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

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 052026
 

(written by Islander)

On March 6th (a Bandcamp Friday) the Rotted Life label will release a rotten and ruinous new EP by Baltimore’s Putrisect, their third EP overall and their first new music since 2018’s Cascading Inferno. The label previews it this way:

Six tracks (including a cover of Machetazo’s “Espectro”) of crushing, malevolent, death metal, rife with darkened melodies and sinister, doomy atmospherics. With it’s tank-like tremolo passages, Putrisect no doubt work off an early ’90s template carved by heavyweights such as Bolt Thrower and Incantation but come fully equipped with a sound all their own.

We have our own more detailed preview to offer, but the main attraction is a full stream of the EP which we’re offering you below. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABSENT RITUAL — “THE CRYPTIC DESCENT: A COMPILATION OF MADNESS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 042026
 

(written by Islander)

The Eternal Death label bills the debut demo from NYC’s Absent Ritual as “outsider black metal”. But what does that mean? Isn’t all black metal “outsider” music at its core? Wasn’t that indeed what spawned it so many decades ago, as a rebellious reaction to death metal and other musical genres that were then captivating listeners?

Well, times do change, don’t they. You could make a claim that the bones of black metal have become ossified in some respects, to the point when many bands in the genre seem more conformist than they do rebellious. And so here in the current day, the description of Absent Ritual’s music as “outsider black metal” signifies that the band are following an unorthodox, idiosyncratic approach that isn’t hemmed in by strict genre boundaries, perhaps more true to the original animating spirit of the genre even though the music reveals surprising twists and embellishments.

You’ll understand what we mean when you listen to all three songs on their demo — The Cryptic Descent: A Compilation of Madness — which we’re now premiering in advance of its March 6 release date (a Bandcamp Friday, btw). Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORTOPSY — “PUTREFACTIVE STATES OF THE HUMAN FORM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 032026
 

(written by Islander)

Almost exactly five years ago we published an extensive interview by our Comrade Aleks of Québec musician Yves Allaire, aka evillair. The focus was on his band Nordicwinter, although the interview ranged beyond that as well. As the interview exposed, Allaire has been making metal music in a variety of different traditions since the early ’90s (Metal-Archives lists 10 current or former bands on his resume), but the atmospheric/depressive black metal of Nordicwinter clearly became his focus. Indeed, Nordicwinter has released five more albums since the time of that interview, including 2025’s Solitude.

Which makes the debut EP we’re now about to premiere from a new evillair entity quite a nasty surprise.

The name chosen for this new project — Mortopsy — points the way toward the EP’s music, as does the EP’s name: Putrefactive States of the Human Form. It is, in short, a formulation of pathological deathgrind and death metal inspired by the grisly early musical psychoses of Carcass and General Surgery, and it’s great. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PURE WRATH, BARBELITH, TRHÄ, HAIDUK, ÆDEL FETICH

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 012026
 

(written by Islander)

I hope I haven’t bitten off more than you can chew. Only four selections today, compared to eight yesterday, but two of them are albums and one of them is an EP.

I also hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew. As I begin writing this, I realize it will be tough for me to fully express how all this music has impacted me or how it might impact you, given the time constraints I’m under. But I’ll give it a shot.

If there’s a through-line in these recommendations, it’s that all the music is searing, in sound or mood or both, although the stylistic paths traveled by them often diverge. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PHASE MERIDIAN, COGNIZANCE, PIG’S BLOOD, NUNSLAUGHTER, SWÆRMMM, FRACTURED INSANITY, NIXIL, GODLESS ANGEL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 282026
 

(written by Islander)

I did a better job than usual this past week going through NCS e-mails every day, compiling a list of what I thought might be worth checking out, and digging through that list with sharp ears. I still had to leave a lot behind, but made a voluminous 8 picks for this Saturday’s column.

And then… I went out last night to party without writing anything, and woke up very late today. I thought about cutting my planned column in half so I could get it finished before sundown, but then decided, fuck that, I’ll keep everything but cut way back on the verbiage — to the likely consternation of music scholars who will be studying my writings for decades into the future (yeah, that wasn’t serious).

If my plan for the day works out, these 8 choices (many of them with good videos) will leave you with whiplash and a scrambled brain if you manage to make it through all of them. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: AIN SOPH AUR, LIGHTLORN, GALVANIST, PAINIST

 SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 222026
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday’s column was shorter than usual. I explained then that I was leaving home early for a day-long outing with my spouse. That happened, and what we did together was a tremendous amount of fun. But we didn’t get back to our island home until nightfall, and I didn’t spend what was left of the evening messing with NCS stuff.

