DEATH RITUALS (PART 1): PUTRESCINE, VOID OMNIA, INSANITY CULT, PHOBOCOSM, DAWN OF DISEASE

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 172019
 

 

It would have been better if I had managed to get a round-up done for yesterday, because fewer people visit NCS on Saturdays than on any other day of the week. Which makes it even more puzzling that I’m planning to present a two-part collection of new music on this Saturday, on top of Andy’s latest Waxing Lyrical interview. It’s not a rational plan, but I can’t help myself.

It happened that most of the music I wanted to recommend today lined up under the giant banner of death metal (though black metal is also in the mix), hence the title of this post rather than the usual “Seen and Heard” moniker. Part 2 (which might have to wait until tomorrow) will include a new album which surfaced yesterday in full, and caught me by surprise, as well as a few other recent selections. There are some surprises in Part 1 too.

PUTRESCINE

Former NCS scribe Joseph Schafer pointed me enthusiastically to the first item in this collection, the just-released debut EP of Putrescine, who claim their inspirations from “the great works of Carcass, Morbid Angel, and the modern hellworld that is the political landscape”. Countless bands have been influenced by Carcass (early Carcass in this case) and Morbid Angel, but this San Diego trio immediately stand out from the pack. Continue reading »

DEADSPACE: “THE GRAND DISILLUSIONMENT”

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Aug 162019
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Australian black metal band Deadspace, which was just released today.)

It’s been both a pleasure and a privilege to observe the musical progression of Australian DSBM collective Deadspace since I first stumbled across their Gravity EP in 2016, watching with ever-increasing interest as the band shifted, slowly but surely, away from the goth-inflected anguish of their early days towards a much more aggressive, much more “pure”, Black Metal approach in recent years.

However, it seems like the group’s steady transition away from their gothic/depressive roots has caused some consternation in their fanbase, to the point where they took the unexpected step of releasing a lengthy statement alongside their new album explicitly stating that they’d outgrown or moved beyond the “DSBM” label of their youth, and that The Grand Disillusionment shouldn’t be considered or judged as such.

Which is a little ironic when you realise that there are moments on TGD where the group hearken back towards the DSBM side of things more than they have done in quite some time… Continue reading »

SHOKRAN: “ETHEREAL”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  4 Responses »
Aug 152019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the third album by the Russian band Shokran, which was released in February of this year.)

There are a couple of reasons I selected the third album from Russian quartet Shokran as my second review of the week.

Firstly, switching out the grimness and grime of Shadow Tentacles in favour of the polished, melodically-stylised sounds of Ethereal makes for some welcome contrast, both for me and (hopefully) for the reader, and forces me to switch up my writing a little in a way that that doesn’t just involve googling additional synonyms for “dark” and “brooding”.

Secondly, it’s been a while since I threw a major curveball at the site, and the amount of gleaming, hyper-emotive clean-sung melody scattered liberally across the length and breadth of this record certainly makes it a bit different in that regard! Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOPHIST — “BETROTHAL TO THE STONE: CONCEPTION OF MEPHISTO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 142019
 

 

Edmonton-based musicians Davis Hay and Michael Sparks joined forces only a few months ago under the name Sophist with the aim of creating a hybrid of black metal and grind, drawing inspiration from the disparate antecedents of such bands as Napalm Death and Rotten Sound as well as Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, and Anaal Nathrakh. The first fruits of their collaboration is an EP called Betrothal To The Stone: Conception of Mephisto, with lyrical themes drawn from a text called “Hermaphrodite Child of the Sun and Moon”. The EP will be released on August 16th, but we have a full stream for you today.

The EP consists of three complete songs, as well as instrumental-only versions of those same three tracks. As presented in the YouTube stream below, the songs tend to flow from one to the next, creating a sense of being hurled further and further into a hellish occult realm where the listeners senses are under constant assault. Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 132019
 

 

The four men behind Cruickshank don’t advertise their resumes, though they’re definitely not newcomers to heavy music. They’re Canadian, but probably don’t dwell in Iqaluit, Nunavut, despite what their Bandcamp page says. They obviously don’t feel confined by genre boundaries in their music, nor by any commitment to orderly song structures. In fact, the tracks on their self-titled debut album are so riotously unchained that it’s hard to imagine how they were conceived and planned out, and almost equally hard to imagine how they were executed so immaculately.

As the album blasts its way through your skull like an unstoppable juggernaut, you can grasp elements of sludge, doom, hardcore, grind, noise rock, punk, and probably some other ingredients, if you’re interested in trying to locate the songs in a genre grid. But good luck trying to come up with a hyphenated genre descriptor that you could rattle off your tongue without getting your tongue twisted. Even just trying to meticulously follow the path of the songs would be a twisted exercise. It’s better to just abandon any temptation to dissect the songs or figure out what inspired them. Turn off the rational calculator in your head and just allow yourself to be bludgeoned and bamboozled. Continue reading »

UZUMAKI: “SPOKEN IN TONGUES”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 132019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the latest album by the Mississippi-based death metal band Uzumaki, which was given a CD release last month by Vargeist Records.)

There comes a time for all of us when we are introduced to a project that has been going for a while, but we’ve overlooked, and once you make that discovery you’re immediately hooked. This was the case for me with the band Uzumaki, a death metal outfit run solely by Mr. Jared Moran, who creates complex and obscure songs that blow you away. That’s how I felt when listening to Uzumaki‘s latest offering, Spoken in Tongues. This record was digitally released last year, but thanks to Vargheist Records it has been captured in a physical format this year.

In planning for this small write-up I wanted to get familiar with Uzumaki’s complete catalogue. So I listened to the first album, Glossolalia, released back in 2012, and moved forward toward the newest one. I was curious to see if there had been some progression within the music or if instead it had become stale over time, and also to get a sense of the overall sound across the releases. Continue reading »

CLOUD RAT: “POLLINATOR”

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Aug 132019
 

 

(This is Todd Manning‘s review of the new album by the Michigan-based grindcore band Cloud Rat, which is set for release on September 13th by Artoffact Records.)

It’s funny to watch the cycling of musical sub-genres. It’s not so much that anything goes away nowadays, but when it comes to sonic extremity, certainly flavors tend to move more or less out of focus. Recently, it seems Grindcore is starting to push to the fore with a batch of innovative releases. 2019 has seen not only the return, albeit in slightly altered form, of Discordance Axis, now under the moniker No One Knows What the Dead Think, but also forward-thinking releases from Immortal Bird and now, Cloud Rat.

Cloud Rat are certainly not rookies and their new full-length, Pollinator, is actually their fourth album. Much like Immortal Bird, Cloud Rat seize the innovation of classic Discordance Axis and make it their own. It is not that they are so much aping the sound of that classic trio as taking the torch of innovation and running with it. Continue reading »

THE HOWLING WIND: “SHADOW TENTACLES”

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Aug 122019
 

 

(On August 5th The Howling Wind surprised us by dropping their latest album (this time the solo creation of Ryan Lipynsky), and Andy Synn gives it a review in this post.)

While it seemed like everyone else was either losing their minds last week over the release of a new Tool song, or bending over backwards to praise the new Slipknot record like it was the second coming, this particular writer was over in the corner giddy with excitement over the realisation that The Howling Wind had dropped their fifth album on Bandcamp without any warning or fanfare.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with liking either of the two former bands (while I think I’ve made my own feelings about the ‘knot more than clear, I’ll definitely be checking out the new Tool album once it’s actually released), but what I’m trying to point out is how easy it is for “the big fish” to monopolise all the online space and digital air so that there’s very little left for those (much, much) lower down the food chain.

Still, as you all know, we’re proud bottom-feeders here at NCS, and it’s our duty, and our privilege, to shine a light on some of the deepest and darkest corners of the Metal world to ensure that no stone remains unturned! Continue reading »

DEVOURMENT: “OBSCENE MAJESTY”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 092019
 

 

(Our connoisseur of all things brutal, Vonlughlio, returns with this review of the explosive new album by Devourment, which will be released by Relapse Records on August 16th.)

This time around I can write about a band that is dear to me, and to a lot of people in the Brutal Death Metal scene. A project founded back in 1995, their first demo and two promos led to their debut full-length release Molesting the Decapitated back in 1999, which took everyone by storm and became a classic in the genre. I am talking about Texas-based Devourment.

This band really does have a special place in my heart. The early releases ramping up toward that debut album just fucked me in a good way once I got the chance to listen to them, and so did the album. Songs from the early years, like “Fucked to Death”, “Babykiller”, and “Choking on Bile” are among my favorites. By the time of the first album release the band consisted of Ruben Rosas (Vocals), Bryan Wynn (Guitars), Kevin Clark (Guitars), Mike Majewski (Bass) and Brad Fincher (drums). Together they made deliciously disgusting music, filled with filthy riffs, blast beats for days, and some of the nastiest vocals ever. And I must mention that the vocals of Wayne Knupp (R.I.P) on the Impaled demo, the 1997 promo, and that “Babykiller” single were sure as hell among the best I’ve heard. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2019: BA’AL / INGESTED / MAN MUST DIE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 092019
 

 

(Andy Synn breathes more life into this occasional series featuring reviews of new releases by UK bands, with reviews and streams of EPs by Ba’al, Lvcifyre, and Man Must Die.)

Chances are a bunch of our regular UK readers will be off in a field in Derbyshire this weekend attending Bloodstock Festival, and so probably won’t get to read this article.

But that’s ok, because one of the primary purposes behind this “Best of British” series is to introduce readers/listeners from other countries to some of our best home-grown musical exports.

So, in that spirit, please allow me to draw your attention to three of the best new (or new-ish) EPs from three of the UK’s best bands. Continue reading »

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