AN NCS INTERVIEW AND REVIEW: EGREGORE

 Album Reviews, Interviews  1 Response »
Apr 122022
 

(We welcome Vancouver-based writer Hope Gould, who describes herself as “unconditionally committed to the underground, unreservedly devoted to riffs that fuck.” For her first NCS post she brings us this highly entertaining interview of Vancouver-based Egregore and a brief review of their forthcoming debut album.)

From the belly of Covenant, Canada’s Black Magick Inner Circle, Vancouver’s Egregore disgorge a potent elixir of Abraxian invocation on their debut album to be released by 20 Buck Spin on April 15th. On The Word of His Law, Egregore immerse those brave enough to traverse their bizarre labyrinth on a journey from the depths of evocative mental unrest to illuminating spiritual ascension.

The Word of His Law offers quality Black Death reverence in earnest, all while unravelling a masterclass in the unorthodox with unsettling synth, hypnotic chanting, and supplication by way of a Neo-folk passage. Emotive solos and leads are on dazzling display by guitarist and vocalist ESSENTIA COLLAPSE on tracks like “Howling Premonition” and “Libidinization of Will Azothic”, backed by utter percussive gluttony wielded by CATASTROPHE SATURNA. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEFECT DESIGNER — “TROLLS”

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Apr 122022
 

Anyone who has dabbled in the discography of either Diskord or Defect Designer, who share a pair of members, know that both of these Norway-based bands revel in severely discombobulating their listeners, and beating them almost senseless.

At the risk of our own sanity and skeletal integrity we’ve done our own fair share of dabbling across their releases, and have always come up wildly smiling, albeit through broken teeth. And so the news of the first Defect Designer album in seven years, following on the heels of Diskord‘s own 2021 full-length (reviewed here), set our nerves a-tingling.

Sure enough, it’s a goddamned bonanza, and so insane that it makes Ian Miller‘s  bizarre cover art seem understated and entirely intelligible. The name of the album is Neanderthal, and from that album we’re really fucking delighted to drop a brain-bomb on you named “Trolls“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZORNESTRIEB – “LICHTBLICKE”

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Apr 122022
 

 

“A gentle spring wind blows on these lonely days. A star shines brightest in the endless and still cold night, in this pain-filled silence…Thousands of empty hearts, exposed to their fate. In this world we don’t want to be without you… ‘Memory breaks the desolate silence, awakens the ray of hope in all of us'”.

Those words accompany a song we’re premiering today from Der Eskapist, the forthcoming debut album by the Thuringian atmospheric black metal band Zornestrieb. The song’s name, “Lichtblicke“, itself translates in English to “rays of hope” — but the music itself seems to reach for those rays through dark and turbulent clouds of torment. Continue reading »

DESERTED FEAR: “DOOMSDAY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 122022
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the latest album by the German band Deserted Fear, which is out now via Century Media.)

I’ve spent a lot of time staring at the list of stuff I’ve recently been cycling through for listening, trying to find some sort of overarching theme. Usually you can pin it down to the predictable seasonal shifts at work or the somewhat more nebulous ebbs and flows of heavy metal releases – both of which have been solidly upended over the past few years.

What I did notice, though, was the presence of a few releases early on in the year of the kind that I usually only expect to find one or two of throughout the year. Those are the melodeath releases that seem to revolve around a big, anthemic songwriting core. Those have been a recent development as of the mid-2000s as the genre began to fling itself around more and more in search of ways to stick out amidst an increasingly crowded style – many would argue it has been a stagnated style since the metalcore scene exploded.

While many bands would stick to the tried and true, and wound up with pretty much tried and true results, others would write these big, almost arena-rock-esque ‘us vs the world’ types of songs; many mid-tempo and often about as filled with a million guitar lines and melodies, as one might expect from the big auditorium-filling style. For some reason, it seems like many bands have had this sort of release in them, and at some point they’ll default to it for an album or two, with results that can be as vast as the number of bands doing it.

Which brings us to the deceptively death metal looking March release Doomsday by Germany’s Deserted Fear, which has somehow turned out to be their take on the big pyro-launching, guitar stomp spectacle. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CIRCLE OF CHAOS — “PURGATORY”

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Apr 112022
 

On April 22nd Satanath Records (Georgia) and The Ritual Productions (Netherlands) will co-release Forlorn Reign, the third album by the Swedish death metal band Circle of Chaos. It comes a long eight years after the band’s second full-length, and represents the work of a changed line-up in pursuit of a new musical direction for the band, one that’s more extreme and aggressive and brings elements of black and thrash metal into the mix.

As a prime example of what the new album holds for listeners, we present the band’s official music video for a venomous, vicious, and preternatural track named “Purgatory“. Continue reading »

WRETCHGOD – STYGIAN BLOOD RITUAL

 SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 112022
 

(Andy Synn uncovers a shiny new gem of an EP by Nebraska’s Wretchgod)

There’s a good chance that I won’t be around at NCS much this week, due to pressing business with my own band.

That being said, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pen a few words about Stygian Blood Ritual, the debut EP from abyssal Blackened Death Metal quintet Wretchgod.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PAGANIZER — “BEYOND THE MACABRE”

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Apr 112022
 

He might blush to hear it, but Rogga Johansson is death metal royalty. Prolific and seemingly indefatigable, he and hordes of talented allies have been churning out death metal and other forms of musical extremity since the mid-’90s under dozens of names. The oldest of all those bands (unless one counts the short-lived Terminal Grip) is of course Paganizer, a mauling and magnificent offspring that reached maturity long ago but still grows and flourishes.

All good things will come to an end, but Paganizer seems deathless — in the vanguard of Swedish death metal from the early days and relentless in its continuing momentum. On June 24th of this year we will witness the release of their 12th album Beyond the Macabre, nearly a quarter century after the first one, embellished with a cover painting by Juanjo Castellano that’s as much of a supernatural spectacle as the music is.

And yes it’s true — Beyond the Macabre is a supernatural spectacle, a display of Swedish death metal that continues to menace and maraud in the best of the old traditions, but with a knack for incorporating evocative melodies that both add to the music’s visceral and vicious vitality and makes the songs genuinely memorable. It’s thus an honor to present the title track today. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KRIEG, CRUCIFIXION BELL, TE RUKI, GNIEW, THE SUN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE NIGHT

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Apr 102022
 

 

Greetings to all on another Sunday. This time I’ve chosen a mix of advance tracks from two forthcoming releases plus two complete records (a new EP and the reissue of an album-length demo). All but one of the bands are known quantities to me based on the high quality of their previous works, and that new one has made a startling first impression. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this varied excursion into the black metal underground as much as I have.

KRIEG (U.S.)

I’m beginning with songs from a new split by Krieg and Crucifixion Bell that will be released on April 29th by UK-based Death Prayer Records (on CD, cassette tape, and digital formats). The split includes four tracks from Crucifixion Bell and three from Krieg. The first of Krieg‘s songs launched for streaming is “Incantations of Suffering Souls“. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: MANTAR, KONTINUUM, EXECUTIONER’S MASK, OBLIVION THRONE, THE SECOND FOVEA, VEGAS, LIVIDUS, ATOLL, NIGHTBEARER, FABIAN FILIKS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 092022
 


Mantar – pic by Matthis van der meulen

 

I was a hamster last week, racing along the treadmill at my day job, with the only apparent signs of progress being motion and the cage filling up with shit. Oh lordie, while I was spinning that wheel the NCS in-box and other message accounts filled up with a lot of shit too — the good shit!

Based on my pawing through it this morning, I found a lot to share, as you’re about to discover in a very wide-ranging musical excursion. But since I’ve now got to go scrub my paws with lye you won’t find my frothy words or cover art in as much abundance as usual.

MANTAR (Germany)

Let’s begin with a new song and video from one of our favorite bands. I have a long list of people (none whom I personally know) that I’d like to hang low so the rats can get ’em because they make life more miserable by their existence. I’d like to beat and scorch them with this song before they take the drop, though they won’t deserve the song’s great chorus. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GALVANIST — “CONNECTION”

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Apr 082022
 

If I’m being honest about what’s motivated me to help keep this site going and growing for 12+ years, it’s a mixture of selfishness and altruism.

Selfishly, it has become a vehicle for turning me on to a lot more music, and a lot faster, than would have happened if I were just a fan. E-mails and other messages bring me new music in droves every day, far more than I have the ability to check out and much of it that on its face doesn’t seem that interesting, but I still find gems in the flood that I’m sure would have escaped me were it not for NCS.

Altruistically, NCS also gives me and my co-writers the ability to share what excites us with a much bigger audience than we could reach by mere word of mouth. Helping underground bands and labels reach more people is a good feeling, and the feeling is even better when they don’t yet have the kind of profile that’s going to get them widely noticed regardless of what we do here.

And that brings me to the “esoteric doom band” Galvanist from Bozeman, Montana. But for NCS. it’s highly unlikely I would have discovered their forthcoming debut album Connection as quickly as I have, or maybe at all. And because of NCS, I now get the chance to share with you a record that has quickly become a thrilling favorite among all the many records I’ve heard this year. Continue reading »

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