Jul 302025
 

(Andy Synn takes a look at the new album from Feral Lord, out this Friday)

As you may know, it’s a common complaint of ours that there’s just so much music released each and every week/month/year that it’s impossible for us to keep up with it all, not matter how hard we try.

What you may not know, however, is that Jared Moran (aka Plaguehammer, aka Cave Ritual, aka Ionnonnisssz, etc) has been more responsible than most for us falling ever further behind the curve, such is the frequency and profligacy of his output.

Sure, we’ve covered a number of his projects before – including, but not limited to, the likes of Zvylpwkua, Acausal IntrusionHierarchies (whose debut album was released earlier this year), Vertebrae Fetish Totem (whose new record was also released a few months back, though we haven’t covered it yet), Out of the Mouth of Graves, and, of course, Feral Lord – but we’ve still barely scratched the surface of his discography.

That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying though… and with the upcoming release of Wunjo (though you can stream and purchase it right now) we’re able to add another successful review to our catalogue of criticism.

Continue reading »

Jul 282025
 

(written by Islander)

This coming Friday (August 1st) two excellent black metal bands, Belliciste and Úir, will release an album-length split on cassette tape (and digitally). It includes four songs from Belliciste, three from Úir, and one song that is a collaboration between the two bands. Today we’re very happy to share a full stream of all the songs.

Further commentary is likely unnecessary, but of course you’re going to get it anyway. This is an hour-long compendium of music, and because most days for most people are hurried and harried, explaining why it would be worthwhile to pause for this, from its beginning to its end, may be useful. Beyond that, the commentary functions as an expression of thanks to these musicians for enriching our hurried and harried days with something this superb. Continue reading »

Jul 282025
 

(Andy Synn rejoins the hunt with the new album from Arkhaaik)

One of the things we sometimes discuss amongst ourselves, here in the dark, dank depths of NCS Castle, is what the primary, prevailing “trend” of each year is.

And one thing I’ve noticed over the last seven-ish months is that – rather than being a straight up “Black Metal year” or a “Death Metal year” (or even a “Hardcore year”) – 2025 looks set to be a year defined more by the more unorthodox and unusual expressions from across the genre spectrum.

In some ways this, of course, makes it hard to identify a singular commonality which defines “the year in Metal” (so far, anyway)… but, from a different perspective, you might just say that this flexing and blurring of fluid genre boundaries is exactly what ties so many of the biggest and best albums of 2025.

And now we have this uniquely esoteric and ritualistically hypnotic hybrid of “blackened” Doom and deathly gloom courtesy of Switzerland’s Arkhaaik.

Continue reading »

Jul 262025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a late start on this Saturday’s roundup of recommended new music, and I feel the need to rush in order to keep it from appearing too late in the day. So my review-ish commentary will be somewhat briefer than usual (please hold your applause) and I’ll cut the rest of the introduction to just this:

I would suggest that this collection is a mix of brain-scramblers, bone-smashing punishers, muscle-twitching groovers, headlong racers, and seductive clean-sung sorcery, more or less in that order. Continue reading »

Jul 252025
 

(written by Islander)

With only one premiere to handle today and nothing else waiting in the queue for our site, I had a combination of opportunity and need, anxiety about us not posting the usual amount of stuff in recent days and the time (barely enough time) to do something about it. So, as a head-start on Saturday’s roundup, I got this four-band collection done, focusing on two old favorites and two brand new discoveries. The cover art for all four was part of the initial attraction.

TOMBS (U.S.)

The first of the old favorites is Tombs. Earlier this week we got the news that they have a new album named Feral Darkness now set for release on October 17th by their new label Redefining Darkness Records. The “FFO” references for Tombs have changed over time. As a clue about this new full-length, which follows 2020’s Under Sullen Skies, it includes Fields of the Nephilim, Samhain, Mayhem, and Goatwhore. The lineup also includes new guitarist Dan Higgins. Sera Timms also provides guest vocals on one song.

And then there’s this from the press release: Continue reading »

Jul 232025
 

(Andy Synn presents three mind-warping metallic morsels to bruise and bludgeon your brains)

Some of you may have noticed (or maybe you didn’t?) that I didn’t post anything here last week, mostly because I was snowed under with work/life/band stuff and just couldn’t find the time (or the mental energy) to put my thoughts (as scrambled as they were) down in any coherent order.

To rectify that, however, I spent some time over the weekend putting together a bunch of reviews… although, wouldn’t you know it, pretty much all the bands I’ve ended up writing about have been so dizzyingly, discombobulatingly technical and intense that they’ve ended up scrambling my brain all over again.

So if you enjoyed Monday’s dissection of the upcoming new album from Sallow Moth and are looking for a few more meaty morsels to satisfy your cravings for chaotic complexity, then you’ll want to give all three of these EPs a listen too.

Continue reading »

Jul 222025
 

(Today we present DGR‘s review of Grand Cadaver‘s new EP The Rot Beneath, which will be out on August 15th via Majestic Mountain Records.)

When you’re spread among many projects in the way Dark Tranquillity‘s Mikael Stanne has been over the past few years, there is a chance of one of them going consistently underrated in the face of all the other material being put out. The throwback riffwork of swede-death project Grand Cadaver has flown under the radar among many in metal fandom, and it has reached a point where you can’t help but wonder if people are unintentionally robbing themselves of an awesome time by just breezing past the group and chalking them up as another band pining for older days.

Grand Cadaver have proven to be a rock-solid foundation of music since their founding in 2020; the five years since have seen the group chalking up an array of singles, EPs, and two full albums to their name, all of which, yes, look backward in order to progress forward, and have either been stealthily melodic or pushed at the boundaries of floor-stomping death metal enough to keep the events interesting. Continue reading »

Jul 212025
 

(Andy Synn has the scoop on the continued re-emergence of Sallow Moth)

One of the most fascinating things in the animal kingdom, in my opinion at least, is the way in which caterpillars transform into butterflies (or moths).

After all, this is an organism which effectively spends half its life-cycle as one thing and the other half as something completely different… to the point where, if you didn’t know any better, you’d be hard-pressed to think of the two forms as belonging to the same species.

Not only that, but in between these two stages the caterpillar itself dissolves into a rich nutrient soup, becoming for a time neither one thing or the other as they undergo this startling metamorphosis.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that while a few fundamental structures do survive and carry over from one state of being to the next, studies have shown that certain memories, certain behaviours, can also survive the process, meaning that (to the extent that they are able) it might be said that butterflies (and moths) remember what it was like before they had wings.

And I can’t help thinking, while listening to the band’s new album (out 01 August) that Sallow Moth‘s own life-cycle has closely mimicked that of their name-sake.

Continue reading »

Jul 172025
 

(written by Islander)

In mid-June we helped spread the welcome news that the L.A.-based black metal band Oskoreien was returning with a new album after a roughly 9-year absence, and to help do that we premiered the album’s opening song “Prismatic Reason“.

Now we’re on the eve of the album’s release, and the time is thus right to express some thoughts about the record as a whole. Continue reading »

Jul 172025
 

(written by Islander)

The British metal band Ba’al picked a name for their new album that will make most people’s scanning eyes stop in their tracks when they see it: The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here. Your hurrying brain might quickly interpret it one way (the wrong way) and then pause (if it’s not rushing too fast) to realize it says “Here“, not “Hell“.

The title is clever, but it’s also meaningful. The band explain:

The Fine Line Between Heaven And Here reflects on growing up in a city like our home of Sheffield; the contrast between bleak, grey industrial sprawl and the beauty of nature that surrounds and often overlaps with it. It touches on mental health, substance abuse, suicide, grief and existential dread.”

Here“, where we are, can be hellish. Human beings have always imagined the torments of Hell based on what they know and have seen of ourselves and our fellow travelers on our spinning orb. It may be that we have also imagined the glories of Heaven based on the glories of Here too.

How Ba’al have used their music to render the grey and the green, the scars and the sublime, will be revealed in full today through our premiere of their new album. Continue reading »