EXPANDER: “NEUROPUNK BOOSTERGANG”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Aug 282020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Expander (from Austin, Texas), which Profound Lore Records released on August 21st.)

We don’t often cover much Thrash, or Thrash-adjacent, material here at NCS. For whatever reason it’s something of a blind spot in our regular coverage, and it generally takes a particularly special (or audaciously strange) example of the style to attract our attention.

As you might have guessed, Neuropunk Boostergang is one such example, which is why, just a week after its official release, I’ve decided to write a few words about it.

Of course the fact that we’re turning our gaze towards the realm of Thrash right now, just after the sad and untimely passing of Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, adds an extra dose of poignancy to this write-up, especially when you consider that, much as PT could never be fully summed up by the over-simplistic “Thrash” tag most often applied to their music, likewise Expander don’t fit neatly within the confines of the genre either.

Which is probably why I like them so much. Continue reading »

NONEXIST: “LIKE THE FEARLESS HUNTER”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 282020
 

 

(Here’s TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new fourth album by the Swedish band Nonexist, which is being released today – August 28th – by Mighty Music.)

By my measure, Nonexist are one of the most criminally underrepresented European death metal bands in the entirety of the genre metal.  They are so criminally overlooked I’d wager that ignorance of them should count as a human rights violation.  The project, spearheaded by longtime Swedish scene vet Johan Reinholdz of Skyfire and Andromeda fame, has been one of metal’s best kept secrets since 2000.  Originally a two-piece band consisting of Johan and ex-Arch Enemy vocalist Johan Liiva, the project has been consistently dedicated to preserving an image of melodic death metal at its most pure and un-compromised.

What do I mean by that?  Well… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORTA — “FÚNEBRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 272020
 

 

in late March of this year the Catalonian band Morta self-released their second work, a half-hour album (or EP if you prefer) named Fúnebre. There seems to have been a very limited vinyl release accompanying the digital version, but the Portuguese label Signal Rex obviously decided that such a gripping combination of ruination and revelation shouldn’t be allowed to languish in obscurity, because Fúnebre is now set for an August 28 re-release by Signal Rex on CD and tape.

Once you hear Fúnebre — as you will be able to do at the end of this post — it’s not difficult to understand why that decision was made. The album is devoted to black metal of an undeniably rough, raw, and riotous fervency, capable of manifesting bestial terrors, but the riffing is always targeted to evoking emotional responses, and the nature of those moods may surprise you. Continue reading »

CAVERN: “POWDERED”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 272020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Maryland-based Cavern, which will be released on August 28th.)

I know what you’re all thinking.

First Ulver and their polished, provocative Synth-Pop. Now Cavern and their moody, mellifluous Post-Rock. Has our beloved Andy Synn gone soft?

Or, worse, has he… sold out?

The truth, as always, is far more mundane. This is just what I felt like writing about this week.

But don’t worry, I’ve got something much rougher and riffier lined up for tomorrow…

Until then, though, it’s time to immerse ourselves in the glistening, atmospheric waters of Powdered. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LEBENSSUCHT – “A HOLE IN MY HEART”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Aug 272020
 

 

(Andy Synn prepared the following introduction for our premiere of a video by the multinational band Lebenssucht for a song from their 2020 debut album.)

Is there any greater joy than discovering a band early on in their career and then following them as they grow, develop, and evolve into something truly special?

I suppose some people might say parenthood but… those people are wrong.

Case in point, we first came across the bleak malevolence of multinational Black Metal coven Lebenssucht way back in 2016, and even ended up hosting a premiere for their first video, “Beloved Depression”, not long after.

In April this year the band released their debut album, -273,15°C, which built upon the potential demonstrated on their EP by going even deeper, darker, and bleaker than ever, and today we’re once again pleased to host another video premiere for the group, this time for the record’s sinister second track, “A Hole In My Heart”. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOOM SESSIONS INTERVIEW: CONAN, DEADSMOKE, AND HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS RECORDS

 Interviews  No Responses »
Aug 272020
 

 

(Earlier this year the Heavy Psych Sounds label announced a series of splits called Doom Sessions, and Volume I (released in mid-July) featured songs by the UK’s Conan and Italy’s Deadsmoke. This prompted Comrade Aleks to reach out to the label and the bands with a few questions, and we present the results today, along with music from the split.)

It’s important to keep some unity during this shitty time. Paradise Lost says “Faith divides us, Death unites us”, but indeed there’s a damn lot of things which divide us – politics, Covid, politics again, etc. Split albums always offer this sense of unity inside the heavy scene, and here we have one.

As Heavy Psych Sounds Records have launched a series of splits entitled Doom Sessions, I made the decision to support it with such short interviews as you’ll find below. Doom Sessions‘ first edition includes songs from the almighty crushing Conan (UK) and their younger sludgy brothers Deadsmoke (Italy). A few words from the label’s founder Gabriel Fiori (Black Rainbows band) clarify a few details about this series as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UPCDOWNC — “SCORE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 262020
 

 

Although we believe that our site covers a pretty broad range of music, most visitors know when we’re stepping outside that range, climbing over the fences to take a look at something that lies on the other side. What’s usually inside the fences is a landscape of extreme metal, most of it with vocals that aren’t meant for tender ears, and most of it not meant for tender souls either. And to be honest, what lies on the other side is a universe of sounds far more vast than what’s inside.

It’s fair to say that we’ve climbed over those fences today — though maybe keeping one hand on the fence. Or maybe we’ve just pushed the fence a bit further out. The new album by Upcdownc that we’re premiering today definitely has connections to metal — the music does get plenty heavy, and picks its moments to make abrasive assaults on the senses. And as you’ll discover, some of the moods it channels (and there are a wide range of them) become very dark indeed.

But the album undeniably goes places we usually don’t, and for that it has become a refreshing discovery, one that’s persistently tantalizing and transportive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SPECTRUM OF DELUSION — “AWAIT THE TRANSITION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 252020
 

 

We’ve already seen, at least twice over, that the Dutch technical death metal band Spectrum of Delusion (and their film-making allies) are extremely clever when it comes to preparing videos for their forthcoming second album Neoconception.

The video they made for “Into Another Formation” is still one of my favorites of the year. The fact that it was filmed in a single take is astonishing. The fact that they were able to pull it off while having a good time is all the more impressive. And their full-band playthrough video for “Through Mankind’s True Ambition“, in which they fly like crazy across their instruments (and roar in rage) in various placid locales is an enormous kick to watch.

And now we add one more piece of audio-visual entertainment to those, as we premiere “Await the Transition“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EVAPORATED SORES — “ROTE RESURRECTION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 252020
 

 

Beginning in April and continuing over a period of weeks Evaporated Sores began teasing the music of their debut album Ulcerous Dimensions by posting disturbing lines of black poetry on their Facebook page, accompanied by unsettling imagery that gave further definition to the words. The lines alone were these, in the order they appeared:

Collapse is rebirth, is death, is nothing.

Cosmic indifference
Inconsequential toil

Birth, decay, death
A feedback loop

A poisoned sea swallows the land.

Existence regurgitated into the void

Marching heedlessly, pitilessly, blindly.

Crushed by the weight of a billion suns.

The last of the Facebook installments, with its accompanying photo, was this one: Continue reading »

ULVER: “FLOWERS OF EVIL”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 242020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Norway’s Ulver, which will be released on August 28th (along with Wolves Evolve: The Ulver Story, a 336-page book that reflects on over 25 years of Ulver history) by House of Mythology.)

It’s fitting that, for all their celebrated critical and commercial success, Ulver today are still perennial outsiders – lone wolves, if you will – who don’t really “fit in” anywhere.

No matter what happens – from shimmering cyber synthscapes to improvised orchestral experiments to pulsing prog-pop exhibitionism – you never really know what to expect.

Even at their most instantly, insistently infectious (and here I must pause to point out that this record is very much a continuation of its predecessor’s decadently danceable, 80s synth-pop approach… although that’s not all it is…) there’s always more to what you’re hearing.

More layers to uncover. More threads to be pulled. A bigger picture waiting to be revealed.

Case in point, if The Assassination… was about what it means to keep on dancing, even as Rome is burning, then Flowers of Evil is about what grows from the ashes. A garden filled with both (un)earthly delights and unwanted weeds. A heaven and a hell, one or the other, sometimes both, of our own creation.

And if we’re all still dancing, it’s to a more sombre tune. Because the cracks are beginning to show, and the bloom is off the rose. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries