HETROERTZEN: “AIN SOPH AUR”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 142014
 

 

Here and there, Ain Soph Sur is adorned with the trappings of ecclesiastical music — angelic choirs and near-operatic male vocals, monastic chants and Latin verses, an overarching aura of mysticism and stately grandeur. In these moments, you can almost smell the aroma of incense wafting from a swinging thurible, and I half-expected to hear the chords of a cathedral organ (actually, I think I do hear them on one song).

But if the album sometimes brings to mind the musical accompaniment to a mass, it is a Luciferian hymnal, a celebration of the coming of the light-bringer. In Qabbalistic philosophy, “Ain Soph Aur” is an aspect of the Absolute —  the limitless or eternal light; in this album, it burns like a conquering fire. Continue reading »

INTERVOID: “WEAPONIZED”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Dec 102014
 

(Guest writer Booker returns to NCS after an extended hiatus with this review of the new album by Intervoid from the wilds of northeast Ohio.)

There are those who follow, and then there are those who take another path. We probably all like to think that the world of metal is made up of people who fit into the latter group. Maybe you like to think you’re part of that group, too, and that this bent in your character has made you take the red pill and set in motion a series of events that has led you, inexorably, here. But there’s an even more extreme group who throw all semblance of caution to the wind, raise middle fingers to the gods, and have the temerity to… release an album in December.

I can hear you screaming in disbelief, “Who would do such a thing?!”. Yes, who would… who would violate the sacred sanctity of the year-end list, which now has spread into November like an out-of-control blob consuming ever more months in an ever-increasing race to be first. Maybe these people know something we don’t? Maybe they’ve just got better things to do than to schedule their musical creations around the whims of the internet metal nerds? I have another idea – they are not human. And this brings us to Intervoid, whose debut LP just dropped as a late-breaking treat to top off the year. Continue reading »

“F” EVERYTHING: FIEND AND FVCK MOUNTAIN

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 072014
 

 

(DGR brings us some ugly ass music for the end of an ugly ass week.)

Allow me to be short and succinct with this opener: Work has kicked my ass these past two weeks and the holiday music is really starting to get to me. Long story short: Here’s two recent discoveries of sonic destruction that I’ve been using to sandblast my brain smooth so as to forget all forty thousand versions of Little Drummer Boy that I have to listen to each night while working on these projects/messes. Both albums are currently name your own price and conveniently enough, came out in October of this year.

FIEND

When it comes to grind releases, for me it’s a tossup as to whether or not I’ll truly enjoy it. Part of the reason is that there are subsections of grind that feel like the ultimate pick-up-and-play genre — just slam around on your instruments for a while and about five minutes later its guaranteed you’re going to have, well, something. Continue reading »

DOWNFALL OF GAIA: “AEON UNVEILS THE THRONES OF DECAY”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Dec 042014
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews the new album by Downfall of Gaia, out now on the Metal Blade label.)

While my metal tastes are not as honed in on the ongoing post-metal wave as on other genres, I can always respect and love a band of any stripe who go beyond the tropes and usual containments of a style to find their own identities, alone in a place none have gone before. Bands like that are worth the investment of time in what they have to say about the world and themselves.

That’s precisely how I feel about the new Downfall Of Gaia album, Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay. The only other reference that might give you a ballpark idea of their territory is Agrimonia — both have perfected a blend of post-metal and crust-punk woven into a swirling, multi-genre template that retains an aggression lost in most post-metal, although Downfall Of Gaia thread in a lot of menacing black metal, full of killer riffs, into their tapestry, with many more aggressive moments than in Agrimonia’s music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ADVERSARIAL AND PAROXSIHZEM — NEW MUSIC FROM “WARPIT OF COILING ATROCITIES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Dec 042014
 

 

When I first learned that Vault of Dried Bones would be releasing an album-length split by Adversarial and Paroxsihzem, entitled Warpit of Coiling Atrocities, I simultaneously experienced both a thrill and a chilling sensation, like a burst of adrenaline as the blood started freezing in my veins. I haven’t yet heard the complete results of this destructive alliance, but I have heard two of the songs on Warpit, and I got the thrill/chill all over again, big time. Now you’ll get a chance to hear them, too, as we  bring you the premiere of one song by each band from the split.

