A DOUBLE REVIEW (PART 1): BERZERKER LEGION — “OBLITERATE THE WEAK”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 192020
 

 

(DGR turned in a double-review, but in his own inimitable fashion he wrote so many words about each of the two albums that your humble editor decided to split it in two, and the second review will be posted a bit later today.)

Over the many years that we’ve spent in our comfortable little corner of the internet, one of the things we’ve learned how to get real good at is identifying genre-fare: the sort of musical red meat where it is clear the crew behind them just want to add to the overall cauldron that is their music of choice. Not necessarily the most ambitious or ‘paradigm changing’ — though the times where a group lands on that sort of lightning-in-a-bottle formula is always great — but music that is enjoyable for what it is, well-executed within the blueprint of its chosen genre.

One of the examples of this which practically fuels this website is the sort of rock-stupid, pulsating thud of death metal that gets by purely by appealing to the early cave-dweller parts of our brain, and another is the type of music that is so predisposed to headbanging guitar work that you can’t help but want to tag along, whether or not you have the long hair for it.

In today’s case it’s weird that these two albums feel like catching up a bit, since these two projects share a vocalist whom we’ve written about numerous times before and both of them are right in that wheelhouse described above. One is more modern and melody-focused despite its overall insistence on how world-ending it paints its protagonists in the songs, and the other is flavored with apocalyptic flair but with the chainsaw guitar aimed at a more old-school crowd. And thus we find ourselves catching up with Berzerker Legion and a crew more familiar to our site’s readers, Wombbath. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RAIDER — “GUARDIAN OF THE FIRE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 182020
 

 

Straight out of Waterloo, Ontario comes the ferocious death/thrashing band Raider, who in very short order have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with, with nitroglycerine in their veins, demons in their heads, and the kind of machine precision in their execution that only makes their mayhem more electrifying.

They popped a lot of eyes wide open with their 2018 demo, Urge to Kill, and opened more eyes when they followed that with festival appearances at Hamilton Deathfest, Guelph Deathfest, and Kitchener Metalfest. What they’ve now done, however, is even more explosive. We’re talking about their debut album, Guardian of the Fire, which will be released on March 20th. The singles released so far from the album have already generated a lot of excitement, but now we’ve got the full thrill-ride for you as we premiere a stream of the entire record. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DESCEND TO ACHERON — “YOUR SUFFERING IS A GIFT”

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Mar 182020
 

 

Tirades within extreme metal against the victimization of the poor by religious figures aren’t new, but the song by Australia’s Descent To Acheron that we’re about to premiere through a lyric video is an especially fierce discharge of disgust and rage. In this track, “Your Suffering Is A Gift“, their subject is Mother Theresa, who was canonized by the Catholic Church but who has also been condemned for promoting “a cult of suffering” that glorified illness instead of treating it.

But in addition to venting fury with supercharged power and blazing speed, the song is an especially riveting experience because it turns out to be so surprisingly multi-faceted — and it provides a great introduction to this Adelaide band’s crushing debut EP, The Transience of Flesh. Continue reading »

PLAYLIST FOR DRAMATIC TIMES (BY NEILL JAMESON)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 182020
 

 

(We’re grateful to Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), and hopefully you will be too, for sharing the following list of musical suggestions to help us get through the current “end of the world” times.)

So I’m sure we can agree that it’s been an interesting week or two recently and because of it a lot of you are going to be stuck indoors for a bit. And as much as we like to complain we don’t get enough time to ourselves, when it’s forced upon us it somehow feels more like an inconvenience than an opportunity. And unless you’re one of those assholes running to crowded places to prove that you’re invincible against the powers of the NWO you’re probably going to stay at home like a proper facsimile of a responsible adult. So I figured that even though I’m somehow considered “essential” at my job, I wanted to do something to contribute to easing the cabin fever that’s going to set in for the rest of you; you can build a monument to my altruism later.

I’ve been doing a lot more musical exploring the last month or two. I can’t really explain it since I haven’t been that into seeking out new things in quite awhile, even in those years where my annual list is filled to the brim. And I’ve found a lot of things I’m enjoying, so I wanted to compile them and share them with the class, in case this helps you find something new or at least gives you something to complain about. This is going to span a few genres, the whole “something for everyone” concept, I suppose. If you end up actually digging any of this shit then consider supporting the bands or, in these fun-filled times, see if other bands and labels you enjoy are hurting because of cancellations or unemployment. Anyway, here’s some records: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DISINTER — “DEMOLITION OF THE MIND”

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Mar 182020
 

 

Explosive madness and electrifying mayhem! That’s what we’re about to hurl you into. It will feel like having a live power line jammed like a spike straight into your neck while demons furiously beat you with lengths of rebar steel and a maniac howls into your face. And the experience will seem all the more amazing when you realize that such full-throttle ferocity is coming from a band who first came together 30 years ago.

That band is Chicago’s Disinter, who released five albums and a handful of shorter releases from 1991 through 2006 and then fell silent for a decade before returning in 2016 with the Made in Iron EP. Now they have a new release coming our way via Pest Records (an affiliate of Loud Rage Music). Its name is Demolition Red, and today we’re premiering a lyric video for a digital single from that record, the name of which is “Demolition of the Mind“. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ABYSMAL DAWN, CENTINEX, COGNITIVE, COOLING TOWER, DEATH COURIER, DEVIN TOWNSEND, EVOKER, GRAVEIR, HELLHOOKAH, KRATER, LAMB OF GOD, LAUDARE, MALICYST, WHITE STONES

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 182020
 


Abysmal Dawn

 

Here we are again. with so many new songs and videos that I want to recommend that I’m resorting to what I did last weekend — compiling lots of sights and sounds (which are all over the map in genre terms), accompanied by only very brief comments of my own. I also added one news item that excited me, though there’s no music to be heard yet.

I should add that I hope you are all well, and that you’re doing your damnedest to physically stay away from other people to the greatest extent possible.

ABYSMAL DAWN (U.S.)

We begin with a jackhammering, shivering, and slithering piece of death metal menace, complete with thoroughly beastly vocals and twisted melodic accents and grooves that both prove to be ridiculously catchy. I could swear they actually used a heavy-caliber machibe gun instead of drums for parts of this, and that they tortured a poltergeist for the solos. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SETOML — “THE SHADOWS PATH”

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Mar 172020
 

 

We are told that Setoml was the ancient name of a river that flowed into the Pochayna River in Kyiv city, Ukraine. Mentioned in chronicles that date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, it was the resting place of parts of an army of the Turkic Pechenegs who were defeated in 1036 by Yaroslav The Wise and drowned beneath its waters.

Setoml is also the name chosen by a new two-man Ukrainian melodic black metal band, formed by Semenenko Anton (known as one-man project Luna) and Krivoviaz Serge (founder, vocalist, guitarist of I Miss My Death). In Setoml, Anton is the composer of all songs and performer of all instruments, while Serge is the lyricist/vocalist. Their debut album Reincarnation (“Перевтілення”) will be co-released on April 24th by Satanath Records (Russia) and Kryrart Records (Germany).

The song we’re presenting today, “The Shadows Path (Шлях тiней)“, is the track that closes the album. And like all the other tracks, it explores the reincarnation of the soul after death, the symbol of which is the night butterfly. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WASTEWALKER — “VENGEANCE OF THE LOWBORN”

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Mar 172020
 

 

Back in 2016 we gave a lot of attention to the roll-out of tracks leading toward the release of Wastewalker’s debut album, Funeral Winds, culminating in a review by our own Andy Synn which praised the band for “blending a punishing backbone of deathly heaviness with an esoteric mix of unusual technical twists and fret-sparking leads.” And now this group of Sacramento stalwarts, whose line-up includes current or former members of Conducting From the Grave, Alterbeast, and The Odious Construct, have completed a new album. Entitled Lowborn, it’s set for release on May 12th.

So far, the band have released a lyric video for one song from the new album (“The Moth“), and today we’re presenting a second one — “Vengeance of the Lowborn“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SEPTIMIU HĂRȘAN (PESTILENCE)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Mar 172020
 

 

(Karina Noctum continues with her series of interviews of metal drummers, and with this one has turned in one of the most interesting, articulate, and in-depth interviews we’ve published in a long time — and we thank Romanian drummer Septimiu Hărşan for devoting so much time and thought to it.)

This is an Interview conducted with Septimiu Hărşan, who is the drummer of the Dutch Death Metal legends Pestilence and is currently working on the release of two albums, one with the Dutch masters of raw brutality Disavowed, which is one of the albums to look forward to the most within that sub-genre this year.

This in-depth interview offers insights into Septimiu’s drumming career, gear, and musical preferences, as well as some good news when it comes to Pestilence and his other bands CodeRed and Necrovile. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELIOSS — “LA LÈPRE DES HOMMES”

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Mar 162020
 

 

The creative fires of the French band Helioss continue to burn as bright as their namesake. Three years after their third album Antumbra, they now return with a new full-length, Devenir Le Soleil, set for release on April 23rd by their new labels Satanth Records and Mourning Light Records. Once again, Helioss mastermind Nicolas Muller is at the helm, joined again by vocalist D.M., but this time also aided by an extravagant array of guest performers, as well as by a live drummer — the very talented Mikko Koskinen (Nullentropy, The Lifted Veil, Proscription).

Musically, Helioss continue to embroider their strongly evocative music with classical orchestration, black metal, death metal, and progressive instrumental flourishes, and today, accompanied by a lyric video, we present a richly textured and kaleidoscopic track that displays all these ingredients in changing shades of darkness and blazing brilliance. Its name is “La Lèpre Des Hommes“. Continue reading »

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