AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): EKPYROSIS — “PRIMORDIAL CHAOS RESTORED”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 022018
 

 

Many bands have followed the trail of blood and death blazed by such heralded bands as Incantation and Immolation in the early-to-mid ’90s, and there is no sign that the path is about to run into a wall or lead over a cliff’s edge. But of course it must be said that some bands who think they’re hot on that trail have in fact wandered off into a dull and featureless place, the music a lifeless pantomime of the real thing.

On the other hand, the Italian band Ekpyrosis haven’t lost their way. More precisely, they’re in the vanguard of the movement’s newer adherents. They proved they belong with their excellent debut album Asphyxiating Devotion last year, a record that was tremendously satisfying in its own right but also a promise of perhaps greater things ahead. On their new EP, Primordial Chaos Restored, Ekpyrosis have moved from strength to strength, and it’s our great pleasure to bring you a full stream of it today in advance of its May 7 release by Terror From Hell Records. Continue reading »

IHSAHN: “ÁMR”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
May 022018
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the new solo album by Ihsahn, which will be released on May 4 by Candlelight/Spinefarm.)

My, my, my… for the second week running I find myself writing about one of the “big” new releases about to hit the Metalsphere, rather than something more unknown and underground.

Clearly this means that I/we have finally “sold out”, and I expect that riches and rewards will come cascading through my letterbox any time now.

But while I’m sat here waiting for my cheque to appear… do you have a few minutes to talk about our Lord and Saviour Ihsahn? Continue reading »

THOU: “THE HOUSE PRIMORDIAL”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
May 012018
 

 

The powerful Louisiana sludge/doom band Thou dropped a surprise yesterday… the first in a series of releases that the band have planned as a lead-up to their first full-length (entitled Magus) since 2014’s Heathen. The lack of any advance promotion or track streams isn’t that unusual for this band, but it seems to be a phenomenon that’s growing more widespread.

This new album-length EP, The House Primordial, is something of a departure from Thou’s main line of sound. Because you can obviously listen to it now, I don’t have a thorough review for you, just some reactions based on one play-through (which was enough to make me buy it). You could think of it as a preview of what you’ll be getting yourselves into if you choose to listen. Continue reading »

ORDER OV RIVEN CATHEDRALS: “GÖBEKLI TEPE”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
May 012018
 

 

(DGR wrote this review of the new album by the Italian death metal band Order Ov Riven Cathedrals.)

Göbekli Tepe, the recently released full-length follow-up to last year’s Order Ov Riven Cathedrals EP The Discontinuinity’s Interlude, takes absolutely no prisoners from the moment its first real song kicks off. Following a similar format to last year’s EP, Göbekli Tepe basically has an intro for ambience and then spends the rest of its time with you going as fast as feasibly possible — in line with many of their Italian hyperfast blast-heavy death metal kin — and making almost no compromise in favor of breathing room.

The mysterious two-piece behind Order Ov Riven Cathedrals continue their science fiction and mythological bent nearly a year later, this time amplifying just about every aspect of last year’s EP, making it feel like The Discontinuity’s Interlude really was laying out a blueprint for them to follow. Order Ov Riven Cathedrals not only wring just about every ounce of highly accelerated  death metal they can out of their time, but also bring along a bevy of familiar movie and media samples (how many albums out there have a sample from Breaking Bad on them these days?). These include metal’s recent obsession with Oppenheimer’s television interview wherein he utters “I am become death, destroyer of worlds”… although the Riven Cathedrals crew mix it up a bit by using it in reverse and closing out with, “A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent”. Continue reading »

DEMONICAL: “CHAOS MANIFESTO”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 302018
 

 

(We present DGR’s review of the latest album by Demonical, which is out now via Agonia Records.)

Considering the various skulls, demon bones, and other awesome metal ephemera in the album art gracing the front of Demonical’s Chaos Manifesto it is probably a strange situation to open with the idea that, with this album, the comfort-food nature of the Swede-death genre and its effects on your reviewer have been firmly established. There’s something near instantly recognizable in the genre’s chosen pacings and structures that feels immediately familiar and speaks to the lizard segment of one’s brain, so much so that just about any band who embrace the mid-to-high tempo thudding nature of the music are bound to at least put on a decent live show, and, with a genre whose foundations and blueprints are so solidly in place at this point, those who merely follow it with a checklist can at least kick out a decent disc.

Which just makes it all the more difficult for a group to stand out from the pack or, given their aims, to make an album that at least ranks as a “solid good time”. Demonical, a group born from the hiatus of another Swedish purveyor of mid-tempo thudding death metal (Centinex) and now with a lineup that includes a pretty healthy chunk of the newly reactivated version of the aforementioned group — three of whose members were made official in 2017 — have released what could be considered the most straight-shooting Swede-death album of 2018 so far. In Chaos Manifesto there are no pretenses, no real attempts at breaking genre conventions, just a solid eight-track, thirty-six-minute slab of death metal that gives metal fans across the variety of the circle-headbanging genres something to salivate over. Continue reading »

JUST BEFORE DAWN: “TIDES OF BLOOD”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 272018
 

 

It is time once again to cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war, and simultaneously to ring the dinner bell in the heads of those Pavlovian dogs among us who salivate at the sound of chainsawing riffs and the movement of skull-plundering rhythms. Bolt Thrower may have fought their last battle, Hail of Bullets may have been drained of life, Asphyx may be pondering their next move, but Just Before Dawn continue to rise in gruesome power and terrible glory.

On their new album, Tides of Glory, all the key ingredients from previous releases remain in place — the thematic focus on events from the Second World War; the head-hooking, body-moving riffs; the monstrous power of the enlisted vocalists; the obliterating might of a rhythm section firing on all cylinders. But while riff-meister Anders Biazzi and his combat-veteran comrades haven’t made any dramatic departures from the old-school death metal stylings of the earlier albums (and it would be a rude shock if they had), they’ve still found ways to up their game. Continue reading »

DIMMU BORGIR: “EONIAN”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Apr 272018
 

 

(This is Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Dimmu Borgir, which will be released in May by Nuclear Blast.)

Some of you may be surprised to see this album being written about here at NCS. After all, Dimmu Borgir are (still) a pretty big deal, and our general ethos has always been to focus on smaller, less well-exposed bands, wherever possible.

But considering that my personal modus operandi has always been simply to write about whatever interests me, you’re going to get to read/hear my unfiltered thoughts and unsolicited opinions whether you like it or not.

Although, of course, you could always just not click “Continue reading”… but then, where’s the fun in that? Continue reading »

FOEHAMMER: “SECOND SIGHT”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 272018
 

 

(Our friend Grant Skelton returns to NCS with this vivid review of the debut full-length by Virginia’s Foehammer, released on April 6 by Australopithecus Records. It is the second review of the album we’ve published.)

Foehammer’s self-titled EP, which was released in the spring of 2015, was one of the first ventures I made on my descent into doom metal. Up to that point I’d dabbled, almost exclusively, in extreme bands experimenting with increasing the speed at which they played. After nearly 20 years of such apoplectic throttling, something in my psyche (soul?) began to yearn for auditory victuals from the other end of the speed spectrum.

And I dove head-first into the boggy, bottom-heavy bombardment of “Stormcrow.” This track thumped my brain like a warclub. I couldn’t listen to it enough. So naturally I chomped at the bit to review the EP. It teased proficiency; giving us only a flash of what Foehammer could really do.

I’m glad to say that, three years later, Foehammer’s dormancy has ended! A full-length offering has arrived. It is a cavernous, blunt-skulled, Neanderthal brute entitled Second Sight. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2018 (PART 2): DE PROFUNDIS / KING GOAT / SVALBARD

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 252018
 

 

(Andy Synn continues his occasional series in which he devotes attention to new releases by UK bands, here presenting a trio of reviews and music streams.)

Despite the fact that these days I exist more on the periphery of what one might loosely describe as “the scene” here in the UK, I’m still very much on a mission to talk/write about some of its best and brightest stars, and hopefully expose them to a whole new audience in the process.

And while each of the following bands has been featured here at NCS before (some more than others), this isn’t so much a case of favouritism as it is an acknowledgement that all three continue to make extremely compelling, attention-grabbing music, and their latest albums are no exception. Continue reading »

AGE OF ARCADIA — “ELEYSIS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 242018
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the debut album by the Berlin-based band Age of Arcadia.)

All of my reviews this year are probably going to come some time after an album’s release.  I’m really looking to emphasize what sticks with me long-term, that just won’t let me go no matter what.  Today I want to talk about a band who’s gone very much under the radar, shamefully so, whose debut is quite possibly one of the best thrash albums ever conceived in the 2010‘s.

Age Of Arcadia are from Germany, but their music at least on this album has a very pronounced Hellenistic thematic approach, based on the song titles, lyrical content, and album art, while musically capturing the mythic titanic might of Greek mythology.  Their debut Eleysis (Έλευσις) is one of the best albums I’ve encountered this year so far, although it’s technically a re-release according to the band despite the fact I can find no record of any previous releases. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries