AN NCS PREMIERE: CURSE UPON A PRAYER — “HARAM”

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Mar 102020
 

 

In his review of Curse Upon A Prayer‘s last release, the 2018 EP The Three Woes, our writer Wil Cifer asserted that “hatred and darkness are two crucial components of black metal” and gave credit to this band for putting “every ounce of their hateful hearts” into that release, with an execution that was “razor-sharp and in a similar sonic zip code as Marduk and 1349“. Yet he also expressed the hope that they would take the opportunity on their next album “to explore a wider scale of dynamics”.

Now we will discover whether that wish has come to pass, because Curse Upon A Prayer have completed their third album, Infidel, which will be released by Saturnal Records on April 10th. Some things have not changed. As before, the band continue to direct the major force of their venom against Islam rather than the more commonplace target of Christianity (and really, why should any institutionalized religion be immune from the assault of blaspheming black metal?). As before, they show themselves capable of discharging music of gripping intensity with a balance of surgical precision and wild hostility. But have they chosen, to a greater degree, to leaven their breathtaking ferocity with other sensations this time?

The answer is yes, as you’ll discover through our premiere of a song from the album named “Haram“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CLOUDS — “EMPTY HEARTS”

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Mar 102020
 

 

Daniel Neagoe, the alter ego of Clouds, has explained that after the release of the 2018 album Dor he felt that the band had reached its inevitable consummation, and that nothing remained for him to say through Clouds. It was time to let it rest. And then one of life’s tragedies disrupted those plans.

In particular, Neagoe lost a parent to cancer, after first bearing witness to months of continuous torment. As he has written, seeing the fear, the panic, the pain, the delusions, and the helplessness of a parent, and the shame that comes to a loved one unable to take care of their most personal and private needs, is itself a terrible experience, made all the more frightening by the “the constant fear that one day they will close their eyes forever”. And of course, after struggling to be as much a comfort as possible, that fear became a reality for him.

This wrenching experience led to the rebirth of Clouds, and to the new album Durere, which was released on March 1st. It represents, in Neagoe’s words, “a part of a soul going out to another soul”. And that is what it sounds like, though the souls who may now receive and benefit from it still breathe. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVESLAVE — “FATAL PUSH”

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Mar 092020
 

 

We know a thing or two about the music of Graveslave and we’ve seen a thing or two about their taste in videos. And no, we’re not selling property and casualty insurance — it’s death metal we’re peddling today, accompanied by a video that will bring smiles to many hardened faces.

Yes indeed, this isn’t the first time we’ve helped spread the music of this Minneapolis band to the soon-to-be-bruised masses. In 2017 we premiered their aptly titled debut album Sick/Nasty, which we summed up as a dynamic, body-mangling, brain-twisting thrill-ride — “an utterly wild, technically pyrotechnic, stunningly brutal fireworks display” that combined “thuggish skull-cleaving with eye-popping explosiveness, slow, sinuous sensuality and gruesome morbidity, and solos that will make you drool”.

And now Graveslave have just released a hellacious new EP named Devotion, the first of two brutal deathgrind EPs the band plan to release this year. Today we’re presenting a music video for a track from this first one named “Fatal Push” — a video that presents… well… a sharp contrast between what you see and what you hear. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MONUMENTUM DAMNATI — “INFERNAL SUN”

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Mar 092020
 

 

We are told that Monumentum Damnati is an international project whose leaders are based in Eastern Europe, with attachments to better-known projects. Here, they have chosen to conceal their countenances in grotesque masks and their names with pseudonyms, allowing their dark, genre-bending music to speak for itself. Their first presentation is In The Tomb Of A Forgotten King, a full-length album that will be co-released on March 30th by the triumvirate of GrimmDistribution, The End Of Time Records, and More Hate Productions.

As mentioned, the music on this debut album is difficult to classify in genre terms, drawing as it does from traditions of melodic death metal, doom, and the amorphous category of music that has come to be known as “dark metal”, accompanied by accents of orchestration. A further hint about the band’s disinterest in being tied to a particular defined genre comes from reference points that are provided, which include such disparate names as Crematory, Trail Of Tears, Ajattara, The Vision Bleak, Dark the Suns, Morgul, and Enshine.

It’s probably not the case that any one song on the album can be held up as a representation of the album as a whole, but we do have a track to share today, presented through a mysterious music video. Its name is “Infernal Sun“, and  the tale it tells is emblematic of the band’s occult and mythic inspirations. Continue reading »

DEADSPACE: “A PORTRAIT OF SACRIFICIAL SCARS”

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Mar 092020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the final album by the Australian black metal band Deadspace, released on March 2nd.)

It’s always sad when a band you love announces that they’re calling it a day, especially when the band in question are currently producing the best work of their career.

Such is the case with Australian Black Metal crew Deadspace, who recently declared that, due to a variety of reasons, this year would be their last as an active band.

