MEPHORASH – KRYSTL-AH

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Nov 072023
 

(Andy Synn lavishes praise and worship on the new album from Mephorash, out Friday)

I love a band with ambition, don’t you?

Don’t get me wrong, there are often times when all I’m looking for are some meaty riffs and tasty hooks, and any band that can satisfy that craving is a band I’ll probably come back to again and again, but there’s something to be said about swinging for the fences, going the extra mile and… other, related clichés.

Whatever you want to call it, that’s exactly what Mephorash have done on Krystl-Ah, employing a twelve-person choir (paid for entirely out of their own pockets) and a variety of other instrumental embellishments and creative collaborators to help their music achieve its ultimate form.

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THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 062023
 

(Andy Synn presents four more artists/albums from last month which you may not have heard)

Would you look at that… it’s somehow November already. Which means, in a little over a month, I’ll be taking over NCS for a full week and publishing my lengthy round-up of all the Great, Good, and Disappointing releases of the year – the ones I’ve heard and feel at least semi-qualified to give an opinion of – culminating in my usual Critical and Personal top ten lists.

As always, it’s impossible for me to listen to, or cover, everything that’s released over the course of a year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and squeeze in as many reviews and recommendations as I can before then.

Making the decision of who/what to include, however, seems to be getting harder and harder – albums which almost made the cut this month include END‘s absolutely devastating The Sin of Human Frailty, the stellar debut album from Voidescent, and the predictably excellent new record from Slidhr – but I’m confident that the four selections I’ve made, two of which were “surprise” released without any warning or fanfare, will be well worth your time (and mine).

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THE LUNA SEQUENCE: “I ONLY REMEMBER FALLING”

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Nov 062023
 

(Oakland-based The Luna Sequence brought us a new album in September, and today DGR brings us his extensive reactions to the new music.)

Those who’ve walked many miles with our site will know that there are a few things we love to do around here. We like some good off the wall cover art that’ll blind people, we love us some patterns and numbers to nerd out on, and we love making the joke about getting around the ‘no clean singing’ rule – because when have we ever broken that before? – by reviewing music that has no singing at all.

Then you get into the more personal enjoyment that specific authors gain a rise out of, and in this case, yours truly absolutely enjoys throwing electronics and industrial projects on the main page, just knowing that it is going to be completely different from the wall-to-wall brutality/banshee-shrieking we enjoy posting on a day-to-day basis.

Luckily, musician Kaia Young has proven to be a bastion and has been able to provide on more than one occasion the opportunity to knock out two birds with one stone, and do both the ‘no clean singing’ joke and the electronics side of thing with their The Luna Sequence project. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: THE AMENTA, STILLNESS OF A DYING WORLD, EXCOMMUNICATIO, DELETRIX

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Nov 052023
 

Welcome back, or welcome for the first time. For those who were with me for yesterday’s round-up, I’ll spare you a detailed update on my vaccine-induced congestion and say only that my body’s mucus factory is still vigorously pumping out the product, my wishes be damned.

Like yesterday, I wish I could have made this collection longer. Under the circumstances (which include a rare outing from my hermitage with my spouse this morning), it’s the best I could do. I did attempt to make it a varied experience, with a curveball at the end.

THE AMENTA (Australia)

Well of course we’re leading this column with a new video from The Amenta, because we’re nothing if not slavish in our attention to what they do.

It makes a special kind of sense today because the song that’s the subject of the video is The Amenta‘s cover of Diamanda Galás‘ hymn to Satan, “Sono L’Antichristo“, which originally appeared on her Plague Mass album. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SANCTUM SATHANAS — “INTO THE ETERNAL SATANIC DAMNATION”

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Nov 032023
 

Well, strictly speaking, this isn’t a premiere. Due to getting our wires crossed, the album we’re writing about was actually released by Inferna Profundus Records two days ago. But what the hell, it will be a premiere for some of you landing at this page who haven’t yet discovered the album, so we’re forging ahead anyway.

And to be sure, Into the Eternal Satanic Damnation is an album worth discovering. It’s the debut full-length by the Chilean band Sanctum Sathanas, which is principally the project of Magister Nihilifer Vendetta 218 (aka Magus Xem Deitus) from Funeral Fullmoon, Blood For Satan, Faustian Spirit, and Vanagandr, joined for this album by drummer Unholy Tormentor.

You already understand, of course, that the album is a form of wrathful devotion to Lucifer (and indeed “Wrathful Devotion” is the name of the record’s closing track). Yet realizing that will still leave many questions unanswered about how the devotion is expressed and whether it will prove inspirational to listeners — questions answered today. Continue reading »

БѢСЪ: “Ѿ ЛУКÁВАГѠ”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 032023
 

(Here we present Didrik Mešiček‘s enthusiastic review of the just-released second album by the Russian black metal band Бѣсъ.)

Well, that’s a lot of signs we’ve not seen before, isn’t it? It turns out this is some sort of old Russian Cyrillic (possibly Old Church Slavonic?) that even I, as a Slav who can generally read Cyrillic, can’t decipher. (I found out after writing this intro that the band translates the album title to “Ov the Devil”.)

Behind the name hides a Moscow-based black metal band, founded as recently as 2019. I first noticed them with their debut album, Кощунства (2020) which already had some really cool tracks and ended up just missing my top 20 list that year. Ѿ Лукáвагѡ was released on October 27th independently. Continue reading »

GALUNDO TENVULANCE: “LUNAR ECLIPTURE”

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Nov 032023
 

(Here is DGR‘s review of the debut album by the Japanese band Galundo Tenvulance, which was released in August by the Spiritual Beast label.)

In spite of the constant theme of the world being in ever increasingly garbage shape, the year 2021 did give me a gift in the form of Japan’s mouthful of a name melodeath group Galundo Tenvulance.

I’ve never looked up the meaning behind the name nor do I have any interest in doing so — I couldn’t bear to have the magic broken for me. I gain an inordinate amount of joy out of seeing that name placed in large font across our website – no doubt to more than the few raised eyebrows that I could imagine.

Prior to this year the young group had only had two EPs and a single to their name, with the EPs perfectly placed to be written about right around the time there was just enough of a lull in metal releases that I could really dive in and analyze the band as they grew into their own and tried new things.

Galundo Tenvulance‘s year-over-year churn has resulted in us covering both their 2021 EP Tenvulance and their 2022 EP The Disruptor Descends. In the time since, the keyboard-wielding younglings have had their lineup shifted about, a new face joining complete with new voice on the vocal front. All in time for the release of a 2023 full-length via Spiritual Beast entitled Lunar Eclipture. Continue reading »

FOREVER PLAYING CATCH UP (2023 EDITION) PART 3

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 022023
 

(Our old friend and former NCS writer Austin Weber is returning to our page today with the third part of a multi-part series of reviews that we plan to run day after day until completed. You’ll find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.)

Despite the incredible volume of music covered here at NCS, there remains a plethora of noteworthy releases yet to be shared in this space. Chalk it up to how much damn good stuff deserves the limelight and doesn’t get it because we all know this site already covers more than most as is.

As I’ve done in the past, join me for another multi-part feature that touches on music I strongly believe you should listen to—or at the very least, stuff worth checking out at a minimum. You be the judge. Onwards! Continue reading »

ROSA FAENSKAP – JEG BLIR TIL DEG

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 012023
 

(Andy Synn offers his effusive recommendation for the debut album of Norway’s Rosa Faenskap)

While common wisdom will tell you that making music isn’t a competition – in that you’re not directly trying to “beat” other bands – that assertion doesn’t necessarily tell the full story.

Make no mistake about it, being in a band means that you are, inevitably, “competing” in some way for people’s attention, for opportunities, for coverage and column inches… all of which, like it or not, are limited resources. In the end, there’s only so much of them to go around.

Case in point, while multiple outlets were quick (perhaps a little too quick) to heap praise upon Agriculture‘s self-titled album earlier this year (although my/our review was a little more critical than most) there’s been much less written about Jeg blir til deg, the certifiably unorthodox and certain-to-be-divisive debut from Norwegian trio Rosa Faenskap.

Which is a damn shame because, out of the two bands, it’s the latter who arguably deserve, and live up to, all the hype.

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AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PA VESH EN — “CATACOMBS”

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Nov 012023
 

In the late spring of this year the Belarusian raw black metal band Pa Vesh En released its fourth album Martyrs. Ever-prolific, Pa Vesh En is already returning with a fifth album, this newest one named Catacombs, and it’s being released today by Inferna Profundus Records.

What Pa Vesh En does from album to album is never entirely predictable, but one can predict that whatever variations might be introduced, the results will still be frightening, and so it is with Catacombs. Continue reading »

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