(Andy Synn presents three short-but-savage examples of the Metallic Hardcore arts)
Ok, I’ll admit it, I’ve been neglecting the short-play side of the scene again
So today I’m going to shine a light on three hefty pieces of Hardcore – of the more Metallic variety, naturally – whose brief run-time still packs one hell of a punch.
And then, if you’re lucky, I’ll follow up with a more Death Metal focussed one next week, deal?
(This is DGR’s review of the latest album from a Fort Worth band who now call themselves Asylum TX.)
Texas-based tech-death group Asylum – now operating under the name Asylum TX – are a band we’ve been following for some time now, iInitially as a group that showed a surprising amount of promise from seemingly out of nowhere in the death metal world, but then afterward because the group’s music kept making strange twists and turns.
Where Asylum TX were looking to take their music was not something we would have expected or guessed. 2021’s Sharpen, for instance, is a lengthy album that treads the line between tech-death and something more amateurishly explorative of various forms of hallucinogens. It was an hour-plus worth of music that felt like a group of stellar musicians who had fallen into a weird Alex Grey by way of Tool rabbit hole and then taking the wildest swing at making a death metal album about it. Prior EPs and their 2017 album Psalms Of Paralysis had been more straightforward in that regard, as Asylum bore the marks of more than one Cattle Decapitation-influenced twist on their sound.
Five years removed from Sharpen, however, and Asylum – again, wearing a new visage as Asylum TX – once again sound as if they’re a completely different band who’ve come up with something far more angular in its approach than a traditional tech-death release for their newest album Cultus Inoxia. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn girds himself to take on the epic new album from Khemmis, set for release this Friday)
Self-titling an album is always a bold move.
After all, what it says to an audience… for better or worse… is “this is the definitive version of who we are“.
It stands to reason, then, that self-titling an album when you’re already more than a decade into your career, with four other incredibly successful records already under your collective belt, is an even bolder move.
Because it doesnt’t just say “this is who we are“, it also says “this is what we’ve been building to all this time“.
So let’s see exactly what Khemmis have been building, shall we?
(Below you’ll find Daniel Barkasi’s extensive report on the first day of Fortress Festival 2026 in England, accompanied by his great own photos. His report on Day Two lies ahead.)
Intro:
When one has an incredible experience, it’s only natural to chase that down to re-experience it again. My experience at Fortress Festival last year without doubt qualifies – a festival that was built from the ground up to provide something unique, and now in its fourth iteration, Fortress has become a destination for many that they simply can’t miss. Yours truly obviously can be tossed into that categorization, as here we are, ready for our second helping of black metal insanity.
With this mind-boggling lineup, how could we not come back? Continue reading »
(Here’s a review by DGR of an album by the northern California crust band Arüspex, which was released in January by the band and later in the year on tape by Fiadh Productions.)
Crust-punk group Arüspex have had one of the longer tenures on the “to review” list that we are slowly working our way through now. While I can’t claim that I was there on the ground floor with the Sierra Nevada punks, for what little it is worth at the very least I’ve been digging into their newest release The Death Instinct since the end of March. Small potatoes when you consider that The Death Instinct came out in the middle of January, but what would we be if we didn’t have releases in our queue that we’ve missed the bus on so bad that the local municipalities have had time to defund the public transit system and replace the bus stops with lame “scenic” pottery and more lanes for cars?
Arüspex, like many groups, lie in an in-between realm within a couple of different genres lines, making them semi-difficult to define and an exciting listen because they’re equally somewhat hard to predict. Genre definitions themselves being for fools like us who build mood-playlists. Why do that when the whole album is a proverbial mood? The group’s core is very much that of a crust punk band, and the low-end-driven riff work and equally voracious thud on the drumkit no doubt fortifies that, but again, like many bands, a handful of other influences are also comfortably seated on the fringe of The Death Instinct that politely move it beyond mere sub-genrefication and into something vicious on its own terms. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
As you can see, we are about to premiere an album by a group named Final Self. They are a death metal band from Tarnów, Poland, and Liturgy of The Final Self is their debut release.
