NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: RIVERS OF NIHIL — “MONARCHY”

Jul 082015

(Andy Synn introduces our premiere of the title track to the new album by Rivers of Nihil.)

I absolutely loved Rivers of Nihil’s debut album, The Conscious Seed of Light. Though it’s not a perfect release, it is very, very good (particularly for a debut full-length), and absolutely packed to the gills with nascent potential.

Potential which they’ve fully realised on their new album, Monarchy.

From start to finish it’s an intensely heavy, stunningly technical (though always in service to the greater themes of the song), and viscerally passionate album, that sees the Reading, Pennsylvania quintet capitalising on the momentum gathered by their debut in order to really expand the scope and breadth of their sound. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: WILD HUNT — “SCROLL AND URN”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Jul 082015

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Wild Hunt from the Bay Area of California.)

So I’ve really been enjoying discovering all these EPs lately. It’s not exactly been a conscious thing though, it just seems we’ve been enjoying a fantastic run of short, perfectly proportioned releases during the first half of this year.

Scroll and Urn is another one to add to the list, although we’re actually coming to it pretty late in the day, as it’s been available since the 17th of April from the band’s Bandcamp page.

If you visit the esteemed site known as Metal-Archives and search for the name Wild Hunt (and then click on the correct entry… handy tip: it’s the one without a “The” in front of it) you’ll see that the band are listed as Progressive Doom Metal/Post-Black Metal. However, this seems something of a misnomer to me.

While there’s certainly a strong progressive, and enviably creative, undercurrent to the music (as well as a gloaming shade of ominous, oppressive Doom) this is Black Metal to the core, with none of this “Post” nonsense to muddy the waters. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): HELLSODOMY, BLOODRED HOURGLASS, TURBOCHARGED, DEADPAN

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

Jul 072015

This is Part 2 of a collection of new music I’ve come across in recent days that I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I have. And if you don’t enjoy these songs, please just keep that to yourselves because I’m sensitive and bruise easily.

HELLSODOMY

That’s right, the band’s name is Hellsodomy, and you get two guesses about what the music will sound like. If you guessed “ambient drone”, please ram your head into the wall and try again.

Hellsodomy hail from Kadiköy in the metroplex of Istanbul, Turkey. They have an EP named Sodomy Is Nigh, which will be released on CD later this month by Barbarian Wrath. It consists of four new songs plus the four tracks that appeared on the band’s 2014 demo, Masochistic Molestation. Two of the new songs are streaming on Bandcamp along with one of those demo tracks, and I’ve found the other three demo tracks on YouTube. Continue reading »

WRVTH: “WRVTH”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Jul 072015

(DGR reviews the new album by WRVTH [formerly known as Wrath of Vesuvius].)

It hasn’t been lost on me that over the years I’ve been lucky when it comes to seeing bands. While not in a preferred situation, my living in Sacramento has allowed me to see some really good shows, groups just starting out who have gone on to do some awesome things. By virtue of proximity to a couple of rather large cities and a populous region, I’ve been lucky enough to see some hyper-creative people roll through town multiple times. Even though I have often joked that Sacramento is some backwater cow-town pretending to be a city (you’d be forgiven, judging by all the highway billboards and signs in our airport for thinking that the most exciting thing to do in Sacramento is go elsewhere), there have been perks — such as being able to see WRVTH over the years as they’ve came visiting from their hometown of San Jose, California, on tour.

At the time, the band was going by the name Wrath Of Vesuvius and they were dealing in the sort of hyper-technical metalcore-and-deathcore hybrid that was gaining steam in the mid-to-late 2000’s. It had its moments for sure, as many talented musicians continually added different elements into a -core sound. In the case of Wrath Of Vesuivius the band neared a tech-death sphere multiple times. If you were to view a particular chunk of California in those days through a sort of prism, focused in on three corners — one being the Bay Area, one being Sacramento, and one being San Jose — you would’ve found quite the scene for that sort of hybrid, and eventually quite a few of those bands went full-blown technical death metal. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): CRUCIAMENTUM, ORKAN, A LOATHING REQUIEM

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Jul 072015

I’m once again drowning in new metal. I waited more than one day to collect new music, and the tide rose up to my eyebrows. Gasping, I flailed around and randomly latched on to the following new tracks from among those I wanted to recommend. I’ll compile a second collection and post it later today.

CRUCIAMENTUM

Charnel Passages is an album I’ve really been looking forward to. It’s the debut album of Britain’s Cruciamentum and their first new music since 2011. Pity that Profound Lore won’t be releasing it until September 4. But yesterday they did release a song called “Piety Carved From Flesh”.