As it happens, I’m leaving home again with my spouse this morning to do something else she planned. So once again, I’m having to shorten the volume of music as compared to what this column usually includes. Luckily, I had already listened to everything I picked during the past week, so I wasn’t starting from scratch. But with more time I would have included more.

The first three selections came easily — I initially paid attention to them based on my past experience with the bands’ music, and their new stuff definitely doesn’t disappoint. The fourth one was just me getting a wild hair, and the impulse paid off. Continue reading »

CRYPTID SPAWN: “BLACK PHOSPHOROUS DUNGEON”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 172026
 

(We present Todd Manning’s enthusiastic review of a debut EP by Singapore-based Cryptid Spawn, released at the end of January by Iron Lung Records.)

When it comes to vicious hardcore punk, d-beat, and grind records, the label Iron Lung Records reigns supreme. However, it is rare that they release anything that falls more firmly in the metal camp. So when they do put something out that is unquestionably metal, it is something to take notice of. Such is the case with Black Phosphorous Dungeon, the new EP by Cryptid Spawn.

When we say that Cryptid Spawn is undeniably metal, we aren’t talking about Judas Priest, not that there would be anything wrong with that. Cryptid Spawn’s leather-gloved hands are sticky with the DNA of the darkest extreme metal forebears. Think early Bathory, Blasphemy, Sarcófago, and Hellhammer. “Gods of the Grim and Dismal World” shows how they are able to blend the relentless blur of war metal with actual, discernible riffs, the song held together by a primitive but memorable chord progression. The vocals spew blasphemous phlegm in the best possible way, and when the guitars slow down partway through the song, the riff is the best combination of death metal crawl and sludge-ridden filth.It’s an auspicious beginning to a short but devastating release. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: GLASSBONE / KANONENFIEBER / MUDTOOTH

 SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 172026
 

(Andy Synn has three more bite-sized blasts of brutality to share with you today)

As we all know, short-form releases (splits, EPs, and the like) tend to get the… ahem… short end of the stick when it comes to coverage (especially amongst the larger and/or more mainstream publications, who tend to prioritise full length albums, for obvious reasons).

Last year, however, I managed to reverse this trend a little, covering more EPs than I did the year before that… and in 2026 I’m hoping to continue expanding our coverage of releases best described as “short but sweet”.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HEIDEN, FARSON, MALAURIU, GALARE, LYSERGIC, LIGATION

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Getting a late start today. In yesterday’s roundup I mentioned that I had a cold. I took some over-the-counter stuff last night to help me sleep through it. I woke up 10 hours later, so I guess it worked, and hence the late start.

I picked all of today’s recommendations yesterday, and though my head is infected, these songs proved to be both more viral and more virile than the rhinovirus. I’m very happy with the choices and hope you will be too.

By way of preview, things begin in what we might call avant-garde territory, and then move in more punk-influenced directions, and then you’ll get blistered and beaten. At the end is an album that’s outside the usual boundaries of this column, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to give it a further push. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MELECHESH, KADAVEREICH, ARCHITECTS OF AEON, A FOREST OF STARS, THE HOLEUM, VOIDSPIRE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 142026
 

(written by Islander)

I felt a cold coming on yesterday when I woke up, and that was quickly followed by the discovery that anyone trying to get to NCS experienced frantic meltdowns from their browsers, which warned people that our site was insecure and might expose all their personal finances and identities to theft, might turn their children into ghouls, might cause cats to have sex with dogs, etc., etc. In other words, it seemed our site’s SSL security certificate had expired.

Or at least that’s what I concluded based on some googling, because I hadn’t received any advance notice or warning. I had forgotten what an SSL is, had no idea when we implemented it, and was completely clueless about what I was supposed to do to fix the problem. I e-mailed our IT consultant, who I think must have implemented SSL for NCS years ago (I still haven’t heard back from him).

I also opened a support ticket with our security provider, because our web host told me they maintain the site’s security certificate. I haven’t heard back from them either — though late yesterday afternoon the scary browser warnings stopped, so I guess they remewed our certificate, but I really am still in the dark about the whole incident. Which means I’m also in the dark about how to prevent this bullshit from happening again.

Oh, and my cold was also in full bloom by late afternoon yesterday. Continue reading »

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