CORRUPT MORAL ALTAR: “PATIENTLY WAITING FOR WONDERFUL THINGS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 222020
 

 

(We welcome NCS guest contributor James Parry-Smith , who brings us his review of the new album by Corrupt Moral Altar, which was released in late November by APF Records.)

In a year as irreversibly horrendous as 2020 has been for most of us, a short, sharp injection of white-hot anger and riff-heavy grindcore is exactly what is needed to spruce up the terrible day you may very well be having. Liverpudlian group Corrupt Moral Altar have previous experience in the aforementioned areas, with a pair of EPs and full-lengths to their name over the past decade that have established them as one of the UK’s preeminent grind bands and, with a penchant for delving blithely into sludge metal realms and the battering distortion that characterises such a sound, one of the most interesting to boot.

With 2014’s Mechanical Tides and 2017’s Eunoia both allowing space for the band to stray off the beaten, grinding track and fully explore their collective creative vision, their EPs are by no means one-dimensional in comparison – something that is as clear on latest release Patiently Waiting for Wonderful Things as it has ever been. Continue reading »

UNSUNG HEROES OF 2020: GROWTH / OBSIDIAN MANTRA / YASHIRA

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Dec 222020
 


Growth

 

(As the year limps to the finish line Andy Synn continues to recommend 2020 albums we haven’t yet covered in detail, bringing us three more reviews today.)

For today’s edition of “Unsung Heroes” we’re looking out towards the edges of the nascent (and slightly controversial) “Post-Death” scene, with three bands who – each in their own way – have taken a sound rooted in the firm foundations of Death Metal and nurtured it, cultivated it, in a much more expansive and progressive direction, cross-breeding it with outside elements and influences in an attempt to produce a new, hybrid-strain of heaviness which is more than just the sum of its varied parts.

Have they been successful? Well that, to an extent, is in the eye of the beholder, but I’d say that each of the three bands featured here shows a lot of promise and potential (in some cases a frankly incredibly amount), to the point where some of them (perhaps even all of them) may one day become future leaders and trailblazers in this slowly evolving sub-scene. Continue reading »

UNSUNG HEROES OF 2020:  ECCLESIA / LETHIAN DREAMS / SHORES OF NULL

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Dec 182020
 


Ecclesia

 

(Andy Synn follows yesterday’s installment of “Unsung Heroes” with another one, this time presenting reviews and streams of new albums by two French bands and one Italian group, all of which provide well-deserved exceptions to our “Rule” about singing.)

As I’ve tried to stress several times – not just this year, but every year – it is literally impossible for any “Best of…” list to be totally comprehensive and/or definitive.

There’s only so much listening time available, and so many, many albums released each year, that the most you can ever really hope for is a representative sample of the year’s “best” releases.

It’s in acknowledgement of this unfortunate, but incontrovertible, fact of life that I first started writing these “Unsung Heroes” articles in the hope of providing some well-deserved, albeit retroactive, coverage for a bunch of artists and albums which I/we didn’t get chance to cover in proper detail before now, and which you, our readers, may well have missed out on too.

Today’s article has a particularly doomy focus although, as you’re about to find out, each of the three bands featured here has a distinctly different take on the genre.

Of the three artists I’m about to (possibly) introduce you too, one of them is a very recent discovery that I didn’t stumble across until my week-long list-a-thon was almost finished, while the other two I was hoping to be able to write a paragraph or two (or five) about prior to “List Season” commencing, but just never found the time. Continue reading »

UNSUNG HEROES OF 2020: ILSA / IRON FLESH / PLAGUE

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Dec 172020
 


Ilsa

 

(Andy Synn wrote the three album reviews collected in this post.)

As you may know, List Season is now officially over (for me anyway, though not for the site)… which means Post-List Season is officially open!

Now I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your attention that over the past few years (and beyond) we’ve been experiencing another one of those periodic Old School Death Metal “revivals”, where it seems like everyone has been competing to find the most effusive and hyperbolic way to praise the latest batch of Floridian-meets-Finnish Death Metal disciples (especially, or so it seems, if they’re American).

One reason for this, I’d imagine, is that we’ve now reached a point where a certain generation of bands, fans, and writers who weren’t old enough to take part in the original rise of the genre, or the early waves of Old School nostalgia, have risen to positions of prominence/notoriety, and by praising, supporting (and sometimes over-hyping) the current crop of retro riff-mongers they’re now able to relive – if only vicariously – the “classic” days of the genre which they missed out on.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some absolute gems to have come out of all this (several of which we’ve written about here before now), and so I’ve decided to dedicate today’s edition of “The Unsung Heroes of 2020” to three more of them, one of which was a firm favourite on my “Good” list, another of which took a prominent position on my “Great” list… and the third of which might, if I’d discovered it sooner, have forced a major rewrite of my “Critical Top Ten” this year! Continue reading »

SUFISM: “REPUBLIK RAKYAT JELATA”

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Dec 172020
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the debut album by the Indonesian brutal death metal band Sufism, which was released on December 13th by the Brutal Mind label.)

As some of you might know, one of my favorite BDM scenes is from Indonesia, due to the everlasting passion and commitment to the music from fans, labels, and bands in that area.  Someday I would love to visit the country and meet some of the musicians/projects I enjoy (one can dream).

