GLOSON: “MARA”

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Apr 162019
 

 

(This is DGR’s review of the new EP by Sweden’s Gloson, which was released on April 5th by Black Lion Records.)

The sinister atmospherics that run throughout Gloson’s newest EP Mara — coming in two years after their excellent full-length Grimen — are entirely by design and not a happy accident. If any band has shown a keen mastery of the frightening undertone to their music in recent years, Gloson would be included in the discussion. Our premiere of Mara’s first song “Usurper” touched on the song’s sense of presence early in the writeup, drawing contrast to our compatriot Andy’s review of Grimmen and then highlighting the continued intensity that “Usurper” picks up and carries forward on their newest release.

Gloson describe the concept behind the EP on their Bandcamp page for Mara as such:

The concept of our new EP Mara is about our subconsciousness while being asleep; being stuck between the realm of dreams and reality. Portraying personal demons has usually been the agenda of Gloson, and the most graphic and terrifying ones occur during such states.

So if there was any thought that the almost sixteen minutes of crawling sludge and doom across two songs was going to play nice, then Gloson seek to wipe that away fast. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SKULLDRIVER — “L.D.C.”

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Apr 082019
 

 

Skulldriver picked a damned good name for themselves, given the kind of music they crank out on their new EP, L.D.C. It locks into the part of the brain responsible for reflexive skull movement and takes over, rudely throwing the conscious part into the back seat and jamming the gas pedal to the floor while your head pounds like a piston. And in addition to packing in more grooves than is strictly legal, Skulldriver’s music is hotter than hell, meaner than a junkyard dog, and with enough non-stop high-voltage energy to power industrial turbines.

“Redneck metal” is what they call it, and the fact that they’re from southern Finland (Liljendal) rather than the southern U.S. doesn’t hold them back in the slightest. They’ve nailed down a mix of groove-laden thrash, hardcore, and backwoods, swamp-infested, roadhouse brawling, and it’s got a ton of primal appeal.

L.D.C. will be released by Elitbolaget on April 12th, and we’ve got a stream of all four tracks for you today. Continue reading »

BLOOD SPORE: “FUNGAL WARFARE UPON ALL LIFE”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Apr 052019
 

 

The title of the debut EP by Philadelphia’s Blood Spore — Fungal Warfare Upon All Life — manifests some of the dominant sensations of the music: It is as poisonous and uncontainable as an outbreak of black mold; it is as savage and slaughtering as a mechanized assault of heavy-caliber armament; and it is as cruel and nihilistic as a portrayal of world-ending calamity. But these aren’t the only sensations to be found within the three tracks on the EP, and the music’s rampant dynamism is a big part of what makes this such a striking debut.

Fungal Warfare Upon All Life is being released digitally today, with a CD release coming in short order, and to coincide with the release we’re presenting a full stream along with a review. Continue reading »

SINMARA AND SUFFERING HOUR: NEW MUSIC AND A U.S. EAST COAST TOUR

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 052019
 

 

NCS isn’t really a “metal news” site, unlike some places that dutifully copy-paste press releases every day, with announcements of new tours, forthcoming releases, line-up changes, etc. About as close as we come are the SEEN AND HEARD posts, but those are devoted almost entirely to streams of new songs and videos, and commentary about them. If the recommended tracks happen to come from records that are on the horizon, we’ll include that info. In other words, the music is the main thing. Trying to keep up with every day’s newsy announcements is just too daunting a task, given the limited time that the NCS slaves have to devote to their slavery.

But here we have both an announcement and new music, which are connected. Normally I would have included both in a SEEN AND HEARD post, but my fucking day job has been slamming me hard this week, and I haven’t had time for one of those round-ups. But I do have just enough time for this before turning to today’s premieres. It concerns both a new EP by the U.S. black/death band Suffering Hour and a U.S. East Coast tour that begins tomorrow, which combines the talents of Suffering Hour and the Icelandic black metal band Sinmara. As you probably know if you’re a regular NCS visitor, both bands are favorites of our putrid site. Continue reading »

AXIS OF DESPAIR: “AND THE MACHINE ROLLS ON”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Apr 022019
 

 

(Here’s DGR’s review of the new EP by Sweden’s Axis of Despair, which was released in February.)

While a lot of reviews so far this year have been the result of my waiting to see how an album sits with me post-release, or the more common reason of playing desperate catch-up with all the stuff I want to write about, the release of Axis Of Despair‘s latest EP And The Machine Rolls On — with Selfmadegod handling black and pink vinyls of the release — is one that legitimately just flew under our radar.

Released in early February, And The Machine Rolls On contains another six songs of the musical spasm that Axis Of Despair call their branch of grind. The group recorded it during the sessions for last year’s Contempt For Man release, and it runs about nine minutes in length. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: BOB MALMSTRÖM — “LÄNGE LEVE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 012019
 

 

We welcome the return of Bob Malmström to our putrid site! It may be April Fool’s Day, but that’s no joke. They really do have a new EP ready for release on April 5th (the name of which is Länge Leve) and we really do have a complete stream of it to share with you today.

