AN NCS PREMIERE: TAN KOZH — “TROISIÈME FONCTION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 162019
 

 

Regular visitors to our site will be familiar with the French label Antiq Records, a label we’ve come to prize around here for exceptional releases by Grylle, Véhémence, Wÿntër Àrvń, Dorminn, and Créatures (to name a few). And now Antiq will be adding to that list with the striking debut album of the pagan black metal band Tan Kozh.

The name of the album is Lignages Oubliés, and it’s set for release on November 15th. Inspired by ancient Indo-European myths, the first part of the album (we’re told) “contains visions of the past and future wars and destruction, within the background the awakening of ancient pagan gods and the eternal turn of the wheel of time; the second part of the album is made of prayers addressed directly to ancient gods”.

What we have for you today is a stream of the album’s opening track, “Troisième Fonction“, which launches the first part of the record. Continue reading »

HORRIFIC DEMISE: “EXCRUCIATING EXTERMINATION”

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Oct 162019
 

 

(Today Vonlughlio reviews the debut album of the U.S. death metal band Horrific Demise, which is out now on the Comatose Music label.)

The subject of today’s brief review is Excruciating Extermination, the first album by Horrific Demise, released via Comatose Music this past August 29th.  I believe this project was formed back in 2005 by Matt Bishop (Human Artifacts, ex-Lividity) and I heard of the name since he was working on this release for a couple of years. I was not familiar with this particular project, but was with his former band Lividity.

After time in developing the music he gathered some top musicians alongside him to record the album, including Anthony Voight on vocals (Sarcophagy, ex-Gorgasm),  Phil Good on bass (Lust for Decay, Necrotic Disgorgement), Tony Tipton on guitars (Sarcophagy, Regurgitaton, ex-Necrotic Disgorgement), and Kyle Christman on drums (Sarcophagy, Human Filleted, ex-Gorgasm). When I saw that lineup I thought, hot damn!!!! A great list of top musicians who have contributed to some amazing releases in the BDM world. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PISSED REGARDLESS — “IMPERIAL CULT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 152019
 

 

In reviewing albums I usually avoid dropping the names of other bands as reference points, but in the case of the new record by San Diego’s Pissed Regardless, mentioning Ringworm, Integrity, No Warning, Darkest Hour, and label-mates Light This City is a good quick way of getting your head prepared for the album stream we’re presenting in advance of its October 18th release by Creator-Destructor. Just seeing those names all in one place is a significant tip-off to the variable ingredients Pissed Regardless have harnessed in Imperial Cult.

But it still probably won’t prepare you for just how crushing the album as a whole is, on multiple levels, or how electrifying it is to experience the band’s twists and turns as they take you through these ten tracks. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VULTUR — “POSTMORTEM LIVIDITY”

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Oct 152019
 

 

I feel like there ought to be a death metal air raid siren that could be turned on when albums like Vultur’s Drowned in Gangrenous Blood are on the way, not so much as a warning (though some people probably should be warned so they can run for the hills) as it would be a rallying cry for addicts of thoroughly gruesome and brutally bludgeoning old school monstrosity. I can imagine the throngs coming on like the zombie hordes in World War Z.

This new album, which follows Vultur’s 2016 demo (Beak) and their 2018 debut album (Entangled in the Webs of Fear) really does display the kind of spirit and craftsmanship that is likely to cause slobbering hunger among fans of evil, diseased, and neck-wrecking death metal. These Hellenic hellraisers have learned their black art very well, as you’ll discover when you hear the track we’re premiering today in the run-up to the album’s October 31st release by Memento Mori. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: INTERFECTORMENT — “GROTESQUELY DECAY”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 152019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new EP by Indonesia’s Interfectorment, which was released on May 31st by Brutal Mind, and features cover art by Toshihiro Egawa.)

One of the BDM scenes that is well known for their passion, is the Indonesian one. They are an amazing group of fans who support BDM in all its forms and do not hide the happiness this genre brings to them. A lot of bands come from that region, and some are great ones.

Sometimes, with the number of bands who play BDM, it can be hard to distinguish one from the other in terms of sound. Regardless, there are still bands who stand out from that large pack and bring something special. In this case, it’s the project Interfectorment from (Bandung, West Java), who on May 31st released their long-awaited EP Grotesquely Decay via Brutal Mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN — “TEUFELSBÜCHER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 142019
 

 

At the beginning of Unaussprechlichen Kulten‘s new album Teufelsbücher we hear a haunting piano melody and the swell of symphonic strings. The stateliness and solemnity of those moments is at odds with nearly everything else that comes after, and yet its mystifying grandeur is in keeping with the magnificence of the insanity that soon ensues and never really relents until the grandiose and sorcerous extravaganza of “Necromancy and Torment” brings the album to a close.

