AN NCS PREMIERE: BECERUS — “PRIMEVAL IGNORANTIA”

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Feb 222021
 

 

Rising from Palermo, Sicily, Becerus is a new band who openly declare their love for ’90s death metal, and the first demonstration of their devotion is a debut album named Homo Homini Brutus, whose title alone provides significant clues to what Becerus have done with their music. That savage cover art up there, created by Karl Dahmer, provides another significant clue. But an even more tangible clue comes in the form of the album track we’re premiering today.

Before we get to that, you should know that none other than Everlasting Spew Records, who know a thing or two about slaughtering death metal, will be releasing the album on April 30th. The song that has been chosen for the first premiere is “Primeval Ignorantia” — and that’s another title that’s in keeping with part (but only part) of this band’s overall aesthetic (though “aesthetic” is probably too fancy a word for what they do). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CREEPING FEAR — “HATEGOD TRIUMPH”

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Feb 222021
 

 

The Italian maestro Paolo Girardi has created the artwork for so many metal album covers that trying to count the number would be a daunting task. But in the humble opinion of this writer the one he created for the new album by the French band Creeping Fear is among his best (and most frightening), and surely will be an enticement for fans to pick up a physical edition of the record — IF the record is any good. Is it any good?

Well, hell yes, it is very good indeed, a big slab of red meat for slavering carnivores of death metal in the vein of such bands as Hate Eternal, Immolation, and Cannibal Corpse. The name of the album is Hategod Triumph, and today we present evidence of its brutal, barbaric, and unhinged attractions through the premiere of the title track in advance of the album’s March 26th release by Dolorem Records. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PALUS SOMNI, RITUALS OF THE DEAD HAND, CONSTANT NAUSEA, COLDCELL, HEGEROTH, MORK, VIPÈRE

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Feb 212021
 

 

In exploring what I might choose for today’s column I wound up going down a weird rabbit hole. By chance, the first few tracks I picked put me in a chilling frame of mind, and in sorting through others I decided to just stay there, immersed in a mood of cold, frightening eeriness. However, I did decide to pick a couple of more carnal (for want of a better word) selections to finish off this compilation, to shake off those other moods like a wet dog shedding water.

There’s obviously a lot of music here, but maybe not as much as you might guess because until the very end these are all advance tracks rather than full releases. So don’t be daunted… dive all the way in….

PALUS SOMNI (UK/US)

I’m beginning with “Unholy Cosmic Quintessence“, the first advance song from the debut album of Palus Somni, a trio that combines (to quote the label) “the twisted dissonant riffs of Stroda (known for this work on U.K. based Industrial / Black Metal act Decoherence), the thundering vicious percussions of Eoghan (known for his work on U.S. Black Metal bands Akhlys and Aoratos) and the distant cold icy screams of Imber (from U.S. based record label Noxial)”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TROBEROTH — “MY WILL IS GONE”

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Feb 212021
 

 

Today we have a rare Sunday premiere for you, a lyric video for a song named “My Will Is Gone” off the second album from the Costa Rican death/thrashing marauders in Troberoth. That album, Fallen Angel, will be co-released on April 2nd by GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and Sanatorio Records (Costa Rica).

The song is a hell-raising thrash attack, but it quickly becomes apparent that Troberoth‘s song-writing approach is more varied than usual for this genre, and that their dynamic and multi-faceted song-writing is made possible by the impressive instrumental skill that every band member brings to the table. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SPECTRAL WOUND, WEREWOLVES, MNHG, SOLAR DEMISE, WOLFANGER, FEAST FOR THE CROWS, MATT HECKLER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 202021
 

 

There’s always a kind of random quality about these weekend round-ups, mainly because what I choose to investigate in my listening is itself a very random process. This one may be more random than most because I jumped around in my listening list to make sure I included some groups I knew nothing about, and wound up picking some of those for the last four items in the following collection. I also decided to throw you a big curveball at the end.

SPECTRAL WOUND (Canada)

I easily could have saved this first song for tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column, but it put such a thrill in me when I first heard it this morning that it would have pained me too wait. It’s such a glorious bonfire of sound, a racing whirl of exultant harmonized riffing, scorching vocals, and jet-speed drumming (which occasionally shifts gears). There’s a brief (and unnecessary) interlude in the middle, and then we’re right back in the midst of this brilliant spinning pillar of fire. Ironically, the name of the song is “Frigid and Spellbound“. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: A NIGHT IN THE ABYSS / ANTRE / TRIVAX

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Feb 192021
 

 

(In this article Andy Synn reviews three recent EPs from bands based in the UK.)

