.”

That debut release was the work of a duo — composer and instrumentalist Tomás Robertson and vocalist/lyricist Stephen Murray. Since then the lineup has expanded to five members, and the quintet now have a new EP scheduled for release on November 21st by Toronto-based Hypaethral Records. The title of this one is Shadow of My End. Its inspiration, as described by Stephen Murray, is also interesting: Continue reading »

AN NCS “PREMIERE”: DEATH OBVIOUS — “THE GREAT GATE THEORY”

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Nov 172025
 

(written by Islander)

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that the word “PREMIERE” in the post title is cuddled by quotation marks. That is because the song we’re presenting today was out in the world for some number of months beginning last January, when the debut album that includes it was digitally self-released by the band who made it. I heard the song and the rest of the album back then and spontaneously reviewed it because the record blew my mind.

At some point the digital stream vanished, the reason being that the astute Transcending Obscurity Records decided that the album needed a pjhysical release and a bigger audience, and the band agreed. As T.O. has written: “This release is not a rebirth but a necessary resuscitation.” And so now the once-public songs are being slowly revealed again in the run-up to T.O.’s release of the album on December 5th, including the song we’re re-revealing today.

What are we talking about? We’re talking about Death Obvious! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECTOVOID — “COLLAPSING SPIRITUAL NEBULA”

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Nov 132025
 

(written by Islander)

“From the abyssal and blistering depths of Alabama and featuring members from Seraphic Entombment and Father Befouled, Ectovoid return with their new album In Unreality’s Coffin! An exhumation of death metal’s spectral essence and a relentless pulse of putrefaction, summoning shadows into eternal decay and entombing listeners in cavernous pummeling riffs!”

Those are among the vivid words offered by Everlasting Spew Records for Ectovoid’s third album, which the label has decided to use as a means of quickly unraveling the New Year; it’s set for release on January 9, 2026. What we have for you today is the premiere of the album’s first advance track, “Collapsing Spiritual Nebula“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNVIÂR — “DISGLAÇ”

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Nov 132025
 

(written by Islander)

The maestro Paolo Girardi painted the stunning cover art for Unviâr’s forthcoming debut album Disglaç. As you can see, it’s out of the ordinary in Girardi’s vast catalogue of works — no monsters, no demons, no writhing horrors or glaring eyeballs, no visions of the world ending. Instead, it’s naturalistic and beautiful, though also ominous and haunting, rather than paranormal and nightmarish.

The artwork may raise a question in the minds of listeners about whether the music of this Italian black metal band, as reflected on Disglaç, is in line with the visuals. We have an early answer today, through our premiere of the album’s title song in advance of the record’s November 28 release by ATMF. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MNAJDRA AND SAĦĦAR — “MDLXV – FIDI, VENDETTA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 122025
 

(written by Islander)

Two days from now Snow Wolf Records and Fiadh Productions will co-release a special collaborative split album of black metal inspired by Maltese lore, focusing on the renowned Great Siege of Malta. One of the bands, Mnajdra, is a U.S. band but with a long-standing interest in the history and culture of the island of Malta (indeed, the band is named for a megalithic temple complex found on Malta). The other, Saħħar, is a Maltese band with an extensive discography dating back to its 2007 full-length debut.

In their musical re-telling of the Great Siege, Mnajdra represents the Turkish invaders and Saħħar represents the Knights of Malta. The tracks of the two bands alternate across the course of the album, but the record also includes one song in which the two bands collaborate.

To help spread the word, we’re sharing a full stream of the album today, along with some thoughts about the music, but before we get to that we ought to provide a brief sketch of the Great Siege of Malta for people who aren’t as steeped in that history as Mnajdra and Saħħar. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AMIENSUS — “THE LODGE”

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Nov 112025
 

(written by Islander)

One of our site’s favorite bands, Minnesota-based Amiensus, have busied themselves this year by releasing singles — “Fields of Emerald Fire” (reviewed here), “We Still Bloom” (reviewed here), and “The Peak of Denali” (reviewed here). They have also been teasing a fourth single to emerge before year-end, and today we’re very happy to bring it your way.

This one is a cover song, and you might guess whose music Amiensus is covering based solely on the cover art. But in case you’re still scratching your head, it’s Agalloch, and the song is “The Lodge” from the band’s beloved 2002 album The Mantle. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE OMEN MACHINE — “DELAY, DENY, DEFEND”

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Nov 112025
 

(written by Islander)

“If you dislike the American healthcare system, have had issues with doctors, or have ever had problems with health insurance, boy do I have a song for you….”

That’s how Colin Busse from Rochester, NY begins to introduce the latest song from his collaborative metal project The Omen Machine. The name of this new one, which we’re premiering today with a video in advance of its November 14 release, is “Delay, Deny, Defend,” a title derived from a book of the same name by Jay Feinman, which excoriates the self-serving, profit-directed behavior of U.S. insurance companies.

Deplorable recent events here in the U.S. have put the affordability of healthcare on the front burner of lots of people’s minds, and so the timing of The Omen Machine’s new single could hardly be more on-point. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BURNING DEATH — “DEATH IS SALVATION”

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Nov 102025
 

(written by Islander)

You’re about to imagine what it would be like to catch fire and cavort with devils, to throw caution to the winds and spin like a tornado of flame while bouncing off demon bodies in Hell’s own mosh pit.

That’s one way of trying to capture the experience of “Death In Salvation,” an absolutely electrifying and evil-minded song off the self-titled debut album of Burning Death, an infernal thrash outfit from Nashville, Tennessee, which is now set for release on December 5th by Caligari Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HAGETISSE — “TO WITHER BENEATH THY RADIANCE”

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Nov 102025
 

(written by Islander)

For approximately 35 years the Dutch artist Maurice de Jong (aka Mories) has been churning out music as if his life depended on it (and we can infer that it probably does). This morning a count of his endeavors at Metal-Archives shows 45 current or past bands through which he has released music over that span of years.

The ones best known from that list are probably Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, and De Magia Veterum, but we should not lose sight of Hagetisse, one of the arguably more “traditional” of his musical vehicles, the tradition being strains of black metal rooted in the ’90s — witness the fact that Void Wanderer Productions recommends the newest Hagetisse album for fans of Ulver, Emperor, and Obtained Enslavement.

That new album, an 8-song affair, is titled To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance, and to help spread the word about it we’re premiering its title song today. Continue reading »

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