SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PINCER CONSORTIUM, OTTONE PESANTE, DÖ, OUTER GRAVES

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 142024
 

Another Saturday, another opportunity to help spread the word about new music. It’s always difficult to decide what to include in these roundups, and a bit more difficult than usual because I’ve spent a fair amount of time addressing the first item below, which is a new album released at the end of last week.

In deciding what to do with my meager remaining time, I decided not to include new songs and videos I came across from bands whose profiles are high enough that most people probably already know about them, i.e., Mastodon and Lamb of God (collaborating), Defeated Sanity, 1349, and Ensiferum. But if you don’t know about those songs, now you have the links that will take you to them.

But now, let’s get to that new album, and then follow it with just a few other worthy new songs from forthcoming records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EMERALD RAGE — “DRAGONBLOOD”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 132024
 

“Tolkien fans can bang their heads to this blistering speed metal track! With a dose of 80’s Megadeth and Testament, this song tells the Silmarillion tale of the dark lord Morgoth breeding his most lethal weapon and chief among Dragons, Ancalagon the Black.”

That’s how Ohio’s Emerald Rage introduce their song “Dragonblood“, for which we’re premiering a lyric video today. The track is from the band’s latest album, Valkyrie, which was released last year by Stormspell Records.

In keeping with the tale it tells, “Dragonblood” is a rush to hear, fast and flame-throwing, exultant and dangerous, and guaranteed to get your pulse pounding. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PILLAR OF LIGHT — “SPARED”

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Sep 132024
 

(written by Islander)

The members of the Detroit band Pillar of Light chose an evocative name for their group, one that describes an otherworldly image, suggestive of blinding wonder and perhaps even the appearance of divinity. Yet the image might also be perceived as daunting or frightening.

It turns out to be a name that’s fitting to their music, which is itself a multi-faceted experience capable of producing awe-struck reactions, but it must also be said that the musical edifice they’re constructing is as much supported by columns of obsidian rising from an abyss as pillars of light descending from on high.

That edifice, in its most fully realized form so far, is represented in the band’s debut album, Caldera, which will be released later this year by Transcending Obscurity Records. One single from the album (“Wolf to Man“) surfaced this past summer, and today we present another one as the fall encroaches. Its name is “Spared“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THEIGNS & THRALLS

 Interviews  No Responses »
Sep 132024
 

(Here we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Kevin Ridley, with a main focus on his band Theigns & Thralls and their new album which is set for release on September 20th.)

As UK legendary folk thrash veterans Skyclad don’t hurry to return with new material, the band’s guitarist and vocalist Kevin Ridley works with his folk metal outfit Theigns & Thralls. Their second album The Keep and the Spire is about to be released, and Kevin promises some changes in the band’s sound, as they got rid of almost all acoustic songs, “pushed the boundaries of the band’s sonic palette”, and got a full stable lineup. Or so it seems.

Inspired by ancient poetry, historical novels, and current events, these songs will provide some good food for thought. And the interview with Kevin will help to digest it. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HUSQWARNAH — “PURIFICATION THROUGH SACRIFICE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 122024
 

(written by Islander)

In December 2021 we premiered and reviewed Husqwarnah‘s debut album Front Toward Enemy. I also put one of the songs from that album (“Ignoto1”) on our list of 2021’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs (here), a recognition of how hook-laden and compulsive the music was — in addition to it being tank-like, ravaging, fire-breathing, and morbid.

Today we see what these Italian death metal marauders have been up to since then, as we again host a full stream of Husqwarnah‘s newest album, Purification Through Sacrifice, which is set for release on September 16th by the distinctive Time To Kill Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAMMERFILOSOFI — “SOLUS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Sep 122024
 

(written by Islander)

Tomorrow, on the first Friday the 13th of 2024, ATMF will release a new EP by the Italian/Norwegian duo Hammerfilosofi. Its full name is SOLUS (Igne Natura Renovator Integra).

The EP follows by almost exactly one year the band’s first release and debut album The Desolate One, which we premiered here, calling it ” fanatical, fiery, and frightening,” but also “a harrowing esoteric process of liberation and elevation.”

ATMF portrays the new EP as “four psalms of relentless, multi-layered, and hellish madness,” and the band’s NKTFR describes it as “an inward journey of spiritual violence and cathartic soul-searching,” picking up from where The Desolate One left off: “Both musically and conceptually we want to bring back some of that rebellious pride, wrath, and danger – some Blood, Fire, and Death – that for us are mandatory ingredients in Black Metal.”

As we did for the album, today we present SOLUS… from beginning to end. Continue reading »

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER – SERVITUDE

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 122024
 

(Today our man Andy Synn steps up to tackle one of the most difficult reviews he’s ever written)

How exactly, let me ask you, does one even begin to talk about – let alone judge – an album like this?

Let me be clear, the untimely demise of the band’s infamous (and seemingly irreplaceable) frontman Trevor Strnad hit a lot of us here at NCS very hard – hell, I was the one who volunteered to pen a few words in tribute after his passing – but it obviously hit his bandmates harder than almost anyone, and I don’t think anyone would have blamed them if they’d chosen to hang up their spurs in the aftermath.

But, as it turns out, giving up wasn’t in the cards for these Detroit death-dealers, who are set to solidify their return with the release of their tenth album – the first one to feature long-time guitarist (and last-remaining original member) Brian Eschbach taking over as the group’s vocalist, as well as the recording debut of the newly-formed guitar-duo of Brandon Ellis and the returning Ryan Knight – in just over two weeks from now.

With all that in mind then, perhaps the best thing I can do with this review is simply set your expectations appropriately, as while many (if not most) of us may have been hoping that the band’s big comeback would be an unqualified success and an unparalleled triumph over tragedy… the truth is that Servitude is not that.

Or maybe it is. Maybe I’m looking at it wrong. Maybe its very existence – it’s still a good album, just not a great one, after all – is enough of a triumph on its own… especially considering that it almost didn’t happen at all!

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERAL — “THE DEVOURING STORM”

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Sep 112024
 

Seventeen is a prime number, and seventeen is the number of years that the savage Swedish band Feral have lived so far. Their music has also proven to be prime, prime cuts for carnivores of massive and mauling but also dynamic and addictive death metal.

On October 18th Transcending Obscurity Records will add to an already impressive Feral discography by releasing the band’s fourth album, To Usurp the Thrones, and today we’re premiering a song from the album fittingly named “The Devouring Storm“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INGURGITATING OBLIVION — “THE BARREN EARTH OOZES BLOOD, AND SHAKES AND MOANS, TO DRINK HER CHILDREN’S GORE” (PART 3)

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 112024
 

(written by Islander)

It’s a standard practice for bands and record labels to preview forthcoming albums by releasing a song or two (or more) in advance of the release date. It’s extremely uncommon for anyone to do what the German avant-garde death metal band Ingurgitating Oblivion and Willowtip Records have been doing over the last few months: releasing three segments of a single song, one after another.

On paper, it looks like a risky strategy. Wouldn’t most people lose patience or get frustrated, hearing only a part of a song instead of getting the chance to listen to all of it, especially when listeners have to wait a month in between each part? And because even at the end all you have before the album release is one song, instead of several songs?

Well yes, it’s risky. But this uncommon strategy works for Ingurgitating Oblivion because the long song they’ve been rolling out in segments is itself so unusual, and because each Part has been as long as (or longer than) an individual track on most albums, but mainly because each Part has so powerfully seized attention on its own.

Moreover, the first two parts have succeeded in building an eager anticipation for the third one, to find out how this uncommon extravaganza is going to end — and today we bring you the answer. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VENDEL

 Interviews  No Responses »
Sep 112024
 

(Below you will find Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the Moscow-based epic heavy metal band Vendel, whose debut album was released by Dying Victims Productions on June 14, 2024.)

I learned about the Moscow band Vendel thanks to their cover of Bathory’s immortal killer hymn “Under the Runes”, and then I found out that the guys have a couple of their own tracks with covers of Saint Vitus and Manilla Road. And, perhaps, these references already give a fairly accurate idea of ​​what Vendel offer us on their debut album Out in the Fields: high-quality and lively old-fashioned metal at the junction of heavy (Manilla Road, Iron Maiden) and doom (Bathory, Saint Vitus).

The band was founded in 2015, but its actual lineup was formed in 2017: Alexey Goryachev (vocals), David Kazaryan (guitars), Lasha Khabalov (bass), Sergey Kargalsky (guitars), and Sergey Skorodumov (drums). In their new material, Vendel focus on the old-fashioned heavy metal with references to albums like Hammerheart as well. Despite all the clearly discernible influences, Vendel does not tend to copy anyone, although you’ll hear some familiar turns here and there, things happen.

But first of all, Out in the Fields sounds sincere and charged; the guys are possessed with the spirit of true and epic viking doomy metal. Secondly, there are no bands that would embody this spectrum of musical influences in Russia.

Continue reading »

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