AN NCS PREMIERE: GRINDEAD — “TURN BLACK”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 082019
 

 

Once upon a time (in 1990 to be precise) a band named Genocide began to claw and gouge a mark in the fabric of Portuguese metal history by becoming one of the first death/grind bands in that beautiful land. By 1999 they had released a trio of demos and two full-length albums (Genocide and Breaking Point), but their second album in 1999 was to be their last release, as the band split up.

In the years that followed, Genocide‘s members participated in other groups, including Web, Raising Fear, Agnosia, Lost Gorbachevs, Hospital Psiquiátrico, Bal-Onirique, and Assassiner, among many others. But recently these Portuguese metal veterans of the original Genocide have reunited under the name Grindead. In March of this year Larvae Records released the first fruits of this reunion, a six-track self-titled demo, in a now sold-out tape edition (but still available digitally at Bandcamp). And today we proudly present an official video for the first of those tracks (following a bludgeoning, battering, swarming Intro) — “Turn Black“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HELLHAMMER (MAYHEM)

 Interviews  7 Responses »
Jul 082019
 

 

(Our Norway-based writer Karina Noctum had the good fortune of interviewing Mayhem drummer Hellhammer recently, following a Mayhem festival performance in Oslo, and we present the conversation here.)

This interview with Hellhammer was conducted after the gig at Tons of Rock in Oslo on June 28. I will have the opportunity to see them yet again at Beyond the Gates festival in Bergen, which has an incredible line-up and has not sold out yet. In addition, there is going to be a European tour by Mayhem (with support by Gaahls WYRD and Gost) in late October-November as well.

I think it was a pretty good timing for this interview, as I got some tidings about what to expect when it comes to the new Mayhem album that is currently in the making at the renowned Necromorbus Studio in Stockholm. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): NOCTEM, GRIMA, TONGUE, DISPOSSESSED, TEMPLUM ANIMA MORTI, NYSS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jul 072019
 

 

As you can see, I’ve planned a two-part SOB again. I doubt I’ll finish Part 2 in time to post it today, and even if I do, I think I’ll defer it to Monday anyway. With so many new-music round-ups lately, I’m afraid we’re at risk of overloading people already, especially because this Part 1 includes four full releases in addition to the two advance tracks I’ve placed at the beginning (and there are additional complete releases in what I have in mind for Part 2)..

NOCTEM

We’ve been closely following the progress of the Spanish band Noctem since 2011, when they released their second album, Oblivion. Four of us have written about the band over the years since then, amassing 16 different posts about them (including two interviews). Obviously, we are fans. But we have equally been persistently curious about what they would do next.

Noctem’s music has always been a blend of death and black metal, but the sound hasn’t remained stagnant. It might go too far to say there has been a continuous trajectory over time, but in general it seems like in the earlier years they were more death-metal focused, whereas the last album, 2016’s Haeresis, leaned more toward the black metal elements in their sound. Based on the title track from their new album, The Black Consecration, it sounds like they’re leaning even harder in that direction, and have in other ways made shifts in sound from their last record. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MADDER MORTEM, VORNA, LUCIA, LIVING THROUGH GHOSTS

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 062019
 

 

In pawing through new music yesterday, like the digital-age version of what I used to do in record stores, I found myself thinking that the music of the following four bands belonged together. I wouldn’t know how to label them if I put them together in a section of the record store in my head, because their musical styles are different. Maybe “DOOMY METAL, BUT OTHER THINGS GOING ON”. Or maybe just “HEAVINESS (AND OCCASIONAL HEAVENLINESS)”.

MADDER MORTEM

The first song I’ve selected is a big exception to our Rule about singing, all the way up until near the end, when Agnete M. Kirkevaag does something shocking with her voice. Until then, as always, she’s bewitching.

But before we get to the song, I should share some important details about the new Madder Mortem album that includes it. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: ABYSSAL

 WAXING LYRICAL  6 Responses »
Jul 062019
 

photo by Void Revelations

 

(For this week’s edition of his lyrically-focused series Andy Synn posed the usual questions to the man behind the powerful UK black/death/doom band Abyssal.)

 

In case we haven’t made it clear before, we’re pretty much all HUGE fans of Abyssal here at NCS.

Not only was Antikatastesis one of the finest albums of 2015 (with the recently released follow-up, A Beacon In The Husk, looking likely to repeat this success), but the band’s performance at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest was arguably the best of the entire weekend.

So, in an effort to extend our coverage of the group I recently reached out to vocalist and prime-mover G.D.C. to see if he’d be interested in contributing a few bits and pieces about his lyrical process… and here is his response. Continue reading »

NUCLEUS: “ENTITY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 052019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new second album by the Chicago-based, sci-fi-themed death metal band Nucleus, released last month by Unspeakable Axe Records.)

If I’d been able to spend a little more time with this record before now I’d undoubtedly have included it alongside Fuming Mouth and Towering in my recent double-review, as not only does it display a similarly striking blend of old-school influences – marrying the meaty, malevolent riffosity of Morbid Angel to the proggy, proto-brutalism of Death – but it does so in a way that’s so vibrant, so visceral, and so thrillingly vital, that, even now, it still sounds as fresh as when Azagthoth and Schuldiner first set finger to fretboard. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LORD GORE — “DAUDISKEGG”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 052019
 

 

When DECIBEL premiered the first advance track off the first Lord Gore album in 15 years, the band introduced themselves to people who might still have been in diapers at the time of that last record: “Lord Gore is a pathogenic, mutated amalgam of deranged individuals who have produced grind and death metal in many bands from the Pacific Northwest since the mid-90s”. And who are these people? Gaze upon the line-up if you don’t already know:

Gurge – Eschatonic Ululations & Fugue-state strangulation inhales
Maniac Neil – 6 tentacles capable of inducing auditory convulsions & 4 rusty chains dripping gangrenous adipocere
Colon Bowel – Blunt Force Trauma & various Meat Beatings
Putrid Pierce – Barbed Wire Lacerations
Jesus H. Dump – Live Summoner of Sub-sonic Bowel Chowder

In addition to provoking chuckles, those descriptions will tell newcomers something about the music, and so will the new album’s spectacular cover art, rendered by Alex Tartsus. Even the album title provides a further clue: Scalpels For Blind Surgeons. We have an even better clue down below, because we’re premiering the stream of a second track from the record, this one named “Daudiskegg“, in the run-up to its August 19 release by Everlasting Spew Records. But before we get to that song, peep this shirt: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON THE FOURTH: ROTTING CHRIST, VARATHRON, FORAY BETWEEN OCEAN, FOSCOR, CORRIDORÉ, OMOPHAGIA, PNAKOTIC VISION, PIERRE NOIR

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jul 042019
 

 

I have mixed feelings about the Fourth of July, especially this year, and I’m not the only American who’s feeling torn today. While there are migrants in the midst of a humanitarian crisis on the southern border, the country’s most famous Independence Day celebration has been turned into a taxpayer-funded militaristic political rally for a man who not only could care less about what’s happening to people in Texas detention camps, but actively tries to score extra political points among his supporters by doubling down on the prisoners’ misery. And that’s just today’s most visible one-two punch to the nation’s ideals. There will be more battering tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.

On the other hand, I still feel fortunate to have been born here, and still take pride in much of what the country has achieved, and in much of what it stands for when it’s at its best. I also recognize that even though I’m not feeling particularly celebratory today, the Fourth is for many Americans a day of joy, even if it’s just because the day is a good excuse to be in the company of good friends or family, to gorge on comfort food and too much beer and booze, and to watch pretty explosions in the night sky. To all those people, I wish them a fantastic fucking day. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ADVENT OF BEDLAM — “A LIAR’S SPIT”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 032019
 

 

Last year we had the pleasure of premiering a video for “The Ever Watchful Eye“, a track off the third album by the Costa Rican extreme metal band Advent of Bedlam, which was then set for release in May 2018 by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Today we have the happy opportunity to remind you of that album — Human Portal Phenomenon — by premiering yet another video for yet another killer track off the album. This one is “A Liar’s Spit”

For those of you who might have overlooked it, this latest Advent of Bedlam record is recommended for fans of Belphegor, Dead Congregation, Hate Eternal, Immolation, Incantation, and Morbid Angel. As those names might suggest, it delivers a brand of death metal that’s ferocious and technically impressive, augmented by progressive instrumental flourishes, flashes of blackened barbarism, and a welcome attention to melody. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CURSE OF DENIAL — “TO CARRY MY SINS”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jul 032019
 

 

In deciding how to introduce their new album, Coming For Your Soul, Cleveland’s Curse of Denial and their label Redefining Darkness Records made a brilliant choice for a first single in advance of the album’s July 26 release. “To Carry My Sins” proves to be a wonderfully dynamic song. Over the span of its changing course it’s physically jolting, explosively powerful, emotionally cathartic, technically impressive, and melodically mesmerizing. If you’re looking for full-throttle annihilation, you’ll get that, and if you want your head pulled back to the skies by sensations of bleak heavy-metal grandeur, you’ll get that too.

It really is a hell of a song, one that not only makes an electrifying first impression but also has staying power. What more could you ask for in setting the hook for the album as a whole?

Well, how about all those eye-balls emanating from that creepy soul-sucker on the album cover? That’s a pretty good lure too, isn’t it? Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries