AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROGOD — “REMAIN THE SAME AGAIN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 182021
 

 

As many will already know, Necrogod is a Rogga Johansson death metal project that combines his well-established songwriting and instrumental talents with the vocal horrors of The Master Butcher from Costa Rica, who is also a fixture in Morbid Stench and Insepulto.

Following on the heels of a 2015 debut EP (The Inexorable Death Reign) and a 2017 split with the afore-mentioned Morbid Stench (The Bifid Tongue of Doom & Death), this demolishing duo now have a debut full-length headed our way. Entitled In Extremis, it’s set for a July 23 release by Transcending Obscurity Records, and as you can see, it’s ornamented by the unmistakable cover art of Mariusz Lewandowski.

A couple of beastly and dynamically electrifying advance tracks have been uncaged so far, and today we’ve got a third one — “Remain the Same Again” — which reveals a further dimension of Necrogod’s songwriting for the new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ULVEHYRDE

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 182021
 

 

(Karina Noctum brings us this new interview with the vocalist/lyricist of the Norwegian black metal band Ulvehyrde, whose excellent debut album was released last month on the Dusktone label.)

Ulvehyrde started in 2018 and they have recently released their first album, called Englemakersken. The band attracted my attention because they have a cold-tempered sound leaning toward Western Norwegian BM style, while at the same time infusing the necessary groove to keep it interesting.

Naturally, I had to find out more about them, so I talked to Sorath Northgrove, who also plays in Vulture Lord and Hagl. Continue reading »

FALLENSUN: “THE WAKE OF THE FALL”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
May 182021
 

 

(DGR prepared the following very enthusiastic review of the new album by Fallensun from Prince George, British Columbia, which is out now via Bandcamp.)

It has been a blessing in disguise that the recent crop of newer crew inhabiting the upper reaches of the NCS cave have somewhat similar taste to my own. It has freed me up tremendously to just bounce around the internet and look for projects that might otherwise have a hard time getting out into the wider reaches of the metal-sphere while stuff that I would normally consider myself on the hook for has found pretty good coverage here. It’s let me make strange trips, review quieter and more ambient albums, and also get into some crushingly heavy stuff by way of just bouncing around the internet.

To put it mildly, my recent musical discovery quests have been executed with the grace of a body having been thrown down a mine shaft. I don’t know where I’ll land or what stuff might’ve fallen through the NCS net that I’ll catch but its been great so far. The most recent discoveries have been a vast combination of things, including albums that came out earlier in the year – in quite a few recent cases, in February – that are really worth looking in to. Thus, I found myself at the doorstep of Canada’s melodeath/prog-death hybrid Fallensun and their album The Wake Of The Fall. Continue reading »

GREY AURA – ZWART VIERKANT

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 172021
 

(Andy Synn grabs his net and pith helmet and goes on the hunt for that rarest of specimens, the Avant-Garde Black Metal album, by reviewing the latest record by Grey Aura, which was released on 07 May)

The term Aposematism (coined by Edward Bagnall Poulton in 1890, and originally referred to, more simply, as “warning colouration”) refers to the way in which certain animals, often (though not always) through the use of bright colours and bold patterns, signal to potential predators that they’re toxic, venomous, or otherwise dangerous, and – to coin a phrase – shouldn’t be fucked with.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, for one thing, it’s always nice to learn something new, no?

And, for another, it’s clear that the new album from Avant-Black artistes Grey Aura, operates using a similar principle, because the record’s fantastically strange and visually striking cover is an obvious and eye-catching warning that what you’re about to hear is not going to adhere to the normal rules.

Continue reading »

A YEAR DUMBER PLAYLIST: DIRTY BLACK SUMMER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 172021
 

 

(Here we are, a solid year into the pandemic and maybe you see some signs of hope on the roadside, but if you’re still as confused, haunted, and angry as ever, this playlist compiled and written by Neill Jameson may improve your dark moods, or further darken them. Either way, we’re delighted to present it.)

I was planning on putting together something to mark the year anniversary of the few-part playlist series I did last year that began when everyone was stuck inside, a piece of fabric on your face wasn’t yet considered to be the master’s whip, and taking a shit in the halls of Congress wasn’t a patriotic act, just something the older members of Congress did naturally, but then I had a child and the best-laid plans etc etc.

My initial impetus for it was the same as the listicles (gross word) I did on this very same site starting in 2016(?) where I went genre by genre and that’s because I enjoy shedding light on music I enjoy and I’m an attention-seeking asshole and by reading these you are indulging me. Anyway, here’s some things that have been keeping my interest the last few months: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VORVAŇ — “SUPERSCUM”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
May 172021
 

 

If you’re in need of a high-powered jolt of energy, we’ve got just the thing for you in our premiere of a song off Awakened, the new album by the Russian blackened hardcore punk and metal band Vorvaň. “Superscum” fires on all cylinders, and it happens to be as highly addictive as it is ferociously supercharged.

Lyrically, the song is a condemnation, reflecting the self-entitled and dismissive attitude of a person for whom everything she wishes “works out just fine”. Musically, the song is all about the pulse — its own and yours. Continue reading »

FELLED: OUR PREMIERE OF “SPHAGNUM IN THE HINTERLANDS” AND REVIEW OF “THE INTIMATE EARTH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
May 172021
 

 

(In this article Nathan Ferreira reviews The Intimate Earth, the new album by Oregon-based Felled, and introduces our premiere of a song from the album.)

As any self-respecting metalhead should, I keep regular tabs on Transcending Obscurity Records. Their versatility and ear for quality sets the pace for other small-to-medium-sized labels, and I particularly appreciate their willingness to wiggle a little bit outside of their comfort zone in terms of style/genre. You never quite know what you’re going to get from the folks at T.O., you just know it’s gonna be good.

I am also one of those tree-hugging types that is infatuated with Cascadian black metal. Combine these two factors and it becomes easy to see why, when the label announced they were releasing the debut album of Felled, an Oregon-based band that cited some of my all-time favorite artists as influences (early Ulver, Agalloch, Drudkh, Saor), I was already reserving a spot in my AOTY list for it. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MUR, GRAVEOLENCE, GOMGOMA

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
May 162021
 

 

Obviously, I didn’t make the usual Saturday round-up of new songs and videos yesterday. I was victimized by a combination of too much partying the night before and too much work for my fucking day job. This Shades of Black column is also a bit out of the ordinary. I tend to focus on brand new releases and advance tracks from forthcoming records, but today I’m playing catch-up, calling attention to three albums I’ve been enjoying which came out in March or April. And none of these releases is unadulterated black metal — in fact, the “blackening” is often minimal — though the other ingredients in these amalgams differ from band to band.

(I’ll also mentioned that Panopticon’s new album is out now in digital form, and you should go listen to it here; I already spewed a bunch of words about it in mid-April.)

MUR

This French band’s new record, Truth, is classified as an EP, but it’s more than 30 minutes long, and it’s a great way to spend a half-hour, as long as your’re not a rigid genre purist. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: BLOOD SPORE, COAGULATE, SOUL DEVOURMENT, GUTVOID (4 DIMENSIONS OF AUDITORY TERROR)

 Premieres  4 Responses »
May 142021
 

 

Over the last couple of weeks our friends at CVLT NATION have been premiering, one by one, the four ravaging tracks that make up 4 Dimensions of Auditory Terror, a four-way split that’s being released today in a variety of formats by a consortium of labels — Sewer Rot Records, Rotted Life, Blood Harvest, and Black Hole Productions. The participants in this terrorizing 32-minute assault are Blood Spore, Coagulate, Soul Devourment, and Gutvoid.

To celebrate this ghastly event we’re presenting all four tracks from the split in one place, along with new commentary from the bands and our own impressions of each song. Collectively, they make for a listening experience that’s as electrifying as it is mind-mauling, and a showcase for the talents of four up-and-coming death metal bands who deserve a lot more attention. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): EPIPHANIC TRUTH — “DARK TRIAD: BITTER PSALMS TO A SORDID SPECIES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
May 142021
 

 

We don’t know the identity of the masked members of Epiphanic Truth. We’re only told by the band’s label Church Road Records that they come from “a number of former and established acts” — a claim that’s easily accepted based on what they’ve created on their debut album, because it’s so mind-blowing on so many levels.

That album, Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms To A Sordid Species, is an exceptionally ambitious, strikingly adventurous, remarkably multi-faceted, and utterly captivating experience, and so accomplished in its conception and execution that it would come as no surprise to see it appearing on numerous year-end lists — if only word of its existence spreads far enough.

We’re damned well going to do our part to help spread the word, through a great torrent of our own words, but mainly through our premiere today of a full album stream in advance of the May 21 album release by Church Road. Continue reading »

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