SHADES OF BLACK: ANTE-INFERNO, VIMUR, SILENT THUNDER, CEREMONIELE WALGING, SAKLAS, MEPHISTO, BLOOD RIVER

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 132022
 

 

I’m racing to finish the writing of this column so that it won’t appear too late in the day (or night, depending on where you are), so I’ll skip the introduction — other than to say there’s a lot of music here and a lot of variety too.

ANTE-INFERNO (UK)

“The horror and helplessness of the modern world clashes with the ancient past, and we bear witness to Antediluvian Dreamscapes as nightmarish as they are vivid and tortuous. The end of all life and the birth of the world are indistinguishable, and all who listen will be morbidly subjected to the harmonious torment of our writhing souls. The hour is come.”

And that’s how Ante-Inferno introduce their new album Antediluvian Dreamscapes, which follows their formidable 2020 album Fane (reviewed by Mr. Synn here). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRYPTIVORE — “CELESTIAL EXTINCTION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 102022
 

 

Those of you who have spent years listening to death metal as it began to take monstrous shape in the first decade of the genre’s spawning and evolution will easily recognize the stylistic tropes that make up the musical arsenal brandished by Cryptivore‘s debut album Celestial Extinction. Drawing influence from early days of Amorphis and Carcass, Rottrevore and Grave, Cryptivore’s sound is a hybrid of death-metal brutality and explosive grindcore fury, all of it swathed in melodies that evoke haunted houses and horrifying crypts.

But this Australian band’s first full-length (which is the solo work of Chris Anning) is one of those releases where the familiarity of the ingredients in no way lessens the thrill of listening to it. You can see all the knives in the drawer, but once they start flashing and slashing in such remarkably dynamic fashion you get caught up in the spectacle. That’s a tribute to Cryptivore‘s own obvious knowledge of and love for the genre ingredients, but it’s also the result of top-shelf instrumental and vocal technique and a real talent for writing songs that feel like non-stop roller-coaster rides.

And so it’s a genuine pleasure to share with you a full stream of Celestial Extinction in advance of its fast-approaching March 15 release by Bitter Loss Records. Continue reading »

MIND ERASURE: “CONNIVE”

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Mar 102022
 

 

(The Greek black/death metal band Mind Erasure released their debut album last month, and it struck a chord with our writer DGR, as will become apparent if you read the following review.)

Mind Erasure landed in the net over the Valentine’s Day weekend back in February. The result of having a surplus of free time, I was able to explore a wide swath of upcoming releases and take a gample on quite a few of them. Spain’s AfterLife and Nightrage‘s latest release were some of the results of that musical binge and Mind Erasure‘s new album Connive was another.

Mind Erasure caught interest on the strength of their album art, which doesn’t really hint at much other than the logo suggesting a prog-death influence, but apart from that yours truly went in blind, and the experience was more enjoyable for it.

They are a hard band to describe; they jump through a huge collection of genre-hoops over the course of Connive‘s fifty-six minutes and just trying to nail it down to the core of their black and death metal influences doesn’t capture the full picture of what is happening here. Continue reading »

AEVITERNE – THE AILING FACADE

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Mar 092022
 

(Andy Synn delves into the darkness of The Ailing Facade, the upcoming new album by Aeviterne)

Gather round my friends and let me tell you the tale of… Flourishing.

With just a single album to their name, released all the way back in 2011 (the same year, as it happens, that Ulcerate released The Destroyers of All, which perhaps explains why The Sum of All Fossils ended up being somewhat overlooked/overshadowed in the grand scheme of things), the group may not be the most well-known of names, but in certain circles their legacy as a band well ahead of their time – progenitors, in many ways, of the still evolving Atmospheric/Dissonant Death Metal movement – is absolutely unquestionable.

But even if you’re not familiar with the band at all, you should still be excited by the upcoming release of the debut album from Aeviterne, as the group’s line-up not only features two ex-Flourishing members (vocalist/guitarist Garrett Bussanick and bassist Eric Rizk) but also involves creative contributions from ultra-talented ex-Castevet drummer Ian Jacyszyn and Artificial Brain‘s Sam Smith, which should give you some hint of the dark and demanding sound the quartet have conjured on The Ailing Facade.

Even taking these impressive credential into account though, the release of this album still raises the question – particularly in a world where bands like Ingurgitating Oblivion, Nightmarer, and Nero di Marte (to name just a few) have further normalised the incorporation of moody atmospherics and doomy, Post-Metal dynamics into Death Metal – of whether or not Aeviterne have perhaps come a little too late to the party to truly reap the rewards of their talents?

Continue reading »

ARKAIK: “LABYRINTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 082022
 

(We present DGR‘s review of the new album by the California death metal band Arkaik. The album will be released on March 11th by The Artisan Era.)

For a very long time I considered Arkaik something of a bellweather when it came to the modern tech-death scene. Up until the time following 2017’s Nemethia the group were a pretty reliable snapshot of that scene, every two to three years adding to their conceptual album universe with a battering of groove-oriented and rhythmically-complex songs that straddled the line between being overly technical and brutally-core without leaning too far in either direction. Despite an ever-shifting lineup, Arkaik have maintained a fairly strong and consistent output. Because of that, as noted, they’ve been perfect if you’re the type to dance into and out of many different subgenres of heavy metal.

Now though, the situation shifts as labels have gotten far more specialized than before. It’s not so much that Arkaik find themselves at the forefront of a particular genre any more, but that they have found another label that specializes in where Arkaik are at this moment in their musical journey. Continue reading »

UNRU – DIE WIEDERKEHR DES VERDRÄNGTEN

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 072022
 

(Andy Synn catches up with the new album from Germany’s Unru, which came out last Friday)

It may surprise you to learn that, more often than not, I don’t have much control over what I listen to.

Oh, sure, I try (heavy emphasis on “try”) to pre-plan what I need/want to listen to for NCS-related purposes, but when it comes to what I listen to for my own pleasure I’m much more at the mercy of my urges and impulses.

Case in point, while I started out the year listening to a lot of Metallic Hardcore or Hardcore-influenced Metal, of various shapes and stripes, more recently I’ve found myself unconsciously gravitating back towards the Black Metal side of things.

What a coincidence, then, that German Blackened Crust crew Unru appear to find themselves undergoing a similar transformation on Die Wiederkehr des Verdrängten.

Continue reading »

WORM SHEPHERD: “RITUAL HYMNS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 032022
 

 

(Unique Leader Records released the second album by Massachusetts-based Worm Shepherd in January. DGR finally caught up with it and now delivers this extensive review.)

I don’t know how and I don’t know where, but for a while I was pretty fucking convinced that we had sat down and reviewed the first album from the Massachusetts-based symphonic deathcore crew Worm Shepherd last year.

In The Wake Of Sol had actually been released in December of 2020 but the fact that they had then signed to Unique Leader – who have become a bastion for artists like this – and re-released the album with one new song attached to it in late March always felt like a good enough excuse.

We covered a few of the music videos but turns out we never got around to writing about the album as a whole, which means that this discussion of the group’s followup album Ritual Hymns – which saw release in the middle of January – is likely going to sound like we’re dancing between discussing both albums. Continue reading »

ALLEGAEON: “DAMNUM”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 032022
 

(In late February Metal Blade Records released a new album by Colorado-based Allegaeon, and our old friend TheMadIsraeli has re-surfaced with the following review.)

I’ve been taking a sizable break from NCS to recover from the holidays, to the point where I decided not to submit year-end lists or any of the usual annual stuff you see from us here, and… I’m glad I took the break.  To be real for a second, sometimes it can just get exhausting to keep up with the constant barrage of new shit. Sometimes you want to just listen to old stuff, sometimes you don’t want to listen at all. At the peak of my NCS output I legit listened to 300 albums a month guaranteed.  ALL while juggling college and family that needed taking care of to some degree or another.

However, that doesn’t mean I still don’t get a rush out of hearing the new stuff, whether that’s from underdogs or reliable all-stars.  Allegaeon’s Damnum was always my album from the start as a way to come back to the site reviewing. It was the first thing I had knowledge of that I was truly excited about coming into 2022.  Also, it just felt fortuitous that it came out the same day as Elden Ring if I’m being honest. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 032022
 

(Andy Synn catches up with a few things you may have missed last month)

Is it just me or – after two years where time itself seemed to grind to a soul-crushing halt – does 2022 seem to be trying to throw everything at us all at once?

Honestly, it feels like I’ve barely had time to turn around and two months have already passed me by, leaving a ridiculous number of artists and albums unremarked and unreviewed.

Heck, I didn’t even do one of these columns for January (though if I had, it would probably have included Directional, Dysnerved, Mathan, and Wiegedood) so I’m even more behind than I thought.

It doesn’t help that February was absolutely packed with impressive new releases – including a number of unexpected surprises – so picking what and who to feature in this article was more difficult than usual this time (though, don’t I say that every time?).

Still, I hope you’ll like at least some of what I’ve chosen to feature today, which includes two bands from a little bit outside our usual spectrum, and two more overtly extreme artists making their long-awaited comeback after an eight year absence!

Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, FEBRUARY 2022

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 022022
 

(Our friend Gonzo has shown up with reviews and streams of four February 2022 releases that hit the spot for him.)

February. What a dull, useless month.

That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, to justify the fact that the end of this month ambushed me, causing this column to be late. As long as we’re assigning blame, my day job is also a culprit.

Enough of that, though. This month saw the release of some albums I can’t stop listening to. And many of them were a complete surprise. Continue reading »

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