AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OCULUM DEI — “GHOST IN THE CORRIDORS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 042019
 

 

This past February the North Carolina-based trio Oculum Dei released their debut album, Dreams of Desire and Torment, which delivered an unholy and eclectic mix of black and death metal that dynamically ranged from passages of haunting darkness to explosions of wrenching chaos. Today we present an official video for a track off the album that itself encapsulates much of the band’s musical range, a song named “Ghost In the Corridors“. which proves to be an intensely disturbing but very hard-to-forget experience.

The song begins with a moody and beguiling guitar and bass instrumental that seems to be a seductive invitation, but even then there are hints of deeper darkness to come. When the pounding drums and scalding vocals come in, soon joined by a cruel, boiling riff, the music begins to swell in power, soon shrouding the senses in an atmosphere that’s both venomous and dismal, both seething and desolate. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ROGGA JOHANSSON – “AS EVIL SEEPS OUT”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 042019
 

 

If the (often fractious) community of metal were a nation, Rogga Johansson would be rightly regarded as a national treasure. The Bard of Gamleby has left his mark through a host of bands and personal projects extending back into the golden ’90s, too numerous to count even if you used all your fingers and toes. Attempting to group all of them under the unitary banner of “Swedish death metal” is tempting (because he is Swedish and does mainly indulge in death metal), but the permutations in sound and style can evade the genre characterizations that usually spring to mind when seeing that label.

Of all the many endeavors to which his name has been attached, only one actually bears his name, and now Rogga Johansson (the band) has a new album on the horizon. Entitled Entrance to the Otherwhere, it will be released on July 19th by Transcending Obscurity Records. We had the pleasure of premiering a song from the first Rogga Johnasson album, 2017’s Garpedans (which was conceptually connected to the last Demiurg album), and now we have the opportunity to premiere a song from the new one. But before we get to it, how ’bout that fucking cover art?!? Continue reading »

GAAHLS WYRD: “GASTIR — GHOSTS INVITED”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 042019
 

 

(Wil Cifer reviews GastiR – Ghosts Invited, the new album by Gaahls Wyrd, which is out now via Season of Mist.)

Gaahl is an iconoclast. For him black metal is not something he simply paints onto his face. Black metal is something he expresses himself through with an honest anger. While you might not feel that hate coming at you through the speakers like his work with Gorgoroth, you can feel the darkness. He does not settle for the mediocrity of sounding like everyone else.

His first song is spoken in a Gollum-like voice. They are not just hitting you with blast beats, but with dissonance, creepiness, and haunting melodies. There are blast beats on “Ghosts Invited” but they take you on an immersive journey with more thrashing sections and some groove. In places Gaahl uses sung baritone vocals to off-set the din. They slow down into a more elegant and melodic pulse with “Carving the Voices”. If this is hurting your feelings because it doesn’t sound just like Gorgoroth, well go listen to Gorgoroth. Yes, he is singing more, but I imagine if he was just rehashing what he did in Gorgoroth, he would bore himself to death. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INFERNAL CONJURATION — “INFERNALE METALLUM MORTIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 042019
 

 

Following a trio of short releases that have been highly regarded in the death metal underground, the Mexican band Infernal Conjuration have at last created a debut full-length now set for CD and vinyl release on June 7th by no less than Iron Bonehead Productions, whose attention to the album should be enough reason for you to dive all the way in. Little wonder that a label with such a proven track record would embrace Infernale Metallum Mortis, because the album is, in a word, spectacular.

We are fiendishly delighted to present a full stream of the album today, and it is indeed overflowing with fiendish delights. Feel free to skip right down to the bottom of this post and launch the player (after first taking some giant gulps of air), but if you’d like a further preview of what lies ahead, read on…. Continue reading »

PANZERFAUST: “THE SUNS OF PERDITION – CHAPTER I: WAR, HORRID WAR”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jun 032019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Panzerfaust from Toronto, Ontario, which will be released on June 14th by Eisenwald.)

So Summer is officially here. The sun is shining, the days have grown longer, and even the nights are balmy and mild.