Huh… seems like a while now since I last did one of these “Best of British” columns (I’m not sure exactly how long, I haven’t checked).

And while it’s not like I’ve been neglecting my “local” scene – I heaped praise upon Thundering Hooves right at the start of the year, for example – it’s probably about time to catch up with what’s going on in our ever more divided kingdom. Continue reading »

DGR REVIEW ARCHIVES (PART 4): THE AMENTA — “REVELATOR”

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Feb 192021
 

 

(We present the fourth and final installment from an avalanche of reviews that DGR delivered unto us earlier this week, and today’s edition focuses on the newest album by Australia’s The Amenta, which is being released today by Debemur Morti Productions.)

It’s been a good bit of time since we last heard from the Australian amorphous extreme metal genre-hoppers The Amenta. Their sound has expanded widely over the years, with releases that range from a blackened death metal vein, to industrialized monstrosities, and even some straightforward noise and black metal collisions for fun. I’ve even seen them granted the genre-descriptor of ‘terminator metal’ a few times, given their favoring of distorted electronic backings that can often sound like failing machinery.

By the time of 2013’s Flesh Is Heir the group’s sound was firmly planted in a vast maelstrom of industrial noise and blackened death metal, and it is a release that we have yelled about for a long time – largely my fault – at this here site. The eight years since then, though, have been relatively quiet and have seen The Amenta‘s various musicians spread far and wide. It seemed for a little while that the group would be slowly shadowed out – that is, until the announcement of the group’s newest album Revelator. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MOTHER OF ALL — “AUTUMN”

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Feb 192021
 

 

Mother of All is the brain-child of veteran Danish multi-instrumentalist Martin Haumann, who for many years has been a sought-after drummer, performing with such bands as Myrkur, Mercenary, and Afsky (notably, he performed on Afsky’s fantastic 2020 album Ofte jeg drømmer mig død). For Mother of All, Haumann’s conception was to concentrate on death metal with melodic and progressive elements, and that conception is now fully realized on the band’s debut album Age Of The Solipsist — though you’ll discover that it incorporates even greater musical variety than just those elements.

To help bring these musical visions into reality, Haumann enlisted some very talented allies. The new album features the stunning bass performances of none other than Steve Di Giorgio (Death, Testamant, Sadus), as well as eye-popping work by Danish guitarist Frederik Jensen. But even in such impressive company, Haumann’s song-writing, drum-work, and vocals still strongly stand out. And speaking of talented allies, we should also note that the record was mixed by Hannes Grossmann (ex-Necrophagist, ex-Obscura, Alkaloid) and that the cover art was created by Travis Smith, who is an artistic institution himself.

All these names by themselves should build considerable intrigue about what they’ve accomplished, and now we can at least partially satisfy that curiosity by presenting a lyric video for the opening track from the new album, named “Autumn“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PURE — “THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADOW”

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Feb 192021
 

 

The prolific Swiss artist Bornyhake Ormenos has assumed many musical guises in a career that now spans more than two decades — more than 25 past and current bands and projects according to Metal-Archives, including Borgne, Enoid, Ancient Moon, My Death Belongs To You, and The Path Of Memory. One of those projects is Pure, a solo black metal endeavor that was born during 2013 as a result of “a tormenting and egregious experience painfully born” by Bornyhake.

Since then Pure has released four albums, and now a fifth one is on the way, following the last by roughly four years. Entitled Seeds of Despair, it will be co-released on March 30th by Satanath Records and Obscure Abhorrence Productions. It is described on behalf of the labels as music “for loners and secluded people who have the habit to follow the mind-stultifying smoke to some ineffable fields close to Judas Iscariot, Horna, Gorgoroth, and Lifelover…” And today we present one of the new songs, fittingly named “The Boundary Between Light and Shadow“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ENDEZZMA

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Feb 182021
 

 

(In January of this year Dark Essence Records released the highly anticipated third album by the Norwegian black metal band Endezzma, and in this new interview Karina Noctum spoke with the band’s vocalist M. Shax about the production, themes, and artwork of the album.)

This interview with Shax, the vocalist of the Norwegian Black Metal band Endezzma is focused on their latest album, The Archer, Fjord and The Thunder, released back on January 21st. This release is definitely worth checking out if you are fond of the Norwegian BM style as it includes lots of sonic goodies.

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How long did it take for you to write The Archer, Fjord and the Thunder?

We started working on the new album as soon we released The Arcane Abyss. I guess it took two years in the making.  It was an intricate and intense process since this album, sound-wise, is the most multi-layered one we have done. Continue reading »

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