AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HORN — “MOHNGANG”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  9 Responses »
May 122020
 

 

Over the extravagant span of eight albums, the most recent of which we’re streaming in full today, the German band Horn has marched forward on an increasingly distinctive path, diverging from where it began and now blazing a trail of its own through the tangled forests of black metal and entering a clearing in which Horn stands alone. That may sound like an overstatement, but the new album, Mohngang, is a stunning accomplishment that in all its variations and in the richness of its musical textures really is difficult to classify as standing shoulder-to-shoulder with many (or maybe any) other bands.

We’ll provide some further thoughts (and feeble attempts at descriptive verbiage), just to give you some clues as to whether Mohngang is going to strike a chord with you, but there will be no adequate substitute for simply listening to it now, just days before its release by Iron Bonehead Productions on May 15th. Continue reading »

VØLUS: “FESTERING ANTI-COSMIC WOUND”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 122020
 

 

(We present Vonlughlio’s review of the debut album by South Carolina’s Vølus, which is out now via Vargheist Records.)

This time around I have the opportunity to do a small review for a project called Vølus who recently released their debut album Festering Anti-Cosmic Wound. The mastermind behind this effort is Justin Vølus (Putrefying Cadaverment, Flesh Configuration, Maggot Crown, Morgue Walker), who is also owner of the underground label Vargheist Records from South Carolina, USA.

I have able to review some of the bands on his label here at NCS and have been following the label since I discovered them last year (late to the party, I guess).  One of the things that I admired from the get-go was his commitment to his vision/art and how it should be brought to reality. The original conversations were about BDM that went into other genres, mainly Death/Black genres. That is how he introduced us to the bands on the label. Continue reading »

BINARY CODE: “MEMENTO MORI”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 112020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Binary Code, which features a guitar solo by Jeff Loomis, artwork by Eliran Kantor, and an instrumental version of the entire record. It will be released on May 15th, with all proceeds donated to Suicide Prevention in honor of a loved one who inspired the new record.)

It’s fitting that my first review to be published the week after my (surprisingly well-received) rant about mediocrity, maturity, and mainstream exposure should be this one, seeing as how perpetual Prog-Metal underdogs (The) Binary Code are exactly the sort of band who could/should be a major, crossover success, and who wouldn’t need to sacrifice their identity, or their integrity, to do so.

This is even more obvious on their upcoming third album, Memento Mori, which is by far their most expressive, immersive, and emotive work yet. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVANGELIC — “ERSETU”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
May 082020
 

 

We have already written extensively about the new album Ersetu by the Italian death metal band Devangelic, just as we did about their previous releases. In this case, in addition to praising individual songs that have been previewed in the progress toward the album’s release, we published an enthusiastic review by our friend Vonlughlio, who summed it up as “a mandatory release for every brutal death metal fan”: These guys know their craft supremely well and have taken the time to create something special in their music that will pass the test of time”.

And indeed, despite how impressive Devangelic‘s first two albums were (2014’s Resurrection Denied and 2017’s Phlegethon), they have managed to elevate their music to an even higher (and more nuanced) plane of brutality with Ersetu. We are thus very excited to present a full stream of the record for you now, in advance of its May 15 release by Willowtip Records. Continue reading »

SECRETS OF THE MOON: “BLACK HOUSE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 072020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the forthcoming seventh album by Germany’s Secrets of the Moon, which will be out on May 8th from Prophecy Productions.)

Like any tool the use of comparisons, comparing one band to another, can easily be abused (remember back when Deafheaven first started to get big and it seemed like every review had to find a way to reference them somehow?) but it can also be an effective way of connecting with readers and putting them in the same mindset as the writer.

Some bands, and some fans, seem to really hate it, however, and can respond with surprising venom and vehemence to any suggestion that their music isn’t totally unique and utterly incomparable…

Now, Secrets of the Moon may not have reacted that badly to the reviews of their previous album, many of which, my own included, included glowing comparisons to the likes of Alice In Chains, Fields of the Nephilim, The Cult, and more, but they clearly took a little bit of umbrage to the use of so many different references to describe their music, so much so that the PR materials for Black House make a big point about how the album can’t be defined with such reductive methods.

And so, in an attempt to respect the band’s wishes, I’ve decided to write the following review without making a single direct comparison to any other bands.

Well, maybe one… Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (DEATH METAL EDITION): I THE INTRUDER, DEFEATED SANITY, OMNIKINETIC, ABYSSUS, CLAIRVOYANCE, INISANS, SEPULCHRAL FROST, VOIDCEREMONY, PUTRESCINE, LIBERATIA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 072020
 

 

I know I’m damned lucky to still have a job when so many people have been thrown out of work, but the job has been annoyingly intrusive lately. And by “intrusive”, I mean that it unexpectedly interferes with my grand ideas for NCS posts. This post, for example, is grand and gargantuan, but the job that pays me has delayed its appearance and constricted my time to the point that I’ve had to strip away most of the writing I had in mind. I’m cognizant of the likelihood that depriving you of my complete thoughts will cause widespread weeping.

As the title signifies, I decided to make this round-up death-centric — but there are lots of flavors of death metal represented here and different directions being pursued. I might have figured out a good way to order the flow, but didn’t have time to think about that either. So, just be prepared to bounce around.

I THE INTRUDER (Tunisia)

“Check this steamroller. Nasum-like grind with choppy tech riffs to break things up. Complete barbarian war vocals. From Tunisia. What the hell, Omination, Ayyur, and now this….” Continue reading »

ENGUTTURALMENT CEPHALOSLAMECTOMY: “GLAM NOT SLAM”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
May 062020
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the debut album by Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy from Evansville, Indiana. The album was released by Gore House Productions on April 24th.)

It’s been a while since I did one of my small reviews for NCS, but due to the current world situation and my work taking most of my time, I haven’t had not a chance to sit and write about my favorites releases in BDM so far.

I would like to take this opportunity to write about a project named Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy from the USA, which started as a parody of the classic 2007 debut album from Cephalotripsy, considered a Slam classic in the scene. Continue reading »

UMBRA VITAE: “SHADOW OF LIFE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 052020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of the debut album by Umbra Vitae, which was released on May 1st by Deathwish Inc.)

Converge is one of my favorite bands. Yeah, I know they are not metal. Even their singer Jacob Bannon admits this and calls his band hyper-aggressive. But they are very influenced by metal, and on albums like Petitioning the Empty Sky you can hear Slayer dripping from the riffs.

Jacob might perform in a hardcore band, but he has a love for death metal that inspired him to put Umbra Vitae together. He enlisted guitarists from Hatebreed and The Red Chord, along with the ex- drummer from Job For a Cowboy and the bassist from The Red Chord.

So I went into this album with Converge as the bar by which I was going to be measuring it. It did not disappoint. This is not a love letter to Morbid Angel, though you can hear their influence in places. I would have been let down if this had been a color-by-numbers death metal album. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MEAN MESSIAH — “DIVINE TECHNOLOGY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
May 042020
 

 

Mean Messiah‘s new album Divine Technology is over-the-top in nearly every way, from the full-tilt but machine-precise drum obliteration to the soaring vocal harmonies, from the riotously dismantling grooves to the swarming guitar savagery, from the sweeping symphonic layers to the vast panoply of unhinged vocal extremity. It’s a combination of theatrical spectacle and industrial-strength demolition job which at various times brings to mind Strapping Young Lad, Devon Townsend‘s The Retinal Circus, Fear Factory, latter-day Dimmu, Yes, and even Aborted.

The thing is, this Czech trio (who sound like their line-up is a 100-strong army) throw caution to the winds in a way that makes their explosive energy contagious. They revel in their bombastic excess, packing as much as they can into each of these seven tracks, bound and determined to leave their audience breathless, and with ruined necks and spinning heads, and it’s hard not to get caught up and carried away by both the sheer enthusiasm and the surgical execution.

Divine Technology will be released tomorrow (May 5th) by Slovak Metal Army, and we’ve got a full stream of the madness today, along with further notes about the experience. Continue reading »

KARMACIPHER: “INTROSPECTRUM”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
May 042020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Hong Kong’s Karmacipher, which was released on April 30 by Infree Records.)

Before we go any further, please indulge me for a moment, if you will (or just skip on down to the “Continue reading” button) while I go off on a little bit of a tangent.

It’s undeniable that a lot of Metal writing/reviewing tends to focus on bands from Europe and North America. Sure, South America gets an occasional look-in, while isolated outliers like Iceland and Australia have been punching well above their weight over the last couple of years, but generally speaking bands from Africa and/or Asia in particular still tend to struggle to get wider coverage.

Heck, even when they do, they’re often either treated with patronising condescension or exoticised for having some sort of cultural “gimmick” (see every band who’s been given a 10/10 review just because they use native instruments or sing in a language other than English), and it’s always struck me as a little bit off  the way certain sections of the Metal media seem to insist that bands need to sound authentically “foreign” or “exotic” enough before they’ll cover them.

The truth is that great music, great Metal, can come from anywhere. And it doesn’t/shouldn’t have to fit into some preconceived notion of what music from a certain place “should” sound like.

Case in point, there’s nothing about the sublime second album from this Hong Kong trio which ties it to a specific location, nationality or culture. But that doesn’t matter. Because the only culture it’s trying to represent is Death Metal, and it does that phenomenally. Continue reading »

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