SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): DJEVEL, NIGHT CROWNED, MEDIUM

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Apr 252021
 

 

Much like yesterday I got a very late start this morning, having enjoyed a long night of virtual carousing with a big group of co-workers at my fucking day job. Like yesterday I thought I’d just pull together a couple of things for this usual Sunday column so I wouldn’t be too late in posting it — and again reconsidered. Just too much stuff I want to share.

This two-part post thus provides a lot to take in. I’m confident that few people will enjoy everything I’ve chosen — though I’m equally confident you’ll find at least something to enjoy if you at least taste-test everything I’m recommending.

I organized this collection by beginning Part 1 with two singles that I thought were great companions for each other and then following them with a stylistically very different EP. Part 2, which I’ll post tomorrow, will include streams of five complete releases that I will only have time to introduce briefly.

DJEVEL (Norway)

Like the cover art for Djevel’s new album Tanker som rir natten, the second advance track released last week is lunar in its atmosphere, a wintry nightside excursion that’s deeply immersive. In its manifold sensations it’s dreamlike, depressive, menacing, and I’d go so far as to say romantic. But it’s as visceral as it is mesmerizing, thanks to Faust’s gripping drum performance (the vibrant timpani-like booming is an especially nice touch) and the warm companionship of the bass, performed by new member Kvitrim (Vemod, Mare), who also handles the harsh vocals. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “LV-426”

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Apr 232021
 

 

(DGR tends to move in fits and starts with his NCS writing, and this week he’s had a fit, with this being the third of his posts for us in almost as many days. Today’s subject is the new EP by NCS favorites Hideous Divinity, which is being ejected today (like a blooming facehugger) by Everlasting Spew Records and Century Media Records.)

Hideous Divinity‘s chosen subject matter of different films to frame their overwhelmingly hostile take on brutal death metal has proven fruitful for them over the years. The recent Cronenberg deep-dives have given them much to work from as they take their chosen genre and morph and contort it to fit their musical equivalent of a bulldozer being launched downhill in a mudslide into a suburb. Often stretched into full-albums, the film nods have been blatant, but LV-426 represents the biggest and most upfront statement of subject matter to date.

It’s already struck a chord around here, given the NCS crew’s fondness for the Alien moves to begin with, and so the group’s decision to tackle a more focused subject over the course of an EP was one we were guaranteed to be looking into. LV-426 consists of two original songs and one out-of-left-field yet surprisingly pragmatic cover song for a total of sixteen minutes of blindingly fast music. Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Apr 142021
 

 

The part-Brazilian, part-German death metal band Incarceration have compiled a discography that includes a pair of splits, an EP, and a 2016 debut album named Catharsis. To that collection of releases they are now adding a new EP entitled Empiricism that’s set for release on Friday of this week (April 16th) by Dawnbreed Records.

On this newest effort the band’s core duo of Daniel Silva (who performs vocals and bass on this release) and Michael Koch (drums) are joined for the first time by guitarists Pedro Capaça (Violator) and Alex Obscured (Speedwhore, Obscured by Evil). Whether for that reason or others, the band seem to have thrown themselves without reservation into the most furious and unhinged side of their sound.

And thus, as you’ll discover through our full streaming premiere today, the new EP generates adrenaline-fueled mayhem with explosive, savage power, although that ruthless, visceral intensity is accompanied by spectral leads and coruscating solos that generate a frightening aura of the occult. Continue reading »

ANGKOR WAT: “WORST ENEMY”

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Mar 292021
 

 

(What is old is new again. Wil Cifer reviews a come-back EP by the Texas crossover band Angkor Wat, who first made their deep marks with albums released in 1989 and ’90.)

Once upon a time bands were discovered in zines, Maximum Rocknroll, or on college radio, and yeah I am not counting MTV, it was bullshit. In those golden years you would find bands that seemed like your little secret. Maybe you might get one of your friends into them, but they were a deserted island for your ears otherwise. This Texas band was one of those.

When Corpus Christi came out in 1990 it was light years ahead of its time, though both of Angkor Wat‘s albums held up over the years. They remained marginally active after 1990, with a few small tours here and there. When I stumbled across this EP Worst Enemy released on their website with zero fanfare, it was a wonderful surprise. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DÏATRÏBE — “ODITE SERMONIS”

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Mar 262021
 

 

The French one-man band Dïatrïbe came into existence in 2019, “with the aim” (as its creator explains) “of creating radical and intense music, an extension of the French Orthodox scene.” Embracing the mysticism and spiritual subject matter of black metal, Dïatrïbe devoted itself to “the artistic exploration of something else, creeping and powerful like a fiery cloud, uncompromising with very clear guidelines, acceptance to let go to the unknown, the search for this unexplained vibration that grabs us between fear and fascination… an artistic vision of the unfathomable, indomitable abyss hidden behind all things”.