But, of course, if sunshine and good times aren’t your thing then the music world still offers more than enough sonic darkness to satisfy your cravings for all things bleak and blackened… which, in this particular case, includes the phenomenal fourth album from Canadian extremists Panzerfaust. Continue reading »

NO CLEAN SINGING – RUINING LIVES SINCE 2009

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  26 Responses »
Jun 012019
 

 

Did you know that it’s our tenth anniversary this year?

That’s right, come October/November (I’m not sure exactly when) NCS will have been in existence for a full decade.

And while I’m sure that, closer to the time, Islander will publish his own thoughts (and some fun factoids) about the last ten years of blood, sweat, toil, and graft which have brought us to this point… I thought I’d get my piece in early (and help cover for the fact that the boss is busy helping out with Northwest Terror Fest this weekend).

So the question I’d like to ask is… paraphrasing Monty Python a little bit… what has NCS ever done for you? Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SUBTYPE ZERO — “CEREBRAL CAGE”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
May 312019
 

 

In August of last year we had the riotous pleasure of premiering a song for a track off the then-forthcoming debut album Astral Awakening by Ohio’s Subtype Zero. The name of the song was “Become Insane”, which could have been interpreted as a command (which in the case of that song is damned difficult to resist) or a description of what will happen to you if you listen to it (particularly accurate if you’re a lover of punk-fueled thrash). Either way (or both), it was a fitting title for that explosive track. The whole album proved to be just as much of a high-voltage, adrenaline-triggering rush.

Astral Awakening has now been out for nine months via Seeing Red Records, but we’ve got something that will remind you how electrifying Subtype Zero are, or introduce them to you if you’re encountering their music for the first time. It’s an eye-popping, thoroughly murderous music video for the twelfth and final song on the album, “Cerebral Cage“, and we’re presenting it to you right before a Subtype Zero tour that begins next week.. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 109): ENCIRCLING SEA

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  7 Responses »
May 312019
 

 

(The subject of Andy Synn‘s REPORT for the month of May 2019 is the discography of the Australian band Encircling Sea.)

Recommended for fans of: Downfall of Gaia, Cult of Luna, Wolves In The Throne Room

Australian three-piece Encircling Sea are a band I’ve been itching to write about for what seems like forever, yet it’s always seemed like life has had other plans and other priorities which have prevented me from doing so.

Recently however my urge to cover the group’s music has ramped up considerably, largely because 2018’s Hearken was one of my favourite albums of the year, and helped reignite/reinvigorate my passion for their entire back catalogue.

Splitting the difference between the more atmospheric end of the Black Metal spectrum (think Wolves In The Throne Room, Agalloch, etc) and the heaving Post-Metal of ISIS and their ilk, the group’s sound also incorporates some hefty Doom and Sludge influences, as well as a dash of somber Neo-Folk, in a way that captures both the vastness and elemental grandeur of the band’s homeland in majestic musical form. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VORTEX OF END — “ARDENS FVROR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
May 302019
 

 

On May 31st — tomorrow — Osmose Productions will release Ardens Fvror, the third album by the French extremists Vortex of End, and on the eve of that explosive advent we present a full stream of the album.

Ardens Fvror is a hybrid in more ways than one. Stylistically, the band have created an alchemical alloy of black and death metal that interweaves the thunderous tumult and megaton destructiveness of a modern war zone with the hallucinatory quality of of an occult ritual, in which solemn reverence and fierce zealotry are also intermingled. The result is music that’s both skull-crushing and spell-weaving. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVEFIELDS — “MIND LEECH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 292019
 

 

Gravefields is the cross-continent collaboration of Cairo-based multi-instrumentalist Alan Hurley and French vocalist DM (Helioss, Wrath From Above, Gastropode). Under the name Dirtyprotest, they released a first album in 2017 (Hellstorm), and now, operating under the new name of Gravefields, they’re on the verge of releasing a second album. Entitled Embrace the Void, it’s set for a June 7 release by Redefining Darkness Records (which has a reliable track record of identifying and seizing upon top-shelf talent).

Today we’re presenting a song from the new album named “Mind Leech“, and the first word that springs to mind in attempting to describe it is “kaleidoscopic”, quickly followed by “explosive” and “breathtaking”. With its foundations in death metal, it subtly pulls from other influences to create a constantly changing yet cohesive experience, one that seamlessly combines blast-furnace intensity and captivating, heart-aching melody. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries