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SANTACREU – CANÇONS D’AMOR, DOL I ENYORANÇA

Jan 172024

(Andy Synn has fallen in love with Santacreu‘s recently-released debut album, and hopes you will too)

While we’re still in a slightly odd place here at NCS, what with Islander still being held hostage (by his day job), I’d say that DGR and I have managed to keep the lights on and the content flowing pretty well so far.

And while he’s got his eyes and ears attuned to a few albums coming out next week, I’m looking the other way and highlighting a few albums we missed last week that I think deserve your attention.

Case in point, Cançons d’Amor, Dol i Enyorança is the debut album from cinematic Spanish Post-Metal collective Santacreu, and quite possibly (nay, probably) the first (or, at least, one of the first) albums we’ve ever reviewed sung (and I do mean sung) entirely in Catalan.

It’s a moving, multi-faceted and frequently mesmerising piece of work, from start to finish, and one which should find a lot of favour amongst the more atmospherically and/or melodically inclined of our readers.

LORD DYING: “CLANDESTINE TRANSCENDENCE”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 172024

(Didrik Mešiček reviews of the new album by Lord Dying ahead of its January 19 release)

The utter nonsense of “new year, new me” is surprisingly somewhat true for me this year as I’m delving into some sludge metal, a subgenre I’ve not really followed much before.

I wasn’t aware of Lord Dying before they had a show here, in Ljubljana, and I was told they were very impressive live and that I should check them out.

It turns out that was a good suggestion and I’m now not at all bitter about missing them. Absolutely not. Continue reading »

EXOCRINE – LEGEND

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 162024

(DGR takes on the upcoming new album from Exocrine, out 26 January)

The idea that Exocrine are on their sixth full length release with Legend is one that is mildly eye-popping.

The French Tech Death group have done extremely well for themselves with a very specific formula – one whose sheer violence and velocity is akin to lighting a pallet of Piccolo Pete fireworks all at once and just letting it screech until the neighbors call the cops – that they’ve re-forged and refined time and time again, album after album, but which is still recognizably “them”.

Credit must be given as well to the band for the fact that even as the Tech Death arms race has gone nuclear (and beyond) they’ve always tried to be something more than just a bunch of relentless speed-merchants from the massive slab of headbanging groove which underpinned Molten Giant to their willingness to be completely insane on discs like Maelstrom and The Hybrid Suns, as and when the need arises.

Well, apparently those last two albums weren’t quite big enough to contain all of the band’s insane intensity, and so we have Legend.

ὉΠΛΊΤΗΣ – ΠΑΡΑΜΑΙΝΟΜΈΝΗ

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jan 152024

(Andy Synn reviews the recently-released new album from mysterious one-man army Ὁπλίτης)

It is, quite frankly, somewhat astonishing how productive Liu Zhenyang, aka Ὁπλίτης, has been since the release of their debut EP in the closing days of 2021.

What’s even more astonishing is that, despite its prolific nature, the quality of their output has never wavered over the course of the subsequent three albums (some might say they’ve only gotten better, in fact).

Each time a new record rears its head part of me expects to be disappointed – surely they can’t maintain this consistent a level of quality, at this rapid a pace, forever – and each time I’m happy to be proven wrong.

And now, barely a year on from the release of their very first full-length, Ὁπλίτης may have already locked down a place on my End of The Year list with their fourth album, Παραμαινομένη.

BIZARRE / DEMO-ESQUE BLACK METAL OF 2024: SO FAR, SO GOOD, SO WHAT?

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 142024

(Axel Stormbreaker returns… with his list of top obscurities released so far in the current year)

2024 has been a fun year so far. So much so that I’m giving you a short list of random goodies I’ve been enjoying. Since most selections here have only been released digitally, better mark my words, dear tape labels, ‘cos untold riches lie before you. You’ll be earning so much cash you won’t ever know how to spend it.

I’m pretty sure, now that I wrote this, that every band on my list gets filthy rich beyond their wildest imagination. Because everyone is hanging on my lips. I’m truly that amazing.

