AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HUMANITAS ERROR EST — “AN INEXCUSABLE EXISTENCE”

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Sep 172020
 

 

Four years after a debut album named Human Pathomorphism, and following a hiatus, the black metal band Humanitas Error Est have made a new beginning, and have recorded new music. While the musical and lyrical thematics follow the same misanthropic and anti-human tropes expressed in that earlier work, the line-up has been newly formed. The band’s two founders, vocalist S. Caedes and drummer Ahephaïm (both of whom are also in Lebenssucht) remain in place, but they are now joined by new faces in what has become an international collective, with members from Germany, Belgium, France and Australia:

S CAEDES – lead vocals
BASMU – lead vocals
AHEPHAÏM – drums
ARBORIA – guitar
MICTIAN – guitar
FENRIR – bass

As the first sign of what they have done together, today we present a video for a shattering new song named “An Inexcusable Existence“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MY DEATH BELONGS TO YOU — “TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY”

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Sep 172020
 

 

Over a long span of years the Swiss composer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist Bornyhake Ormenos has been involved in an equally long list of bands and solo projects, including Borgne, Pure, Enoid, Ancient Moon, and The Path of Memory. Through most of those, he has delved into variants of black and death metal. But in his solo project My death belongs to you, he has turned his talents to funeral doom. The first album of this project is The world seems to be fading, and it will be released by Funere on October 10th.

What we have for you today is a track from this forthcoming album named “Tomorrow is the last day“, and even standing alone it proves that Bornyhake has a sure-handed mastery of this old and miserably magnificent musical style. Continue reading »

LIK: “MISANTHROPIC BREED”

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Sep 172020
 

 

(In this writeup TheMadIsraeli provides an enthusiastic recommendation of the new album by the Swedish band LIK, which will be released by Metal Blade Records on September 25th.)

For a good decade now old school Swedish death metal throwback bands have been milking a long beaten-to-death style and aesthetic until it was stripped of the ferocity and angst that gave it have its appeal to begin. Very few of these bands are good.  The style has become victimized by a corporatized sort of nostalgia aping. Instead of bands trying to do things with the style that are forward-thinking or… dare I suggest it… trying to write actually captivating songs full of killer riffs, killer melodies, and a powerful unhinged vocal front, a lot of the music just feels really cynical and pandering.

LIK aren’t one of those bands.  As a matter of fact, I would tell you that since their debut Mass Funeral Invocation in 2015, they have become one of the very few old school Swedish death metal bands that are worth your time.  They have passion, brutality, technicality, drama, and a deep respect for the roots of their sound that so many bands that do this shit just do not have. Continue reading »

CHROME WAVES: “WHERE WE LIVE”

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Sep 162020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of the new album by Chrome Waves, which is set for release on September 25th by Disorder Recordings.)

So far in 2020 there have not been more than a handful of black metal releases that have inspired me to put them in heavy rotation. The sub-genre of depressive black metal has become even more scarce in terms of quality. I find this odd because 2020 has begged for bleaker, darker music. I know I can plug DSBM into the search bar of Bandcamp and find an abundance of poorly programmed drum machines under thin over-processed guitar tones.

This is what makes Chrome Waves‘ new album such a treasure. It sounds great and is as dark and melancholy as I might want when I am taking my meds. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CROSS BRINGER — “THE SIGNS OF SPIRITUAL DELUSION”

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Sep 162020
 

 

They say you should never judge a book an album by its cover, but when the image is as arresting and enigmatic as the one which adorns this record it’s practically impossible not to.

Are we to take this image as a vision of strength or a study of scars? A meditation on vulnerability, or a celebration of our vitality? Is it about pain and loss, or our ability to resist and to endure, no matter what is thrown at us?

Or is it none of these things. Is it simply about what makes up a body, not just as a conglomeration of flesh and bone, but as a collection of years and experiences which mark us, and shape us, in ways both big and small?

And, if so, what does that say about Cross Bringer and their visceral, venomous debut, which we’re premiering today? Continue reading »

REPUKED: “DAWN OF REINTOXICATION”

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Sep 162020
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the forthcoming third album by the Swedish band Repuked, set for release on October 9th by Soulseller Records.)

One of my favorite death metal bands of all time are Austrian grime lords Pungent Stench.  They were a band who were all about writing some of the most grotesque, shamelessly filthy, and perverse death metal possible from both a lyrical and sonic standpoint.  They had a sound that was really all their own. Bands tried to imitate them, but no one has ever quite reaped their influence and managed to make it work well.  I always felt they were kind of the next step up from legendary death masters Autopsy, an evolution.

Repuked is the equivalent to that in relation to Pungent Stench.  A lot of things about their sound line up the same way.  Super-grimy, sludgy, yet buzzsaw guitars, a dedication to a mixture of doom, D-beat and atonal fast-as-fuck viciousness combined with a love of absolutely perverse over-the-top lyrical subject matter.  They offer a kind of death metal that is pretty hard to come by nowadays, the shit that is all about reveling in the darkest aspects of the genre.  Dawn Of Reintoxication, the band’s upcoming record, is quite possibly the most disgustingly impactful brutal death metal record of the whole year. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOOM SESSIONS INTERVIEW: 1782 AND ACID MAMMOTH

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Sep 162020
 

 

(Earlier this year the Heavy Psych Sounds label announced a series of splits called Doom Sessions, and Volume II (which will be released on September 18th) features songs by the Italian band 1782 and the Greek band Acid Mammoth. Comrade Aleks reached out to both bands with a few questions, and we present the results today, along with music from the split. Aleks‘ interview of the bands who participated in Volume 1 is here.)

Heavy Psych Sounds Records keep on providing us more of modern doom/stoner vibes, and the second volume of their series of splits named Doom Sessions is on its way. Volume 2 features Acid Mammoth from Greece and the Italian 1782. Both bands are quite fresh but they have already proved their serious attitude with full-length albums.

Once more the label’s owner Gabriel Fiori (Black Rainbows band) introduces us to these participants in the Doom Sessions, as members of both bands are going to reveal a few things behind their work. Marco Nieddu (vocals, guitars, bass) on behalf of 1782 and Chris Babalis Jr. (guitars, vocals) on behalf of Acid Mammoth bring us the folowing words from behind a quarantine curtain. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE LAST REIGN — “EVOLUTION”

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Sep 152020
 

 

Four years in the making, the new second album by The Last Reign from Buffalo, New York, is now rapidly approaching its September 18 release date. Bearing the title Evolution, it’s a 12-track, 55-minute concept album built around a science-fiction narrative that’s “about the world’s resources being long depleted, sending the human race on a quest for an uncertain future.”

Honestly, though I’m a die-hard sci-fi fan, I’m at the point in my long listening career when I blanch at the thought of a nearly hour-long album. It’s such a rarity when a record of that length has real staying power, and more common, even in generally strong records, to encounter the creeping monotony of sameness or the insertion of sub-par tracks that would have been better left on the cutting room floor. But I’m happy to report that Evolution easily avoids those pitfalls, and instead creates an “edge of your seat” momentum that doesn’t flag. The fact that the band’s chosen field is melodic death metal, a field that’s been well-furrowed to the point of exhaustion, makes the accomplishment all the more impressive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GELKHAMMAR — “DAUGHTER OF THE WIND”

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Sep 152020
 

 

In the Mediterranean straits between Sicily and Tunisia lies the ancient volcanic island of Pantelleria, originally named Kossyra (or Cossyra) by Greek cartographers. The original Arab name for the island was Bint al-Riyāh (بنت الرياح), meaning “Daughter of the Winds” after the strong gales that constantly buffet the island coming off the north coast of Africa.

Pantelleria, which is now part of Italy, has a long and storied history, and perhaps surprisingly given its small population it also has a black metal scene. Cossyra Tapes, as you might expect from the name, was founded as a sub-label of Xenoglossy Productions to release music from that scene, and our focus today is on a forthcoming debut album named The Sword of Gelfiser by the Pantellerian band Gelkhammar. Continue reading »

NAPALM DEATH: “THROES OF JOY IN THE JAWS OF DEFEATISM”

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Sep 152020
 

 

(Here’s DGR’s review of the eagerly anticipated new album by Napalm Death, which is set for release by Century Media on September 18th.)

Napalm Death have realized that they are one of those groups whose name and cultural brand makes it so they can do whatever the hell they want musically, and it’s been fun watching the group throw their weight around. The Napalm Death banner extends far beyond just music, as mentioning them raises the specter of grind as a whole genre, and so in one way or another the two have become inextricable. Yet as their career has proven, the band have long aimed past the idea of incredibly short musical tantrums and into realms both far heavier and more violent, and also worlds slower and much more atmospheric.

Apex Predator – Easy Meat was a good example of that sort of musical exploration. It existed like a condensed version of the band’s career and musical tastes in a head-on collision, resulting in a dense package that was all over the map musically but as heavy as a group with the name Napalm Death should be expected to make. Logic Ravaged By Brute Force, released earlier in the year, suggested something different. It contained both the punk-flavored title song and a noisier than hell Sonic Youth cover.

You could glean from that some sense of where the band might be aiming in the future, but their recent comments that they were really leaning in a noise-rock direction with their newest release Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism suggested that the album might be something very different for them. Which makes the release all the more fun because it is a very different exploration of music for the band. Continue reading »

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