We don’t have a lot of information to share about the band or what inspired them. Their very brief description of the music calls it “raw, dark death metal focused on intense atmosphere, existential themes, and destruction from within.” Beyond that, we have the identity of the band’s members and some notes about their resumes:
Eveq – guitar, bass (Breathe The Void, ex-Ingenium)
Ataman Tolovy – vocals (Turin Turambar, Genius Ultor, Mrome, ex-Stillborn, ex-Kult Mogił)
Krzysztof Klingbein – drums (Totenmesse, Belphegor live, ex-Vader live)
At least some of the names in those parenthetical notes will probably perk up the ears of our visitors, as they did mine. Yet for the most part we have to let the music speak for Final Self and what they’re about. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn kicks off another week here at NCS with a brutish blast of Hardcore/Death/Grind)
Last week was a big week for Hardcore/Metalcore (the good kind, obviously) with the release of new albums from both Converge and 100 Demons (as well as a whole host of other, equally abrasive acts from across the ‘core spectrum).
And while I’m hoping to write a little something about them later on this month (I’ve already got Embrace the Black Light pencilled in for the next edition of “Things You May Have Missed”) I thought that my time and energy might be better expended covering something that probably needs the exposure a little more.
Which is why today we’re taking a look at the recently-released debut album from France’s Corruption Pact, which delivers a short, sharp burst of stripped-down, straight-to-your-face Hardcore – blended with a lethal dose of razor-edged, Death Metal influenced riffing and pissed-off, Grind-inspired politics – that gives absolutely zero fucks and takes no prisoners!
(With the month of May now behind us, Gonzo returns to review and recommend five albums released during that month.)
Like fucking clockwork, this column was once again interrupted by last-minute additions.
On one hand, I completely realize the futility of adding albums to a list that I conjure out of nothing each month. On the other, it’s my list, goddammit, and my commitment to being needlessly meticulous with it is something you can pry from my cold, dead hands. (Much like the collection of physical media sitting in a walk-in closet that I’ve been hoarding since I was 15.)
Alas, this sentiment tracks with how most of us approach our writing at NCS. We’re nerds about this shit.
If you read below the fold, maybe you’ll understand why I nixed such new releases from Elder, All Them Witches, and to a lesser extent, Devin Townsend, for the ones included here. You could also debate whether any of those bands fit the mold of these pages, but I don’t have the energy for that. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
I fear that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and am putting before you more than you might be able to chew as well: four complete albums that have recently been released.
It’s rare for me to do this. It’s much more within my capacity in these columns to write about individual songs, with maybe one complete release in the mix. But I know myself. I spend most of my time at NCS scurrying on a daily basis to fulfill premiere commitments while trying to coordinate what other writers are doing and constantly attempting to keep up with new things that burst open elsewhere.
It’s my own choice, of course, but it means I rarely have time to patiently sit with a complete album, much less to write something approaching a thoughtful review unless the album is one we’re premiering. And to be honest, I don’t feel I’ve fully digested any of the four records I’m recommending today. Yet all four of them made such striking impacts on me that I felt the urgent need to say something about them before the coming week’s whirlwind starts spinning me around again. Continue reading »
(For the second day in a row we have a review from DGR that delves into sludge/doom, and the subject today is a February 2026 EP released by the UK band Sunk.)
The good ship NoCleanSinging, when taken out by your present captain here, will lower its trawl into the oceans of heavy metal and dredge up a variety of releases over the course of the year. So many are absorbed into its maw that there is always going to be something waiting in the wings to be covered whenever we can find time to eke one out. Combined with our desperately flailing attempts to stay current with what is coming out, we inevitably end up swamped, and so many of the reviews from yours truly will be focused on stuff that came out months ago that seem to be going unsung, yet still managed to capture the eye and ear.
Britain’s Sunk and their EP From The Abyss is one such release that managed to capture attention earlier in the year, and now we are grateful for the time to circle back and actually discuss this release as it proves that sludge isn’t just something we dredge up and clean out of our ship’s trawl, but is also something that has seen quite a bit of explosive growth in the last few years. Continue reading »