Today I have the opportunity to review the debut album of the Indonesian band Sufism, entitled Republik Rakyat Jelata, which was just released via Brutal Mind on December 13th. The band were formed in 2014 and the following year released their first EP, Reptilia Buas, which consisted of five songs that were well-crafted and showcased impressive musicianship.  I will say that it was not groundbreaking nor made waves, but overall it was a good EP that I enjoyed quite a bit. Continue reading »

DEEDS OF FLESH: “NUCLEUS”

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Dec 162020
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by Deeds of Flesh, which was released by Unique Leader Records on December 11th.)

I have the honor to write about a band who are considered a classic act by fans of Brutal Death Metal, a band who came to life back in 1993 in Los Osos, California, and whose music has transcended the test of time and inspired many bands in both the BDM and Tech scene.

I remember while living in the Dominican Republic discovering their 1996 debut album Trading Pieces and being blown away as the music started. It left an everlasting impact on my life. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: TEMPESTARII, VESTINDIEN, BHLEG, GRAVFRAKTAL, MONKE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Dec 132020
 

 

I continue to fall far behind in my listening due to a year-end crunch at my fucking day job, which will continue through the coming week. What little free time I have to devote to NCS between now and this time next week will be consumed by premieres and the continuation of our annual LISTMANIA series (later today I’m sharing a couple more lists from “big platform” web sites, and then we’ll have more lists from our writers and guests in the week ahead).

But fortune smiled on me, and it didn’t take me long to find what I decided to share with you in this column. Enjoy!

TEMPESTARII (U.S.)

“Deathwards Xibalba” is the long opening track to Chaos at Feast, the new second album by Tempestarii, an Idaho-based black metal band who picked a great name for themselves, because listening to their music is very much like being subsumed in frightening, wholly engulfing tempests — or perhaps, given the dramaturgical trappings of their music, like witnessing firsthand the magical storm of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Continue reading »

ABHORRENT CASTIGATION: “ON THE SHORES OF HELL”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 102020
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio’s review and recommendation of a new EP, released in August, by the German extreme metal band Abhorrent Castigation.)

Some releases has come out of nowhere and hit us like a ton of bricks in the face (in a very good way), and such was the case for Germany’s Abhorrent Castigation and their new self-released EP On the Shores of Hell.

This band was founded back in 2012 and in the same year released their demo Enthralled by Abysmal Delusion, which took the scene by force and showcased the prodigious musical talent of this project. The cover of Cerebral Effusion’s “Into Morbid Obesity” on that demo was just godly from start to finish.  Two years afterward they released their debut album Throne of Existential Abandonment, which included as session drummer the mighty Lille Gruber (Defeated Sanity) and Anton Zhikharev as session bassist (also an amazing musician). Along with Torso (guitars) and Al (vocals), they created one of my favorite BDM debut albums ever. Continue reading »

ETERNAL CHAMPION: “RAVENING IRON”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Dec 042020
 

 

(NCS writer Gonzo turns in a glorious review of a pretty fuckin’ glorious album by Texas-based Eternal Champion, which was released in late November by No Remorse Records.)

I know, I know – we’re all busy making our best-of-2020 lists and doing our best to not lose our collective shit as a result of staying inside all day. But, before the year’s end, I wanted to squeeze another review in, and it’s one that we somehow missed mentioning up to this point.

Sharpen your fucking swords, kids, because if you haven’t heard the marauding onslaught of old-school metallic warfare that Eternal Champion cooked up on Ravening Iron, gather ‘round.

One of the things I love about metal is its unending propensity to not take itself too seriously. To quote a friend from long ago who’s also the vocalist for Orange County outfit Bleed the Sky, “what most people don’t understand about metal is that it’s basically goofy dudes drinking beer and making stupid faces a lot.”

“You know, he’s right,” I remember thinking to myself while sitting in his garage at 3 a.m. drunk off my face on the vile combination of Jager and Rockstar. Oh, to be 23 again.

Those words from my friend echoed in my head when I first saw the artwork for Ravening Iron and read a little about the band in a Decibel interview. I concluded that the band was probably a latter-day incarnation of Manowar. Probably a good listen for a nostalgic chuckle or two, but nothing I’d take seriously. The over-the-top artwork and the fact that vocalist Jason Tarpey forges his own swords (while inherently badass) told me that maybe this is a pet project that was more glam than hammer.

By the might of Thor, was I wrong. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NEXUL — “SCYTHED WINGS OF POISONOUS DECAY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 012020
 

 

Nexul’s new album, Scythed Wings of Poisonous Decay, is not for the faint of heart. It’s a shock-and-awe campaign of terrifying blackened death metal that seems thoroughly devoted to ruining minds and bodies through typhoon assaults of unhinged violence intertwined with nuances of horrific dread and paralyzing misery. The fear factor of the music is through the roof, and so is the raw, abrasive, punishing quality of the sound.

But as you’ll also discover if you choose to run this gauntlet, the songs are more carefully calculated than you might expect from what you’ve just read, and more attuned to the elaboration of unearthly atmosphere in the midst of sonic atrocities.

And running this gauntlet from start to finish is just what we’re giving you the opportunity to do today, through our premiere of a full album stream in advance of its December 4 release by Iron Bonehead Productions on CD and 12″ vinyl. Continue reading »

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