SHADES OF BLACK: ARA SUBVERSOR, FØSPHENE, KORELTSAK, NON SERVIAM, VOLLOÍOM

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 032025
 

(written by Islander)

I have bit off more than I can chew. All five of today’s picks are complete albums or EPs. I have listened to a couple of them a couple of times and others only once. A good reviewer would only write about one or two of them, and do so thoroughly and after considered reflection. You’ll have to go elsewhere for that kind of coherent professionalism. Here, you’ll just find a dude jumping up and down, waving his arms and yelling “Listen to this!”

I put them in alphabetical order by band name because I couldn’t figure out a better way to arrange them as step-wise progressions of sound, and because my brain was already overloaded by what I bit off. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PESTILENGTH, HYPERDONTIA, RIBSPREADER, MALEVICH, SARNATH ETERNAL

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 022025
 

(written by Islander)

I’m going to get right to the music today and dispense with the usual personal anecdotes that no one really wants to read, like whether I had to clean up cat vomit this morning (I did), if I’ve learned to make washing dishes by hand a Zen-like experience since the dishwasher broke (nope), the best thing I’ve seen and heard outside the house this week (the pair of hawks that have re-located into the forest and apparently scared all the other fowl into silence), how much I’ve enjoyed beautiful mild PNW days while reading about much of the country getting brutally microwaved (a lot), the only new item I read this morning that didn’t make me furious and/or nauseated (about an anti-poaching campaign in South Africa that involves injecting the horns of rhinos with radioactive isotopes), and my opinion on the rendition of “Paranoid” by the Kings’ Guards at Buckingham Palace (meh).

So yeah, none of that irrelevant personal stuff, getting right to the music, right away, no delays: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RINTRAH — “THE TORRID CLIME”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 312025
 

(written by Islander)

This coming Bandcamp Friday will bring the release by Fiadh Productions of the debut album from an unusual musical collaboration that has taken the name Rintrah. That album, The Torrid Clime, pays tribute to Romantic period art, poetry, and music (circa 1798-1837). It does that in part by drawing the songs’ lyrics from classical pieces by Romantic era poets, presented unaltered and unabridged. The themes include “finding the true God in nature, the sense of the primordial as channeled through the self, nostalgia for the past, and using fantasy as a tool to reshape dissatisfactions with reality”.

The participants in Rintrah include Otrebor (Botanist, ex-Lotus Thief) on drums and vocals, Arsenio Santos (Howling Sycamore) on bass, and William DuPlain (aka Cynoxylon, ex-Botanist) on lead vocals — and guitars were composed and recorded by classical musician Justin Collins.

Yesterday we published an interview with Justin about how Rintrah and the music became a reality. We’ll use parts of that interview as reference points again today, but the main subject now is the music itself, a genre-bending and time-traveling experience that you’ll now be able to enjoy in its entirety. Continue reading »

THE ABCs OF REPRESSION — TWO SINGLES AND AN EP BY ZNOUS AND TRANSGRESSIVE

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 312025
 

(The following essay and its Appendix were written by our South Africa-born and Vietnam-located contributor Vizzah Harri.)

This is not going to be an easy read. If you are triggered by words that end in -isms, especially abstract concepts that have real-world consequences on the life and liquidation of innocents, you know, the ignorant kind, then you won’t get further than the next paragraph.

Abusive, brainwashed, callous.

Archaic bellicose construct.

Avaricious bloodsucking cowards.

Abhorrently bootlicking chauvinists.

The ABCs of Repression Fascism

“كانت يديه تضفر أحشاء الكاهن

، إذا لم يكن لديه حبل ، لخنق الملوك”

“וידיו היו קולעות את מעי הכהן,

בהיעדר חבל, לחנוק מלכים”

“And his hands would plait the priest’s entrails,

For want of a rope, to strangle kings.”

 – alternative translations of the infamous Denis Diderot quote. Continue reading »

CTHULUMINATI: “TENTACULA”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 312025
 

(In March of this year the Dutch avant-garde metal band Cthuluminati released Tentacula, a Faustian concept album about Thomas, an illusionist who was granted his power through a most nefarious deal with the ancient deity Tentacula, and Thomas’ subsequent (and unsuccessful) efforts to expose the truth and make amends. Our writer DGR developed a “weird fascination” for the record, and he attempts to explain why in the following review.)

Waste Of Space Orchestra‘s one full-length album Syntheosis came out six years ago, yet I think about it constantly. Syntheosis is an album that I think serves as a prime personal example of being fascinating while at the same time it is so far either ahead of me or just off the beaten path of my musical sphere that I just don’t fully get it. It challenges me on a listening level but at the same time I’m not sure after listening to it that I’ve ever enjoyed myself – yet I am happy that it exists as a reflection of heavy metal’s ambition as well as its mark on the overall art of the genre.

For every painting of recognizable pop art and soup cans, we need our avant-garde weirdos whose ambition far outstrips either the listener’s abilities or the musicians’ own. With no one willing to poke and prod at musical boundaries we’re left with nothing but an already well-laid-out playground and recognizable throughways. Eventually, everything becomes musical suburbia with the same nuclear family and picket fence, with nothing left for us to discuss other than who is fucking who.

The Netherlands gifted us an album of a similar vein a few months back in the form of Cthuluminati and their newest release Tentacula. While far less meditative, psychedelics-obsessed, and psychosis-inducing than the aforementioned art-project (though not by much), I have found that I am weirdly fascinated with Tentacula for much the same reasons. Continue reading »

FERAL LORD – WUNJO

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Jul 302025
 

(Andy Synn takes a look at the new album from Feral Lord, out this Friday)

As you may know, it’s a common complaint of ours that there’s just so much music released each and every week/month/year that it’s impossible for us to keep up with it all, not matter how hard we try.

What you may not know, however, is that Jared Moran (aka Plaguehammer, aka Cave Ritual, aka Ionnonnisssz, etc) has been more responsible than most for us falling ever further behind the curve, such is the frequency and profligacy of his output.

Sure, we’ve covered a number of his projects before – including, but not limited to, the likes of Zvylpwkua, Acausal Intrusion, Hierarchies (whose debut album was released earlier this year), Vertebrae Fetish Totem (whose new record was also released a few months back, though we haven’t covered it yet), Out of the Mouth of Graves, and, of course, Feral Lord – but we’ve still barely scratched the surface of his discography.

That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying though… and with the upcoming release of Wunjo (though you can stream and purchase it right now) we’re able to add another successful review to our catalogue of criticism.

Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BELLICISTE AND ÚIR

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 282025
 

(written by Islander)

This coming Friday (August 1st) two excellent black metal bands, Belliciste and Úir, will release an album-length split on cassette tape (and digitally). It includes four songs from Belliciste, three from Úir, and one song that is a collaboration between the two bands. Today we’re very happy to share a full stream of all the songs.

Further commentary is likely unnecessary, but of course you’re going to get it anyway. This is an hour-long compendium of music, and because most days for most people are hurried and harried, explaining why it would be worthwhile to pause for this, from its beginning to its end, may be useful. Beyond that, the commentary functions as an expression of thanks to these musicians for enriching our hurried and harried days with something this superb. Continue reading »

ARKHAAIK – UIHTIS

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 282025
 

(Andy Synn rejoins the hunt with the new album from Arkhaaik)

One of the things we sometimes discuss amongst ourselves, here in the dark, dank depths of NCS Castle, is what the primary, prevailing “trend” of each year is.

And one thing I’ve noticed over the last seven-ish months is that – rather than being a straight up “Black Metal year” or a “Death Metal year” (or even a “Hardcore year”) – 2025 looks set to be a year defined more by the more unorthodox and unusual expressions from across the genre spectrum.

In some ways this, of course, makes it hard to identify a singular commonality which defines “the year in Metal” (so far, anyway)… but, from a different perspective, you might just say that this flexing and blurring of fluid genre boundaries is exactly what ties so many of the biggest and best albums of 2025.

And now we have this uniquely esoteric and ritualistically hypnotic hybrid of “blackened” Doom and deathly gloom courtesy of Switzerland’s Arkhaaik.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ESOCTRILIHUM, KAMRA, HUYA GENUS, YOTUMA, VICTIM OF FIRE, ESSES

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 262025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a late start on this Saturday’s roundup of recommended new music, and I feel the need to rush in order to keep it from appearing too late in the day. So my review-ish commentary will be somewhat briefer than usual (please hold your applause) and I’ll cut the rest of the introduction to just this:

I would suggest that this collection is a mix of brain-scramblers, bone-smashing punishers, muscle-twitching groovers, headlong racers, and seductive clean-sung sorcery, more or less in that order. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: TOMBS, HORNWOOD FELL, ACEPHALIC VOID, DEF/LIGHT

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 252025
 

(written by Islander)

With only one premiere to handle today and nothing else waiting in the queue for our site, I had a combination of opportunity and need, anxiety about us not posting the usual amount of stuff in recent days and the time (barely enough time) to do something about it. So, as a head-start on Saturday’s roundup, I got this four-band collection done, focusing on two old favorites and two brand new discoveries. The cover art for all four was part of the initial attraction.

TOMBS (U.S.)

The first of the old favorites is Tombs. Earlier this week we got the news that they have a new album named Feral Darkness now set for release on October 17th by their new label Redefining Darkness Records. The “FFO” references for Tombs have changed over time. As a clue about this new full-length, which follows 2020’s Under Sullen Skies, it includes Fields of the Nephilim, Samhain, Mayhem, and Goatwhore. The lineup also includes new guitarist Dan Higgins. Sera Timms also provides guest vocals on one song.

And then there’s this from the press release: Continue reading »

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