AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NOX — “ENTITY”

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Jun 072024
 

Today we’re taking you off our usual well-beaten musical paths as we premiere a full stream of Entity, the debut album of a duo who have taken for themselves the name Nox.

The identities of those two artists are what first led us down this divergent path. They are Inmesher from the German band Rope Sect, whose own new album Estrangement we premiered here not long ago, and Lykaios (aka Lykormas) from the Belgian band Hemelbestormer, whose fascinating post-metal instrumental excursions we’ve written about frequently in the past (he is also the person behind Lhaäd and a member of Rituals of the Dead Hand).

Having been beckoned by those two names and the attractions of the music they’ve made in their other projects, we were curious about what they chose to do as the Nox entity. Hints of what they accomplished were provided in the PR materials furnished on behalf of their label Neuropa Records, which is releasing the album today. For example, this: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GLYPH — “ODES OF WAILING, HYMNS OF MOURNING”

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Jun 062024
 

Beginning in 2019 the mysterious U.S. black metal entity Glyph has provided a dozen short releases and two full-lengths, with a third album arriving imminently, i.e., tomorrow, via Milwaukee-based Shape of Storms Records and other labels whose names will be familiar to our readers.

The name of the new album, which we’re premiering in full today, stands as a signpost of what lies ahead: odes of wailing, hymns of mourning. And so it seems evident that the album represents a way or working through grief and pain, but it achieves that catharsis in startling, shattering, and ultimately triumphant fashion. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OKULAR — “REGENERATE”

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Jun 052024
 

Many death metal bands “look the part”, black-garbed and festooned with spikes, pentagrams, bullet-belts, and/or skulls, and others don’t. Norway’s Okular are on the “don’t” side of the line. In their recent promo photo there’s not a band shirt to be seen nor any other allusion to Satan, the Grim Reaper, or spilled guts, and there’s more khaki in their attire than black. They’ve also got a few more years in their faces, which aren’t contorted in evil grimaces, than whatever hot young things you were listening to yesterday.

Some metal bands also churn out music like there’s no tomorrow. On the other hand, if Okular are expecting the end of the world, they’re obviously not anxious about it: 11 years have passed since their last album.

But Okular‘s non-conformity goes beyond their approach to appearance and timetables. Most importantly, it’s represented by their music, which you’d already know if you happened upon either that last album 11 years ago or the one before that, and which you’re about to learn (or learn again) when you hear their new full-length Regenerate. For newcomers, let’s quickly say that it’s neither plain nor khaki-colored. It’s more like the cover art created by Tina Harsheim Giertsen: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THIRTEEN GOATS — “SIGN OF THE GOAT”

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Jun 042024
 

Somewhere the Devil is smiling broadly, imagining how much hell-raising fun you’re about to have when you listen to the song we’re premiering (with a video) from Thirteen Goats‘ new album Capricorn Rising.

This song, “Sign of the Goat“, functions as an overture for the rest of the album, which is itself described as “an extreme metal rock opera about madness, death, and the destruction of all things”. We also have a more detailed preview from the Vancouver-based band about the role of the song in that context: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DERELICT — “SPECTRUM”

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Jun 042024
 

Over the course of three albums beginning in 2006 the Montréal band Derelict have established a name for themselves as a group that found an intersection between technical death metal and the more brutal and melodic pathways of the death metal soundscape. A long 12 years have passed since their last album, but now they’re finally returning with a fourth one.

The title of the new album is Versus Entropy, a nine-song affair that’s now set for release on June 21st. What we have for you today is the premiere of the second single from the album — “Spectrum” — and it’s a very interesting song in more ways than one. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALBURNUM — “ON THE BONES OF PILGRIMS”

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Jun 032024
 

Today we revisit the Dutch band Alburnum, whose 2022 debut album Buitenlucht proved to be a multi-faceted, soul-shaking, and intensely memorable first step. The occasion for our reunion with them is their completion of a follow-up album, The Withered Roots of Reality, which is now set for release on July 20th.

As you will know if you encountered Buitenlucht, Alburnum infuse their black metal with folk instrumentation and a reverence for musical traditions far older than the musical evolutions that produced the varying tropes of black metal as we’ve come to know them. They do it again on the new album, but have created even more ambitious and dynamic arrangements, a progression that is still inspiring and intensely moving but even more fascinating — as you shall discover today through our premiere of a song from the new album named “On the Bones of Pilgrims“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SUFFERING SOULS — “AN ICONIC TASTE OF DEMISE”

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May 312024
 

The German symphonic black metal band Suffering Souls first sprang to dark life in the distant year 1994 under the name Dismal, but soon embraced its current name. From the beginning its founder Tobias Micko (aka Lord Esgaroth) has been at the helm, at times accompanied by other participants either in recordings or on stage.

At the end of 2019, after a quarter-century of the band’s existence, Tobias Micko started songwriting for the fifth Suffering Souls album, and it was recorded at the history-making Hertz Studio in Poland. Micko is responsible for everything on the album, other than the session drums, which were performed by Michiel Van Der Plicht (Pestilence).

Today the album is being co-released by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Fetzner Death Records (Germany). Its name is An Iconic Taste Of Demise, and we’re premiering it in full right now. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BEATEN TO DEATH — “SUNRISE OVER RIGOR MORTIS”

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May 302024
 

Metal band names, when considered either in isolation or in conjunction with the bands’ music, span a range from terrible to perfect. The name Beaten To Death is damn-near perfect, both in isolation and especially in the context of this Norwegian group’s ferociously brawling brand of grindcore.

The name creates expectations, perhaps especially to someone who’s never encountered the five albums Beaten To Death have put out beginning in 2011. But then such a stranger could take one look at the fantastical cover of their forthcoming sixth album Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis and begin to get the idea that maybe those expectations aren’t going to be entirely accurate, or at least they’re going to be incomplete.

But those of us who have encountered one or more of Beaten To Death‘s previous releases won’t be entirely surprised, because while this band are indeed fully capable of beating their listeners to death, they are equally capable of adventurously turning conventional grind expectations upside-down — and as you’re about to discover, they do it again on this newest album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERVENT HATE — “A HAUNTING TALE”

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May 282024
 

Originally formed in 2008, the Peruvian band Fervent Hate are about to launch their third album, In Rot We Trust, through the cooperation of Satanath Records and Australis Records.

The album was victimized by the covid pandemic, which forced a postponement of its recording, but at last the recording work was done last year (at Alto Calibre Studio in Arequipa, Peru with Miguel Asencio), completed by the mixing and mastering of the great Dan Swanö at Unisound Studio.

The new album brings us 10 songs, again influenced by classic Swedish death metal and hard rock bands, reinforcing Fervent Hate‘s genre moniker of “death ‘n’ roll”, and today we’re very happy to premiere one of them, a track called “A Haunting Tale“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CLOVEN — “THE MADNESS OF SERPENTS”

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May 212024
 

It seems unlikely that any musical artist records a cover of a song unless the song means something important to them. Oh, undoubtedly we might find examples where someone just made a cynical calculated effort to draft off the talent of someone else for their own benefit, but more likely it’s a sign of genuine affection and admiration, and that’s what we have in the song we’re premiering below.

In this instance the obscure Canadian solo project Cloven recorded a cover of “The Madness of Serpents” by The Devil’s Blood, expressly as a tribute to the late Selim Lemouchi. It may also be a farewell to Cloven as well as Lemouchi, though we understand that before the end comes there will be a Cloven album that includes the recording you’re about to hear. Continue reading »

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