A HILL TO DIE UPON: “VIA ARTIS VIA MORTIS”

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Aug 142017
 

 

(On September 15, Luxor Records will release a new album by A Hill To Die Upon, and here we present Andy Synn’s review of the album plus a stream of its first single.)

There are certain artists who have, for whatever reason, become very special to us here at NCS.

Artists with whom we’ve built up a certain relationship, a certain rapport, over the years, to the point where they become essentially one of our “house bands”.

Illinois iconoclasts A Hill To Die Upon are one of them.

Having been fans of the group – now comprising original members Adam and Michael Cook alongside the newly-indentured Brent Dossett and Nolan Osmond – ever since their debut, following them through all the ups and downs, calamities and controversies, it’s been our privilege to watch them grow and evolve from plucky contenders into the veritable Blackened Death Metal powerhouse they are today.

It should therefore come as no surprise, if you’ve been paying attention, that the band’s fourth full-length album sees them continuing to develop and mature, stepping outside of the shadow cast by their forebears by, paradoxically, more fully embracing the blackened roots of their sound.

So hold onto your hats, it’s about to get biblical in here. Continue reading »

ENFOLD DARKNESS: “ADVERSARY OMNIPOTENT”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Aug 112017
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the new album by Nashville’s Enfold Darkness, released on July 14 by The Artisan Era.)

Audacious, ostentatious, and more than a little ridiculous… the long-awaited (and much delayed) second album from Nashville metallers Enfold Darkness is either going to have you grinning from ear to ear, or wrinkling your nose up in distaste, depending on your tolerance for outrageous metallic bombast.

And although we’re not quite talking full-on Fleshgod Apocalpyse levels of OTT excess, the band’s kitchen-sink approach to blending elements from different metallic sub-genres – resulting in a sound which can, to the disgust of genre purists, probably be best summed up as “Symphonic Blackened Technical Melodic Death Metal” – definitely falls into the “love it or loathe it” camp.

So the question is… are you going to love it, or… not? Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 102017
 

 

(Tomorrow — August 11 — Relapse Records will release the debut EP of Poison Blood, a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Jenks Miller (Horseback) and vocalist Neill Jameson (Krieg). On the eve of that release we’re fortunate to host the premiere of a full music stream, introduced by this review from our editor.)

1993 was a remarkable year in which the landscape of second-wave black was being shaped by the likes of Darkthrone’s Under a Funeral Moon, Enslaved’s Víkínglígr Veldí, Immortal’s Pure Holocaust, Burzum’s Det Som Engang Var, Dissection’s The Somberlain, Ulver’s Vargnatt, Varathron’s His Majesty At the Swamp, Emperor’s first (self-titled) EP, and Strid’s End of Life. In the midst of all that, Beherit released Drawing Down the Moon.

That album seems to have come from a blood-freezing netherworld different from everything else around it in those halcyon days of creative upheaval. Even heard today, it still sounds unlike almost everything else that claims the increasingly amorphous (and often abused) label of “black metal”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ATRIARCH — “DEAD AS TRUTH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 102017
 

 

(Atriarch’s new album Dead As Truth will be released by Relapse Records tomorrow — August 11 — and today we present the debut of a full music stream, preceded by an introductory review from our Andy Synn.)

Here’s a fun story for you.

Not long ago, for whatever reason, I found myself attending a Goth club night, which afforded me an opportunity to observe some of our most unfairly maligned brothers and sisters strutting their funky stuff in their natural habitat.

What surprised me, however, was that, in amongst the expected medley of Fields of the Nephilim and Sisters of Mercy, I heard an awful lot of generic chart fodder as well.

Could it be that our infamously black-dyed brethren (and sistren) are actually just pop fans with a very specific taste in wardrobe?

Maybe so. Maybe not. What’s clear is that I’ll never fully understand what it means to be a Goth (not a judgement by the way, just a statement of fact).

But when it comes to music that inclines towards the darker side of things?

That’s something I can definitely get into. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CORMORANT

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Aug 092017
 

 

On August 11, Cormorant will release their new album Disapora. We are fortunate to bring you the premiere of a full album stream today, preceded by a review of the album by Andy Synn.

 

Let’s begin this review with a quick history lesson, shall we?

Back in 2012, shortly after the release of the band’s stunning second album, Dwellings, long-time Cormorant bassist/vocalist Arthur von Nagel elected to leave the band to pursue a career in video-game design.

Although this parting of ways was entirely amicable, many fans were understandably concerned that the loss of von Nagel’s distinctive voice and signature bass sound would undercut the band’s growing momentum and still-burgeoning creative potential.

Thankfully, 2014’s Earth Diver – which saw the debut of new frontman Marcus Luscombe – quickly put to rest any lingering doubts and fears about the band’s future, repositioning the group as a much more overtly “blackened” affair, and proving that change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.

