Album Reviews Archives - Page 2 of 544

ROTTEN SOUND: “MASS EXTINCTION”

Nov 272025

(Rotten Sound’s new EP Mass Extinction comes out December 12th on Season of Mist, and in a rare attempt to get ahead of the game, DGR sent in the following review.)

Rotten Sound’s cycle of album and then EP continues unabated for the third time running with the upcoming release of their eight-song auditory assault known as Mass Extinction.

In classic Rotten Sound fashion, they waste absolutely no time in getting going and also have little care for making a song that even bothers clearing the two-minute mark. Sub-ten minutes of fiery grind are on offer here, split off from the grander chaos of the group’s 2023 Apocalypse sessions and made whole as part of a package that songwriting-wise is a little more scattershot, but manages to hit just as hard as the album that preceded it.

It goes without saying that Rotten Sound have continued to be one of the more straight-shooting pillars of the grind scene over the years and any excuse to sit down with one of their bona-fide blastbeat batterings is a good one. Apocalypse stuck pretty close to the tried-and-true for the Rotten Sound crew and it will come as no surprise, then, that Mass Extinction continues that march into oblivion, just with a slight bit more taste for the two-step now that it is a little more free to stretch its wings than Apocalypse’s unrelenting assault would’ve allowed. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OMEGAVORTEX — “DIABOLIC MESSIAH OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER”

Album Reviews, Premieres 1 Response »

Nov 262025

(written by Islander)

We might think of the varying genres of extreme metal as a branching warren of subterranean caverns, all of them connected but some very far away from others. Some are oppressive in their pressures, others cold enough to freeze breath, some occupied by near-mindless creatures frenzied in their hunger, some haunted by wailing ghosts or giants that woozily lumber about. In some of them, strains of ecstatic and/or mesmerizing melody thread their way through stalactites rhythmically crashing down.

But in some of those underground spaces sheer chaos reigns. That is where you’ll find Omegavortex, in a spiked cavity where skin-searing white phosphorus burns and hurricanes of grit and blades ruthlessly storm, where demons scream in throes of violence and nightmares come to life.

Since 2017 Omegavortex have carved their underground abyss with a few short releases and their 2020 debut album, the aptly named Black Abomination Spawn, but they will soon expand the reach of their terrible domain with a second album, Diabolic Messiah of the New World Order, now set for release on December 5th by Third Eye Temple. We have a full stream of the album for you today — and some thoughts about the gloriously ravishing and ruinous assaults it encompasses. Continue reading »

HVRT – CANCERBLOOM

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Nov 262025

(The new album from Hvrt comes out Dec 05… and Andy Synn says you won’t have to wait, or weep, much longer)

I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but I’ve often thought about starting a more Black Metal (or, at least, “blackened”) project of my own, something that sits somewhere between Black Anvil, Black Breath, and Mantar, on the sludgier, punkier side of things… all nasty riffs, gnarly grooves, and stripped-down, hook-heavy songs designed to take no prisoners and take no shit.

There’s only two problems with this, so far:

Finding the right collaborators has proven difficult, as I just don’t seem to know the right people or have the right contacts (and we’d obviously have to be compatible, both musically and personally);
Hvrt kind of already got there first.

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS: “DEATH HILARIOUS”

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Nov 262025

‘Now we hunt Hippopotamus’ by Aaron Johnson. done in a style they call “reverse painted acrylic polymer peel painting.”

(Vizzah Harri dives deep into and around the latest album by the UK band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, which was released this past April by Rocket Recordings.)

Bands with PR in three settings across the globe can hardly be considered underground, though postern gates with stairways leading down to caverns advertising treasures would at least induce a probing glance or load-bearing check of the first step.

If opener Blockage was your introduction to this band or their approach, as it was the case for me, you’re in for a trip that results in an antonymic flush. You are forgiven, however, for still being fixated on Aaron Johnson’s stirring phantasmagoric artwork.

Lifted from the Jeremyriad blog is this quote from the artist about the origins of the piece:

“Now We Hunt Hippopotamus is a convergen ce of disparate influences, specifically including The Hippopotamus Hunt by Rubens (one of my favorite paintings by one of my favorite painters), Indian firecracker graphics (which I discovered traveling in India in 2005, a trip that completely exploded my color palette), and the David Lynch film Wild at Heart (the title of this piece comes from torrid moment when Isabella Rossellini stares down the barrel of her pistol pointed at the camera shouting ‘Now We Hunt Buffalo!’).”

BLUT AUS NORD – ETHEREAL HORIZONS

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Nov 252025

(Andy Synn ventures towards new horizons with Blut Aus Nord, whose new album is out on Friday)

Although it often seems like we spend most of our time here at NCS playing catch-up… and that’s because we do… on rare occasions, such as this one, we do manage to get something published in advance of an album’s release.

Not necessarily by much, it’s true, but we’ll take what we can get when it comes to getting ahead of the curve for once.

Of course, few bands out there have as much of a claim to being “ahead of the curve” – not just once, but multiple times throughout the myriad variations of their sound – as Blut Aus Nord, whose long career has been characterised by a near-constant sense of musical motion and creative evolution.

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SLÔDDER — “NARCISSIST”

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Nov 242025

(written by Islander)

“Rabid, misanthropic sludge from Sweden.” That’s a succinct and pointedly accurate description of the music made by the band Slôdder, as displayed so far in a pair of 2018 EPs and then in a pair of albums, their self-titled full-length in 2021 and 2023’s A Mind Designed To Destroy Beautiful Things.

And now they have a third album that will drop on November 26th via Shit County Records. Its name is Narcissist, and we’re giving you the chance to hear all of it today. The music is indeed rabid and misanthropic, but as you’ll discover, that’s only part of its personality. Continue reading »

THE END APPROACHES

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Nov 242025

(The days are growing darker… which means it’s the perfect time for Andy Synn to get doomy and gloomy)

Last week I received my first promo for a 2026 release… which I guess means it’s time to start thinking about wrapping up 2025?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to be stopping writing about releases from this year just yet (I still have several albums set for release in December on the docket, for one thing) but at some point I’m going to have to shift my focus to my usual series of round-up posts.

Before then, however, I feel like I need to make amends for the fact that I haven’t spent much time focussing on the doomier side of things over the course of the last eleven months.

And the best way to do that, in my opinion, is to highlight the work of three artists – Lera (Italy), Oneironoia (Germany), and Sun of the Dying (Spain) – who I’m ashamed to have overlooked.

OFERMOD: “DRAKOSOPHIA”

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Nov 242025

(We present Daniel Barkasi’s review of a new album from the Swedish black metal band Ofermod, which was released on October 3rd by Shadow Records.)

Good old-fashioned, second wave, ritualistic, riff-centric black metal is a distinct sort of flavor profile that admittedly has been done many times; a particular sound that represents a sort of comfort zone to these ears. Those who purvey that sound were my gateway into a much larger and diverse universe of black metal, and when that feeling is captured and executed precisely, we’re all in. Enter Ofermod, the vehicle of the enigmatic Belfagor, who has cycled through a fair number of members throughout the years – especially vocalists. Through it all, however, the style has stayed remarkably consistent; a testament to Belfagor’s focused vision.

Albums such as Sol Nox and Mysterium Iniquitatis serve as the best examples of what Ofermod have to offer up to now, both being albums that are recalled when seeking this archetype of black metal. Now we have Drakosophia, with a new vocalist in tow in Adeptus (who is now a former member – more on that later), and the resultant is familiar and wholly satisfying. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ASTERIAE, OPPRESSION, WORM

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Nov 232025

(written by Islander)

Greetings again on another Sunday, or whatever day it might be when you find your way here. Today’s collection is shorter than I would like it to be, because I have plans for the morning with my spouse that will take us out of the house, and I wasn’t able to spend much time pulling this together yesterday.

I’m beginning with an album released one month ago that I’ve been meaning to say something about for at least that long, and then following it with singles from two forthcoming albums that sound pretty exciting. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ENSHINE, UNIVERSE217, CARRION VAEL, GHOULHOUSE, CH’AHOM, XAOC

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Nov 222025

(written by Islander)

I guess the word of the week is “piggy”, and not because Northwest Terror Fest announced yesterday that Piggy D will be one of the headliners at the May 2026 edition of the fest. In other news from the Department of Coincidence, we will post a review next week of an album by a band called Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.

I guess I’ve been piggy myself this morning, ravenously rooting through the trough of extreme metal that got filled up with new releases over the past week. Now engorged, here’s what I decided to vomit up for your delectation this weekend: Continue reading »

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