AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: ETHER — “THERE IS NOTHING LEFT FOR ME HERE”

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Jul 062017
 

 

Some people are tough, some are fragile… or so we think, though it’s closer to the truth to say that everyone is tough and fragile, alloyed in different degrees, and varying with our changing circumstances. And no one would deny that the human condition is perilous, given to challenging our toughness and sometimes breaking us apart when we least expect it.

Sludge isn’t the only metal genre that grapples with these low points, but as a vehicle for expressing the crushing blows that life can deal out and providing a catharsis for their emotional impacts, it can be among the most powerful. Ether’s second album, There Is Nothing Left For Me Here, is in that category. It is also full of unexpected musical textures, and also glimpses of beauty within the desolation and sense of abandonment that hang heavy over the very heavy songs.

The album will be released tomorrow — July 7th — and we have a full stream of the music for you today. Continue reading »

VALLENFYRE: “FEAR THOSE WHO FEAR HIM”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 062017
 

 

(DGR prepared this review of the third, and reportedly final, album of a consistent favorite of our site — Vallenfyre.)

In what will likely be the understatement of the year, you could easily say that Vallenfyre’s career has been one intertwined with death.

At face value, they’re a death metal band. Two out of their three album covers have prominently featured skulls, Vallenfyre’s genesis story is rooted in a tribute to founder Gregor Mackintosh’s father after he had passed, and the musicians who have taken part in the project have been death and doom metal luminaries — including longtime guitarist Hamish Glencross, formerly of My Dying Bride.

If you wanted to be reductive you could say that Vallenfyre have started to sound a lot like the groove-heavy side of Napalm Death, and now we’re faced with the prospect of the “death” of the band itself with Gregor giving interviews saying that he views the Vallenfyre releases as a trilogy and would be happy to leave it there. Continue reading »

SEMINAL EMBALMMENT: “SEMINAL EMBALMMENT”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 062017
 

 

(We welcome back Vonlughlio, with another recommendation of brutal death metal for our readers.)

So this time around I have the opportunity to write about one of my favorite BDM bands from Australia. No, it’s not Disentomb (which I do love), it’s a band from Adelaide, South Australia, named Seminal Embalmment.

Formed back in 2006 under the moniker Five Finger Disintegrator, they changed their name in 2011 (glad they did).  Two years later they signed to New Standard Elite and released their EP Stacked and Sodomized, material that displayed amazing riffs with well-executed drums and great song structures. If I had made a top EP list that year, it would have been included. The only aspect of the music that I did not enjoy as much was the vocals; they were not bad, but they did not seem to go hand-in-hand with the music. Continue reading »

DECREPIT BIRTH: “AXIS MUNDI”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jul 052017
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Decrepit Birth.)

The ability to make comparisons between bands is a key tool in the modern reviewer’s repertoire.

As long as it isn’t abused and overused, making clear and accurate comparisons between different, but similar/complementary, acts is one of the best ways to put your audience in the right frame of mind prior to listening to a new album, and to attract the attention of potential new listeners (while also giving them some idea of what to expect).

But, although some comparisons are obvious (often painfully so), there are times when you’ll spend hours banging your head against a (metaphorical) brick wall, only to realise that the answer has been right under your nose the whole time.

And that’s exactly what happened to me mid-way through listening to Axis Mundi. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: INVOCATION SPELLS — “THE FLAME OF HATE”

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Jul 052017
 

 

I became thoroughly hooked to the sulfurous, electrifying sound of the Chilean band Invocation Spells upon discovering their second album, Descendent the Black Throne (2016), from which we premiered the title track. It was a rare achievement, a galloping romp of speed metal riffs and gut-punching percussion trailing clouds of toxic smoke in its wake, capped by venomous vocals nasty enough to wake demons from their slumber, and as highly addictive as it was highly explosive. Now, in just a matter of days, Hells Headbangers will release Invocation Spells’ third album — The Flame of Hate — and we have a full stream of it for you now.

There are times when I read advance PR material about an album that’s so vivid and so accurate that I wonder, why should I even bother trying to describe the music myself?, because there’s no way I can match what I’ve already read. I had that feeling in reading these words about The Flame of Hate: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: MISTIGMA — “OMEGA MORTIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 052017
 

 

Never underestimate the power of cover art to attract listeners. Though not a musician myself, that’s one piece of advice I would place high on a list of recommendations for metal bands if anyone were to ask me (though I’m not holding my breath waiting for the requests to pour in). For example, I was eager to hear the debut EP of the Italian death metal band Mistigma based on one look at the cover created by View From The Coffin — and now here I am helping to introduce Omega Mortis to you.