Both of these Toronto bands’ last releases came out in 2012 — Adversarial’s split with Antediluvian (reviewed here) and Paroxsihzem’s self-titled debut album. Both of them were hellholes of violence and depravity, which is to say they were excellent. So are these two songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHED THE SKIN — “THE SKAPHE OF CHRIST / REBIRTH THROUGH BRIMSTONE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Dec 032014
 

 

You may not be familiar with the name Shed the Skin, but chances are you’ll recognize the names of some of its members.  This Ohio-based band is new, but the line-up includes drummer Kyle Severn (Incantation), guitarist Matt Sorg (Ringworm), vocalist/guitarist Ash Thomas (Vladimirs, Faithxtractor), bassist Ed Stephens (Ringworm), and Brian Boston (ex-From the Depths) on keyboards. Hells Headbangers will soon be releasing their debut two-song EP and today we’re bringing you a stream of the first track:  “The Skaphe of Christ / Rebirth Through Brimstone”.

Shed the Skin took shape when Sorg and Severn played together in a tribute to Cleveland’s Blood of Christ at a memorial show for their friend Tom Rojack (Blood of Christ’s 1993 promo EP included the song “Shed the Skin”), and then decided to forge ahead by recruiting the rest of the band’s impressive line-up. Continue reading »

VORDE: “VORDE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 022014
 

 

(Wil Cifer reviews the debit album by New York City’s Vorde, released last month by Fallen Empire.)

Fallen Empire Records keeps their streak of great black metal alive with Vorde. Vorde are not strangers to the scene, with members in Fell Voices and Ruin Lust. The album opens with  the kind of dark ambience  commonly found with projects on the label’s roster. When the metal erupts it’s fairly straightforward black metal, until the vocals come in.

The vocals are a distant, gurgled moan that hovers over the faster riffs. It sometimes rises into something closer to singing, accented with a punchy rasp. The use of clean vocals set against the dissonance and airy bleakness called forth is similar to Urfaust. At times the singer’s delivery is not unlike Attila’s, as opposed to the singer from Urfaust who has slightly more command to his vocal tone. Continue reading »

THAT’S MUSIC, BUT IT’S NOT METAL: THE UGLY FACADE — MANY WATERS

 Album Reviews, That's Music -- But It's Not Metal  2 Responses »
Dec 022014
 

 

(BadWolf has been missing in action for a while, spending much of his blog time helping to run the esteemed Invisible Oranges, but today he re-surfaces with a new post in an NCS series he created to take us off our usual beaten paths,)

I’m pretty certain I am the strongest proponent of California resident Jerimiah Johnson’s one-man industrial rock-pop outfit The Ugly Façade that exists. However I’m pretty sure that’s more a result of lack of exposure than a mark of quality, because The Ugly Façade is the real deal, as evidenced by Johnson’s latest album (more of an EP, really) Many Waters, now available at any price on Bandcamp.

I first became aware of The Ugly Façade in the wake of an article I wrote for Stereogum.com about Trent Reznor, the musician behind Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is one of my favorite songwriters on earth, and while Nine Inch Nails is not precisely metal, or extreme, the band has a large following in the metal subculture, and has had a profound influence on several groups, including The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Faceless, Author & Punisher, and others. Continue reading »

NERO DI MARTE: “DERIVAE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 022014
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn sings the praises of the latest album by Nero Di Marte from Bologna, Italy.)

It’s inevitable, given how many albums are released each year, that some of them end up slipping through the cracks. Heck, I’m currently putting together all my year-end lists and finding – to my horror and shame – that we’ve accidentally overlooked a number of this year’s best albums, and simply haven’t given them the attention they rightly deserved.

So you see, even your superfluously talented writers here at NCS aren’t completely infallible.

Much like DGR’s recent write-up of the latest Goatwhore album, my review for Derivae has been sitting on the backburner for a while (though, thankfully, nowhere near as long!), while I’ve been searching for the right words to describe it… as well as the time and opportunity to put my thoughts down on digital paper.

Thankfully it seems that time has finally come, because the Italian quartet’s second album is easily one of the best, and most under-appreciated, albums released this year. Continue reading »

UNSACRED: “FALSE LIGHT”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Dec 012014
 

 

(In this post, guest contributor Will Cifer reviews False Light, the forthcoming debut album by Virginia’s Unsacred.)

This Virginia band explodes from the start with an impressive burst of feral black metal. The vocals are as hateful a rasp as anything you could ask for from the States. The vocals sit up front in the mix rather than the more typical buried placement. There is a constrained chaos to the attack, making the triumphant gallops stand out.

With most heavy releases, the opening song is impressive by virtue of the sheer violence this sort of music invokes, so it’s up to the band from that point on to prove they can not only maintain the quality, but also continue to write actual engaging songs. So when Unsacred followed the opening title track with the more punk-paced “Idle”, I began to adjust my expectations. In this song, they lean heavily on blast beats and tremolo picking, sticking to the more cookie-cutter black metal approach that they defied on the first song. Continue reading »

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