AN NCS PREMIERE: WOLOK — “THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND”

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Nov 172022
 

“Can you imagine the raw savagery of early Black Metal mixed with monolithic Death Doom, a pinch of Crust Punk and some spastic Plasma Pool type of EBM all placed inside a jar? Wolok did, they made a molotov of it and they are now ready to throw it at us all and see the world burn”.

That’s a tag-team wrestling match of words from Brucia Records, who will be releasing Wolok‘s new album The Bilious Hues of Gloom on December 8th. It’s a valiant effort at linguistically trying to grapple Wolok‘s music to the mat, as well as a sign of how difficult it is to do that. Brucia also leaps from the turnbuckle with this characterization:

“Too Punk for Black Metal, too Doom for Punk, too Industrial for Doom… deranged, demented and disjointed… bipolarly shifting from majestic to decrepit and back for all of its duration… completely psychotic….” Continue reading »

INVERTED MATTER – HARBINGER

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Nov 172022
 

(Andy Synn brings you some multi-national mayhem courtesy of Inverted Matter)

There are many, many things I love about Metal.

But one of the biggest is that there’s always something new to discover, a new artist or album to uncover that you’ve previously overlooked, so it’s practically impossible to get bored or jaded (emphasis on “practically”).

Take Inverted Matter, for example.

This multinational menagerie of misfits, monsters, and mercenaries (whose ranks include Defacement drummer Marco Dal pastro – putting in yet another pulverising percussive performance here) are brand new to me, despite the fact that they released their debut album, Detach, way back in 2017.

But, better late than never, right? And now that I’ve discovered them it’s time for me to pay it forward and introduce them to some of you in turn.

Continue reading »

THE ANTICHRIST IMPERIUM: “VOL. III: SATAN IN HIS ORIGINAL GLORY”

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Nov 172022
 

(Last month The Antichrist Imperium released their third glorious and reverent ode to Satan under the auspices of the Apocalyptic Witchcraft label. Allowing time for it to settle in, DGR now devotes a long review to it.)

We’re well past a month since the release of The Antichrist Imperium‘s newest album Vol III: Satan In His Original Glory. One of the things we can can say about it is that it will constantly leave you befuddled and may take you about a month to fully wrap your head round it as well.

It is a strange album, from a collective of musicians for whom ‘weird’ has become a consistent throughline in their overall mass of projects to begin with. Voices as a whole and especially their latest volley Breaking The Trauma Bond? Abrasive, weird, fascinating. Ackercocke‘s return Rennaissance In Extremis? Weird as hell and fascinating. Antichrist Imperium when they’re not in full death metal mode? Much the same.

That you have the presence of two of the boulder-punchers from Werewolves in the lineup shows that someone in the band has the mind to attempt some of the most high-minded and far-reaching music and then just as quickly pen some of the dumbest, purposefully one-directional music out there. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE INFERNO DOLL — “RENFIELD”

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Nov 162022
 

For everyone who’s seen Tod Browning’s 1931 film Dracula, the demented and tormented face of Renfield as portrayed by Dwight Frye is likely one of the most unforgettable images. The character himself, in both Bram Stoker’s novel and that film, is a haunting figure, seduced to the point of madness by the influence of his master and a craving of blood, and ridden by guilt in his momentary moments of lucidity.

Though arguably a minor character in that horrifying tale, Renfield has nevertheless become a source of fascination and inspiration for some artists, one prominent example of which is Barbara Hambly‘s 2006 novel Renfield: Slave of Dracula, which presents some twists on the original tale and some intriguing explanations about the turmoil of his being torn between good and evil.

Calgary-based Laura “Inferno” Vargas is another artist for whom Renfield has become a fascination. Drawing in part on Hambly‘s novel for inspiration, she has used her guise as The Inferno Doll to create a song in his name, which we’re premiering today in advance of its November 18th release as a single, along with a video that presents its own twists. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SPEGLAS — “TIME, FUTILITY & DEATH”

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Nov 162022
 

What we have for you now is an enormous surprise, and one we hope you’ll find as wonderful as we have. It’s not as extreme as most of what occupies our attention around here (though it does have its moments of barbarity), but we’ve found it a perpetually eye-popping and captivating record.

The subject is Time, Futility & Death, a new EP by the Swedish group Speglas that will be released on November 18th by Pulverised Records. It follows their first release, another EP, by a very long seven years, long enough that maybe even enthusiastic fans of that first recording may have forgotten the band. The new release will prove a vivid reminder of their talents, and should attract a lot of new adherents among adventurous listeners, if only the word will spread. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MYCELIUM

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Nov 162022
 

(Not long ago we had the thrill of premiering a song from the forthcoming second album by the fungal death metal band Mycelium, and now we have more delights to present through an extremely entertaining interview by Comrade Aleks of the man behind the mushrooms, Greg Edwards.)

And here we have a fantastic death metal project from Glasgow with lyrics telling stories of mushrooms and unspeakable horrors! Greg Edwards ran the black metal one-man band Necronoclast for ten years from 2003 to 2013 but then he had to take a pause and rethink his priorities. As result, Mycelium was born!

Greg started it in 2020 and the first album Scream Bloody Spore was released already in 2021, and now one more year has passed and one more album was recorded! Mycoticism: Disseminating the Propagules is to be revealed to the extreme metal underground on the 25th of November through the Swedish label Blood Harvest. And I hope this interview will pique your interest towards Mycelium and the magic world of deathly dangerous mushrooms. Continue reading »

ASHBREATHER – HIVEMIND

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Nov 162022
 

(Andy Synn goes on a juicy Prog-Metal journey with the new album from Montreal’s Ashbreather)

While we’re not averse to writing about some of the bigger names in Metal here at NCS – though this year, if I’m not wrong, we’ve actually chosen not to feature several of the “big” names, due to the fact that they get more than enough coverage already – our focus is always on showcasing and supporting the work of those bands who might otherwise fly under the radar (at least in terms of the wider Metal scene).

So, in that spirit, today we’re turning to a cinematic, single-track concept album by a Canadian trio whose music is best described at “Progressive Sludge”, with a heavy emphasis on the “Progressive” part of the equation, and a penchant for throwing in some unexpected creative twists along the way.

Enjoy!

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OMNIFARIAM — “THE SUMMONING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 152022
 

Time flies when you’re having fun. Time also probably flies when you blindly stumble into the path of a rushing freight train.

What brought that morbid thought to mind? Well, you can guess from the title of this feature. It’s the obliterating new EP The Summoning by the Puerto Rican death metal band Omnifaiam, and in particular the EP’s powerhouse opening song “Deceivers of the Bleak“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VARGSHEIM — “IN THE TOWER OF IVORY”

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Nov 152022
 

Over a career that now spans more than 15 years the German band Vargsheim have made their music a home for wolves, but these wolves have proven to be surprising shape-shifters as well. Black metal runs through their veins, but this trio — the brothers Kaelt and Harvst and drummer Naavl (all of whom are live members of Imperium Dekadenz) — clearly have many other musical interests, and continue finding ways to indulge them under their banner.

That observation proves most true in their forthcoming fifth album In the Tower of Ivory, which will be released on December 9th by the band’s new label Crawling Chaos. We have a thrilling example of what they’ve accomplished in today’s premiere (through a video made by Kaelt) of the new record’s title song. Continue reading »

NOCTEM: “CREDO CERTE NE CRAS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 152022
 

(Late October brought forth MNRK Heavy‘s release of a new album by Spanish Noctem, a band we’ve been following closely and happily for a long time, and now we catch up to the new album with this extensive review by DGR.)

Over the course of six albums Noctem have placed themselves in an interesting spot musically, where it has seemed like the only point of reference for comparison in terms of their musical history was the album prior and nothing more.

The group have gone through some sizeable leaps and shifts in their sound over the years, and many of them are well-documented on this here site. While it seemed like they may have found a niche within the black metal world with their triptych of Oblivion, Exilium, and Haeresis, the following disc The Black Consecration moved away from the overwhelming chaotic madness of those three albums and into a realm much more deep and cavernous than before.

The Black Consecration was Noctem proving their worth to the black metal abyss, and that is really the biggest point of reference when it comes to this Spanish group’s latest album, Credo Certe Ne Cras, because after the band laid their foundation through that preceding album, they have now built upon it by becoming “bigger” in just about every sense imaginable. Continue reading »

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