AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ENDONOMOS — “ATROPOS”

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Jun 222022
 

 

Welcome friends to the haunted halls of doom, where heavy ancient vaults loom high above, candles flicker, and skeletal spectres seductively beckon — with teeth bared within their vapors. Our guides through these chilling domains will be the Austrian band Endonomos.

Endonomos is a new name, but one that’s likely to spread quickly because of the power of their self-titled debut album, which will be released by Argonauta Records on August 26th. It’s the brainchild of Austrian multi-instrumentalist, producer, and session musician Lukas Haidinger, who is mostly known for playing extreme Metal for bands like Profanity, Nervecell, Distaste (and many more).

Through Endonomos, he has indulged his long-held affection for Doom, joined by his friends Armin Schweiger (drums), Philipp Forster (guitars), and Christoph Steinlechner (guitars) — who are obviously off on a tangent from their main musical pursuits too.

Well, but Doom is a varied domain. Where within it have Endonomos gone? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTARS — “LUMINOUS JAR”

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Jun 222022
 

 

As the years plodded along after the release of Altars‘ impressive 2013 debut album Paramnesia, it began to seem that the band were dead and buried. Its members occasionally surfaced in other groups and projects, but Altars itself remained silent for what turned into more than eight long years. In part this was due to a debilitating illness affecting co-founding member Cale Schmidt (vocals and bass). Yet finally Altars have emerged again, renewed and even more formidable than before.

How this finally happened is a tale we at NCS don’t yet know, but we do know that it included the involvement of Convulsing‘s Brendan Sloan as the band’s new bassist and vocalist, joining founding guitarist Lewis Fischer and founding drummer Alan Cadman. Together, this formidable trio have recorded a new album named Ascetic Reflection that’s now set for release on July 8th by Everlasting Spew Records.

Paramnesia revealed an adventurous songwriting spirit, and that hasn’t changed on the new record, but if you know the first album, you’ll also easily discern changes in the new one, and the song we’re premiering today is a vivid example of Altars‘ evolution. Continue reading »

KRALLICE – PSYCHAGOGUE

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Jun 212022
 

(Andy Synn continues his on again, off again, love affair with Krallice with their new album, Psychagogue)

I like Krallice, I really do.

But that doesn’t mean I like every single thing they put out… or, at least, it doesn’t mean I like everything they put out to the same level.

And that’s ok. Because being a fan of a band doesn’t mean you have to like absolutely everything they do, especially when the band in question are so disgustingly prolific, and cover so much musical ground, that simply trying to keep up with them is enough of a task in itself.

So when I say that I like the band’s new album, Psychagogue, you should know that I really like it… in fact, it may just be my favourite thing they’ve released since 2016’s Prelapsarian.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEVERED HEADSHOP — “ETERNAL SOUL PENETRATION”

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Jun 212022
 

Take an array of bullet-spitting and neck-breaking percussive assaults, heaping helpings of fretwork mania, doses of brazen and grim melody, a slaughtering spectrum of vocal belligerence, and some bridge-collapsing breakdowns, then put all that into the blender of your mind and press “Puree” in rapid pulses.

That thought might help you imagine what the Indiana band Severed Headshop pull off in the barbaric and bamboozling track we’re premiering today, along with a video of the performance.

The song in question, “Eternal Soul Penetration“, is one of five that appear on their hilariously named debut EP The Fuckening, which is now set for an August 5th release by Everlasting Spew Records. It’s quite a head-scrambling stylistic amalgam, which the label has attempted to sum up this way: “Blending early 2000s brutal death with blackened sorceries and modern Death Metal approaches and playing it all with a grindcore sneer….” Continue reading »

ZOUS: “NO GROUND TO GIVE”

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Jun 212022
 

 

(Here’s Wil Cifer‘s review of a new album by the Los Angeles death metal band Zous, which was released at the end of May by Closed Casket Activities.)

This might seem weird since I am normally the guy who covers the darker more post-punk leaning bands or classic traditional metal. I do like more overtly heavy stuff as well, since during most of my teens I was into hardcore. By hardcore, I mean I saw the Cro-Mags on the “Age of Quarrel” tour while wearing my first pair of combat boots.

This solo project Zous from Nails drummer Taylor Young celebrates various shades of heavy that I love, as they are all nihilistic and dark in their wrathful pummeling. Young wrote, performed, produced, and engineered this entire album. He did enlist his buddies to come in and help out when it is time for the obligatory guitar solo.

This project was intended as old school death metal. It might never chug in the direction of the many Meshuggah worshippers or employ In Flames-inspired guitar harmonies; it does grind and crunch with more of a modern hardcore feel than anything in the zip code of Morbid Angel. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ASSUMPTION

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Jun 212022
 

 

(If you haven’t yet heard the new Assumption album Hadean Tides, you’re missing a remarkable experience. Maybe this excellent interview by Comrade Aleks of Giorgio Trombino will give you the push you need.)