We use those words to begin introducing our premiere of Dïatrïbe’s debut EP Odite Sermonis because they succeed so well as a preview of the music to come — perhaps especially in their reference to the “unexplained vibration that grabs us between fear and fascination”, because that is indeed what these six tracks achieve in striking fashion. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FECULENT — “THE GROTESQUE ARENA”

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Mar 172021
 

 

The Brisbane-based band Feculent chose for their name an adjective that means “foul with impurities” and “saturated in waste”. That was obviously a carefully considered decision, because their brand of death metal is foul and disgusting, unhealthy and repugnant, devoid of hope and lethal in its objectives. But Feculent’s administration of audio murder is multi-faceted — they are as capable of delivering the most pulverizing of punishments as they are at radiating sensations of flesh-eating contagion.

And they are very, very good at doing all that, and more. Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise, because although Feculent is a new name, the line-up includes members of Snorlax, Shackles, and Resin Tomb, who’ve already made horrifying names for themselves.

Feculent’s debut release is a six-track monstrosity named The Grotesque Arena, and it’s coming out very soon (March 19th) via Brilliant Emperor Records — but you need not wait a moment longer to experience it, because we present a full stream today. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: DISTASTE AND INORGANIC

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Mar 102021
 

(DGR jumps back into action once again with a pair of short but sweet EP reviews)

Three months in and although the review slate so far has been oddly stop-start – understandable given the shitshow we’re slowly crawling out of, especially when we can start complaining about being buried by our day jobs again – we’ve had some very choice releases so far.

So I figured after a bunch of long ass reviews I’d try to pick a couple of EPs to keep things shorter for you all, even as I keep on digging through everything else as it’s the only thing keeping me sane.

Right now I present to you some very much up-my-alley style of music though, one Grind release that I’m convinced I have spelled wrong every time it appears (despite the fact that I copy and paste it off of the bandcamp every time) and one so firmly implanted in the Brutal Death concrete that using a jackhammer to get them out would just be added instrumentation for atmosphere.

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): REQUIEM FOR OBLIVION — “HINDSIGHT 2020”

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Mar 022021
 

 

Almost four years have passed since we last heard from Requiem For Oblivion, who make their home in Erie PA. Their last album back then, Burning Nation, was a head-spinning fusion of technical and progressive death metal that was multi-faceted, unpredictable, and electrifying. And now the band is returning… and some things have changed.

Requiem For Oblivion have marked their return with a new EP named Hindsight 2020 that will be released on March 5th, and which you’ll be able to hear for yourselves through our premiere of a full stream. Trying to sum it up as a challenge, but here’s a stab at it:

The music is mechanistic and merciless in its destructiveness but also freakish and twisted in its bizarre and surprising contortions — a display of cold machine power dialed up to titanic levels but operating within a state of untreatable psychosis. The grooves are so massive and punishing that they’ll tempt you to ruin your neck, but everything else about the music (and, to be honest, even the grooves themselves) will keep you (and your sanity) off-balance, to the point that by the end you may be asking, “What the fuck just happened?” You’ll wonder where you’ve been and how the hell you’ll find your way get back to where you started. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SACRILEGIOUS CROWN — “PLENILUNIUM CULT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  7 Responses »
Mar 022021
 

 

Raw black metal is a tiny and obscure niche within the greater world of extreme metal, but one with fervently devoted adherents among both performers and listeners. But as small as the niche is, the music within it isn’t all the same thing, any more than it is in other micro and macro metal realms. Some creators, for example, create abrasive and unpleasant assaults on the eardrums, relishing the antagonisms unleashed by such mutilating lo-fi attacks. Others follow different paths, and one of those is the intensely atmospheric one followed by the Italian one-man band Sacrilegious Crown.

Active since 2015, with three demos and two full-lengths in the catalogue, Sacrilegious Crown is about to release a new EP named Plenilunium Cult via Xenoglossy Productions, and we have a full stream of its remarkably chilling sensations for you today in advance of that March 5th release. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ANIME TORMENT — “VOID TERROR”

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Feb 242021
 

 

Whatever you might guess about the sounds of a band who chose a name like Anime Torment, we can assure you that their brand of death metal is ruthlessly devoted to brutalizing savagery. The horrifying cover art created by Erskine Designs for this Czech band’s new EP Void Terror might be a better tip-off to the crazed slaughtering and bone-smashing cruelty the EP inflicts upon listeners.

That EP is set for release on February 25th by Slovak Metal Army, but you’ll have a chance today to run yourselves through its gauntlet via our early stream of all six songs. Continue reading »

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