BIZARRE / DEMO-ESQUE BLACK METAL OF 2024: SO FAR, SO GOOD, SO WHAT?

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 142024
 

(Axel Stormbreaker returns… with his list of top obscurities released so far in the current year)

2024 has been a fun year so far. So much so that I’m giving you a short list of random goodies I’ve been enjoying. Since most selections here have only been released digitally, better mark my words, dear tape labels, ‘cos untold riches lie before you. You’ll be earning so much cash you won’t ever know how to spend it.

I’m pretty sure, now that I wrote this, that every band on my list gets filthy rich beyond their wildest imagination. Because everyone is hanging on my lips. I’m truly that amazing.

P.S.: Expect to read a lot of nonsense that may hopefully make a whole lot of sense. It’s the only serious thing about this prologue, anyway. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABERRATION AND DIABOLIC OATH — “DIVINATIONS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jan 042024
 

Last month we did doing something we almost never do — premiered brief excerpts from songs off a forthcoming release, just a teaser of the full thing to come. The release in question is a 7″ split called Divinations that will be released by Sentient Ruin Laboratories on January 5th.

The split includes one song each from the U.S. black/death metal bands Aberration and Diabolic Oath. It is a timely release, not only because it helps kick off 2024 in obliterating fashion but also because the spring of 2024 will bring us new full-length albums from both bands, Aberration’s Refracture and Diabolic Oath’s still secretive but completed second full-length, and so the split functions as a precursor and taste of horrific things to come.

If you heard the teaser, you’ll probably understand why we agreed to share it despite our usual reticence to premiere anything but complete songs or full releases. But if you caught that teaser premiere, you also know that we promised to stream this split in full when the time was right. And the time is right now. Continue reading »

ENGULF – THE DYING PLANET WEEPS

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jan 042024
 

(Andy Synn turns his attention to the highly-anticipated debut album from Engulf, out 12 January)

There are two well-known truisms which spring to mind when listening to The Dying Planet Weeps.

The first is that “good artists borrow, great artists steal” – which states that while good artists borrow ideas from their influences, while still owing them a debt, the great ones simply take what they need and make it their own.

The other is that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (or, more accurately, “the whole is something besides the parts”, in its more accurate translation) – which is to suggest that defining the essence of something is about more than just describing the individual elements it’s made of.

And, make no mistake about it, while Engulf (aka New Jersey native Hal Microutsicos) assuredly steal from some of the very best here – you’ll find bits and pieces purloined from the likes of Morbid Angel, Immolation, Pestilence and Gorguts, and more besides, woven throughout The Dying Planet Weeps – the final product is certainly more than just the sum of these iconic inspirations.

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORGUE TERROR — “MORGUE TERROR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jan 032024
 

Today we welcome to our site (and to the rest of the world) a horror-themed death metal band from Buffalo, New York named Morgue Terror. It’s the work of two death metal fanatics — Dave (guitars) and Steve (bass and vocals) — who found their thematic inspiration in the Terrifier franchise of slasher films and their main antagonist, Art the Clown.

The movies left such a deep and gory mark that the band’s name is derived from a pivotal scene at the end of the first movie when Art the Clown emerges from a body bag, delivering a fatal blow to the coroner.

And beyond that, the five songs on Morgue Terror‘s self-titled debut EP, which we’re premiering in full today in advance of its January 5 release, delve into the murders and characters portrayed in both Terrifier movies.

As for the music itself, it’s an amalgam of varying death metal tropes, with each song deploying them in slightly different ways to create a dynamic — and demented — listening experience. Continue reading »

RESIN TOMB – CEREBRAL PURGATORY

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jan 022024
 

(Andy Synn kicks off the new year in style with down-under death-dealers Resin Tomb)

Almost exactly twelve months ago my first review of 2023 was for the debut album by an Australian band (whose previous EP had already impressed me) which I declared the first truly great Death Metal record of the year.

And while they say (quite incorrectly, as it turns out) that lightning never strikes twice and that history never repeats… here we are again in precisely the same situation.

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PANZERCHRIST — “ALL WITCHES SHALL BURN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 012024
 

Around the world, today is a day of firsts, because a new year has begun to bloom. And so it is the first day when everything you do is the first thing you will do in 2024. Here at NCS, we have our first post of the new year, our first premiere, our first review, our first effort to help an extreme metal band begin tearing apart 2024 like the hated thing it will probably become.

And not just any extreme metal band, but one whose storied history began 30 years ago, took a decade-long pause, and then came roaring back in 2023. And yes, it was just last summer when the Danish death/black metal band Panzerchrist released their comeback album Last Of A Kind, which we proudly premiered here.

To prove that they have no intention of returning to hibernation, Panzerchrist are quickly following that album with a new EP named All Witches Shall Burn. Emanzipation Productions, the same label that brought forth the band’s auspicious comeback record, will be releasing the new EP on January 5th, and we’re again in the fortunate position of hosting a full stream today.

The new EP proves to be an excellent way of beginning 2024, because it will clear out the morning-after New Year’s Eve gunk from your head right damned fast. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PHANTOM LUNG — “ABHORRENT ENTITY III: SOLIVAGANT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 292023
 

Today, December 29th, the Toronto band Phantom Lung are releasing the final EP in a trilogy of EPs that share the name Abhorrent Entity. The full title of the new one is Abhorrent Entity iii: solivagant, and to help spread the word we’re presenting a full stream of it for you.

We’ve previously shared our thoughts about the first two EPs in the trilogy. In an effort to sum up the first one, which was released last March, we wrote that it is “massive and mauling… so ugly and unhinged, so combative and confrontational, so ruthless and so exhilarating, that we can’t help but love it, even if the attitude might be interpreted as ‘fuck off and die!’”.

The second one, Abhorrent entity ii: moribund, was no less confrontational. As we wrote of that one, it was a ruinously destructive sonic demolition job – savage, corrosive, ravenous, and a brute-force slugfest too, yet with musical elements that at times also made the song sound grim and unearthly. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 282023
 

(Andy Synn delivers one final retrospective on albums from 2023 you may have overlooked)

Hey everyone, I’m back, feeling fully refreshed and ready to rumble after my week (and a bit) hiatus.

Before I get fully stuck into 2024’s upcoming slate of releases I’ve got two more pieces for 2023 for you all to enjoy – namely my last Synn Report of the year (coming on Friday) and this extra-big edition of “Things You May Have Missed”.

Now unlike previous editions, this one won’t just be focussing on albums from the last month (though there’s seven – I think – albums from December featured here) but will also take a look back at certain albums from the past year that I either didn’t get the chance to cover at the time, didn’t discover until much later, or just wanted to highlight one more time for people to check out.

Of course, even so there’s more artists and albums I wanted to include than I had space or time for – so I’d urge you, if you have any extra time, to check out the new Moonreich (which almost made my “Personal Top Ten“, Rosa Faenskap (which did) and Witch Ripper (which I know was on my “Critical Top Ten“, but still seems to have flown under a few radars) – but first, feel free to go through everything I’ve featured here (which I’ve broken up into separate sub-categories) and check out a few things you may have missed!

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ENSLAVED, NOCTEM, OBSIDIAN TONGUE, BORKNAGAR, HAUNTOLOGIST, MAUDISSEZ

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Dec 242023
 

For reasons explained yesterday, this is likely to be the last Shades of Black column until we reach Sunday, January 21st, when I hope I can then resume.

I barely have time for this one before the iron hand of commerce rudely forces my nose down to the grindstone again, even though the nose is already ground down to a nub. So let’s get right to it.

P.S. If you don’t see something here you wish I had included, see yesterday’s explanation and then feel free to mention the release in a comment and share a stream link. Continue reading »

THE WEEKS AHEAD (AND SOME MUSIC NOW)

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Dec 232023
 

I didn’t name this column “Seen And Heard On A Saturday” because it’s not the usual assortment of recommended new songs and videos, though I do have a few of those in here at the end. Mainly I wanted to let people know what’s going on at NCS and what the next few weeks will look like.

We’re still in the midst of our annual Listmania orgy, though nearing the end of its main phases. Our Readers’ Lists (in the comments on this post) are still growing, and the only way that stops growing is when people lose interest in 2023 and wholly give themselves over to 2024. We’ve completed rolling out the lists we traditionally share from bigger platforms than our own. And we’re well along in the rollout of lists from our writers and usual guests.

At this point I have three more of those latter lists to present, in addition to the final two Parts of Neill Jameson‘s 5-part list. I’ll get all of those posted in the coming week after Christmas Day. Another list or two might arrive after I write this, and might spill over into the week after next.

Next week I’ve also got three premieres on the schedule, and then five more for the first week of 2024. But beginning that week, things are going to have to change around here. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries