AN NCS PREMIERE: SERMON OF FLAMES — “VEHEMENCE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 202021
 

 

For all those loyal to I, Voidhanger Records (and I’m definitely a confirmed loyalist), it takes nothing more to become interested in a band than simply knowing that I, Voidhanger has chosen to release their music. Having said that, the range of the label’s musical interests is quote broad. The choices will always appeal to adventurous listeners, but may not always hit everyone’s bullseye, given variations in individual tastes. Hence, even for ardent fans of the label, there is still a place for premieres such as the one we’re presenting today.

The song we present today is a demonstration of the label’s range. It is out on the most violent and mind-defiling end of the roster spectrum. But like so many I, Voidhanger releases, it’s nevertheless out of the ordinary, though in this case its mercurial permutations are twisted and tyrannical, catastrophic and crippling. The music’s morbid and maniacal maneuvers still manage to involve the higher faculties, in addition to being viscerally unnerving.

The song is “Vehemence“. The album is I Have Seen The Light, And It Was Repulsive. And the band is a diabolical duo from Ireland named Sermon of Flames. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MALOKARPATAN

 Interviews  No Responses »
Aug 202021
 

 

(The subject of this very extensive and engaging new interview by Comrade Aleks is Adam S., the lyricist and chief songwriter of the distinctive Slovak metal band Malokarpatan, though he also discusses another personal project with an album in the works.)

If you haven’t heard any of Malokarpatan’s albums, I bet you know about them anyway – no one could skip over the eye-catching artworks of Stridžie dni (2015), Nordkarpatenland (2017), and Krupinské ohne (2020). Slovakian pagan traditions shine through these authentic covers, and as you might surmise, the guys write their lyrics in their mother tongue. You’ll find translations easily enough, for example at Metal-Archives, and should find them if you’re searching for new poetic discoveries.

But probably we should start with the curious fact that Malokarpatan perform an authentic (again authentic!) mix of reckless yet tricky, non-trivial, heavy and black metal. Heathen energy, the pounding pulse of the wild, and a haunted atmosphere complete a sonic canvases filled with details and nuances…

I’ve found Malokarpatan in my “need-to-interview” list, and though their last record Krupinské ohne saw the light of day nearly one year ago, I believe you don’t need to wait for another official release to talk with a band you like and respect. I’m grateful to Malokarpatan ideologist and chief song-writer Adam S. for this deep and entertaining interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INFILTRATED MANKIND — “WORLD WIDE DEICIDE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 202021
 

 

As a long-time fan of Russian artist Anton Semenov (aka Gloom82), his “Horsemen of the Apocalypse” cover art for Infiltrated Mankind‘s forthcoming debut album Inside the Apelike caught my eye before hearing a single note. As it turns out, the band’s music is also apocalyptic and freakishly good, as you’ll discover through our premiere of a track from the album today.

“World Wide Deicide” is crushing and crazed. It generally moves fast, which makes the overflowing abundance of technical acrobatics even more mind-boggling. With fingers flying at centrifugal speed, the guitarist (and yes, there appears to be just one) executes savage blaring eruptions, deliriously shrieking and blurting frenzies, bursts of rapidly veering angularity, and unnerving spasms of boiling mania. Continue reading »

WOMAN IS THE EARTH – DUST OF FOREVER

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 192021
 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s take on the new album by long-time NCS favourites Woman Is The Earth, whose new album is released tomorrow on Init Records)

They say, whoever “they” are, that bands are supposed to mellow as they get older.

And while, certainly, this is true in many cases (the new Wolves In The Throne Room, for example, which I almost wrote about instead of this one, definitely feels that little bit more reflective and restrained, and all the better for it) it doesn’t seem like anyone bothered to tell Black Hills trio Woman Is The Earth, as their new album – their first full-length release since 2016’s Torch Of Our Final Night, and their first release of any kind since 2017’s Thaw EP – is more than a match for anything they’ve done before, and proof that their last few years spent in the musical wilderness haven’t dampened their inner fire.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEPULCHRE BY THE SEA — “GHOST OF THE DEPARTED”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 192021
 

 

Last fall we made one of those surprise discoveries that’s a source of constant motivation to dig deeper into the underground rather than just paying attention to the names most people already know. That discovery was Conqueror Worm, the debut album released by Anthrazit Records from Sepulchre by the Sea, a genre-bending one-man band who drew inspiration from the works of Edgar Allen Poe. As we explained here, the music explored some adventurous and interesting (and frightening) ideas that were embroidered around a spine of atmospheric black metal.

