AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HURONIAN — “BEYOND FROZEN HEIGHTS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Sep 132023
 

The birth of the Italian band Huronian in 2020 was one of the silver linings to the lethal black clouds with which the covid pandemic was then shrouding the world.

Word of their existence spread through a self-titled EP released that year, and then spread further through a very impressive 2021 debut album, As Cold as a Stranger Sunset.

Now Huronian are returning with a new five-track EP. Entitled Beyond Frozen Heights, it’s set for release on September 15th by Gruesome Records, and today we’re bringing you an advance listen to the whole record. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TRIVAX –“ALPHA PREDATOR”

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Sep 132023
 

On September 29th the UK label Cult Never Dies will release Eloah Burns Out, the second album by the black/death band Trivax. The group have already made a notable name for themselves since their recording debut in 2012 with a scattering of demos and EPs and an impressive first album, 2016’s SIN (which we praised here as “a rip-roaring assault of burly (yet melodic) riffs, slithering tremolo runs, and punchy drum work topped off with Shayan’s surprisingly comprehensible mid-range snarl”).

The Shayan referred to there is the band’s Iranian-born founder and guitarist as well as vocalist. The founding occurred under challenging circumstances, as Shayan planted the seeds of Trivax‘s fruition in Iran, whose theocratic government has been hostile (to put it mildly) to the music and lyrical themes of extreme metal bands like Trivax.

Shayan managed to exit Iran and put down new roots in the UK, where he established the band with bassist Sully (himself an immigrant from Syria, where we’re told he faced imprisonment for his metal associations) and drummer Matthew Croton. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AABODE — “MOIST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Sep 122023
 

In this article we present a full stream of the debut EP by the two-person band Aabode from the French town of Nancy. The EP’s name is Moist, and it’s set for release on September 15th by Godz Ov War Productions. The label introduces it, at a high level, with these words:

Aabode is a dissonant, haunting twisted mixture of industrial beats and death metal riffing. Low-tuned, blackened, oppressive death metal riffing provided by Aabstracter is combined with ambient noise and glitched 808’s drum patterns. Assymetric track composition is overhanged by Abyssal‘s harsh vocals.

But like most views from a high level, that summary, while useful, omits the details. So let’s move into the EP at ground level, where the riotous dangers it poses to sanity are more apparent. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AS THE SUN FALLS — “THE WANDERER”

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Sep 112023
 

Founded in Switzerland in 2020 as a solo project and now ensconced in Finland as a full band with a new lineup following its founder’s move, the melodic death metal group As the Sun Falls have firmly planted their flag in the audio territory of “Northern Melancholy”.

It’s a soundscape where giants stride and cast long shadows. Such better-known bands as Before the Dawn, Wolfheart, and In Mourning readily come to mind.

As the Sun Falls proudly follow in those footsteps, immersing listeners in earthshaking yet evocative experiences that are steeped in sorrow and are best heard in winter. And if you don’t live in a Nordic land of forest and snow, no matter, because the music will quite powerfully transport you there in a state of solitude, where the distressing contemplation of mortality becomes inescapable. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OVERTHROW — “CAUSTIC VENGEANCE (BLINDLY DRIVEN)”

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Sep 082023
 

Over the course of a demo, an EP, and a 2021 debut album (Strike Down the Saviour), it’s fair to say that the music of the blasphemous UK extremists Overthrow has evolved since their formation in 2011, moving from gritty thrash into an amalgam that has brought in elements of blackened death metal, with savagely ruinous but captivating effects.

Where that evolution has led them as of now is brazenly displayed on a new EP named Ascension of the Entombed that’s set for release by Redefining Darkness Records on Friday the 13th of October. The EP consist of four songs, and today we’re bringing you the closing track “Caustic Vengeance (Blindly Driven)“, along with an eye-grabbing visualizer video. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SUFFER YOURSELF — “AXIS INSANITY”

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Sep 082023
 

In June 2021 we premiered a complete stream of Rip Tide, the stunning third album by the multi-national funeral doom collective Suffer Yourself. We concluded a lengthy and laudatory introduction this way: “Rip Tide isn’t conventional funeral doom. It’s a multi-faceted experience that exerts a powerful, ice-cold, grip that pulls you out, far from shore, and has the power to haunt a listener long after it ends.”

This year Suffer Yourself are returning with their fourth album, Axis of Tortures, which will be released on September 22nd by Aesthetic Death. Once again we’re happy to help spread the word, this time with the premiere of the second song to be revealed from the album (and the last one you’ll hear before the album’s release).

The song we bring you today is “Axis Insanity“, the first complete track following the album’s intro piece, “Enter the Axis“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EUCLID C FINDER — “CORPSE PARTY”

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Sep 082023
 

(Below, Christopher Luedtke introduces our premiere of a song from a new album by the Baltimore-based math/grind group Euclid C Finder.)

The resurgence of the mathcore scene in the last half decade-plus has been a refreshing one to witness. Seeing those unwilling to put to bed frenzied, jarring meter changes, the skittering of panic chords, alongside the fusing of math rock, noise rock, hardcore, punk, grind, and noise, gives the genre more mobility than most—it has a very diverse palate. Euclid C Finder is here to add to that pool with their latest track “Corpse Party.”

Originally, Euclid C Finder started out as a one-person band by vocalist Mike Mehl, but the unit has since evolved into a three-piece. Originating in 2017 in Baltimore, MD, Mehl wrote the majority of the upcoming The Mirror, My Weapon, I Love You LP between 2018 and 2022, as well as the band’s previous two releases. Bandmates Adam Smith and Seth McFarland have since joined and rounded out the roster. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KING OV WYRMS — “TO MARCH FROM DARKNESS”

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Sep 072023
 

We had some very positive things to say here about Lord Ov Thornes, the 2020 debut album by King Ov Wyrms, and we weren’t the only reviewers or listeners to greet the album enthusiastically.

It was then the solo project of Michael Oneirous Sanchez from Tuscon, Arizona, and represented a way of delving more deeply into more extreme forms of sonic aggression than his previous bands, drawing influence from classic death and black metal acts of the late ’80s and early ’90s, including such venerated names as Morbid Angel, Bloodbath, Enthroned, Vader, and Dark Funeral.

Now we are approaching the October 6 release date of a new King Ov Wyrms album named The Womb Ov Borealis, and it reflects changes, not only in the band’s lineup but also in the songwriting. All the changes take the band on a forward march, an advance that makes the new album even more impressive than the debut. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE TONGUE OF EDEN — “STONE BURNER”

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Sep 062023
 

We’ll venture the guess that most of you have never heard of the North Texas duo who call themselves The Tongue of Eden. In part that’s because, until today, they have only had one single to their name. In part, it’s also because their music doesn’t fit within any of the orthodox sub-genres of metal. As one sign of that, consider the fact that they recommend their music for fans of these bands:

Behemoth, Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, Crystal Lake, Igorrr, Dance with the Dead, Waveshaper, The Browning

How does that work? The odds are that whatever words first pop into your heads when you read each of those names one by one, putting all the words together likely results in a kind of jumble that doesn’t make a lot of sense. The odds are that for some of you no words will pop into your heads at all.

Fortunately, The Tongue of Eden‘s music holds together much better than you would expect after playing that word-association game, even if it leads you outside your usual comfort zones. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEAD CLEANER — “THE EXTREME SOUND OF TRUTH”

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Sep 062023
 

Hailing from Thessaloniki in Greece, Head Cleaner are a prime example of a death/grind band that’s criminally underrated.

Over the last two decades they’ve made eight official releases, including three albums, a pair of EPs, and two split albums with other well-known bands from the local and European scene.

They’ve also shared the stage with some of the most influential bands of the genre, such as Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror, Benediction, Pestilence, and many more, in addition to performing at festivals such as Obscene Extreme in the Czech Republic, Bloodshed in the Netherlands, and NRW Death Fest in Germany.

And yet there’s still a sense that, especially here in North America, not enough people have been exposed to their formidable capabilities. With a bit of good luck, that will change with the September 8 release of their eye-popping new album The Extreme Sound Of Truth. Continue reading »

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