AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELL:ON — “HE WITH THE HORSE’S HEAD”

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Apr 252024
 

Long ago the Ukrainian extreme metal band Hell:On established their musical philosophy, and in the nearly two decades since their formation in Zaporizhzhia they have stayed steady, only sharpening their swords and their magicks and magnifying the power of their delivery.

“Atmospheric death metal” is one way of describing their music, a way of trying to capture their union of high-powered death metal ferocity, oriental melodies, and “tribal” ingredients, which create mystical, shamanic shades of light and darkness.

This union is on full display in their new album, which fittingly is named Shaman. It was intended for release two years ago, but then the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted those plans, and of course life as a whole in their country. But now they have a May 17th release date via Archivist Records and we begin to see the fruits of their creative endeavors. Continue reading »

INFESTUS – ENTZWEIUNG

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Apr 252024
 

(Andy Synn dives into the darkness of the new album from Infestus, out now)

I like Black Metal. I’m pretty sure everyone around here knows that by now. But what kind of Black Metal I want to hear varies with my mood.

Sometimes I want it raw and nasty. Other times I want it dripping with orchestral excess. Heck, there’s even times when I want it so proggy and unorthodox that it barely even sounds like Black Metal at all.

But right here, right now, I want it dark, I want it moody, and I want it so sharp that you’re in danger of losing a finger every time you push “play”.

So it’s a good thing a new Infestus album dropped last week.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HOMUNCULUS — DEMO MMXXIV

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Apr 242024
 

As you can see, we’re premiering a demo today, the first two songs to be revealed from a Seattle band named Homunculus, a word that most dictionaries define as “a very small human or humanoid creature”. It’s an interesting choice of name because, as you’ll soon discover, the music is anything but small, though it most definitely is inhuman.

To begin our introduction of the demo, we’ll share some of the evocative words provided by Cestrum Nocturnum Recordings, which will release the demo on May 1st and brands it “experimental black/death”: Continue reading »

IMPERATUS: “AT THE MERCY OF THE WIND”

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Apr 242024
 

(Our Hanoi-based contributor Vizzah Harri wrote the following extensive and extremely enthusiastic review of the debut album from the Vietnamese black metal band Imperatus, which was released last month. This will be followed in the near future by a two-part interview.)

Imperatus means Order or Command (‘imperiously’ comes from the Latin word imperare, which means “to command.” Other words from this same root include empire, emperor, imperial, and imperative.) In order to kick off this faux-imperious review of a band that I believe will command your attention to the max, one might be allowed to err on the side of believing that this could be the jumpstart to a new empirical anomaly not to be fucked with. Emperor’s debut has always been slated as one of the top first albums ever released and they are mentioned for a reason (aural affinity). Just like Imperatus giving recognition to a sound reminiscent of their childhood, it is this listener’s conviction that the riffs found in this here disc be epically imperial. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COMBAT NOISE — “STALINGRAD IN BLOOD”

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Apr 242024
 

The Cuban death metal band Combat Noise first emerged in 1995 in La Habana, inspired by both Floridian death metal and a desire to render tales of war through their music. Beginning in 1996 they steadily released a sequence of demos, an EP, and eventually three full-length albums, with the last of those appearing in 2013.

There then followed a decade-long hiatus in recordings, a gap that will now end with To the Heart of Battle, a new album set for co-release by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Sanatorio Records (Costa Rica) on May 21st. Today we premiere one of its 12 anthems of war, a song entitled “Stalingrad in Blood“. Continue reading »

CANCER CULTURE OVER NORTH AMERICA TOUR

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Apr 242024
 

(Our friend Ben Manzella made sure not to miss one of the California dates of the ongoing Cancer Culture Over North America Tour, featuring Decapitated, Septicflesh, Kataklysm, and Allegaeon, and he brought us the following report on the show and lots of his photos.)

After going to shows consistently for close to twenty years, I find some venues hold a nostalgic place in my memory. The Observatory in Santa Ana, formerly known as the Galaxy Theater, is one such place. I rarely attend shows there due to the distance from where I live in southern California; but when I heard Decapitated’s tour would be starting there and I knew I’d be out of town for their other date in the area, I knew I had to figure out a way to be there.