When I first saw the song’s title, my scrambled brain read it as “Piety Carved From Flies” — and it does sound like a swarm of flies, if flies were the size of Great Danes. The drilling riffs are thoroughly morbid, giving off a powerful stench of decay as the grisly melody rises and falls through the whirring haze of sound. The song is punctuated with booming grooves, it features an excellent drum performance, and the vocalist’s howling tirades are a perfect accompaniment for this gruesome offering of death metal illness. Continue reading »

GODLESS ANGEL INTERVIEWS VICTORY RECORDS STAGE ARTISTS FROM THE ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL

Interviews 3 Responses »

Jul 072015

(Our friend Derek “Godless Angel” Neibarger brings us this series of interviews with four bands who will be performing on the Victory Records Stage at this year’s edition of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival.)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re almost certainly aware that the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival has once again returned this summer. This year’s edition features thirteen bands and the knockout punch of dual headliners Slayer and King Diamond. The festival has twenty-six stops between June 26th and August 2nd, and if you’re lucky enough to score tickets to one of those shows I am insanely envious.

My son and I attended our first, and so far only, Mayhem festival several years ago when Slayer also headlined along with Slipknot. It was an amazing experience that included three stages for an all-day-long barrage of metal, a glorious overabundance of merch booths, food, and meet-and-greets. We got to meet Shawn Crahan of Slipknot, grabbed some killer t-shirts, and banged our heads to the point of exhaustion. It was also an amazing social experience, as we were met with friendly smiles and lively conversation from excited metalheads throughout the entire day. We left the festival swearing we would be regular attendees from that day forward, but sadly the tour has skipped the Kansas City area ever since.

That hasn’t stopped me from following the news of every Mayhem tour. I eagerly await the line-up announcement each year and I eat up every fan footage video to hit YouTube as the festival carves a path of destruction from coast to coast. For 2015 the second stage has been dubbed the Victory Records Stage and features nine artists from the Victory roster. I was offered the opportunity to send a few questions to a handful of Victory artists as they prepared to hit the road. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTROPOFAGO — “HELTER SKELTER”

Premieres 1 Response »

Jul 062015

On August 14 Kaotoxin Records will release Æra Dementiæ, the second album by the French beasts who masquerade as humans in Antropofago, and today we’re helping spread the carnage through our premiere of a track from the album named “Helter Skelter“.

This new song vividly manifests three of Antropofago’s signal qualities: It’s brutal as hell; it’s technically impressive; and it will get its meat hooks in your fleshy parts (or to use more boring language, it’s catchy as well as scathing). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ALTARS OF GRIEF (EVAN PAULSON)

Interviews 4 Responses »

Jul 062015

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with Evan Paulson of Saskatchewan’s Altars of Grief, whose fantastic new song from their split with Nachtterror we premiered here not long ago.)

The official press-release of Canadian label Hypnotic Dirge Records announces with justified enthusiasm: “This summer, Altars of Grief and Nachtterror — two Saskatchewan-based Blackened Doom bands — will collaborate on a new split vinyl with new material from each band. The vinyl split, entitled Of Ash and Dying Light is set to be released worldwide in a limited edition 10″ vinyl, as well as digital, on Hypnotic Dirge Records in early August!”

Well, I have not too much to add – you already heard a song from this split as Islander shared it with NCS readers a few days ago through “An NCS premiere” section, so I’ll just give a floor to Evan Paulson, Altars of Grief’s guitarist. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VEILBURNER — “EVER RELAPSING FEVER”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Jul 062015

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a song and accompanying lyric video from the new album by Veilburner.)

There’s a tired-but-true maxim that applies well in the music realm: “Strike while the iron is hot”. While you’ve got people’s attention, jam more music down their throats and keep things moving. Veilburner have adhered strictly to this line of thought.

Last year, I and writers from several other sites hailed The Three Lightbearers, the debut full-length by this nightmare-inducing Pennsylvania-based death/black duo, as a highlight of 2014. Now, the band are already roaring back with their sophomore ode to chaos and annihilation, Noumenon, dropping soon on July 31st. And today we offer up the dual song-and-lyric-video premiere of “Ever Relapsing Fever”, the first track to air from the new album. Continue reading »

DYSTROPHY: “WRETCHED HOST”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Jul 062015

(Austin Weber reviews the new album by Dystrophy.)

Recently here at NCS, I did a massive music drop post with no verbiage about the music due to a lack of time. One of those bands was the New Jersey-based death metal act Dystrophy, a band I’d been hearing good things about, and was reminded to check out, after forgetting, because of Doug Moore from Pyrrhon posting about them. After my post aired, the band sent me the album, so here we are to review it and tell you a bit more about what makes Wretched Host’s filthy heart tick.

Wretched Host is definitely “weird death metal” in the best way possible. It’s frequently dissonantly focused, with obvious nods to Gorguts and Deathspell Omega, yet their is a chunky old-school element to it that helps make this a thing all their own — not to mention how incredible the lead guitar is and how well it’s juxtaposed with the overall creeping and bludgeoning rhythm guitar work. Continue reading »

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