In its actual physical format, the EP looks very good as well: Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ABORTED — “BATHOS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jul 052017
 

 

(DGR reviews the new EP by those Belgian barbarians (and old favorites of our site), Aborted.)

 

Of all of the bands nowadays who hardly seem to stop for a breath, Aborted are one who in recent years have steadily increased their output like few others. Most bands in the decade-plus eras of their careers tend to slow down; Aborted record music like the world is ending tomorrow — in terms of both aural quality and quantity.

In recent years, Aborted have also become master chameleons with their sound, re-energizing every album with just enough tweaks that although the band have clearly found a happy home in a hyperfast death-grind sound, each of the group’s releases since Global Flatline have felt different from one another. Those releases are still fairly recognizably as Aborted albums, and honestly, putting on shuffle the triptych of Global Flatline, Necrotic Manifesto, and Retrogore, along with the smattering of EPs and single releases with all their bonus rarities that happened in between those discs, pretty much guarantees a very consistent and frighteningly heavy through-line. Continue reading »

TYRANOSORCERESS: “SHATTERING LIGHT’S CREATION”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jul 032017
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the debut album by the Texas band Tyrannosorceress.)

A couple of weeks back I got caught up in a… let’s call it a “discussion”, for the sake of politeness… with a certain individual about whether or not all Black Metal bands have to ascribe to a certain “ideology” or ethos in order to actually be counted as Black Metal.

Now this question is nothing new – it’s been argued back and forth for eons (well, eons in internet years), with no definitive answer in sight – yet it still retains its strange power to fascinate, provoke, and repulse in equal measure.

Take even a small sub-section of Black Metal fandom and you’ll undoubtedly find as many different opinions on this matter as there are individuals to hold them, from those who believe that all Black Metal should be all-Satan, all the time, to those who’ll settle for just a general anti-Christian (or, more broadly, anti-religion) approach, to those who feel that the focus should be purely on nihilism/nature-worship/none-of-the-above, and most of whom will soundly reject any suggestion to the contrary as not being “true” Black Metal.

I don’t have an answer for this conundrum myself. In fact I’m not even sure there is one, seeing as how some of the most seminal and respected figures in the scene itself all seem to have different ideas and opinions on the matter.

But I know what I like. And I like this album. Continue reading »

ARPHAEL: “ARGENESIS”

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Jul 032017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this review of the new album by the Ukrainian musician Arphael.)

I’ve been working on this review for a long-ass time. This album came out a couple weeks ago now, I think? The time has escaped me, but this album needed the attention because it’s fucking TWO HOURS+ LONG. I wanted to give it its proper due, given that I love Arphael’s music, but also because there’s A LOT to dissect here.

Argenesis is the finale of Arphael’s primary trilogy of albums he was working on besides the spinoff album Ancient I reviewed last month. This album’s length raises questions about how much we’ll ever hear from Arphael again.

This trilogy — Ambigram, Guiding Light, and Argenesis — were planned from the get-go. I know of one more release that’s coming, which is a re-recording of Ambigram so he can do it justice with his current production style and vocal improvements, but I’m not sure what’s after that. If he never releases anything else, the guy has contributed a unique and challenging sound to the metalsphere that will always stand out to me. Can’t say I would complain if he goes on after this, though. Continue reading »

BACTEREMIA: “FURIOUSLY REDUCED”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 302017
 

 

(Our loyal and good friend of many years, Vonlughlio from the Dominican Republic, a man with an experienced and refined taste for brutality in metal, brings us this review of the new album by a group of Colombian slaughterers who call themselves Bacteremia.)

Bacteremia is a Brutal Death Metal band founded in 2006 in Colombia. I discovered the band in 2013 with the release of their debut album Cerebral Wrong Settings. I loved the raw sound, the crazy riffs, the intense drumming, and the powerful vocals. I included it in my year-end list here at NCS.

The current line-up of the band is: Carlos Andres Penagos (Drums), Andres Felipe Soto (Guitars), Sebastian Guarin (vocals), and Oscar Callejas (Bass). Continue reading »

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