AN NCS PREMIERE: AZATHOTH’S DREAM — “THE MOOR”

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Nov 082023
 

There is a world of the imagination in which the clock of the seasons has frozen and moves no longer, in which the freezing dark of winter is endless. Technology works no longer, and decay is the order of the day. What human life remains is now huddled around fires, and beyond those shrouds of light terrible predatory things wait in the endless night, inhuman and ascendant.

It is a world of dream, a nightmare for huddled humans but a hideous glory for the dreamer, if the dreamer were something like the horrid ruler of the Outer Gods. The imagining of such blood-freezing dreams may have spawned the name chosen by the project whose music we’re premiering today — which is indeed Azathoth’s Dream.

Other nightmare dreams of endless night may explain the title of the project’s debut album — Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment. But regardless, that title is well chosen because the music is all of those things — deeply nocturnal and viciously vampyric, and yes, also frighteningly bewitching. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THUNRAZ — “YOU AND ME”

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Nov 072023
 

The Estonian band Thunraz, the solo project of Madis Jalakas, has been in a creative surge from its inception, releasing a pair of EPs and a pair of albums since 2018. If anything the surge has strengthened, because Thunraz is following its latest album Revelation (released about five months ago) with yet another album coming out before this current month ends.

The new album is entitled Borderline, and it includes nine songs, one of which — “You and Me” — we’re premiering today along with a head-spinning red-shifted video. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RAT KING — “DESTROYER OF US ALL”

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Nov 072023
 


Photo by J Donovan Malley

Given that I’ve lived in the Seattle area for 28 years I tend to have… tender feelings… for Seattle metal bands. Especially the ones whose music makes me feel like I’m a piece of meat that’s being tenderized and then flame-broiled.

I’ve also had especially tender feelings for Rat King ever since being bowled over by a live show they played at Seattle’s Funhouse venue in 2017. That was my first exposure to the audio tornadoes and earthquaking upheavals generated by the Ecuadorian brothers Danny Racines (bass, vocals) and Ricky Racines (guitar, backup vocals) and their Nicaraguan drummer Carlos Delgado.

Since then they’ve moved from strength to greater strength with each release, the most recent of which is their album Psychotic Reality, which was released by the Satanik Royalty label at the end of September. It’s an album you shouldn’t miss, and in case you did we have a vivid reminder to catch up to it via our premiere today of a video for the song “Destroyer Of Us All“–well-timed to coincide with the band’s in-progress tour of the western U.S. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SKY ISLAND — “FALL INTO DARKNESS”

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Nov 062023
 

This is one of those “and now for something completely different” moments at our site, like coming home to find that all your furnishings have been replaced and people you’ve never seen before are there waiting for you. Startling to be sure, but if you don’t immediately exit and slam the door, maybe you discover that the unexpected changes are… to your liking.

Well, maybe you’ve seen or heard one of the participants in Sky Island before. He’s the one sitting behind the drum kit in the video you’re about to see. His name is Ben Fagerness, and he’s been violently hitting things in the Minneapolis death metal band Graveslave for almost a decade, and also in Gloryhole Guillotine.

Some of you might also recognize the other person in the video, Niilo Smith, though his participation in the wide world of metal and rock as a solo creator has been in a very different sector, most likely unknown to the usual visitors at this site. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE ZEPHYR — “AURA OSCURA”

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Nov 062023
 

As many of you already know, The Zephyr is a Mexican black/death metal band with a history that now spans 30 years. Like many bands of a similar lineage, this one was interrupted by a long period of silence, which occurred after their 2003 debut album Fake Measured Smile, a silence broken by the 2013 EP The Hate Remains the Same and The Zephyr‘s 2017 album Eternal Flames of Heaven.

Also like other bands whose roots are as deep as The Zephyr‘s, they’ve experienced lineup changes along the way, including one that occurred during the six-year gap between that last album and the new one.

