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NEW MUSIC FROM BEASTWARS, SULPHUR, SLUGDGE, LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, NIGHTMARER

Feb 052016

This week’s flood of scintillating new metal hasn’t crested yet. The last 24 hours brought even more electrifying new songs. I’ve collected five of them here for your listening pleasure.

BEASTWARS

I’m afraid I’ve reached a slavish level of devotion to the music of New Zealand’s Beastwars. I couldn’t be happier that 2016 will bring us a new album. The new one is entitled The Death Of All Things, and it’s the last installment in the post-apocalyptic trilogy the band have been constructing through their music. Continue reading »

KETZER: “STARLESS”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Feb 052016

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Germany’s Ketzer.)

This German band’s third full-length continues to defy genres. It varies on a song-by-song basis as to what shade of darkness these guys are bringing. From the more blackened death metal roar of riffage that is “When Milk Runs Dry” to the punk influence permeating the thrashy moments of almost black ‘n’ roll. It’s the attention to detail and aversion to following a formula that elevates this album above the dozens of other metal releases still sitting in my in-box. The solos are very melodic and add to the song rather than just litter them with shredding.

Ketzer are most often thought of as a black metal/thrash hybrid, though their bassist plays a much larger role in their sound than the bulk of black metal bands. At times this creates almost a groove without conforming to mainstream metal. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 18)

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015 2 Responses »

Feb 042016

Yes, we are now into February and this list isn’t finished yet. I suppose I really ought to give serious thought to wrapping it up, but I have sooo many more attractive candidates still sitting in front of me. Maybe this weekend I can force myself to assemble the final tracks and reach a conclusion next week. If you have any strength and willpower that I could rent for cheap, let me know. I promise I’ll give ’em back on Monday.

GOROD

In his review of Gorod’s latest album, Andy Synn declared that “A Maze of Recycled Creeds is right up there with the best the band have produced… and it brings that memorable weirdness factor back into the band’s music with gusto,” helping “to give the album a brash and bold sense of character that makes it stand out from the crowd.” I certainly concur. I can also see the sense in the words Andy chose when he characterized the song I’ve chosen for this list as a “sexy jazz-prog shimmy” with “nimble, furiously funkified Tech-Death riff work”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): TOMBS, NOMINON, SLEDGEHAMMER, HOT COFFIN, WAINGRO, DESTRUCTATRON, WEHRMACHT

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Feb 042016

This is called Part 2 because it follows another round-up that I posted on Tuesday. I intended to post this second half either later that same day or yesterday, but my fucking day job shoved those plans aside without so much as an “Excuse me, asshole”.

In the meantime, of course, I found more stuff that got me excited, making this post longer than originally planned and also providing fodder for a further follow-on post. Barring another rude interruption, I’m hoping to get that ready for tomorrow (it might come under the heading “Shades of Black“). As for the length of this one, just bookmark the motherfucker and make your way through it as time permits. You really ought to sample everything here.

TOMBS

This is one of the songs that reared its head after I had originally planned to post this collection. Actually, it didn’t just rear its head — it kicked down the door, busted up the furniture, and then set the place on fire. Continue reading »

MANTAR RETURNS WITH “ODE TO THE FLAME”

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Feb 042016

Those who set their clocks by the appearance of our first morning posts are going to be late all day today, because we’re getting a late start on this Thursday. In fact, I’m still not finished with what I had planned for our first post. But to tide us over until I’m finished, I have something else of great interest to share:

The German band Mantar have completed a new album named Ode To the Flame that will be released by their new label Nuclear Blast on April 15. As you can see, they decided to go in a very simple direction with the cover art, especially by comparison with the eye-catching and indelibly memorable cover art for their debut album Death By Burning. They do have an explanation for that: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SACRILEGIUM — “VENOMOUS SPELL OF FATE”

Premieres 1 Response »

Feb 032016

Twenty years is a long time between albums. In such a span of time, musicians grow and mature as people, and inevitably the lives they’ve lived and the changes in their thinking will work their way into their music. That doesn’t mean the history no longer matters — for some bands it’s still a living, breathing part of who they are now, as people and musicians.

Twenty years ago the Polish black metal band Sacrilegium released their debut album Wicher, and on March 18 of this year, Pagan Records will release their second full-length, Anima Lucifera — a title that refers to a line from a poem by Leopold Staff (excerpts of which have also been used in the new Sacrilegium tracks). Leaving aside a single from the album that appeared last year (“Angelus“), it’s the first new music from the band since about 1999.

What we have for you today is a sign of where Sacrilegium stand today, a reflection of their past and their present, as we premiere a song from the album called “Venomous Spell of Fate“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTARAGE — “BATHEREX”

Premieres 15 Responses »

Feb 032016

Altarage come from Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain, a region of the country with a rich and fascinating history. Metal-Archives lists 138 active metal bands from the Basque Country, including such names as Virulency, Cerebral Effusion, Extirpation, Horn of the Rhino, The Rodeo Idiot Engine, and Knives — to name a few I know of and have written about. But I don’t know of any who sound like Altarage. And even when you leave that land far behind and lift your eyes to farther horizons, Altarage still stand out.

Their debut 7″ EP, MMXV, was released by Iron Bonehead last September, and even at only two songs long, it was an impressively powerful eye-opener. To sum up what I thought about it when I heard it last summer: “This is primitive, poisonous, electrifying music from a band that’s now squarely on my radar screen for the future.” We didn’t have to wait long for more. In just a few weeks, Iron Bonehead will be releasing the band’s debut album, NIHL, and we now have a track from the album named “Batherex” that embraces world-eating destruction with a voracious hunger. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TEMISTO — “SUCCUBUS”

Premieres 1 Response »

Feb 032016

In the middle of last month our writer Allen Griffin pounced like a panther on the self-titled debut album by Sweden’s Temisto, reviewing it with early enthusiasm using words such as these: “Temisto seem to simultaneously channel both pre-Entombed Morbid and Nihilist while also invoking more technical acts such as Atheist. At their fastest and most brutal, Temisto nearly reach Angelcorpse levels of kinetic violence.”

Allen’s review also made clear the reach of Temisto’s ambitions and the breadth of their musical scope, from the evocatively atmospheric to the utterly savage. In the latter category, he praised “Succubus“, a multifaceted song that he claimed might be the album’s most balanced track and might also prove to be its most satisfying. We’re fortunate now to give you a listen to precisely that song. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: DEFEATED SANITY, INIQUITOUS SAVAGERY, INIQUITOUS DEED (AT THE NEW VINTAGE, LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY, FEB. 1, 2016)

Concert Reviews 2 Responses »

Feb 032016

(Austin Weber provides this review of performances by Defeated Sanity, Iniquitous Savagery, and Iniquitous Deeds in Louisville, Kentucky, on February 1.)

Seeing as this was the first metal show I was able to attend in 2016, I figured I should cover it. While I didn’t have my usual NCS photographer pal Nik Vechery with me, or a borrowed camera as I’ve used before, the photos my friend and I got of a few bands at least gives you something to look at. I mainly just wanted to discuss my impressions and thoughts about my two favorite bands of the night.

I had to pick up a friend on the way, so we ended up missing Abominant and most of Cryptic Hymn. I know NCS contributor Grant Skelton is really into Cryptic Hymn, and I thought they sounded pretty good live! But I didn’t get a picture of them either. So the review will sort of start with the third band to go on, Iniquitous Deeds. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CAMEL OF DOOM — “PYROCLASTIC FLOW”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Feb 022016

Since the founding of the UK band Camel of Doom by Kris Clayton almost 15 years ago, the band’s sound has evolved, though its iron backbone has remained doom. The results of that continuing growth and exploration are now reflected in the band’s most recent album, their fourth, which will be released by Solitude Productions on February 8.

Entitled Terrestrial, it’s a massive undertaking, with four songs ranging from almost 12 minutes to more than 14, along with four shorter tracks. Today we bring you one of those leviathan excursions, a song called “Pyroclastic Flow“.

Two of the song’s building blocks manifest themselves right away — distorted, pavement-cracking riffs; and a trippy bit of electronica that flickers in the background and is as intangible and strange as the riffs and drumbeats are physically dismantling. As those riff monsters continue to clobber our heads, Clayton cries the lyrics in a high yell, like a street-corner prophet announcing the end of the world. Continue reading »

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