AN NCS INTERVIEW: SEPULCHRAL CURSE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jun 242020
 

 

(On July 31st Transcending Obscurity Records will release the debut album by the Finnish band Sepulchral Curse, and thus it seemed a good time for Comrade Aleks to get in touch with the band, and this discussion followed.)

NCS’ constant readers may remember the Finnish bands Solothus and Yawning Void. We spoke (here and here) with members of these extreme doom acts some time ago. I wasn’t surprised when I found Turku-based death metal band Sepulchral Curse with three members from Solothus / Yawning Void in its lineup. As both mentioned interviews were equally cool, and the preview of Sepulchral Curse’s debut Only Ashes Remain sounds promising, it was natural to get in contact with them. And this chat with two Ragnarock heralds Jaakko Riihimäki (guitars) and Tommi Ilmanen (drums, vocals) won’t disappoint fans of the good old death metal concept behind it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEAD SUN — “A/B”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 232020
 

 

This song doesn’t go where you think it will. How it starts and how it ends are two completely different experiences. The band build a bridge between these two places over the course of the passing minutes, using the sound to carry you across a chasm — though what’s really happening, as you’ll discover, is that their bridge is carrying you into that chasm.

The song we’re presenting is the title track to A/B, the debut album of the Chicago band Dead Sun, which will be released on August 21 by Flesh and Bone Records. Their music is a bit off our usual beaten paths here at NCS — “slowcore/doomgaze” is one genre descriptor you might see, and there’s singing. But the emotional darkness in the music suits our tastes, and the phased transition that happens within this particular track has proved to be persistently enthralling even after many listens. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SANITY CONTROL — “WAR ON LIFE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 232020
 

 

Imagine yourself strapped into an electric chair with an executioner who’s having fun maniacally flipping the switch on and off faster than a rat darting through a maze while another rabid maniac brays and barks in your face. Alternatively, if that sounds painful instead of exhilarating, imagine yourself bouncing off the walls like a ball bearing in a container locked into a pneumatic paint shaker. Still sound painful? Give me a minute and I’ll come up with another metaphor — because there’s not one damned thing painful about listening to Sanity Control‘s “War On Life“. It’s a mosh-triggering thrill-ride that’s likely to put a big stupid grin on your face.

As much of a blast as this new song is to hear, it’s also a destructive rocket fueled by fury and disgust. The band explain the song’s title, which is also the title of this Polish group’s forthcoming debut album: “Humans are the most destructive force on Earth. We live to kill and exist only to exploit everything that surrounds us. We are at war with life, at war with ourselves, and at war with this planet in which we live. In the end, can anything be saved?”

Good question. Especially because life is fighting back against us, and holding its own so far against our crumbling lines of defense. Continue reading »

WEARING A MASK DOES NOT MAKE YOU OPPRESSED PLAYLIST (BY NEILL JAMESON)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 232020
 

 

(So far, Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) has shared with us (here,  here, and here) three playlists of musical suggestions to help us get through the current plague time, and today he follows those with a fourth selection.)

As I said before, I wanted to do four of these things, with the intent that they would help people stuck indoors find something new to listen to and to help the artists involved since our world was basically put on ice for a bit.

Through the first three of these it seemed, for the most part, that people were being responsible and doing their part to get through this shit as painlessly as possible. But, this is America and people somehow think every small inconvenience is an affront to their freedom. And our fine fellow citizens seem happy to protest science like it’s a goddamned wizard’s spellbook and raise their concerns until something actually happens worth raising a ruckus for, but seems a lot of the same people bitching that a mask somehow makes them less free button the fuck up. Continue reading »

AETERNAM: “AL QASSAM”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 232020
 

 

(Three months after its release, DGR finally dug into the fourth album by the Québec band Aeternam and is damned glad he did, as explained in this extensive review.)

Easily one of my biggest brick walls in terms of recent writing, because I have kept going back to it, over and over.

I wracked my brain for a while wondering where exactly I had picked up on Montreal’s hybrid symphonic death/folk/blackened-death metal group Aeternam and their new disc released in March, Al Qassam. It’s been a ghost haunting the backlog for a little while now, until it occurred to me that we hadn’t really covered the lead-up to their new disc at all.  Our most recent mention of them was due to vocalist/guitarist Achraf Loudiy appearing on Egyptian death metal group Scarab’s new disc, Martyrs Of The Storm — also released in March.

The whole reason they’d remained in the ‘keep an eye on’ pile was due to a handful of enthusiastic reader recommendations for them in previous years during our year-end list roundups. In fact, I think both 2012’s Moongod and 2017’s Ruins Of Empires are part of my collection now due to those recommendations. So, Al Qassam and its excellent cover art have been waiting for a proper look up and down almost since its announcement.