Now, three years later, it seems the quartet are set to raise the bar even further with what is, quite possibly, their most extravagant and ambitious album yet. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BELL WITCH, SUMMONING, INCANTATION, OBITUARY, BOLT THROWER, BLASPHEMY, SXUPERION, SERPENTS LAIR, FIREBREATHER, ORBSEVEN

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 082017
 

 

This is, obviously, a humongous round-up of things I’ve recently discovered. I’ve organized it in this way:

First up there are two news items that feature imagery and info about eagerly anticipated new releases but no music. Then I’ve got new videos and music streams by (or related to) a quartet of venerable and revered bands, followed by new advance tracks from two younger favorites who are returning with new releases this year. And then I’ll close this out with music from two bands whom I’ve just discovered.

BELL WITCH

On most days I post a piece of usually dark or surreal artwork on our Facebook page. I keep an archive of what I’ve posted over the years, as a way of trying to avoid repeating myself. In that archive I’ve counted 22 paintings by the Polish artist Mariusz Lewandowski that I’ve posted over the years since I began doing that, which I think is proof of how strongly I like his creations. But as far as I can recall, he has never created artwork for the cover of a metal album… until now. And his cover for the new Bell Witch album will surely stand as one of the best album covers of the year, if not THE best. Continue reading »

DVNE: “ASHERAN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  7 Responses »
Aug 042017
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by the Scottish band DVNE, released on July 28 by Wasted State Records.)

You know what really grinds my gears?

Seeing/hearing people bleat on about how “there’s just no good new music out there anymore”, when, in truth, it’s never been simpler or easier to find something that caters to your specific tastes.

It’s a particularly frustrating attitude when you consider that the discovery of new music, whether on purpose or by accident, can be one of life’s great joys, and seeing people make such sweeping, and ill-informed statements – blithely dismissing, through their own ignorance/arrogance the absolute wealth of impressive, imaginative, and downright inspiring artists and albums out there – just pisses me off no end.

Of course I can kind of understand it if you’re used to simply passively consuming whatever you’re spoonfed by tv or radio – there’s only so much of the same shit that you can swallow after all, and only so many times you can regurgitate the same pre-chewed “opinions” before you actually make yourself sick – but the fact remains that it only takes about five minutes these days to find something new and exciting online.

Heck, sometimes it’s not even that hard. Sometimes you just stumble upon something that blows you away entirely by accident. Like I did a few months ago when I came across DVNE. Continue reading »

CENOTAPH: “PERVERSE DEHUMANIZED DYSFUNCTIONS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 022017
 

 

(Vonlughlio returns! With a guest review of the first new album in 7 years by the brutal death metal band from Turkey, Cenotaph.)

Brutal death has been great so far this 2017 (at least for me), with great releases such as those from Animals Killing People, Bacteremia, Dissociative Healing, Seminal Embalmment, Abuse, Coprobaptized Cunthunter, Exsanguinate, Intoxicated Blood, and Interminable Corruptions, to name a few.

What makes it even more special is the release of Cenotaph’s Perverse Dehumanized Dysfunctions after 7 years of silence. This is one of my all-time favorite BDM bands, ever. When they first announced the plan to release new music, I literally shed tears of happiness (yes, I’m not afraid to say it). You have to understand that at that moment in time I thought the band was done and that a new album would never see the light of day. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH, 2017 (PART 7): ABHORRENT DECIMATION / DYSCARNATE / SUBSERVIENCE

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 022017
 

 

(Here’s the latest installment in Andy Synn’s 2017 series focusing on outstanding releases from Albion.)

For this latest edition of “The Best of British” I’ve picked out three fantastic examples of UK Death Metal at its absolute finest – one a cleverly composed concept album which may well prove to be the band’s “big break”, another a long-awaited and highly-anticipated return from one of the most underappreciated and unfuckwithable acts on the scene, and the third a shockingly good debut that should open a lot of doors and (hopefully) put the band on all the right radars. Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Aug 012017
 

 

When I listened to Besieged for the first time I was left wide-eyed and slack-jawed by the end of just the first track, with a spike in my pulse rate that would have made my doctor anxious, and already wondering how to describe what I was hearing — and already thinking about fireworks displays. By the album’s end I was shaking my head, fairly astonished at this tour de force — and still thinking about fireworks, but also about large-scale demolition jobs and rousing anthems.

Besieged is the remarkable debut album by a group of evil geniuses who dwell in the vicinity of Vancouver, BC. They call themselves Resurgence. The album has been released today — August 1 — and you can listen to it below, preceded by more than a few words of wonderment and genuine appreciation for what these dudes have done. Feel free to skip ahead and press play, I can handle it. Continue reading »

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