SHADES OF BLACK: WELTSCHMERZ, DEWFALL, MAGOTH, PANDISCORDIAN NECROGENESIS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Oct 142018
 

 

For this Sunday’s column I’ve picked music from four bands we’ve never previously written about at NCS. Three are advance tracks from forthcoming records, and one is a complete new album, released just yesterday.

WELTSCHMERZ

To begin, I’ve chosen a song from the second album by a band who, despite their German name (which seems to mean “world-pain” or “world-weariness”), are Dutch. We’re further informed that weltschmerz “is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind”. Continue reading »

FEAST YOUR EYES AND EARS ON THIS NEW FALLEN EMPIRE SAMPLER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Oct 142018
 

 

Four months ago Fallen Empire Records announced that it would be shutting down, marching blissfully to its demise at some point before the end of this year. For those of us who had greatly respected the musical choices of this Portland, Oregon label and enjoyed so many of its releases over the last seven years of its existence, this was sad news indeed. But Fallen Empire isn’t moving toward self-extinction with a whimper, but in something akin to a blaze of glory.

Based on a Fallen Empire announcement two days ago, I count 6 albums and one EP scheduled for release later this month (plus a Triumvir Foul release by Vrasubatlat that FE will be distributing), another seven releases in November, and six more in December. Most of these will be physical releases made-to-order based on however many copies are pre-ordered. Some will be digital releases by Fallen Empire, with physical editions provided by Amor Fati Productions, and some will also be released on cassette tape.

Along with that announcement, Fallen Empire launched a sampler of music from eight of these forthcoming releases on Bandcamp — the ones that FE will be handling exclusively — and the music is fantastic. Along with those eight song streams, the label also revealed the artwork for all but one of them, and the cover art is also quite good. In fact, let’s start with the artwork, which I’ve annotated with the name of the band whose album it will accompany: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AGOS — “GLORIOUS RETURN”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Oct 142018
 

 

Former NCS writer KevinP named the debut EP of the one-man Greek band Agos (the work of Van Gimot from Virus of Koch and Carrion before that) one of his “Albums of the Month” for January 2015, praising it in these words:

“This is mid-paced death metal with a blackened feel, but it’s so much more than that. Guitars have a huge sound to them, just enough grandiosity mixed with the perfect amount of filth. Vocally cavernous with reverberating hellfire (aka, a cool echo effect). It’s hard to get super-jazzed about new bands these days, but once in awhile something comes along that just screams out for attention. Hopefully this is just a small sample of what the future holds for this band.”

And here we are, almost four years after the release of that Irkalla Transcendence EP, welcoming the (glorious) return of Agos and sharing with you a song from the band’s debut album, Aonian Invocation, which will be released on October 28 by the triumvirate of Satanath Records (Russia), Deathhammer Records (Cyprus), and Heathen Tribes (Germany). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEKATA — “PSALM”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 132018
 

 

We have a rare Saturday premiere for you, and we fervently hope that word of it will spread like wildfire despite the fact that people seem to spend less time browsing for new music on weekends than during weekdays. The name of the track is “Psalm” and it’s one of six songs on the debut album by a Russian death metal powerhouse called Hekata.

Following the release of a debut EP (Dirge) and some line-up changes, these three men and one woman are now based in Saint Petersburg, where they’ve crafted a staggeringly powerful album in which elements of black metal and crust have been woven into a titanic death metal framework. Entitled Ruin, it will be released on October 27th by a consortium of three labels: Satanath Records (Russia), More Hate Productions (Russia), and Hecatombe Records (Spain). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEKAGRAM — “MAY FLIGHTS OF DEVILS GUIDE YOU HOME”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 122018
 

 

I think it might be best to begin the introduction to this premiere with a few words of warning.

Without any advance preparation, the music immediately assaults the sense, so intensely and so abrasively that the impact is shattering… and for some of you, it will be unpleasant. The layering of high, mind-searing tremolo riffing erupts in an immediate boil, coming in rippling waves of frightening urgency, with a no less urgent snare drum persistently driving the rhythm. There’s virtually no low-end heft in the sound at all, which is made even more incinerating by absolutely terrifying, brain-scarring, reverb-drenched shrieks.

