AN NCS PREMIERE: SCHAVOT — “WAART OE!”

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Sep 052023
 

On October 13th the Zwaertgevegt label will release an album-length split that assembles the music of four connected Dutch black metal bands: Schavot, Asgrauw, Hellevaeder, and Duindwaler. The title of the split is Verloren Vertellingen (“Lost Tales”), so-named because each of the eight tracks is a musical interpretation of folk tales from the rich history of the Netherlands.

Despite the thematic focus of each band’s recordings for this split, and the connections among members, the bands definitely do not all sound alike, which is one of the factors that makes the split so compelling. What we have for you today is one of the two songs on the split by Schavot. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGLO — “LAST RITES”

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Sep 052023
 

Imagine a Venn diagram. In one circle are fans of Star Trek: Voyager. In the other are fans of crushing, crawling, and careening sludge and death metal. In the intersection is where you’ll find the Australian band AGLO and its debut album Build Fear.

How big is the intersection? Who can say? Granted, it’s unlikely that AGLO will be invited to play a Voyager con, but it’s wonderful to imagine the stunned looks that would produce. Most people there would run for the exits in horror. Some would stay ’til the bitter end, either relishing the experience or too scared to move, and the size of the intersection would expand.

Yes it’s true that AGLO‘s new album, which will be released by Brilliant Emperor Records on November 10th, is entirely based on storylines from Star Trek: Voyager episodes. It’s also true that if you’re a fan of such bands as Crowbar, Incantation, Eyehategod, and Morbid Angel, you’ll find yourself rooted in place ’til the album’s bitter end, whether you care about Voyager or not. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SHORES OF NULL — “DARKNESS WON’T TAKE ME”

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Sep 042023
 

In March of this year, with the assistance of Spikerot Records, the Roman band Shores of Null released their newest album The Loss of Beauty, and it has quickly drawn widespread admiration (including at our site) for its compelling renderings of melancholy and tormented moods, and earned its recommendations for fans of Amorphis, Enslaved, and Paradise Lost.

We are fortunate, however, that Shores of Null seem just as devoted to the creation of captivating videos as they are captivating music, and they are fortunate to have done this through a very successful collaboration with director Martina L. McLean and the filmmakers at Sanda Movies.

Shores of Null have already released four accomplished videos for songs from The Loss of Beauty, and we’ve assembled all of them at the end of this article. But the principal focus today is a fifth video, this one for the song “Darkness Won’t Take Me“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THIRD STORM — “THE CLANDESTINE GOSPEL”

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Sep 042023
 

Five years after the release of their debut album The Grand Manifestation, the Swedish black metal band Third Storm are returning with a new full-length named The Locust Mantra, which is set for release on October 6th by Chaos Records. But a glance at Metal Archives reveals that the band’s roots are far older than the timing of that debut album or even Dark Descent‘s 2015 release of their first EP might suggest.

In fact, Third Storm was first formed in 1986, when the four original members were only in the age range of 14-16. They recorded a couple of primitive, thrashy demos, played about a dozen shows, and then threw in the towel in 1988.

Yet obviously something re-kindled the Third Storm spirit a quarter-century later, when original vocalist Heval Bozarslan re-started the band, joined by guitarist David Eriksson and eventually by guitarist Hasse Hansson, and now they show no signs of stopping again. Indeed, this new album is the second installment in a planned trilogy that began with The Grand Manifestation. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LACRAU — “QUEDA”

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Sep 012023
 

On September 22nd the Monumental Rex label will release an album named Axioma, which is the debut recording of the Portuguese band Lacrau, whose lineup includes members of Carma and Everto Signum.

The album is a conceptual work crafted from elements of Depressive, Black, and Doom Metal that grapples with the burdens of aging, and it was inspired by the legendary Scandinavian ritual of senicide. As the band explain: “It is told that the practice consisted in elderly people throwing themselves, or being thrown, from precipices after becoming unable to take care of themselves or perform everyday tasks”.

Written in Portuguese, the lyrical narrative of Axioma describes the ritual from different angles: “the realization of the burden, the journey to the cliff, the induced feelings and the acceptance of the fate.”

