AN NCS PREMIERE: PHASMA — “VI”

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Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Transcending Obscurity Records is helping get this new year off to a hard-charging start, with new records by Mors Verum, Decipher, Apolaustic, and Phasma now set for release in the coming few months and songs from each of them now out in the world for streaming. Three of those bands are new to the label, and one of those is Phasma, a Greek group who have drawn upon a wide range of metal influences to create their forthcoming third full-length, Purgatory.

As a sign of the breadth of influences Phasma have drawn upon, T.O. recommends the album for fans of Mgła, Dying Fetus, Crypts of Despair, Kriegsmaschine, and Psycroptic. And if that lists leaves you wondering how (and how well) these Greeks have interworked such disparate styles, we have a concrete example for you today in our premiere of Purgatory’s startling closing track, “VI” (all the songs are simply and solely identified with Roman numerals). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DWELLNOUGHT — “ILL WHISPERS”

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Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Just two days into this dreadful new year I found myself mentally knocked flat by the first song revealed from a debut album by the Italian band Dwellnought. Not completely struck dumb by it, because I was able to feverishly peck out a scramble of words soon after hearing it, but stunned anyway. And so what a stroke of good fortune it was to be invited to premiere another song from the album.

This newest song, which you’ll now be able to hear for yourselves, is “Ill Whispers“. The album is Monolith of Ephemerality (a title that will mean something to you when you listen). And the release date through Caligari Records is February 20th. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 21): PELICAN, DEMONIC DEATH JUDGE, BEWARE OF THE GODS, DAWN OF A DARK AGE

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Well, here we are, at the last installment of this 2025 Most Infectious Song list. On the one hand, I’m breathing a big sigh of relief because I’ve been preparing these segments every weekday since January 1st, and it’s been a lot of fucking work to do that. On the other hand, even though I’ve managed to list 64 songs (including the ones today), I’ve still had to close down without yelling about all the songs worth yelling about from last year.

Given that this is the end, I expected I’d feel a lot of anxiety when picking this last match of songs. But in actuality I didn’t knot up my guts and brains over it. I just kind of let go and allowed impulse to take the wheel, content with the idea that these last four are really good and really infectious songs, even if I’ve had to leave many equally infectious ones off on the side of the road. I also think there’s a bit of a “rock the fuck out” connection between the first three, and how can you go wrong with that?, plus a “what the hell, I’m doing this!” predicate for the last one.

On Monday I’ll do a wrap-up post that lists all the songs in this 2025 collection and includes links to each segment. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WSTRĘT — “ENLIGHTENED MISANTHROPY”

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Jan 292026
 

(written by Islander)

Near the end of last summer I came across a two-song debut EP named Subhuman Eschatology by the Polish band Wstręt. As I wrote at the time, it floored me. It was like someone spun the intensity dial until it wouldn’t go any further.

Those two songs warped together ingredients of black and death metal to create body-bruising blows and to inflict mind-shredding, needle-sharp riffing that dug in deep. The songs generated moods that were wrecking and wracked, terrorizing and tormented, exhilarating and oppressive, coupled with ragged, reverberating roars were heartless and harrowing.

Given the nature of that introduction to Wstręt, I found myself simultaneously frightened and thrilled to discover that Godz Ov War Productions would be releasing a second EP from them, this new one a 20-minute affair named Enlightened Misanthropy.

Now you’ll have a chance to form your own impressions about it through our full stream of these five new tracks in advance of the EP’s release tomorrow — though of course we have some impressions of our own to share first. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 20): PSYCHONAUT, YAROSTAN, FLUISTERAARS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  2 Responses »
Jan 292026
 

(written by Islander)

We’re getting very close to the end of this list. There’s today, there’s tomorrow, and that’s it. With so little time left I’ve been repeatedly scanning through my giant list of song possibilities and just grabbing things that jump out at me from memory — but also still listening to things recommended by others that I’ve never heard before.

That process resulted in choosing the three songs below. There’s not a straight through-line connecting all three, but I do think the first two, one of which is a song I’d never heard before, fit together pretty well. Continue reading »

THIS IS NOT THE FINAL THING YOU’LL READ ABOUT LAST YEAR (meta lists, sub-radar sounds, immaculate conceptions, and a few records of critical acclaim)

 Album Reviews, LISTMANIA 2025  No Responses »
Jan 292026
 

(Our South African contributor Vizzah Harri decided to follow up our 2025 LISTMANIA series with a monumental listmania of his own, which includes various list-assembling calculations and his abundantly illustrated thoughts about three groups of albums he chose to highlight in his own inimitable fashion, respectively anchored in each section by discursive reviews of releases by Demonic Death Judge, Melpomene, and Imperial Triumphant.)

Hi, it’s your non-resident alien. Can someone please remind us of what the time is, last year is over already? Well, I’ve spent too much time as my second favorite spirit animal, the ostrich. You know, sticking my head in the sand and grubbing around for shiny rocks cos the job market is absolutely grade A dogshit.

Yes, year-end mania is over. The train has left the station and all that’s left are the weeds creeping up the platform and the announcement notice is stuck on loop. So, while we’re waiting for that next train and everyone else is racing ahead into the future, here are some uselessly vital statistix for those of us who aren’t quite ready for the new year. NCS doesn’t have a single authoritative take like other ‘happy camper’ sites that deal in the underground, though the Listmania roundup does a good job of covering a lot of bases.

I’m not a threat to anyone’s job dragging cells, I do however excel at stupidly focusing on mindless chores. Before we get into some things from last year that are still worth your time, a quick diversion into; what a meta list of readers’ lists would produce and what a meta list of NCS lists would produce. I tried compiling a meta list of the mind-numbing data of all the other lists including these, but it ended up being futile. There already is a To the Teeth list of lists, which is careful to account for bias. I’m not a data scientist and I’m biased as fvck, I was however able to gather that across the board, there are two albums that got way more votes on way more sites than any others. Therefore a meta meta list, in the Greek sense, of all the motherfuckin lists weighted and scaled together (the link is to Brazilian avant-jazz band Metá Metá’s pandemic album MetaL MetaL) would mean 2025’s Absolute Elsewheres are: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 19): YELLOW EYES, TRIVAX, TEITANBLOOD

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Jan 282026
 

(written by Islander)

As I’ve said before, this list isn’t intended to honor complete records like most year-end lists. Instead, it focuses on songs that got stuck in my head (and the heads of other listeners), songs which might be, but often are not, from widely heralded records.

Yet sometimes I’ve been moved by the need to honor great albums in this list, and that desire was a factor in today’s three choices. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ZARAZA — “THE YEARNING MOUTH OF THE FOREST”

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Jan 282026
 

(written by Islander)

Today we help introduce people to a new raw black metal band, a two-piece outfit named Zaraza born from the hills of Appalachia and the decayed streets of the Rust Belt. These two, Azara and Mictlantecuhtli, introduce their their music with these words: “Rising from holler and rust, gnawing at the marrow of time, a blasphemy against life and cosmos, summoning shadows that devour memory and light” — or more succinctly as “Appalachian darkness, Rust Belt desecration”.

In the coming spring Zaraza will release a debut EP named …And You Will Remember This Winter through So Below Productions, and what we have for you today is a video premiere of its first single, “The Yearning Mouth of the Forest“, which includes a guest vocal appearance by Mor Grish of Ofstingan/Burial Oath. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SPLENDIDULA — “KILTE”

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Jan 282026
 

(written by Islander)

On April 3rd Argonauta Records will release a new album by the Belgian band Splendidula, whose music blends atmospheric black metal and suffocating doom. The album’s title, Absentia, is a fitting one because the music’s emotional core lies in the tragic absence of loved ones, including the sudden loss of bassist Peter Chromiak in 2022.

In December of last year we premiered a video for the Splendidula single “Echoes of Quiet Remain“, which included a guest vocal appearance by Aaron Stainthorpe, and today we’re premiering another Absentia single and video in advance of the song’s official release on January 30th. The name of this one is “Kilte“, and to introduce it we begin with the comments of Splendidula vocalist Kristien: Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: GUYOĐ / LOW / NIGHTMARER

 SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 282026
 

(Andy Synn recommends you carve out some time in your schedule to check out these 3 EPs)

Last year, after several years of promising – but, ultimately failing to deliver on those promises – I actually managed to listen to (significantly) more EPs than the year(s) prior.

So in 2026 I’m going to try and continue that trend – or, at the very least, try to stay about on a par with last year’s numbers – beginning with this terrifying triptych of deathly delights from Guyođ (AUT), Low (NL), and Nightmarer (US/DE).

Continue reading »

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