AN NCS PREMIERE: LUMEN AD MORTEM — “AND WHAT IS YET TO LOSE”

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Jun 122026
 

(written by Islander)

One week from today Hypnotic Dirge Records will release A Grave Ascent, the second album by South Australia’s Lumen Ad Mortem. The label succinctly brands the music “anthemic black metal”, and you’ll already understand why if you’ve heard the first couple of album tracks already released.

To be clear, the music is often furiously paced and ferocious, the vocals are usually scorching, and the moods can be intensely distraught. But even when the band are in inferno mode the music spreads its fire and its daunting moods on a grand scale, wholly absorbing listeners in experiences that are as wondrous as they are frightening.

This simply isn’t the kind of music you can casually pass by or hear with only part of your attention, because its emotional and sonic power seizes attention so dramatically. As you might guess, some of the impact derives from the use of panoramic orchestration, but every other ingredient, including the hard-hitting rhythms, the blizzard-like riffing, and the possessed vocals is equally vital.

Yet Lumen Ad Mortem’s new music is equally capable of drenching listeners in atmospheres of crushing loss and despair. One of the two songs already out in the world (“Ghost Gums“) proves that – and today we’re premiering another song (a vast one) that further demonstrates the new album’s expansive emotional reach. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEWARE OF GODS — “SECONDARY DROWNING”

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Jun 112026
 

(written by Islander)

“BEWARE OF GODS!” With little doubt, someone has been yelling that warning ever since human beings first conceived of divinities, but with little apparent success. The Minneapolis-based project whose music is the subject of this premiere brandishes that warning in its very name, while simultaneously crafting mythic lyrical and musical narratives that seem to teach other lessons as well — often in exceedingly scary terms.

We’ve had occasion to spread the word about Beware of Gods before, but a few reminders are probably worthwhile. It’s the solo project of a creator known as The Archetype, and has been devoted to the unfolding of a mythos centered on a protagonist called I Nomad — a dystopian cosmic mythos too be sure, but one that provides a mirror to quite human experiences of personal collapse, addiction, and rebirth, influenced by The Archetype’s own near-death experience and long recovery.

The latest Beware of Gods record is Behead the Oracle, the third and final installment in a musical arc named Upon Whom The Last Light Descends, and it’s set for release on July 10th by Invoke Records. As the label explains, it “completes a sprawling narrative about false prophets, algorithmic gods, and the collapse of meaning in a hyper-controlled future.” Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRIPPLE BASTARDS — “LA TUA FOTO SUL MARMO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 112026
 

(written by Islander)

It’s not valid to summarize the attractions of extreme metal in a word or two. The experiences are too varied. At one end, it can feel like the oppressive pressure of the ocean in the deepest trenches. It can also be mysterious and mesmerizing, or profoundly spiritual. But perhaps the greatest attraction derives from its explosive intensity, its raging nature, the furious violence it’s capable of channeling. And in those aspects it’s probably true that no sub-genre captures the heat or provides that kind of catharsis better than grindcore.

I have friends for whom grind is their meat and potatoes, the rushing red blood of what they listen to. I have other friends that barely have any use for it. Not enough hooks, not enough changes, not enough atmosphere, not enough groove to propel the banging of heads, the songs not long enough to sink in. I’m still going to urge those friends (and you) to hear what we’re premiering today, for reasons I’m about to explain.

What you have in front of you is La tua foto sul marmo, a new EP from Cripple Bastards that’s set for release on June 12th – tomorrow! – by F.O.A.D. Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AGONIA BLACK VOMIT — “TENEBRE E SANGUE”

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Jun 102026
 

(written by Islander)

The last time we premiered music here from the Italian black metal band Agonia Black Vomit, in the run-up toward their second album Cosmosatanic Wisdom in 2017, we focused on how surprising the songs were, and how significantly they varied from each other in their sounds and moods — much more varied (and melodically rich) than one might have expected after seeing the band’s music simply categorized as “raw antichristian black metal” (not to mention their name)

Since then Agonia Black Vomit (which has been the solo work of Agonia) released another album — The Burning Noise of Satanic Annihilation — in 2023, and in July the fourth one will be co-released by Symbol Of Domination and WP Productions. The name of this one is Satanic Rites For The Undead.

Obviously, the band’s antichristian and unholy lyrical bent hasn’t changed at all, but the music is still multi-faceted, as you’ll discover for yourselves through the song we’re premiering today with a video, “Tenebre e Sangue“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERALIA — “BALLATA AVERNALE”

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Jun 102026
 

(written by Islander)

Some metal albums are essentially collections of singles, songs that don’t have any thematic connection to each other. Others are “concept” albums, in which the songs have their place in some unifying pre-conceived vision by the artist(s), whether lyrical or musical or both. Such concepts might be relatively simple or not terribly distinctive, while others really stand out as the product of careful thought about unfamiliar subjects.

The new album Ultima Requies by the Italian black metal band Feralia falls into the latter category. Press materials circulated by ATMF (the label that will release the record later this month) describe the album as one “drawing from arcane and occult dimensions tied to the archaic Roman world,” in which “each composition unfolds as a passage, evoking forgotten rites, liminal states and the tension between life and death, presence and absence.”

Even the album’s frightening cover art fits into the narrative. To quote again from the press materials:

The artwork of Ultima Requies [depicts] a reinterpretation of the necromantic ritual of Erichto, the Thessalian witch described in De Bello Civili by Lucan. A figure feared even by the gods, Erichto was said to raise fallen soldiers from the battlefield during one of the most turbulent phases of Roman civil war. This imagery embodies the album’s core: a confrontation with death not as an end, but as a threshold to forbidden knowledge. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: POX — “TO GREIFSWALD!”

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Jun 092026
 

(written by Islander)

As their name signifies, the Belgian black metal band Pox draw their inspiration from the history of plague and disease in northwestern Europe, but they also find inspiration in the obscure and often bleak folklore of the same region, more often than not connecting with pre-Christian archetypes and heathen concepts.

The music of Pox has been presented through a pair of EPs, a split with the Dutch band Heretic, and a live album. In July of this year they will have a new EP released by Void Wanderer Productions — their first new music in almost a decade. The name of the EP is B.K.W. — which stands for “Brass Knuckle Witchcraft“. Void Wanderer provides this description: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ILL TIDINGS — “WORSHIP THE TEMPLE OF FLESH”

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Jun 092026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we turn our attention to the Vienna-based black metal band Ill Tidings and a song we’re premiering from their new album Seeds of Rebirth, which will be released by the esteemed Vendetta Records on June 26th. They have provided this précis of the album as a whole:

The album balances aggression and atmosphere across seven tracks, shifting between cold melodic passages, dense riffing and moments that feel almost ritualistic in tone. While earlier releases hinted toward collapse and finality, Seeds of True Rebirth approaches those ideas head-on, presenting what the band describe as “the apocalypse” itself.

As you can see above, the album’s eye-catching cover art sets the stage in frightening (and intriguing) fashion. The song you’re about to hear is also both frightening and uncomfortably intriguing, and even as a single song, its scope is indeed world-ending. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FINAL SELF — “LITURGY OF THE FINAL SELF”

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Jun 082026
 

(written by Islander)

As you can see, we are about to premiere an album by a group named Final Self. They are a death metal band from Tarnów, Poland, and Liturgy of The Final Self is their debut release.

We don’t have a lot of information to share about the band or what inspired them. Their very brief description of the music calls it “raw, dark death metal focused on intense atmosphere, existential themes, and destruction from within.” Beyond that, we have the identity of the band’s members and some notes about their resumes:

Eveq – guitar, bass (Breathe The Void, ex-Ingenium)
Ataman Tolovy – vocals (Turin Turambar, Genius Ultor, Mrome, ex-Stillborn, ex-Kult Mogił)
Krzysztof Klingbein – drums (Totenmesse, Belphegor live, ex-Vader live)

At least some of the names in those parenthetical notes will probably perk up the ears of our visitors, as they did mine. Yet for the most part we have to let the music speak for Final Self and what they’re about. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TRIAGE — “DECIMAL POINTS”

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Jun 052026
 

(written by Islander)

I want to begin this premiere feature with a personal note. While working on Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle a few weeks ago I witnessed what might have been the wildest musical riot of the entire event, a performance at the packed-to-the-gills Barboza venue by the North Texas grind band Triage. They created an absolute cauldron of chaos that left us wondering if the moshers would require emergency care and the venue would need structural repairs afterward.

Vocalist Champ Morgan led the charge, striding into the mosh pit and going on top of the bar while howling like a madman. You can get a quick taste of what happened through this reel on Instagram. (You should also check out this video of the Triage set at this year’s Maryland Deathfest.)

But the personal note also involves my own interactions with some of the band members when they weren’t performing. By my lights, and the lights of everyone else working the fest who encountered them, they were some of the nicest people we met there, perhaps especially that wildman Champ Morgan, who watched Black Breath’s performance with me at stage-side. They even reacted with good humor to my shit-talking (as a die-hard Mariners fan) about the Texas Rangers — which I couldn’t resist after seeing a Rangers cap in the Triage crew.

And so, when I was given the opportunity to premiere a song from a new Triage record today, I jumped at it faster than a jackrabbit with its ass on fire. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WOEWARDEN — “AS DEEP AS THE KNIFE GOES”

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Jun 052026
 

(written by Islander)

On June 12th the Dusktone label will release the fourth album by the Australian black metal band Woewarden (the first two were released when the band was known as Cancer). Titled The Roots Of My Neglect, the new one follows the band’s 2022 full-length, In The Art Of My Caged Existence. Dusktone describes it:

It is the natural successor to their previous work but is intentionally more visceral. Woewarden have maintained the melodic, melancholic approach to depressive black metal – inspired by the likes of Silencer, Psychonaut 4, and Insomnium — but they have injected a heavier, more abrasive edge reminiscent of the raw torment and fury of 90s Scandinavian legends like Dissection and Emperor.

We’ll also share Woewarden’s own description of how their new album compares to the last one:

The Roots Of My Neglect stands as a visceral evolution to our previous record, In The Art Of My Caged Existence. While its predecessor explored the isolation of a caged existence, this record examines what happens when that cage finally breaks – leaving us to carry the accumulated burdens of ourselves and others. We have pushed our melodic melancholy to its limit, fusing bittersweet arrangements with an abrasive, raw edge. From maniacal wails and screams of anguish to haunting croons, it is an exploration of neglect, both self-inflicted and external, and the rot that settles when hope is finally abandoned.

What we have for you today is a lyric video for a song off the album called “As Deep As The Knife Goes” — and we also have a statement from Woewarden about this specific track: Continue reading »

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