SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): MIZMOR, QAALM, WRVTH, THE FIFTH ALLIANCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 212019
 

 

We missed a day yesterday, dammit. I spent too much time listening and not enough time writing — so much time listening that I have many things I want to recommend across many heavy genres. I liked the way the following four tracks flowed together, so I’ve collected them here. The plan is to post a second installment of this round-up tomorrow. It goes in very different directions than this one. I’m not posting it today because I want to make time and room for the usual SHADES OF BLACK column, which will arrive soon(ish).

MIZMOR

I spent an hour yesterday listening to Mizmor’s new album Cairn, which is how long it takes to proceed through the record’s four long tracks (they range from 10 minutes to 18 in length). It’s an emotionally overpowering experience, as stunning as the Mariusz Lewandowski painting (“Time Immemorial”) that Mizmor’s alter ego A.L.N. commissioned for the record. Of the album’s four tracks, the opener “Desert of Absurdity” is the first one out in the world, and the first one in today’s collection. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: WORMED — “METAPORTAL”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 192019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new EP by the Spanish technical death metal band Wormed, which was released on July 19th by Season of Mist.)

Wormed are, without a doubt, one of the more ridiculous acts in Metal.

And I mean that entirely as a compliment.

Despite conventional wisdom that “less is more” the Spanish quartet have made a career out of their seemingly endless pursuit of ludicrous excess, with practically every song (and album) attempting to be faster, heavier, and louder – more beats per minute, more notes per second, more babbling sci-fi nonsense – than the one before it.

It’s perhaps ironic, then, to find that the band’s latest EP strongly suggests that sometimes less IS more, as these four tracks prove to be just the right bite-sized portion to allow both new and old listeners to get their fill of brutal techstravagance without feeling like their overstuffed brains are going to explode at the end of it. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: REBEL WIZARD (“HARK! HARK! HARK!”) AND OSSUARY (“SUPREME DEGRADATION”)

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jul 192019
 

 

Before we move into the weekend I want to recommend two EPs. The first was released last night — I happened to notice the Bandcamp alert in my e-mail not long after it landed there, and bought it immediately. The second was released in May, but I overlooked it until a friend pointed me to it earlier this week — and it was love at first listen.

REBEL WIZARD: “HARK! HARK! HARK!”

To any regular visitors at NCS my admiration (okay, “adoration” is probably more accurate) of Rebel Wizard‘s music is well-known. Having been so consistently enthusiastic about B. Nekrasov‘s previous releases under this moniker, I was predisposed to like this one (I’ve already confessed that I bought it before listening to it). Conceivably, I could have been disappointed, in which case you would not be reading these words. Obviously, however, I’m very happy with my impulsive purchase. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MARBURG — “POLEMICIST”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 192019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of a debut EP by the California technical death/grind band Marburg, which was released in a CD edition by Vargheist Records on July 5th.)

This time around I would like to talk about the band Marburg from Los Angeles, California. They are a Tech Death/Grind group that formed back in 2015 and digitally released their debut EP Polemicist in 2016. At some point they signed with the South Carolina label Vargheist Records, which has recently released the EP on CD.

Getting the chance to listen to their music, I did not have any idea how it would sound, and ohh boy, this turned out to be a pleasant surprise, to say the least. For me, the sound is natural, and all the instruments play a key role in delivering in-your-face grind with tech ingredients that make it even more enjoyable. The first song, “Fuck You”, is the perfect introduction, giving the listener a taste of the wild ride they are about to experience. Once I hit play, the energy in the music was unquestionable, and the talent showcased here is superb. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SEMPITERNAL DUSK, ZEIT, CULTED, MORTAL INCARNATION, CENTENARY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 182019
 

 

I nearly finished this collection in time to post it yesterday before I had to turn to the job that pays me. The delay turned out to be fortuitous, because in the meantime I found something else I was excited to include. As usual, my aim in this selection is to showcase the variety of extreme metal, and to do some extravagant globe-trotting as well.

SEMPITERNAL DUSK

First up is a track named “Spears of Pestilence” from a new album by Portland’s Sempiternal Dusk, set for release by Dark Descent on September 27th. The album title is Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation, and it features cover art by D. Desecrator. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DETHEROUS — “RIDDEN”

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Jul 182019
 

 

With an album named Hacked To Death and blood-spattered, head-cleaving cover art, you would expect the music to be… slaughtering. And this debut full-length by the death/thrashing Detherous is indeed packed with full-throttle rampages and fueled by a riotous, take-no-prisoners spirit. But this fearsome foursome from Calgary, Alberta, Canada do a whole lot more with their music than slash and burn. They’re adept at creating sensations of mania and mayhem, but the music is also adventurous, and full of surprising twists and turns.

