UZUMAKI: “SPOKEN IN TONGUES”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 132019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the latest album by the Mississippi-based death metal band Uzumaki, which was given a CD release last month by Vargeist Records.)

There comes a time for all of us when we are introduced to a project that has been going for a while, but we’ve overlooked, and once you make that discovery you’re immediately hooked. This was the case for me with the band Uzumaki, a death metal outfit run solely by Mr. Jared Moran, who creates complex and obscure songs that blow you away. That’s how I felt when listening to Uzumaki‘s latest offering, Spoken in Tongues. This record was digitally released last year, but thanks to Vargheist Records it has been captured in a physical format this year.

In planning for this small write-up I wanted to get familiar with Uzumaki’s complete catalogue. So I listened to the first album, Glossolalia, released back in 2012, and moved forward toward the newest one. I was curious to see if there had been some progression within the music or if instead it had become stale over time, and also to get a sense of the overall sound across the releases. Continue reading »

CLOUD RAT: “POLLINATOR”

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Aug 132019
 

 

(This is Todd Manning‘s review of the new album by the Michigan-based grindcore band Cloud Rat, which is set for release on September 13th by Artoffact Records.)

It’s funny to watch the cycling of musical sub-genres. It’s not so much that anything goes away nowadays, but when it comes to sonic extremity, certainly flavors tend to move more or less out of focus. Recently, it seems Grindcore is starting to push to the fore with a batch of innovative releases. 2019 has seen not only the return, albeit in slightly altered form, of Discordance Axis, now under the moniker No One Knows What the Dead Think, but also forward-thinking releases from Immortal Bird and now, Cloud Rat.

Cloud Rat are certainly not rookies and their new full-length, Pollinator, is actually their fourth album. Much like Immortal Bird, Cloud Rat seize the innovation of classic Discordance Axis and make it their own. It is not that they are so much aping the sound of that classic trio as taking the torch of innovation and running with it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGABAS — “TUSSMØRKE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 122019
 

 

Let me put my cards on the table: I am not a jazz aficionado. As only an occasional listener, off and on over the decades (and more off than on), I’m not well-educated. Yes, I’m familiar with big names such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Dave Brubeck, and perhaps somewhat more familiar with jazz musicians who’ve participated in various fusion movements, but I’m no expert. And the prospect of listening to a fusion of jazz with elements of death and black metal? To keep my cards on the table, that put me on guard, and not feeling terribly optimistic about the results.

But a feeling of intrigue, coupled with a more general hunger for metal extremity that’s off the usual beaten paths, overcame my skepticism, and I began listening to the self-titled EP of Agabas — a Norwegian group who call their music Deathjazz. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): UNBURNT — “ARCANE EVOLUTION”

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Aug 122019
 

 

Among the long list of adjectives that leap to mind in listening to Unburnt’s debut EP (and you’ll see many of those in the following paragraphs), the one that probably belongs at the top is “ferocious”. While the music is undeniably multi-faceted, the trip through the four tracks on Arcane Evolution is a turbo-charged rush. It propels us at high speed through a savage gauntlet of blackened death metal that’s attacking on all fronts, in breathtaking fashion. The fact that the band manage to integrate so many other experiences along the way, without ever lessening the wild savagery of the assault, is at least as impressive as their talent for obliteration.

The line-up of Unburnt combines the talents of Canadian performers from other established groups — guitarist Bo Louther (Odium), vocalist Eric Burnet (Samskaras, ex-Derelict), drummer Joe Mullen (Odium), and bassist John-Ryan Godfrey (We Are Human). They chose to form Unburnt as a vehicle for creating a different kind of metal than what any of them had been doing in their other bands, and on Arcane Evolution they’ve succeeded in splicing together an array of divergent stylistic elements in a way that’s coherent — and electrifying. Continue reading »

THE HOWLING WIND: “SHADOW TENTACLES”

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Aug 122019
 

 

(On August 5th The Howling Wind surprised us by dropping their latest album (this time the solo creation of Ryan Lipynsky), and Andy Synn gives it a review in this post.)

While it seemed like everyone else was either losing their minds last week over the release of a new Tool song, or bending over backwards to praise the new Slipknot record like it was the second coming, this particular writer was over in the corner giddy with excitement over the realisation that The Howling Wind had dropped their fifth album on Bandcamp without any warning or fanfare.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with liking either of the two former bands (while I think I’ve made my own feelings about the ‘knot more than clear, I’ll definitely be checking out the new Tool album once it’s actually released), but what I’m trying to point out is how easy it is for “the big fish” to monopolise all the online space and digital air so that there’s very little left for those (much, much) lower down the food chain.

