FERAL LORD – VIRES IN ABSOLUTO

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May 052022
 

(Andy Synn dives headfirst into the abyss with the new album from Feral Lord, out tomorrow)

This week is a big one for those who consider themselves fans of the more abstract, abrasive, and avant-garde end of the Extreme Metal spectrum, with new albums from Haunter, Cosmic Putrefaction, and Feral Lord all scheduled to hit the streets on the same day.

Sadly I was never going to have time to write about all three of them (not, at least, before they’re released), and since I fell so hard for Feral Lord‘s debut album, Purity of Corruption, last year, the choice of which of the three to devote my time to pretty much made itself.

The thing is, even though I am a huge fan of the duo’s previous work, I’m not ashamed to admit that I simply was not prepared for what they’ve created on Vires In Absoluto, and chances are – no matter what you think you’re about to hear – neither are you.

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AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TOMB OF FINLAND — “WRETCHED BLISS”

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May 052022
 

The beautifully made video you’re about to see takes us on a journey of mystery, menace, magic, and madness. We follow the actions of a lone shirtless man who appears to be engaged in a ritual of incantations and blood, a ritual that spawns hallucinatory visions and the presence of a hooded figure who may not be of this world. The man seems to spasm like a puppet on a string. He burns from the inside out, and perhaps what burns is his soul — as it is removed and encased in a different vessel, leaving his body a lifeless husk.

Does he experience a wretched kind of bliss during the course of this experience? Well, that is the name of the fantastic song by Tomb of Finland which the video presents, a song that will be released as a single on May 6th to help pave the way for the band’s forthcoming third album, which will be released later this year by Uprising! Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ENSANGUINATE — “LOWERMOST BAPTISMS”

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May 042022
 

Today we revisit the Slovenian band Ensanguinate, whose 2020 debut demo Entranced By Decay we praised here as an offering of “absolutely delicious red meat for a death/thrashing metal fan”. What they’ve got for us now is a debut album named Eldritch Anatomy, to be released later this year by Emanzipation Productions, and what we’ve got for you is a first taste of what it brings to the table.

That first taste is a song from the album named “Lowermost Baptisms“, which will be officially released as a single this coming Friday, May 6th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABADDON INCARNATE — “SHRINE OF FLESH”

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May 042022
 

Later this year, in furtherance of a career that now spans a quarter-century, the Irish extreme metal band Abaddon Incarnate will release their sixth album overall, and their first one since 2014’s Pessimist. Transcending Obscurity Records will handle the release, and promises that The Wretched Sermon not only delivers “a quintessential blend” of death metal and grindcore but also expands upon the band’s sound by “injecting myriad elements from thrash parts to atmospheric passages and stringing them together using staggering transitions”, thereby turning it into “a fascinating beast of an album”.

We haven’t yet heard all of what Abaddon Incarnate preach in The Wretched Sermon, but the new album track we’re premiering today — “Shrine of Flesh” — bears out at least some of the label’s promises. Continue reading »

ANOTHER YEAR-END LIST FROM SEB PAINCHAUD (TUMBLEWEED DEALER)

 LISTMANIA 2021  3 Responses »
May 042022
 


photo by Catherine B Photografie

(We’re into May 2022, so what the hell are we doing with a continuation of our LISTMANIA 2021 series? Well, it’s because Seb Painchaud, the main man behind the Montréal band Tumbleweed Dealer, didn’t really exhaust his 2021 recommendations with the year-end list he gave us last December (here). In this supplemental list he proves again that he has very expansive and eclectic musical tastes, un-confined by the boundaries of metal.)

As prophesied in my year=end list, I have returned with a whole list of shit I slept on last year. Now, that title might perfectly describe how I completely missed out on some of these albums until it was too late, but in other cases my relationship to them isn’t always of the ‘feces I laid dormant on’ variety. I like making this second list because it lets me name-drop some albums I really enjoyed but left off the yearly rundown for various reasons. I feel an AOTY candidate requires a deeper connection than just pure enjoyment with the listener. But then again, that might just be me being a fucking music snob. So some of these might just be simpler/more to the point/honestly in some cases better than the stuff on the aforementioned previous list.

So here is a list of 2021 releases I feel you should check out if you haven’t already… Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SIETA — “DREAM”

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May 032022
 

Russian people, both inside and beyond the borders of their homeland, are paying a price for their fascist dictator’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine, even when they had nothing to do with that brutal invasion and even oppose it. In the case of artists whose work is known outside Russia, they’ve undoubtedly experienced a decline in support even after condemning the horrors that have been wrought in the name of their nation.

