HIGH PARASITE: “FOREVER WE BURN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Oct 232024
 

(This is DGR‘s review of the debut album of “Death Pop” by High Parasite, fronted by Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride, produced by Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, and released by Candlelight on September 27th.)

There’s an acceptance that comes with the idea that people aren’t required to listen to music the same way you do. You can bang the drum forever about how to experience something but in reality sometimes people just want to be able to throw something on and let it whip past them without a second thought.

The reality of which is perfectly fine. Not everyone needs to be able to fantasy-draft a death metal band together like Nader Sadek does with his releases. Not everyone needs to be able to fold an album over again, and again, and again, such that it eventually resembles a musical and intellectual rolled omelette. This of course being the long walk toward a simple question:

That being, have you ever listened to a release that has caused you to think about it way more than you could possibly justify any reason for? Thinking about it far more than the album might reasonably deserve? Because that may be what’s happening here with High Parasite’s debut album Forever We Burn. An album that has somehow caused the gears to turn here far more than one could intellectually justify. Continue reading »

ODIOUS: “EQUILIBRIUM TOOL”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 232024
 

(We present NCS contributor Didrik Mešiček‘s review of the first album in nine years from the Egyptian metal band Odious, which was released earlier this month.)

Have you ever thought about how much of the metal you listen to actually comes from about five, or at most ten, countries? And while those countries are great at producing some quality bands, it’s a shame massive parts of the world have a poorly developed metal scene, and a lot of those nations have unique takes on music as well as cool instruments that could fit wonderfully within metal.

This is why I’m often very excited when there are bands popping up in various Asian or African countries and why I’m talking about the new album, Equilibrium Tool, from the Egyptian band Odious today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ATARAXIE — “LE DÉCLIN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 222024
 

(written by Islander)

Today we premiere a full stream of Le Déclin, a new album by the veteran French band Ataraxie that will be released this coming Friday, October 25th, by Ardua Music and Weird Truth Productions.

To make it was an enormous undertaking. The results speak to that: Four songs, each of which is in the range of 16-22 minutes, and a total running time for the album of more than 80 minutes. You could think of it as four EPs released simultaneously, and you could choose to listen to them that way, but thematically they are all connected.

Before you reach the end of this article you’ll find extensive comments about the album from Ataraxie bassist/vocalist Jonathan Théry. As he describes them, the lyrics of the songs are about the negativity and sickness of the modern world — the descent of humanity into ignorance, absurdity, the rejection of science, the glorification of malignant fantasy, the rise of depression and disease, and an unwillingness to confront what could be done (or must be done) to prevent humankind from extinguishing itself.

Given the way that most metal bands make music, it’s unlikely that the lyrics (in French) were written first, and the music written to follow the lyrics. But there is still an undeniable unity between the themes and the sounds. The music itself channels anger, disgust, agony, isolation, and ruin on a global scale, as well as moments that seem to capture the value of what is being destroyed. Continue reading »

UNEXPECTED SURPRISES: SERPENT COLUMN / UNDERNEATH

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 222024
 

(Andy Synn highlights two surprise releases from last week)

Don’t you just love surprises?

Well, the good kind anyway… you know, like the unexpected return of a musical project you thought was gone for good, or another new album from a band who already produced one of your favourites of the year?

Because that’s exactly what we’re looking at (and listening to) today.

Continue reading »

BEYOND GRACE – FRAGILE

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Oct 212024
 

(Andy Synn presents a brand new single… by his own band)

As it turns out, Islander, DGR, and I were all so busy this weekend that none of us had any time to prepare anything for NCS today.

So when the boss man asked if I wanted to take the opportunity to promote something of my own – which I generally feel a little weird doing here – I decided, for once, to take him up on the offer.

Because today we released a brand new single, a cover of Sting‘s 1987 anti-war anthem “Fragile“, and I’d love for you all to check it out!

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANDROÏD OF KRYPTON, ALTAR OV ASTERIA, SLUAGH, DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 192024
 

 


Mandroïd of Krypton – photo by Rebecca Bowring

By the time you read this I will have left home early this Saturday morning on a quick three-day vacation. I mean, really early, so I didn’t have time to write much, and I stabbed these songs off my gigantic list pretty quickly and impulsively.

But that doesn’t mean the songs aren’t excellent, because they are. In fact I impulsively stabbed them because each one of them shivved me right fast and deep.

Due to the vacation, the odds are high that there won’t be a SHADES OF BLACK on Sunday, and we might not have much to throw at you on Monday either. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BECERUS — “TROGLODYTE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 182024
 

(written by Islander)

Once again we gaze upon the mindless marauding of the mighty Becer, the foul and ferocious avatar of the troglodytic Sicilian death metal band Becerus.

The last hideous vision of that rampaging creature graced the cover of the debut Becerus album Homo Homini Brutus in 2021, and if anything, Karl Dahmer‘s artwork for the band’s new album is even more berserk than what he did that first time (as you can see).

Homo Homini Brutus, which we helped introduce through not one, not two, but three premieres, was indeed brutish and bludgeoning — caveman death metal with primordial appeal — but the songs were also full of twisting and turning surprises, demonstrating that Becerus were fully capable of violently erupting like Vesuvius with turn-on-a-dime suddenness and surgical precision.

And so I’ve been greedily and greasily rubbing my hands together in anticipation of this band’s new album-length depravity. Aptly named Troglodyte, it will be released by Everlasting Spew Records on December 20th, just in time to ruin Christmas, and once again we’re helping introduce it with a premiere today — of the new album’s title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GOLGOTHA

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 182024
 

(Earlier this year we helped introduce to the public the newest album by the long-running Spanish death-doom metal band Golgotha, and today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview with its leader Vicente Javier Payá Galindo.)

NCS readers already read the in-depth text about Golgotha’s newest album Spreading the Wings of Hope, or at least you should. Anyway I’d like to remind you about this oldest Spanish death-doom band once more and invite you to read the interview with its founder Vicente Javier Payá Galindo, the guitarist and the author of music and partly the lyrics. Maybe it’ll help to understand the motivation of Golgotha’s members better, maybe you’ll dig the album after that. Who knows? Continue reading »

BLOOD INCANTATION: LIVE AT THE BOULDER THEATER, OCTOBER 4, 2024

 Concert Reviews  3 Responses »
Oct 182024
 

(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo had the good fortune of seeing Blood Incantation perform in Denver on the day of their newest album’s release, preceded by the solo set of Steve Roach, and he’s given us the following show review. We’re also grateful to Denver photographer Jacob Juno for allowing us to use his photos from the show throughout this article.)

Hype is a helluva drug.

And perhaps no band in modern metal is aware of that statement the way Denver’s Blood Incantation are. Their 2019 opus Hidden History of the Human Race was released to a cacophony of effusive praise from every dark corner of the internet, catapulting the band into interdimensional stardom.

Fast forward to 2024. The past five years have seen Blood Incantation’s career become anything but predictable. There are probably fewer words that haven’t been used to describe Timewave Zero than those that have, and the Luminescent Bridge single was a nice surprise that left many (myself included) wanting more.

It felt like a culmination of all of this, then, to have the band play a special one-night-only headlining set at the foot of the Rocky Mountains last week. And to properly commemorate the release of Absolute Elsewhere, they even brought along the king of ambient sound himself, Steve Roach, to open the proceedings.

What followed was a night nobody in the Boulder Theater would soon forget.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CURSED CEMETERY — “MAGMA TRANSMIGRATION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 172024
 

(written by Islander)

In the nearly 15 years of our site’s existence our changing cadre of writers have listened to a mountainous quantity of metal, but if any of us have spent time with the music of the Romanian band Cursed Cemetery we must have kept our thoughts to ourselves. Because until last month, their name has not been mentioned in any of our 15,918 articles, despite the fact that since 2007 they released four albums.

But now Cursed Cemetery are on the eve of releasing a fifth album (on the Dusktone label), and finally we’re paying attention, and wondering what we missed across the years when the first four dropped.

The new album, Magma Transmigration, is a mountainous piece of music itself, a massive and daunting range with four imposing peaks, just four songs but each of them exceeding 10 minutes in length and two of them topping 15. Continue reading »

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