AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NATTVERD — “STYGGDOM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Jan 282020
 

 

In the summer of 2017 we had the good fortune to premiere a full stream of Vi Vet gud Er En Løgner (We Know God Is A Liar), the debut album by the Norwegian band Nattverd, which we introduced with these words: “Seemingly out of nowhere comes one of the best black metal albums of 2017, one that is simultaneously rooted in the decades-old traditions of cold Norwegian black metal and yet so vibrant and multifaceted, and so sure-handed in its songwriting and execution, that it breathes new life into the sounds”.

Today we are equally fortunate to premiere the remarkable full-length follow-up to that great debut. The new album is named Styggdom, and it will be released by Osmose Productions on January 31st. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TURIAN — “SPIRAL & THE HERMIT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jan 272020
 

 

On March 20th the Seattle-based grindcore band Turian will release their third record, which will be self-titled, adding to a discography that includes 2017’s Voiceless and 2018’s The Near Room. To give fans a preview of the new album, Turian are releasing a two-song excerpt — Spiral & The Hermit — and we’re helping spread the word through a premiere stream on the day of its release.

Turian’s brand of grind pulls from a lot of different strands of music, with thrash, punk, and noise rock in the mix (among other ingredients), and you’ll discover through just these two new tracks that they’re adept songwriters, delivering adrenaline fueled music that’s packed with twists and turns but also seasoned with head-busting grooves, and their creations turn out to be damned contagious as well. Continue reading »

LEECHED: “TO DULL THE BLADES OF YOUR ABUSE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jan 272020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Leeched from Manchester in the UK. The album will be released on January 31st by Prosthetic Records.)

There is a certain type of Metal fan – and, to be clear, it’s by no means all, or even a majority, simply a certain type – who, no matter how underground or alternative they consider themselves to be, continues to crave (consciously or unconsciously) the acceptance of the mainstream.

I’m sure you know who I’m talking about. They’re the ones who are always quick to share those “10 Ways the Metal Scene Needs to Change” articles (which always just advise becoming more like Pop and/or Rap). The ones who go crazy online for the latest big name artist engaging in a fifteen-minute flirtation with the most anaemic form of “Metal” they can get away with. The ones who believe a band’s most “accessible” album is always their best, and are willing to jump through all sorts of (il)logical hoops to explain why this shift towards a more mass-appeal sound is actually a daring display of artistic expression… and not just a cynical move designed to sell more product.

And, you know what? I get it. After all, a lot of us probably grew up as the slightly weird kids, the ones with the odd, nerdy hobbies and perpetually “uncool” music taste, simultaneously desiring and disdaining the attention and validation of our peers. And, no matter how old we are, how confident we might appear, a lot of us never fully grow out of this. We still want, on some level, to belong.

The thing is… some music is never going to belong. And a band like Leeched are simply incapable of pandering to the mainstream. They’re too ugly, too uncompromising, too listener un-friendly, to ever dream of fitting in or selling out. Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jan 272020
 

 

If you have been searching for the soundtrack to your worst nightmares, you have come to the right place. What we have for you today is a full stream of Helios, the new EP by the three Portuguese black/death demons who call themselves Summon. Consisting of three horrifying assaults on the senses, Helios will be released on February 2nd under the hammer of Godz Ov War Productions.

For those unfamiliar with Summon, their two preceding releases were the Aesthetics of Demise EP in 2017 and the Parazv Il Zilittv full-length in 2018. As those records have already revealed, but this new EP demonstrates without question, Summon are not content merely to deliver barbaric assaults of battle-zone chaos (which they do quite powerfully). Their music equally creates atmospheres of unearthly malignancy and apocalyptic doom. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AEONIAN SORROW — “A LIFE WITHOUT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 272020
 

 

Lovers of enthralling musical misery and cathartic, crushing power have a prize awaiting them on the near horizon, because on January 27th the multinational funeral doom band Aeonian Sorrow will release a mesmerizing and majestically tragic new record named A Life Without, which we are streaming in its entirety today.

This new release follows the band’s 2017 single, “Forever Misery“, and their 2018 debut album Into The Eternity A Moment We Are, and reflects the work of a revised and solidified line-up. For this recording, the band’s founder Gogo Melone (singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and lyricist) was joined by harsh vocalist Ville Rutanen (Red Moon Architect), guitarist Jukka Jauhiainen (Red Moon Architect, Crimson Sun) and drummer Daniel Neagoe (Shape of Despair, Clouds, Eye of Solitude), in addition to previous guitarist Taneli Jämsä (Ghost Voyage, Hukutus) and bassist Pyry Hanski (Mörbid Vomit, Before the Dawn etc.).