Now, I do realize that, instead of applauding, the first reaction of many of you will be “Bob who?” After all, a long three years have passed since we last devoted attention to the band. But they are hardly newcomers to NCS, even though their music isn’t always right in our wheelhouse. In fact, hosting today’s premiere is something of a reunion, like the visit of cousins you haven’t seen in a long time, who set your house on fire the last time they came around. Continue reading »

TRIBE OF PAZUZU: “HERETICAL UPRISING”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Mar 192019
 

 

(DGR catches up to the debut EP by Tribe of Pazuzu, which was released in February this year.)

It’s not hard to imagine why the announcement of Tribe Of Pazuzu and their debut EP release Heretical Uprising turned some heads on first notice: It’s not often you get a group that unites musicians with credits to their name like Cryptopsy, Incantation, Soulstorm, and Pestilence. Yet that’s what this hybrid Canadian/American death metal band does, combining the forces of bassist/vocalist Nick Sagias, guitarists Randy Harris and John McEntee, and drummer Flo Mounier. Together they’ve recorded five songs and just over fourteen minutes of high speed death metal that is surprisingly straightforward, bludgeoning, and clear-sounding from a collective of musicians whose previous groups have alternated between sounding like cavernous whirlwind maws of death metal and sheer technical chaos.

Tribe Of Pazuzu‘s somewhat thrashier offering moves quickly, with a take-no-prisoners approach, and is so surgical about it that after its fourteen minutes wrap up, you’ll likely be a couple of spins into Heretical Uprising before you can even sort your thoughts from the first run-through. Continue reading »

MORO MORO LAND: SMIRENIE

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Mar 062019
 

 

(This is DGR’s very enthusiastic review of the new EP by the Russian band Moro Moro Land, which was released on February 20.)

I enjoyed the hell out of the Russian group Moro Moro Land‘s 2015 EP Through. The combination of dark atmospherics, the smoke-tinged reverb-haze that seemed to surround the band, and the metallic-hardcore with which the band built that EP really struck a chord with me. To this day, Through remains a constant listen. While the “Something In The Way” cover plays it relatively straight, it also does a fantastic job of demonstrating the filter through which Moro Moro Land put their music. If you’re familiar with the original then you’ll hear how the songs prior to it were formed and then “painted ugly”, just to add a fine layer of dinge to an already heavy experience.

Which is why learning through our very own web site about the group’s followup Smirenie, four years after its predecessor, put me in two very distinct moods. I felt like an utter dipshit for learning through our own news about a band I had gotten used to regularly checking up on myself, and I was also incredibly excited — because if the Moro Moro Land crew could inch anywhere close to Through again, then the Smirenie EP was going to be something that would be very easy to recommend.

At a little over twenty minutes in length, if the question is whether you should give Moro Moro Land‘s new EP a shot, then the answer is relatively simple: Absolutely yes. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WHYTHRE — “STILLBORN WORLD”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 052019
 

 

If your ass has been dragging, beaten down and disgusted by the daily grind, strapped for sleep, short on cash, and your reservoirs of hope running low as well, we’ve got a sure-fire antidote for most of those ails. Granted, it won’t put any cash in your pocket (though it won’t demand any from you either), but it will make you feel a whole hell of a lot better. And if you’ve got a bellyful of rage you’d like to get out of your system, what you’re about to hear will provide some catharsis for that, too.

What we’ve got for you is a premiere stream of Stillborn World, the explosive new EP by Whythre, which is being released today as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp. It really will make everything better, at least as long as you’re listening to it. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACK ANVIL — “MILES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 262019
 

 

On March 4, 2014, Selim Lemouchi took his own life at the age of 33. As the founding member and guitarist of The Devil’s Blood, in which he was joined by his sister Farida, Lemouchi created emotionally powerful occult rock music that was beautifully evil and haunting, a combination of darkness and grandeur that reflected and channeled Lemouchi‘s Satanic spiritualism. The music made strong and lasting connections with many listeners, and led to friendships among fellow musicians, among them, members of New York City’s Black Anvil. Their new EP, Miles, was created as a tribute to him.

Initially, Miles consisted of just the title track and a cover of Mercyful Fate‘s “A Corpse Without Soul”. Work on it was put aside for a time while Black Anvil focused their efforts on their 2017 album, As Was. After returning to Miles, the band wrote and recorded one more original song, the opener “Iron Sharpens Iron”, and recorded a cover of The Devil’s Blood‘s “Everlasting Saturnalia” to round out the EP. Working with their friend Steve Macioci of STB Records, the band have readied Miles for release in March, in remembrance of, and dedication to, their lost friend Selim Lemouchi. We have a full stream of the EP for you today. Continue reading »

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