AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SLOW — “GÉHENNE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 112019
 

 

As the title suggests, VI-Dantalion is the sixth album to be released by the Belgian band Slow (although the fourth album was separately released on three occasions in varying manifestations of sound). Now firmly ensconced in their own citadel of atmospheric funeral doom, Slow earn their name on Dantalion, but as you’re about to discover, the music is not only slow, it is shattering in the magnitude of its crushing emotional impact.

The means of discovery comes through our premiere of a track called “Géhenne“, which we present through a lyric video in advance of Dantalion’s release on November 8th by code666, a sublabel of Aural Music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MUR — “THIRD”

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Oct 112019
 

 

With their self-titled debut EP released in 2014, the French band Mur (whose six-person line-up includes former members of Today is the Day, Glorior Belli, Mass Hysteria, Comity, and Four Question Marks) began feeling their way, searching for an identity for their music and beginning to establish one. When you listen to their new full-length record Brutalism, which will be released on October 25th by Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions, it becomes apparent that they have arrived, at a place where their confidence is strong and their identity (albeit a multi-faceted one) well-defined. It isn’t so much a sea-change in sound compared to the EP as it is a giant stride ahead on the path they began five years ago.

The album is a fascinating experience because it is such a dynamic one. It offers constant surprises, but does so without losing the bonds that forge all the experiences together into a whole, and without sacrificing the explosive, searing intensity that’s the main hallmark of the record. Today we’re presenting a new song from the album (“Third“) that in itself embodies dramatic change — as well as serving as a blazing example of just how devastatingly powerful Mur’s combination of hardcore and black metal can be. Continue reading »

1349: “THE INFERNAL PATHWAY”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Oct 112019
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Norwegian black meal band 1349, which will be released on October 18th by Season of Mist.)

It’s been well-documented, on several occasions, that my favourite 1349 album is 2010’s Demonoir.

As you can imagine then, I was particularly excited when it was revealed that the band’s new album (released next Friday) was a pseudo-sequel (or is it a prequel?) to that hallowed record.

The only question is, could it be as good? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MARCHE FUNÈBRE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 112019
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has been a busy interviewer, and we have his second one in as many days, with this conversation he had with members of the Belgian doom-death metal band Marche Funèbre.)

Marche Funèbre is one of representatives of Old World doom death scene who shows good stability, releasing strong works and naturally progressing from album to album. Their debut To Drown (2011) wasn’t an album of the year, but their development on Roots Of Grief (2013) is something you couldn’t miss. Since 2017 they’ve continue to work at a good pace: a third full-length, Into The Arms Of Darkness appeared in 2017, followed by splits with A Thousand Sufferings (2017) and Eye Of Solitude (2018), alongside killer EP Death Wish Woman (2018).

Marche Funèbre is one of the very rare European bands who managed to play a tour in the USA, and as they performed a gig in my home city of Saint Petersburg less than two weeks ago, I saw it as a right time to interview them. Arne Vandenhoeck (vocals), with some help from Kurt Blommé (guitars), are ready to tell a few things about doom, death, and being happy in misery. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VESPERINE — “NOUS, SI PHOTOSENSIBLES”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 102019
 

 

In March of this year Apathia Records released Espérer Sombrer, the debut album of the French band Vesperine. Through their integration of progressive, noise, and hardcore elements into a foundation of powerful post-metal, Vesperine created an experience that should appeal to fans of such bands as AmenRa, Cult Of Luna, Impure Wilhelmina, Neurosis, and Rosetta.

What we have for you today is a phenomenal video for one of the phenomenal songs on Espérer Sombrer, a track called “Nous, Si Photosensibles“. The combination of the surreal and visually arresting imagery and the emotionally shattering sounds makes for a sublime match, and provides an equally arresting reminder of Vesperine’s unnerving power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MATTERHORN — “CLARITY”

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Oct 102019
 

 

I first stumbled across the Swiss band Matterhorn in the spring of last year when they had two songs up for streaming in advance of Iron Bonehead‘s CD release of their debut album, Crass Cleansing, and came away very impressed. I had a tough time categorizing the music, describing it then as a stew of extremity that included elements of thrash, speed metal, punk, black metal, and death metal. I further wrote:

“The overall impact is electrifying, not merely because of the speed and explosive energy of the tracks, but also because of the band’s skill in shifting gears on a dime, which they do frequently. The intricacy of their movements and the songwriting skill on display here, coupled with their palpably feral ferocity, set this apart from the vast majority of debuts.”

Now, Crass Cleansing will be reissued on November 22nd by Redefining Darkness Records (U.S.) and Dying Victim Productions (Europe) on CD, and in a new vinyl edition that has been remixed and remastered. The new edition also includes two new bonus tracks (recorded live), as a sign of what the band have been working on for the second album. One of those bonus tracks (“Bydying”) surfaced in August, and today we’re premiering the other one. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PALADIN

 Forthcoming Albums, Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 102019
 

 

(The following conversation is Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Louis, vocalist/bassist of the Quebec death/doom band Paladin, whose debut album was released last month.)

Paladin is a brutal death-doom metal project started by Louis a.k.a. Napalm Holocaust (vocals, bass) from Canadian thrash band Survival Instinct. Louis performs stuff in the vein of Asphyx, Autopsy, and Rippikoulu together with his colleague Will (guitars) and busy maniac N.C. (drums), who has experience in quite extreme yet obscure local metal bands. They’ve been working together in Paladin for about two years, and Vrid (bass) joined them not long ago.

Their debut album Purification Du Mal just saw the light of day on the 20th of September due to the  efforts of PRC Music. As you see the artwork, you may think it’s some Christian stuff, but don’t be fooled, that’s an opposite thing. Louis isn’t a very talkative guy, but he has managed to uncover a few things about Paladin for us. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FLESHMEADOW — “DAYMARES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Oct 102019
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of the new EP by the Norwegian band Fleshmeadow, which will be released via Bandcamp on October 11th.)

I try to avoid hyperbolic statements about how a new or new-ish band to the scene are paving the way for their style or how they’re the sickest fucking thing I’ve heard in forever, but Fleshmeadow are one of those bands to me.

I reviewed and we premiered the band’s debut album Umbra back in 2016‘s final days, and it was one of my favorite records that came out that year.  Their uncanny mastery of technical black metal mixed with touches of ritualistic death metal and a bit of deathgrind really hit a note in my soul that screamed with feral ecstasy.  I’ve listened to Umbra regularly since I discovered it and have eagerly awaited what I would hear next from these blasphemous Norwegian carnage mongers. Continue reading »

SOLSTORM: “II”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 092019
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Norwegian band Solstorm, released on October 4th.)

There is a pronounced tendency, in art, in literature, in cinema, to treat the apocalypse (and its aftermath) as something dramatic and thrilling. Something equally capable of generating excitement as it is terror.

But the terrible truth is that the end of all things… is just that. An ending. A time for, if nothing else, looking back on what has come before, because there is no tomorrow.

This is something that Solstorm first captured on their debut, self-titled album, way back in 2013, and which they return to here, on the succinctly-titled II. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IMMANIFEST — “WANDJINA”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 092019
 

 

It has been a very long time coming, but Tampa’s Immanifest are finally following up their eye-opening 2010 debut EP Qliphotic with an album named Macrobial, and what a hell of an album it is! Animated by dark, occult themes, it is a sonically dense, bewilderingly intricate, viciously punishing, and thoroughly otherworldly combination of symphonic black and death metal, integrated with the speed and kaleidoscopic instrumental fireworks of technical death metal. The music is both machine-like and insectile, ethereal and bludgeoning, alien and monstrous, eerily majestic and savagely mauling.

And that’s not an exhaustive list of the styles and sensations so extravagantly delivered through this electrifying and explosive record. You’ll get a better sense of the band’s off-the-hook creative exuberance (and ferocious spirit) through the song we’re premiering today, in the run-up to the album’s November 8th release by The Artisan Era. The name of this new song is “Wandjina“. Continue reading »

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