While some might call the record an EP, its four tracks are each substantial in length, adding up to more than 35 minutes of dolorous and devastating sounds. And each track is an involving and overpowering experience, each one in its own way portraying (to quote the band) “the eternal sorrow and misery above the earth, the slow death of our souls plus our human nature and instincts under the ownership of grief and pain”. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: WITCHTRIP — “A BURNT OFFERING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 242020
 

 

During the early morning hours of July 23, 2019, a fiery inferno engulfed and consumed a warehouse on Jarvis Avenue in Winnipeg, Canada. By the time the sun rose that day, according to this report, there was nothing left of the building but some skeletal exterior walls. The flames devastated more than the structure itself. The three-story warehouse had been home to the work of some of the city’s most distinguished artists, and it also housed the jam space of Witchtrip, a metal band whose membership significantly overlaps with Occvlt Hand and whose debut EP (Cosmic Cauldron) we premiered in 2018. Lost in that conflagration were thousands of dollars of the band’s instruments, gear, band merchandise, and other possessions, all of it uninsured.

Sometimes even disasters like that one have a silver lining, and in this instance it spurred Witchtrip to record a new two-track EP, their first music to be released since Cosmic Cauldron, as a means of trying to raise money to replace what they lost. Fittingly, and perhaps with a rueful smile, Witchtrip named the EP A Burnt Offering, and we’re premiering it today in advance of its official release on February 1st. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: CANNABIS CORPSE + WITHERED – BIRMINGHAM, 22/01/20

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 242020
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the performances by Cannabis Corpse, Withered, and Violated Flesh in Birmingham, England, on January 22, 2020, with video highlights.)

One of my resolutions for this year has been to go to more gigs. In fact I’ve already got several booked in for February and March, and another one to attend next week.

Sadly, however, the twin constraints of money and time mean I can’t go to every single show I’d like to, which is why I was forced to miss the Darkest Hour/Fallujah show in Manchester this week.

Thankfully, however, I’d already made firm plans to hit the Birmingham date of the Cannabis Corpse/Withered tour, which definitely helped ease the pain somewhat, especially since this would be my first time seeing Withered since way back in 2005! Continue reading »

SYLOSIS: “CYCLE OF SUFFERING”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 242020
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by Sylosis, which will be released on February 7th by Nuclear Blast.)

Sylosis are one of Britain’s all-time great metal exports, and in my mind are undeniably one of the most important metal bands of the 2000’s, the 2010’s, and now. Nevertheless, these guys seem to get a lot of what I see as undue shit from a lot of people. They are often maligned for being boring (whatever that means) and for not doing anything essentially original (not essentially true), and somehow are accused of writing uninteresting riffs despite Josh Middleton, Sylosis’ founder and composer, being one of the post-2000‘s greatest riff writers. He blends an interesting approach to thrash metal and the heyday of pedal-point-riff-driven melodic death metal with the emotive, bruising nature of early metalcore, and further combines that with a post-y sense of ambience and atmosphere that sounds like no one else.

I guess for me, Sylosis has been metal at its most emotionally honest. It’s powerful, melancholy, angry, and arresting, and since the band’s debut, Conclusion Of An Age. I’ve just been unable to stop listening. They combine the technical aspects and the speed of styles of metal dear to me while also being provocatively emotive, which is a hard line to straddle and make it work. I am a fan, to say the least, with a view of their past catalogue as flawless, a band who’ve never written a record that includes a single throwaway song and who’ve always tried to evolve and refine their sound, never staying in quite the same place. They are modern song-writers still attracted to the past, a sort of approach to metal that I admittedly will eat up like candy if the passion is there. Continue reading »

THY CATAFALQUE: “NAIV”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 232020
 

 

(Our old friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth returns to NCS with this review of the new album by one of our favorite bands, Thy Catafalque, which will be released by Season of Mist on January 24th.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. I am here today because we have been blessed once again with a new Thy Catafalque album, a wonderfully common occurrence in the last few years (with new albums being released every year-and-a-half to two years). For those unfamiliar with my love affair with the work of Tamás Kátai, I first discovered Thy Catafalque in the olden days of The Number Of The Blog thanks to an old contributor, Tr00 Nate (if you’re out there somewhere, yes, I’m still giving you the credit you deserve). The album Róka Hasa Rádió was an eye-opener for me, providing a portal through which I could immerse myself in something utterly distinctive and unlike anything I had ever heard.

Since then, Thy Catafalque’s catalog has reached nine full-length albums (plus the Cor Cordium demo), and each album is a masterwork in varied songcraft. I lack any real grasp of music theory, and so I’d imagine that there is someone out there more learned than I who could probably explain it, but there is something about Kátai’s music that makes it immediately recognizable as his work, regardless of the song’s composition. Given how much variety there is in your average Thy Catafalque song, much less an entire album, this musical identity is simply staggering to me. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: MENTAL CASKET — “DEMO 2020”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jan 232020
 

 

Mental Casket first crawled forth from some stinking grave in Warsaw, Poland, in 2018, inspired by the early works of Chuck Schuldiner and other fore-runners of Floridian death metal, with an affinity for the likes of Autopsy and Pestilence as well, plus newer bands like Gruesome. Last year they released their debut demo, and today their second one is making its grotesque appearance. We’re fiendishly happy to help spread the word through this premiere of its three tracks.

Mental Casket proudly wear their influences on their ragged and rotting sleeves, but while their chosen formulations of death metal may be quite familiar, they’re so good at composing and executing their sonic monstrosities that it’s still a thrill to hear what they do. Sometimes you don’t need to break any molds in order to put a charge into a listener’s brain stem, and Mental Casket definitely do that. Continue reading »

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