SEEN AND HEARD: SKEPTICISM, MERGER REMNANT, SONUM, NISHAIAR

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 072021
 

 

Today’s roundup of new music and videos is a real hodgepodge (or perhaps you would prefer mishmash) of metallic creativity. At least one of the entries is a massive hodgepodge unto itself. A full trip through all of them may leave you shaking your head — hopefully in wonder.

SKEPTICISM (Finland)

2021 marks the 30th anniversary of this pioneering funeral doom band, remarkably with its original line-up still intact. To celebrate their long survival, they have a new album named Companion that’s ready for release on September 24th by Svart Records. The first single, “Calla“, emerged last week with a beautiful and haunting video made by Tuomas A. Laitinen that perfectly suits the music and the equally haunting words, which incorporate references to pale calla lilies in a story of longing and closure. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MAYHEM, DARKTHRONE, NECRONAUTICAL, EXITIUM SUI, SEA MOSQUITO, HAPLESS WRETCH, UNDERDARK

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Jun 062021
 

 

I nearly didn’t include the new Mayhem and Darkthrone songs in this column, because I thought anyone who would visit us today would have already heard them. Plus, as is generally true of NCS as a whole, I tend to focus on less-heralded bands than the ones whose names are household words. On the other hand, those are two of black metal’s most influential bands, and getting new songs from both of them in the same week seems like something especially noteworthy, especially for a column like this one. So, they’re both here.

After that I shifted the focus to more obscure names, and by coincidence almost all of them are UK groups.

MAYHEM (NORWAY)

Atavistic Black Disorder/Kommando is a Mayhem EP that will be released on July 9th by Century Media. The dual title signifies that the EP includes three original tracks (“Voces Ab Alta,” “Black Glass Communion,” and “Everlasting Dying Flame”) as well as covers of classic punk tracks from Discharge (“In Defense Of Our Future”, Dead Kennedys (“Hellnation”), Rudimentary Peni (“Only Death”), and the Ramones (“Commando”). The song that emerged last week is one of those original tracks, which was initially recorded during the band’s Daemon sessions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FIAT NOX — “THE ARCHIVE OF NIGHTMARES”

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Jun 062021
 

 

Following up their 2016 debut EP Light the Torches, the German black metal band Fiat Nox will release their first album on June 25th through The Crawling Chaos Records. The album’s well-chosen name is Archive of Nightmares, and today, in a rare Sunday premiere for our site, we’re presenting a stream of the title track.

The label describes the album this way: “At the spiritual core of the music lies the profound and abysmal side of man, as he – inextricably bound to a world ensnared in perpetual descent within the maw of night – cannot but revel in negativity”. Those words are equally well-chosen, because the music is itself abysmal, but revels in madness. The song we’re premiering today is a great example of the band’s sinister powers, presenting a multi-faceted work that’s hallucinatory, hopeless, tormented, and viscerally pulse-pounding. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KVADRAT — “ΨΥΧΙΚΗ ΑΠΟΣΥΝΘΕΣΗ”

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Jun 042021
 

 

Desolate subjects and a desperate mission animate the music on Kvadrat’s debut EP Ψυχικη Αποσυνθεση (“mental decay”), which we’re now premiering in full. Rather than embracing folklore or mysticism, this Greek black metal duo grapple with the kind of severe personal estrangement that reduces a mind to a frightening and hopeless prison, a vessel of fear, frustration, pain, and desperation, capable of producing not only depression but also hatred and a desire for oblivion.

The lyrics speak of life denying us light, of time melting all hope, of toxic rain flooding the paths of salvation, of sounds of hysteria ringing from bottomless pits of madness, and of rising fires of destruction as a last resort.

And with that subject matter in mind, the music pours gasoline on the gates of an unwelcoming reality, and ignites it, perhaps as a way of shedding light on the causes of terrible predicaments, or as a violent means of freeing lost souls from mental paralysis.

Be forewarned: This music asks no quarter and gives none. These four songs are absolutely breathtaking in their intensity and sonic power — dense, near-overwhelming, onslaughts of sound capable of swallowing a listener whole — but they are somehow also strangely mesmerizing. The music rings as well as ravages, and while it’s unnerving in its discordance, it can also seem heavenly — if the heavens were on fire. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FRIISK — “DEM WIND ENTGEGEN”

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Jun 042021
 

 

The German black metal band Friisk made a strong impression with their first EP, De Doden van’t Waterkant, in 2018. They followed that last year with a split release, joined by the French band Loth, but they’ve mainly devoted their creative energies over the last two years to the development of a debut album. Entitled …un torügg bleev blot Sand, it has now been announced for release on July 2nd via Vendetta Records.

Friisk draw inspiration from the landscapes of the East Frisian region in which they live — and the lyrics themselves were written in German, Low German, and the Sater Frisian dialect — as well as from a need to confront the negative experiences of individual human beings, and to explore in cathartic fashion the realities of fear, devastation, depression, illness, and death.

The resulting music, as displayed on the new album, is emotionally powerful on multiple levels. It surges with ravaging intensity, hostile and assaulting. But at least equally, the music is also atmospheric. In its melancholy melodies it provides an authentic reflection of the unavoidable emotional damage that’s inherent in the human condition, yet also points the way to the possibility of hope.

We have a great example of these facets of Friisk’s music in the gripping and intensely memorable song we’re premiering today: “Dem Wind entgegen“. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jun 032021
 

(Andy Synn knows how easy it is to miss things when so many albums are released each month, so here’s four from May he recommends you try and find time to check out)

As the first edition of this (now officially “ongoing”) column was such a success (well, some people seemed to like it at least) I’ve made the decision to make it a regular thing.

So, for its sophomore outing I’ve chosen four artists/albums from the past month which we didn’t get around to covering properly before now (though we have featured some of them in various ways).

Don’t get me wrong, this is only scratching the surface of the various violent delights which May had to offer, but I think you’ll still be pleased with my selections, which this time around include a pair of very impressive debuts as well as new releases from not one but two former Synn Report alumni.

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRAVERIPPER — “RADIATED REMAINS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 032021
 

 

Indiana’s Graveripper are open and obvious in their admiration of Germanic thrash, but equally attracted to the stylings of early Norwegian black metal, as well as the rollicking riots of first-wave black metal. As the band’s founder, vocalist/guitarist Corey Parks has quipped, “We’ve described ourselves as if Exodus and Kreator had a kid and Immortal babysat frequently. We’ve received comparisons to Venom, Toxic Holocaust, and Skeletonwitch, which I can see. I think there is a lot of Midnight in there, and bands like Bonehunter, Bewitcher — all that.”

Of course, it’s one thing to tick off all those influences and another thing to witness how well Graveripper have drawn together the ingredients of ’80s death/thrash, blackened speed metal, and savage rock ‘n’ roll — while also incorporating dark and memorable melodies so seamlessly into their blood-rushing onslaughts.

And witness it you shall, because today we’re presenting a full stream of the band’s explosive and moving new EP, Radiated Remains, the day before its release by Wise Blood Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE NEGATIVE BIAS — “TAPEWORM PYRAMIDS”

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Jun 032021
 

 

Narcissus Rising, the second album by the Austrian band The Negative Bias, was released almost two years ago — though due to the pandemic time-dilation effect it seems like two decades ago. That album, which we enthusiastically premiered and reviewed here in advance of its release by ATMF, opened many eyes to the band’s impressive but unsettling talents. We wrote then:

“The new album by the Austrian alchemists The Negative Bias is so ambitious in its conception, so extravagant in its composition, and so tremendously powerful in its execution that it merits the often-overused term “visionary”. It becomes a form of breathtakingly dramatic musical theater that seems calculated to create shock and awe, to assault and bedazzle the senses, forcibly shattering commonplace perceptions in order to make the mind more receptive to new and unexpected visions.”

It was thus exciting to learn that The Negative Bias had recorded a new EP for release this year, and today we have the pleasure of presenting a full stream of that EP — entitled Tapeworm Pyramids — the day before its issuance via Vendetta Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CIRCLE OF SIGHS — “NARCI”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 022021
 

 

This coming Friday, June 4th, Metal Assault Records will release Narci, the second album by the anonymous international collective known as Circle of Sighs, and today we bring you a full stream of all its wonders — and the wonders are indeed manifold.

“Progressive-synth-doom” is a label you might have seen for their constantly surprising music, but that barely scratches the surface. More revealing are the PR characterizations which drop references to glitch-pop, prog rock, dark jazz, industrial gaze, and grindcore influences, or which remark upon the band’s exploration of “the outer reaches of metal’s avant garde”. Not for naught is the album recommended for fans of such disparate groups as Yob, Tubeway Army, Pallbearer, King Crimson, Depeche Mode, Thomas Dolby, Brian Eno, and Neurosis — and that’s not nearly an exhaustive list. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NOCTAMBULIST — “ENGULFED”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 022021
 

 

(Nathan Ferreira introduces our premiere of a track off the new album by Denver-based Noctambulist, which will be released by Willowtip Records on July 2nd.)

It’s difficult to stand out in any style of music, but that challenge is heightened for The Barren Form – first impressions of it will bring to mind the claustrophobic fretwork of Portal distilled into the blistering intensity of Hate Eternal. Such overstimulating qualities don’t tend to leave a lot of room for dynamics, and on top of that, Noctambulist like to write slabs of 6+ minutes of chaotic cacophony. The few moments you do get to breathe are barely able to be savored before a song powers into another turbulent assault, highlighted by the mind-boggling speed and stamina of drummer Michael Nolan.

The musicianship on The Barren Form is top-notch, as is expected from a Willowtip Records release, but what is striking about Noctambulist is how much emotion they can inject into a suffocating, abstruse template. A couple of staccato chops at the right time hammers the riffs in deep, and the guitars themselves don’t tend to noodle around the fretboard a lot – either that or it’s muffled amidst the discordance. What then emerges are jagged, unsettling chords that simultaneously release tension as it’s built.

Where contemporaries in this realm of death metal might focus more on snaking subtleties and enhancing the overall creepiness and confusion, Noctambulist are fast, heavy, and fucking loud. It feels like everything is just coming at you all at once, with a roomy, modern production job giving proper balance so no one element is neglected. Continue reading »

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