P.S.: Expect to read a lot of nonsense that may hopefully make a whole lot of sense. It’s the only serious thing about this prologue, anyway. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABERRATION AND DIABOLIC OATH — “DIVINATIONS”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Jan 042024

Last month we did doing something we almost never do — premiered brief excerpts from songs off a forthcoming release, just a teaser of the full thing to come. The release in question is a 7″ split called Divinations that will be released by Sentient Ruin Laboratories on January 5th.

The split includes one song each from the U.S. black/death metal bands Aberration and Diabolic Oath. It is a timely release, not only because it helps kick off 2024 in obliterating fashion but also because the spring of 2024 will bring us new full-length albums from both bands, Aberration’s Refracture and Diabolic Oath’s still secretive but completed second full-length, and so the split functions as a precursor and taste of horrific things to come.

If you heard the teaser, you’ll probably understand why we agreed to share it despite our usual reticence to premiere anything but complete songs or full releases. But if you caught that teaser premiere, you also know that we promised to stream this split in full when the time was right. And the time is right now. Continue reading »

ENGULF – THE DYING PLANET WEEPS

Album Reviews No Responses »

Jan 042024

(Andy Synn turns his attention to the highly-anticipated debut album from Engulf, out 12 January)

There are two well-known truisms which spring to mind when listening to The Dying Planet Weeps.

The first is that “good artists borrow, great artists steal” – which states that while good artists borrow ideas from their influences, while still owing them a debt, the great ones simply take what they need and make it their own.

The other is that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (or, more accurately, “the whole is something besides the parts”, in its more accurate translation) – which is to suggest that defining the essence of something is about more than just describing the individual elements it’s made of.

And, make no mistake about it, while Engulf (aka New Jersey native Hal Microutsicos) assuredly steal from some of the very best here – you’ll find bits and pieces purloined from the likes of Morbid Angel, Immolation, Pestilence and Gorguts, and more besides, woven throughout The Dying Planet Weeps – the final product is certainly more than just the sum of these iconic inspirations.

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORGUE TERROR — “MORGUE TERROR”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Jan 032024

Today we welcome to our site (and to the rest of the world) a horror-themed death metal band from Buffalo, New York named Morgue Terror. It’s the work of two death metal fanatics — Dave (guitars) and Steve (bass and vocals) — who found their thematic inspiration in the Terrifier franchise of slasher films and their main antagonist, Art the Clown.

The movies left such a deep and gory mark that the band’s name is derived from a pivotal scene at the end of the first movie when Art the Clown emerges from a body bag, delivering a fatal blow to the coroner.

And beyond that, the five songs on Morgue Terror‘s self-titled debut EP, which we’re premiering in full today in advance of its January 5 release, delve into the murders and characters portrayed in both Terrifier movies.

As for the music itself, it’s an amalgam of varying death metal tropes, with each song deploying them in slightly different ways to create a dynamic — and demented — listening experience. Continue reading »

RESIN TOMB – CEREBRAL PURGATORY

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Jan 022024

(Andy Synn kicks off the new year in style with down-under death-dealers Resin Tomb)

Almost exactly twelve months ago my first review of 2023 was for the debut album by an Australian band (whose previous EP had already impressed me) which I declared the first truly great Death Metal record of the year.

And while they say (quite incorrectly, as it turns out) that lightning never strikes twice and that history never repeats… here we are again in precisely the same situation.

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PANZERCHRIST — “ALL WITCHES SHALL BURN”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Jan 012024

Around the world, today is a day of firsts, because a new year has begun to bloom. And so it is the first day when everything you do is the first thing you will do in 2024. Here at NCS, we have our first post of the new year, our first premiere, our first review, our first effort to help an extreme metal band begin tearing apart 2024 like the hated thing it will probably become.

And not just any extreme metal band, but one whose storied history began 30 years ago, took a decade-long pause, and then came roaring back in 2023. And yes, it was just last summer when the Danish death/black metal band Panzerchrist released their comeback album Last Of A Kind, which we proudly premiered here.

To prove that they have no intention of returning to hibernation, Panzerchrist are quickly following that album with a new EP named All Witches Shall Burn. Emanzipation Productions, the same label that brought forth the band’s auspicious comeback record, will be releasing the new EP on January 5th, and we’re again in the fortunate position of hosting a full stream today.

The new EP proves to be an excellent way of beginning 2024, because it will clear out the morning-after New Year’s Eve gunk from your head right damned fast. Continue reading »

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