Sep 202015
 

Praise the Flame-Manifest Rebellion

 

I listened to a lot of metal yesterday, making a rare effort to get ahead of the game on some things I’m planning to post on Monday. That didn’t work out exactly as I’d planned, because I spent more time impulsively exploring music I’d never heard before than writing those other posts. And most of what I heard that I thought was good was either black metal or thoroughly pestilential death metal with a charred coating. So once again I’ve collected the music under the heading Shades of Black, divided into two parts because there’s a lot I want to share with you. Part 2 will come later today.

(Once again, I want to thank my Serbian friend “M” for suggesting half of what I chose to write about in this two-part collection.)

PRAISE THE FLAME

The first band is Praise the Flame from Santiago, Chile, whose ranks include members of Death Yell, Megiddo, Insorcist, and Occidens. Their debut album Manifest Rebellion will be released September 21 on CD via Memento Mori, but the album is now streaming on Bandcamp until October 12. Continue reading »

Sep 192015
 

Grave-Out of Respect For the Dead

 

It’s a rare Saturday morning here on my metallic island. My head isn’t hammering and my stomach isn’t heaving. I managed to resist the usual Friday night temptation to celebrate the end of the work week by destroying myself. The feeling is so unusual that I decided to get my head hammered and my stomach heaved this morning with some metal instead of a night of strong drinking. Here’s what I found:

GRAVE

For me, it’s hard to think of a better way to start a weekend of listening than with a new song by Grave, especially when it comes from an album adorned with the artwork of Costin Chioreanu. The album is Out of Respect For the Dead, scheduled for release by Century Media on October 16, and the new song (presented through a lyric video) is “Mass Grave Mass”. Continue reading »

Sep 172015
 

Intronaut-The Direction of Last Things

 

(We present the third part of Leperkahn’s jumbo-sized Thursday round-up of new songs an videos. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here.)

Here we have yet another collection of new premieres. They certainly run the gamut, from arguably-not-metal to the very definition of metal-to-its-core, while also mixing big names with some lesser-known groups. Have an interesting trip below, starting with a new offering from Intronaut.

INTRONAUT

I’ve never really spent much time with these dudes. For whatever reason, nothing I’ve heard from them has really grabbed me (though what I’ve heard isn’t much –- they’re just one of those bands I haven’t really gotten around to). That seems to be changing with their new album for Century Media, their fifth, out on November 13 and entitled The Direction of Last Things.

The first track from it, “Fast Worms”, premiered yesterday via MetalSucks. The track starts out pretty early on with a hell of a heavy verse, reminding of The Ocean, with some proggier vocals in the mix. Some hints of Mastodon are in there, too, as well as a heavier, almost death-metal element that comes in at times. The more ambient middle section goes all kinds of cool places, too. Check it out below, and gear up for November 13th if you dig it. Continue reading »

Sep 172015
 

Cattle Decapitation vidclip-2

 

(Here’s Part 2 of Leperkahn’s massive round-up of new music and videos for this Thursday. Part 1 cane found here.)

A lot has happened in the metalsphere over the past few days. It’s certainly tough to keep up – some might even say it’s impossible. But here at NCS, we’re nothing if not delusional dreamers, and thus we maintain the resolve to attempt to cover all that we can, even if we still fail miserably to come even somewhat close to covering everything. Come join us in our delusions.

CATTLE DECAPITATION

I’m absolutely adoring these hometown heroes’ new full-length The Anthropocene Extinction – it’s similar to Monolith of Inhumanity, yet feels like it has a dose of Swedish Shining-esque black metal in it, from the extra bite of some icier riffs to vocalist Travis Ryan’s downright psychotic live persona (not to be confused with his face…).

Ahead of two months full of touring, first on a headline run with King Parrot, Black Crown Initiate, and Dark Sermon (rolling through Chicago (!) with Temple of Void (!) as an opener), and then supporting Cannibal Corpse with Soreption, the band have released a playthrough video for the mammoth track “Mammals of Babylon”. It shows off just how insanely talented these dudes are, as Dave McGraw is capable of inhuman speeds behind the kit, and Josh Elmore shows off some mammoth chops, and deceptively complex riffs. Continue reading »

Sep 172015
 

Tsjuder-Antiliv

 

(Leperkahn is on a roll again, with a multi-part roundup of new music streams. Here’s Part 1.)

The metal world is really good at trying to drown us in new stuff. Here, we take a stand and fight back, trying to cover all that we can. A new wave of defense for NCS starts with this post, in which we cover (briefly) five albums you can now stream in full on the interhole.

TSJUDER

We’ve been covering Antiliv, the new album from these Norwegian black metallers, pretty much since it was first announced, so I’ll cut to the chase and say that this ripper is available for you to stream via Decibel. If you like your black metal staunchly traditional, yet still pretty well-produced, dig in. Continue reading »

Sep 162015
 

Otargos-Xeno Kaos

 

This is the somewhat delayed second part of a round-up I began this morning. The earlier edition featured new videos and songs from some of metal’s bigger names. The music in this one comes from more underground sources, and not all of it is brand new, though all of it is newly discovered by your humble editor. And of course all of it is recommended for your ears.

OTARGOS

In his review, Andy Synn summed up the last album by the French band Otargos (2013’s Apex Terror) as music “both utterly devastating and virulently infectious, a truly unique and lethal strain of post-human black metal” — “a visceral, gut-wrenching experience, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality”.

Otargos have now completed a new album named Xeno Kaos that will be released by Kaotoxin Records on November 13. The label recently unveiled a song from the album named “Dominatrix”, and it’s a potent concoction of reptilian melodic grace and unrestrained ferocity. I’m still trying to close my mouth after hearing the drumwork on this song, and I also need to look for a couple of teeth that got knocked out. Probably need a tourniquet too. Continue reading »

Sep 162015
 

Behemoth-The-Satanist-Music-Video

 

Yesterday brought a lot of new song and video premieres, from both “big names” in our blessed world of metal and not-so-big names. Since I have so many new things I want to bring to your attention, I decided to split the round-up into two parts. I’m putting the “big names” in this post.

BEHEMOTH

Poland’s Behemoth premiered a new music video yesterday, and this one is for the title track to their last full-length, The Satanist. The video was directed by Andrzej Dragan and it’s unquestionably well-made and engrossing. It also stars an actress whose wide-eyed and slightly skeletal face is perfect for the video’s very lost protagonist.

As for the interpretation of the video, we have the fairly straight-forward description of the director, who conceived of the video based on the music, and the more occult interpretation of its symbolism by Nergal. First, the words of Mr. Dragan: Continue reading »

Sep 142015
 

Attan-From Nothing

 

I’ve accumulated quite a large number of interesting news items and new songs from my excursions through the interhole and the NCS in-box this weekend. In order to present more of them than I’m usually able to do, I’m going to do something that causes me great personal pain and undoubtedly will bring tears to the eyes of our faithful readers: I’m going to hold my own beautiful prose to a minimum and allow the music to speak for itself, largely without benefit of me as its interpretive intermediary.

Presented in alphabetical order:

ATTAN

Attan are a Norwegian band whose debut EP From Nothing will be released through Shelsmusic in limited-edition vinyl and digitally on November 30. The opening track, “Nocebo (I Shall Harm)” is now available for streaming on Soundcloud.

An avalanche of unhinged destructiveness; skull-fracturing drumbeats; spleen-rupturing riffs; aorta-rupturing vocals. Discordant and demented. Continue reading »

Sep 142015
 

ChaosAct-Kingdom of Pigs

 

(DGR reviews three releases by bands he came across while… face-planting.)

The idea that 2015 has been a year that has been moving in fits and starts in my neck of the woods has slowly become something of a mantra. With a sample size of the four or so years I’ve been kicking around these parts, I’ve usually got a backlog of albums about eight deep — which means that if I’m not spending a good chunk of my year listening to the same discs over and over again, telling myself I have to review them, to the point of nausea and then stressing out about it later when I come home so tired from work that I can’t even fathom typing — I figure that I’m fucking up.

However, since 2015 seems to be in a mode that consists of violent seizures of music and then absolutely nothing, I’d hazard to say that with the publication of my Wolfheart review, I was caught up with music for the moment — at least as far as the releases I’d been keeping an eye on were concerned.

The other goofballs that also staff this site have done a tremendous job keeping us up to date, but it also means I’ve been drifting for a bit. My method of drifting, though, usually involves a drunken stumble and a face-plant on the concrete or two, and this is how I tend to discover music these days. I try to keep track, but more often than not I seem to be face-planting into the yards of bands who’ve had releases that hit this year and who seem to be flying just under the radar — so we find ourselves once again sifting through three releases, via Bandcamp, of bands who run the gamut from death metal, to symphonic black and death, to low-end heavy deathgrind, and all three see us travelling a pretty good chunk of the globe.

So, I present to you, my latest edition of foibles that I believe we may find interesting to pick apart and dissect, ones that take us from Latvia, to the good ole’ US of A, and then to our buddies in Poland via Selfmadegod. Continue reading »

Sep 122015
 

Vastum-Hole Below

 

Hey there, happy Saturday. I’m feeling a little woozy. For some reason Friday nights usually seem to have that effect on me. I had some ambitious plans for today’s posts, but unless I can figure out how to vacuum all the woozy out of my head, what you’re reading now may be all I can manage. These are just a few of the things I spotted over the last two days that didn’t make it into that big slug of round-up posts yesterday.

VASTUM

San Francisco’s Vastum have completed work on a new album, featuring cover art by the Vastum vocalist Daniel Butler. I can already feel the ground beginning to tremble in anticipation of the detonation to come. The album’s name is Hole Below, and 20 Buck Spin plans to nuke the planet from space with it on November 6, because that’s the only way to be sure. Continue reading »