AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DYSANGELIUM — “DEATH LEADING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 022019
 

 

Five long years ago we premiered the terrorizing second demo (Leviaxxis) by the German black metal band Dysangelium, and then had some very positive reactions to their debut album Thánatos Áskēsis, which followed later that same year. Now, at last, a second album is on the horizon like a looming storm.

Death Leading will be released by W.T.C. Productions on October 8th, and as you’ll discover through our premiere of a full album stream, it marks a triumphant return, presenting music of frightening power and wholly immersive effect, remorselessly carrying the listener ever deeper into an other-dimensional black vortex from which there is no escape, as mesmerizing as it is fearsome. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MARTYRDOOM

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 022019
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us this interview of the up-and-coming Polish band Martyrdoom, whose debut album was released in 2017 by Memento Mori.)

As many of the brutal death-doom scene veterans are not hastening to grind us with new full-length albums, and there haven’t been new albums from Asphyx, Autopsy, and Cianide for a while (okay, the last one is going to return with the EP Unhumanized later this autumn), it’s good to take a listen to some of those guys who try to keep the old school vibe of the ’90s alive. Martyrdoom from Warsaw is one of those bands.

Formed in 2010, they released a straightforward grim demo, Twisted Perversions (yep, pretty primitive), in 2013, and a more sophisticated full-length work Grievous Psychosis saw the light of day in 2017. The album has its charm, so I was wondering when they planned to return with a sophomore album… Thus we organized this conversation with one of Martyrdoom’s founders, Grzegorz Młynarczyk (guitars). Continue reading »

VUKARI: “AEVUM”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Oct 022019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s enthusiastic review of the new album by Chicago’s Vukari, which was released on October 1st by Vendetta Records.)

Remember some time ago… last week… when I said that 2019 has been a banner year for Death Metal?

Well, I wasn’t wrong. But did you also know it’s been a hell of a year for Black Metal too?

Just scratching the surface of the last nine months or so I can think of albums from (let me just stretch a bit first)…Consummation, Barshasketh, Misþyrming,Sinmara, Enthroned, Idolatry, Vanum, Mephorash, Kampfar, Idolatry, The Negative Bias, Panzerfaust, Mgła, Deadspace, Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, Neptunian Sun, Advent Sorrow, Blut Aus Nord … and we’ve still got new records from Mayhem, Schammasch, Abigail Williams, Dawn Ray’d, The Great Old Ones, and more, to look forward to.

This week, however, it was the turn of Chicago quartet Vukari to make their case for why their new album deserves to stand alongside the very best Black Metal that 2019 has to offer. Continue reading »

HIGHER CRITICISM: SLAYER (PART 12) — “WORLD PAINTED BLOOD”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Oct 022019
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli has reached an ugly point in his chronological series on the discography of Slayer, with the subject now being the band’s 2009 album World Painted Blood. Links to previous installments in the series are at the end of this post.)

World Painted Blood was heavily marketed as a “return to form”, a throwback album to Slayer’s glory days, and the fanbase seemed to eat the PR campaign for this album the fuck up.  Lots of music journos at the time heaped endless praise onto this album. I was excited for this record, because while I had enjoyed Slayer’s more modern direction I had faith the band could reproduce something as good as Reign In Blood or South Of Heaven.  I pre-ordered the album, received my copy, popped it in and began listening.

I wish I could get that money and time back. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SLUTVOMIT — “COPULATION OF CLOVEN HOOVES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 012019
 

 

Seattle-based Slutvomit released their debut album Swarming Darkness six years ago through Invictus Productions, and left incinerated wreckage in their wake. Summed up by one prized reviewer (autothrall) as “dirty vest-slinging speed-death thrashing black madness”, it demonstrated a ton of high-octane energy, authentically barbarous and blasphemous spirit, and fiendishly impressive instrumental skill. In the years since then there have been some line-up changes, and as their new album proves, a lot of honing of their blades to an even sharper edge.

It’s commonplace for labels, publicists, and bands themselves to say that a group’s newest release is a step ahead of their last one, but here it’s verifiably true. Slutvomit‘s second album, Copulation of Cloven Hooves, again due for release by Invictus Productions (on October 4th), takes every good quality from their debut album and elevates it, while retaining the music’s capacity to set your hair on fire and race you ’til you’re out of breath. Continue reading »

IRKSVM: “MORIBUND”

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Oct 012019
 

 

(Our contributor Vonlughlio hereby proves that he does listen to varieties of metal other than Brutal Death, and here he recommends the debut album by the Seattle-based black metal band Irksvm.)

Today’s subject is the black metal project Irksvm from Seattle, Washington, whose debut album Moribund was released via Vargheist Records this past August 30th.

As some of you dear readers might know, Brutal Death Metal is one of my favorite genres and I tend to concentrate my write-ups on bands in that realm, since others here at NCS do a fine job covering all the other genres. But from time to time I do review bands who are not BDM and have made an impact on me, as Irksvm did.

For this particular case, I was not familiar with their music, but became really impressed by how good this offering is. The mastermind behind this band is Duncan Mccue (Doctor Professor, Incestuous Impregnation, Marburg) who does all instruments and vocals. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ERIC CLAYTON (SAVIOUR MACHINE, ERIC CLAYTON & THE NINE)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 012019
 

 

Editor’s Note: Our occasional contributor from Greece, John Sleepwalker, conducted this interview of Eric Clayton shortly before the recent performance of Eric Clayton & The Nine at the Demon’s Gate Festival 2019 in Athens, Greece. Clayton is perhaps best known for the band Saviour Machine that he formed in 1989 with his brother Jeff, which has reunited following an extended hiatus and is at work on a new album, as well as Eric Clayton & The Nine.

John Sleepwalker also asked us to specifically mention that, as the following interview began, Eric first wanted John to tell him some things about himself before the questions began, so he could get to know the person behind them, which seems to be an uncommon occurrence in interviews.

This interview was first published (in Greek) at Avopolis. Continue reading »

A DGR REVIEW ROUND-UP (PART 3): OMOPHAGIA, INANIMATE EXISTENCE, VALE OF PNATH

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 012019
 


Omophagia

 

(NCS scribe DGR continues to catch up on reviews after a long hiatus with a multi-part collection, of which this is the third of three parts.)

There’s something to be said for comfort food in music and there’s something to be said for the weird looks I receive when I say that tech-death has become something of a comfort food. I recognize fully that I will always be somewhat wowed by the musical equivalent of dangling shiny keys in front of me, but my god is that a lot of keys and boy howdy, they sure are shiny.

The tech-death explosion over the years has led to a large amorphous mass that can often lean a little too heavy in both the technical or the -core direction, often making bands seem like expert musicians that just jammed a massive ton of breakdowns in between, making the musical adventurism and haughtiness feel somewhat unearned. 2019 has of course seen a massive number of additions to the genre as groups push and pull at its boundaries to see what else they can do with it or find ways to stick out in an increasingly crowded field.

Some of those releases came from some now pretty-established names. Such was the case with the following three, where my familiarity with the groups’ extended discographies led me to have them on constant play — even when the latter two hit in the first half of the year and we’re now at the point where as writers we’re panicking to try and get as many of the groups as we’ve listened to out there, so we can start focusing on the craziness that is the year-end release schedule. Of course, none of this pile-up was helped by what was previously alluded to as real life rearing up and kicking yours truly right in the head — much as this music has done over the past few months. Continue reading »

HIGHER CRITICISM: SLAYER (PART 11) — “CHRIST ILLUSION”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Oct 012019
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli continues his retrospective chronological analysis of the discography of Slayer, moving into the band’s 2006 album Christ Illusion, which saw the return of Dave Lombardo.)

So after two albums that proved rather controversial, I think a lot of the fans displeased with Diabolus In Musica and God Hates Us All suspected the band would go back to doing the old sound that they were attached to.  But I think those people were in a minority, especially naysayers of God Hates Us All, where we can see in hindsight that quite a big swath of the Slayer fanbase likes the album.  And in any event Christ Illusion was Slayer digging their heels into their new thrash-meets-metallic-hardcore direction with renewed vigor, but with a dialing back of the modernity in favor of something much more ’80s and ’90s slanted.

Christ Illusion is one of my favorite Slayer albums, and I think it’s the last great album the band made. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHAOS MOTION — “PSYCHOTIC SPASM”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 302019
 

 

Looks can be deceiving. At least as captured in this photo, the three members of Chaos Motion appear calm and serious, albeit a bit menacingly serious, as if planning something potentially dangerous to your health. On the other hand, their music is absolutely mad — fiendishly inventive, thrillingly adventurous, relentlessly unpredictable, and fully capable of flipping your brain upside-down and inside-out.

Not for naught is the band named Chaos Motion, nor is it happenstance that their debut album is entitled Psychological Spasms Cacophony. Likewise, “Psychotic Spasm“, the title of the song we’re premiering today, are not empty words. Their label’s references to the likes of Gorguts, Portal, Origin, Wormed, and early Cephalic Carnage are not misdirections.

But maybe you’ve already figured all this out, since our premiere is the sixth in line leading up to the album’s October 18 release date. But if you haven’t already taken a ride on the Chaos Motion pan-dimensional roller-coaster, or even if you have, you’re in for an electrifying experience. Continue reading »

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