THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Oct 092023
 

(Andy Synn highlights four albums from last month you need to listen to)

There’s two things you need to know about this column.

  1. It’s usually done sooner than this but, since I didn’t get back into the country until Wednesday last week, I didn’t have chance to write everything up until now.
  2. I normally try and present a pretty varied grab-bag of albums and artists in each article… but this time I’ve dedicated it solely to some of the nastiest, gnarliest, and most unfriendly sounds from September.

So, with all that in mind, let’s see what this latest edition of “Things You May Have Missed” has to offer, shall we?

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: WAYFARER, ENDOLITH, TROUNCE, KRÂEL, KING KAOS, DOMINION OF SUFFERING, PHOBONOID

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 072023
 


Wayfarer – photo by Frank Guerra

Another Bandcamp Friday again overwhelmed the NCS in-box as bands, labels, and PR agents sought to capitalize on Bandcamp’s reduced take from sales. A similar deluge washed through social media, and every other channel where I look for new music.

It really is overwhelming, and probably self-defeating. Ironically, releasing new music on a Bandcamp Friday is probably the best strategy for getting overlooked — drowned in the flood.

It certainly adds to the stresses of creating this weekly column. I fantasize that the point of it is to help guide people toward musical gems, even though in even a normal week I know it’s still a very random process because I can’t listen to everything that might interest me or you. In a week like the last one, the process of sifting becomes an even more ridiculous challenge.

All I can say is that I enjoyed what you’ll find below, and hope that you make some valuable discoveries from it too. (And don’t bash me for overlooking a couple dozen more songs, not to mention complete albums and EPs, that would have been just as worthy of attention.) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MORNE, BEYOND GRACE, AUTARKH, PYROLATROUS, NÁSVELGR, CONVOCATION, BLUT AUS NORD

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 052023
 

September 16th was the last time I was able to assemble one of these roundups of new music and videos, partly due to my missing four days at the site while attending a recent wedding in California. Needless to say, the backlog of new music that interests me swelled to enormous proportions in the interim.

In deciding what to recommend today I defaulted to the most recent releases. Prowling back through everything of interest that emerged over the last three weeks was just too daunting a task, which tends to be Sisyphean even when I’m not missing in action. Hope you get a kick (in the ass or head) from what I chose.

MORNE (U.S.)

Morne’s 40-minute new album plays out across only four songs, which tells you that they’re all substantial in length. One of those premiered this week, along with a very good video, and when I heard it the first time I felt both emotionally and physically crushed. Of course, therefore, I liked it immediately. Here’s what Morne‘s Polish-born guitarist/vocalist Miłosz Gassan said about it: Continue reading »

REVENANT MARQUIS: AN INTERVIEW BY NEILL JAMESON AND THE PREMIERE OF “ALL THE PLEASURES OF HEAVEN”

 Album Reviews, Interviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 052023
 

(On October 6th Death Prayer Records will release All the Pleasures of Heaven, the final album by the Welsh black metal band Revenant Marquis. Today we are privileged to present an interview by Neill Jameson (of Krieg) with S., the person behind Revenant Marquis, followed by a premiere stream of the new album.)

It becomes difficult, after being involved in a scene for so long, to overcome that jaded, nearly apathetic feeling and truly lose yourself in someone’s music fully. For the last few years I’ve felt this way about Revenant Marquis. Truly unique and disturbing black metal, created alongside an unnerving aesthetic, Revenant Marquis stands as one of the most authentic voices of horror in a cacophony of lesser acts vying for attention.

Manifesting his first recording in 2019, Revenant Marquis has cast a long shadow across twelve public releases, with his newest, All the Pleasures of Heaven being the final, and darkest, spell he has brought to life. Today we have the honor of presenting this record to you as well as the final words from the man himself. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, SEPTEMBER 2023

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 052023
 

(Our Denver-based contributor Gonzo is back with another end-of-month column, recommending five albums released in September that he thoroughly enjoyed.)

I have to admit that I love fall, if for no other reason than the temperatures stop trying to boil me alive.

Music-wise, though, there was actually too much good shit that came out in September than I had time to write about, so I had to trim down some stuff that otherwise would’ve appeared here. But I loved what ended up making the cut – some of it was full of surprises, and some of it was stuff that lived up to the hype.

Let’s get weird. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRYMYCH — “SONGS OF SISTRUM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 042023
 

The mysterious Welsh band Crymych are one of a small handful of secretive bands called the Pembrokeshire Black Circle, so named because of their location in the county of Pembrokeshire in the southwest of Wales, bounded on three sides by the ocean. Apart from Crymych, the best known member of the Circle is Revenant Marquis (who will be the subject of an interview by Neill Jameson and an album premiere we will publish tomorrow).

Crymych made their second release last year with an album on Death Prayer Records fittingly named Endless Fucking Winter (available here) (their first album Du Bach came out the year before that). This writer tumbled to Endless Fucking Winter thanks to its appearance on Neill Jameson‘s year-end list at Invisible Oranges. He wrote this about it:

If Voivod were mostly an ambient band when they recorded but also rooted in black metal and also had Jouni Havukainen sit in and contribute then you’re close to how I would describe Endless Fucking Winter and I’d still be off the mark. Coming from the same circle as Revenant Marquis, this Welsh collective aesthetically fell in line with their compatriots but managed to craft an atmosphere unlike almost anything I’ve ever heard. Deranged, challenging and yet very memorable, Endless Fucking Winter seemed to fly under the radar for many this year, which is a shame as it’s pure excellence.

Having heard that album, we were quite excited to learn that Crymych had followed it up fairly quickly. And it will be in your hands and heads very quickly too, with a release date on October 6th via the same Death Prayer Records — preceded by a full premiere stream right now. Continue reading »

CONCERT REVIEW: VOLA, BENT KNEE, AND WHEEL – Denver CO, Sept. 15, 2023

 Concert Reviews  9 Responses »
Sep 282023
 


VOLA – photo by Heli Andrea

(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo had himself a hell of a good time at a show about two weeks ago, and made time to show his appreciation in the following review.)

Denmark’s VOLA has always been a fascinating band to me. On one hand, their sound is an angular, merciless assortment of riffs that pay homage to the likes of Meshuggah, while on the other hand, one could be forgiven for comparing their vocals to that of Radiohead.

It sounds like a confusing juxtaposition on paper. But the way these Danes (and one Swede) in VOLA have cultivated their sound into its final form is no less remarkable. Their 2022 album Witness was a favorite of mine from that year and continues to get much of my attention now.

When they announced their biggest North American run yet, I circled the date on my calendar and let the excitement build. My hopes were already high, but the addition of Finland’s Wheel and Boston’s Bent Knee as supporting acts only bolstered the anticipation levels.

The result, as it turned out, would be a night I would not soon forget. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SINNERY — “BELOW THE SUMMIT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Sep 282023
 

Last year we opened the floodgates on a great volume of words when we premiered and reviewed a new album named Black Bile by the Israeli band Sinnery. We were delivering a full stream of the album, so what was the point of all those words?

The point was to try to wake people up and get them to look past the simple genre descriptions of “thrash” or “death/thrash” that seemed to follow the band around like lost dogs. The point was that Sinnery‘s music is much more multi-faceted and thus much more interesting than the labels might suggest — and also even more riotously exhilarating.

Black Bile was so damned good that we’re very damned fortunate Sinnery have quickly followed it up, releasing three singles this year and now a new EP named Below the Summit that includes those, plus two more tracks. Once again, we’ve got a full stream for you, and once again a torrent of words. Continue reading »

MERCENARY – SOUNDTRACK FOR THE END TIMES

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 272023
 

(Andy Synn catches up with a band who we haven’t checked in with in quite a while)

Change, as they say, is the one universal constant. But that doesn’t mean that change is always good. Or, at least, it’s not always perceived (or received) that way.

Case in point, following the departure of the Sandagger brothers in 2009 Mercenary were – rightly or wrongly – criticised for, ahem, metamorphosing from the distinctive Prog/Power/Death Metal hybrid they used to be into a more groove-focussed, Metalcore-ish “Nu-Melodeath” act in the vein of bands like Caliban, Deadlock, etc.

Much of the blame was placed, unfairly, on bassist (and now primary vocalist) René Pedersen – mostly, it seemed, because his singing style was supposedly less “epic” and more “emo” than his predecessor – even though the core guitar duo of Jakob Mølbjerg and Martin Buus (who have, at the time of writing this, now been playing together for over twenty years!) remained unchanged.

But the truth of the matter is that there was no one person responsible for the band’s downturn in fortunes, it’s simply that, for a while, they didn’t seem to know quite who they were, or who they wanted to be, any more.

But on their new album Mercenary sound more like… well, Mercenary… than they have in years!

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: RORCAL – SILENCE

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 262023
 

(We’re honoured to be hosting the premiere of Rorcal‘s new album in advance of its September 29 release by Hummus Records, with words by our own Andy Synn)

Success, or so they say, can be a double-edged sword.

What, for example, do you do after releasing an album which – in my opinion, at least – is both the very definition of a true cult classic and one of the best records of the year? How do you follow something like that?

Some bands double down on what already worked. Others switch things up and try a different approach.

But Rorcal… they just reached even deeper down into that aching, infinitely empty pit of gnawing hunger and nameless horror that exists within their collective soul and tore loose another spiteful slab of auditory darkness that they chose to call Silence.

Continue reading »

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