So there — you’ve been warned. And now I’ll explain why you should stick with the song despite the way in which Dekagram starts this musical bonfire. And yes, this album (or EP, depending on where you draw the line) is one song — one 22-minute composition that goes places you probably won’t expect. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COGNITIVE — “FRAGMENTED PERCEPTION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 122018
 

 

Let’s cut to the chase: Prepare for a brain-twisting, spine-fracturing experience. It’s not even really a chase; at some point you’re more likely to just stop running and stand there, gasping and gap-jawed, as this demon-eyed musical jack-rabbit with a rocket strapped to its back leaves you in the dust.

The band is Cognitive, their album is Matricide, Unique Leader will release it on October 26th, and “Fragmented Perception” is both the name of the song and a summing-up of where it will leave your own mentation. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KÅABALH – “THE COMPLETE DARKNESS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 122018
 

 

Following the dissolution of the French death metal band Torture Throne in the spring of 2016, former members of the band went on to form a monstrous new entity named Kåabalh, and on October 26th Dolorem Records will release their self-titled debut album. What we have for you today are the hideous sounds of “The Complete Darkness“, the album’s fourth track out of six.

This new song is a massively heavy and deeply malignant bone-breaker, a lurching, heaving death metal beast that radiates inhuman malice and the stench of decaying flesh. All human warmth has been banished; the horrors of death have been embraced. Continue reading »

A TALE OF TWO ALBUMS: REVOCATION AND ARSIS

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 122018
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews both The Outer Ones, the new album by Revocation (released by Metal Blade on September 28th), and Visitant, the new album by Arsis (which will be released on November 2nd by Nuclear Blast and Agonia Records).)

It doesn’t take a genius to identify the multiple similarities between the career progression(s) of Arsis and Revocation.

Both bands have become pretty big names in (and around) the Tech Death sphere, both bands are fronted by an impressively talented vocalist/guitarist (James Malone and David Davidson, respectively), and both bands have a rather notable ’80s Metal obsession bubbling away under the surface (stadium-sized Hair Metal in the case of the former, classic Thrash for the latter).

But the similarities don’t end there.

Not only are both bands pretty cover-happy (Revocation have, to date, released covers of Exhorder, Death, Metallica, Morbid Angel, and Slayer, while Arsis have pursued a slightly more eclectic path, covering tracks from Alice Cooper, Depeche Mode, and Corey Hart… as well as a mooted King Diamond cover which, for some reason, never saw the light of day), but both groups also participated in the Scion A/V EP programme in 2012, leading to the creation of the Leper’s Caress and Teratogenesis EPs.

And, even more recently, both bands have just produced (or are about to produce) brand new albums which are amongst the heaviest, and most Death Metal focussed, of their careers. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ADVERSO — “EX INANIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Oct 112018
 

 

Black metal isn’t a linear axis, with more of “this” on one end and more of “that” on the other, or a spectrum whose shades move smoothly through varying degrees of deepening darkness. Perhaps a better analogy would be a constellation of moons in differing elliptical orbits around a hostile, burning planet with chaos at its core.

Adverso’s new demo, Ex Inanis, tends to provoke such cosmic comparisons. Unmistakably, there is chaos at its core, and in its own orbit it travels in a ranging course toward ever-freezing reaches of isolation and hope-extinction but also looping inward toward the heart of its energy, crossing into dimensions where flames of dangerous glory heat it to a vibrant shine. But it might just as easily be taken as a merciless mirror to the inner turmoil, torment, and aspirations of a single soul. Continue reading »

SARGEIST: “UNBOUND”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Oct 112018
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the brilliant new album by the Finnish black metal band Sargeist, just released by W.T.C. Productions.)

Surprise releases seem to be all the rage these days and, wouldn’t you know it, Finnish Black Metal beasts Sargeist seem to have decided that they want a piece of that action too, so they dropped their long-awaited fifth album via the WTC Bandcamp page late last night.

So I thought that, much as I did with the new Behemoth album (a record whose overall status and impact I’m still pondering), it might be fun to address the release of Unbound with an extra degree of spontaneity by basing this write-up on my early impressions of the album, going track-by-track, now that I’ve had a few chances to listen to it in its entirety. Continue reading »

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