AN NCS PREMIERE: TWO NEW SONGS FROM ABIGAIL WILLIAMS

 Premieres  20 Responses »
Nov 062014
 

 

It’s the time of year when people who make year-end lists start the tortuous mental process of sifting and ranking what they’ve heard. We’ll be doing that soon, but we’re also looking further down the road in anticipation of what 2015 will bring. And one record it will bring that’s already on our list of highly anticipated new releases is the next album by Abigail Williams.

Today we’re fortunate to bring you a couple of teasers for what the album holds in store, as well as some words from vocalist/guitarist Ken Sorceron about the new album.

What you’re about to hear are two early versions of songs that will appear on the band’s fourth album coming next year via Candlelight Records, the successor to 2012’s excellent Becoming: “Forever Kingdom of Dirt” and “Will, Wish and Desire”. The very talented line-up for these recordings is as follows — with one special guest: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NAPALM DEATH AND VOIVOID ON TOUR, DECIBEL NAMES THE TOP 100 DOOM ALBUMS, AND NEW MUSIC FROM ARCHGOAT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 052014
 

In today’s posts we’ve thrown quite a lot of new music your way, but we’re still not quite done. There are a couple more songs I want to recommend that I discovered over the last 24 hours, plus some news items that perked my interest. We’ll start with those and then move to the songs.

THROUGH SPACE AND GRIND TOUR 2015

Through Space and Grind is the name of a 2015 North American tour whose roster is full of eye-catching names: Napalm Death, Voivod, Exhumed, Iron Reagan, and Black Crown Initiate. The tour begins on January 27 in Miami and runs through February 28 in Houston.

The following bands will also join the tour on selected dates:  Ringworm, Dayglo Abortions, Theories, and Phobia. Here’s the full schedule: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ISRATHOUM, CHALICE OF BLOOD, NEFANDUS, NIGHTBRINGER, VERBUM VERUS, WEDERGANGER

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 052014
 

 

In my daily searches for news and new music that I think would be worth your time, sometimes I come across so many exciting new discoveries that it feels like the flood gates have been opened, or that I’ve opened Pandora’s box thinking that it was my underwear drawer, or that a pack of wolves have materialized in my skull and started devouring its meager contents.

That happened over the last 24 hours. I found so many new things worth recommending that I’ve split this round-up into two posts. By chance, many of them all involve the same label — Daemon Worship Productions — so I’m collecting those in this first post.  More info about all the releases discussed below and related merch can be found here.

ISRATHOUM / CHALICE OF BLOOD

Our last mention of Israthoum on the site occurred almost two years ago when Andy Synn reviewed the band’s second album, Black Poison and Shared Wounds. That is now being followed by a new Israthoum split with the Swedish black metal band Chalice of Blood, which was originally announced at the beginning of this year. Like that preceding album, the split is adorned with spectacular artwork by Held (Ubertragic Art).  (Click the image to view a larger version.) Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEMON PROJECT — “AFTERGLOW”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 052014
 

 

Demon Project have risen from the spawning grounds of Novosibirsk in Siberian Russia, with two albums and two shorter releases to their credit since 2007, and now they have a new album entitled Revival that’s coming our way in December on the Italian label Revalve Records. Today we’re giving you a taste of the new music through our premiere of “Afterglow” — which qualifies as an exception to our customary Rule.

From my own limited exposure to music from Eastern Russia, I tend to think of doom before anything else, but “Afterglow” is a blazing burst of galloping melodic death metal, with hard-punching rhythms, flickering electronic enhancements, and an eye-opening guitar solo. But that’s not all. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARING TEETH — “DRIPPING SUN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 052014
 

 

(Austin Weber wrote the following introduction to our premiere of a song from the forthcoming second album by Baring Teeth.)

While Willowtip continues to churn out releases by forward-thinking bands like it’s no big deal, Baring Teeth still stand out as a singular creative force on their roster. Their exponential growth and talent for exploration displayed on their soon to be released sophomore album, Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins, prove that their path is a rich and multifaceted one, albeit one that’s highly unsettling in the best way possible.

Their last album, 2011’s Atrophy, cemented the band as pioneers in the art of stretching boundaries and seeking out different methods and manners of interpreting death metal, creating new and inspired forms of the genre, giving it a new canvas on which to rot, and painting with a more sophisticated palette than mere straightforward aggression and simple headbangable riffs. They infuse their output with an alien presence that wanders amidst chaotic rhythms and moody peaks and valleys. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIRE OMEN — “FORETOLD UNTETHERING FROM EXISTENCE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 052014
 

The forthcoming debut album of Dire Omen from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, has proven to be a revelation — a stupendously powerful release that fulfills the promise that was evident in the band’s previous shorter releases. Not long ago BraveWords delivered the first advance track from Wresting the Revelation of Futlity, and today we bring you another: “Foretold Untethering From Existence”.

The music is at once destructively chaotic and fascinating in its intricacy. The grinding riffs, blasting snare beats, and echoing vocal horrors create an aura of heartless savagery, yet the somersaulting bass lines, frenzied guitar explosions, and rapidly changing rhythms prove to be thoroughly engrossing. On top of that, the morbid, otherworldly melodies have staying power. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: IRON EAGLE — “ON THE ATTACK”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 042014
 

 

When a band’s first three listed influences on their Facebook page are Bolt Thrower, Discharge, and Bad Brains, that’s a good sign. When their line-up seems to include current members of Human Cull and a former member of the UK powerviolence band Witch Cult, that’s another good sign. When their album art depicts a giant fuckin’ octopus about to pull an aircraft carrier into the depths and starts with a sample about Godzilla — sold. And I haven’t even gotten to the music yet.

The band’s name is Iron Eagle and their debut EP is On the Attack, and is that ever a true title.

That Godzilla sample takes up the first few seconds of “Winta of Discuntent” and then the hammer comes down with a completely unstoppable, completely primal chug onslaught. And it goes from there to a crusty hardcore kerb stomp and back again. And that’s basically what happens over the course of all five songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VARATHRON — “KABALISTIC INVOCATION OF SOLOMON”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 042014
 

 

Untrodden Corridors of Hades is the new album by the long-running, influential Greek black metal band Varathron, their first since 2009’s Stygian Forces of Scorn. In September we featured the album’s first advance track, “Realm of Obscure”, and followed that (here) with the lyric video for “Arcane Conjuring”. Now we bring you the premiere of a third song — which is the album’s opening track — “Kabalistic Invocation of Solomon”.

In this new long song Varathron gradually build an atmosphere thick with the potent vapors of the occult, drawing the listener ever deeper into the mysteries of a dark ritual. At the beginning and again later, a choral chant echoes as if being sung within a catacomb, accompanied by the massive booming of drums and the slow rumbling of the bass. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MARKO PAVLOVIC (THE HOUSE OF CAPRICORN)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Nov 042014
 

 

(About one week ago we premiered a song from an album by New Zealand’s House of Capricorn that has rapidly become one of my favorite records of this year, even though it might seem like an odd fit for a site with our name. Today, we’re lucky to have New Zealand-based metal writer and broadcaster Craig Hayes’ interview with the band’s impressive vocalist Marko Pavlovic.)

Over ten-thousand miles separate New Zealand’s harbingers of apocalyptic devilry, The House of Capricorn, from their new label, Finland-based Svart Records. Still, evil knows no boundaries, and the meeting of minds between Svart, one of the most captivating labels around, and The House of Capricorn, one of the most riveting entities in the ritualistic rock ‘n’ roll underground, makes for the perfect Mephistophelian pact.

On November 9th, Svart is releasing The House of Capricorn’s third full-length, Morning Star Rise. The album is one of the year’s best examples of profoundly wicked music wrapped in a black-hearted aesthetic. Drawing from the cauldron of gothic rock, black metal, and deathrock, the stench of hellfire and eternal damnation pervades all of Morning Star Rise. But it hasn’t always been that way for The House of Capricorn. Continue reading »

OBLITERATIONS: “POISON EVERYTHING”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 032014
 

 

(Leperkahn returns to NCS with this review of the latest release by Obliterations from Los Angeles.)

I just came off my first midterms week of college. As expected, this resulted in quite a bit of anger and stress, and a wish to blow off said stress both during and after the week. Basically, I was in dire need of something that would make me want to careen off of people, bumper-cars style, something to accompany the cathartic screams of rage and frustration that come with trying to understand that damn delta-epsilon proof. Luckily, that’s exactly when Obliterations came out with a new record, Poison Everything.

I nearly had a panic attack when I heard these guys’ first self-titled EP roughly a year ago. Their brand of ballsy hardcore punk was exactly the kind of thing I needed to blow off college app stress, with its self-professed mix of Black Sabbath and Black Flag. This time around – after throwing in one more EP in the interim – the band have tossed in just a touch of Motorhead, particularly on the “Ace of Spades”-like opening for “The One That Got Away” and the bluesy swagger of “Shame”. That said, this record is largely just an extension of the EPs before it, a collection of raucous two-minute explosions boiling over with cathartic rage and riffs that Greg Ginn wishes he wrote. Each track is merely another sonic punch in the face, with only the title track breaking up the feverish pace before “Shame” marks the album’s transition to a more oozing, slow-burning anger, as on “Ad Nauseum”, “Open Casket”, and closer “The Middle Of The End”. Continue reading »

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