In July we premiered the song “DECLINIO“, and on this Bandcamp Friday we follow that with another track premiere from the album. This one is called “QUEDA“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VACUO — “TO THE PUTREFYING CHANTS”

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Sep 012023
 

Florence is one of the many jewels of Italy, a Tuscan city renowned for its art, architecture, and rich cultural history. But like all of the world’s great cities it has also been the setting for terrible events.

In areas near the city, for example, a serial killer known as The Monster of Florence murdered 14 victims (mutilating many of them) over the course of a decade or more in the 1970s’ and ’80s, and we’re told that it is in the area of those infamous events where Vacuo was born.

This solo project draws inspiration not from the beauty of Florence but from abyssal and abismal visions, and creates frightening audio renderings of them from ingredients of lo-fi black metal, abraded dungeon synth, noise, and freakish electronics.

Vacuo‘s debut, the work of sole member A., takes the form of an experimental EP named To Languish and Despair, which will be released by the Italian label Xenoglossy Productions on September 29th, and today we’re introducing you to its chilling fascinations through our premiere of the EP’s opening track, “To the Putrefying Chants“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRAVE PILGRIM — “THE BIGOTRY OF PURPOSE”

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Aug 312023
 

One good turn deserves another. Yesterday we premiered a fascinating new album by Forest Thrall being released tomorrow by Death Prayer Records, and today we’re premiering another fascinating Death Prayer release, also hitting the streets tomorrow.

This one is The Bigotry of Purpose, the second full-length from the Oregonian melodic black metal band Grave Pilgrim, which follows the band’s self-titled debut album in 2021, and a 2022 EP named Molten Hands Reach West. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FOREST THRALL — “AMIDST PINES”

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Aug 302023
 

Following up their 2022 debut album Apparitions of the Golden Horned, the New England-based black metal band Forest Thrall are set to release a second album entitled Amidst Pines on September 1st via Death Prayer Records, and we’re happily premiering it in full today.

Like a trip through previously un-visited ancient woods, the album follows a continually turning path that reveals unexpected sights, not all of them of earthly origin. There is a “backwoods” and “folkloric” quality to some of the music’s ingredients, but it also rakes the senses like rusted blades. Sometimes it sounds primitive and sometimes surprisingly elegant, sometimes diabolically deranged and sometimes spellbinding. The one thing the music isn’t is mundane or dull. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WEALD AND WOE — “FOR THE GOOD OF THE REALM”

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Aug 292023
 

Weald and Woe, once a solo project but now a complete quartet, are based in Boise, Idaho, but in their music they have more than one foot planted in Britain and Europe as they existed 1000 years ago, give or take. Their current label, Fiadh Productions, puts it well in describing the band’s new album For the Good of the Realm:

“Weald and Woe combines the majesty of the medieval era with the ferocity of classic black metal inspired by Obsequiae, Véhémence, Darkenhöld, Immortal, Ensiferum and many others….

“The new full-length is both dreamy and intense, capturing bygone eras of courtly love and epic battles. The band’s music walks a fine line between triumphant and sophisticated choruses balanced with frigid, breakneck riffing that paints an often elegant but bleak soundscape as the listener is transported to a different time. Swords not optional!” Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEADS FOR THE DEAD — “IN THE ABSENCE OF FAITH”

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Aug 282023
 

We are very happy once again to premiere music by Heads for the Dead. It’s the kind of happiness people feel when they wake up from supernatural nightmares and realize the monsters weren’t really eating your guts after all, or those who get thrills from the chills of horror movies in which the undead bare their rotten teeth and demons pierce the veil between worlds.

Horror in many forms is the bread and butter of this multinational death metal band, whose discography has swollen since 2018 to encompass an EP and three albums, and now there’s another EP shambling toward us, with a due date of September 1st via the venerable Pulverised Records.

As signified by its title — In the Absence of Faith — all the lyrics in these five tracks were inspired by horror-related movies “that deal with the concept of losing belief or getting challenged in extreme situations”. Continue reading »

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