BRUTUS: “NEST”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 082019
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the Belgian band Brutus, released on March 25th by Sargent House.)

Contrary to what you might believe, there is, on occasion at least, a certain methodological madness to the way we do things here at NCS.

Primarily this manifests itself in the way that certain posts and reviews are timed to coincide with album releases or song premieres or some other such item of note, but there are also other, much subtler, forces at work here and there.

Case in point, while I could have held this review back for later in the week, I felt that bright and early on a Monday, at a time when many of our readers will likely be looking for (and most open to) something a little different to energise and invigorate them for the trials ahead, might well be the best time to introduce people to the crisp, captivating catharsis of Brutus. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NOX DESPERATIO — “INCINERATIO ARCANA NOCTE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 052019
 

One one level, on the surface, the new album by the Venezuelan black metal band Nox Desperatio screams “Fire!” The album title — Incineratio Arcana Nocte — and many of the song titles (all of which are in Spanish or Latin) make references to flames and to burning. But other superficial clues seem to point in a different direction. The band’s own name, the evocative cover art (by Bryan Maita), and other aspects of the album and song titles, bring to mind obscurity, despair, and haunting darkness. Perhaps, then, it’s to be expected that the music on the new album combines these two manifestations. What might be surprising is how the band do do it, and how emotionally powerful the results prove to be.

You’ll have a chance to discover that for yourselves, because today we present a full stream of the album on the day of its release by Unpleasant Records (an enterprise of one of the creators behind the fantastic Venezuelan band Selbst), preceded by a few more thoughts about the music. Continue reading »

BLOOD SPORE: “FUNGAL WARFARE UPON ALL LIFE”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Apr 052019
 

 

The title of the debut EP by Philadelphia’s Blood Spore — Fungal Warfare Upon All Life — manifests some of the dominant sensations of the music: It is as poisonous and uncontainable as an outbreak of black mold; it is as savage and slaughtering as a mechanized assault of heavy-caliber armament; and it is as cruel and nihilistic as a portrayal of world-ending calamity. But these aren’t the only sensations to be found within the three tracks on the EP, and the music’s rampant dynamism is a big part of what makes this such a striking debut.

Fungal Warfare Upon All Life is being released digitally today, with a CD release coming in short order, and to coincide with the release we’re presenting a full stream along with a review. Continue reading »

SINMARA AND SUFFERING HOUR: NEW MUSIC AND A U.S. EAST COAST TOUR

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 052019
 

 

NCS isn’t really a “metal news” site, unlike some places that dutifully copy-paste press releases every day, with announcements of new tours, forthcoming releases, line-up changes, etc. About as close as we come are the SEEN AND HEARD posts, but those are devoted almost entirely to streams of new songs and videos, and commentary about them. If the recommended tracks happen to come from records that are on the horizon, we’ll include that info. In other words, the music is the main thing. Trying to keep up with every day’s newsy announcements is just too daunting a task, given the limited time that the NCS slaves have to devote to their slavery.

But here we have both an announcement and new music, which are connected. Normally I would have included both in a SEEN AND HEARD post, but my fucking day job has been slamming me hard this week, and I haven’t had time for one of those round-ups. But I do have just enough time for this before turning to today’s premieres. It concerns both a new EP by the U.S. black/death band Suffering Hour and a U.S. East Coast tour that begins tomorrow, which combines the talents of Suffering Hour and the Icelandic black metal band Sinmara. As you probably know if you’re a regular NCS visitor, both bands are favorites of our putrid site. Continue reading »

A TALE OF TWO ALBUMS: FROSTHELM AND WORMWITCH

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 052019
 


Wormwitch

 

(Here we have a pair of reviews written by Andy Synn, juxtaposing the new albums by Vancouver’s Wormwitch and North Dakota’s Frosthelm.)

Every time that I’ve done this previously – bundling together paired reviews for Marduk/Funeral Mist, Arsis/Revocation, and Gorod/Beyond Creation – the response to the format and structure of the article has been surprisingly positive, hence why I decided to resurrect it for this piece.

