AN NCS PREMIERE: ATOMIC WITCH — “VOID CURSE”

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Aug 192019
 

 

The long-time disciples of the Cleveland metal and hardcore scene who formed Atomic Witch picked a good band name for their new musical endeavors. Their debut EP Void Curse couples the wild radioactive energy of a runaway nuclear meltdown with the weird and witchy feeling of a supernatural orgy. Together, the EP’s four tracks are supercharged with furious, pulse-pounding energy, head-spinning instrumental changes, and unhinged vocal intensity. The genre-bending EP creates a maniacal atmosphere, whole-heartedly indulging in a musical blood-spraying riot from beginning to end.

You’ll get an electrifying example of Atomic Witch‘s crazed and caustic indulgences in the title track from the EP, which we’re premiering today in advance of its August 30 release by Seeing Red Records. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NOCTURNAL DEPARTURE, NIFROST, EZKATON, THE KRYPTIK, BLACK BEAST, DRAAGYN

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Aug 182019
 

 

Having chosen to devote so much time to posts about new death metal this weekend I haven’t been able to focus as carefully as I’d like on this week’s SHADES OF BLACK column. If the writing seems more hurried than usual, that’s why. But I didn’t make the selections hurriedly. I’m quite convinced they’re worth your time. Whether you’ll be convinced, only time will tell.

By the way, though I doubt very many people actually noticed, last week I promised a second installment of the column, in a format that I haven’t used very often — and then wasn’t able to follow through. I thought about following through today, with the same bands I’d chosen to use in the un-realized second installment of last week’s column, but haven’t done that after all. Maybe later this week. Only one of the releases I’d chosen last week has made it into this post — and it’s the first one:

NOCTURNAL DEPARTURE

Cathartic Black Rituals, released by Les Fleurs du Mal Productions on August 7th, is the debut album by a trio from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who’ve taken the name Nocturnal Departure. The album stream premiered at CVLT Nation, accompanied by a brief but enthusiastic introduction. My own introduction will also be (regrettably) brief, and enthusiastic. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS (PART 2): DIOCLETIAN, MORTIFERUM, ECTOPLASMA, RIPPER

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Aug 182019
 

 

Although Part 1 of this death-centric round-up (here) included a mountain of new music, the mountain is about to grow to greater heights as a result of continued vulcanism in the underground. What I’ve chosen for Part 2 are a new album released on Friday, and recent advance tracks from three forthcoming full-lengths.

DIOCLETIAN

In 2015, after the release of the uber-powerful Gesundrian, Diocletian split up, but the dissolution wasn’t permanent. Guitarist Atrociter re-formed this New Zealand war-metal strike-force with a new line-up that also includes Rigel Walshe (Dawn of Azazel) at bass and vocals, guitarist M.H. (ex-Heresiarch), E. M. at drums, and Impurath from Black Witchery as lead vocalist. That group has recorded a “comeback” Diocletian album entitled Amongst The Flames Of A Burning God that was released two days ago by Profound Lore. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS (PART 1): PUTRESCINE, VOID OMNIA, INSANITY CULT, PHOBOCOSM, DAWN OF DISEASE

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Aug 172019
 

 

It would have been better if I had managed to get a round-up done for yesterday, because fewer people visit NCS on Saturdays than on any other day of the week. Which makes it even more puzzling that I’m planning to present a two-part collection of new music on this Saturday, on top of Andy’s latest Waxing Lyrical interview. It’s not a rational plan, but I can’t help myself.

It happened that most of the music I wanted to recommend today lined up under the giant banner of death metal (though black metal is also in the mix), hence the title of this post rather than the usual “Seen and Heard” moniker. Part 2 (which might have to wait until tomorrow) will include a new album which surfaced yesterday in full, and caught me by surprise, as well as a few other recent selections. There are some surprises in Part 1 too.

PUTRESCINE

Former NCS scribe Joseph Schafer pointed me enthusiastically to the first item in this collection, the just-released debut EP of Putrescine, who claim their inspirations from “the great works of Carcass, Morbid Angel, and the modern hellworld that is the political landscape”. Countless bands have been influenced by Carcass (early Carcass in this case) and Morbid Angel, but this San Diego trio immediately stand out from the pack. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: VENOM PRISON

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Aug 172019
 

 

(In this new edition of Waxing Lyrical Andy Synn was able to get answers to the usual questions from Larissa Stupar, vocalist of the UK death metal band Venom Prison, whose latest album was released by Prosthetic Records in March of this year.)

You’d have to have been living under a rock for the last several years not to have noticed the somewhat meteoric rise of UK Death Metal quintet Venom Prison, who’ve only gone from strength to strength ever since they first burst onto the scene in late 2015, before quickly being signed to Prosthetic Records for the release of their debut album, Animus, and this year’s blood-soaked and belligerent follow-up Samsara.

And, despite being busy finishing up the last leg of their summer festival dates (concluding tonight at Upsurge Fest in London), as well as preparing for their highly-anticipated US headlining tour next month, I managed to catch up with vocalist Larissa Stupar and (somehow) convince her to participate in Waxing Lyrical so we could all learn a little more about the meaning behind the music. Continue reading »

DEADSPACE: “THE GRAND DISILLUSIONMENT”

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Aug 162019
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Australian black metal band Deadspace, which was just released today.)

It’s been both a pleasure and a privilege to observe the musical progression of Australian DSBM collective Deadspace since I first stumbled across their Gravity EP in 2016, watching with ever-increasing interest as the band shifted, slowly but surely, away from the goth-inflected anguish of their early days towards a much more aggressive, much more “pure”, Black Metal approach in recent years.

However, it seems like the group’s steady transition away from their gothic/depressive roots has caused some consternation in their fanbase, to the point where they took the unexpected step of releasing a lengthy statement alongside their new album explicitly stating that they’d outgrown or moved beyond the “DSBM” label of their youth, and that The Grand Disillusionment shouldn’t be considered or judged as such.

Which is a little ironic when you realise that there are moments on TGD where the group hearken back towards the DSBM side of things more than they have done in quite some time… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TRIPLEMURDER — “CRAWL”

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Aug 162019
 

 

The Ottawa band TripleMurder pride themselves on not being too beholden to any one genre of metal, but definitely devoted to putting big jolts of electricity through their followers, running them ragged, and leaving them black and blue as well. Integrating death metal, groove, and -core elements, along with a taste for accents of melody, they’ve completed a six-song debut EP named Pre-Meditated that will be released on September 20. Today we bring you the second single from the EP, which provides a good example of the band’s multi-faceted strategies.

The name of the song is “Crawl“, but it doesn’t crawl — far from it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COME BACK FROM THE DEAD — “JUGULAR I – HERETIC IMPALER”

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Aug 162019
 

 

Two years ago we had the sadistic pleasure of premiering a heavy dose of foul, festering death metal off the last EP (Caro Data Vermibus) by the Spanish band Come Back From the Dead. Now we have the opportunity to present another premiere by the same group. This one comes from their new album The Rise of the Blind Ones, which like the previous EP will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records.

This new song — “Jugular I – Heretic Impaler” — is the stuff of horror. It makes it very easy to imagine macabre abominations lurching through the dark, shrouded by the putrescent stench of rotting flesh. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TALES OF THE TOMB — “NINE ELEVEN”

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Aug 152019
 

 

“Every town has stories to caution or warn, every police officer has a seen a crime that keeps them awake at night, and every coroner has seen death in ways that the rest of us could never imagine. Murder, conspiracy, supernatural horror, and real-life terror are stains on the cutting room floor where Edmonton-based group Tales of The Tomb paints their canvas. Unified by the desire to have the grotesque power of 90’s era death and murder metal, Tales of The Tomb started as a thought that grew into an insatiable need to make extreme music.”

It seemed sensible to begin this introduction with the band’s own introduction to their genesis and inspirations. Originally formed in 2013 by guitarist/vocalist Corey Skerlak as a vehicle for carrying forward the kind of murder metal associated with Macabre, the band grew and reached the point of releasing their 2015 debut EP, Volume One: Morpras. Now the band have completed work on a second EP, Volume Two: Mendacium, which will be released on September 27th. As its title suggests, the EP concerns deception practiced in the context of destructive real-world events — “a collection of narratives surrounding government cover-ups, national lies and the heinous crimes committed amongst the shadows”.

One of those real-world events, and the ravaging warfare that followed it, are the subjects of the lyric video we’re premiering today for one of the songs on the new EP: “Nine Eleven“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALLOWING — “PHOSGENE”

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Aug 152019
 

 

Wallowing’s Orwellian vision of the future, as rendered through their new album Planet Loss, is harrowing. Constructed as a politically charged narrative of a small rebellion against an oppressive ruling regime which results in the end of civilization, the album is a single 32-minute piece of music divided into six sub-tracks — and they are every bit as harrowing as this UK band’s apocalyptic tale.

The album will be released on September 13th by Sludgelord Records and Black Voodoo Records. References are made, like a musical GPS, to Indian, Primitive Man, and Slabdragger. Further locational guides to Wallowing’s place in the underground include references to blackened sludge, grindcore, and noise. Where all those coordinates lead is a nightmare wasteland rendered through sound, where the physical demolition of civilization’s proud edifices is still in progress, and where sanity has already become a casualty. Continue reading »

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