THE CROWN: “COBRA SPEED VENOM”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Mar 212018
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new 10th album by Swedish stalwarts The Crown, which was released by Metal Blade on March 16th.)

Look at that fucking gorgeous cover art….

The Crown is a band that should be a go-to staple for any true hot-blooded metalhead. The band’s iconic blend of thrash, melodic death, death’n’roll, and straight death metal has been distinctive and, in this writer’s opinion, never really equaled. Johan Lindstrand has one of the most unique bestial voices in metal, the very materialization of a priest turned psychopath, preaching sermons of death and sickness. Marko Tervonen’s riffs feel like getting grenades lobbed at you constantly while you sprint for your life.

I’ve also always felt that over a long stretch of years The Crown have managed to release a pretty consistently baller discography. I don’t think you can classify a single album of theirs as mediocre, or even only “pretty good”. They have set a high standard… but have somehow surmounted it with this latest release. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WŸNTËR ÄRVŃ – “AU DEVANT DU GOUFFRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 212018
 

 

Obsessively devoted as I obviously am to the sounds of extreme metal, it’s rare that I’m able to indulge genuinely beautiful music, unless it’s delivered in the context of something heavy and harrowing. With that confession offered as a context of its own for what I’m about to write, I will say that the album we’re premiering here is the most beautiful and the most thoroughly enthralling listening experience I’ve had this year (and longer).

The album is Au Devant du Gouffre by Wÿntër Ärvń, which is the solo project of a French musician who calls himself Arvernian. It will be released on CD by Antiq Records on April 10th, although a digital version has become available today on Bandcamp.

The album is almost entirely an instrumental performance, and the instruments used are entirely acoustic. It could be characterized as Neofolk or Darkfolk, although its creator has disclosed that his influences (perhaps more spiritual than in any other way) “remain very strongly embedded in the black metal of the ’90s”. Continue reading »

MONOTHEIST: “SCOURGE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 212018
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the debut album by Monotheist, which is out now on Prosthetic Records.)

 

I must admit, until yesterday I was torn between two albums over which to focus my attentions on next, with my choices split between Occultaclysmic, the upcoming fourth album from resurgent South Carolina savages Lecherous Nocturne, or Scourge, the recently-released debut full-length from much-hyped Prosthetic Records signees Monotheist.

And although, ultimately, my decision was made much easier upon finding out that one of our guest contributors had already submitted a review for the former (a review which, at the time of writing, I have yet to read), the truth of the matter is that I was already leaning strongly towards the latter, if only because while Occultaclysmic is easily summed up as a solid (though not stellar) slab of post-Cryptopsy brutality still struggling to define its own identity, Scourge is much harder to categorise in similarly simple terms, making it, paradoxically, much easier (and more fun) to write about. Continue reading »

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE: “OCCULTACLYSMIC”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 202018
 

 

(Norway-based NCS contributor Karina Noctum prepared this review of the new album by Lecherous Nocturne, which will be released by Willowtip Records on April 6.)

Lecherous Nocturne are from South Carolina. The musicians have other musical projects that revolve around Brutal Death and Black Metal (Atrocious Abnormality, Cesspool of Vermin, Apotheosys, Helgardh). They have accumulated enough experience, and it fully shows in LN. Besides, since they’re from South Carolina you can bet the guitarist has played live with Nile, and that is one good hint when it comes to LN’s level of talent.

Lecherous Nocturne are many things. First, they are tech, so you get the insane guitar/bass work, and drums to die for. But keep in mind that if you have your reservations against tech or brutal, this is not your boring, souless tech, and not your raw brutal Neanderthalensis either. This is interesting, reminiscent of stuff that everyone loves but in the grey zone between several styles.

So yeah, this is tech but it is blackened and darkened, in a different spectrum than your average tech death band. Hints of rawness, that blackened thrash rawness, are present. Think of Absu! When it comes to DM you also have Morbid Angel’s omnipresent shadow, which is like a solid concrete foundation that makes this so heavy and enjoyable. The first song brings to mind Morbid Angel’s Heretic, for example.

Their latest album Occultaclysmic is to be released on April 6th by none other than one of the safest quality-checkers in extreme metal, Willowtip. (What a roster they have!) This is an album that further confirms the high quality that is to be found in their catalog. This is basically my definition of how the sound of metal should develop. It has thick musical roots firmly engrained in the DM genre while expanding the sound further into the extreme. It’s faster, much more powerful, and more intricate, without spiralling away into full chaos or a vastness of experimental sounds until the very core of the music is lost. It’s everything you hold dear, just taken to a next level. I do enjoy next levels. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOL DE SANGRE — “SOL DE SANGRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

Welcome to our exclusive debut of one of this writer’s favorite death metal albums of 2018, one that includes some of my favorite extreme metal songs of 2017. Yes, Sol De Sangre began spreading the word of this album last year through the release of four singles, two of which we wrote about in our periodic collections of recommended new music and one of which we premiered. Those were tremendously tempting teasers for this first full-length offering, and fortunately the album as a whole proves to be just as fantastic as all those early glimpses.

There’s a lot to take in on this self-titled album — 12 tracks in total, and not one of them a throw-away. Over the course of the album this veteran group of Colombian musicians pay homage to a variety of classic death metal sounds, and yet once you’ve heard all of them I think you’ll conclude that the only name which really represents the music faithfully is the name of Sol De Sangre. They’ve put their own distinctive stamp on these compositions, while at the same time re-living a host of past glories. Continue reading »

AUGURY: “ILLUSIVE GOLDEN AGE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

(The Canadian death metal wizards in Augury will be releasing a new album on March 30 via The Artisan Era, and today we present DGR’s extensive review of this eagerly awaited new work.)

 

This first third of 2018 is proving to be an insane time for groups coming back from the obscure voids of space to which they had retreated, and the angular prog-tech-death madness that Augury specializes in is the latest example of that trend. Prior to the March 30 release of the band’s upcoming album Illusive Golden Age, the gap between their previous two releases Concealed and Fragmentary Evidence was a little under five years. When Illusive Golden Age sees the light of day via The Artisan Era, that previous gap will have been eclipsed, as Illusive Golden Age comes sailing in at a little under nine years since Augury’s last disc.

Through Illusive Golden Age’s eight songs, Augury basically pick up right where they left off. By the opening notes of its title song, there is absolutely no need to make guesses about whether this is an Augury disc or not — everything is served up on an incredibly dense plate from moment one, and from there Augury zig-zag through an increasingly complicated obstacle course, purpose-built to leave its listeners with the equivalent of auditory whiplash. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2018, PART 1: AKLASH / GEOMANCER / MY SILENT WAKE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 192018
 

 

(Our man from Nottingham, Andy Synn, resumes a series in which he focuses on releases from a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe.)

I’m going to keep the preamble short and sweet for this one, as I’ve written quite a lot over the course of the last couple of weeks, both for NCS and for my regular job, and seem to have worn my poor keyboard fingers down to the bone in the process.

Still, I hope you all find something to enjoy in today’s column, which is meant to provide an insight into some of the most promising new albums to have come out of these green and pleasant lands so far this year. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HINAYANA — “ORDER DIVINE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  9 Responses »
Mar 152018
 

 

I was tremendously impressed by Endless, the 2014 debut demo by this band from my old hometown of Austin, Texas, so much so that I attempted to be more poetic than usual in my enthusiastic review. It was thus exciting to discover that Hinayana would be releasing a debut album named Order Divine on March 19th. Having now become immersed in the album for days, it has proven to be even more impressive than Endless. And so it is our great pleasure to share a full stream of the album with you today.

In the simplest terms, the music here is doom-influenced melodic death metal, but of a kind that consistently reaches heights of epic grandeur. Embracing moods of defiance, loss, and grim but glorious triumph, the dramatic, blood-pumping songs are capable of transporting listeners far, far away from the mundane, drab events of daily life, sending emotions soaring and thoughts flying into mythic realms. Continue reading »

JUDAS PRIEST: “FIREPOWER”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  3 Responses »
Mar 152018
 

 

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Judas Priest.)

I have now given this album time to sit with me. My first concern about a Priest album at this point in their career is how is Rob’s voice going to hold up? We might be able to live without KK, but as the Ripper Owens years proved, Rob’s  voice is one of the defining traits of this band.

The first two songs are pretty much dialed-in versions of their former arena-rock classics. Think closer to Defenders of the Faith, which found  the band trying to replicate the massive success of Screaming For Vengeance. While the ghost of Priest past might haunt some of the songs, it is without a doubt a better album than Redeemer of Souls. It has the up-tempo aggression that influenced the thrash bands that would follow. “Lightning Strike” has more of a gallop than the opener. The over-dubbed vocal layers that show Halford’s upper range are pretty convincing. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: WITCHTRIP — “COSMIC CAULDRON”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 142018
 

 

We were told that the Canadian band Witchtrip includes all the members of Winnipeg’s Occvlt Hand other than the vocalist — so, basically the same band with a different singer. That was reason enough to check out the two tracks on Witchtrip’s debut EP, Cosmic Cauldron, because we were big fans of Occvlt Hand’s 2017 album, Not Everyone Deserves A Happy Ending. We gleefully premiered a track from that album, and put that same track on our list of 2017’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

Now, one would expect that Witchtrip’s music would be different from Occvlt Hand’s, despite the significant overlap in members. Otherwise, why choose a different name? And in fact, the music is quite different. And perhaps it should also come as no surprise that the music is nevertheless really, really good — as you’re about to discover for yourselves through our premiere of Cosmic Cauldron in advance of its release on March 16th by Possessed Records. Continue reading »

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