The idea, after all, has always been about using comparison and contrast as a way of both critiquing and celebrating the artists involved, not in a way that necessarily invites or invokes competition, but in a way that uses each band as a mirror or a prism through which to view and reflect upon the other.

It’s also a great way of encouraging fans of one band to check out the works of another, similar, artist, if they haven’t already (and does wonders for our google rankings too).

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the latest offerings from Frosthelm and Wormwitch, shall we? Continue reading »

CONFORZA: “REVIVAL”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 042019
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Conforza from New Hampshire, U.S.).

Isn’t it great when you stumble across a new, hitherto unheard, band, totally out of the blue?

Case in point, resurrected and reformatted New Hampshire metallers Conforza released their brand-new album, the aptly-titled Revival, last week and I’ve been listening to it pretty much non-stop ever since. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ORSO — “PANINOTECA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Apr 042019
 

 

I must begin with Orso‘s video for the song “Mitraillette“. I intended to blurt about it as soon as I saw it almost three weeks ago, but learned soon after that we would be hosting the premiere today of Orso‘s new album, Paninoteca, so I held my tongue (barely), with pincers. Now my tongue can wag.

In watching the video I had a difficult time concentrating on the music — not that you really need to concentrate, since you can feel the music quite powerfully in your core, even without focusing your mind — because of the video’s strange combination of humor, creepiness, and the ability to induce salivation. For several minutes I couldn’t quite figure out why it was making me uneasy, watching Orso‘s band members intently devour sandwiches, and then it hit me that their heads don’t move… and they have no ears, or at least none that you can see. Continue reading »

HISS FROM THE MOAT: “THE HARRIER”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 032019
 

 

(Here’s DGR’s review of the new album by the Italian extreme metal band Hiss From the Moat, which was released by Salem Rose Music and M-Theory Audio on February 22nd, and features cover artwork by Stefano Bonora.)

The family tree of the hyper-blasting death metal groups from Italy is a densely populated series of branches that seem to spiral every outwards with a tremendous number of offshoots and tied-together snarls that could make fractal patterns jealous.

This specific region and genre have found more musicians crossing paths than might even be initially obvious. Hiss From The Moat‘s branch of the tree has always been a strange outlier, taking their genre’s penchant for near-relentless and precise brutal death metal and combining it with the heavy atmospherics and low-tuned guitar batterings of blackened death metal — like a latter day Hour Of Penance crashing headlong into Apostasy/Evangelion-era Behemoth. Continue reading »

PUTREFYING CADAVERMENT: “INDISCRIMINATE BUTCHERY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 032019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the debut album by the North Carolina death metal band Putrefying Cadaverment, which will be released on April 14th by Sevared Records.)

It’s been a few weeks since my last write-up, and what a great way to break the silence — by reviewing the debut album of North Carolina’s Putrefying Cadaverment, entitled Indiscriminate Butchery, to be released via Sevared Records.

Before this, the band only released two demos and one EP named Necrosadistic Defilement before going on a lengthy hiatus. They were more slam/BDM oriented and had good riffs, but although the overall idea was interesting I had mixed feelings about the earlier music. Continue reading »

CONJURER: A REVIEW OF “SIGILS” AND THE PREMIERE OF “ACROSS THE VOID”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 022019
 

 

(In this post Todd Manning reviews the new album by Indiana’s Conjurer, which will be released on April 5th, and introduces our premiere of a song from the album.)

There is a tendency in the world of Metal to try to overload every available inch of sonic space with brutality. It’s an understandable and often effective approach, but at times, bands who utilize a more stripped-down strategy are equally capable of blowing the listener’s mind and ears. It is this kind of sense of refinement that is evident in spades on the new album Sigils by Indianapolis-based Sludge/Doom quintet Conjurer.

For anyone familiar with their debut, Old World Ritual, their latest is not a radical departure from the sound they established there, but is a logical and powerful step forward. Continue reading »

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