Before their final dissolution, however, they’ve thrown themselves into a flurry of activity, including multiple national and international tour dates (they recently performed their last ever show in their home country and are set to begin an EU tour alongside Lebenssucht at the end of this month) as well as the release of their sonic swansong, A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars, just last week.

And, let me tell you, if the band truly does have to come to an end this year, then they couldn’t have asked for a better way to bring down the curtain. Continue reading »

TORPËDO: “MECHANIC TYRANTS”

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Mar 092020
 

 

(We present Todd Manning‘s review of the 2019 debut demo by Germany’s Torpëdo, which was reissued last month by Gates of Hell Records.)

Gates of Hell Records is a subsidiary of Cruz Del Sur Music dedicated to bringing the best of Old School Heavy Metal to the world, and they’ve certainly found a prime candidate in the form of Germany’s Torpëdo. The label reissued the band’s demo Mechanic Tyrants on February 21st, complete with new cover art that captures the spirit of the Speed Metal vibes contained within.

The first thing that is apparent when “Maniac” comes ripping out of the speakers is the band’s ability to successfully blend the raucous sound of early Motörhead with Kill’em All-era Metallica. The album was recorded by the band themselves in a basement and it even captures the sound of that bygone time perfectly. Gritty but clear and powerful. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: APOGNOSIS, HRÆ , VENOMOUS SKELETON, ADAESTUO, SCHWERMUT

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  10 Responses »
Mar 082020
 

 

For this week’s edition of the column I decided to include five complete releases, four albums and an EP, all but one of them released since late January. But my time is short, and so, with apologies to the bands, the only way I’ve been able to manage this is to pursue a strategy of picking only one song per release to focus on, accompanied by just the most general overview of everything else. With luck, this will be enough to seduce people into exploring each release in greater depth, despite the relative shallowness of my own words.

APOGNOSIS

The Greek black metal band Adaestuo is one of two in today’s feature whose past work I was familiar with, and that past work — a self-titled demo in 2016, the Phase 6 debut album that same year, and the Cult of Human Sacrifices EP in 2018 — has been remarkably impressive. The new release is an album entitled Dominion In Polarity. It came out last September, and I really should have written something about it before now, because it’s tremendous. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AETHERIUS OBSCURITAS — “ILYEN A VÉR (BLOOD IS LIKE THIS)”

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Mar 082020
 

 

The Hungarian black metal band Aetherius Obscuritas are certainly capable of mounting musical assaults of cut-throat savagery and spine-tingling wildness, but what makes their new album Mártír stand out from the barbaric pack is, for want of a better word, their adventurousness. The compositions are elaborate and multi-faceted, and the results can seem like musical potions that produce enthralling as well as electrifying effects. The song we’re premiering today, “Ilyen a vér (Blood Is Like This)“, is a great example of such ingeniously conceived and sharply executed adventures.

The core duo that makes up Aetherius Obscuritas, Viktor (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards) and Zson (drums) have been working together under that name for roughly 18 years, long enough to become familiar with each other’s talents and propensities but quite obviously not so long as to settle into stagnancy. In that time they’ve recorded eight albums, including Mártír, but still seem to be pushing themselves into new musical territories, perhaps most obviously on this new album. It follows the last one by a significant five years and will be released on April 15th by GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and Paragon Records (U.S.). Continue reading »

VIRAL RAGE (WITH ABORTED, NAGLFAR, ENDLESS FORMS MOST GRUESOME, AND NOCTURNAL DAMNATION)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Mar 072020
 

 

Greetings from Coronavirus Central, USA (aka Seattle, Washington, and nearby communities, including the top-secret metallic island from which I administer the globe-spanning depredations of NCS). Things are weird here.

I know you’ll rejoice to learn that I have no flu-like symptoms, just the usual cat allergies. Others are not so lucky. According to the latest reports, there are more than 102 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Washington, 71 of those in the county that includes Seattle, and 16 deaths in Washington, all but two of those in the Seattle area.

Area health care providers are reporting shortages of needed supplies, including masks for healthcare workers. Despite promises by the federal government, there still aren’t enough test kits available to help figure out how many people with symptoms actually have coronavirus. And good luck trying to find hand sanitizer. At least we can still pee on our hands as a reminder to stop touching our faces all the damned time. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK CULT — “COSMIC STORM”

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Mar 062020
 

 

As divulged here, Black Cult‘s second album Cathedral of the Black Cult (2016) made me an immediate fan of their talent for discharging satanic black metal with such flair and dynamism. They proved themselves adept at delivering not only swarming malignant savagery, but also mid-paced dissonance and music with a sinister, occult atmosphere laced with highly seductive melodies.

It was thus welcome news to discover that these Croatians would be releasing a new album in 2020. Entitled Nekropola, it has a street date of March 27th via GrimmDistribution and InsArt Records, who recommend it for fans of Mayhem, Satyricon, Dødheimsgard, and Zyklon. And today we’re in the fortunate position of presenting one of the album’s eight tracks, the aptly titled “Cosmic Storm“. Continue reading »

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