NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERITERAS — “THE DARK HORIZON”

Apr 082024

Sometimes a relatively new band’s love for a relatively old and well-established brand of music is so evident that it runs the serious risk of having nothing new to say. The risk exists even when the love is genuinely earnest and not a cash grab (though about the only cash-grabbing most underground metal bands are capable of achieving is by looking for lost coins in the crevices of couches).

The relatively new Seattle band Veriteras wear their love for old-school Scandinavian melodic death metal on their sleeves, and it is clearly an earnest and genuine love, with the influence of such bands as early In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and Kalmah reverently embroidered on such sleeves.

So, the question arises: Do they have something new to say, and if so, what is it? The answer arrives in their second album, The Dark Horizon, which we’re premiering today in advance of its April 11th release. Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME IV: BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH

Album Reviews No Responses »

Apr 082024

(We present another one of Dan Barkasi‘s monthly collections of reviews and recommended music, taking stock of 8 records that saw release in March.)

The year is moving quickly, isn’t it? March brings us the reminder of Julius Caesar’s big mistake, the conclusion of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 (Heja BVB), and some of the final episodes of the timeless Curb Your Enthusiasm. Whilst I agree with most of Larry David’s neurotic observations, we have to especially take his side on the cheese debate. Also, text chains are the worst. But, we could go on all day. Kevin P and Madder Mortem know the score.

We’re a quarter of the way through already, and the volume of releases is on a steady upward trajectory. That leaves a metric ton of music to take in – not that we’re complaining, mind you – in order to dig out a smattering of quality stuff that may be hiding between some of the more obvious heavy hitters. The month also brought its share of puzzling releases – Coffin Storm is the sonic equivalent of melatonin – but thankfully, there was more quality than not from the bigger acts on down. Continue reading »

MINUALA – В АГОНИИ

Album Reviews No Responses »

Apr 082024

(Andy Synn embraces the pain with the new album from Russian riffmongers Minuala)

One thing you may have noticed about us here at NCS is that we are loyal (sometimes to a fault).

Once we find a band we like (which, you may have noticed, happens a lot) we try to keep abreast of everything they do and, where possible, write at least a little something about whatever they release.

Of course, with so much music coming out all the time, and so much else going on in our lives, it’s still easy for us to miss stuff – for example, I only managed to give Minuala‘s previous album a passing mention in my year-end round-up (though you can read all about their first four full-lengths here) – but we try our best to stay on top of things, which is why I was so excited to see В Агонии suddenly pop up out of nowhere last week.

SHADES OF BLACK: ACOD, ANTIFLESH, ASPERNAMENTUM, DAUÞUZ, DRAUGNIM, EX CINERE, HÄSSLIG, MACHUKHA, NAXEN

SHADES OF BLACK No Responses »

Apr 072024

Last week I came across a verse from American poet and novelist Charles Bukowski that begins this way: “our public hell creates a / private hell and / there is no hell / except on / earth.”

Hell is a realm that exists in human imagination and belief too — a place in parallel to earthly existence or what comes after life. That is one way it exists on earth, even if it has no other existence, in addition to the public and private hells Bukowski wrote about — the hells that human beings make for others and for themselves.

I’m thinking about all these hells today, the realms of demons and the realms of human depravity and anguish, because I happened upon a sequence of new black metal songs and videos that I can only think of as hellish in one or more of those ways. Those songs fill up a lot of today’s collection.

But I only quoted part of Bukowski‘s verse. After positing that there is no hell except on earth he wrote: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AL-NAMROOD, AORTES, BLACK SORCERY, COGNITIVE, CRYPT SERMON, DARKNESS EVERYWHERE, GRAND CADAVER, HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY, REZN, VÁSTÍGR, WARDRUNA, BATHORY

Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Apr 062024

Saturdays after Bandcamp Fridays should be named just like hurricanes. I’m left staring hopelessly at the wreckage of the NCS in-box and the high-water marks left by the musical flood, which still hasn’t really receded.

In case you were wondering, an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization maintains and updates the annually rotating list of hurricane names, with one name for each letter of the alphabet, except for Q, U, X, Y, and Z. This year the list begins with Alberto. However, I see no reason not to use the letters omitted by the WMO, so let’s call this Saturday Quorthon.

Let’s listen to these 12 songs, all but the last of which breached the surface of the flood during the last week, while we wait (hopelessly) for the carpet to dry out. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WARDRA — “SATURN’S CUTTING BLADES”

Premieres No Responses »

Apr 052024

Seven years have passed since the Russian black metal band Wardra released their debut album Небо медного цвета, but at last a second one is on the way, now set for an April 17 release by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Onism Productions (UK). The name of this one is Страж звёздных склепов (“Warden Of The Stellar Crypts“).

While the band’s first album could be considered an amalgam of traditional black metal and primitive mysticism, they’ve moved in a different direction on their new release — a movement into the endless darkness of space. As they describe it:

This is a story about the death of worlds on the endless fields of nuclear harvest and about a silent witness who will endlessly wander through the carpet of fragments of time, waiting for the beginning of a new world that writhes in endless convulsions of sleep, without hope of awakening. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SWELLING REPULSION — “SULLEN LIGHT OF EXPIRED STARS”

Premieres No Responses »

Apr 052024

We decided to begin our introduction to this song premiere by displaying the phenomenal artwork by The Masked Observer that adorns the cover of the album that includes the song, un-interrupted by the band’s logo or the album title. Gazing at it, you can surely understand why.

The choice of this cover art is the first clue that the style of death metal crafted by Swelling Repulsion on their album Fatally Misguided is itself unusually colorful and engaging, one that takes a familiar ~~landscape~~ soundscape and morphs it into something that the releasing label (Transcending Obscurity) rightly calls a “quirky hidden gem” unearthed from the underground.

But we have an even better clue about what this multi-national trio have done in their forthcoming second album, a clue provided by the song you’re about to hear — “Sullen Light of Expired Stars” — whose title is almost as intriguing as the artwork. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WHO DIES IN SIBERIAN SLUSH

Interviews No Responses »

Apr 052024

(We present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of E.S. from the Russian band Who Dies In Siberian Slush, whose latest album was released on the last day of 2023 by Solitude Productions.)

Who Dies In Siberian Slush is probably the longest-running active death-doom band in Russia. It was formed in 2003, but the first album Bitterness of the Years That Are Lost was released only in 2010. They developed a kind of their own aesthetic as they also used lyrics with Russian cultural references, like a poem by Nicolay Gumilev in one song or a dedication to the painter of tragic fate Boris Kustodiev in another, but at the end of the day, it’s “death-doom with trombone and Russian lyrics”.

The most up-to-date album Uroki Smireniya / Lessons of Humility is the personal and grim monolog of the band’s founder and the only original member, E.S. Here’s his interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INFESTUS — “FUGA NOCTURNA”

Premieres No Responses »

Apr 042024

Our site has had a long history with the German black metal band Infestus. Unlike some musical histories marred by mishaps and mediocrity, this one is fondly remembered, because although the music encompassed by the succession of Infestus releases (which is about to be six albums long) has never been entirely predictable, it has never been disappointing.

The history now continues with the newest Infestus album, Entzweiung, which is set for release by the band’s new label Talheim Records on April 19th. We’ll have more to say about the album as a whole in due course, but today our focus is on the song “Fuga Nocturna“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ICOSANDRIA — “A SCARLET LUNAR GLOW”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres No Responses »

Apr 042024

Albums such as the one we’re presenting today tend to invoke thoughts of tapestries, kaleidoscopes, or panoramas — visual metaphors of change, often rich in detail and sometimes startling, that occur as the scenes pass across our eyes.

In the case of Icosandria‘s new album, the title itself invokes an unusual vision — A Scarlet Lunar Glow. Like the title, the music kindles the imagination into its own glow, though the glow also becomes fire as the manifold changes unfold. Continue reading »

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