AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DER GHUL — “THE RAT KING”

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May 012024
 

Vladimir Bauer is a musician originally from Odesa in Ukraine but based in Germany since 2017. He is best known for his band Schattenfall, whose music we’ve written about frequently over the years (as you can see here), and for his work in the early years of White Ward. But Bauer has another project named Der Ghul, and it’s the black metal of Der Ghul we’re focusing on today.

Der Ghul released a debut EP (available on Bandcamp here) named Pulse of Awakening in 2019 (which included Stefan Traunmüller as vocalist), and that will soon be followed by a debut album entitled Hunger Anger Decay, which is set for release on May 17th. One song from the album has been revealed so far, and today we premiere a second one — “The Rat King“. Continue reading »

MY DYING BRIDE: “A MORTAL BINDING”

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May 012024
 

(About 10 days ago Nuclear Blast released the 15th studio album from My Dying Bride, and DGR has sat with it long enough to now provide his thoughts below.)

My Dying Bride‘s newest release A Mortal Binding is a surprisingly turbulent album by My Dying Bride standards. Though My Dying Bride have been an adaptive beast over the course of a long-running career, the group have cycled back around into an interesting amalgamation of modern day doom and their early miserable forms.

Yet My Dying Bride have been the civilized and staid older-sibling of the doom scene, awash with despair yet seeming more ‘refined’ than their cohort bands. No stranger to longform song writing either, it hadn’t been until 2020’s The Ghost Of Orion that they forged themselves into a stately yet concise version of what they’d been before. Granted, they almost immediately followed that up with Macabre Cabaret, an EP with a ten-minute song as its opener, but it seemed like My Dying Bride had found a strong comfort zone with the fragile and mournful atmospheres of The Ghost Of Orion.

Which is what makes A Mortal Binding quite the followup. Continue reading »

GLASSING: “FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR”

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Apr 302024
 

(We present Wil Cifer‘s review of the new album by Austin-based Glassing, which was released last week by Pelagic Records.)

Twin Dream was a perfect album. Glassing are perfecting the art of perfection with From the Other Side of the Mirror. The heaviness here is more biting. The melodies are more textured and haunting. These are conclusions I came to only four songs in.

Granted, a piece like “Sallow” is more of an ambient interlude, but “Defacer” has serious sonic teeth, and can have you head-banging before your second cup of coffee. With Twin Dream what they were doing was more easily defined. It had hardcore kids making atmospheric sludge. This time around more colors of sound are being explored. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ULTIO — “A THOUSAND TIMES MORE”

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Apr 302024
 

On May 23rd Brucia Records will release Cor, a new album by the Italian black metal entity Ultio, the solo work of Giorgio Barroccu, who is also behind the music of Derhead. Brucia describes Cor as “the twistedly demented brother of The Grey Zone Phobia, Derhead‘s latest album released back in March 2023″. (We had some things to say about that album here.)

What does this mean? Brucia describes it this way:

Another side of the same, dark coin – Ultio shares Derhead‘s very same dramatic tension and despair, however showcasing here a magnificently unrestrained and raw soul: behind a gloomy wall of freezingly cold riffs and shrieking screams Ultio ascends maniacally, building a sense of impending peril and oppression – dissonance after dissonance. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MYRONATH — “THE VORACIOUS SPHERE”

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Apr 302024
 

The Swedish black metal band Myronath made their debut in 2019 with the full-length Into the Qliphoth, and two years later followed that with another album aptly named Djevelkraft. Now they’re returning with album number three, their most ambitious one yet, and it too has a very fitting title: Inferno, fitting not only because of the sensations of the music but also because the album is a conceptual work inspired by Dante‘s Inferno.

Inferno again features the work of former Ragnorak members Hellcommander Vargblod (vocals, bass) and Bjarkan (guitars), joined this time by guitarist Bathim and studio session drummer Calle Larsson.

In advance of Inferno‘s May 30 release date by the Dusktone label, they’ve already released a first single (with a lyric video) named “Purity Through Indulgence“, and today we present a second one, “The Voracious Sphere“. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 170): CLEARXCUT

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Apr 302024
 

Recommended for fans of: Shai Hulud, Earth Crisis, Heaven Shall Burn

The end of another month means it’s time for another discography deep-dive, which this time focusses on the work of Metallic Hardcore marauders ClearXCut.

Unsurprisingly for a band who describe themselves as “a vegan, straight-edge collective” (one whose shifting line-up over the years has included various members of King Apathy, Heaven Shall Burn, and Implore, among others) the group have no problem proclaiming their beliefs and ideals up front, with songs about everything from anarchism to addiction to animal liberation to all-out class-war.

But, as the band have been keen to stress in various interviews over the years, their primary purpose as a group is not to preach or pass judgement – even though they are just as willing to be critical of the hypocrisy and toxicity present in their own scene as they are the problems of the wider world – but to engage and inspire others through both their actions and their art.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to agree with the message – I’m neither vegan nor straight-edge myself, but I still find the band’s idealism and integrity inspiring – to enjoy the music on its own terms, and so… without further ado… let’s get to it, shall we?

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE BLEEDING — “CHEMICAL LOBOTOMY”

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Apr 292024
 

Monokrator is the third album by the UK band The Bleeding, and their best yet. Released last summer by Redefining Darkness Records, it garnered heaping helpings of praise across the metalsphere, including from our own Andy Synn. In his review, he wrote that the album “bursts out of the speakers with the frenetic riffs and frenzied blastbeats of ‘Chemical Lobotomy’ and then proceeds to kick ass and take names like the bastard child of The Crown, Cannibal Corpse, and Goatwhore“.

He further acclaimed it as a record that succeeds in “marrying thrashy, galloping rhythms with streams of strangulating tremolo riffage and passages of lurching Death Metal heaviness, all topped off with some seriously sharp, snarling vocal hooks” — “the sort of record – lean, mean, and taking no prisoners – that may well put The Bleeding on the global metallic map where they belong.”

As a reminder of what a kick-ass album Monokrator truly is, or as an introduction to people who might have overlooked it, what we have for you today is the premiere of an official video for that song that launches the album in such exhilarating fashion — “Chemical Lobotomy“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SATANIC PRIEST — “WOLVES AMONG SHEEP”

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Apr 292024
 

Consider the name chosen by the Salvadoran band Satanic Priest. Then consider the name they chose for their forthcoming debut album: …Of Blasphemies and Lust, which fittingly will be released by a UK label named Vicious Witch. Then add to that the album’s cover art, and the fact that their brand of music is a flame-throwing, turbocharged amalgam of black thrash and speed metal.

All these signs point to an unpretentious old-school devotion to all things 666 and an equal devotion to alcohol-fueled, pedal-to-the-metal sonic barbarity geared toward giving listeners an adrenaline rush. What you might not guess so far, but what you’ll figure out when you listen to the song we’re premiering today with a lyric video, is that Satanic Priest are also fiendishly good songwriters. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HIDEOUS DIVINITY

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Apr 292024
 

(Daniel Barkasi has brought us a fantastic interview with Enrico Schettino from the Italian death metal powerhouse Hideous Divinity, whose newest album, reviewed at NCS here, is out now on Century Media Records.)

Some have been calling recent times a sort of death metal renaissance. It’s true that an enormous amount of quality releases from bands old and new have been laying waste to our eager ears in the last few trips around the calendar. Hell, the sheer volume of new bands churning out innovative metal of the deathly variety alone has been inspiring. Death metal’s future is indeed strong. Ever leading the charge of the upper echelon is Rome’s Hideous Divinity.

Ever since their first foray Obeisance Rising in 2012, the band hasn’t slowed down a whole lot, dropping four albums that have continuously set high standards for both themselves and their peers. On to album number five, we have Unextinct, which stands out as their most ambitious, from a band who haven’t quite sat still record to record. It’s a massive album that goes straight for the throat, all while displaying multiple layers of intricate craftsmanship that adds significantly to the whole.

We got the opportunity to have a chat with lead vocalist Enrico Schettino on a myriad of subjects. From the obvious regarding all aspects of Unextinct, the absolutely wild “Against the Sovereignty of Mankind” throat cam video, what’s next (including a hint of an upcoming tour), and an odd question to attempt a practical joke on their incredibly cool manager Tito. We hope you enjoy – and pick up the damn album! Continue reading »

STORM UPON THE MASSES – CRUSHER OF SOULS

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Apr 292024
 

(Andy Synn invites you all to get crushed by the new album from Belgian brutalists Storm Upon the Masses)

Did you know that, according to leading medical professionals, just 30-40 minutes of brutality a day can lead to drastic improvements in your physical fitness, me(n)tal health, and even your sex life?

It’s true!

So, if you were put off by Aborted‘s slight turn towards the ‘core end of the spectrum (I wasn’t, but I know some of you were), or felt that the new Hour of Penance needed a bit more bite and are looking for something to fill the void then the new album from Storm Upon the Masses should be just what the doctor ordered.

Continue reading »

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