AN NCS INTERVIEW: TRIVAX

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 232023
 

photo by Ester Segarra

(Last week we reviewed the new album by Iran-born, UK-based Trivax (recently released by Cult Never Dies), and today we follow that with a wide-ranging interview by Comrade Aleks of the band’s founder Shayan S.)

Trivax was started in April 2009 in Iran by Shayan S. (guitars, vocals) who moved to Birmingham in 2011 and reformed the band with a new lineup there. The first one who joined Shayan back then was the drummer Matthew Croton, as the current bass-player Sully get involved in Trivax in 2018.

While the first album SIN (2016) didn’t have a big impact, it seems that the new full-length blackened death metal manifest Eloah Burns Out will have it. Trivax came fully armed. Their new video “Azrael” is striking and kind of shocking; their performance at the Cosmic Void festival in London got its praise too; and Eloah Burns Out itself, released by Cult Never Dies on September 29th, promises to be one of most authentic extreme albums of 2023.

Let’s take a look at the modern world’s lunacy and satanic magic through the Trivax prism together with Shayan. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KRIEG, DREAM UNENDING, WORM

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Oct 222023
 


Krieg photo by Kassandra Carmona

In a departure from what I usually do for these columns I decided not to string together a bunch of singles from forthcoming records, but instead to write about two albums, one of them a split.

Both of them are already out, so what’s the point of writing about albums you can already hear for yourselves? You might ask that question about almost everything with my name on it, because I almost never scribble review-ish words without including the music streams. Same goes for a lot of the other scribblers around here.

The idea is that the words might induce some people to check out music they weren’t aware of, or decided to pass by. I hope that will happen today. Other motivations: Writing voluntarily can be fun, even when it’s hard. And it’s just good manners to thank someone for making music that resonates in the soul or the muscles or the mush between the ears.

So, with thanks to Krieg, Dream Unending, and Worm, here we go. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: KANONENFIEBER, INFERI, SÂVER, HARMAGEDON, BLEMISH, HERZOG, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT

 Album Reviews, Metal News, Movie Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 212023
 

It’s that time of year again, when my wife and I argue about whether to get tooth-rotting treats for potential visitors on Halloween night. Her argument: We haven’t seen a trick-or-treater at our house in 20 years. My argument: But it could happen, and wouldn’t we be embarrassed having to offer something like licking peanut butter from a spoon?

Rather than let the arguments drag on I used to buy tooth-rotters on the sly and hide them, just in case. But she’d always find them and then I’d catch hell for being a moron. I guess I’ll just keep the spoon and peanut butter handy. Maybe two spoons so I can eat some first to prove it’s not poisoned.

Well, enough about familial contention. Here’s some contentious music for your Saturday. Continue reading »

CANNIBAL CORPSE: “CHAOS HORRIFIC”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 202023
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the new Cannibal Corpse album, which is out now on Metal Blade Records.)

In all the decade-plus I’ve been writing for this site – try not to think about that too much – and metal in general, I don’t think I’ve ever taken the chance to write about a Cannibal Corpse album. With a career that has also spanned multiple decades and with a fair bit of cultural cachet to their name outside of heavy metal in general, Cannibal Corpse were long a cultural pillar before I’d even considered pursuing this as a way to distract from the outside world.

You don’t reach a point like that without having the talent to back it up though, because even if Cannibal Corpse had decided to rest on their laurels after their first few releases, you’d be hard pressed to say whether or not they’d still be as big now. The thing with Cannibal Corpse is that although they’ve been known mostly for gore-soaked lyrics, horrific artwork, and movie cameos, is the band are shockingly consistent with their output. They found a core blueprint that worked for them ages ago and have stuck close to it, guaranteeing an overall discography that is surprisingly solid – even if the actual surprises might come further and further apart nowadays. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REVULSED — “BEYOND THE DEPTHS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 202023
 

It’s been a long pause since the Australian death metal band Revulsed released their slaughtering debut album (Infernal Atrocity) in 2015. The band hasn’t been completely silent since then. A live album emerged in 2017, along with a scattering of cover songs (digitally compiled in 2019) featuring Revulsed‘s take on tracks by Cannibal Corpse, Testament, Death, and Gorguts.

But at long last Revulsed are now returning with another album or original music, this one entitled Cerebral Contamination, and Everlasting Spew Records will be releasing it on December 15th. To help pave the way, today we’re bringing you a track from the new album named “Beyond The Depths Of The Subconscious“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EMBRACE YOUR PUNISHMENT — “OPPRESSION”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 202023
 

Hailing from Valenciennes, France, Embrace Your Punishment have been smashing bones and ruining minds since 2009, compiling a discography that includes a debut EP and two albums (2014’s Honor Before Glory and 2019’s Nameless King). Along the way they’ve wrecked lots of venues from the stage too. And now they’ve got a third album teed up for release by Lacerated Enemy Records on December 1st.

The name of the new album is Made of Stone, and that name is a good preview of the music, which is massive, mauling, and made to crush skulls and spines with no mercy and no remorse. You really might as well embrace your punishment, because this record leaves you no choice.

You want proof? Listen to the song we’re premiering today, the well-named “Oppression“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RITUAL CLEARING — “PENITENCE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 192023
 

“Cold depravity”, “raw hideousness”, “hypnotic, harrowing splendor”, “an undeniable sense of dread… laced with a resigned melancholia”. Those are among the descriptions offered in the PR materials accompanying Penitence, the debut album from Connecticut-based Ritual Clearing that’s now set for release by Eternal Death on November 17th.

Can we improve upon those vivid words? Probably not, but that won’t stop us from trying, and the occasion for our strenuous efforts is the title track from the new album that we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BACTERIAL HUSK — “FLAYED BY ANOMALIES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 192023
 

Stupid us, until recently we’ve slept on the Boston-based death metal band Bacterial Husk. Based on what we’re hearing from their forthcoming debut album Anthropogenic Ruin, that was probably a grievous error, because the album is a mind-boggling hellraiser.

It’s not the band’s first effort, having been preceded by a 2016 EP named Agnosia of Omens and the 2018 single “Mystics of Transmutation“, and the band’s members have been involved in other past and current projects, including Boston thrashers Razormaze and the brutal death metal of Scattered Remnants.

But in some ways Anthropogenic Ruin sounds like a very different beast than what’s come before — both more technically spectacular, more fiendishly berserk, maybe more vicious, and possibly even more bone-breaking, while changing moods almost as fast as the band shift among tempos and riffs.

We’ve got a prime example of what we’re trying to describe in today’s premiere of the song “Flayed By Anomalies“. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: TIDES OF SULFUR / TORPOR / TRIVAX

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 192023
 

(Andy Synn presents another collection of British artists/albums he thinks you should check out)

Good afternoon kids (and kids of all ages).

Are you ready to learn?

Well, today’s edition of the “Best of British” is brought to you by the letter “T” and the number “3”.

So shut up and start paying attention. There will be a test.

Continue reading »

STRIGOI: “BATHED IN A BLACK SUN”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 192023
 

(Strigoi‘s new EP is set for release by Season of Mist on November 3rd, and so it’s a good time for DGR to share his thoughts about it — which he does here.)

The trend in recent years of bands collecting all of the material that did not make it into an album’s main sequence and releasing it on an EP later is one that I’ve particularly enjoyed. There’s a variety of reasons why songs won’t make the main cut, whether it be that the band felt they didn’t quite fit, or they were set aside for various global demands – some markets often requiring extra songs, for instance – or others were jammed onto the end of an album for deluxe editions released alongside the regular albums.

Whatever the reason may be, in recent years you’ve stood a pretty good shot of those songs being just as good as the ones on the main album, so when a band is later able to compile those into an EP of some sort, then the purchase is near guaranteed.

Strigoi are the latest to hop on that particular bus with their new collection of Bathed In A Black Sun, comprising five songs that didn’t make it onto the crawling doom of Viscera last year, and now about to be released into the wild. Continue reading »

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