And yes, The Zephyr now have a fourth full-length on the way. Entitled Aura Oscura, it’s projected for release in January by American Line Productions, and what we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for its title track, one that fully displays, even after all this time, a band at the height of their veteran songwriting prowess and performance skills. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SANCTUM SATHANAS — “INTO THE ETERNAL SATANIC DAMNATION”

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Nov 032023
 

Well, strictly speaking, this isn’t a premiere. Due to getting our wires crossed, the album we’re writing about was actually released by Inferna Profundus Records two days ago. But what the hell, it will be a premiere for some of you landing at this page who haven’t yet discovered the album, so we’re forging ahead anyway.

And to be sure, Into the Eternal Satanic Damnation is an album worth discovering. It’s the debut full-length by the Chilean band Sanctum Sathanas, which is principally the project of Magister Nihilifer Vendetta 218 (aka Magus Xem Deitus) from Funeral Fullmoon, Blood For Satan, Faustian Spirit, and Vanagandr, joined for this album by drummer Unholy Tormentor.

You already understand, of course, that the album is a form of wrathful devotion to Lucifer (and indeed “Wrathful Devotion” is the name of the record’s closing track). Yet realizing that will still leave many questions unanswered about how the devotion is expressed and whether it will prove inspirational to listeners — questions answered today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: MANIPULATOR — “DRAWING SECRET CIRCLES”

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Nov 022023
 

You can tell from the title of this feature that we’re about to host an album premiere. But it’s not a typical album premiere — far from it.

Apart from the atypical nature of the audio experience, the noisemaker behind this project also created a video for the entire record, divided in a way that provides separate moving pictures for every one of the record’s 20 tracks. You’ll see the video below. In addition, we’re including the artist’s commentary about the songs.

But that’s not all. There’s also a video game that’s being released today — a free video game — with each level of the game play corresponding to a track on the album, and other experiences featured through Art Mode because some of the tracks don’t last long enough for you to do anything but stare.

Oh, and the record is also being released with an art book that features companion art pieces which visually tie-in with the music video and the video game. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CARCINOID — “MORBID CURSE”

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Nov 022023
 

The last time we premiered music from the Australian death metal band Carcinoid was four years ago, the occasion being the run-up toward their album Metastatic Declination. Back then we urged you to “prepare your hardened ears for a mutated offspring of death and doom that’s as foul as a rotting corpse, as punishing as a jackhammer applied to the spine, and as horrifying as a runaway cancer”.

Since then Carcinoid have released a couple of splits, and now they’re returning with a new record named Encomium to Extinction, which brings five new tracks and nearly half an hour of total music, thanks to an evil conspiracy between Me Saco Un Ojo Records and Headsplit Records.

Once again we have a premiere, and this time our best advice is to get your fucking necks loose. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DETHRONED — “VINUM CREATURAE”

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Nov 022023
 

The world inexorably revolves around the sun, and in time what was old sometimes becomes new again. So it is with the German black metal band Dethroned, a group whose roots stretch back to 1993 with the band Mysticism (and then became Dethroned in 1995).

Since then Dethroned‘s progression has been a continuing story of silence and revival, but beginning in 2016 their releases have become somewhat more consistent, with a debut album in 2017 (Bluotrunst), an EP in 2020 (Christentod), and now a second album named A Bridge to Eternal Darkness that’s set for release on December 1st by Dominance of Darkness Records.

What we have for you today is the premiere of “Vinum Creaturae“, the second song to be revealed so far from the upcoming album. In the video accompanying the song, lightning flashes and storm waves crest and crash against a rocky shore. When you listen to the music, you’ll understand the choice of those visuals. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PA VESH EN — “CATACOMBS”

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Nov 012023
 

In the late spring of this year the Belarusian raw black metal band Pa Vesh En released its fourth album Martyrs. Ever-prolific, Pa Vesh En is already returning with a fifth album, this newest one named Catacombs, and it’s being released today by Inferna Profundus Records.

What Pa Vesh En does from album to album is never entirely predictable, but one can predict that whatever variations might be introduced, the results will still be frightening, and so it is with Catacombs. Continue reading »

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