We’ve got a  prime example of these qualities in the song we’re premiering today from Hacked To Death in advance of the album’s release on August 16th by Redefining Darkness Records. The name of the song is “Ridden“, and the band’s rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Damon MacDonald describes its subject matter in these words: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VICTUS — “DEMON”

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Jul 182019
 

 

Last year Victus made their recording debut with a well-received EP entitled Sacrifice, and have followed that with hard-charging live performances in support of such bands as Crowbar, Monolord, Conjurer, Raging Speedhorn, and Ingested — and will soon include their appearance at Bloodstock Open Air in the UK next month.

Meanwhile, this quartet from Southern England have also been working on a debut album that will showcase their addictive blend of doom, sludge, and Southern Blues. As a sign of what’s coming, today we’re presenting a stream of a new Victus single the day before its official release — a head-moving bone-bruiser named “Demon“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: RUNE “BLASPHEMER” ERIKSEN (VLTIMAS, EARTH ELECTRIC, AURA NOIR)

 Interviews  7 Responses »
Jul 182019
 

 

(Our Norway-based contributor Karina Noctum scored a coup with this interview of Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen at the recent Tons of Rock festival in Oslo, where Blasphemer performed with his band Vltimas, which also includes David Vincent and Flo Mounier (their debut album Something Wicked Marches In was released by Season of Mist this past March). Blasphemer has left his mark on the history of metal through the music of such bands as Mayhem and Aura Noir, and more recently with Vltimas and Earth Electric. This interview touches on all these experiences, and what the future holds for him. All photos accompanying this interview were made by Andrea Chirulescu.)

 

How did the idea of forming Vltimas originate?

I’ve been playing so much extreme metal for so many years that it was always a mission of mine to form a band that I could call my little baby. Something that I created from the start, because with Mayhem, I didn’t start it; I joined Mayhem. The same with Aura Noir, I just joined them.

So it was something that was on my to-do list, you know. Starting something from scratch and building something up from the ground. So when I quit Mayhem I was thinking about it, but at the time I just thought I had to take a break from extreme metal, from Black Metal, so I did not pursue it. I did other styles within metal instead. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REIGN IN BLOOD — “DOMUS MORTUORUM”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 172019
 

A decade after the release of their debut album Diabolical Katharsis, the German black metal band Reign In Blood have revived and triumphantly returned with a new release. While personnel departures led the band’s founding vocalist/guitarist Demon Raise to discontinue operations following that initial full-length, he resurrected Reign In Blood in 2016 and the results are captured in a new album named Missa Pro Defunctis, on which he is joined by lead guitarist/bassist Malus Deus.

Iron Bonehead Productions will release this new full-length on August 16th. One advance track (“Dawn Of A Dying Soul“) was released for listening last month, and now we present the stream of a second one — “Domus Mortuorum“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BONES — “STENCH OF THE DECEASED”

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Jul 172019
 

 

Hellfire and damnation, it’s good to have Bones back! Here at our putrid site we devoted attention to both of their previous albums — the self-titled debut in 2011 and Sons of Sleaze in 2013 (“It’s a monster of an album”, we wrote, “but the kind of monster you’ll want to curl up with on those long, lonely nights when having something’s teeth in your neck is what you need”). That second album was also the source of a song (“13”) we named to our list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, which we described as follows: “It’s got that ugly, corrosive guitar tone — so thick, murky, and radioactive that you’ll feel like showering after hearing the song, even though you know all your skin will come off and wash down the drain. Great vocal disgorgement, too, and the riffs… just murderous”.

But wow, 2013 was a long time ago, so long ago that Bones might have fallen prey to “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome were it not for the fact that those first two albums didn’t wear out their welcome. But after those six long years these crusty death metal barbarians from Chicago have returned at last with a new album — and it’s fantastic (that’s not a shock, but it is a relief to know that they haven’t lost a step, and have instead taken some steps forward). The album’s name is Diseased, and it will be released on September 20 by Transcending Obscurity Records.

All of that is a long-winded way of explaining that we are damned happy to be presenting the premiere of a song from the new album, and it’s a great example of what makes the music of Bones stand out. Continue reading »

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