AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THETAN — “GRAND OLE AGONY”

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Oct 122023
 

Genre descriptions throughout the vast world of music can be useful. The micro-world of metal alone has dozens, many of them segmented by hyphens or backslashes in an effort to put a little more flesh on the linguistic bones. As an enticement (or a warning) they’re better than nothing at all for fans harried by time, but they can be deceptive too, because of their limitations.

“Powerviolence”, for example, is the most common descriptor used for the music of Nashville’s Thetan. To flesh that out, you might also see references to early hardcore or even European black metal from the ’90s.

But whatever thoughts those descriptions might provoke, consider also that this duo have crossed over to work with hip-hop emcees such as Kool Keith, Ultramagnetic MC’s, and LIL B. Consider further that the opening track of Thetan‘s new album, which will be released on October 13th, includes a monologue by Tennessee rap icon Crunchy Black of Three 6 Mafia.

Then contemplate the fact that the album also includes cello performances by Leslie Fox-Humphreys (a.k.a. Americana/folk soloist The Bandit Queen Of Sorrows), violin performances by Ashley Mae of Lost Dog Street Band, and the sounds of a harmonica being played by Benjamin Tod of the Lost Dog Street Band.

And wait ’til you find out who appears and what happens in the album’s closing track. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CORAX B.M. — “ZOPHOS”

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Oct 122023
 

The Athenian black metal band Corax B.M. made their recording debut last year on Pagan Records, with an EP named Spread the Occult. It featured a guest vocal appearance by The Magus (Necromantia, Yoth Iria, etc.) on the song “Anilliagos”. Live performances followed, and the band also turned their diabolical energies to the creation of a debut album.

Their dark arts have borne evil fruit, in the form of a full-length named Pagana that will be released on January 26, 2024 via The Circle Music (also known for their release of records by Necromantia, The Magus, Thou Art Lord, and Autumn Tears).

As a shuddering sign of what the album presents, today we premiere a lyric video for a song called “Zophos“, which is the track that closes the album. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CROWDEAD — “EVERYTHING ENDS”

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Oct 112023
 

On October 13th the Italian band (from Mantua) Crowdead will release their second album, Tearing Your Soul Apart. It was born, we are told, from “a moment of despair,” with each track conveying “a sensation of unease towards a world that, more often than not, is unfair”. They “take a trip inside ourselves among charred bodies, condemned souls, and grinning demons”.

Dark sentiments, to be sure, perhaps especially for a band whose music is branded “groove metal,” and they’re further reflected in the theme of “Everything Ends“, the album track we’re premiering today through a well-made official video. As the band explain:

“Everything Ends” shows how everything can come to a close, and how a person can end up coughing blood so as to not suffer anymore. With this video we want to show that humans are willing to destroy themselves as long as other people can be happy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NAHASHEOL — “BRINGER OF DIVINE ECSTASY”

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Oct 112023
 

Nahasheol announced its mysterious existence last year with an EP named Kaaosoth, and soon this band’s diabolical powers will be fully revealed through a debut album named Serpens Abyssi that will be released by Argento Records and Wolves of Hades on November 3rd.

The herald of the music is the striking cover art you see at the top of this page, created by Cayo Farias. Like the album’s title, it captures the daunting and dangerous presence of a great abyssal serpent, surmounted by an evil eye, with the presence of death surrounding them. It’s an unholy, esoteric, otherworldly, and dangerous vision, and so is the music.

As a sign of what the album will bring listeners, today we premiere a song from the album named “Bringer of Divine Ecstasy“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ILD — “DEN SORTE KUNST”

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Oct 102023
 

The children keep dying and returning to the cradle. Teeth shine between timbers and lights dance on marshes. Whose hand closed the wicket? Why is the last apple moving? The kindling still catch fire, but the potency of the black arts seems to have waned of late. Smoke always escapes.

With those words the Nortwegian band ILD announce their second album Kvern, which is now set for release on November 3rd by Vendetta Records, and then they flesh out those evocative yet cryptic words with a track list that reads as follows (the translations are our own, so blame us for any errors):

1. “Den sorte kunst” (the black art)
2. “Til gjeste” (for guests)
3. “Opp i røyk” (up in smoke)
4. “Det trekker så kaldt” (it’s so cold)
5. “Ognåskaldudø” (even if you die)
6. “Over flammehavet” (over the sea of flame)

The mysteries of the meanings still remain, and frightening mysteries lurk within the music as well, though the moods of them may still be familiar to all who are being slowly ground within the “rusty mill of life” (to pull from Vendetta‘s own preview). And indeed the title of the album itself is the Norwegian word for “grinder”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SVARTGRAV — “I”

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Oct 102023
 

“Deep out of the forests of Lower Saxony, where once the Görde murderer was up to mischief, Svartgrav was created on an icy winter night.”

And so begins an introduction by four labels who will jointly release Svartgrav‘s debut album I on October 27th.

They also disclose that the band is the solo project of Thorkraft, who has also gained some attention through his atmospheric black metal project Sieghetnar, and they further characterize the music as “the icy, Nordic coldness of Immortal with the epic and sublime symphonies of Emperor and Troll, and stone-shattering vocals in the style of Obtained Enslavement“.

We have our own introduction to the album today, as we premiere the new record’s substantial opening track, also named “I“, because all the songs are only denominated by Roman numerals. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALKING CORPSE — “NOTHING GROWS HERE”

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Oct 092023
 

To be honest, we’re used to over-the-top exaggeration when we get descriptions of music from PR agents, labels, and even bands. It comes with the territory, when the territory is so deluged with releases fighting for attention. At times, however, over-the-top descriptions turn out to be accurate.

Take, for example, what Transcending Obscurity Records has written about the Swedish grindcore band Walking Corpse and their new album, the beautifully named Our Hands, Your Throat:

Walking Corpse step on the accelerator till your hair starts to tear off, deviate from the path abruptly, and before you know it, jump back on the track with increased neck-snapping speed. There’s a twisted, dissonant edge to the music here as it rampages with abandon, borrowing elements of death metal and even a bit of sludge, and throws everything at you faster than you can flinch…. This is cerebral grind delivered with spine-rupturing mayhem.

Sounds over-the-top, right? Yeah maybe, but if anything, it turns out to be an understatement, as you’ll discover from the song we’re premiering today: “Nothing Grows Here“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SUOL — “OVER DE GEUTE”

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Oct 092023
 

The two Dutch musicians J. and P. have had no shortage of personal projects and bands through which to express their creative impulses, usually channeled in variants of black metal. Between them they have made music under the names Shagor, Ossaert, Dinbethes and Weerzin. But they’ve also joined forces in a new entity named Suol.

What inspired this new union? The answer is that J. and P. have a shared passion for local myths, sagas, and historical stories surrounding the Dutch town of Zwolle and the nearby river IJssel, which ultimately discharged into a shallow bay in the North Sea once known as the Zuiderzee.

Suol became their vehicle for exploring these old tales and historical events through black metal, and the results are captured in a self-titled debut album (which included participation of other musicians from their local region) that will be released on October 27th via Swarte Yssel.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for a song from the album named “Over de Geute“. Given the nature of Suol‘s inspiration, it’s no surprise that the lyrics are in Dutch, not English, but we do have Suol‘s English explanation for what the song is about: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PATHOGENIC — “DEAD BUT NOT AT REST”

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Oct 062023
 

Massachusetts-based Pathogenic have been active since 2004, with a discography that includes a pair of albums, a trio of EPs, and a handful of singles, including two released last year. And today we’re helping them spread the word about yet another single, “Dead but Not at Rest,” which comes with an official video.

This new song is described as “a musical foray into the depths of pandemic-induced isolation”. For some of us, those times are already beginning to seem like ancient history, while others may still live with the debilitation and death spawned by the virus (and it’s a history that could easily repeat itself with the rise of a new pathogen). For some of us the dark days had silver linings, while for others it was a sinkhole of disconnection and depression.

In the case of Pathogenic‘s newest single, the eloquent lyrics are harrowing, perhaps finding in the depths of the pandemic a metaphor for other forms of depletion and hopelessness. No silver linings here. The music also has its own harrowing aspects, but turns out to be a multi-faceted experience, an amalgam of melodic and progressive death metal that’s much more electrifying than grim. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TEMPLE OF SCORN — “BEGOTTEN BY THE ENVENOMED”

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Oct 062023
 

What we have for you here today is the advent of the third single from Funeral Altar Epiphanies, the debut album by the Danish death metal group Temple of Scorn. While it’s a debut for this collective, it’s no first start for the band’s members individually. Their resumes include previous participation in these other well-known bands:

Baest
Bloodgutter
Dawn of Demise
Exmortem
Horned Almighty
Invocator
Kampvogn
Sylvatica
The Arcane Order

That list is a good clue that this quintet know what they’re doing. But what have they done together in Temple of Scorn? Continue reading »

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