NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BELLICISTE AND ÚIR

Jul 282025

(written by Islander)

This coming Friday (August 1st) two excellent black metal bands, Belliciste and Úir, will release an album-length split on cassette tape (and digitally). It includes four songs from Belliciste, three from Úir, and one song that is a collaboration between the two bands. Today we’re very happy to share a full stream of all the songs.

Further commentary is likely unnecessary, but of course you’re going to get it anyway. This is an hour-long compendium of music, and because most days for most people are hurried and harried, explaining why it would be worthwhile to pause for this, from its beginning to its end, may be useful. Beyond that, the commentary functions as an expression of thanks to these musicians for enriching our hurried and harried days with something this superb. Continue reading »

ARKHAAIK – UIHTIS

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Jul 282025

(Andy Synn rejoins the hunt with the new album from Arkhaaik)

One of the things we sometimes discuss amongst ourselves, here in the dark, dank depths of NCS Castle, is what the primary, prevailing “trend” of each year is.

And one thing I’ve noticed over the last seven-ish months is that – rather than being a straight up “Black Metal year” or a “Death Metal year” (or even a “Hardcore year”) – 2025 looks set to be a year defined more by the more unorthodox and unusual expressions from across the genre spectrum.

In some ways this, of course, makes it hard to identify a singular commonality which defines “the year in Metal” (so far, anyway)… but, from a different perspective, you might just say that this flexing and blurring of fluid genre boundaries is exactly what ties so many of the biggest and best albums of 2025.

And now we have this uniquely esoteric and ritualistically hypnotic hybrid of “blackened” Doom and deathly gloom courtesy of Switzerland’s Arkhaaik.

SHADES OF BLACK: HASARD, ETHEREAL WOUND, LOWERED HEAD, ANGE DE LA MORT, NEXION, ONDFØDT

SHADES OF BLACK No Responses »

Jul 272025

(written by Islander)

This week’s column devoted to blackened sounds includes six individual songs, one each from five forthcoming albums plus a compelling new video. There’s another compelling video in the group too. To explain the choices: I fell down a rabbit hole that led to some very dissonant and disconcerting (and frequently eye-popping) tracks, one after another. And then I finally came across a song that pulled away from that; it’s the one at the end.

I had ambitions to write complete reviews of some of these forthcoming albums, i.e., to talk about songs you can’t hear yet, but personal events conspired to prevent me from doing all the listening and thinking that would have required. I may or may not be able to do that later, and so (as usual) I think it’s better to do what I’m able to do now to help spread the word rather than wait and wind up doing nothing. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ESOCTRILIHUM, KAMRA, HUYA GENUS, YOTUMA, VICTIM OF FIRE, ESSES

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Jul 262025

(written by Islander)

I got a late start on this Saturday’s roundup of recommended new music, and I feel the need to rush in order to keep it from appearing too late in the day. So my review-ish commentary will be somewhat briefer than usual (please hold your applause) and I’ll cut the rest of the introduction to just this:

I would suggest that this collection is a mix of brain-scramblers, bone-smashing punishers, muscle-twitching groovers, headlong racers, and seductive clean-sung sorcery, more or less in that order. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: TOMBS, HORNWOOD FELL, ACEPHALIC VOID, DEF/LIGHT

Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Jul 252025

(written by Islander)

With only one premiere to handle today and nothing else waiting in the queue for our site, I had a combination of opportunity and need, anxiety about us not posting the usual amount of stuff in recent days and the time (barely enough time) to do something about it. So, as a head-start on Saturday’s roundup, I got this four-band collection done, focusing on two old favorites and two brand new discoveries. The cover art for all four was part of the initial attraction.

TOMBS (U.S.)

The first of the old favorites is Tombs. Earlier this week we got the news that they have a new album named Feral Darkness now set for release on October 17th by their new label Redefining Darkness Records. The “FFO” references for Tombs have changed over time. As a clue about this new full-length, which follows 2020’s Under Sullen Skies, it includes Fields of the Nephilim, Samhain, Mayhem, and Goatwhore. The lineup also includes new guitarist Dan Higgins. Sera Timms also provides guest vocals on one song.

And then there’s this from the press release: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VELZEVUL — “ABIGOR”

Premieres No Responses »

Jul 252025

(written by Islander)

Elegantly garbed and golden-masked, the symphonic black metal band Velzevul has emerged from the far east of Russia with their debut album Pandemonium set for release in September by Satanath Records and More Hate Productions.