Now we’re pleased to report that Sepulchre by the Sea will be releasing a new EP on October 1st entitled Ratiocinations. It continues the Edgar Allen Poe theme and is based on the famous, and first ever, detective stories that Poe wrote. And to help spread the word about it, today we’re presenting the video premiere of the EP’s first single, a multifaceted song named “Ghost of the Departed“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AZAZEL — “JESUS CHRIST IMPOTENT ROTTING SAVIOUR”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 192021
 

 

The signposts are there for all to see — the spikes and the corpsepaint, the pentagrams and inverted crosses, the image of a cloven-hoofed, goat-headed demon defiling a nun, the arrogant and  insulting blasphemy of the song titles. And thus Azazel return after a six-year hiatus with a new album, their third, entitled Aegrus Satanas Tecum.

These Finnish demons trace their spawning to 1992, with their first evil fruits released in the mid-90s. It was not until 2012, after a long silence, that their first album Jesus Perversions emerged, followed by 2015’s Witches Deny Holy Trinity. And now the new one is set to arrive via Primitive Reaction on September 24th. To borrow from the promotional material (because it sums up the experience so well): Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MORTAL VISION — “DEVASTATED EXISTENCE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 192021
 

 

If you do a little poking around in the landfill of the internet you can find videos of legends before they were legends, such things as a 1989 rehearsal by Sepultura (here), a bootleg video of Carcass performing in that same year (here), and a Sodom concert from 1988 (here). One thing that jumps out, besides the energy of the music, is just how fucking young they all looked.

The Ukrainian thrash metal band Mortal Vision look damned young too — because they are damned young, in their early-to-mid 20s. But they’ve got that same kind of lightning-in-a-bottle energy you see in early performances by the legends, and a precocious talent for cooking up hell-raising, neck-wrecking music that’s highly contagious. Their label Redefining Darkness Records pitches them as “Schizophrenia-era Sepultura meets Persecution Mania-era Sodom at its finest”, and they are indeed a new force to be reckoned with.

As vivid proof of that, today we’ve got the premiere of an explosive video for “Devastated Existence“, which is a new single off Mortal Vision‘s forthcoming debut album, Mind Manipulation. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AEON, UNDERGANG, BEYOND GRACE, THE SILVER, DOLD VORDE ENS NAVN, ATRÆ BILIS, FURZE, SARKOM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 192021
 

 

I thought I could get this round-up finished in time to post it yesterday when most of these songs and videos were hot off the presses, but I got diverted by my day job. But day-old bread is still pretty good bread. (We don’t have any rule against mixing metaphors here.)

AEON (Sweden)

To begin, we worship in the “Church of Horror“, the first song from the first album by Aeon in nine years. It’s a fast one, with a blazing blizzard of jittery riffing and skull-assaulting drums providing the accompaniment to guttural fury directed against pedophile priests and the church that’s sheltered them. Bits of dismal melody and jolting slamtastic groove play a role in this outraged musical tirade, along with a queasy and maniacally quivering solo. If your ass is dragging, this will fix that for you. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SELTAR — “AURORA”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 182021
 

 

The gorgeous cover art created by Taya Rostovtseva for the debut album by the U.S.-based atmospheric black metal band Seltar is evocative of the music itself, and of its inspirations. As Seltar’s sole member Invierno explains:

“Shimmering lights silhouette the dense trees, obscuring the landscape. In solitude, the body rests vacant as time evaporates into the ether. A cosmic ancestral energy perfuses the spirit inciting it to depart the physical realm. This intangible power emanating with the accumulated wisdom from distant eras hearkens the lifeforce towards a transdimensional journey to experience worlds beyond. The ego is abandoned. Gazing upon its exhausted earthly chassis, the spirit is enchanted into an ancient passage to attain fathomless vision. Autoscopia is a series of hymns to detach from this dimension and travel to a spectral plane.”

Combining with the artwork and Invierno’s words, we have the premiere of a song from Autoscopia named “Aurora” which provides a further powerful insight into the journey encompassed by the album — which will be jointly released on October 1st by Casus Belli Musica and Beverina Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WRATH DIVISION — “BARBED WIRE VEINS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 182021
 

 

The three members of the Polish war metal band Wrath Division identify themselves by latitude and longitude coordinates rather than names. Finding nothing about the significance of these coordinates in the promotional materials for the band’s debut album, Barbed Wire Veins, we resorted to Google maps, and made these chilling discoveries:

Vocalist: 7°41’22″N 59°57’0″W — the site in Guayana of the 1978 Jonestown mass murder-suicide that killed over 900 men, women, and children
Guitarist/bassist: 34°24’N 132°27’E — the approximate location of the 1945 atomic bomb detonation above Hiroshima, Japan
Drummer/vocalist: 44°6’23″N 19°17’49″E — the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, site of the genocidal slaughter of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys during the Bosnian War

And if those examples of humanity’s capacity for self-destruction aren’t grim enough for you, wait ’til you hear the album.

You won’t have to wait long, because we have a stream of all 10 tracks today, just days away from its August 21 release by Godz Ov War Productions and Left Hand Sounds. Continue reading »

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