Given my current quest to sweep through the early parts of the year for anything we might’ve missed on top of the usual collection of albums I’m prone to dive into, finally diving headfirst into Aeternam’s latest felt like a natural thing to do. And wow, what a fantastic choice that has been proving to be. Continue reading »

AN NCS PLAYTHROUGH VIDEO PREMIERE: KAKOPHONIX PERFORMS HIS CELLO PART OF ABIGAIL WILLIAMS’ “BLACK WAVES”

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Jun 222020
 

 

During these last few months of covid lockdowns and social distancing, playthrough videos have proliferated like wildflowers in the spring, as ways for musicians to burn off some pent-up energy and to remind us that their bands still exist, even though they haven’t been able to gig and tour. The videos have not all been of equal quality, nor have they been uniformly interesting. And to be honest, we’ve resisted overtures to premiere playthrough videos, preferring to continue concentrating on new music rather than performances of songs that have been out in the world for a while.

But this video premiere is one we couldn’t resist.

In the first place, the subject is “Black Waves“, a tremendously good song from an album all of us here liked A LOT — Abigail Williams‘ 2019 album Walk Beyond the Dark (and you can and should read Andy Synn‘s review of it if you haven’t yet delved into the record).

And in the second place, the play-through is performed by cellist Kakophonix, whose contributions to the album were a significant factor in building the moments of haunting grandeur and epic atmosphere within the record, and it’s fascinating to watch and hear his performance. Continue reading »

ACHERONTAS: “PSYCHIC DEATH: THE SHATTERING OF PERCEPTIONS”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 222020
 

 

(On June 26th Agonia Records will release a new album by the Greek coven Acherontas, and today we present Andy Synn‘s review of this eye-opening, mind-expanding new record.)

The only constant in life, or so they say, is change.

But that doesn’t mean change is always good, or even wanted, especially when it comes to music.

By the same token, however, bands who refuse to change, refuse to progress, run the risk of sinking into a swamp of creative stagnation from which it’s often impossible to escape.

It’s a conundrum. How much change is too much… and how much is not enough?

Eight albums into their career, it seems like cult Black Metal coven Acherontas have found their own answer to this question, as while Psychic Death may not have shattered my perceptions of the band, it’s certainly made me rethink how I perceive their music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BASTARD PRIEST — “EYES OF THE POSSESSED”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 222020
 

 

More than seven years ago I was moved to compile a list of the best Swedish death metal albums I had heard during the five preceding years, i.e., from 2008 through 2013. Just putting that list together was a reminder that the style is not monolithic, even though there are certain common attributes that tend to stand out.

In the intervening years we’ve seen both a revival and resurgence of older bands and the appearance of new bands who’ve been drawn to those ancient yet deathless sounds. One of the releases I included in that 2013 list was Bastard Priest’s second album, Ghouls of the Endless Night. That album came out in 2011, and had followed quickly on the heels of the band’s debut full-length, Under the Hammer of Destruction (2010). But the band broke up in 2013 and we’ve heard nothing further from them… until now.

Just last year the Bastard Priest duo of Matt Mendoza and Inventor re-formed, and are now returning with a new 16-minute EP aptly entitled Vengeance…Of The Damned, which will be jointly released on July 24th by U.S.-based Electric Assault Records, Mexico-based Chaos Records, and Japan-based Record BOY. Today we’re stoked to bring you the premiere of one of the new tracks — “Eyes of the Possessed“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FIDES INVERSA — “I AM THE ICONOCLASM”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 222020
 

 

Six years have passed, with one tremendously good EP to bisect the timeline, since the Italian black metal band Fides Inversa released their last album. Now they are returning, finished at last with years of work that have culminated in a new full-length. The new album, Historia Nocturna, has been set for release on July 22nd by W.T.C. Productions. It’s no exaggeration to say that the album is stupendous — larger than life in its sound and profoundly unearthly and diabolic in its atmosphere.

In the intervening years the core of the band –drummer/vocalist Omega and guitarist/bassist Void — have remained intact, joined here by vocalist Wraath (from Behexen, Dark Sonority, and Darvaza, among other groups). In Historia Nocturna they have created a dynamic listening experience, one in which the songs channel ravaging chaos and terrifying, awe-inspiring grandeur but also seem to pass through dimensional veils to join in a communion with spirits of the damned. The song we’re premiering today, “I Am the Iconoclasm“, is a stunning example of all those qualities. Continue reading »

DEFEATED SANITY: “THE SANGUINARY IMPETUS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 222020
 

 

(We present Vonlughlio’s review of the new sixth album by German stalwarts Defeated Sanity, which is set for release by Willowtip Records on July 24th and features cover art by Jon Zig.)

Today’s review concerns a band who have been dear to me as a fan for more than 10 years.  Their music has given me great joy, through good and bad times.  They are one of the best Brutal Death Metal acts out there, with classic releases that will be forever remembered.

I am talking about Germany’s Defeated Sanity, originally formed by Lille Gruber (drums) and his late father Wolfgang Teske (R.I.P.).  After their inception, the project released a series of demos and splits from 1996 through 2003, and their debut album Prelude to the Tragedy (2004) became one of my favorite debuts ever by any band in the genre. Continue reading »

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