Their album imagines the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, a nuclear wasteland on the shores of the Sea of Japan — that almost wholly enclosed body of water bordered by the Japanese archipelago, the Korean peninsula, and mainland Russia. Its concept is described in these words on behalf of the band and the labels (as translated from the Russian text): Continue reading »

A NCS INTERVIEW : DISEMBODIMENT

Interviews 1 Response »

Jul 252025

(Everlasting Spew Records released the gut-churning, pulse-pounding, head-moving debut album of Disembodiment on July 11th, and now we present Zoltar‘s interview of Disembodiment guitarist Chris Lacroix.)

Disembodiment are a death metal band from Canada. Now hold your horses right away, especially those immediately expecting some kind of shred-fest or deathcore march. This four-piece out of Sherbrooke, Québec may be downtuned and all about decay and slimy things but their music nevertheless remains deeply rooted in the early ’90s, back when the genre wasn’t all about speed and/or technical wankery but stomping grooves, grueling slow parts, and being metal-as-fuck.

If their demo-turned-into-an-EP Mutated Chaos in 2021 was a warning shot, their long-awaited full-length Spiral Crypts – with a couple of songs premiered on this very site a few weeks back – will truly take you to a even more gruesome place “where cadavers pile to rest” as they say themselves on the opening track, “Stygian Overture”.

Although not the most talkative person on the planet, guitar player Chris Lacroix spills some of the beans for us… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IMPERIALIST — “BENEATH THE SANDS OF TITAN”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Jul 242025

(written by Islander)

The California-based black metal band Imperialist have released two albums so far (Cipher and Zenith), and their third one — Prime — is now set for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on September 5th. We’ve been fortunate to host premieres of music from those first two albums, and are fortunate again to premiere a song from the third one today.

Speaking of good fortune, all three of Imperialist‘s albums have featured tremendous cover paintings that connect with the band’s science-fiction themes, Adam Burke having created the first two and Eliran Kantor devoting his tremendous talents to the new one. Kantor‘s two-panel piece reveals a panorama of intricate detail. Its entire expanse creates a daunting alien vision, but it draws the eye in.

Something similar stands out about Imperialist‘s new music: Their songs are crafted with great attention to detail and executed with eye-popping skill, and they also draw the listener in (often from the very first seconds) and then wholly consume attention with their musical visions while creating a viscerally physical response at the same time.

The song we’re premiering today, “Beneath the Sands of Titan“, is an excellent example of these achievements, and it also seems to connect with the album’s cover art because what Eliran Kantor rendered might indeed be a vision of Saturn’s greatest moon — undergoing a catastrophic event. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KVSKET — “ALL THIS TALKING”

Premieres No Responses »

Jul 232025

(written by Islander)

The Minnesota band kvsket (pronounced “casket”) describe themselves as “Minneapolis Goth Rock”. That’s the definition of a short-hand description. The “for fans of” references to Deftones, Gojira, My Chemical Romance, Turnstile, and The Cure is more descriptively complete but still doesn’t complete cover the waterfront of kvsket‘s head-spinning music on their album Patiently Awaiting Your Arrival, which was released last February. We tried to unpack it in May when we premiered a video for one of the album tracks (“Hot Grip”):

The 11 mostly short songs on Patiently Awaiting Your Arrival encompass a lot of musical variety…. You’ll find big burly bounding grooves, guitars that abrade like a belt-sander and glitter like needles or quiver like warped sirens, high-flying singing with a raw edge, dark gothic crooning, furious wailing yells, and nasty snarls. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ABSOLUTISM / CAR BOMB / NEFAS

SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Jul 232025

(Andy Synn presents three mind-warping metallic morsels to bruise and bludgeon your brains)

Some of you may have noticed (or maybe you didn’t?) that I didn’t post anything here last week, mostly because I was snowed under with work/life/band stuff and just couldn’t find the time (or the mental energy) to put my thoughts (as scrambled as they were) down in any coherent order.

To rectify that, however, I spent some time over the weekend putting together a bunch of reviews… although, wouldn’t you know it, pretty much all the bands I’ve ended up writing about have been so dizzyingly, discombobulatingly technical and intense that they’ve ended up scrambling my brain all over again.

So if you enjoyed Monday’s dissection of the upcoming new album from Sallow Moth and are looking for a few more meaty morsels to satisfy your cravings for chaotic complexity, then you’ll want to give all three of these EPs a listen too.

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