AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AEONIAN SORROW — “KATARA”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 312023
 

In the Pindus mountains of northern Greece there is a pass called Katara. We are told that according to the legend, “Katara got its name from a despot who around 1800 set out from Ioannina to go to Trikala city, but the bad weather in the area made it so difficult for him that he died on the way and he cursed the mountain”.

Many tragic stories have been written about this pass, and the Greek/Finnish doom-metal collective Aeonian Sorrow have now written their own, although their new album Katara, which will be released tomorrow, includes other stories as well — and it is dedicated to the memory of Georgia and Michail, beloved grandparents of the band’s singer Gogo Melone.

The lyric stories included in Katara do vary across the album’s seven substantial songs, all of them heart-felt, but they are stories of deep loss, despair, and anger — heart-breaking and harrowing, as well as heart-felt. Gogo has explained how they all came to be: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COLLAPSED MAINFRAME — “AGENDA 2030”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 302023
 

(Christopher Luedtke introduces our premiere of a track from a new concept album by Texas-based Collapsed Mainframe in advance of its release next month by Roman Numeral Records.)

Conceived in 2021, Collapsed Mainframe began with the mindset of pushing the boundaries of chaos and dissonance. Utilizing grind, death metal, and doom, the band forged its sound while steeping itself in a message of anti-government and concerns of technology, the topics of which paint the upcoming release Theatre of Tyranny.

The single we present today, “Agenda 2030”, begins with a thundering drum beat followed by a melodic, distorted guitar section; it goes on for a second before kicking up the speed and the harsh vocals hit. Collapsed Mainframe kick into a grindy section that’s jagged and tense. It persists in its aggression, then breaks up into a sludgy/noise-rock section. Things break up as the track goes on and dissolves. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: NIGHT HAG AND BURIAL — “UTTERANCES FROM BELOW”

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Oct 302023
 

All trve true metalheads have only one favorite holiday, and it’s not Valentine’s Day. It’s the one bearing down on us tomorrow night. Most of us already have our own personally curated playlists of heavy music for Halloween night, but we’ve got something for you today that should lead to a revision of your list.

What we’ve got is the full streaming premiere of Utterances From Below, a new album-length split by Virginia’s Night Hag and Italy’s Burial, which will be released on November 10th by Rotted Life Records. As the label proudly previews, it is indeed “a union of death, doom, and disgust”, one that “bridges the fertile gap between quotidian horrors and supernatural dread”. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEBEPHRENIQUE — “NON COMPOS MENTIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 272023
 

The Australian band Hebephrenique chose a name that may contort the part of your brain responsible for making sense of letters and checking new words into the vocabulary library. We’ll make it easier, since we’ve already done a bit of research:

Hebephrenique seems to be the French word (without accent marks) for hebephrenic, which refers to a “disorganized” type of schizophrenia, one “typified by shallow and inappropriate emotional responses, foolish or bizarre behaviour, false beliefs (delusions), and false perceptions (hallucinations).” So says this source.

That this is what the band had in mind when they chose their name is guesswork on our part, but their debut EP Non Compos Mentis provides circumstantial evidence that we’re on the right track. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: GREAT FALLS AND RADIATION BLACKBODY

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Oct 262023
 

On October 27th — tomorrow! — Ancient Temple Recordings and 7 Degrees Records will jointly release a new 7″ split by Seattle’s Great Falls and Brooklyn’s Radiation Blackbody, and today we’re presenting a stream of both bands’ contributions to the split.

The news of this release seized our attention mainly because of the presence of Great Falls. Even though Metal Archives hasn’t yet seen fit to include them, the band’s 2023 album Objects Without Pain is one of the most emotionally intense and stupefyingly heavy records you’ll find this year, and a worthy candidate as we get closer to year-end listmania.

At least for those of us around the NCS hovel, Radiation Blackbody was a new discovery — and, it turns out, a very good one. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PEINE KAPITAL — “PEINE KAPITAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 252023
 

“It’s hard to be optimistic in such a fucked up world. Because we witness violence and ugliness on a daily basis, we can’t help but make music that is aggressive and filthy.”

With those words, the French doom-sludge trio Peine Kapital have announced their self-titled debut album, which will be released on October 27th by the respected Sludgelord Records. And those aren’t empty words. As you’ll learn for yourselves today through our complete streaming premiere of the album, Peine Kapital is a truly harsh, harrowing, and immensely heavy experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GLACIER EATER — “TEMPEST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 242023
 

We read the lyrics for Glacier Eater‘s new album Tempest before listening to any of the music. They are well worth reading, both because they were crafted with literary flair and also because they tell a story that builds anticipation for the music.

That gripping narrative unfolds across the songs, each of which is like a chapter in a tragic saga. Through two contentious narrators, they relate the attempt of a warrior captain to lead his forces away from the life of killing they knew and to sail toward a foreign shore “at the edge of the world” where they might find peace, “a chance to make it right”.

Some in the company don’t share the captain’s optimism, and sure enough, it turns out they have sailed “into a hole of death”. Against the backdrop of a volcanic eruption they are assaulted by other warriors on the shore, whom they slaughter until forced to retreat and set sail again, only to be assaulted in a different way by the tempest for which the album is named, as if the gods themselves are exacting “a righteous vengeance” for all the killing they have done.

But even then, after the storm and the drowning of many, the protagonists’ turmoil hasn’t ended, because another ship, a hostile one, is rapidly gaining on them and cannons blaze, “another fight on our hands”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ONE MASTER — “THE SECRET NAMES”

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Oct 232023
 

After six long years of lycanthropic reclusion, ONE MASTER are ready to unveil a new full-length recording: The Names of Power. Taking its title from the ancient occult idea that if one learns the true name of a deity, access to its power can be obtained, the theme of the album is on the power of language, with each song being focused on its use in a different context: religion, heresy, a cult, solitude, the universe, and modernity.

That’s how the promotional materials for The Names of Power begin introducing the new double-LP from this cult East Coast black metal band. They include more details that we’ll share with you, but for now we want to move right into the music, which is maybe even more fantastic than even die-hard fans of One Master might be expecting. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REVULSED — “BEYOND THE DEPTHS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS”

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Oct 202023
 

It’s been a long pause since the Australian death metal band Revulsed released their slaughtering debut album (Infernal Atrocity) in 2015. The band hasn’t been completely silent since then. A live album emerged in 2017, along with a scattering of cover songs (digitally compiled in 2019) featuring Revulsed‘s take on tracks by Cannibal Corpse, Testament, Death, and Gorguts.

But at long last Revulsed are now returning with another album or original music, this one entitled Cerebral Contamination, and Everlasting Spew Records will be releasing it on December 15th. To help pave the way, today we’re bringing you a track from the new album named “Beyond The Depths Of The Subconscious“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EMBRACE YOUR PUNISHMENT — “OPPRESSION”

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Oct 202023
 

Hailing from Valenciennes, France, Embrace Your Punishment have been smashing bones and ruining minds since 2009, compiling a discography that includes a debut EP and two albums (2014’s Honor Before Glory and 2019’s Nameless King). Along the way they’ve wrecked lots of venues from the stage too. And now they’ve got a third album teed up for release by Lacerated Enemy Records on December 1st.

The name of the new album is Made of Stone, and that name is a good preview of the music, which is massive, mauling, and made to crush skulls and spines with no mercy and no remorse. You really might as well embrace your punishment, because this record leaves you no choice.

You want proof? Listen to the song we’re premiering today, the well-named “Oppression“. Continue reading »

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