AN NCS PREMIERE: DISADAPTIVE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 192022
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Sergey Naydenov from the Russian old school death metal band Disadaptive, whose new album Apocryphal was released just last month by Svanrenne Music.) 

Here we have an old school death metal act from Russia – Disadaptive. It’s just two men – Sergey Naydenov (guitars, bass) and Dmitry Sokolov (vocals). The band’s story is brief yet the guys demonstrate some determination regarding their favorite genre, as they have recorded two EPs and a full-length album in the course of two years.

That album, entitled Apocryphal, was released during early September by Svanrenne Music and song names like “Mentor from Beyond the Grave”, “Crafted Abomination”, and “No Light from God” will give you a hint regarding the nature of their message. Also you’ll find an Autopsy cover here, and Disadaptive’s inspiration is clearer and sharper than a surgeon’s scalpel.

Sergey answered a few questions from our side and revealed some views on the local death metal scene. Continue reading »

IN MY DARKEST HOUR: CAVERNOUS GATE / DAEMOGOG / GEVURAH

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 182022
 

(Andy Synn presents a triptych of terrifying – and terrific – recent releases)

I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve always found dark music to be a great comfort during dark times.

And, since I am going through a bit of a dark patch myself right now I thought it’d be a good time to share some of the music which is helping me through it.

Who knows, you might just discover your new favourite band/album!

Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: BUNKER 66 AND LUCIFUGE — “OF LUST AND NIGHT”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 182022
 

It’s our fiendish pleasure today to present the premiere stream of a new split mini-album by the Italy’s Bunker 66 and Germany’s Lucifuge. Aptly etitled Of Night and Lust, it combines three exclusive tracks by each band, and it will be discharged on October 21st via Dying Victims Productions.

The press materials for the split brand it as “24 minutes of ancient speed metal sleaze and metalpunk ghoulishness”, and that’s true, but there’s a lot more going on here, the kind of music that will get heads spinning as well as hammering. Feral lust does indeed live in the music, but there’s hellish magic as well, and fiery glory. And like most excellent splits, the music of the two bands shares a kindred spirit, but with differences that contrast with, as well as complement, each other. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GGU:LL — “EX EST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 182022
 

Through their forthcoming second album the Dutch band Ggu:ll prove themselves absolute masters of lightlessness. They named the album Ex Est as a reference to the state after being, and “the realization that all that is, will someday not be”, and that “all is doomed to end up as a ruin of itself”. It poses the question whether there is a meaning in existence despite the realization that life itself is meaningless.

With such a daunting and borderline-nihilist conception at the core of Ex Est, it is no wonder that the music is so pitch-black and so harrowing. From the funereal bell-like clanging that begins the opening track “Raupe”, straight through to the final shattering wails of pain in “Voertuig der verlorenen”, Ggu:ll render a nightmare that feels all too real. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LEPER COLONY — “THE SURGICAL UNDEADVORS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 172022
 

Although a new band, Leper Colony predictably will get a lot of attention, and not just because of the macabre cover art that Alex Tartsus rendered for their self-titled debut album in such hellish tones, or the top-shelf logo that Dipayan Das made for them.

There’s also the fact that the band’s lineup consists of some exalted names in the annals of death metal — vocalist Marc Grewe (Morgoth) and guitarist/bassist Rogga Johansson (Paganizer). And although those two names may get the most attention, drummer Jon Skäre is a formidable presence as well, as one look at his M-A resume demonstrates.

They’ve also got a clever way with words — witness the name of the song we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s release by Transcending Obscurity Records: “The Surgical Undeadvors“. Continue reading »

PATINA OF TIME: AN INTERVIEW WITH CARA NEIR

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 172022
 

(Today we present an extensive article by Rob Tamplin that’s part interview with Garry Brents of Cara Neir and Gonemage, and part essay on the fantasy worlds that have taken shape through those projects and the techniques used to bring them to life, along with some meditations on the pluses and minuses of nostalgia.)

If I was reluctant to say Cara Neir is the most exciting band in the US metal underground, it’s only because that would mean putting them in a box. Hell, even the word “band” seems like a loose fit, as there is a communal element to the Texas duo absent from most acts.

On Phantasmal, Garry Brents and Chris Francis’s eighth album together, Cara Neir debut five characters submitted by fans via their Bandcamp page. Over the course of the album, the duo encounters these characters on their quest through a horrifying alternate dimension.

See, Phantasmal is a concept album – just like Tommy or Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds. Although it’s about as far from a pompous rock opera as it’s possible to get. The music, which broadly ranges from noise-rock to electronic powerviolence, is glazed with a frosting of rudimentary 8-bit synths, the kind you last heard when you were playing Castlevania at the arcade in your matching acid-wash denim two-piece, cramming the Dungeon Master’s Guide while blasting Master of Puppets on your Walkman. Which could have been today. It’s 2022, you could be doing some, or all, of those things while reading this. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KANONENFIEBER, SKÁLA

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Oct 162022
 

Have you had your daily dose of whining and excuse-making? If not, I can remedy that, free of charge.

I went to a baseball playoff game in Seattle last night, except it unexpectedly turned into two games in one, lasting 18 innings. Arriving at the ballpark at 11:30 a.m., my spouse and I left at 7:30 p.m., hungry and tired and not feeling great about the 1-0 loss our team ultimately suffered. So we stayed in Seattle to eat and drink, and after a dreary ferry trip we didn’t make it back to the NCS island HQ until late.

This morning, which started late, I spent a lot more time going through about 400 previously un-read e-mails lodged in the NCS in-box than I did listening to anything. But although the day is now rapidly getting away from me, and my day job is now intruding, I wanted to do something so I wouldn’t pass through yet another Sunday with no Shades of Black. It’s not a lot, obviously, and I made the choices hurriedly (before getting immersed in historical research), but I think you’ll still be well-pleased, even if not thoroughly sated. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: FELL RUIN, VÆGTLØS, UDÅNDE, VUARA, WYRMWOODS, BURLA22

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 152022
 


“Metatron’s Cube” by Talon Abraxas

It’s been another very busy week for the release of new songs and videos, and leaves me with a typically daunting task of trying to pick some to recommend, made even more daunting by the fact that the old fucking day job didn’t allow me to compile a round-up earlier this week. To make the task a bit easier, I decided not to write about new songs and videos from the following bands, because they’re all fairly well-known, but I do really like all of what you’ll find via the links below.

DEFLESHED (Sweden)

DJEVEL (Norway)

EXHUMED (U.S.)

GOATWHORE (U.S.)

WOODS OF DESOLATION (Australia)

As for what I did choose to write about today… Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ASHEN HORDE — “THE PHYSICIAN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 142022
 

For those who might be encountering Ashen Horde for the first time or just need a reminder, it began as the solo project of Los Angeles-based musician Trevor Portz. Working alone, he released a handful of EPs and two albums starting in 2013. Beginning with The Alchemist, a 2017 EP, he joined forces with vocalist Stevie Boiser, known for his work with such tech-death heavyweights as Vale of Pnath, Inferi, and Equipoise, and both were in harness again for their third album, 2019’s Fallen Cathedrals.

There is now a fourth album headed our way via Transcending Obscurity Records. Entitled Antimony, it features an expanded Ashen Horde line-up that now includes drummer extraordinaire Robin Stone (Norse) and fleet-fingered bassist Igor (from Abhoria and NightWraith).

Over the course of all the releases mentioned above, Ashen Horde have demonstrated an adventurous spirit, with an ever-evolving amalgam of genre influences and no real interest in boxing themselves in. Take, for example, the absolutely exhilarating (and riotously deranged) song from Antimony that we’re premiering today along with a nightmarish video. Moving at a near-relentless pace, “The Physician” blends together (at puree speeds) technical death metal, black metal, and flares of prog, with breathtaking results. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PRÉSAGES – “HIÉROPHANIE / PLEURE – LIVE IN THE STUDIO”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 142022
 

(With an introduction by Andy Synn, today we premiere a video of the Montreal band Présages performing the final two tracks on their 2021 debut album Pleurs.)

The debut album from Présages was one of last year’s hidden gems (and you can read more about it here).

By amalgamating elements of Death, Doom, and Post-Metal — aided and abetted by an almost Meshuggah-sized guitar tone — the eight tracks which made up Pleurs left a serious (and seriously heavy) impression on yours truly, and I’m pretty sure at least some of our readers had the same reaction.

It wasn’t just that the Canadian quartet were capable of conjuring such a stunningly dense, almost physically palpable, sense of sheer sonic mass with their music though, it was their ability to pair this level of riff-focussed (and, at key moments, blast-driven) intensity with an equally massive and weighty sense of atmosphere, as well as some subtle, mood-enhancing electronic elements, which helped them stand out from the crowd.

But you don’t have to take my word for it, as the band have asked us to host a “live in the studio” performance of the album’s climactic double-act – “Hiérophanie” and “Pleure” – which together represent the very best that Présages have to offer, and positions them as potential future leaders of the burgeoning “Atmospheric Death Metal” movement, alongside similarly awesome artists like Barús, Nightmarer, and Nero Di Marte. Continue reading »

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