OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XV: LES GRANDES ÉQUIPES

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 162025
 

(With the merry month of March now in our rearview mirror, here we present Daniel Barkasi‘s lavish reviews of six noteworthy albums released during those 31 days.)

We’re going to start talking a bit about football, as I have in some of my previous entries. Not the American kind, but the one that’s actually played with feet. Much like music, it’s one of those things that’s always a constant in my life, bringing many highs and lows, with the deep passion and incredible history of so many clubs keeping me invested. Football in many ways can be a microcosm of the greater world that it’s so ingrained within. Didier Drogba and his Côte d’Ivoire teammates famously inspiring a halt to a civil war is an example of the unification that can happen due to this sporting endeavor. With the World Cup coming to the US next year, one can hope for it to be some kind of catalyst of togetherness as well.

As my beloved Liverpool FC (hopefully) move towards a second Premier League crown – three points in the bag at a tense affair against Steve Harris’ boyhood club West Ham United at time of writing – this is the time of the season where the stakes are so incredibly high. The Champions League is entering its final stages, and the intrigue is palpable as clubs rise and fall. To the uninitiated, this is the biggest club competition in the world, where the top European sides face off in a long and winding competition. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VETUS SANGUIS — “CAPÍTULO I – DIMENSÃO HORRENDA”

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Apr 152025
 

(written by Islander)

First impressions do matter, even if our younger selves grew tired of hearing that stern advice from parental figures. In the case of how we spend our time around here, we see how bands and record labels choose singles to make first impressions of albums that the public can’t yet hear.

Sometimes those choices turn out to be misleading, like the strained politeness of a wild child being introduced to a stranger, or often like the forced and feigned wildness of someone who turns out to be really very dull. No wonder people usually wait to hear everything before making a purchase decision, unless it happens to be a band whose previous music they know well, but sometimes even then because even the best of us make mis-steps.

In the case of the Portuguese black metal band Vetus Sanguis, the first impression we had of its debut album Capítulo I – Dimensão Horrenda was “Trombetas Diabólicas,” a song that you won’t reach until nearly a third of the album has gone by. The impression it made was startling. When we premiered it, we advised listeners to take big gulps of air before listening. Continue reading »

DAUGHTER CHAOS – NOBLE ROT

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Apr 152025
 

(Andy Synn has (almost) nothing but praise for the debut album from Daughter Chaos)

We’ve said it before, but it’s always worth stating again, that if it comes to a choice between writing about a “big name” band or an underrated underground artist nine times out of ten we’ll opt for the latter.

That doesn’t mean we’re averse to covering some of the more (in)famous artists now and then – there’s no doubt that doing so on occasion definitely helps raise our profile, which in turn (hopefully) brings more eyes to the smaller bands we cover – but our focus has always been on covering those groups who don’t receive the attention and exposure they deserve.

Case in point, if I had to choose between the latest chart-busting release from Arch Enemy or the long-anticipated debut album from Daughter Chaos… well, the latter was always going to win that battle.

Continue reading »

DORMANT ORDEAL: “TOOTH AND NAIL”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 152025
 

(DGR provides the following extensive and evocative review of the new album by Poland’s Dormant Ordeal in advance of its April 18 release by Willowtip Records. At 3PM PDT today the entire album stream will premiere here.)

The idea of saving the best for last is something that is hammered into our psychology since early childhood. You must save the best for last, you must save the best for last, you must save the best for last, repeated over and over ad nauseum in mantra-like form until it eventually becomes unspoken sutrah to us as children growing up.

In the current age of instant gratification and the endless dopamine chase of modern society, however, saving the best for last is something that is long lost and a spectre of ages ago. Yet in a strange way it seems as if Poland’s Dormant Ordeal have taken the idea and run with it for their newest album Tooth And Nail because over the course of the album’s eight songs – barring one intro ambient bit – it isn’t so much the song itself that leaves the final impression but the way the song ends.

The final statement made for any particular song comes down to how you close out. Those last moments can prove to be integral to making a song live forever in a person’s mind. One of the things Dormant Ordeal demonstrate time and time again across Tooth And Nail is that one thing is certain: they know how to end a song. Continue reading »

KIRITSIS: “KIRITSIS”

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Apr 142025
 

(We begin a new week at NCS with Todd Manning‘s review of the self-titled debut album from Indianapolis-based Kiritsis, out now on Wise Blood Records and Pout Records.)

Metal and hardcore have provided us with many ways to portray the nastiness of everyday life. Indianapolis-based quartet Kiritsis takes a sludge template and injects it with some nasty hardcore at just the right moments, creating the soundtrack to the rage that is slowly consuming our broken psyches.

