SCARAB: “MARTYRS OF THE STORM”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 032020
 

 

(This is the fifth installment in a seven-album review orgy by our man DGR, who is attempting to free his mind for year-end season by clearing away a backlog of write-ups for albums he has enjoyed in 2020. With one exception we’ve been running these on consecutive days, and today’s subject is the third album by the Egyptian death metal band Scarab, released last spring by ViciSolum Productions.)

It isn’t the most intuitive thing in the world, but I could’ve sworn that I learned about Scarab’s early-2020 disc Martyrs Of The Storm via ViciSolum Productions at this very site. We’d covered them previously so the Egyptian death metal group were already on my radar. But this specific album is one where I’m swearing up and down that we already wrote about it here – so much so that I’m somewhat scared that I may already be stepping on someone else’s turf by writing about it again.

That’s especially true when you consider that an album like Martyrs Of The Storm will generally find a solid foothold around these parts – partially my fault – because it’s a giant fifty-minute bear of a disc that plays well within the realm of the low and hammering brutal death traditions. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SHATTERED HOPE — “VESPERS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 032020
 

 

In much of the northern hemisphere there is a chill in the air today as the seasons shift into winter, but not solely for that reason. You probably know other reasons for the intensifying chills across our skins that have nothing to do with air temperature, rain, wind, or snow. We live in a frightening and perilous time. The conjunction of the misery and anxiety spawned by what goes on around us and the inexorable sinking into winter makes this day a nearly perfect occasion for the revelation of Shattered Hope‘s new album Vespers.

And it truly is a revelation, one of the most completely immersive and emotionally powerful albums you’re likely to encounter this year. It consists of five extensive tracks that collectively exceed an hour in length. Despite their length, each track is so brilliantly crafted, and embodies so many gripping changes, that getting lost in them is almost inescapable. The entire experience is tragic, as one might expect from this Greek band, who have become so well-known in the halls of atmospheric doom-death and funeral doom, but the album’s monumental visions of devastating moods are magnificent.

And we are thus tremendously fortunate to present a full stream of Vespers today, just days before its November 6 release through the esteemed Solitude Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LIMINAL SHROUD — “LUCIDITY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 022020
 

 

Liminal Shroud from Victoria, BC, made quite a striking impression with their 2018 self-titled demo (which we reviewed here), and are now following that with a debut album that drew the support of the wonderful Canadian label Hypnotic Dirge Records. That album, Through the False Narrows, will be released on November 20th.

The band’s home is a beautiful place, but its setting in the midst of surging oceans and fog-shrouded coasts, often blanketed in the fall and winter by grey and sodden skies, also tends to bring out darker moods. Drawing inspiration from that natural setting, Liminal Shroud have crafted black metal that is capable of becoming as turbulent as ocean whirlpools and crashing waves, but is also palpably atmospheric, providing channels for despair and fury, for the darkness of grief and the fires of defiance.

There are only three people in the band — Aidan Crossley (guitars and vocals), Rich Taylor (bass and vocals), and Drew Davidson (drums) — and they all play vital roles in an album that’s produced in a way which gives them each an even share of attention. Even in the record’s shortest songs, their compositions display remarkable dynamism, and on the two longest tracks, one of which we’re premiering today — “Lucidity” — they use the extended time to push the dynamism of the music’s energy, spirit, and mood to even greater heights. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LOTAN — “ACTA NON VERBA”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 022020
 

 

The biblical sea monster Leviathan was pre-figured by the serpent creature Lotan in the Ugaritic cycle of stories about the Canaanite god Ba’al, and Lotan is also the name chosen by a new Danish black metal band. Lotan may be new to the scene, but its two members are not — both guitarist/bassist Phillip Kaaber and vocalist Martin Rubini are also bandmates in Vanir (and they are joined in Lotan by session members from Ethereal Kingdoms, Fall Of Pantheon, and Abscission).

Lotan draw their inspiration from both satanic spiritualism and existential philosophy, with a credo framed as follows:  “The concept that we as individuals have a true form, a true purpose, or a true meaning dictated by deities or any truth Sayers being divine or political is ridiculous. To become the dragon, we must first break all chains of gods and men and revolt against the cosmic order. To be free one must truly live, and to do that, no god or man can be the subject of our destiny other than ourselves. Kill your masters – kill your god.”

Musically, Lotan have drawn upon traditions of Scandinavian melodic black metal that bring to mind such bands as Marduk, Taake, and Satyricon, but Rotting Christ will likely come to mind as well. The first sign of their creativity is a single named “Acta Non Verba” that will be released tomorrow — November 3rd — by the new label Uprising! Records. It is that song that we now present to you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UTHULLUN — “SILENCE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 022020
 

 

On Friday the 13th of November the Dutch label Wolves of Hades Records will release the debut album of the mysterious Chicago-based entity known as Uthullun, which follows a debut EP (Sunless) released last year. Entitled Dirges for the Void, the new full-length draws its inspirations from the overwhelming of our terrestrial realm in havoc and bewilderment, and the music itself is bewildering, seemingly chaotic, and unexpectedly bewitching.

Uthullun do not traffic in straight-forward or simplistic compositions, nor do they seek to provide calm or assurance. To the contrary, the elaborate and puzzling intricacy of the songs, and the persistence of dissonance and discord, create disturbing experiences. They repeatedly throw the listener off-balance, but for a number of reasons the journey isn’t repellant, but instead unexpectedly seductive. Uthullun continually boggle the mind, but put strange spells on it at the same time. Witness the song we’re premiering today — “Silence“. Continue reading »

WHITE STONES: “KUARAHY”

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Nov 022020
 

 

(This is the fourth installment in a seven-album review orgy by our man DGR, who is attempting to free his mind for year-end season by clearing away a backlog of write-ups for albums he has enjoyed in 2020. We’ve been running these on consecutive days — except we missed Friday — and today’s subject is a debut album released last spring via Nuclear Blast by the Spanish band White Stones.)

The March 13, 2020 album Kuarahy by the band White Stones is such a fascinating release for a number of reasons. This far out from its release, it’s been interesting to see how things have played out for the group’s debut release via Nuclear Blast. On the homefront, we covered the music videos in the lead-up to the debut of this project led by Martin Mendez (of Opeth bassist fame), but upon full release it kind of full off the site’s radar. We’ll rectify that here.

This is a record I’ve listened to a multitude of times since its release, and by the end of multiple listening sections and a seven-month writing delay it remains stubbornly ‘interesting’, in part because what keeps grabbing me seems to nebulous. Every time I think I have a hold on it, it wriggles away and moves just slightly out of vision again. It’s a bizarre creature that seems to exist permanently ‘elsewhere’, even though  at first glance it never seems to garner much more than ‘that’s some prog-death music alright’. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DODENKROCHT, SHAGOR, NÉVOA, TYHJÄ, DØDSFERD, TE RUKI

 SHADES OF BLACK  19 Responses »
Nov 012020
 

 

This worked out okay. I woke up at 7:00 thinking I’d be late finishing SHADES OF BLACK again, and then realized after my first cup of coffee that I’d forgotten to set the clocks back. Suddenly, I had an extra hour. Fortunately, I also made all of today’s selections yesterday and had even added all the artwork, links, and a few notes. It just remained to create some complete sentences, not enough of them to qualify as careful reviews, but hopefully enough to tantalize you.

Tantalizing is the strategy of the day, because this week’s collection includes three complete albums and a three-track demo, in addition to two singles, and although they all merit the kind of thoughtful and thorough reviews that most other NCS writers manage, it’s beyond what I have time to do, even with an extra hour. So, please become tantalized.

DODENKROCHT

I’m beginning with one of the singles, a lyric video released two days ago for the title track to The Dying All. That’s the fourth album by the Dutch band Dodenkrocht, coming out on November 27th via the Swiss label Auric Records. Continue reading »

HALLOWEEN HELL: BENIGHTED, MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, VEGAS., PUPIL SLICER, SICK N’ BEAUTIFUL, DESASTER, DECAYED, HELGAMITE, GROMADAH, PANYCHIDA, TRANSILVANIA, NOIRE ANTIDOTE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Oct 312020
 


Benighted – photo by Anthony Dubois

 

While slugging coffee this morning I got my daily text-message alert from the county health department reminding me that the safest way to celebrate Halloween is to stay inside my home. As if I needed that fucking reminder, on top of all the other miserable reminders that this Samhain will be like no other in our lifetimes.

I can’t even count the predictable absence of trick-or-treaters as a silver lining to this cloud, because they never came around our place even before the pandemic made that a potentially self-destructive choice. The screaming of the loris horde and the carefully-placed pools of guts might have had something to do with that.

So, most of us will have to celebrate the most metal day of the year stuck inside playing with ourselves our pets and trying to forget that global infections are now setting new records, that the U.S. set its own new record yesterday with more than 99,000 new cases (!), and that Sean Connery died. What a fucking year it’s been, and still two months of fresh hell to go before it ends.

But we can still listen to the devil’s music tonight, and here at NCS we need to do our part to enliven that experience and help you forget. So here’s an extravagantly-sized playlist of mostly brand new songs and videos that I assembled this morning.

BENIGHTED (France)

If you haven’t had enough breeeeee in your diet, we’ll fix that right away. Also included in the food groups within this first dish are cyclotron-speed drumming, incendiary riffage, back-breaking grooves, splendid blaring chords, carnivorous roaring, and a generally rabid approach to life. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 126): DYSYLUMN

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  No Responses »
Oct 302020
 

 

(In this Synn Report for the month of October 2020, Andy Synn assembles reviews of all the albums released by the French band Dysylumn, the most recent of which appeared earlier this month via Signal Rex.)

Recommended for fans of: Schammasch, Sinmara, Blut Aus Nord

I know, I know, this is the third time in a row where The Synn Report has zeroed in on a band playing some form of Black Metal. And, I promise, next month’s edition will break the pattern. But I honestly couldn’t let October pass by without taking the opportunity to completely immerse myself in the pitch-black back-catalogue of French duo Dysylumn, whose latest album was released earlier this month.

If it helps matters, the band’s earliest works erred much more towards the Blackened Death Metal side of things  albeit with a heavy, borderline hypnotic, atmospheric presence on top of all that, so this edition of The Synn Report is still set to be strikingly different to the ones which preceded it.

But what I’m really looking forward to here is an opportunity to chart the band’s evolution from their imposing Black/Death early output through to their more atmosphere-intense, poisonously “progressive” Black Metal of their more recent work, as it’s only be understanding where they came from that we can truly appreciate what they’ve become. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ATOMIC WITCH — “DEATH, SEX, AND SATAN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Oct 302020
 

 

When we last checked in with Atomic Witch at our putrid site, about 14 months ago, the occasion was a premiere of the title track from their first EP, Void Curse. It caused us to conclude that the long-time disciples of the Cleveland metal and hardcore scene who formed Atomic Witch picked a damned good band name. As we wrote then, that EP “couples the wild radioactive energy of a runaway nuclear meltdown with the weird and witchy feeling of a supernatural orgy”. Together, those four tracks were supercharged with furious, pulse-pounding energy, head-spinning instrumental changes, and unhinged vocal intensity. The genre-bending music created a maniacal atmosphere, whole-heartedly indulging in a musical blood-spraying riot from beginning to end.

Now, 14 months later, the band’s label Seeing Red Records is on the verge of releasing a new Atomic Witch EP, entitled Death, Sex, and Satan. They picked Halloween as the release date (tomorrow!), for reasons that will become obvious when you find out what they’ve done — and yes, you can find out right away, because we’re premiering a full stream of the whole thing. Continue reading »

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