AN NCS PREMIERE: ANDRACCA — “OCEANS OF FIRE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 082023
 

Through their new album To Bare the Weight of Death, which will be released next month by Vendetta Records, the UK black metal band Andracca delve into deep subjects, perhaps the most profound and challenging subjects that confront, or eventually will confront, all of us.

The album’s title itself points to its themes — the experiences of grief and despair caused by death, and in this case, the acceptance of mortality, a reconciliation with death that can be life-affirming. Inspired by the band’s own personal experiences and struggles with loss, the album is intended to manifest “a unification of life and death”, “a triumph of resilience and will, inviting listeners to embrace their own lives with renewed vigor”.

Obviously, these subjects are emotionally powerful, ranging from extreme trauma to struggle, and ultimately to endurance, acceptance, and maybe something even more valuable. They are subjects that call music of equal emotional power.

Did Andracca succeed? You’re about to get the beginning of an answer through our premiere of a video for the song “Oceans of Fire“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAEVUS FINIS — “AEONS OF SPIRITUAL STARVATION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 072023
 

Seemingly out of nowhere the Portuguese band Saevus Finis has appeared, with a debut album named Facilis Descensus Averno that’s set for release on January 12th by Transcending Obscurity Records.

For the very few of you who don’t keep a Latin dictionary close to hand, Saevus Finis means “the savage end” and Facilis Descensus Averno means “descent to hell”. Entirely fitting, those words, because the Saevus Finis rendition of death metal on their debut is indeed savage and hellish — punishingly heavy and unnerving in the extreme, a musical fashioning of destructive ruination, sheer madness, and harrowing agonies that makes a startling impression.

As tangible proof of these opinions, today we’re presenting the third song from the album to be revealed so far. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: STAGES OF DECOMPOSITION — “SKID ROW SLASHER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 062023
 

The decomposition of organic matter proceeds in stages. In humans, the process includes the body’s own chemical actions and putrefaction as well as the work of bacteria and, in the right settings, the feeding of worms, maggots, flies, and other creatures. But what must precede the increasingly disgusting stages of decomposition is… death.

With that learning in mind, it’s no accident that the brutal slamming L.A. death/grind band Stages of Decomposition chose that name for the music they intended to make, and have made — which is gutting, gruesome, and foul. But they are also clearly aware that death must precede rot and bodily ruination, and so their music is also ruthlessly lethal.

On their new album Raptures of Psychopathy, Stages of Decomposition lean into the most violent and punishing aspects of their sound, and we have a prime example in the new album track we’re presenting today, along with a blood-spraying video, in advance of the record’s February release by Gore House Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RESIN TOMB — “PURGE FLUID”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 062023
 

When we see the name Resin Tomb the first words that come to mind, based on the previous releases of these Australians, are “bombardment”, “fragmentation”, and “incineration” — music used as weaponry — followed by thoughts of “agony” and “mental breakdown”. “Hellish terrors” is another phrase we’ve used in descriptions of their previous noise.

Of course, most surface-dwellers would recoil from anything so-described. In our case, it just makes us eager for more — and more is what we will have when Transcending Obscurity Records releases this harrowing band’s debut album Cerebral Purgatory next month, to help usher in the New Year with ruination.

So far, two tracks from the new album have surfaced (“detonated” is probably a better word), and today we’ve got a third one for you, one that is indeed destructive but one that also brings shivering chills. Its name is “Purge Fluid“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ATERRIMA — “A NAME ENGRAVED IN COLD SOIL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 052023
 

Near the end of this past summer we had the pleasure of premiering (and reviewing at length) a fantastic new album named For the Good of the Realm by the Idaho metal band Weald and Woe, whose medieval-inspired music brought to mind the likes of Obsequiae, Véhémence, Darkenhöld, Immortal, and Ensiferum.

Two of the members of Weald and Woe (Brent Ruddy and Isiah Fletcher) are also members (along with Ted Clements) of a very different band named Aterrima, and they too will be releasing an album this year — in just a few days — via the same Fiadh Productions that helped usher For the Good of the Realm into the world.

Aterrima‘s first full-length is entitled A Name Engraved in Cold Soil, and we have a full stream of it for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ETERNAL STORM — “LONE TREE DOMAIN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Dec 052023
 

It’s already quite evident that as good a year as 2023 has been for metal, 2024 is going to start off with a big BANG! as a new universe of annual music begins another rapid expansion. Part of the early-year explosion is a new album by the Spanish progressive/melodic death metal band Eternal Storm that’s set for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on February 10th.

The album’s name is A Giant Bound to Fall, and it follows Eternal Storm‘s very impressive first full-length, 2019’s Come the Tide, which our own Andy Synn reviewed here, calling it “a brilliant album, from start to finish, and one which might just restore your faith in the Melodic side of Death Metal”.

To help pave the way for the new record, Transcending Obscurity has released two singles so far, and today we’re bringing you a third one — “Lone Tree Domain“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEEMTEE — “STRANGE AEONS & DELIRIUMS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 052023
 

Every durable edifice, even a musical one, must have a solid foundation.

Well, that’s what some people say, probably including most listeners. But music whose foundations are constantly shifting and skidding, as if caught in an earthquake or morphing like some hallucinatory vision, can be far more interesting, even dazzling, if the architect is as talented as the person behind the Spanish band Deemtee.

This observation certainly held true for Deemtee‘s debut album, the aptly named Flawed Synchronization With Reality, which we premiered and reviewed (at great length) four years ago. In attempting to describe it we shared comparative references to Deathspell Omega, Oranssi Pazuzu, Valborg, Blut Aus Nord, and Ved Buens Ende — and repeatedly emphasized how unpredictable (and extraordinary) it was.

Now it’s time for foundations to liquify again, because Deemtee has a new album coming our way on December 7th via the Spanish label Darkness Within (a sub-label of Darkwoods), It also has a very apt title, given the nature of the songs: Strange Aeons & Deliriums. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: UNDEAD — “FEAST FOR THE WORMS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 042023
 

If you’re a slobbering fan of supernatural chainsawing death metal you’re about to have more fun than most things you can do with your clothes on. Ghouls are also invited to participate, with or without clothing.

The source of the fun to come is our premiere of a video for “Feast for the Worms“, a virally infectious, massively mauling, and magnificently eerie song off the latest album by the unholy Spanish death metal band UNDEAD. It was filmed in a very special graveyard, where the dead must have been stirred to ghastly new life as they witnessed the event from below. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRVNA — “WHAT GREAT LENGTHS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 042023
 

We are very happy today to revisit the daunting visionary music of the Australian black metal band Krvna, although the band’s creations have been anything but happy, and indeed so emotionally harrowing and so wholly engulfing in their power that they take the breath away.

The occasion for our revisiting of Krvna today is the planned January 10 release by a trio of labels of the project’s new half-hour EP The Rythmus of Death Eternal. It includes three extravagant new original songs, plus covers of songs by Abigor and Viking-era Bathory, and we have the premiere of one of the monumental new songs today — “What Great Lengths“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WITCHGÖAT — “REJECTED BY THE DEMIURGE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 012023
 

Composed of four members with extensive resumes in extreme metal, the Salvadorean band Witchgöat made their advent with the 2018 demo Umbra Regit and then soon followed that with their 2019 debut album Egregors of the Black Faith.

Now, on the other side of lockdown times, they’re returning with a second full-length of black/thrashing mayhem. Entitled Altars of Necromancy, it’s set for release on the last day of this year by Morbid Skull Records (El Salvador) and Deathrockersorrow Records (U.S.). To help spread the word, today we’re revealing a lyric video for the song “Rejected by the Demiurge“. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries