GAEREA: “LIMBO”

 Album Reviews  16 Responses »
Jul 222020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Portuguese band Gaerea, which is set for release by Season of Mist on July 24th.)

Isn’t it funny how the human brain unconsciously and involuntarily makes connections between things?

Case in point, I can’t think about, or listen to, Portuguese powerhouse Gaerea without also thinking about their cousins in Selbst and White Ward.

The connections between the latter two are quite obvious, as both bands released their debut albums within one month of another back in 2017, meaning they’re always going to be inextricably linked in my mind.

But Gaerea didn’t release their first album, Unsettling Whispers, until almost a full year later, making their relationship to the other two a lot more tenuous and complex.

Perhaps what it comes down to is the fact that, to me at least, these bands, both collectively and individually, are potential new standard bearers for Black Metal, both cognisant of the genre’s roots and rich history, but not limited by established traditions or old boundaries.

White Ward, of course, have already proven themselves with the release of Love Exchange Failure just last year, and the new Selbst album (set for release in a few weeks) looks set to do the same for them.

What then should we expect from Gaerea’s new album? Sophomore slump, or soaring new standard? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RESIN TOMB — “BESTIAL”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jul 222020
 

 

If you’re an extreme metal band and you name a song “Bestial“, you’d better be prepared to back it up. You’d better find your inner animal and uncage it, and that animal had better be terrifying. Let’s put your mind at rest right away (before we give you a chance to wreck your mind): Resin Tomb back up that song title to the bloody hilt.

This death/grind formation from Australia have clearly found their higher calling, which is the delivery of stunningly ruinous sonic savagery. The band features members of Siberian Hell Sounds, Descent, and Snorlax, so it’s not a complete shock that they’re capable of the shocking assaults you’ll find on their self-titled debut EP, which will be released on July 31st by Brilliant Emperor Records. But we hasten to add that, as “Bestial” itself proves, they’ve not burned the playbook of effective song-writing, even though they do such a frighteningly good job of incinerating and fragmenting everything in their path. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DARKENED — “THE OLD ONES”

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Jul 222020
 

 

The term “supergroup” is over-used and sometimes not entirely accurate, but it does come to mind in the case of the multi-national death metal formation Darkened. At a minimum, no one would dispute that the band is rich in experience and with a line-up pedigree that’s immediately impressive. Darkened‘s collective resume certainly played a role in drawing the attention of fans to their 2019 debut EP, Into the Blackness, and then the music on the EP did the rest of the job, proving that the band’s members were earning their accolades all over again and intensifying interest in what they might do next under the Darkened banner.

What they’ve done next is a debut album that will be released by the same label that helped usher that EP into the world — Edged Circle Productions. The imposing title of the full-length is Kingdom of Decay, and it will hit the streets (like a warhead) on September 11th. One electrifying song from the album is already out, and now we’re presenting a second one that’s perhaps even more dynamic and multi-faceted but no less adrenaline-charged. Continue reading »

VOIDCEREMONY: “ENTROPIC REFLECTIONS CONTINUUM: DIMENSIONS UNRAVEL”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 222020
 

 

(This is Todd Manning‘s review of the first full-length album by California’s VoidCeremony, which was released by 20 Buck Spin on June 26th.)

While some Death Metal bands try to streamline their sound to have hooks and conventional song structures, others seek to create obscure and challenging material that summons images of alien horrors and oddball geometries of terror. VoidCeremony certainly fall into the latter camp. Their debut full-length, Entropic Reflections Continuum:Dimensions Unravel marries progressive technicality with unrelenting brutality to create an incredibly powerful statement.

Consisting of Garrett Johnson on vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, Jon Reider on rhythm guitar, and Charlie Koryn on drums and engineering, VoidCeremony is full of powerhouse musicians. While plenty impressive on their own, they also enlisted the criminally underrated Damon Good (Stargazer, Black Cauldron Ram, Mournful Congregation) on bass for this album as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RUIN — “PLAGUE TRANSMISSIONS: VOL. 2”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 212020
 

 

The California death metal band Ruin released their first demo in 1991, and then nearly a quarter-century later they revived and re-formed. Since 2015 they’ve released two albums (Drown In Blood and Human Annihilation), but a much greater number of short releases, including EPs and splits. They’ve gotten into the habit of periodically releasing compilations that collect these shorter works, and the latest of those is what we’re bringing you today.

Plague Transmissions: Vol. 2, which will be released by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions on July 24th, collects Ruin tracks from a 2018 EP (Into Endless Chasms), a 2018 split with Anthropic, a 2019 EP (Death Tomb), a 2020 split with Abysme (Rotting Madness), and a 2020 EP (Infested Death) — 18 tracks at all. And a more vile and ghastly administration of obliterating punishment you could hardly imagine. Continue reading »

BACK IN THE SADDLE: PEER PRESSURE / RADIOACTIVE RATS / SHARPTOOTH

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 212020
 


Sharptooth

 

(After a short break, Andy Synn returns with this trio of new reviews.)

As Islander alluded to in his post on Saturday, last week was a particularly busy one for me in my life outside of the site (yes, I have one). As a result I basically ended up taking a week-long break not just from NCS but from music altogether, in order to focus my thoughts and my energy on other matters.

Thankfully, by the time Friday afternoon rolled around I had basically completely cleared my “to do” list, so I was able to spend the rest of the day – as well as much of Saturday and Sunday – getting myself back up to speed on upcoming albums, relistening to some old favourites, and digging into the plethora of recent releases, in order to select a few hidden gems to highlight this week.

And, wouldn’t you know it, I found myself falling back into my old Hardcore habits (I guess they really do die hard) and, after spending a little bit of time separating the wheat from the chaff, I landed upon the following albums/artists as perfect examples of how much there is still to love in this much loved, often maligned, but undeniably Metal-adjacent genre. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (GUEST EDITION): ORFVS, OCTOBER FALLS, NORRHEM, WARMOON LORD, VULTYRIUM, FLAGG, NOIDVA, SINIRA, ÄKTH GÁNAHËTH, NUÉE ARDENTE, IFERNACH

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jul 212020
 

 

(We failed to post a SHADES OF BLACK column in its usual place on Sunday, and occasional NCS contributor Speelie fills that void with this guest edition.)

NCS readers might be forgiven for thinking I only pay attention to the Black Metal scene in Quebec. In reality, I listen to Black Metal from around the world (Krummholz, anyone?). But Finland has long been one of my favorite countries, for all sorts of Metal.

This year has been full of new releases from the country, including some comebacks by guys who first released music many years ago. One example of this is Ceremony of Darkness, by Orfvs. It’s full of keyboards and atmosphere, but in a way that wouldn’t be out of place 20-plus years ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HATEFUL — “CALDERA”

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Jul 202020
 

 

Musical vulcanism, even in extreme metal, takes different forms. Death metal in particular is capable of doing an exceptionally good job in channeling explosive destruction, but it doesn’t always fully capture the transmutation of matter on a micro-level or the massive reconfiguration of mountainous landscapes on an epic scale that happen during and after the earth’s megaton upheavals. The Italian band Hateful, on the other hand, prove themselves capable of doing all those things in the song we’re presenting today.

How they create these sensations is a wondrous (and bewildering) thing to behold. Transcending Obscurity Records, which will release Hateful’s new album, Set Forever On Me, on September 25th, identifies some of the explanations in this way: Hateful’s music “includes elements of the early technical death metal bands like Atheist, Gorguts, Disincarnate and Death, powerful brutal coagulants such as Suffocation and Deeds of Flesh, and even the kinetic, ever-changing properties of bands like Spawn of Possession and Necrophagist.” Continue reading »

FORLORN WORLD: “UMBRA”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jul 202020
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the debut album by Forlorn World, the side project of Bloodshot Dawn‘s Josh McMorran.)

I’m a rabid fan of Bloodshot Dawn and have been since their self-titled debut.  I own all their releases physically, I still listen to all three of their albums to date at least once a month, and I think in general, in a current era where melodic death metal has really fallen off the map, they have somehow managed to inject some needed life into an otherwise dormant sub-genre of extreme metal that was beloved by many.  Mostly this was done through an elevation of the technicality of riff writing combined with an EXTREME emphasis on guitar virtuosity.  Their formula works, and it’s some of the most consistently compelling metal you can listen to right now.

I was therefore quite intrigued when I learned that Bloodshot Dawn founder and frontman Josh McMorran was using this quarantine time to record a solo album as kind of an aside to Bloodshot Dawn, maybe to just hone his musical chops a bit more or to prepare for the fourth Bloodshot Dawn album, but I was curious nonetheless.  This project, the subject of today’s review, is called Forlorn World, and I mean… it’s pretty fucking good. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SIBIREAL — “SYMBOLS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 202020
 

 

As many of you know, we have a year-end list that’s devoted to highly infectious extreme metal songs. The song we’re premiering today from the debut album of Sibireal quickly jumped onto the candidate list — and not just this one, but another song that was the first track excerpted from the album. Today’s song is “Symbols“, and the one that preceded it is “The Way of Ego”.

The title of the album is Blood Color Sky, and it’s set for co-release on August 8th by the Ukrainian label GrimmDistribution (a label partner of Satanath Records) and the Russian label Wings Of Destruction.

Sibireal are themselves based in Russia, in the foothills of the Altai mountains, which The Font of All Human Knowledge tells us is “in the very center of Asia at the junction of the Siberian taiga, the steppes of Kazakhstan and the semi-deserts of Mongolia.” And thus perhaps it’s not surprising that although the musical backbone of Sibireal is thrashing black metal, their music sometimes includes the Altai harp, tambourines, and throat singing. Continue reading »

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