Still, as you all know, we’re proud bottom-feeders here at NCS, and it’s our duty, and our privilege, to shine a light on some of the deepest and darkest corners of the Metal world to ensure that no stone remains unturned! Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: BLUT AUS NORD, MARW, ZEIT, THE EMBER THE ASH, TOTENGEFLÜSTER, CONCRETE WINDS

 SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Aug 112019
 

 

Although you can’t tell from the title of this post, it’s the first part of another two-part installment of this column. I didn’t call this “Part 1” because I dusted off a long-dormant strategy for the second one, which has its own long-dormant Category tag, and I’m using that instead of Part 2. All will become clear when I’m able to finish and post the second segment, hopefully later today but possibly on Monday morning.

Here, I’m beginning with a notable news item and then marching ahead with the music, which includes an EP, a new song and video, and advance tracks from forthcoming releases.

BLUT AUS NORD

Part of the thrill afforded by a new Blut Aus Nord album is the process of discovery, because BAN has rarely followed a straight and steady path from one record to the next, and predicting how their path might twist and turn requires a crystal ball. In the case of their new album, Hallucinogen, Debemur Morti Productions has announced that it “begins a new era,” “ending the cycle of clandestine industrialised dissonance that culminated with previous transmission Deus Salutis Meae and moving skyward into freshly melodic territories of progressive clarity”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD IN A SATURDAY: BLOOD RED THRONE, ASAGRAUM, HIGH COMMAND, HAUNTED BY SILHOUETTES, PINEWALKER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 102019
 

 

I hope your weekend is off to a good start. As you can see, I managed to start mine last night without allowing the demon alcohol to inflict obliterating damage on my brain, only moderate damage (it feels like there’s a tiny man, center-right in my skull, repeatedly jabbing with an ice pick). And so I decided to pull together four of the better songs I heard over the last 36 hours and one I discovered about a week ago. All of them are from forthcoming albums.

BLOOD RED THRONE

September doesn’t seem as far away as it did when I wrote about a new song from Blood Red Throne‘s new album back in June. That album, Fit To Kill, is the ninth full-length in a career that began in 1998, and it will be discharged by Mighty Music on the lucky 13th of September. Now there’s a second song from the album out in the world, a track named “Requiem Mass“, which premiered this week at DECIBEL. Continue reading »

DEVOURMENT: “OBSCENE MAJESTY”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 092019
 

 

(Our connoisseur of all things brutal, Vonlughlio, returns with this review of the explosive new album by Devourment, which will be released by Relapse Records on August 16th.)

This time around I can write about a band that is dear to me, and to a lot of people in the Brutal Death Metal scene. A project founded back in 1995, their first demo and two promos led to their debut full-length release Molesting the Decapitated back in 1999, which took everyone by storm and became a classic in the genre. I am talking about Texas-based Devourment.

This band really does have a special place in my heart. The early releases ramping up toward that debut album just fucked me in a good way once I got the chance to listen to them, and so did the album. Songs from the early years, like “Fucked to Death”, “Babykiller”, and “Choking on Bile” are among my favorites. By the time of the first album release the band consisted of Ruben Rosas (Vocals), Bryan Wynn (Guitars), Kevin Clark (Guitars), Mike Majewski (Bass) and Brad Fincher (drums). Together they made deliciously disgusting music, filled with filthy riffs, blast beats for days, and some of the nastiest vocals ever. And I must mention that the vocals of Wayne Knupp (R.I.P) on the Impaled demo, the 1997 promo, and that “Babykiller” single were sure as hell among the best I’ve heard. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSMAL LORD — “NUCLEAR ABSOLUTION”

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Aug 092019
 

 

Attention metal sophisticates and other souls in search of nuance and meticulously stitched musical finery: The door is over there. Please show ourselves out before we turn on the hellfire furnace. Those who don’t mind reveling in a bestial orgy with the hot fumes of sulphur in your nostrils and Abysmal Lord‘s teeth in your throat, make yourselves right at home.

Yes indeed, four years after their Disciples of the Inferno debut album, and following on from their 2018 split with Crurifragium, this New Orleans-based war command is returning with a new full-length — and it could hardly have been better-named: Exaltation of the Infernal Cabal. In addition to exalting the powers of hell, the music also fulfills the other meaning of that initial word — it’s exultant. Although it is a berserker form of ecstasy that explodes from the speakers, for the right kind of reveler, the album’s over-the-top mayhem is fiendishly contagious.

As a prime example of the album’s nuclear-strength depravity, we present “Nuclear Absolution” in advance of the record’s August 16 release by Hells Headbangers. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH 2019: BA’AL / INGESTED / MAN MUST DIE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 092019
 

 

(Andy Synn breathes more life into this occasional series featuring reviews of new releases by UK bands, with reviews and streams of EPs by Ba’al, Lvcifyre, and Man Must Die.)

Chances are a bunch of our regular UK readers will be off in a field in Derbyshire this weekend attending Bloodstock Festival, and so probably won’t get to read this article.

But that’s ok, because one of the primary purposes behind this “Best of British” series is to introduce readers/listeners from other countries to some of our best home-grown musical exports.

So, in that spirit, please allow me to draw your attention to three of the best new (or new-ish) EPs from three of the UK’s best bands. Continue reading »

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