AN NCS INTERVIEW: VORGA

 Interviews  1 Response »
May 032024
 

(Today we present an excellent interview conducted by Daniel Barkasi with guitarist and composer Atlas from the German black metal band Vorga, whose new album is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.)

The cosmic side of black metal is a fascinating one, boasting a wide range of approaches and sounds – from the horrifying and disturbing to the eclectic and bombastic. Emerging purveyors from deep, dark reaches of space, Vorga has metastasized an energy-laden, yet cuttingly furious approach. If a soundtrack to being sucked violently into a black hole has any appeal, their latest Beyond the Palest Star should be on your list.

Said new full-length is an advancement on the acclaimed Striving Toward Oblivion, which was a sonic boom of pacey, vivacious black metal that was always traveling at Warp speed. Beyond the Palest Star achieves a balanced output; plenty of speed to burn, while also allowing a wider array of influences to take hold, forming a deeper and more complex offering.

We managed to track down guitarist Atlas to speak in-depth about the new record, a film-quality video the band released, the sci-fi and the black metal scene, as well as the impacts of AI and streaming on the artist and the world at large. Prepare to traverse into the void with us. After all – “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Yeah, we went there. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARALLU — “EMPIRE OF SALT”

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May 032024
 

Two years ago the long-running Israeli black metal band Arallu, whose roots go back to the late ’90s, released their latest album under the imposing title Death Covenant. And the music is also imposing — ferocious, heavy, often vast and towering — but it’s also complex, dynamic, and exotic (for want of a better word) in its seamless incorporation of Middle Eastern folk melody and instrumentation.

It’s a striking example of how a style of extreme music born in the cold regions of northern Europe can be reconfigured and reborn to suit the terrain and traditions of a dramatically different world. And its changing musical manifestations and elaborate songcraft make it an album that rewards careful and extended listening in addition to firing up the blood and casting spells on a first spin, the kind of record that reveals new discoveries with each journey through its 10 songs.

One of this writer’s favorite songs on Death Covenant is the penultimate track, “Empire of Salt“, and so it’s a real pleasure to host the premiere of Arallu‘s transfixing video for that song today — especially since we’re doing it on a Bandcamp Friday, a good day to pick up records like Death Covenant. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GAEREA, FUMING MOUTH, AKLASH, HYPERDONTIA, OMNIVORTEX, DYSRHYTHMIA, ÖXXÖ XÖÖX, PRIMAEVUS, PERCHTA, DEMERSAL, DOWNCROSS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 022024
 

Tomorrow is another Bandcamp Friday, and I had enough time to get ahead of the game today with a few selections that might help drain your bank account tomorrow. Actually, it’s more than a few — new singles and videos from 11 bands, spanning a very broad spectrum of music.

GAEREA (Portugal)

We begin with an intense new stand-alone single from Gaerea. As the band explain, “‘World Ablaze‘ tells the story of a man who has lived all his life inside a cage. He knows that one day he will be set free and experience the world with its true colors. Unfortunately, he also knows that day will be his last hours alive. It’s a song about desire, hope and freedom. A dance between life and death, hope and despair”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CADAVEROUS CONDITION — “THEY CAME FROM THE HILLS”

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May 022024
 

The Austrian extreme metal band Cadaverous Condition started in the early ’90s (their first demos were released in 1990-’92), and since then their discography has swelled significantly, though more than a dozen years have passed since their last album (Burn Brightly Alone), if one doesn’t count an album-length collaboration they did with Herr Lounge Corps in 2018.

Despite their significant number of releases, this seems to be our site’s first encounter with them. The musical histories we’ve been provided are intriguing, to say the least. We’re told that their path has taken “many twists and weird turns, incorporating neofolk (‘death folk’) and collaborating with a wide range of artists creating a weird yet coherent body of work”.

It’s a crooked path that reportedly made them the first death metal band to cover The Sisters Of Mercy and Death In June and included their own interpretations of songs by The Decemberists and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and collaborations with such acts as Nurse With Wound, Thighpaulsandra, Tobias Nathaniel (The Black Heart Procession), and the afore-mentioned Herr Lounge Corps.

They also did an art project with Bill Drummond (The KLF) involving a specially made CD and sending a message in a bottle from the shores of Iceland.

Having read all that, we really had almost no idea what to expect from their new album Never Arrive, Never Return, which is set for a June 14 release via The Circle Music. What we found is something fascinating, something clearly rooted in death metal but with tendrils that taste of other terrains. As a sign of what we found, today we’re premiering a lyric video for the new album’s chilling but powerfully captivating opening song, “They Came From the Hills“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): NAXEN – DESCENDING INTO A DEEPER DARKNESS

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
May 022024
 

(Andy Synn descends into the depths of the new album from Germany’s Naxen, out tomorrow)

As I’ve said before, the Black Metal scene today – in all its myriad forms – is in such rude health that it seems like you can’t go more than a day without stumbling over a fantastic new artist or album to fall in love with.

The downside of this, however, is that with so much quality material on offer – from the rawest to the proggiest, and everything in between – it’s getting harder and harder for bands to stand out and make themselves heard.

But it’s clear that Naxen have been hard at work themselves over the last few years, carving out their own particular niche – somewhere between the hypnotic intensity of Mgła, the infectious energy of Woe, and the gloomy despondency of Ultha – where they can plant their seeds, nurture them, and watch them grow.

And the fruit of their labours – which we have the distinct pleasure of premiering for you all today – is their new album, Descending Into a Deeper Darkness.

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: UNEARTHLY RITES

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May 012024
 


Photo by Lassi Kojola

(In two days from now Prosthetic Records will release the politically charged debut album by the Finnish death metal band Unearthly Rites, and to help pave the way we present Comrade Aleks‘ very interesting interview with vocalist Sisli and guitarist Santtu.)

Here’s a quite fresh and dirty entity from very North of Finland. Unearthly Rites was formed back in 2020, and since then they released only a self-titled EP in 2021… until now.

The lineup in Unearthly Rites includes members from the bands Dome Runner, Fosforos, Frogskin, Fuck-Ushima, Bolt Cross, Praise, etc, so this company of two ladies and three gentlemen seem to be quite busy with different sorts of underground activities. Yes, right, Unearthly Rites is a blackened death metal band, and one of the women is the person who roars in their full-length album Ecdysis.

Prosthetic Records are ready to release Ecdysis on May 3rd, so here we are to support this band with their absolutely crushing sound, a dedicated approach, and an attitude worthy of respect. Sisli (vocals) and Santtu (guitars) provided us quite an in-depth and interesting interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SELVANS — “IL CAPRO INFUOCATO”

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May 012024
 

The Italian artist Selvans probably needs no introduction to those who regularly visit our site, but for those encountering Selvans for the first time today, we’ll share a few words from Selvans‘ label Avantgarde Music:

The singer and keyboardist Selvans, plays black/heavy metal with prog-rock influences. Lyrics and concept are inspired by Italian folk-horror tales and imagery. After two full length albums, Lupercalia (2016, Avantgarde Music) and Faunalia (2018, Avantgarde Music) in 2021 he released The Dark Italian Art EP, an artistic manifesto that sees the team-up with the horror writer Luigi Musolino.

We can also share that Selvans will be following The Dark Italian Art with a new album. Though a release date hasn’t yet been announced, we’ve all been given a preview of what it will bring through Selvans‘ recent release of a single named “Il Capro Infuocato“. To help spread the word further, today we’re presenting a lyric video for the song. Continue reading »

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 »

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