NIHILITY ACROSS AMERICA 2025 AT THE DNA LOUNGE, SAN FRANCISCO

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 062025
 

(The Polish titans Decapitated recently finished their Nihility Across North America Tour, with support from Incantation, Darkest Hour, and Exmortus. Our friend Ben Manzella caught their February 27 show at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge and provided us with the following report and his photos of the performances.)

It is hard for me to believe that it was nineteen years ago that I started to desire to be at a concert almost any night that it was possible. For obvious reasons, this has hardly been possible but I couldn’t help but be reflective as I walked into the DNA Lounge for the Nihility Across North America tour. As I think I mentioned in my review of Decapitated’s show last year, Vogg was the first person to allow me the time to interview them in person. We haven’t been able to talk again in person since that night, but it still means a lot to me. It was great to be able to see this tour celebrating a pinnacle moment in the career of Decapitated. Continue reading »

SEPTICFLESH: “AMPHIBIANS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Mar 062025
 

(In advance of their recent North American tour with Vltimas and Ex Deo, the Greek band SepticFlesh released an EP named Amphibians, and our DGR gives it a review here.)

If you’ve been following the news around tours for the past five or so years you’ve likely noticed an increasing trend of groups surprise-releasing singles – sometimes collaborative ones, which are immense fun – or EPs just prior to the tour happening. Aborted did it for their most recent tour; Machine Head did a combo song with the vocalists of Unearth, In Flames, and Lacuna Coil making appearances; and Lamb of God combined forces with Mastodon for their full album playthrough tour not too long ago.

The genesis of these songs can often lay in the cutting room floor from previous album sessions since creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum and are highly unpredictable, but whereas it felt like groups constantly needed to have something to get them out on the road, now it has morphed into something more akin to revitalizing the current album cycle for a few more rotations around the sun.

Just as equally though, you do get lucky and a band will find time to sneak into the studio for a few and crank out ideas that’ve been haunting them like shadows ever-present in the corner of their vision. Bearing in mind that SepticFlesh‘s newest release crashes ashore a bit over two and a half years after their album, it would be hard to guess what led to which. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, FEBRUARY 2025

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 052025
 

(In this column our Denver-based friend Gonzo brings forward five albums of varied kinds of heaviness for your consideration, all of them released in February.)

Well, February came and went, and I’m still catching up on the absolute onslaught of heavy music that emerged from it – hence the noticeable delay in putting this column together.

Alas, shit happens. I’m still recovering from last night’s Cavalera show here in Denver, in which the eponymous brothers Max and Igor led their band through a crushingly heavy Schizophrenia set that was played at breakneck speed. Even the Chaos A.D. encore cranked up the BPM. And just before they were ready to call it a night, they hauled none other than Jello Biafra on stage for a downright cathartic cover of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off,” except “Punks” was replaced with “Trumps.”

In place of a politically charged tirade of my own, I’ll just lazily approve the above with a “fuck yes” stamp of approval and carry on.

Anyway, here’s some music you should listen to that came out last month. Continue reading »

SOUL TOMB: “DROWNING”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 052025
 

(After a bit of a lull DGR returns to NCS with a review of a great discovery, the second EP by the Swedish one-person band Soul Tomb.)

After years of doing whatver you might refer to this as, you sort of develop a sense that the year in heavy metal has a flow to it. There are plenty of peaks and valleys and often Summer can feel like a massive deluge of releases as hardcore festival and touring season gets underway, but there is one thing that has proven to be as equally reliable as the end of the year clusterfuck season or the time set aside for the brave souls who defy the odds and attempt a December release: January is a weird month.

January comes to us at the end of a whole year’s closing, partially feeling like the recovery from a hangover rather than the opportunity to appraise things anew and appreciate the potential of upcoming opportunities. The month is not bereft of releases; in fact the reason why January tends to consistently feel strange is the opposite.

There are a ton of releases in January, but truth be told you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it’s by big, recognizable names but more often January gets to be a month of gambles and discoveries – which is how the year started on this end. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 052025
 

(Andy Synn highlights four albums from a very busy February which you may have overlooked)

I don’t mind admitting that, due to a lot of different factors – being busy at work, having to spend time prepping and then playing with the band, and then finally succumbing to this really shitty flu (to the point where I’m still not back to 100%, to be honest) – I missed a lot of stuff I originally intended to write about last month.

To exacerbate this, there’s only a limited amount of space (and time) I have here to catch up on what I/we missed, which means the likes of Grima (really good, but perhaps not quite as good as its predecessor), Havukruunu (bombastic blood and fire heroics at their best), and Mantar (a punkier, more stripped-down album than their last one, albeit with a few tracks/riffs that sound a little too familiar in places), probably aren’t going to get the full write-ups that they deserve.

But, you know, those are pretty big names – or, at least, pretty notorious in our little scene – and if there’s one thing we’re known for here at NCS it’s focussing on less (in)famous bands wherever possible, so hopefully you won’t begrudge me my choices for this month’s column!
Continue reading »

CRYPTOSIS: “CELESTIAL DEATH”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 042025
 

(On March 7th Century Media will release a new album by the Dutch progressive thrash band Cryptosis, and today we present Daniel Barkasi‘s review of the album.)

Thrash and I have held a contentious relationship as of late. True as it is that thrash was my first foray into the heavier side of the metal spectrum many, many eons ago, memorable albums have been difficult to find in these last few years. Without bands like Enforced, what the hell would I do for my fix?

Well, let us not forget Cryptosis – a band that blasted out a semi-debut (formerly known as Distillator, so the group wasn’t brand new) in 2021 that dished a fresh view of Voivod-adjacent progressive thrash that left many heads a-spinning. The name change was indeed appropriate, and said first full-length Bionic Swarm made a steadfast impression. Buffering with an equally scrumptious EP The Silent Call in 2023, the time has arrived by the eagerly anticipated album number two, Celestial Death. Continue reading »

DECREPISY: “DEIFIC MOURNING”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 042025
 

(Below we present Wil Cifer‘s review of the a album by Decrepisy, which will be released on March 28th by Carbonized Records.)

The Portland-based band Decrepisy allow themselves to plunge deeper into the darkness on their sophomore album Deific Mourning. They dig into the catacombs where death metal meets doom. This project features members of Negative Prayer, Vastum, and Coffin Rot. These songs are not heavy thanks to the guitar tones or down-tunings, but due to the songs coming from a place of inner ugliness that is allowed to take itself outward sonically.

Any band can capture Entombed’s sound in the studio, but you are not going to believe demons are in their veins, because they are likely well-adjusted kids with good credit who like the sounds and trappings of metal music, but are detached from the darkness it represents. Then some deal with that darkness by allowing themselves to feel it and live it and that is what comes out when they express themselves in their music. This project is tapping into those places so their instruments become the conduits, and the atmosphere manifested here is the natural progression of where the sound should go rather than neatly checking off the boxes of required genre tropes. Continue reading »

WHITECHAPEL – HYMNS IN DISSONANCE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 032025
 

(Andy Synn is as shocked as anyone at how good, and how heavy, the new album from Whitechapel is)

As someone who considers themselves a long-time fan of Whitechapel it wasn’t until I picked up the promo for their upcoming ninth(!) album, Hymns in Dissonance, that I realised I’ve been more of a lapsed fan of the band for even longer.

Truth be told, the last time I enjoyed a Whitechapel album front-to-back was their 2012 self-titled record (still my favourite out of everything they’ve done, though I’ll happily entertain any arguments in support of 2010’s absolutely monstrous A New Era of Corruption), and although I’ve given every subsequent release a shot – from the lazy Slipknot-isms of Our Endless War and The Mark of the Blade (arguably the lowest point, creatively speaking, point in the band’s career) to the increasingly popular, but also increasingly generic, sounds of The Valley and Kin – it’s largely felt like the past decade or so has been all about doing whatever it takes to maximise the band’s popularity, at the cost of what originally drew me to them in the first place.

And, look, I get why so many people like the latter two albums – Bozeman has a great singing voice, no doubt, and it’s clear how much effort he’s put into expressing the necessary emotion and processing his trauma on each record – but so much of their recent music has just been so aggressively bland (and, on the occasion where it actually does show some teeth, so blandly aggressive) that I can’t help but feel disappointed in them for continually playing things so safe.

Which is why Hymns in Dissonance is such a revelation – because I don’t think anyone out there expected them to go this hard, or this heavy, ever again.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ОБРІЙ (OBRIJ), LHAÄD, FAUSTIAN SPIRIT, KOLDBRANN, TYHJÄ , ANONYMOUS SKULL

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Mar 022025
 

(written by Islander)

My computer tells me that my introduction to yesterday’s roundup of new music and videos was 1,502 words long. I obviously had too much time on my hands, though I don’t know why I spent it doing all that sharing instead of covering more music. But don’t worry, I won’t do that again today. Today’s introduction is 47 words long:

I’ve alternated today’s selections between complete albums or EPs and individual songs from forthcoming records. Apart from that, there’s no rhyme nor reason in how I organized the choices. I made these choices because, to quote the English poet William Cowper, “Variety’s the very spice of life.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TER ZIELE — “EMBODIMENT OF DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 272025
 

(written by Islander)

“When we, as humans, accept subjection to suffering, resignation in life inevitably follows.”

With those words the Dutch band Ter Ziele introduce their debut album Embodiment of Death, which will be released on February 28th by Tartarus Records. The words pack a lot of meaning into a relatively brief sentence. They refer not just to human suffering, but to suffering caused by others or by oneself, hence the word subjection. They suggest that there is a choice among those who suffer about whether to accept the subjection or not. And they point to the consequences of acceptance: the inevitability of resignation in life.

And so the sentence is both an observation of bleak realities that beset the human condition and also (possibly) an argument. What does it matter if acceptance leads to resignation unless people have the ability to reject instead of accept? And what might motivate them to resist or to change?

Of course, the words don’t suggest that resistance or change will be easy. It may not even be possible. In some cases we know it will be futile, that some conditions are so terrible and hopes for relief so barren that despair seems inevitable, even when (and maybe especially when) those conditions are self-inflicted. But again, the words imply that acceptance is not the right answer, because that is the surest recipe for a never-ending cycle of misery. They seem to make an argument, though not a “preachy one,” for resistance.

Obviously, there is a connection between the sentence and what inspired the album’s music, and between the inspiration and the results. And you can draw all those connections today as we premiere the record as a whole. Continue reading »

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