AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ROTTING KINGDOM (SELF-TITLED EP)

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 142017
 

 

Rotting Kingdom is a new band from Lexington, Kentucky, that features current and former members of Tombstalker, whose music we’ve covered several times in the past. They’ve recorded a self-titled EP that is being released today, digitally and on tape, via Morbid Records, and we’re helping spread the word through the premiere of a full music stream.

The EP consists of three songs that entwine melodic doom and death metal to produce staggeringly bleak but seductive results, featuring beautifully bereaved dual-guitar performances, a crushing bass-and-drum tandem, and a vocalist whose growls are lower than ocean trenches. Continue reading »

RAPID FIRE RECOMMENDATIONS (PART 2): DEIVOS, MORTIFICA, PRAYERS OF SANITY, OPHIS, THE WRATH PROJECT

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 142017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli returns with another blast of fast recommendations, with music streams that will let you take the full plunge.)

Welcome back to rapid fire recommendations where I throw brief reviews or recommendations of albums that would have been reviewed already if we hadn’t been drowning in the metallic avalanche of 2017.

Deivos – Endemic Divine

Polish hyper-death titans Deivos have put out a killer death metal record bathed in rabies, bath salts, beefy guitars, schizophrenic riffs, and classically Polish militaristic technical drumwork. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: VRÅNGBILD, BERGRIZEN, BLEEDING GODS, HEXAGON, SCHATTENFALL, VETURHEIM

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Nov 142017
 

 

In this past Sunday’s edition of this series I mentioned that I had enough new recommendations to fill a two-part post, but wasn’t sure that I would have time to write the second part. Well, I did, and this is it.

Three of the recommendations are individual songs (one of which comes with a video). The other three are complete albums, accompanied by something less than full reviews, and one of those (the first one below) was a last-minute addition.

VRÅNGBILD

As mentioned, this first album wasn’t part of my original plan for this carry-over from Sunday’s SHADES OF BLACK. I became aware of it on Sunday night through a recommendation from starkweather, who never steers me wrong. After listening to the first track on Bandcamp, I bought it immediately. Continue reading »

THE FACELESS: “IN BECOMING A GHOST”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Nov 132017
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the new fourth album by The Faceless, which will be released on December 1 by Sumerian Records.)

Talk to any writer worth their salt and they’ll tell you that, no matter how long they’ve been writing, the temptation to be the first to review something, to get your opinions out there before anyone else, never fully goes away.

But while there are certainly times where first impressions can be useful, it’s often better to let your thoughts marinate for a little while before committing them to paper (or, at least, to digital ink).

Now I’ve been lucky enough to have this album in my possession for a few months, meaning that I’ve had more time than most to digest the music contained therein. And while this doesn’t necessarily make my opinion “better” or more authoritative than anyone else’s, it does mean that I’ve been able to take a bit more of a long-term perspective, and so you can be sure that what you’re about to read is much more than just my first, fleeting impressions of an album that comes laden with a heck of a lot of baggage and some serious expectations to live up to. Continue reading »

VITRIOL: “PAIN WILL DEFINE THEIR DEATH”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 102017
 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new EP by Vitriol from Portland, Oregon, with a complete Bandcamp stream on the day of its release.)

Ted O’Neill of Oblivion tells me about this guy, Kyle Rasmussen, and his band Vitriol and says I should look into them, tells me he thinks they’re going to be a significant band to pay attention to. I get these recommendations all the time, and of course as a music journo or blogger of any sort your instant thought is to think someone’s just trying to signal-boost their friends. I still check those recommendations out, of course, because I’d be close-minded to take the cynical route. I hit up Kyle for his band’s debut EP and… it did not disappoint.

Vitriol hit a death metal note that’s not really been struck for a while now, that brand of out-of-control, rabid, and schizophrenic tech death some of us associate with the likes of Cryptopsy and Cephalic Carnage — structured delirium, organized chaos, encapsulated insanity. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LETHVM — “THIS FALL SHALL CEASE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 102017
 

 

In late September I learned of the first advance track from the album we’re about to premiere from starkweather, and still smile over his description of the music, which jammed together three references in saying it has “the Cult of NeurIsis sound”, though with even more unhinged vocals. But the music isn’t the kind that makes one smile, no matter how much you respect the band’s relentless dedication to their vision and their powerful skill in making it such an apocalyptic reality.

The album is This Fall Shall Cease, and it’s the debut full-length by the Belgian doom/sludge band Lethvm. We’re presenting a full album stream in advance of its November 24 release by Deadlight and a consortium of other labels. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: EMPLOYED TO SERVE (AND SVALBARD) – NOTTINGHAM, NOVEMBER 9, 2017

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 102017
 


Employed To Serve

 

(Andy Synn prepared this review of the performances by Employed To Serve and Svalbard in Nottingham, England, on November 9, 2017.)

I’m not sure whether it’s due to my increasing age, or the regular quantities of alcohol which I consume, but for some reason I was certain – 110% certain – that we’d already covered Employed to Serve and their flabbergastingly good second album, The Warmth of a Dying Sun, here at NCS earlier this year.

So you can imagine my surprise when, as I was gearing up for this show, I discovered that we haven’t written a single word about the band all year!

For shame.

Still, at least I have a chance now to redress the balance somewhat. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: FUNERAL HEARSE — “THE FIST, THE SPIT, THE SWORD”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 092017
 

 

In the space of a compact, three-song EP of less than 13 minutes, the Singaporean band Funeral Hearse create a dramatic, unearthly, soul-shivering experience — a black metal furnace of fury, terror, and desolating delirium, laced with solemn ecclesiastical chants and choirs that seem to represent the target of the assault.

This new EP, The Fist. The Spit. The Sword., will be released on November 10 (tomorrow!) by Redefining Darkness Records, both digitally and on tape, but you can (and should) listen to it right now, at the end of this post. Continue reading »

UNDERKRIPT: “SUFFERANCE AND SORROW”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 092017
 

 

(Here’s TheMadIsraeli’s review of the debut album by the UK band Underkript, which was released yesterday.)

The Brits had a mini scene explode for a short period of time a few years back; a combination of progressive thrash metal, melodic death metal, and various metallic hardcore elements came into play. Sylosis is the most notable name in this movement, and they’ve been the best at it. At least until now.

Underkript are an impressive rookie band hailing from Hull, UK, who label themselves somewhat incorrectly if you ask me. While touting a melodic death metal label, Underkript play more a brand of technical progressive thrash metal with a good bit of New York Hardcore and modern extreme metal sensibilities. The songs are pretty lengthy, the riffs are relentless, the vocals are scalding with angst and militancy, the melodies stoic and somber, the drums like inter-dimensional artillery fire. Underkript have got the “it”factor, if you ask me. Sufferance and Sorrow is the name of the band’s debut. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS REBIRTH: “LA FOSA COMUN”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 092017
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new second album by the California death metal band Hideous Rebirth.)

As I was looking at Bandcamp for new music, I decided to check out Gore House Productions (a label in Los Angeles, California) and saw that Hideous Rebirth were about to release a new album entitled La Fosa Comun. At first I was a little bit hesitant, because I’d only heard one or two earlier songs by the band, and they were just ok for me. Despite that, I pushed play and was surprised at how different the music sounded on the new track from the album that was then available.

Then they released a new song, “Haunting Carnal Illusions”, featuring the talented Mr. Frank Zelada (Ossification), which premiered here at NCS. This impressed me as well, and the production of both this and the previous track enhanced the songs’ appeal.

Yet I still did not place an order then. Time passed, the release date arrived, and I proceeded to give it a listen (keep in mind that I was not that familiar with their previous EP and album, having only heard a couple of songs), and after one listen, I decided to order it. Continue reading »

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