AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HORSE DRAWN — “AMONGST GHOSTS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Aug 042020
 

 

We’ve already seen abundant evidence that pandemic shutdowns and searing economic calamity haven’t crushed musical creativity. Those two ruthless giant hands may be doing their best to choke the life from artists (along with the rest of us), but they haven’t succeeded. In fact, rather than becoming numb or being struck dumb, many musicians have continued to record new music, and for many of those the work has itself become a mental and emotional survival mechanism. Horse Drawn is a case in point.

This Ohio-based duo — multi-instrumentalist Jonny Doyle (Coldfells) and vocalist Bryce Seditz (Plaguewielder) — haven’t been prolific, but their output under the Horse Drawn name has for this writer become must-listen material. While in the midst of the giant mess we all now find ourselves in, they’ve recorded a new EP named Amongst Ghosts that’s being released today, and we are happily spreading the word through this premiere. Continue reading »

VOUS AUTRES: “SEL DE PIERRE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 042020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of Sel de Pierre, the new album by the French band Vous Autres, which will be released on September 25th by Season of Mist Underground Activists.)

The French seem to have a history of creating black metal not afraid to stray from the blast-beaten path. On their sophomore album this duo continues the tradition. Their debut album was one of 2019’s best black metal releases. This one might not be as blatantly heavy, but it makes up for this in the expansive array of sonic colors they paint these songs with.

While this album is much more atmospheric than their first, I would not label them “post” anything. Sonically, are there elements in the same zip code as post-rock? Yes, but they are gracefully ugly with chilling dissonance. The album’s third track even has an instrumental interlude that would not be out of place on a Nine Inch Nails record. Where most atmospheric black metal takes on a droning meditative quality, here it’s used in the same unnerving way that horror movies manipulate you with their scores. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 123): DESCEND

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Jul 312020
 

 

(We’ve reached the end of July, and for this month’s edition of THE SYNN REPORT Andy Synn has prepared reviews of all the albums released by the Swedish band Descend, including their latest full-length released on June 26th by Aftermath Music.)

Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ihsahn, Disillusion

Stockholm stunners Descend have been quietly making a name for themselves in the more progressive circles of the Death Metal underground for a while now, developing a well-deserved reputation as a reliable source of intricate instrumental arrangements and rock-solid riffs that deliver all the primal punch you desire while also engaging your higher brain functions with every dynamic twist and turn.

But, for whatever reason, the Swedish quintet have never really broken through into the wider Metal consciousness in the same way that a number of their peers and predecessors have managed to.

All that might just be about to change however, as their recently released third album, The Deviant, is both a major step up for the band and a potential contender for multiple “Album of the Year” accolades.

Before we get to that, however, I invite you all to come with me on a deep dive into the group’s discography, where you’ll find that there’s also a lot to love in the band’s back-catalogue too. Continue reading »

DROUTH: “EXCERPTS FROM A DREAD LITURGY”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 292020
 

 

(July 31 is the date set by Translation Loss Records for the release of the new album by Portland, Oregon’s Drouth, and here we have Andy Synn‘s review.)

It looks like this week is going to be (another) one dedicated to the underdogs.

After all, I’ve already written glowingly about Question and their killer new album, which could well end up on a few “Album of the Year” lists come December, and I’m almost done putting together this month’s edition of The Synn Report, which covers another band whose latest (but largely unheralded) record also deserves a lot more praise and attention.

Then there’s today’s feature, covering the second album from Portland-based blast-fiends Drouth, which looks set to finally (and firmly) put them on the Black Metal map. Continue reading »

QUESTION: “REFLECTIONS OF THE VOID”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jul 282020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Mexican death metal band Question, which will be released by Chaos Records on July 31st.)

The annual battle for “Death Metal Album of the Year” is always a close-fought and contentious one, and 2020 is no exception.

So far I’ve seen a lot of people throwing their weight behind Ulthar’s Providence and Black Curse’s Endless Wound (and with good reason, because both albums are great), and there’s also been a hell of a lot of buzz about the new Necrot (which I’m sure we’ll be reviewing very soon) and, to a lesser extent, Draghkar’s long-gestating, soon-to-be-released debut.

However, from where I’m standing, it’s Reflections of the Void which is the real dark-horse contender for the title. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ÆPOCH — “THE SCRYER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 282020
 

 

A little more than two years on from the release of their Awakening Inception debut album, the Ontario-based death metal band Æpoch are on the verge of releasing a new EP named The Scryer, a six-track, 30-minute offering that diverges in some ways from that full-length debut. The band themselves state that when these songs were originally written, their main influences were Death, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, and Abysmal Dawn, and they pursued musical ideas that were “much less progressive and technical than our more recent influences”.

But these are relative comparisons, because The Scryer is still home to a lot of full-throttle technical virtuosity and an unmistakably adventurous instrumental spirit. Yet the EP’s appeal also significantly derives from its exotic melodic qualities, which provide a unifying theme throughout this extravagant thrill-ride of an EP.

Today we’re happy to present a full stream of The Scryer in advance of its July 31 release, along with some detailed notes about what you’re about to hear. Continue reading »

ABRAMELIN: “NEVER ENOUGH SNUFF”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jul 282020
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by Melbourne-based Abramelin, which was released on May 15th of this year.)

Yes as we all know 2020 has been a year we would rather forget and move toward the future. Everyone has been affected in one way on another, but I’m not getting into that here. All I am going to do in these disturbing times is to wish all the best to all the readers of NCS and its staff — and of course to recommend some music.

No live shows, which is a bummer, but a least we are getting new music from different projects around the globe, so there is that (at least).  I am writing in this instance to speak about a surprise release by an underground band who after 20 years have released a new full-length that for me is comeback of the year. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: HERESIARCH AND ANTEDILUVIAN — “DEFLESHING THE SERPENT INFINITY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 272020
 

 

Both New Zealand’s Heresiarch and Canada’s Antediluvian have already elevated themselves high up in the global pantheon of ruinous blackened death metal. It seemed inevitable that the day would come when they would join forces, and that day has arrived. They have combined their terrifying talents in a new split release named Defleshing the Serpent Infinity, which will be released on July 31st by Iron Bonehead Productions.

The split reveals both bands at the height of their powers, and displays what makes their particular forms of assault on the senses different from each other. Moreover, the split has been used as a vehicle for both bands to engage in experimentation, coupling forms of nightmarish ambient music to their more unhinged and apocalyptic sonic attacks. Today we make public the split in its entirety, preceded by a slightly revised version of a review we published weeks ago. Continue reading »

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT: “ALPHAVILLE”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jul 242020
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of Imperial Triumphant‘s new album, which will be released on July 31st by Century Media Records.)

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Vile Luxury, the career-defining 2018 release from Avant-Black trio Imperial Triumphant, is a modern-day classic.

Unorthodox, unconventional, and uncompromising to a fault, its fusion of moody soundscapes, abrasive, blackened belligerence, and free-wheeling, jazzed-up instrumentation sounded like nothing else at the time, and still has very few peers or rivals today.

Such success, however, can easily be an albatross, a noose, a shackle, and it raises the question – how does any band, any artist, respond, react to, or reject, the pressure to follow up such a magnum opus?

The answer of course, is that they go bigger, go bolder… they go back in time and back to the future… they go to Alphaville. Continue reading »

VOLTURYON: “XENOGENESIS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 232020
 

 

(DGR reviews the new album by the Swedish death metal band Volturyon, which ViciSolum Records will release on July 24th.)

When it comes to death metal out here in our private corner of the far reaches of the internet, we’ve often found our fair share of comfort in the caveman-striking-rock aspect of the style. We’ve celebrated this ideal as being appropriately ‘stupid’ and embraced it. If you’re looking for chin-stroking and thought-provoking versions of the genre, you can look at other groups, and we’ve done our best to warn you what you’re in for, early on in our reviews, when it comes to those more primitive assaults. Sometimes, it’s been tempting to just post album art and have a review play out as the written equivalent of the Dead dove do not eat scene from Arrested Development.

The death metal collective Volturyon fall firmly in the caveman camp musically, although the band are a decidedly more modern take on the blastbeat-happy chainsaw riffage of current death metal than they are the classic hammering thud of death and roll – yet you can glance at the group’s collected album and EP artworks over their career and have a pretty good picture of what the crew sound like.

Which is why it’s nice that on the group’s newest album Xenogenesis – their first with vocalist Mikko Voutilainen handling monster noise duty – there are a handful of nuanced and subtle takes on current world events, approaching issues from a multitude of angles, recognizing the grey area that is often called ‘the truth’, and speaking on the economic impact these sorts of things can have on the…. just kidding. There’s a song on here called “World Pandemic” and if you’ve glanced at the album art and remembered what we were discussing in the opening paragraph then you know exactly what the song (and from a broader perspective, the musical stylings of Xenogenesis) are going to be about. Continue reading »

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