NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OBSCURA QALMA — “OPHIDIAN ENTHRONEMENT”

Jan 232024

After a break of nearly 20 days in our daily publishing of premieres due to this writer’s submergence in the awful pits of his day job, we mark our return to the sharing of new music in truly spectacular fashion, with a jaw-dropping sonic spectacle from a forthcoming EP by the Venetian blackened death metal band Obscura Qalma.

From the beginning, Obscura Qalma have done nothing by half measures. If it is worth doing, they seem to think, it is worth doing in ways a listener can’t possibly overlook, on scales that dwarf the daily scrabbling of human ants and with the kind of power that overwhelms. Their lyrical themes have been equally far from the mundane.

Some might suspect that what you’ve just read is linguistic hyperbole, especially if you haven’t yet encountered this band’s heavily orchestrated amalgam of black/death, but the song we’re presenting today — “Ophidian Enthronement” — should banish any such doubts (along with any sluggishness that might be afflicting your minds). Continue reading »

COGNIZANCE – PHANTAZEIN

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 222024

(DGR reviews the new album from Cognizance, out 26 January on Willowtip Records)

It wasn’t too long ago we were joking about how Cognizance were one of the better bands when it comes to the “riff-avalanche” style of album – the type of disc that generally picks one particular tempo and sticks to it, leaving the band room to just rattle off part-after-part-after-part atop the listener until, by the end of it, they’ve basically been buried underneath a pile of stuff.

It’s a difficult balance to strike because you can easily get lost in your own creativity and create big, overwhelming works that, by their very nature, are hard to maintain any interest in since everything is so ephemeral and fleeting.

And while Cognizance have remained a sleek and ultra-precise machine for over a decade since the release of their first full length – after having subsisted on a series of singles and EPs – they’ve also slowly hammered and forged their sound into something as fiercely creative and memorably groove-ridden as it is terrifyingly technically-proficient.

Their previous album, Upheaval, picked up where Malignant Dominion left off, and I’ll give you three guesses as to where Phantazein picks up as a starting point a little under two and a half years later.

LISTMANIA 2023: TO THE TEETH’S “LIST OF LISTS”

LISTMANIA 2023 13 Responses »

Jan 202024

We are basically finished with our 2023 Listmania series, having concluded with DGR‘s five-part series of lists last week.

What’s still missing is our annual “wrap up” post, which provides links to every 2023 list we posted from our staff writers and other contributors and guests.

That wrap-up has been delayed due to Islander’s temporary absence, but the delay allowed us to discover another list that has found its way into our Listmania series in previous years.

This particular list is a mathematically calculated “List of Lists” that amalgamates lists from a variety of online zines in order to create a Top 50 list. Continue reading »

INFANT ISLAND – OBSIDIAN WREATH

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Jan 192024

(Andy Synn takes a trip to Infant Island on their new album, Obsidian Wreath)

What’s in a name, they say?

Well, when it comes to genre-names the answer can be… quite a lot, as it happens.

Case in point, depending on what tags I apply to Obsidian Wreath – call it “Screamo”, call it “Blackgaze”, call it “Post-Metal” – your reactions, and your expectations, might be wildly different.

The truth, of course, is that it’s actually a little bit of all these things, equally indebted to the likes of Pg. 99 and Envy as it is latter-day Panopticon and early Deafheaven, with the end result being… well, you’ll just have to read on to find out, won’t you?

VITRIOL – SUFFER & BECOME

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Jan 182024

(DGR sets out to discover what Vitriol have become on their second album, out next week)

It’s been four years and change since the release of Vitriol‘s stunning full length To Bathe From The Throat Of Cowardice and, save for an EP of re-done/re-approached earlier material from an embryonic form of the band released during the plague years, we haven’t really heard much from them since.

And while there have been other groups in the meantime that have attempted (and sometimes succeeded) to play at the same relentless firestorm level, what makes Vitriol in particular work is the perceived integrity and passion in their music.

You get a sense listening to them that they mean every word that they say and will only stop when whichever vocalist is on the mic runs out of a) space for words or b) breath to utter said words.

But constantly maintaining that level of intensity will, inevitably, burn anybody out… which brings us firmly back around to Vitriol‘s second full length release, because it’s not humanly feasible for a group to exist at that level of intensity all over again… is it?

SANTACREU – CANÇONS D’AMOR, DOL I ENYORANÇA

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 172024

(Andy Synn has fallen in love with Santacreu‘s recently-released debut album, and hopes you will too)

While we’re still in a slightly odd place here at NCS, what with Islander still being held hostage (by his day job), I’d say that DGR and I have managed to keep the lights on and the content flowing pretty well so far.

And while he’s got his eyes and ears attuned to a few albums coming out next week, I’m looking the other way and highlighting a few albums we missed last week that I think deserve your attention.

Case in point, Cançons d’Amor, Dol i Enyorança is the debut album from cinematic Spanish Post-Metal collective Santacreu, and quite possibly (nay, probably) the first (or, at least, one of the first) albums we’ve ever reviewed sung (and I do mean sung) entirely in Catalan.

It’s a moving, multi-faceted and frequently mesmerising piece of work, from start to finish, and one which should find a lot of favour amongst the more atmospherically and/or melodically inclined of our readers.

LORD DYING: “CLANDESTINE TRANSCENDENCE”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 172024

(Didrik Mešiček reviews of the new album by Lord Dying ahead of its January 19 release)

The utter nonsense of “new year, new me” is surprisingly somewhat true for me this year as I’m delving into some sludge metal, a subgenre I’ve not really followed much before.

I wasn’t aware of Lord Dying before they had a show here, in Ljubljana, and I was told they were very impressive live and that I should check them out.

It turns out that was a good suggestion and I’m now not at all bitter about missing them. Absolutely not. Continue reading »

EXOCRINE – LEGEND

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 162024

(DGR takes on the upcoming new album from Exocrine, out 26 January)

The idea that Exocrine are on their sixth full length release with Legend is one that is mildly eye-popping.

The French Tech Death group have done extremely well for themselves with a very specific formula – one whose sheer violence and velocity is akin to lighting a pallet of Piccolo Pete fireworks all at once and just letting it screech until the neighbors call the cops – that they’ve re-forged and refined time and time again, album after album, but which is still recognizably “them”.

Credit must be given as well to the band for the fact that even as the Tech Death arms race has gone nuclear (and beyond) they’ve always tried to be something more than just a bunch of relentless speed-merchants from the massive slab of headbanging groove which underpinned Molten Giant to their willingness to be completely insane on discs like Maelstrom and The Hybrid Suns, as and when the need arises.

Well, apparently those last two albums weren’t quite big enough to contain all of the band’s insane intensity, and so we have Legend.

ὉΠΛΊΤΗΣ – ΠΑΡΑΜΑΙΝΟΜΈΝΗ

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jan 152024

(Andy Synn reviews the recently-released new album from mysterious one-man army Ὁπλίτης)

It is, quite frankly, somewhat astonishing how productive Liu Zhenyang, aka Ὁπλίτης, has been since the release of their debut EP in the closing days of 2021.

What’s even more astonishing is that, despite its prolific nature, the quality of their output has never wavered over the course of the subsequent three albums (some might say they’ve only gotten better, in fact).

Each time a new record rears its head part of me expects to be disappointed – surely they can’t maintain this consistent a level of quality, at this rapid a pace, forever – and each time I’m happy to be proven wrong.

And now, barely a year on from the release of their very first full-length, Ὁπλίτης may have already locked down a place on my End of The Year list with their fourth album, Παραμαινομένη.

BIZARRE / DEMO-ESQUE BLACK METAL OF 2024: SO FAR, SO GOOD, SO WHAT?

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 142024

(Axel Stormbreaker returns… with his list of top obscurities released so far in the current year)

2024 has been a fun year so far. So much so that I’m giving you a short list of random goodies I’ve been enjoying. Since most selections here have only been released digitally, better mark my words, dear tape labels, ‘cos untold riches lie before you. You’ll be earning so much cash you won’t ever know how to spend it.

I’m pretty sure, now that I wrote this, that every band on my list gets filthy rich beyond their wildest imagination. Because everyone is hanging on my lips. I’m truly that amazing.

P.S.: Expect to read a lot of nonsense that may hopefully make a whole lot of sense. It’s the only serious thing about this prologue, anyway. Continue reading »

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