Album Reviews Archives - Page 4 of 569

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: NORILLAG, POACHER, LITOST

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Jul 112026

(written by Islander)

My spouse and I are going to an early lunch with a friend we’ve known for… ahem… decades. She’s always a ton of fun to be with, but the timing’s not great for this column. I had added dozens of new songs and complete releases arriving over the past week that I intended to check out. And I didn’t get a head-start yesterday because I spend a chunk of the afternoon and early evening watching a Mariners baseball game that was… ahem… dispiriting. Don’t ask me why I did that, because I knew our opponents were very good and the odds were very high that my team would… ahem… suck (again).

Anyway, I had a lot of hard choices to make this morning and a rapidly vanishing amount of time in which to make them and then peck out some thoughts. I hope I’ll be able to catch up with more new music for the usual Sunday collection. Continue reading »

INFERNO: “THE ANTHROPIC SOPHISMS (ON THE HEIGHTS OF DESPAIR)”

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Jul 092026

(We present Daniel Barkasi’s evocative review of a new album by the Czech band Inferno, which will be released on July 17th by Debemur Morti Productions.)

If you search for a band named Inferno on Encyclopedia Metallum, you’ll unsurprisingly get a lot of results. All of these are not created equal, of course. When we think of a band of that name, there’s only one that comes straight to mind – the gnostic black metal Inferno hailing from Czechia.

Having been in existence for over three decades, their works speak for themselves, though they’ve experienced quite a musical metamorphosis over those years. Earlier releases were much more straightforward second-wave black metal with a certain rawness and regional authenticity that added to their proverbial charm. A hint of a more expansive direction could be sniffed out on Black Devotion in certain aspects, but that change truly came to fruition on the nightmarish Omniabsence Filled by His Greatness in 2013, a record filled with dreary, unpredictable atmospheres resembling a thick fog that gives no chance of seeing anything but nothingness.

From that release, Inferno have been wildly experimental, carving out a truly singular sound and presence, not unlike contemporaries Blut Aus Nord, Cult of Fire, and a select few others. They also don’t tinker for the sake of it – the upper crust quality of each release exemplifies creative zeal to a level that few achieve. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEHUMANIZING ITATRAIN WORSHIP — “2D COMPLEX”

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Jul 082026

(written by Islander)

The best anime death metal from China! That sounds like a narrow niche, doesn’t it? It’s also a description that leaves some big unanswered questions about what the music sounds like – questions we will help answer today.

But first, there’s a question about the meaning of this band’s name – Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship. They have answered that question: “The band name ‘Itatrain’ actually comes from a viral 2012 incident in Shanghai: a fan was caught kneeling and worshipping a train decorated with ‘LoveLive!’ characters. We thought that kind of fanaticism was both stupid and hilarious at the time, so we decided to name the band after it.”

The LoveLive! multimedia anime universe has also played a role in the music of Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship. Their vocalist Kiryu Zhang admits that “on our previous efforts, people probably saw us as just that ‘weird anime slam band’ sampling LoveLive! for shock value.” But what began as a “meme” bedroom project has survived for a decade, and the music has considerably evolved as well.

Perhaps one sign of that is the fact that it’s our site that was invited to premiere the band’s new album, 2D Complex (二次元コンプレックス), in advance of its July 10 release by Stillbirth Records and Gore House Productions. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Jul 082026

(Andy Synn has four more albums from last month that he needs you to check out)

I’m in a bit of a rush today, so don’t have time for much of a preamble here… suffice it to say that June was a very busy month, for everyone here at NCS, which has left us with a lot of stuff to catch up on.

Which is why you’re getting a second edition of “Things You May Have Missed” today, following on from last week’s equally killer quartet of recent releases.

AN NCE PREMIERE: SUFFERING QUOTA — “OVERPOWERING WEIGHT”

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Jul 072026

(written by Islander)

Three years ago we introduced the premiere of a Suffering Quota song with these words:

“Adjectives like ‘terrorizing’ and ‘explosive’ have tended to surround the music of the Dutch grindcore band Suffering Quota like swarms of angry hornets. Of course, sensations of fury and violence are endemic to a lot of grindcore, but adjectives like those don’t always come to mind as frequently as they do with this band.

“Yet those aspects of their music, while integral and vital to what they do, really aren’t all that sets them apart from a lot of their peers. What really sets them apart is the feeling that they’d get bored just blowing off the doors in listeners’ heads and wrecking the hell out of whatever’s inside. It’s got to be more interesting than that.”

We’ve repeated those words because they still hold true for the band’s new album Sisyphean Life, which will be released on September 25th by Tartarus Records in collaboration with 7 Degrees Records. We’re again in the fortunate position of proving the point with a premiere, this time a song from the new record named “Overpowering Weight” (and we have some thoughts about the album as a whole too). Continue reading »

NO CURE – IT IS GOING TO GET DARK

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Jul 062026

(Andy Synn shares his thoughts on one of his most anticipated albums of the year)

What’s the difference between Metal and Hardcore?

Some people, of course, see the two as entirely separate things… and refuse to have anything to do with the other one… but the truth is that Metal, Hardcore, Punk, Grind, etc, have always existed as part of a greater continuum – not a linear spectrum, by any means, but a complex, interwoven web of inputs and influences, constructions and perceptions – that doesn’t necessarily divide the genres into neatly defined little niches.

Take Alabama’s No Cure, for example, who are most definitely a Hardcore band – they even describe themselves as “the world’s most evil straight-edge band” – but who aren’t afraid of acknowledging that, in their own way, bands like Sepultura, Machine Head, and Dying Fetus have had almost as much impact and influence on their sound as the likes of Earth Crisis, Hatebreed, and The Acacia Strain.

So it’s more than fitting that their new album, set for release this Friday, has a little bit of all those bands in it, while still being defiantly its own thing.

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XXIX: SUMMER SOLSTICE

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Jul 062026

(We welcome back Daniel Barkasi with another collection of reviews and recommendations of albums released in the month just ended, this time June 2026.)

The summer solstice came on June 21, and it’s been a wild ride so far in 2026. New house in a new state, new baby horse (Ezri is doing awesome). What’s also new – for me, anyway – is not being cooked alive by the temperature at this point in the year. It has been a comforting 70 – 75°F (around 21– 24°C) for a lot of the time here in the WV mountains. Then there’s Florida, where the real feel temperature has been as high as a sweat-farming 110°F (a hair over 43°C).

I used a past tense in describing the amazing weather we were having, but alas, a taste of Florida has arrived, with those same boiling conditions. Talk about perspiration soup. I miss some things about the home of the infamous Florida man, but not that. With that, it’s been a regular refreshing of cold water for all of the outdoor animals, as well as shearing the sheep – which was quite the ordeal, but absolutely necessary to prepare.

At the beginning of June, we also got to attend an event a little different from music, but with a connection for many who enjoy this sort of music – a horror convention. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MORTEM, SOL SISTERE, EXITIUM SUI, DENEVÉR, RIVERS ABLAZE, MIND AFFLICTION, LECHUZA

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Jul 052026

(written by Islander)

As you can see, despite yesterday being the Fourth of July, I carved out enough time to find music worth recommending today. I had made some of today’s selections before yesterday but completed the grouping while people were getting ready to make a lot of loud noises last night — or so I thought, because I made one last-minute addition this morning.

As usual, there’s considerable variance among the following songs, because I really do believe (as a long-dead poet said) that variety is the spice of life, and because black metal these days offers tremendous variety. Having said that, the first five selections and the final one all prominently feature keyboards in important roles, though they don’t sound alike either. There are some genuine head-twisters down below as well. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Jul 022026

(Andy Synn wants you to check out these four albums you may have missed in June)

There’s an unfortunate “catch-22” involved in these “things you may have missed” columns… because while they’re important as away of catching you all up on, well, things you may have missed (the clue is in the title) they also take up time and energy that might otherwise be expended on upcoming albums instead.

Of course, while we do love getting advance promos here at NCS (hint, hint) a lot of what we do (well, a lot of what DGR and I do) is finding newly and/or recently released stuff and trying to signal boost it once it’s already out in the world, and right now there’s only a handful of albums in my extensive “to do” list that haven’t actually been released yet (though I’ve got one lined up for Monday that will definitely please any fans of ultra-heavy Metallic Hardcore among you).

So maybe I shouldn’t sweat it so much… maybe we’re always going to be playing catch-up and the thing to focus on is that getting the music into the right ears is more important than getting it out there in advance.

And in that spirit, here’s four from June (with another four to follow next week) that you might not have heard yet, all of whom focus on the darkest side of the metallic spectrum in one way or another.

JUNIUS – SOTERA

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Jun 292026

(Andy Synn catches up with a band we’ve featured a lot of over the years)

With so much music being released all the time, by both new bands and old ones, it’s all too easy to lose track of even your favourite artists.

Case in point, has it really been nine years since the most recentl album from Boston-based Post-Rock-influenced, Shoegaze-inspired Alt-Metallers Junius?

Well, apparently it has (not counting an interim Live Album from 2024), and while nine years definitely isn’t the longest gap between albums I’ve ever heard of (I’m still waiting patiently for that new Anata album) it’s definitely enough time that you might be wondering if the band have still “got it”.

So, let’s find out, shall we?

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