AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLACK ALTAR — “IN THE LABYRINTHS OF SITRA ACHRA”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 302025
 

(written by Islander)

The Polish black metal band Black Altar, spearheaded by its leader Shadow, have been releasing music since 1998, assembling a discography that now includes two albums, a large assortment of splits, EPs, and singles, and two compilation records. Their most recent release is a three-way split named Drakonian Elitism from January 2024 that also includes music by Ofermod and Acherontas.

Black Altar contributed four tracks to that nearly hour-long release, including “In the Labyrinths of Sitra Achra“, which is the subject of the lyric video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

FERAL LORD – WUNJO

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jul 302025
 

(Andy Synn takes a look at the new album from Feral Lord, out this Friday)

As you may know, it’s a common complaint of ours that there’s just so much music released each and every week/month/year that it’s impossible for us to keep up with it all, not matter how hard we try.

What you may not know, however, is that Jared Moran (aka Plaguehammer, aka Cave Ritual, aka Ionnonnisssz, etc) has been more responsible than most for us falling ever further behind the curve, such is the frequency and profligacy of his output.

Sure, we’ve covered a number of his projects before – including, but not limited to, the likes of Zvylpwkua, Acausal Intrusion, Hierarchies (whose debut album was released earlier this year), Vertebrae Fetish Totem (whose new record was also released a few months back, though we haven’t covered it yet), Out of the Mouth of Graves, and, of course, Feral Lord – but we’ve still barely scratched the surface of his discography.

That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying though… and with the upcoming release of Wunjo (though you can stream and purchase it right now) we’re able to add another successful review to our catalogue of criticism.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OCCULSED — “HEINOUS PULSE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 292025
 

(written by Islander)

This makes our sixth premiere of music from the Atlanta-area death metal band Occulsed since the start of 2021. In those past features we’ve described their music as “a filthy discharge of clobbering and eviscerating madness.” We’ve called it “grotesque,” “putrid,” “abysmal,” and “abhorrent.” We’ve highlighted the band’s talent “for creating electrifying visions of horror and disease, of madness and mayhem, and of blood-freezing intrusions from spectral realms.”

We’ve also asserted that the music is “is both predatory and hopeless, noxious and deranged, horrifyingly imperious and seemingly gleeful in its deviant revels,” but “so well-constructed and maliciously well-realized that it becomes addictive (as well as foul).”

Now we get a chance to try to cook up further ways of describing just how punishing and paranormal the music of Occulsed really is. They have a new album named Antegnosis coming our way in September via Everlasting Spew Records, and we have a song from it coming your way right now. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HUMANITY ZERO — “FORGIVENESS DEVOURED”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jul 292025
 

(written by Islander)

The musical evolution of the Greek band Humanity Zero continues. In its early phases and continuing through many albums the band embraced death metal in the vein of such bands as Death, Hypocrisy, Unleashed, Nile, and Immolation. By the time of the 2017 album Withered In Isolation, the reference points included My Dying Bride, Tiamat, Amorphis, Katatonia, and Ophis. The movement in a doomed direction was even more pronounced on the following album Proselytism as the music became slower still and even more nightmarish.

And now Humanity Zero brings us their sixth album, Cursed Be The Gift Of Life. It comes almost seven years after Proselytism. Think of what has happened to the world during those seven years, and maybe you can begin to guess about the direction of this band’s new music.

But there’s no need for guesswork: As a tangible sign of what those long intervening years have wrought in Humanity Zero‘s increasingly frightening and doomed musical interests, today we premiere a song from the new album named “Forgiveness Devoured“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DESTRUCTION OF ORION

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jul 292025
 

(In what might become an annual occurrence (we hope so!) Comrade Aleks engaged in the following interview of Bulgarian artist Tehina Spasova, focusing on the new album of her solo funeral doom band Destruction of Orion, which was released in May 2025.)

A year ago I learned about Destruction of Orion, a one-person band from Sofia, Bulgaria run by Tehina Spasova. Her first solo album Decreasing Brightness (2024) differed from other funeral releases with a new focus on the matter of extinction and dying. Tehina resorted to astronomy and used its scale to measure the grief and inevitable doom. Her new album States of Horror deals with this topic from another angle, so we tried to find out a bit more behind this album. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BELLICISTE AND ÚIR

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 282025
 

(written by Islander)

This coming Friday (August 1st) two excellent black metal bands, Belliciste and Úir, will release an album-length split on cassette tape (and digitally). It includes four songs from Belliciste, three from Úir, and one song that is a collaboration between the two bands. Today we’re very happy to share a full stream of all the songs.

Further commentary is likely unnecessary, but of course you’re going to get it anyway. This is an hour-long compendium of music, and because most days for most people are hurried and harried, explaining why it would be worthwhile to pause for this, from its beginning to its end, may be useful. Beyond that, the commentary functions as an expression of thanks to these musicians for enriching our hurried and harried days with something this superb. Continue reading »

ARKHAAIK – UIHTIS

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 282025
 

(Andy Synn rejoins the hunt with the new album from Arkhaaik)

One of the things we sometimes discuss amongst ourselves, here in the dark, dank depths of NCS Castle, is what the primary, prevailing “trend” of each year is.

And one thing I’ve noticed over the last seven-ish months is that – rather than being a straight up “Black Metal year” or a “Death Metal year” (or even a “Hardcore year”) – 2025 looks set to be a year defined more by the more unorthodox and unusual expressions from across the genre spectrum.

In some ways this, of course, makes it hard to identify a singular commonality which defines “the year in Metal” (so far, anyway)… but, from a different perspective, you might just say that this flexing and blurring of fluid genre boundaries is exactly what ties so many of the biggest and best albums of 2025.

And now we have this uniquely esoteric and ritualistically hypnotic hybrid of “blackened” Doom and deathly gloom courtesy of Switzerland’s Arkhaaik.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HASARD, ETHEREAL WOUND, LOWERED HEAD, ANGE DE LA MORT, NEXION, ONDFØDT

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Jul 272025
 

(written by Islander)

This week’s column devoted to blackened sounds includes six individual songs, one each from five forthcoming albums plus a compelling new video. There’s another compelling video in the group too. To explain the choices: I fell down a rabbit hole that led to some very dissonant and disconcerting (and frequently eye-popping) tracks, one after another. And then I finally came across a song that pulled away from that; it’s the one at the end.

I had ambitions to write complete reviews of some of these forthcoming albums, i.e., to talk about songs you can’t hear yet, but personal events conspired to prevent me from doing all the listening and thinking that would have required. I may or may not be able to do that later, and so (as usual) I think it’s better to do what I’m able to do now to help spread the word rather than wait and wind up doing nothing. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ESOCTRILIHUM, KAMRA, HUYA GENUS, YOTUMA, VICTIM OF FIRE, ESSES

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 262025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a late start on this Saturday’s roundup of recommended new music, and I feel the need to rush in order to keep it from appearing too late in the day. So my review-ish commentary will be somewhat briefer than usual (please hold your applause) and I’ll cut the rest of the introduction to just this:

I would suggest that this collection is a mix of brain-scramblers, bone-smashing punishers, muscle-twitching groovers, headlong racers, and seductive clean-sung sorcery, more or less in that order. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: TOMBS, HORNWOOD FELL, ACEPHALIC VOID, DEF/LIGHT

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 252025
 

(written by Islander)

With only one premiere to handle today and nothing else waiting in the queue for our site, I had a combination of opportunity and need, anxiety about us not posting the usual amount of stuff in recent days and the time (barely enough time) to do something about it. So, as a head-start on Saturday’s roundup, I got this four-band collection done, focusing on two old favorites and two brand new discoveries. The cover art for all four was part of the initial attraction.

TOMBS (U.S.)

The first of the old favorites is Tombs. Earlier this week we got the news that they have a new album named Feral Darkness now set for release on October 17th by their new label Redefining Darkness Records. The “FFO” references for Tombs have changed over time. As a clue about this new full-length, which follows 2020’s Under Sullen Skies, it includes Fields of the Nephilim, Samhain, Mayhem, and Goatwhore. The lineup also includes new guitarist Dan Higgins. Sera Timms also provides guest vocals on one song.

And then there’s this from the press release: Continue reading »

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