AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEATHSWARM — “SHADOWLANDS OF DARKNESS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 192019
 

 

Musicians who are passionate about the ravaging sounds of gruesome old school death metal face a constant challenge when they try to create such sounds themselves: How do you wade into such familiar territory, well-guarded by devoted fans of those traditions, and emerge with something that’s still really worth hearing? If we think we’ve heard it all before, what’s required to give us a fresh jolt of electricity, rather than just another formulaic emulation?

The Swedish band Deathswarm have compelling answers to those questions. To surmount the challenges requires (first and foremost) top-shelf song-writing, plus veteran performance skill matched with authentic spirit, and a grasp of tone and production technique that makes the music sound truly monstrous. And those are the answers that Deathswarm deliver through their fantastic debut album, Shadowlands of Darkness, which will be released on February 25th by Chaos Records — and which you can hear in its entirety below. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABYSSIC — “HIGH THE MEMORY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 182019
 

 

At almost 80 minutes in length, Abyssic’s new album High the Memory is a demanding experience. And the demands it places on listeners go beyond the magnitude of the minutes. It is emotionally devastating — and uplifting — in ways that less intensely powerful music, and music less intensely devoted to darkness in its varying dimensions, can’t achieve.

In these complex and richly textured compositions, which draw upon ingredients of funeral death/doom, black metal, and prog, augmented by classical orchestration (and the use of Mellotron, Minimoog, and upright bass), Abyssic create combinations of crushing power and mystical evanescence, of oppressive gloom and fragile, gleaming beauty. Dread and devastation stalk this vast musical landscape, furrowing the earth with great troughs of misery and despair, while brilliant stars wink overhead, blazing comets streak the night sky, and the borealis shimmers in unearthly brilliance. The effect of these juxtapositions is harrowing and hypnotic, magisterial and monstrous. Continue reading »

DECAPITATED / DYSCARNATE / BÆST – LIVE IN SHEFFIELD 16/02/19

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 182019
 

 

(Andy Synn has hit a marvelous run of shows in quick succession over the last few weeks, and this is his summation of the most recent one, with his videos of the performances.)

Being in a band myself I know what it’s like to have your set cut short due to technical difficulties and/or time constraints. It’s never a good thing, but it’s just something you have to deal with as best you can.

Which is why my heart went out to Bloodshot Dawn last night when, just as it seemed they were about to start their set, which had been delayed due to unavoidable technical issues, they were instead forced to cut their entire show from the line-up. We’ve had to cut songs, or had shows cancelled on us before, but never after we’d already set up our gear, and I honestly can’t imagine how utterly gutting that must have been. I can only hope that the rest of the shows (and the previous ones) somehow make up for it.

Still, all disappointments and dissatisfaction regarding that situation aside, that still left three other bands to get the evening going, beginning with… Continue reading »

KALEIKR: “HEART OF LEAD”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 152019
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Icelandic band Kaleikr, which is being released today by Debemur Morti Productions.)

If there’s one thing that sums up just how inundated with information we are, and how overwhelming that can be, these days, it’s the fact that I didn’t even know that Icelandic Black Metallers Draugsól– whose debut album, Volaða land, we were all pretty damn impressed with here at NCS – had broken up until I received the promo for Heart of Lead, the debut album from Kaleikr.

Although, perhaps “broken up” isn’t quite the right term, as not only is Kaleikr made up of two of the three members of Draugsól – namely drummer Kjartan Harðarson and guitarist/vocalist Maximilian Klimko  – but there’s also some ongoing contention and debate as to whether it constitutes an entirely new band, or simply a name change for an existing entity choosing to go in a new direction.

Either way though, it’s very, very good. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: OPHIDIAN COIL AND SEPTUAGINT — “VORTEX”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 152019
 

 

In the most rudimentary sense, split releases provide a vehicle for the participating bands to each release new songs in between more extensive releases of their own music, while allowing listeners the chance to sample the works of more than one band at a time. But of course there’s no assurance that the combination of songs from different projects in a single release will do any more than that. Whether the songs actually complement each other, and combine in a way that creates a holistic listening experience that’s greater than the sum of its parts, is a very different issue.

The split release we’re premiering today, entitled Vortex, is one that does go beyond a mere bolting together of singles from more than one group. The two up-and-coming black metal bands who are involved — Ophidian Coil from Serbia and Septuagint from Greece — do not follow identical paths in the music you’ll find here, but there is a “chemistry” between them. The songs of each band, though different in their strategies, exhibit a kind of “spiritual” union in which the different dimensions of Luciferian sound combine in a way that creates a near-30-minute experience that’s immersive — and chilling.

We invite you to listen to these four songs below, an opportunity that coincides with the release of Vortex by Deathhammer Records. And of course we have some thoughts about the music to share as well. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST: “THE HERETICS”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Feb 152019
 

 

(DGR reviews the new album by the now-larger-than-life Greek black metal band Rotting Christ, which is being released today by Season of Mist.)

If at this point in their career Rotting Christ have decided to be the AC/DC of anti-religious heavy metal then I am all for it, even if it just boils down to me having an easier time explaining why I enjoy the songcraft that the band have been up to for so many years now.

To say that they’ve found a sound would be putting it politely; Rotting Christ not only found a sound, but they also basically defined it and then later let it define them. Especially in more recent years they have basically shifted from being a fire-fueled black metal nightmare into an almost Hollywood-esque war-drums-and-all hybrid of martial rhythms, ’70s prog guitar influences, and the straightforward guitar stomp and lead work that has made them so insanely catchy over the years. The group’s latest disc, The Heretics, is a giant block of that specific sound. Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres  7 Responses »
Feb 142019
 

 

When we encounter new music, it is the quality of the compositions and performances that always comes first, and remains paramount, but when a new release has been conceived and crafted with a deep guiding aesthetic that permeates the spirit of the music and the lyrics in a heartfelt way, especially when that aesthetic is an unusual one, it inspires even greater admiration. That’s what we have before us in Empyrée, the superb new EP by the French black metal duo Cénotaphe (multi-instrumentalist Fog and vocalist Khaosgott).

We have learned that in creating this new work, Cénotaphe drew inspiration from “a constellation of 19th-century French literary and artistic figures, such as Aloysius Bertrand, Théophile Gautier, Charles Beaudelaire, and the painter Odilon Redon,” but most especially from the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé. As I am unfamiliar with Mallarmé’s writing, I’ll quote from the press materials announcing this new EP: Continue reading »

UNSUNG HEROES OF 2018: AGRYPNIE / SOM / SOUL GRIP

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  2 Responses »
Feb 142019
 

 

(Andy Synn prepared this trio of album reviews, catching up on recommended albums from last year.)

With a small (and rapidly closing) window in my schedule of upcoming reviews/releases, I’ve decided now is the perfect opportunity to cover three artists/albums from last year that, for various reasons, I didn’t get a chance to cover at the time.

So, without further ado… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VÉHÉMENCE — “PAR LE SANG VERSÉ”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  19 Responses »
Feb 132019
 

 

Par le Sang Versé is one of the most thoroughly entrancing and gloriously vibrant metal albums I’ve heard in years, regardless of sub-genre. It seizes ancient folk traditions and hurls them forward into the modern age, but without letting go of the intense devotion to the centuries-old well-springs of inspiration that gave birth to this record. I do think it’s impossible not to be moved in some significant degree by this fervent music, and likely that most listeners will simply be swept aloft and carried away, as I’ve been.

I wrote the preceding paragraph as part of an introduction to our premiere two weeks ago of a single song from this new album by the French medieval black metal band Véhémence. Since then, my conviction has only grown stronger that this record is a rare and marvelously multi-faceted achievement. At the time of that previous premiere, three other tracks were also available for listening, but today it’s our great pleasure to present a stream of all the music in advance of its February 18th release by the French label Antiq Records. Continue reading »

DISGRUNTLED ANTHROPOPHAGI: “VIOLENTLY EXPUNGED”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 132019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by Disgruntled Anthropophagi from Pittsburgh PA.)

 

This time around I have the opportunity to recommend Disgruntled Anthropophagi‘s sophomore album, Violently Expunged, to be released via Lord of the Sick Recordings on March 15th.

I was lucky enough to discover the band in 2015 with the release of their debut album, entitled Rampage of Misanthropic Purge, which was a slab of the raw power of BDM with complex changes in the song structures.  I became a fan right from the first listen, convinced by the violent energy they put into those 11 songs with such pure non-stop force. Continue reading »

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