The opening riff for “Knuckles” sets the stage. It’s the kind of head-nodding sludge riff sure to bring an involuntary scowl to any metal connoisseur’s face. The sound is a bit reminiscent of Crowbar at their most aggressive, such as on “High-Rate Extinction”. Yet, Kiritsis sounds more epic; perhaps some Neurosis influence sneaking in as well. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NASCITURUS, SVART VINTER, NIGHTMARE BODY, ALUKTA, NVAGE, DERHEAD

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Biting off more than you can chew: I came real close to doing that yesterday. All the songs by those 14 bands tasted so good, I had to bite into them, though I don’t know how many other people listened to them all, much less read all the words I frantically spilled out.

I guess my mental jaws were sore this morning because, after starting to get caffeinated, I stared at what I’d planned to do for today’s black roundup and backed off. I hadn’t planned an extravaganza on the scale of yesterday’s sonic storm, but it still seemed like a lot, or at least a lot more than I could manage without spinning like a top again, so I pulled out the paring knife and started shaving it down. (Man, that’s a lot of metaphors already and I’m still just in the intro!).

A painful process it was, deciding what to go with and what to leave behind. I hope the pain you’re about to experience below is only the kind of pain you seek. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (PART 2): HEAVEN SHALL BURN, OMINOUS RUIN, BALMOG, CHAINSWORD HURSAN, KATATONIA, GHOST

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Apr 122025
 


Heaven Shall Burn – photo by Candy Welz

(written by Islander)

Fanatically determined to get both Parts of this roundup posted today, I took a 10-minute break after launching Part 1 and then dived into this one. I haven’t gone to the bathroom yet, but like Cory Booker I’m depending on Depends.

As discussed in Part 1, today’s already-large roundup mushroomed into an even bigger one after my pals Andy Synn and DGR threw 4 more songs into a mix that already included music from 10 bands.

As also discussed there, for you criminals who didn’t bother to read it, I used those 4 as bookends, 2 at the start and 2 at the finish. The 2 at the end have stressed out my usual NCS site-title boundary lines to the breaking point, but not for the first time. Continue reading »

BUTCHERBIRD: “DROUGHT/DELUGE”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 112025
 


Artwork by šaška

(On May 30th Drowning Sea God Records will digitally release the debut EP from the London-based metallic hardcore band ButcherBird. Wil Cifer has had a chance to hear it, and sent in the following positive review.)

I’m always up for checking out a hardcore band that is willing to venture off the beaten path. So here we are with ButcherBird, a hardcore band from London that has a metallic groove to their feedback-squealing attack.

The angry shout of the vocals is the most straightforward thing about the overall sound this band is throwing at you. They do use breakdowns, but these cropped up in less expected places. There is a more rock n roll vibe underlying the whiplash of angular riffs, making them more of Rollins Band than Full of Hell when it comes to the sonic scope these guys have crafted. Unwieldy sections of choruses collide to create a celebratory ambience. They are not fueled by a singular mood, but express a wide range of varied emotions with little pretense. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SONUM — “THE OBSCURE LIGHT AWAITS”

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Apr 092025
 

(written by Islander)

Those of us who first came across the Italian death metal band Sonum through their 2021 EP Divide et Impera encountered a head-spinning array of wild musical adventures, a free-wheeling experimentation in which death metal was only one of many stylistic twists and turns. They followed that with their somewhat less genre-bending but still multi-faceted 2022 debut album Visceral Void Entropy, and now they’re returning again with their new full-length The Obscure Light Awaits, set for release on April 11th by the Dusktone label.

Since their last album, Sonum‘s lineup has dropped from five members to three, and by some measures their music has become more streamlined as well, certainly more carefully structured and cohesive.

But let us quickly banish any thought that Sonum have become “conventional”, in any sense of the word. This is an ingeniously elaborate and thoroughly dazzling album of progressive and atmospheric death metal (though its varying moods are quite dark), and heads that lean into it won’t stop spinning until it’s over — as you will learn for yourselves through our premiere today. Continue reading »

CARONTE – SPIRITVS

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 092025
 

(Andy Synn wants you all to help him make Caronte a much, much bigger deal)

In light of the increasing success of bands like Unto Others and Tribulation, as well as the massive popularity of a little band you may have heard of called Ghost, it’s surprising that occult Doom coven Caronte haven’t received a similar amount of love and attention.

Maybe it’s because they’re still – despite their love of infectiously psilocybic melodies and gloomily gothic grooves – a little too dark, or a little too rough and rugged (though to me that’s actually part of their appeal) to appeal to a more “mainstream” audience quite as much, or maybe they’re just hanging out with “the wrong crowd” (they’re still very much associated with the Black Metal scene to some people… heck, it was at Inferno Festival that I first encountered them myself).

Whatever the reason, however, I’m making it my mission to give the band’s profile a bit of a boost… especially since their new album, Spiritvs (which comes out this week), might just be their most artfully accessible yet!

Continue reading »

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