AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BARBARIAN — “REEK OF GOD”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 192026
 

(written by Islander)

From everything we’ve read about the members of Barbarian over the last 15 years or so, they’re a trio of die-hard metal maniacs whose heads are filled to the brim with music from a variety of classic eras throughout heavy metal history. They have also consistently demonstrated a rare ability to let that array of influences almost instinctively flow through their own songwriting in ways that are familiar but never formulaic, so much so that you never know quite what they’re going to do from one album to the next, or even within individual songs, except you know it’s going to light a bonfire in your head.

Undoubtedly, the songwriting process of these Italians begins with riffs — because the songs are usually packed to the brim with them — but it’s also clear they devote a lot of care to refinement of their initial ideas, with the objective of leaving no one bored, and least of all themselves.

To repeat, you never know quite what’s going to happen, or even which inspirations might work their way into the music, but you can be damn sure the results will be interesting… and exhilarating… and heavy metal to the core.

Which brings us to Barbarian’s new album Reek of God, which we’re excited to share with you from start to finish today in advance of its January 23 release by their new label Dying Victims Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CIRCULAR RUIN — “PERISHER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 162026
 

(written by Islander)

“Circular Ruin is the ever-recurring end of everything once great, the endless cycle of temporary prosperity followed by death and devastation, and the inevitable demise of humanity by its own hand.”

Yes indeed, anyone with even a passing interest in human history could agree with that depiction of our past and our future, a recurring and millennia-long sequence of self-inflicted ruin in which no important lessons are ever learned and what we have to look forward to is a circling of the drain.

Apart from being a succinct encapsulation of where our species has been and where we are going, Circular Ruin is also the name of a Swedish extreme metal quintet whose debut album is about to be launched upon a helpless public.

That album, A Sermon in Tongues, follows up the band’s 2023 EP Future Graves, and it will be released by Vendetta Records on January 30th. One song from the album has already exploded, and today we’re premiering a second one — “Perisher“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PUTRED — “DEVORAT DE ÎNTUNERIC”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 162026
 

(written by Islander)

Almost one year ago we published our contributor Zoltar’s very insightful interview of veteran guitarist Uriel Aguillon, riff-writer of the Romanian death metal band Putred. The discussion included this revealing Q&A:

Do you think that Putred would have sounded different if you hadn’t been born in the first half of the ’70s, and thus had the chance to catch the whole death metal boom when it all started?

Absolutely! I’ve been in the metal underground since the mid ’80s and it is what I know how to do, it comes naturally, and I couldn’t continue listening to new stuff after 1996, so I got stuck in the past for good. Putred is old rusted murky and filthy rotting death metal based in that feeling/mood rather than anything else.

This is an honest claim, and an accurate one when it comes to the music of these Transylvanian ghouls. One year ago Putred had just launched their second album Megalit al putrefac​ț​iei, and this year they’re returning with a new album titled Blestemul din Adânc that’s set for release in March by a trio of conspiring labels. What we’ve got for you today is a visualizer premiere for the record’s first single, “Devorat de Întuneric“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORS VERUM — “CANVAS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Lest any poor deluded souls think it’s okay to relegate cover art for albums to afterthoughts, mis-believing that half-assing the artwork won’t matter as long as the music is strong and will sell itself, just take a look at the above artwork created by Arifullah Ali. We venture the guess that even people who have never heard the music of Mors Verum will be so intrigued that they can’t help but want to hear their new EP.

As it happens, this writer was already familiar with Mors Verum’s past releases (for example, we’ve hosted two premieres in support of their previous music), including their dissonant, dizzying, and strangely beautiful 2021 EP The Living.

The band’s previous releases also obviously caught the admiring attention of the Transcending Obscurity Records, because on February 6th that prominent label will release a new Mors Verum EP named Canvas, which features the fascinating artwork up above.

Fittingly, this Ontario band’s new EP is every bit as fascinating and frightening as the artwork — a conclusion we think you’ll share when you hear our premiere of its title song (and one other we’re also sharing). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FOETOREM — “ESCALATING ROT”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Human beings have been beset by nightmares for as long as our species has been able to speak or write about them, and undoubtedly before then too. Blessed by intelligence (relatively speaking) and the ability to communicate, and plagued by the fear of inescapable death, we stumble through life hand-in-hand with frightening dreams.

Among the oldest and most persistent of horrors is the fear of being buried alive — in coffins, tombs, or beneath a weight of freshly turned earth, deprived of oxygen, unable to move, and with naught but worms or the natural liquification of flesh eagerly awaiting the heart’s final beat.

Visions of hideous death have (of course) also walked hand-in-hand with Death Metal from its earliest day, and some bands have wholly devoted themselves to rendering musical visions of human pain and putrefaction, conjuring ruination, putridity, and stench through notes, beats, and voices.

The Danish band Foetorem are one of the newest exponents of death metal oppressiveness, rot, and foulness — their name itself translates to “stench of decay” — and they’re so powerfully good at it that Everlasting Spew Records has joined forces with them for the release in March of their debut album Incongruous Forms Of Evergrowing Rot. To help spread the word, today we’re premiering the album’s first single, “Escalating Rot“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIABOLUS INCARNATE — “HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 142026
 

(written by Islander)

Diabolus Incarnate is a long-running extreme metal project with roots in South Africa, now based in the UK. They were first formed in 2010, and Metal-Archives identifies a 2015 demo and a 2016 single as their output until now. Obviously, they haven’t rushed things, but now, 10 years since they arrived in the UK and with a current incarnation that brings together musicians best known for their work in other extreme metal bands, Diabolus Incarnate are ready to take a big step forward.

The band’s founder Dieter Engel is now accompanied by members of such bands as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Ingested, and Worm Shepherd, and we’re told that they have two EPs under way, with one at the mixing stage and another in pre-production. What we have for you today is the premiere of a fully finished single, “Human, All Too Human“, along with statements about the song by all four bandmembers. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HOLOTROPIC — “IN_DIVIDUAL – PT. I: ANIMAL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 132026
 

(written by Islander)

This is something of a very long-awaited reunion for us. It was almost exactly 11 years ago that I became captivated by an album named permeate by a band from Slovakia named holotropic, an album that I briefly summed up as “a blend of technical death metal, progressive metal, jazz, Eastern melody, and crazy shit.”

That permeate album was very well-received both in the band’s home and abroad, and they supported it with performances in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. As time passed, the band’s lineup also changed, and currently members and ex-members of bands such as 0N0, God Defamer, and Catastrofy can be seen performing on stage with them. And while the time that has passed since holotropic’s last release has been significant, they did not stop writing new music, some of which they’ve incorporated into their setlists.

At last, the band are ready to release new songs. We’re told that they recently finished recording material for what should have been a shorter EP but in the end turned out to be 30+ minutes of music, and what we have for you today is an excellent sign of their achievements — the video premiere of the first part of a tripartite song named “in_dividual“.

(By the way, although my English training tells me to capitalize proper names and titles, I’ll defer to the band’s tendencies not to do that — except in this post title). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RAVENMOCKER — “INFALLIBLE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 122026
 

(written by Islander)

Ravenmocker will be a new name for most of you. They are a melodic death metal band founded in Southern California just this year  by guitarist/vocalist Tom Tierney (formerly of Thrown Into Exile), joined by guitarist George Patmas (ex‑Dianthus), drummer Dylan Suierveld (Levinia), and bassist Will Buckley (Levinia, Anubis).

The band preview their music by identifying influences that include Children of Bodom, Insomnium, Amon Amarth, Kalmah, and Dark Tranquillity, but they also identify unexpected flavors brought into their collaborative songwriting process by each member — including aspects of country, jazz fusion, blues, funk, and classical choral music. And they were motivated in part by “a desire to carve out a culturally rooted identity inspired by Native American lore”.

To introduce themselves to the global metal community Ravenmocker will be releasing two singles — “Infallible” and “Where the Raven Flies” — that lead into their first EP, and what we’ve got for you today is an official video for the first of those songs, “Infallible“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ENNUI — “ANTINATALISM”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 082026
 

(written by Islander)

The world will end. All life will end. Each life will end, tomorrow, or the next day, or millions of years from now. What comes next? That question has occupied human thought almost more than any others — right after thoughts about what we must do to keep ourselves alive for one more day. What comes next?

The question remains the same, and it still evokes the same answers — either some vision of life everlasting or the acceptance of oblivion, with the fear of the latter seeding the growth of the former. But given how much suffering human lives must endure, one might wonder whether bringing new life into existence is a worthy act, regardless of what comes after its end.

That question lies at the heart of the new song by Ennui (from Tbilisi, Georgia) that we’re premiering today along with a captivating lyric video in conjunction with the announcement of the band’s new album Qroba, their first full-length in more than seven years. It will be released by Meuse Music on February 27th. The name of the song we’re presenting today is “Antinatalism“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BANISHER — “MANIFEST OF JUSTICE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 082026
 

(written by Islander)

The death metal band Banisher was formed in Rzeszów, Poland, in 2005 by Hubert Więcek (DIETH, ex-Acid Drinkers live, ex-Decapitated). Since then, the band’s full lineup has also included members of such well-known groups as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Belphegor, Vital Remains, and Hate.

They have released four albums over the last 20 years, and now, after a six-year hiatus, a fifth one is set for release on January 30th by Selfmadegod Records. Its title is Metamorphosis.

To help introduce the new album, today we premiere a song from it named “Manifest of Justice“, presented with a lyric video. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries