SEEN AND HEARD: BLAZE OF PERDITION, HORNED ALMIGHTY, MÆNTRƏ, VAALTOVASHE, BEGGAR, LYRA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 282019
 


Blaze of Perdition

 

“I spent most of my life believing a gauzy, kindergarten version of Thanksgiving, thinking only of feasts and family, turkey and dressing.” So wrote a New York Times columnist today, near the end of an essay in which he explained in gruesome detail why, in this view, he “was blind, willfully ignorant, I suppose, to the bloodier side of the Thanksgiving story, to the more honest side of it”. His reminiscences of childhood Thanksgiving might have been my own words, but whether you remain among the blissfully blind or have become hardened by the truth, I still wish you a Happy Thanksgiving on behalf of all of us at NCS. Regardless of the reason for the occasion, happy days are hard to come by and wishes for more can’t hurt, can they?

Of course, one of the long traditions at this site has been to ignore holidays in our labors. Taking days off from posting just subtracts from the opportunities to spread the word about new metal, which continues to arrive every day, heedless of holidays. So I’ve picked some of the new arrivals to recommend. Maybe they’ll make this Thanksgiving Day a happier one for you. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEIVOS — “CASUS BELLI”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 272019
 

 

I have had a soft spot in my heart for Deivos for a very long time — though I also have some soft spots in my head as a result of these Polish destroyers caving it in every time they come out with another album. The new one is no exception, though they again demonstrate that brute-force trauma is only one of the impacts that their music leaves upon the listener.

In fact, their formulation of death metal is just enough outside the mainstream savagery of what you usually find (and is so well-executed) to make them distinctive, although perhaps their resistance to “fitting in” with trends is a reason why (in my opinion) they haven’t gotten nearly enough recognition despite plying their craft for 20 years and creating a discography that’s now six albums deep.

The new full-length is Casus Belli, and the Polish label Selfmadegod Records will be releasing it on November 29th. If you’re looking for something to be thankful for on this day before Thanksgiving, the full album stream we’re about to present should amply satisfy your search. Continue reading »

TUSK: “ETERNAL ICE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 272019
 

 

(We present Todd Manning‘s review of the new album by Indiana-based Tusk, which was released on November 20th.)

Perhaps one of the keys to Doom’s recent proliferation within the Metal world is its ability to assimilate and synthesize adjacent genres and spit the concoction back out as a coherent whole. Some bands soak up Classic Rock vibes and spit out Stoner Doom, others drag Death Metal through the molasses to give us the Death-Doom hybrid. For Indianapolis-based trio Tusk, they take the wintry atmosphere of Black Metal and the meditative qualities of Post-Metal and then drop the tempos down to primordial levels, producing a hypnotic and powerful debut in the form of Eternal Ice.

Consisting of Xander Farrington on drums, Jesse Curtis on guitar and vocals, and David Arthur on bass, Tusk construct a towering work with the most basic of parts. At times, they give the Doom fan just what they came for, like in the album opening riff on “Pale”. The riff lumbers along and crushes glaciers beneath its feet, but when the forlorn vocal comes in, it is apparent that this will be a multi-faceted listening experience. This feeling is further reinforced by the softer clean guitar breaks that add to the somber mood of the song. Continue reading »

TO THE GRAVE: “GLOBAL WARNING”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 272019
 

 

(To the Grave come our way from Sydney, Australia, and this review of their new album (released on November 7th) comes our way from Andy Synn.)

I’ve been slowly but surely compiling my “End of the Year” lists over the last few weeks (you’ll get to see them very soon, in fact) and have reached a couple of interesting conclusions.

One of which is that there really hasn’t been much of the old ‘core that’s grabbed my attention this year.

The new Carnifex is solid (if a little uneven), as is the new Whitechapel, while the new Osiah finds the band stepping up their game, without reinventing the wheel. And I’ve heard a few good things about (though I haven’t actually heard) the new Despised Icon too.

But overall nothing has really blown me away.

Global Warning, however, is a welcome exception to this rule. Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Nov 262019
 

 

Hamelin is a new Belgian band, but when you listen to their debut self-titled EP (which could also be called an album, given its half-hour run-time), it will come as no surprise that the band’s members have worked in other bands and projects. Their experience shows, and so does the breadth of their interests. Every one of the six tracks is wide-ranging, often in unpredictable ways, interweaving elements of black metal, post-metal, and progressive metal (and that’s not an exhaustive list) to create music of tremendous emotional power and dynamic intensity, music that’s melodically rich and atmospheric and also viscerally ravaging. When a band’s creative ambitions not only aim high, as Hamelin’s do, but also result in a cohesive and compelling experience, that makes a debut such as this one stand out even more.

The EP will be released on November 30th through Wolves of Hades, and today we’re presenting a full stream of all the tracks, preceded by thoughts concerning each of them. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLOOMING CARRIONS — “SISTERS IN BLOOMING FLESH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 262019
 

 

Blooming Carrions is a beautifully chosen name for this Finnish band whose new EP we’re premiering today, as is the EP’s title — Sisters In Blooming Flesh. On the one hand, the music is a stunning display of blackened death metal obliteration and mind-abrading sonic toxicity, capable of completely suffusing the senses with horrifying sensations of sadistic violence, pestilence, rot, and the extinction of hope. On the other hand, within such terrifying encounters the music also seems to revel and to bloom, to reveal the chilling and hallucinatory gleam of rapture in the embrace of death and decay.

Iron Bonehead Productions has set November 28th as the international release date for this new EP, which adds to (and builds upon) a Blooming Carrions discography that includes two preceding demos, 2017’s Sparkling Rotten Dreams and 2018’s Necrosis Twilight (both of them also released by Iron Bonehead). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AVSLUT — “TYRANNI”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 252019
 

 

The Swedish black metal band Avslut waste no time revealing a big part of their mission on their new album Tyranni — which is to flood your bloodstream with adrenaline. On the title track, which opens the album, they hurl themselves (and their listeners) into an electrifying full-throttle assault, no-holds-barred, no-mercy-shown. The impact of the blistering drum work, the ripping, blaring, and jolting chords, and the flame-throwing vocals is immediately electrifying.

But while the band relentlessly scorch the senses with the unhinged ferocity of their attack, that opening song vividly reveals another aspect of their harrowing mission — the incorporation of intense melodies into their barbarous onslaught.

Osmose Productions will release Tyranni on November 29th, but you won’t have to wait that long to experience it because we’re premiering a full stream today.
Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2019: HARROWED/ OPIUM LORD / UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Nov 252019
 

 

(Andy Synn has again compiled reviews and streams of new records by bands from the UK.)

It was last week, I think, when I stumbled across another one of those weirdly throw-away lists purporting to feature “ten of the best up-and-coming UK Metal bands”.

Intrigued, and hopeful to discover some new names to help promote in turn, I gave the article a click, only to find that pretty much entire list was made up of bands who were already pretty well known, or made up of ex-members of other bands who’d previously received a fair bit of hype, and/or mates of the band responsible for the article in the first place.

Not only that, but pretty much every band featured played some variant of Death Metal/Deathcore, and clearly all came from a very similar clique. And while I get that it’s not always easy to think of other bands to recommend at the drop of a hat, the UK Metal scene is such a rich and vibrant cesspool of metallic morsels that this seems like a missed opportunity.

Not that I’m necessarily any better. Chances are you’ll all have heard of at least one of the bands I’m about to recommend. But, hopefully, over the course of the last 11/12 months I’ve presented a solid (though far from exhaustive) cross-section of the versatility and variety that represents “the Best of British” in 2019. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABYSSAL VACUUM — “MMXIX”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Nov 252019
 

 

Beginning in 2018 the French black metal band Abyssal Vacuum has released two EPs, with a third one due for release by Egregor Records on December 1st. These three EPs collectively include nine tracks that have been identified in sequence by Roman numerals (and one cover song), with the most recent release — identified as MMXIX — consisting of tracks VII, VIII, and IX. And today we’re premiering streams of those three new compositions.

For those new to Abyssal Vacuum, it is the solo work of Sebastien B., although he is accompanied on this newest EP by drummer Enno P., and samples have been provided here by Moïse M. Perhaps one of the reasons why Abyssal Vacuum dispense with words in naming their songs is because the atmosphere created by the collage of sounds doesn’t seem quite human. Continue reading »

DECOHERENCE: “EKPYROSIS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 222019
 

 

(Today Sentient Ruin Laboratories is releasing the debut album of the multinational black metal entity Decoherence, and to commemorate the occasion we have Andy Synn‘s laudatory review of the record.)

It still never fails to surprise me, although I probably should have learned by now, how conservative and parochial some Black Metal fans can be.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer that every genre (not just Black Metal) has certain key features, certain boundaries, which define them, but it’s not hard at all to find bands pushing and exploring and expanding these boundaries in a way which still maintains the fundamental essence of the style.

That’s not enough for some people though, especially in Black Metal, where the issue of what is “true” and what is “false” often gets simplified down to “whatever I happen to like is real Black Metal, and whatever I don’t like isn’t”.

Still, even the most obsessive and obdurate of refuseniks will have a hard time denying that Ekpyrosis is one of the best Black Metal albums of the year. Continue reading »

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