GRAND CADAVER: “THE ROT BENEATH”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 222025
 

(Today we present DGR‘s review of Grand Cadaver‘s new EP The Rot Beneath, which will be out on August 15th via Majestic Mountain Records.)

When you’re spread among many projects in the way Dark Tranquillity‘s Mikael Stanne has been over the past few years, there is a chance of one of them going consistently underrated in the face of all the other material being put out. The throwback riffwork of swede-death project Grand Cadaver has flown under the radar among many in metal fandom, and it has reached a point where you can’t help but wonder if people are unintentionally robbing themselves of an awesome time by just breezing past the group and chalking them up as another band pining for older days.

Grand Cadaver have proven to be a rock-solid foundation of music since their founding in 2020; the five years since have seen the group chalking up an array of singles, EPs, and two full albums to their name, all of which, yes, look backward in order to progress forward, and have either been stealthily melodic or pushed at the boundaries of floor-stomping death metal enough to keep the events interesting. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SULPHURIA — “LA DANZA DEL SATIRO”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 212025
 

(written by Islander)

Imagine you’re staring at the face of a clock instead of this page, a clock with a sweep hand that steadily ticks away the seconds. Then imagine the clock goes haywire, the second hand and the other hands spinning instead of ticking or crawling, and then all of them suddenly spinning in the opposite direction.

That’s one way to prepare you for the Sulphuria song “La Danza Del Satiro” we’re about to present. It spins in very different directions from the kind of music we usually feature here, strange directions that become strangely seductive, a twist on black metal that exotically warps it, an alchemy that justifies a “for fans of” reference which includes Goblin and Mercyful Fate as well as Beherit and Gorgoroth (among others). Continue reading »

SALLOW MOTH – MOSSBANE LANTERN

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 212025
 

(Andy Synn has the scoop on the continued re-emergence of Sallow Moth)

One of the most fascinating things in the animal kingdom, in my opinion at least, is the way in which caterpillars transform into butterflies (or moths).

After all, this is an organism which effectively spends half its life-cycle as one thing and the other half as something completely different… to the point where, if you didn’t know any better, you’d be hard-pressed to think of the two forms as belonging to the same species.

Not only that, but in between these two stages the caterpillar itself dissolves into a rich nutrient soup, becoming for a time neither one thing or the other as they undergo this startling metamorphosis.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that while a few fundamental structures do survive and carry over from one state of being to the next, studies have shown that certain memories, certain behaviours, can also survive the process, meaning that (to the extent that they are able) it might be said that butterflies (and moths) remember what it was like before they had wings.

And I can’t help thinking, while listening to the band’s new album (out 01 August) that Sallow Moth‘s own life-cycle has closely mimicked that of their name-sake.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT, ELBE, SHADOWS, ORDEALS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 192025
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday I doubted I’d have time for a roundup today due to picnic preparation participation (the post-pandemic PPP). But as you can see, I did, due to waking up way earlier than I thought I would.

I’m going to miss those extra hours of lost sleep by the time this day and night end, but getting to delve into these four tremendous new songs, three of which arrived with excellent videos, is the silver lining to that wearying cloud.

The keywords for what follows are “immensity” and “intensity”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: RITUAL MASS, PROSCRIPTION, KRIGSGRAV

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 182025
 

(written by Islander)

This has been a rare week in which our other writers seem to have collectively been diverted by other life events, leaving us since Monday with not a lot else besides the premiere features I’ve put together each day. To help fill the gaps, I’ve managed to scrawl one stand-alone album review and a couple of new-music roundups, this being the second one of the week.

It’s just as well, because I’m not confident I’ll be able to prepare the usual SEEN AND HEARD column on Saturday or the usual SHADES OF BLACK on Sunday. My spouse and I will be working both days to help put together an annual two-day picnic where we live, and some of that work begins today and tonight. In fact, today’s work is about to begin, so this Friday roundup is relatively brief and devoted to “hot off the presses” music from a trio of dependable labels. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: UNALIGNED — “DREAMING IN DECAY”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 182025
 

(written by Islander)

“Blackened Tech Death” is the shorthand description offered by Transcending Obscurity Records for A Form Beyond, the debut album of the U.S. band Unaligned, though the label also rightly draws attention to the band’s penchant for creating a more atmospheric and epic take on the technical death metal style.

The song we’re premiering today, “Dreaming in Decay“, which arrives with a vividly illustrated lyric video, bears out those descriptions. It manages to be eerily supernatural, a manifestation of ancient gods and demons, but also a blood-rushing display of instrumental exuberance, hard-hitting groove, and spine-tingling vocal savagery. Continue reading »

OSKOREIEN: “HOLLOW FANGS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jul 172025
 

(written by Islander)

In mid-June we helped spread the welcome news that the L.A.-based black metal band Oskoreien was returning with a new album after a roughly 9-year absence, and to help do that we premiered the album’s opening song “Prismatic Reason“.

Now we’re on the eve of the album’s release, and the time is thus right to express some thoughts about the record as a whole. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BA’AL — “THE FINE LINE BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HERE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 172025
 

(written by Islander)

The British metal band Ba’al picked a name for their new album that will make most people’s scanning eyes stop in their tracks when they see it: The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here. Your hurrying brain might quickly interpret it one way (the wrong way) and then pause (if it’s not rushing too fast) to realize it says “Here“, not “Hell“.

The title is clever, but it’s also meaningful. The band explain:

“The Fine Line Between Heaven And Here reflects on growing up in a city like our home of Sheffield; the contrast between bleak, grey industrial sprawl and the beauty of nature that surrounds and often overlaps with it. It touches on mental health, substance abuse, suicide, grief and existential dread.”

“Here“, where we are, can be hellish. Human beings have always imagined the torments of Hell based on what they know and have seen of ourselves and our fellow travelers on our spinning orb. It may be that we have also imagined the glories of Heaven based on the glories of Here too.

How Ba’al have used their music to render the grey and the green, the scars and the sublime, will be revealed in full today through our premiere of their new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEPHOSPHORUS — “PLANETOKTONOS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 162025
 

(written by Islander)

The title of the new fifth album by the Greek “cosmic grind” band Dephosphorus is Planetoktonos. That is a Greek word coined by the band, which roughly translates to “Planetkiller.” The album will be released on set on July 18th by a trio of labels in a variety of formats.

The new album’s name is an inspired choice, in part because it is reflective of the science-fiction and cosmology themes that lyrically run through the songs, and in part because the album often sounds like a planetkiller — as you’ll discover today through our premiere stream of the record in its entirety. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A TUESDAY: KUNTARI, MOUTH OF MADNESS, VERMINGOD, PLUTONIAN SHORE, SETH, HYENISM

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 152025
 


Kuntari

(written by Islander)

With only one premiere responsibility today and nothing else in the queue from our other writers, I had just enough time to compile a rare weekday roundup of new songs and videos. I think many of the songs that follow include aspects of the exotic, or at least that’s the best word I can come up with. The collection is book-ended by a couple of things I found thanks to someone else’s recent collection.

KUNTARI (Indonesia)

Last October I came across the Indonesian musical project Kuntari (the duo of Tesla Manaf and Rio Abror) based on a fascinating collaboration Kuntari did with an Indonesian “Post-Black Metal/Crust/Shoegaze” band named Avhath. I included a bit of background info about Kuntari and a lot of enthusiastic words about just one head-spinning song from the collaboration here. Continue reading »

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