AN NCS DUAL PREMIERE: DECEITOME AND SWARN (INVASION OF EXTREMITY SERIES : EASTERN EUROPE)

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Jul 112019
 

 

The U.S. label Redefining Darkness Records (Ohio) and the European label Raw Skull Recordz (Netherlands) have embarked on a collaborative venture born of their shared love for different breeds of old school death metal. The name of the project is Invasion of Extremity, and under that banner the labels will be jointly releasing select albums on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning with two new records by bands based in Eastern Europe — the Estonian extremists Deceitome and Swarn.

Deceitome’s new EP is Flux of Ruin, and Swarn’s is entitled Black Flame Order. Both records will be simultaneously released on August 2nd, and today we’re premiering a track from each one. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LIFETIME SHITLIST — “NOT YET”

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Jul 112019
 

 

Lifetime Shitlist confronted a significant challenge in following up their deceptively titled 2017 album, Slow March, but that was no one’s fault but their own. As we recounted in a review accompanying the stream premiere of that record, “Slow March will punch you in the kidneys and treat your head like a piece of sheetrock ready for the nail gun, but man, it’s a ton of battering fun — the kind of fun that leaves you with loose teeth the next morning and the kind of bruising that goes beyond black and blue and into that shade of yellow that makes you queasy to look at it”.

How would these Baltimore brawlers be able to exceed, or even match, the pure viscerally appealing momentum of that album? As bleak and bludgeoning as the songs often were, the riffs and crowbar-hard grooves were lined with razor-sharp hooks. Every song was catchy, every one of them made you want to move. Most of them might also have made you want to body-check the person next to you.

We’re beginning to get the answers to these questions. They’ve got a new album set up for release on August 16th through Grimoire Records, once again recording it with label boss Noel Mueller (who also mixed and mastered it). This one is more accurately named Bad Blood. Not long ago The Obelisk premiered the title track, which is a massive neck-wrecker — part punk anthem, part psychoactive squall, part pile-driving pavement-buster — and now we’ve got another track to reveal. This new one is named “Not Yet“. Continue reading »

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE DEAD THINK (SELF-TITLED)

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jul 112019
 

 

(This is Todd Manning‘s review of the new album by No One Knows What the Dead Think, which is set for release on September 20 by Willowtip Records.)

All hail the new flesh, the new band that is a merciless reincarnation of the insane and mighty Discordance Axis. No One Knows What The Dead Think contains D.A. alumni Jon Chang on vocals and Rob Marton on guitar, and they are joined by Kyosuke Nakano on drums, and the band make no bones about this being the culmination of the original series of albums by Discordance Axis.

For those not familiar with Discordance Axis, they produced some of the most stunningly original Grindcore albums of the nineties. The sound was utterly unhinged, partially due to Chang’s vicious and wide-eyed vocal approach, but also because of Marton’s almost Godflesh-like riffs being paired with Dave Witte’s blasting drum work. And just like before, the vibe here is suitably Post-Human, a sort of logical conclusion to Cyberpunk, where Earth’s hellscape is primarily populated by swarms of of artificial intelligence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SERPENTS ATHIRST — “POISONING THE SEVEN”

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Jul 102019
 

 

Dictionaries define “catharsis” as the purification, purgation, or cleansing of emotions, primarily through art — a process that results in renewal and restoration, or perhaps merely  a release of tension. Although those references usually refer to pity, fear, or grief as emotions purged through artistic catharsis, fans of extreme metal know that rage is also a subject of catharsis — and that rage is itself often the driving force in the creation of violent cathartic music.

Which brings us to Serpents Athirst, a decimating Sri Lankan black metal band whose music we’ve recommended in the past and whose discography consists of a 2011 split, a 2012 demo named Prevail, an EP entitled Heralding Ceremonial Mass Obliteration, and the new song we’re presenting today — “Poisoning the Seven“.

This new track appears on a punishing new split set for release by Cyclopean Eye Productions on July 26th. On this split, Scorn Coalescence, Serpent Adrift are joined by three other ferocious trans-continental groups, all of whom specially recorded the songs for this split — Genocide Shrines (also from Sri Lanka) and the New Zealand bands Trepanation and Heresiarch. Continue reading »

ECLIPTIC VISION: “ECLIPTIC VISION”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 102019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new second album by Ecliptic Vision, which was released on July 6th.)

This time around I have the opportunity to review the self-titled sophomore effort of Ecliptic Vision from Syracuse, New York. Prior to listening, I had no idea what the sound would be like, other than a description of the music as a mix of technical and brutal death metal, nor anything about the band, for that matter.

Now, the good thing about getting into this project with so little knowledge is that for me it was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.  I won’t say the material is groundbreaking or something we haven’t heard before, but the musicians in the band are very talented, and the end result shows their skills and how well they work together. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): TENEBRAE IN PERPETUUM, GURTHANG, STWORZ, NIGHTGRAVE, HERUKA, SERPENTS

 SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Jul 092019
 

 

This is the second Part of the weekly column I began (here) in its usual Sunday slot. I had intended to finish it in time for posting yesterday, but that obviously didn’t work out. Since I ran out of time before I could complete it on Monday, the inevitable happened — it grew larger overnight. On the other hand, Father Time is still being a hoarder of his gifts, so I’m still hurrying, and must try to be sparing with my verbiage.

TENEBRAE IN PERPETUUM

A decade after the last album by Tenebrae In Perpetuum, its sole creator (Atratus) is returning with a new album, aided by drummer Chimsicrin (of Gorrch). Named Anorexia Obscura, it will be released by Debemur Morti on August 30, and the first advance track — “Dissonanze mentali” — is how I’ve decided to begin today’s collection. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WHISPERS IN THE MAZE — “REWOVEN”

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Jul 092019
 

 

The Canadian group Whispers In the Maze pride themselves on being “a metal band without borders”, which has a dual meaning. The band’s members (who are currently split between Ottawa and Gatineau) come from different places around the world, but when you listen to their music you realize the second meaning of that phrase, because the songs themselves reveal different stylistic influences, integrated in ways that aren’t rigidly confined by genre borders.

Whispers In the Maze have completed a debut, four-song EP named Threads Unbind, which will be digitally released on July 25th, with a CD edition expected on August 1st. It will provide a great introduction to the band’s multi-faceted talents, and today we’re happy to present a beautifully made lyric video for a song from the EP called “Rewoven“. Continue reading »

PROGNATHE: “HOMO PROTOGNATHUS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 092019
 

 

(Prognathe hail from Toulouse, France, and on July 1st they released the first in a series of EPs in which they “will explore different aspects of their cave art.” In this review, Andy Synn explores different aspects of their music on the new EP, which in his opinion set them apart from the general run of grindcore bands.)

Ask any of my compatriots here at NCS and they’ll all tell you that, generally speaking, Grindcore just isn’t my thing.

Oh sure, you’ll frequently find me at Soundstage during MDF, can of Natty Boh in hand, watching (and enjoying) band after band lurching through song after song of wild, ugly riffs and stuttering blastbeats, but, most of the time anyway, if you were to ask me what makes any of these bands different from one another you’re more likely to receive a long, blank stare than a detailed summary of the history and intricacies of Grindcore as a genre/style.

That’s not to say I actively dislike it, by any means. It’s just that, with a few notable exceptions, it simply doesn’t “click” with me.

And speaking of “notable exceptions”… Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TORGRIM ØYRE (BEYOND THE GATES FESTIVAL)

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Jul 092019
 

 

On August 21-24, 2019, the eighth edition of the Beyond the Gates festival will take place in Bergen, Norway, featuring a remarkable line-up of bands, headlined by Watain, Mayhem, Emperor, and Abbath. Our Atlanta-based contributor Tør was able to get the attention of BTG founder and principal organizer Torgrim Øyre, to discuss not only the upcoming event but also its history, and the predecessor Bergen festival Hole in the Sky. Our thanks to both of them for this interview.

 

Tell us a little bit about the history of Hole In The Sky/Beyond The Gates and how the idea for them came about.

Hole in the Sky was founded as a tribute to our late friend Erik «Grim» Brødreskift. He was a prominent figure in the metal scene in Bergen. Erik played with bands like Immortal, Gorgoroth, and Borknagar. Initially it was intended to be a one-off where friends from Bergen were paying their respects to their lost friend. The line-up was based on Bergen bands only. After the first festival, people kept saying that we should make it a tradition as there literally were no underground festivals in Norway at all at that point. This was pre-Inferno too. The festival quickly took on a life on its own. Slowly growing from the 300-cap venue Garage and moving into USF Verftet a few years later. It was an intense time. Not a lot of metal bands had played these shores before, so everything felt new and exciting. Everyone involved had very high standards for Hole in the Sky and after 12 years, we came to a point were we felt that we had done everything we could within that framework, so in order not to repeat ourselves and possibly compromise the quality of the festival, we felt that it was a good thing to put the fork in the road and end on a high note. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WAIT — “WE ARE IN TRANSIT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jul 082019
 

 

Sometime around 2011, we are told, guitarist and composer Charlie Eron burned a CD with a couple of demo tracks on it and handed it to vocalist Max Phelps (Exist, Death To All, Defeated Sanity, ex-Cynic) and bassist Alex Weber (Exist, Defeated Sanity) at a metal show in Frederick, Maryland. They apparently thought it was pretty cool, and things evolved from there. We are further told that many song iterations, revisions, and years later, the concept that “time is starkly linear and unrecoverable” came to Charlie Eron while working at a desk job “staring vacantly into a computer screen”. And thus, WAIT was born — rounded out by the participation of drummer extraordinaire Anup Sastry (Jeff Loomis, ex-Intervals, ex-Monuments, ex-Skyharbor).

Actually, all the members of WAIT are extraordinary at what they do, and their first release as a progressive death metal unit — the three-track EP We Are In Transit — is, in a word, a marvel. And we present the chance for you to hear it in advance of its July 12 release by The Artisan Era. Continue reading »

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