Giorgio Trombino (guitars, bass, vocals, synths) and David Lucido (drums) formed the death-doom unit Assumption in 2011, but these guys from Sicily had a rich background already, and I wouldn’t like to waste your time mentioning all of their other bands. I’m just going to tell you – it’s more than ten, you see.

Despite all the genres they explored with other bands Assumption gives them a firm ground for psychedelic experiments on the fields of death-doom in its most twisted, and sometimes extreme, forms. And this is a great opportunity to taste some really sophisticated doom, as Everlasting Spew Records and Sentient Ruin released Assumption’s new album Hadean Tides a month ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: GRAVE GNOSIS AND HVILE I KAOS — “TOWARDS THE NAMELESS DARKNESS”

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Jun 202022
 

 

Way down at the bottom of this extensive feature you’ll find the premiere stream of Towards the Nameless Darkness, a remarkable split by Grave Gnosis and Hvile I Kaos that’s set for a June 21 release by the Red Nebula label. We’d never blame anyone for just going there right now and beginning to listen, but either before or after indulging yourselves with the music you might appreciate the insights and additional information we’ve assembled.

Both of these bands have already made names for themselves among discriminating and demanding listeners, and for those devoted fans anything new from them will be welcome. But we hope the split will also bring new fans into the fold, especially because this split release functions as a teaser for new albums that are in progress from each band — Pestilence Crowned by Grave Gnosis, and Lower Order Manifestations by Hvile I Kaos. Continue reading »

LIGHT DWELLER – LUCID OFFERING

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 202022
 

(Andy Synn kicks off a new week with the nasty new album from Light Dweller)

Over the years I have developed a bit of healthy scepticism when it comes to solo artists or “one man bands”.

That’s not to say I actively dislike them, by any means, it’s just that – generally speaking – I find that the collaborative process between band members tends to be more fruitful and fulfilling than simply having a single individual do all the work (often without anyone around them to curb their worst excesses).

There are, of course, many examples of where relying on an individual auteur actually produces amazing results – whether that person is working totally on their own or simply serving as the chief/main songwriter for a band – but it really comes down to a question of whether they have not just the creative vision but also the drive and talent to bring it to fruition.

And, make no mistake about it, Cameron Boesch (aka Light Dweller) has all of these things in abundance, as his latest – and greatest – album demonstrates.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HIEROPHANT, LIMINAL SHROUD, ARALLU, VERBERIS, WRANG, HADIQAT

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Jun 192022
 

 

After a lapse last week this column re-takes its usual place on the weekly calendar to blacken the sabbath. I’ll quickly confess that I bit off more than I can chew in the writing, and more than most of you will have time to hear in the listening: I’ve picked two complete albums and mixed them together with four new singles. Despite the challenges to myself and to you, I felt so strongly about all these choices that I couldn’t resist.

As is often the case, I haven’t lived with either of the albums long enough to do more than provide scattered notes about them. That’s the consequence of needing to write about something new every day. Settling in gives way to scurrying. But you’ll have a better chance to settle in with these releases, and I hope you will. All the singles sound fantastic too.

HIEROPHANT (Italy)

Death Siege is the fifth full-length from this talented band, who are charging toward us after a six-year interval following the last album. The new one is 40 minutes long, and the cover art by Abomination Hammer alone would make most people want to find out what’s going on in the music. My friend Andy‘s Synn Report about the band’s discography back in 2016 would provide more reasons.

What Hierophant say about the music is this: “”With Death Siege, we crossed the gateway to the abyss. Nihilism will overcome, when the sky will burn in fire. Death, Chaos, Annihilation.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANTAR, WAKE, MERGER REMNANT, ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE, HOURS OF WORSHIP, TOADEATER, NON SERVIAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 182022
 

 

A Friday night spent carousing followed by a lazy Saturday morning doesn’t make a good predicate for a Saturday music roundup. And yes, I was languid this morning, rather than hungover, after exercising rare restraint on the alcohol last night. But though functional today, I wasn’t feeling motivated. The cool, gray, damp weather outside may have had something to do with that. While the rest of the country seems to be an oven, I was luxuriating in a Pacific Northwest gift.

And then, and then, I still spent an hour and a half flitting through a list of new songs and videos I’d made in as the week went by. Finally, I made these picks.

MANTAR (U.S./Germany)

Mantar have a new look, at least for the video you’re about to see, and new stylistic ingredients in the music too, but they haven’t forsaken their visceral intensity. It pours out through the vocals, which reach shattering zeniths (and also bring Kurt Cobain to mind at times), and through the angst-ridden but soaring riffs and keys, and the booming and battering drums. It’s also damned difficult to get out of the head once you’ve heard it. Continue reading »

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