AN NCS PREMIERE: CIRCULAR RUIN — “PERISHER”

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Jan 162026
 

(written by Islander)

“Circular Ruin is the ever-recurring end of everything once great, the endless cycle of temporary prosperity followed by death and devastation, and the inevitable demise of humanity by its own hand.”

Yes indeed, anyone with even a passing interest in human history could agree with that depiction of our past and our future, a recurring and millennia-long sequence of self-inflicted ruin in which no important lessons are ever learned and what we have to look forward to is a circling of the drain.

Apart from being a succinct encapsulation of where our species has been and where we are going, Circular Ruin is also the name of a Swedish extreme metal quintet whose debut album is about to be launched upon a helpless public.

That album, A Sermon in Tongues, follows up the band’s 2023 EP Future Graves, and it will be released by Vendetta Records on January 30th. One song from the album has already exploded, and today we’re premiering a second one — “Perisher“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PUTRED — “DEVORAT DE ÎNTUNERIC”

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Jan 162026
 

(written by Islander)

Almost one year ago we published our contributor Zoltar’s very insightful interview of veteran guitarist Uriel Aguillon, riff-writer of the Romanian death metal band Putred. The discussion included this revealing Q&A:

Do you think that Putred would have sounded different if you hadn’t been born in the first half of the ’70s, and thus had the chance to catch the whole death metal boom when it all started?

Absolutely! I’ve been in the metal underground since the mid ’80s and it is what I know how to do, it comes naturally, and I couldn’t continue listening to new stuff after 1996, so I got stuck in the past for good. Putred is old rusted murky and filthy rotting death metal based in that feeling/mood rather than anything else.

This is an honest claim, and an accurate one when it comes to the music of these Transylvanian ghouls. One year ago Putred had just launched their second album Megalit al putrefac​ț​iei, and this year they’re returning with a new album titled Blestemul din Adânc that’s set for release in March by a trio of conspiring labels. What we’ve got for you today is a visualizer premiere for the record’s first single, “Devorat de Întuneric“. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 11): RIVERS OF NIHIL, FIMBUL WINTER, GRAVETAKER

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Jan 162026
 

(written by Islander)

After today there will be 10 days left to complete this series before I stop at the end of January (unless I panic and post a segment on a weekend). I’m guessing some of you are wondering when I’m going to include more of the 2025 songs you played most often, because I’m confident there’s no way we’ve hit everyone’s favorites so far — there’s just way too many good candidates out there. But I also suspect that this list is already serving as a reminder of that very fact.

My own mind has reached the boggled stage where I know I’m going to have to leave off a great many songs that really got their hooks in me (and you) last year. I also know I’m incapable of ranking the remaining candidates in any way that will make the decisions easier, even with 10 more installments to come after this one.

Well, I’ll leave those agonies for another day and focus instead on today’s trio of addictives tracks. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORS VERUM — “CANVAS”

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Jan 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Lest any poor deluded souls think it’s okay to relegate cover art for albums to afterthoughts, mis-believing that half-assing the artwork won’t matter as long as the music is strong and will sell itself, just take a look at the above artwork created by Arifullah Ali. We venture the guess that even people who have never heard the music of Mors Verum will be so intrigued that they can’t help but want to hear their new EP.

As it happens, this writer was already familiar with Mors Verum’s past releases (for example, we’ve hosted two premieres in support of their previous music), including their dissonant, dizzying, and strangely beautiful 2021 EP The Living.

The band’s previous releases also obviously caught the admiring attention of the Transcending Obscurity Records, because on February 6th that prominent label will release a new Mors Verum EP named Canvas, which features the fascinating artwork up above.

Fittingly, this Ontario band’s new EP is every bit as fascinating and frightening as the artwork — a conclusion we think you’ll share when you hear our premiere of its title song (and one other we’re also sharing). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FOETOREM — “ESCALATING ROT”

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Jan 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Human beings have been beset by nightmares for as long as our species has been able to speak or write about them, and undoubtedly before then too. Blessed by intelligence (relatively speaking) and the ability to communicate, and plagued by the fear of inescapable death, we stumble through life hand-in-hand with frightening dreams.

Among the oldest and most persistent of horrors is the fear of being buried alive — in coffins, tombs, or beneath a weight of freshly turned earth, deprived of oxygen, unable to move, and with naught but worms or the natural liquification of flesh eagerly awaiting the heart’s final beat.

Visions of hideous death have (of course) also walked hand-in-hand with Death Metal from its earliest day, and some bands have wholly devoted themselves to rendering musical visions of human pain and putrefaction, conjuring ruination, putridity, and stench through notes, beats, and voices.

The Danish band Foetorem are one of the newest exponents of death metal oppressiveness, rot, and foulness — their name itself translates to “stench of decay” — and they’re so powerfully good at it that Everlasting Spew Records has joined forces with them for the release in March of their debut album Incongruous Forms Of Evergrowing Rot. To help spread the word, today we’re premiering the album’s first single, “Escalating Rot“. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2025 WRAPUP

 LISTMANIA 2025  1 Response »
Jan 142026
 

(written by Islander)

We posted the last of our many 2025 year-end lists yesterday. As in previous years, the volume was extensive. As usual, some of them were re-postings of lists that appeared at “big platform” web sites and print magazines, and others were prepared by our own stable of race-horse writers. And once again we had a large group of lists from other guests and old friends. Plus, we’ve again received valuable, extensive lists in reader comments on THIS POST (new lists can still be added there).

In this article I’m setting forth links to all of the 2025 year-end lists that we published, divided into categories and listed within each category mostly in the order of their appearance. For people who are looking for the best metal that 2025 had to offer, these lists and our readers’ lists provide a tremendous resource, as they have in past years.

Heart-felt thanks again to everyone who contributed to 2025 LISTMANIA and to everyone who made time to read what we pulled together. A lot of people put a lot of effort into this series, as we do every year, but I can tell from the page views that it continues to mean something to fans of heavy music, and so we’ll continue doing it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DIABOLUS INCARNATE — “HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN”

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Jan 142026
 

(written by Islander)

Diabolus Incarnate is a long-running extreme metal project with roots in South Africa, now based in the UK. They were first formed in 2010, and Metal-Archives identifies a 2015 demo and a 2016 single as their output until now. Obviously, they haven’t rushed things, but now, 10 years since they arrived in the UK and with a current incarnation that brings together musicians best known for their work in other extreme metal bands, Diabolus Incarnate are ready to take a big step forward.

The band’s founder Dieter Engel is now accompanied by members of such bands as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Ingested, and Worm Shepherd, and we’re told that they have two EPs under way, with one at the mixing stage and another in pre-production. What we have for you today is the premiere of a fully finished single, “Human, All Too Human“, along with statements about the song by all four bandmembers. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9): IN MOURNING, CYTOTOXIN, JORDSJUK

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Jan 142026
 

(written by Islander)

We’re at another installment of this list where I don’t really have any organizing principle to explain why I put these three songs together. They’re just three songs I thought deserved to be on the list, and they happen to come from three really good 2025 albums too, but each one sounds very different from the other two. Continue reading »

PUSH! – PLOWING AHEAD

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Jan 142026
 

(Andy Synn is plowing ahead with reviews in 2026, aided and abetted by the new one from Push!)

There’s a line in the song “Movie Night” by Aesop Rock that answers the question “What kind of dog is that?” with the words “That’s a mutt… it’s five-dogs-in-one.”

And while we can’t be sure exactly what breed the spiky hound adorning the cover of Plowing Ahead is, it’s clearly not a pure-bred.

But, then again, neither are Push!, as while the Portuguese quintet are definitely a Hardcore band – one with the likes of Born From Pain, Sworn Enemy, and Merauder in their auditory ancestry – there’s also at least some Metal in their DNA too, as the hybrid-vigour of their new album so plainly demonstrates.

Continue reading »

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