As other US/North American fans of Decapitated will be well aware, the band has not been back to this region of the world since an incident that happened 7 years ago. It was pretty well documented and I don’t think it needs to be further mentioned out of respect for the band in moving forward. If anything, it felt sort of celebratory that their tour started at The Observatory because it was also the last venue they played 7 years ago.

So, with a new album released in 2022 and a strong/eclectic lineup featuring Septicflesh, Kataklysm, and Allegaeon, the Cancer Culture Over North America tour started on a high note. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WINGLESS — “ASCENSION”

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Apr 232024
 

Wingless is a great name for a band who’ve chained themselves with the heavy links of doom and death. It seems to encapsulate the core reality that human beings struggle to soar, land-bound and crawling toward a bitter end beneath the distant gaze of winged creatures that have always seemed more free.

And yet the new album from this Krakow-based band, their fifth full-length since forming in 2012, is named Ascension. The title raises questions: ascending toward what? and when? and how?

The music suggests answers, though they are likely to vary with each listener’s interpretation of the experience. What’s not likely to vary is the inevitability of becoming submerged in the music, and to rise with it. You’ll have that chance today, as we premiere a full stream of Ascension in advance of its release on April 26th by Selfmadegod Records. Continue reading »

THY SHINING CURSE: “THEURGIA”

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Apr 232024
 

(Here we have DGR‘s review of the debut album by the Greek symphonic death metal band Thy Shining Curse, released by ViciSolum Records in mid-February.)

Thy Shining Curse is a project that snuck up on us – the result of many a Bandcamp tumble and record label page scour, mostly to see what projects are doing what these days. Even though their debut album Theurgia has been out for a few months by this point – have to keep the perpetually tardy streak alive – the aura of intentional mystery surrounding the album was enough to grab interest. Mostly curiosity for both what it is as well as who was involved in assembling the machine in the first place.

The group are intentionally keeping things a bit vague, as Thy Shining Curse is a solo project belonging to musician Leonidas Diamantopoulos, while the album credits – courtesy of the label – add vocalist Cezar Moreira and guitarist Gabe Pietrzak as co-conspirators in making the creature that is Theurgia breathe. But to walk that back a little, as just about everyone these days is enjoying their time with the masks-and-robes aesthetic, just what the hell are Thy Shining Curse and Theurgia and why does it seem they are walking among us now? Continue reading »

TERMINAL NATION – ECHOES OF THE DEVIL’S DEN

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Apr 232024
 

(Andy Synn enters the devil’s den that is the new album from Terminal Nation, out next week)

As someone whose first serious foray into “alternative” music involved getting seriously into Hardcore, I’ve been loving a lot of the new wave of Death Metal/Hardcore crossover acts.

Sure, there’s a few bands out there who’ve definitely taken the trend as an opportunity to play down to the worst aspects of the two genres (and the less said about them the better, in my opinion, as they’ve already gotten enough hype for their lazy, lowest-common-denominator bullshit) but the likes of Tribal Gaze, Xibalba  Slowbleed, and Fuming Mouth have all made a big impression on me over the last few years.

And then, of course, there’s Terminal Nation, whose previous album (and subsequent split EP with Kruelty) I was a big fan of, and who are now set to make even more waves with Echoes of the Devil’s Den.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO AND ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEPLORABLE — “SHATTERED LAMENT UNMOORED”

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Apr 222024
 

In this article we’re presenting two premieres — a full stream of Shattered Lament Unmoored, the debut album by the Costa Rican band Deplorable, which will be released today by the Dutch label Breathe Plastic, and a video for one of the album’s six songs. Perhaps the best one-word description for both of them is… HARROWING. But of course we’ll try to flesh that out with more words.

It might be best to begin with the video and the song it presents, “Apparition In The Ether“, even though that song appears second in the album’s track list, because it provides such a soul-shattering introduction to the black chasm of dread and despair that the album opens up beneath us as listeners. Continue reading »

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