AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SATHAMEL — “RAISE FLAME FROM ASH”

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May 072020
 

 

I slept on Sathamel‘s debut album Horror Vacui, but I’m awake to it now, thanks to the opportunity to present the following playthrough video for one of its electrifying tracks, “Raise Flame From Ash“.

Of course, playthrough videos were fixtures in the metal scene long before the current plague, but are now even more vital ways of allowing musicians and fans to stay connected. And, as in this case, they continue to be vehicles for introducing people to releases they might have missed. This is an especially good introduction (or reminder, for those who are already aware of this UK band’s work), because it’s a guitar playthrough for a song that’s a blazing guitar powerhouse (even though it’s a love song!). Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (DEATH METAL EDITION): I THE INTRUDER, DEFEATED SANITY, OMNIKINETIC, ABYSSUS, CLAIRVOYANCE, INISANS, SEPULCHRAL FROST, VOIDCEREMONY, PUTRESCINE, LIBERATIA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 072020
 

 

I know I’m damned lucky to still have a job when so many people have been thrown out of work, but the job has been annoyingly intrusive lately. And by “intrusive”, I mean that it unexpectedly interferes with my grand ideas for NCS posts. This post, for example, is grand and gargantuan, but the job that pays me has delayed its appearance and constricted my time to the point that I’ve had to strip away most of the writing I had in mind. I’m cognizant of the likelihood that depriving you of my complete thoughts will cause widespread weeping.

As the title signifies, I decided to make this round-up death-centric — but there are lots of flavors of death metal represented here and different directions being pursued. I might have figured out a good way to order the flow, but didn’t have time to think about that either. So, just be prepared to bounce around.

I THE INTRUDER (Tunisia)

“Check this steamroller. Nasum-like grind with choppy tech riffs to break things up. Complete barbarian war vocals. From Tunisia. What the hell, Omination, Ayyur, and now this….” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NAXEN — “TO WELCOME THE WITHERING”

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May 062020
 

 

Following their very well-received EP To Abide in Ancient Abysses, the German melodic black metal band Naxen completed work on their first full-length, a record entitled Towards the Tomb of Times, and it is now set for release by Berlin’s Vendetta Records on June 5th. As described in the promotional materials for the album, over the course of four tracks spanning more than 47 minutes of music, the record “explores the weakness of mankind, the unavoidable loss and the inevitable failure of our species”:

“Acknowledging that all hope is lost and remains redundant in the end, transcendence is sought through fire, the perishment of flesh and death as the ultimate liberation. These feelings of existential disappointment, depression and despair flow through the melodies, revolve in the lyrics and are captured in the visuals (by Arjen Kunnen)”.

These are serious subjects, and the music is a match in its tremendous dramatic power — as you will discover through our premiere of the opening track, “To Welcome the Withering“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLIGHT — “ELSEWHERE & ELSEWHEN”

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May 062020
 

 

Rising from obscure underground dimensions within Montreal, and inspired by studies of esoteric dark arts, the occult black metal band Blight now invite us to enter their Temple of Wounds, a full-length necromantic experience that will be released by Svart Records on the 5th of June.

In April the band delivered a striking first impression of this, their debut album, by releasing a lyric video for a song called “A Violent Light“. It provided not only an insight into the band’s lyrical themes (which explore “deep facets of inner alchemical transmutation, and antinomian philosophies”), delivered with literary flare, it also revealed an eclectic and arresting dynamism in their music.

And now, we have the opportunity to provide a further sign of what looms within Temple of Wounds as we premiere a lyric video for another song from the album, this one named “Elsewhere & Elsewhen“. Continue reading »

ENGUTTURALMENT CEPHALOSLAMECTOMY: “GLAM NOT SLAM”

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May 062020
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the debut album by Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy from Evansville, Indiana. The album was released by Gore House Productions on April 24th.)

It’s been a while since I did one of my small reviews for NCS, but due to the current world situation and my work taking most of my time, I haven’t had not a chance to sit and write about my favorites releases in BDM so far.

I would like to take this opportunity to write about a project named Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy from the USA, which started as a parody of the classic 2007 debut album from Cephalotripsy, considered a Slam classic in the scene. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: YETI ON HORSEBACK — “NOTHING”

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May 052020
 

 

Almost four years ago I learned the error of leaping to faulty conclusions about the music of Yeti On Horseback based on their band name. Their name seemed fanciful, maybe even fun-loving. The music on their 2016 debut album The Great Dying, as it turned out, was as serious as a heart attack and just as life-threatening, a fashioning of doom metal with a nihilistic vision and an apocalyptic impact that was somewhere over on the other side of a black galaxy from anything light-hearted.

Here we are nearly four years later, and this group from London, Ontario, Canada, haven’t softened their stance or become mellower with the passing years. Their new single “Nothing“, which we’re premiering today, is stunningly dark and dauntingly massive, and dynamic in a way that only reveals different dimensions of devastation, shaking the earth and the soul in equal measure. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANGES DE LA MORT — “WHERE SPIRITS NO MORE SHINE”

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May 052020
 

 

Last November the Montreal black metal duo Anges de la Mort (ADLM) made an electrifying debut with a self-titled EP, presenting four tracks packed with visceral rhythmic hooks, virally infectious riffs, scalding vocal savagery, and a flare for dynamic changes. The band rocked, thrashed, seethed, and ripped their way through 18 gloriously wild, action-packed minutes guaranteed to connect with a listener’s reptile brain but equally capable of sending the kind of chills down the spine that come from the apprehension of danger.

The EP benefited from clarity of production (and mastering by Joel Grind), but stood out most of all because of the animal magnetism of ADLM‘s top-shelf song-craft, the pin-point execution, and the sulfurous ferocity of the vocals.

It was clear that this band had the goods, and now we’re in the fortunate position of providing proof that lightning can indeed strike twice in the same place, and that proof is a new ADLM single named Where Spirits No More Shine, which we’re premiering in advance of its release on May 7th. It includes the title song plus the fascinating contrast created by an accompanying acoustic B-side track named “Where Night Shadows Shall Speak“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LARES — “GREY HAZE”

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May 052020
 

 

Berlin-based Lares made a striking first impression with their 2017 debut release, Mask of Discomfort. Induced to explore it by a description that recommended the music “for people who like dark doomy and sludgy riffs with a touch of black metal covered in clouds of psychedelics”, what we found was a big juggernaut of sound that took us on a hellish road trip, with slower detours that were both staggeringly crushing and nightmarishly hallucinatory, and the music proved to be melodically memorable as well.

We’re told that since then Lares embarked on a new path of evolution that began in late 2018 with the formation of their current lineup, and that path led them to the creation of a new album named Towards Nothingness (adorned by the distinctive artwork of the great Polish painter Mariusz Lewandowski), and to a partnership with Argonauta Records, who will release the record on June 20th.

We have been eager to learn where the journey of Lares has taken them, and now we can share with you a signpost, a stunning first track from Towards Nothingness entitled “Grey Haze“. Continue reading »

UMBRA VITAE: “SHADOW OF LIFE”

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May 052020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of the debut album by Umbra Vitae, which was released on May 1st by Deathwish Inc.)

Converge is one of my favorite bands. Yeah, I know they are not metal. Even their singer Jacob Bannon admits this and calls his band hyper-aggressive. But they are very influenced by metal, and on albums like Petitioning the Empty Sky you can hear Slayer dripping from the riffs.

Jacob might perform in a hardcore band, but he has a love for death metal that inspired him to put Umbra Vitae together. He enlisted guitarists from Hatebreed and The Red Chord, along with the ex- drummer from Job For a Cowboy and the bassist from The Red Chord.

So I went into this album with Converge as the bar by which I was going to be measuring it. It did not disappoint. This is not a love letter to Morbid Angel, though you can hear their influence in places. I would have been let down if this had been a color-by-numbers death metal album. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MEAN MESSIAH — “DIVINE TECHNOLOGY”

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May 042020
 

 

Mean Messiah‘s new album Divine Technology is over-the-top in nearly every way, from the full-tilt but machine-precise drum obliteration to the soaring vocal harmonies, from the riotously dismantling grooves to the swarming guitar savagery, from the sweeping symphonic layers to the vast panoply of unhinged vocal extremity. It’s a combination of theatrical spectacle and industrial-strength demolition job which at various times brings to mind Strapping Young Lad, Devon Townsend‘s The Retinal Circus, Fear Factory, latter-day Dimmu, Yes, and even Aborted.

The thing is, this Czech trio (who sound like their line-up is a 100-strong army) throw caution to the winds in a way that makes their explosive energy contagious. They revel in their bombastic excess, packing as much as they can into each of these seven tracks, bound and determined to leave their audience breathless, and with ruined necks and spinning heads, and it’s hard not to get caught up and carried away by both the sheer enthusiasm and the surgical execution.

Divine Technology will be released tomorrow (May 5th) by Slovak Metal Army, and we’ve got a full stream of the madness today, along with further notes about the experience. Continue reading »

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