AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NITE — “THE TRIDENT”

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Jul 192023
 

On their most recent album Voices of the Kronian Moon (released in March of last year by Season of Mist), the Bay Area band Nite found a rare sweet spot — often summed up by reviewers as an intersection of glorious NWoBHM riffs and leads and the venom of blackened vocals, though the heavy metal stylings woven through the songs in fact extended beyond those trad-metal references.

With a line-up featuring members of Dawnbringer, High Spirits, Satan’s Wrath, Wild Hunt, and Serpents of Dawn, perhaps it wasn’t a shock that the songs were so well-written and performed with such genuine spirit and feeling, yet the album still excelled in ways people might not have expected, and it certainly provided a big and bracing step forward from the band’s (also excellent) debut full-length, Darkness Silence Mirror Flame.

We would guess the odds are high that most visitors to our site are already quite familiar with Nite and Voices of the Kronian Moon, but some folks (whether frequent visitors or newcomers) may still not have tumbled to its manifold allures. And so today we have a great reminder, an official video for “The Trident“, the album’s hard-rocking closer. And even those of you who already know the album and the song well are in for a treat. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HIVERLUCIDE — “FOR THE ABYSS”

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Jul 192023
 

In March of this year Trepanation Recordings, Fiadh Productions, and Vita Detestabilis Records released Satan Death Whale, an experimental three-track album by the two members of the French band Non Serviam working through their side project Hiverlucide. It was recorded in live conditions and was described at the time as “their first attempt at mesmerizing through whale chants”:

“Lacking melody, and (de)generating a profoundly misanthropic atmosphere inhabitable for humans by exploring the tritone, with drone apparitions, unidentifiable organic human and animal sounds, electric guitars, and layers and layers of decadence.”

It was further suggested that fans of Sunn O))) and Tangerine Dream might find it especially appealing.

We described the album (at least in part) as an “immersive experience” but in many ways also an “unnerving one” which created manifold juxtapositions: “something like celestial choirs high above, and an immense undulating drone of subterranean depth; shrill piercing cacophonies redolent of pain and madness, moaning chords, and mutated organ-like tones that seem to ring in lunatic glory beneath the vault of an abandoned gothic cathedral; whirlpools of screaming agony bounded by the crushing of rock and the mangling of iron. A hallucinatory sonic nightmare of destruction and despair, it roils the mind and puts the teeth on edge, and to become lost in it is almost inescapable”.

Hiverlucide did not end their harrowing experiment with Satan Death Whale. They created a follow-up improvisational experience, again creating it under live conditions but this time doing it in front of an audience in their first public performance. They named this 22 1/2 minute sequel “For the Abyss“, and today we present it to you in full along with a video of the performance. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MOONLIGHT SORCERY — “VIHAN VERHON TAKAA”

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Jul 182023
 

After releasing a pair of singles and a pair of EPs since the beginning of 2022, the Finnish melodic black metal band Moonlight Sorcery will at last release a debut album entitled Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle through Avantgarde Music in September of this year.

To help pave the way, they released the most recent of those singles last month on 7″ vinyl; with the nane Burning Embrace, it included the original song ““In Coldest Embrace” (which will appear on the album), along with a B-side cover of Deep Purple‘s “Burn“.

And to further pave the way, they will digitally release another single from the album on June 21st. Its name is “Vihan verhon takaa”, and we’re bringing it to you today via the premiere stream you’ll find below. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEPTORY — “SWAMP”

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Jul 172023
 

The Russian death metal band Septory came together in Saint Petersburg in 2005. They released albums in 2008 and 2011, plus a split with Finland’s Sadistik Forest in 2013, and then a long silence descended. But now, a decade later, Septory is releasing a compilation that spans the long bridge between their first recordings and new works in 2023.

Entitled Rotting Humanity, it’s set for co-release on August 17th by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Heretic Rex (Russia). A six-track collection, it consists of the previously unreleased 2006 EP Rotting Humanity (which includes the title track and a cover of Deicide‘s “Sacrificial Suicide”); a demo from 2007 (“Madness“); a completely re-recorded song from the 2008 album World War Chaos (“Swamp”); a new recording of a cover of Benediction‘s “The Grotesque”; and a new intro track named “Dies Irae”.

For the new recordings, Deiron (guitars, bass, vocals) was joined by guest musicians Dym Nox (Pyre, Blazing Rust, Drama) on drums, and Devourer (Warder, Sudden Rage, Rotten Coffin, Apostate) on vocals, and the compilation is adorned by the cover art of Rotten Phantom.

What we have for you today is the premiere of that re-recorded song “Swamp” from Septory‘s World War Chaos album. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEAD FIELDS OF WOOLWICH — “I’VE MADE IT TO HELL”

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Jul 132023
 

We’re told that Dead Fields Of Woolwich had its beginnings in the Autumn of 2020 in North Bay, Ontario when multi-instrumentalist Kye Bell (Within Nostalgia) created a project inspired by a love of bands like Type O Negative, Paradise Lost, and Wood Of Ypres. The band’s name was inspired by the place where he grew up in southern Ontario, a place that left memories of “of old fields, scarecrows, and dense woods of twisted trees”.

Although still considered a solo project at heart, the band’s forthcoming self-titled album includes the performances of session vocalist Alyssa Broere (Within Nostalgia, ex-Astral Witch), and you’ll see from our video premiere today that Alyssa plays a vital role in the album’s captivating rendering of gothic melodic doom. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: COUNTESS ERZSEBET — “IN THE BLOOD OF VIRGINS”

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Jul 132023
 

In this feature today we’re sort of premiering a video for a song from the forthcoming self-titled mini-album by the artist Countess Erzsebet. “Sort of” because the video is age-restricted, and therefore we’re only able to give you a link to YouTube where you can verify that you are a mature adult, or at least an adult.

The name of the song is “In the Blood of Virgins“, and it’s age-restricted because (as the Countess explains) it includes “abstract erotic horror elements”, though the scenes of her bathing in blood obviously weren’t abstract enough to satisfy YouTube and its algorithms.

Before we get to some further details about the video, and most especially about the music you’ll hear, we might need to introduce some of you to Countess Erzsebet (previously known as Erzsebet when she released the nearly-album-length Black Spell in 2017). She is also known as Rachel Bloodspell Moongoddess, who has previously played bass for a number of bands but more recently Xasthur, where she did three tours playing acoustic bass and was on the Aestas Pretium MMXVIII EP.

But her background also includes other interesting details. Continue reading »

NECRONOMICON EX MORTIS: THE VIDEO PREMIERE OF “CRYPT OF THE GORILLA GOD” (AND A REVIEW OF “SILVER BULLET”)

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Jul 122023
 

“What you’re about to experience is likely to be the most electrifying 18 minutes of your day, unless you lose control of your car, the brakes fail, and you’re surging toward a concrete pylon at Formula One speed.”

Almost four months ago that’s how we began our review and premiere of a self-titled EP by the Chicago-based horror-loving quintet Necronomicon Ex Mortis. We also wrote this: “Their brand of death metal is so fast, so technically head-spinning, and so devilishly inventive that it allows no room for any calm contemplation. All you can do is hang on for dear life and enjoy the flame-throwing madhouse thrills while they last — and then yield to the impulse to throw yourself back in right away”.

No wonder then that we jumped at the chance to host another Necronomicon Ex Mortis premiere today, and we’re doing that because they already have another EP headed for release in August. It’s named Silver Bullet, so if you’re a werewolf you’d better run. You might want to run even if you’re not a lycanthrope. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHAOS ALTAR — “FURNACE”

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Jul 112023
 

In the case of many of our premieres we have a great volume of information available for sharing — abundant details about a band’s origins, histories, and inspirations; conceptual and lyrical insights; commentary about the songs from the people who made it; and more. In other instances we have very little to share other than the music, perhaps because of the musicians’ adherence to the idea that only the music matters, or an embrace of the perceived purity of obscurity, or maybe just simple shyness.

Whatever the reason, today is one of those days when the music must mainly speak for itself. We know that Chaos Altar is a one-person black metal project from France, that person going by the name Executor, and that nine years ago the project released its debut EP, And Then You Die — and nothing since then (that we know of). We also have this one short but evocative statement about a new Chaos Altar record entitled Where the Ashes Now Reign, which will be released on July 28th by Void Wanderer Productions:

Let yourself be invaded by the atmosphere of death, destruction, and nothingness.
Welcome to our chaos!

Beyond that we don’t have much more info, but of course we do have the music… a song from the new record named “Furnace” that we’re presenting today. And it’s a hell of a good song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CYSTIC — “PESTILENTIAL THRONE”

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Jul 112023
 

It’s not as if Seattle-based Cystic are complete unknowns. Anyone who’s heard the progression from their 2018 demo The Last Days through their two 2020 EPs Sworn Enemy of Life and Incineration Rites will remember their name. But their forthcoming debut album Palace of Shadows is still a big step forward, and the fact that the respected Mexican label Chaos Records is releasing it is a big flashing sign of that, before you even hear a note.

It’s no wonder they attracted that alliance. Cystic have tapped into old black veins of particularly grisly and gruesome death metal, but the blood they’ve drawn feels bursting with (horrid) life. They’ve proven a precocious and monstrous mastery of the kind of death metal that’s hideous and horrific, dank and dismal, and altogether thrilling. In listening you can almost imagine the stench of gangrene and rot, and also envision the rapid scything of illness through swaths of helpless humans and the ravenous ripping and tearing of demon hordes — and who doesn’t want that?

We’re sure happy to have it, and also happy that you don’t have to take our word for why the record is so strong — because we now have a second single to bring you today, the fitting name of which is “Pestilential Throne“. But for those who might have missed it, let’s begin with the first single from the album, “Core of the Maelström“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARBORESCENCE OF WRATH — “REPENTANCE”

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Jul 102023
 

On October 13th Transcending Obscurity Records will release the debut album from Arborescence of Wrath, a vicious death metal entity that comprises current or former members of Origin, Marduk, and Benighted. The album could hardly be better-named: Inferno.

Up ’til today interested listeners have had two tracks from the album to consume (or more accurately to be consumed by), and today we’re bringing you a third one. Its name is “Repentance“, but the signs of remorse in the music are bleak, and ultimately overpowered by the extremity of the music’s madness and violence. Continue reading »

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