The six songs on Teufelsbücher are asylum dreams, hellish visions of menace and madness that also relentlessly challenge the listener’s own sanity. The ever-twisting-and-turning compositions are ecstatically exuberant and the performances technically bewildering. The music boils like an overheated cauldron of unchained creativity, un-tethered to trends and un-bowing to conventions. It’s as if the band, in the throes of a possession, succeeded in opening Pandora’s box, loosing upon the world, through the sounds of mutated death metal, a torrent of bat-winged and brazen evils, never to be sealed again. Continue reading »

THE GREAT OLD ONES: “COSMICISM”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Oct 142019
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by The Great Old Ones, which will be released on October 25th by Season of Mist.)

My relationship with the French coven who refer to themselves as The Great Old Ones has been a long and fruitful one.

And it’s for this reason, among many others, that I feel a certain responsibility to provide you, our loyal readers, with the unvarnished truth (at least, as far as I perceive it) about their newest album, which is set for release next week. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NEBRUS — “π”

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Oct 142019
 

 

Diego Spezzoni‘s cover art for the new album by Nebrus seems tailor-made for the music. Meticulously rendered in the style of pointillism, it creates surreal visions of hellish creatures and moldering ruins, of glowering skies and crumbling columns, of burnt offerings on an altar wreathed in serpents, of foul sulphurous vapors and the dark forces they beckon forth. Dark Forces Reign is the name of the album, and dark forces reign in the music.

This is the third full-length by this Italian black metal duo — vocalist/lyricist Noctuaria, and  drummer/guitarist Mortifero (joined here by session bassist Sir VIII Coffins Mime) — and it will be released by Third I Rex on November 30th. What we have for you today is the premiere of a track named “π“, presented through a video that’s as spooky, as surreal, and as evil as the cover art — and the music displays all of those qualities too. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: EARTH AND PILLARS, NACHTIG, HOVMOD, NAWAHARJAN, TRAJETO DE CABRA, MAJESTIC TERROR

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Oct 132019
 

 

Everything I’ve chosen for today’s column, until you get to the last selection, are songs from forthcoming albums. The last one is a recently released EP. For each selection I decided to dive right into commentary on the music first, and then follow that with the release details. Let me know what you think about the music.

EARTH AND PILLARS

“Howling” is 18 1/2 minutes long. It begins with howling. Whether wolves, mad dogs, or madmen, it’s hard to tell.  An ominous but bewitching classical guitar melody swells in reverberating tones, eventually overcoming the howling… and then a (howling) storm breaks open. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GRUZJA, VILLAINOUS TEMPLE, CRYPTIC BROOD, CONSTELLATIA, DIPLOID

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Oct 122019
 

 

It’s been a hell of a week, and I do mean HELL. I’ll spare you the details, because no one likes a whiner (except the core supporters of our current President), but mishaps befalling a loved one and demands by my fucking day job have interfered (again) with my NCS time. These round-ups are always the first casualties when such things happen, so I thought I’d use this relatively placid Saturday morning to catch up a little.

I picked the following songs a couple of days ago after a rare opportunity this past week to do a bit of listening. Many other new songs have come out since then, adding to the long list that already existed, but I decided not to listen to anything else new and just get this done.

GRUZJA

Jeszcze Nie Mamy Na Was Pomysłu is the name of the second album by the Polish black metal band Gruzja, whose line-up includes members of Furia, Mentor, and Biesy (among other groups). It’s set for release (CD and digital) on October 22nd by Godz Ov War Productions, but the whole album is already streaming on Bandcamp. Google Translate tells us that the album’s title, in English, is “We don’t have an idea for you yet”. But Google Translate has a habit of mangling its translations of the Polish language, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in that rendition.

When I began the process of selecting music for this round-up, I only found one song from the album (“800 ZŁ”), which grabbed me in a head-lock, and only this morning discovered that the whole record had been launched on Bandcamp. Consequently, my impressions of the album as a whole may be a bit mangled, too, and have certainly been rendered hastily.
Continue reading »

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