AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE TROOPS OF DOOM — “ANTICHRIST REBORN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 142022
 

 

The stars have aligned on Antichrist Reborn, the debut album by The Troops of Doom from Brazil. There are many stars within the underground firmament who have joined forces to create the album, and the music itself reaches us like lights across a void from a distant time, gleaming like brilliant obsidian arrays lit by hellish flames.

Among the human stars are the troops of doom themselves — former Sepultura guitarist Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz, bassist/vocalist Alex Kafer (Enterro, Explicit Hate, ex-Necromancer), drummer Alexandre Oliveira (Southern Blacklist, Raising Conviction), and guitarist Marcelo Vasco (Patria, Mysteriis, and acclaimed graphic artist for the likes of Slayer, Kreator, Machine Head, Soulfly, and Hatebreed).

In addition to them, the album includes guest performances by João Gordo (Ratos de Porão) and Alex Camargo and Moyses Kolesne from Krisiun.

And that still doesn’t touch every point in the constellation. The album was mixed by Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) at the The Abyss Studio and it was mastered by Jonas Kjellgren at Blacklounge. Moreover, the cover art was painted by Sergio “AlJarrinha” Oliveira, the artist behind the original artwork for Sepultura‘s Bestial Devastation. And physical editions of the album will be released by Alma Mater Records, the label owned by Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro.

All those stellar names seize attention, but for serious metal listeners only the music will count — as is only right. The names build expectations, but those hopes must be fulfilled in the sounds or the album will soon be forgotten.  We’ve already hinted at our own opinion — that Antichrist Reborn won’t soon be forgotten — but you can decide for yourselves today because we’re presenting a full stream of the record on the eve of its April 15th release. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FADEAD — “TERRA FERITA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 132022
 

 

Later this month Lethal Scissor Records will release the raging debut EP of an Italian grindcore band who call themselves Fadead and whose experienced line-up includes Y. (Vomit the Soul, ex-Precognitive Holocaust Annotations), V. (Spells of Misery, Bolvangar, Vertebra Atlantis), and R.

The name of the EP is Terra Ferita, and it comes recommended for fans of Nasum, Cripple Bastards, and Napalm Death. To help spread the word about it, last month we premiered a lyric video for a brutal two-minute assault named “L’estremità del mondo“. Today we prolong the assault by un-caging the entire EP so it can run rampant through your skull for… a whole nine minutes. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW AND REVIEW: EGREGORE

 Album Reviews, Interviews  1 Response »
Apr 122022
 

(We welcome Vancouver-based writer Hope Gould, who describes herself as “unconditionally committed to the underground, unreservedly devoted to riffs that fuck.” For her first NCS post she brings us this highly entertaining interview of Vancouver-based Egregore and a brief review of their forthcoming debut album.)

From the belly of Covenant, Canada’s Black Magick Inner Circle, Vancouver’s Egregore disgorge a potent elixir of Abraxian invocation on their debut album to be released by 20 Buck Spin on April 15th. On The Word of His Law, Egregore immerse those brave enough to traverse their bizarre labyrinth on a journey from the depths of evocative mental unrest to illuminating spiritual ascension.

The Word of His Law offers quality Black Death reverence in earnest, all while unravelling a masterclass in the unorthodox with unsettling synth, hypnotic chanting, and supplication by way of a Neo-folk passage. Emotive solos and leads are on dazzling display by guitarist and vocalist ESSENTIA COLLAPSE on tracks like “Howling Premonition” and “Libidinization of Will Azothic”, backed by utter percussive gluttony wielded by CATASTROPHE SATURNA. Continue reading »

DESERTED FEAR: “DOOMSDAY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 122022
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the latest album by the German band Deserted Fear, which is out now via Century Media.)

I’ve spent a lot of time staring at the list of stuff I’ve recently been cycling through for listening, trying to find some sort of overarching theme. Usually you can pin it down to the predictable seasonal shifts at work or the somewhat more nebulous ebbs and flows of heavy metal releases – both of which have been solidly upended over the past few years.

What I did notice, though, was the presence of a few releases early on in the year of the kind that I usually only expect to find one or two of throughout the year. Those are the melodeath releases that seem to revolve around a big, anthemic songwriting core. Those have been a recent development as of the mid-2000s as the genre began to fling itself around more and more in search of ways to stick out amidst an increasingly crowded style – many would argue it has been a stagnated style since the metalcore scene exploded.

While many bands would stick to the tried and true, and wound up with pretty much tried and true results, others would write these big, almost arena-rock-esque ‘us vs the world’ types of songs; many mid-tempo and often about as filled with a million guitar lines and melodies, as one might expect from the big auditorium-filling style. For some reason, it seems like many bands have had this sort of release in them, and at some point they’ll default to it for an album or two, with results that can be as vast as the number of bands doing it.

Which brings us to the deceptively death metal looking March release Doomsday by Germany’s Deserted Fear, which has somehow turned out to be their take on the big pyro-launching, guitar stomp spectacle. Continue reading »

WRETCHGOD – STYGIAN BLOOD RITUAL

 SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 112022
 

(Andy Synn uncovers a shiny new gem of an EP by Nebraska’s Wretchgod)

There’s a good chance that I won’t be around at NCS much this week, due to pressing business with my own band.

That being said, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pen a few words about Stygian Blood Ritual, the debut EP from abyssal Blackened Death Metal quintet Wretchgod.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERMÖRD — “NOSTALGIC PREDICTIONS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 062022
 

 

Ghoulish faces with hollow eyes gaze through marble portals, mouths agape at a hooded wizard drawing lightning from a swirling pool of infinity. It’s an eye-catching scene that Matt Lawrence has created for the debut album by Baltimore-based Vermord, one that creates an amalgam of sensations — of unearthly ghastliness, mind-bending magic, and fathomless mystery.

The visual certainly spawns a feeling of excited intrigue about the music that Vermord have created within the realm of Nostalgic Predictions, but for those who heard the band’s first EP, 2015’s Dawn Of The Black Harvest (which we premiered here) or the Dissimulation demo that followed it in 2016, the seeds of intrigue about what might come next were already planted.

Many years have passed by since then, but now the band are ready to show us what they accomplished during a period of hiatus — and they have a lot to show, through 13 tracks and an hour’s worth of music, all of which we’re presenting today in advance of the April 8 release. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Apr 052022
 

(Andy Synn is back with another quartet of albums which may have flown under your radar last month)

March of 2022 certainly seemed to be a busy month for new releases, that’s for sure.

But, then, aren’t they all?

What I think made last month feel like a particularly packed one, however, is the fact that the last week or so was especially stacked with new albums – quite a few of which came as complete surprises to me – that it made the whole thing seem that much more overwhelming.

Obviously, of course, I won’t be able to cover all – or even a significant fraction – of them here in today’s article but I still think you’ll be pleased with what I’ve chosen to highlight (and I may or may not have also slipped one from last month into tomorrow’s piece too) as what I’m about to present you with is four different flavours of deathly delights drawn from across the Death Metal spectrum, most, if not all, of which will likely be totally new to a lot of you.

So let’s not waste any more time, shall we?

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BURIAL CURSE — “BURIAL CURSE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 052022
 

The well-educated among you may say, “How is this a premiere? That Burial Curse EP came out in June 2021!” And so it did, both digitally and in a very limited run of tapes via Famine Records.

But the beast that was that EP refused to slink away into silence and instead continued to snarl and roar in such violating fashion that Dawnbreed Records picked it up for a reissue that will happen on April 8th in multiple formats. Not only that, the EP has had an upgrade in sound, thanks to a new mix and master by Alex from Obscured By Evil Productions.

So if you haven’t heard the EP before now, it’s a good time to discover it. And if you have heard it, you might now hear it in a way you haven’t before. Continue reading »

DARK FUNERAL: “WE ARE THE APOCALYPSE”

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Apr 052022
 

(On March 18th Century Media released a new album by Dark Funeral, and today DGR gives it a review.)

Again, I preface this every time by saying I am not the black metal expert on this site. This is just one of those releases where it’s fun to check in on a more established band and find out that yes, in fact, they do still have “it”.

Let us tell you a tale of an album in Swedish black metal group Dark Funeral‘s discography. It is nine songs long, about forty-five minutes in length, and has cover art that’s almost entirely blue-dominated. It’s hard to overstate just how much it seems like 2016’s Where Shadows Forever Reign has become the nucleus for Dark Funeral as they exist currently. Credit to them of course; they’ve had a constantly shifting lineup throughout the years, so much so that Dark Funeral releases rarely share the same lineup between them.

WIth Lord Ahriman being the sole constant, people rotate in and people rotate out, yet Dark Funeral somehow keep chugging along with a new album every six-or-so years. You don’t get to do something like that musically unless you’ve remained remarkably steadfast in your sound, which brings us to Dark Funeral‘s newest release, 2022’s We Are The Apocalypse. Continue reading »

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