AN NCS PREMIERE: GOLGATA — “SORG”

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Jun 252025
 

(written by Islander)

In August Satanath Records (Georgia) and WP And RO Productions (Netherlands) will co-release Själabod, the powerful fourth full-length by the Swedish black metal band Golgata. Here is part of how they introduce the new record:

The album Själabod is about new beginnings and closure…. The music is inspired by the history and nature that surrounded the part of Sweden where the duo originates. The music is raw and intense but at the same time melodic and atmospheric. The lyrics are darkly poetic and narrative. With music and lyrics combined, Golgata explores the past to describe their view of modern day.

As a vivid sign of what the new album brings, today we’re premiering a song named “Sorg“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HAXPROCESS — “SEPULCHRAL VOID”

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Jun 252025
 

(written by Islander)

“Haxprocess are playing incredibly heavy death metal music – leaden, thick and dark, and are somehow attempting to go progressive wielding that sound. It’s like Morbid Angel covering The Chasm songs under the influence of Blood Incantation.”

That’s part of how Transcending Obscurity Records pitches Beyond What Eyes Can See, the forthcoming second album by the Floridian quartet Haxprocess. They also mention that the album includes only four songs that average 10 minutes per track — epic in length, and allegedly epic in impact.

Well, to say the least, expectations have been raised. How well does the reality conform to them? Discerning listeners already have half the answer, because T.O. has already streamed the album’s opening two songs — “Where Even Stars Die” and “The Confines of the Flesh“. Now you’ll get three-quarters of the answer because we’re about to premiere the album’s closing track, “Sepulchral Void“. Continue reading »

NOISE TRAIL IMMERSION – TUTTA LA MORTE IN UN SOLO PUNTO

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Jun 252025
 

(Andy Synn encourages those of you who want a little more chaos in their lives to check out the new album from Noise Trail Immersion, set for release this Friday on I, Voidhanger Records)

I feel like I’ve been covering quite a few big – or, at least, well-known (in Metal circles at least) – bands recently, so perhaps it’s about time to switch my/our attention to a group who are a little less (in)famous?

That doesn’t mean that Noise Trail Immersion don’t already have a reputation to uphold with Tutta La Morte In Un Solo Punto, their upcoming fifth album – in fact, we’ve probably played a small role in helping raise their profile over the years – but for the wider community, including some of our readers I’m sure, this could well be their first time encountering the Italian quintet.

And what will they encounter? Nine tracks of swarming, swirling, switch-blade sharp Dissonant Black Math Metal whose main purpose seems to be to repeatedly punish and perforate your eardrums over the course of forty-three furious minutes.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE BLEAK PICTURE — “SHADES OF LIFE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 242025
 

(written by Islander)

“There are times when sorrow seems to me to be the only truth. Other things may be illusions of the eye or the appetite, made to blind the one and cloy the other, but out of sorrow have the worlds been built, and at the birth of a child or a star there is pain.”
– Oscar Wilde, “De Profundis”

Those words feature prominently in The Bleak Picture‘s previews of their second album Shades of Life, which will be released by Ardua Music on June 27th. The music will remind you of them, but the music will also inspire other moods and other visions.

The album is a formulation of melodic death-doom metal that is at once earthy and astral, immensely heavy and gossamer light, stricken by sorrow but elevated by expansive visions of splendor, a powerfully immersive, emotionally moving, and often spine-shaking experience from beginning to end. And we are very fortunate to premiere its full stream today. Continue reading »

FORTRESS FESTIVAL 2025 — MAY 31-JUNE 1, SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND: DAY 1

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 242025
 

(We proudly present the first part of Daniel Barkasi’s extensive two-part report on the latest edition of Fortress Festival in the UK, lavishly accompanied by his own many photos. We plan to post his report on the second day of the event tomorrow.)

When deciding to travel to a foreign land, many preparations need to occur. Especially when it’s a country that you’ve never been to before. It’s true that these ears have traveled much distance for live music – we’ve been to Germany many times for Wacken (x3), Summer Breeze (x2), Party.San and Trveheim, for example – but somehow in all our travels, the UK had never been one of them.

From afar, I’ve admired several UK based metal festivals that have been boasting insane lineups that would simply never occur in North America. Cosmic Void, Damnation Festival, ArcTanGent, Incineration Festival are all ones on the list to hit up – but the mighty Fortress Festival was the one that screamed the loudest. Partially due to the mind-boggling lineup, but also the unique location, a seaside resort town known for its beach, views, history, and massive fortress (hence the name of the fest).

What better locale for two days of furious black metal, sans an old stave church in Norway? Continue reading »

HOLLOW LEG: “DUST AND ECHOES”

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Jun 242025
 

(Wil Cifer reviews Florida-based Hollow Leg‘s new compilation album Dust and Echoes (combining two 2024 EPs), which was released on June 13th by Third House Communications.)

The fact that guitarist Brent Lynch is the only member of Hollow Leg who was not from Bloodlet might lead you to think, this band is a continuation of the forerunners of dark hardcore’s legacy. That is not the case.

It’s respectable for the band to mark this as a new chapter rather than use the name of their previous project for the sake of recognition. This is truth in advertising as this band is much more metal, and in my best guesstimation, and the fact they are fellow Floridians, I can assume things changed as they started smoking a ton of weed which caused the shift in musical direction. The biggest change is that Scott’s vocals are still gruff, but come closer to a scowl-tinted croon than the hardcore roar that marked what he did in the late ’90s. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INDESIDERIUM — “APOCALYPTIC FUNERAL MARCH”

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Jun 232025
 

(written by Islander)

Indesiderium is a Los Angeles based black metal duo founded by vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Atrum Lorde and now accompanied by drummer Warhead. Indesiderium has released two albums so far, Wanderer of the Abyssal Plains (2015) and Of Twilight and Evenfall​.​.​. (2018), and now a third one, The Nocturnal Seance Of Lucifer, is set for co-release later this week by Satanath Records (Georgia) and WP And RO Productions (Netherlands).

From the beginning, the band’s mission has been to channel in uncompromising terms the bleakness, the cold majesty, and the evil of second-wave black metal in its golden age, paying homage to the influence of such bands as Dawn, Dark Funeral, Dissection, Immortal, and Emperor. As a sign of where the band now stand in that mission, we’re premiering today a song from their new album named “Apocalyptic Funeral March“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISEMBODIMENT — “INFECTED TO ROT”

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Jun 232025
 

(written by Islander)

About five weeks ago we premiered a song from Spiral Crypts, the forthcoming debut album of Disembodiment from Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. We preceded it with a warning:

You are about to be stomped and gouged, bounced off the walls and lacerated, dragged into foul and choking cesspools and made witness to violent charnel-house abominations. Your pulse will pound, your head will move, your guts will churn. And you will smile broadly at every abuse to which you will be subjected!

Five weeks might have been long enough for physical and mental therapy to have had some beneficial recuperative effect on listeners who heard that song, “Stygian Overture“. It’s possible listeners have stopped smiling now too (smiling takes extra effort when your jaw’s wired shut). And so the time is right to bring you another helping of death metal trauma straight from the Spiral Crypts, through a song whose title describes some of its own consequences: “Infected To Rot“. Continue reading »

HEAVEN SHALL BURN – HEIMAT

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 232025
 

(Andy Synn has a lot of history with Heaven Shall Burn, which now includes their new album, Heimat, which is set for release this coming Friday on Century Media Records)

Way back in the year 2002 a young man who would one day come to be known (in certain dark corners of the internet, at least) as Andy Synn fell in love with an album by the name of Whatever It May Take by German Metalcore icon(oclast)s Heaven Shall Burn, who would go on to have a major influence on his music tastes for the foreseeable future.

That same year he also encountered an outstanding (some might even say seminal) piece of cinema named 28 Days Later, from director Danny Boyle, which would also have a huge impact on the media he would choose to consume going forwards and set the standard for what home-grown Horror could be.

And now, here we are in 2025 with new releases from both band and director demanding our attention once more… but while one of those has proven to be a crushing disappointment, let’s hope that the other one lives up to its legacy, shall we?

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: AKVAN, ESKAPISM, PIT OF DESPAIR, IDOLOS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Jun 222025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a call last night from an anxiety-prone Millennial family member asking whether I thought World War III had just begun. He said he couldn’t bear to read very much about what had just happened but knew that I would have done so quickly.

I did my best to calm him down, tried to explain why I thought this won’t turn into WWIII and to assure him we’re all safe in Seattle (I didn’t mention the funding cuts to programs that combat domestic terrorism or the 22-year-old intern who was put in charge of the main DHS hub for that).

But yes, I’ve been reading a lot. I can’t help it, even though I know it’s pointless, even though no one really knows where this is headed but every pundit has an opinion (the smart ones tick off discouraging possibilities but then acknowledge that no one knows). It seems like an odd time to be thinking about music, but as usual on days like this the music becomes something of a refuge (NCS as a sanctuary city!). And so, on we go… but where to begin? Continue reading »

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