We’ve said it before, but it may be worth repeating: Here at NCS we won’t be part of that kind of blanket retribution, even though our hearts are with Ukraine. We’ll continue doing what we always have, supporting music we believe is worthy of your attention, including music made by Russian bands such as the one whose new video is the subject of this premiere.

For those who may care, this band Sieta (Сѣта) have publicly condemned the invasion of Ukraine, and one of the two labels that is reissuing the album which includes the song (Satanath Records) has left Russia because of the invasion.

We can’t always expect such action, because expressing disagreement with Putin in Russia is dangerous, and leaving to establish a new life elsewhere is very difficult for most Russians. And so neither kind of action should be a litmus test for Russian music or Russian labels. But of course it helps fortify the resolve not to punish Russian artists for the actions of one homicidal maniac who would be a modern tsar or the ruler of a resurrected USSR, and those who have bent their knee to him. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T) – PART 1

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May 032022
 

(Andy Synn presents four artists/albums which you may have overlooked last month)

Ok, I promise I won’t make a habit of this, but I discovered so many new releases in April – records which seem to have been largely overlooked elsewhere, as far as I can tell – that I’m going to have to break up this edition of “Things you may have missed…” into two parts, the first coming today, the second coming… whenever I get chance to get around to it.

For today’s post I’ve chosen some ripping Black/Death from Canada (Althotas), some powerfully melodic Death/Doom from Portugal (The Chapter), some darkly dramatic Progressive Thrash from Greece (Disharmony) and some atmosphere heavy – as well as just plain heavy – Deathcore from the USA (Null Valley).

Chances are there’ll be at least something here you haven’t checked out before, so give them a spin if and when you get chance – you might just discover your favourite new band!

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AN NCS PREMIERE: LUNAR CHALICE — “IMMORTUAE”

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May 032022
 

The German black metal band Lunar Chalice, though composed of veterans, only came together in 2019, but they have wasted no time in making their mark. They promptly released the Walpurgis Dance demo in 2019, and quickly followed that with a pair of EPs — Night Poetry on 2019, and Medieval Cults of Heresy in 2020.

Now the band are finally delivering to us (through Iron Bonehead Productions) their first full-length, Transcendentia: The Shadow Pilgrimage. Even in a thoroughly saturated genre, it’s a frequently astonishing work — as if a gathering of alchemists had turned their magical talents from the transformation of metals to the sorcery of music.

The spells that Lunar Chalice create seem of ancient origin, as cold and mysterious as the moon whose name they invoke, but also frightening in numerous ways, in their jaw-dropping combination of ferocity, imperious domination, and unearthly eeriness, a union of feral hostility and nightmarish elegance. Such qualities stand out in the track we’re premiering today — “Immortuae“. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, APRIL 2022

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May 032022
 


Somali Yacht Club – photo by May Lee

(April 2022 is in the history books, and our man Gonzo follows its end with a selection of albums released during the month that brightened his days, and we hope will brighten yours.)

If only my fucking day job made it easier to listen to all the music I wanted to. Pipe dreams, man. Pipe dreams.

The past month saw me venturing out to several shows, though; Archspire in particular ripped my face off for an hour straight while grinning maniacally the whole time. Amorphis and Uada were amazing as well, and I’ve got Behemoth and Arch Enemy lined up for this coming Wednesday. (I’ll likely be at that show by the time you read this column.)

All that being said, none of the bands I cover here are anything I saw live recently, but god damn does it feel good to be getting back into my pre-pandemic cadence of live music again.

As usual, here’s a smattering of new shit I found worthy of writing about this month. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VITAL SPIRIT — “STILL AS THE NIGHT, COLD AS THE WIND”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
May 022022
 

In the Faith That Looks Through Death, the 2020 debut EP of Vital Spirit (which we had the privilege of premiering), was a true gem. Black metal provided the backbone for the music, but it flourished through the fuel of other wide-ranging inspirations, both conceptual and musical.

The band is a Vancouver duo — guitarist/bassist/vocalist Kyle Tavares (Seer, Wormwitch) and drummer Israel Langlais (Wormwitch) — but the EP took shape in between Wormwitch’s 2018 and 2019 American tours, and thus it was animated by the lands to the south that these two saw and the histories of those places. “Harrowing ballads imbued with the enduring spirit of the Americas” is how they described that four-song EP, and through it they brought to life visions of the Old West and Southwest of the U.S.

After hearing that remarkable EP we hoped it wouldn’t be a one-off adventure but instead an excursion that would continue. “There is, after all,” we wrote, “a lot of source material in the history and landscapes of the Americas that’s yet to be mined!” We and a lot of other fans have gotten our wish, because on May 6th Vendetta Records and Hidden Tribe will release Vital Spirit‘s debut album, Still as the Night, Cold as the Wind. Continue reading »

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