AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEATH PORTAL STUDIO SAMPLER 2018

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 082018
 

 

Persistent followers of our putrid site will recognize the name Death Portal Studio, as we’ve written multiple times about music from this Colorado label’s releases, which range from black and death metal to ambient and noise. To help spread the word about Death Portal and to expose more listeners to the spectrum of sounds represented by its array of releases, today we’re presenting the premiere of a new Death Portal sampler, which is now available for digital download with a “name your own price” option.

The sampler, prepared with the assistance of Hidden Hand Extreme Music Marketing, consists of 11 diverse, globe-spanning tracks from Gôr Mörgûl, Satarial, Hak-ed Damm, Sar Isatum, Chaoscraft, Sarcophagus, Sereignos, Zardens, Thrymheym, Striborg, and Aetranok. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLOOD WORSHIP — “SHADOWS ETCHED IN STONE”

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Jun 082018
 

 

Death’s Omnipotence is an apt name for the first EP by the Swedish black metal band Blood Worship: The deep shadows of death loom over the music, and the Great Leveller also strikes with implacable savagery. It is the sound of souls scythed out of existence and of survivors driven to the brink of devastation by their anguish. The music gets heads moving as it lashes and thrashes with explosive energy, and it just as effectively puts a deep chill down the spine. It is, in short, a hell of a good debut.

Blood Worship is a new band, the brainchild of Stockholm-based Astrophobos guitarist Martin Andersson, who also plays bass and contributes backing vocals on the EP. He was aided in the recording by Astrophobos bandmate Micke Broman, who is the lead vocalist here, and by session drummer David Folchitto (Fleshgod Apocalypse, Gravestone).

One track from the EP — “Rites of the Inner Shrine” — previously premiered at DECIBEL, and today we present another in advance of the June 15th release date: It’s the EP’s closing track, “Shadows Etched In Stone“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANTAGONY — “END OF THE CIRCLE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jun 072018
 

 

The video we’re about to premiere provides a bit of history, a bit of nostalgia, and plenty of feral energy that hasn’t lost its punch or power despite the passage of 19 years since the release of the song featured in the video.

The band here is Antagony, a Bay Area group active from 1999-2009, that became one of the pioneers of deathcore, integrating elements of death metal, grind, and hardcore in ways that really hadn’t been done before. Their name may have been eclipsed in popularity by other groups that gained greater prominence, and their continuing progress hobbled by extensive line-up changes, but they’re still remembered to this day by a lot of fans. And their former members went on to form or join such bands as Oblivion, All Shall Perish, Hacksaw to the Throat, Suffokate, Oblige, Misericordiam, Connoisseur, and more.

Last year saw the release through Metal Injection of a 32-minute documentary film about Antagony directed by Brandon Hunt and entitled Dawn of Deathcore, much of it consisting of Antagony performance footage in the Bay Area. What we have for you today is a video for the song “End of Circle” that was bonus footage after the end of the closing credits and hasn’t been previously revealed. Continue reading »

MYLINGAR: “DÖDA DRÖMMAR”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 072018
 

 

The 2016 debut EP by the mysterious Swedish band Mylingar, Döda Vägar, was a nightmarish hybrid of black and death metal that seemed designed with the objective of inflicting torment and terror on a thermonuclear scale, igniting one violent hurricane of hate after another, each song ravaging the listener’s head with horrendous and even stupefying power while managing to provide unsettling changes of mood and gripping grooves to latch onto as handholds in these storms of sound.

A paradoxical combination of eagerness and fear gripped me upon learning that Mylingar had completed a debut album, and today it has been released through a conspiracy between Amor Fati Productions and Vigor Deconstruct/Fallen Empire Records. The name of the album is Döda Drömmar. How does it measure up against that frighteningly powerful first EP? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AL ARD — “WHO WANTS TO LIVE FORGOTTEN”

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Jun 072018
 

 

The Italian band Al Ard, originally formed in Sicily but now spread between Turin and Pavia in the north, have devoted themselves to the merging of ingredients from three adrenaline-inducing musical genres to create the channel for the hate they have to spit. With black metal as their main matrix, Al Ard have interwoven drum-and-bass and noise, the goal of their alchemical endeavors being to create a genuine melding of the sounds rather than a sequential stitching-together of distinct movements or an obvious layering of them in parallel.

“Industrial black metal” might be the genre label that comes to mind most readily, but it doesn’t completely capture what Al Ard have achieved. They name among their influences such groups and projects as Dodheimsgard, Red Harvest, MZ412, Brighter Death Now, Aborym, and DiabolicuM. Their debut album is self-titled, and it will be released on June 22nd by Aural Music’s sub-label code666, and from that album we happily present a new song name “Who Wants To Live Forgotten“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATAVISMA — “INVOCATION OF ARCHAIC DEITIES”

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Jun 062018
 

 

The song you’re about to hear, “Invocation of Archaic Deities“, is a stupendous death-doom monstrosity, and it’s also stupendously good — a multifaceted, richly dynamic, electrifying, hook-heavy, and otherworldly piece of musical nightmare.

The track comes from The Chthonic Rituals, the eagerly awaited debut album by the French quartet Atavisma, which follows a debut single in 2014, a four-song demo that same year, a split 7″ with Maur in 2015, and a two-song 7″ last year released by Blood Harvest. The album will be released by Memento Mori on July 23rd. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ODIUM

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jun 062018
 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: NCS Norway-based contributor Karina Noctum had the good fortune of both attending this year’s Inferno Fest in Oslo and interviewing some of the musicians who performed there. The last of those discussions is the one we present today — an interview with guitarist/vocalist Secthdamon of the resurrected Norwegian symphonic black metal band Odium. The band’s 1998 album The Sad Realm of Stars was reissued by Blood Music a few years ago and is still available here.

Odium’s performance at Inferno was their first in 19 years, and a celebration of The Sad Realm’s 20th anniversary. The live line-up consisted of Secthdamon (Emperor, live), Gortheon (Myrkskog), Destructhor (Myrkskog, ex-Morbid Angel), Dominator (Dark Funeral), Righ (Cor Scorpii), and Morindune. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CHURCHBURN, NIHILIFER, THE HOWLING VOID, JOHN MORELAND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 052018
 

 

As mentioned yesterday, I’ve been missing in action at NCS for the better part of the last two weeks, attending one metal festival and helping present a second one. The last of these new music round-ups I was able to prepare came on May 18th. Since then, the flood of new metal has continued unabated rather than politely waiting until I could pay attention again. As a result, there’s perhaps even more than the usual degree of randomness in the following selections.

And speaking of randomness, I decided to include some country music at the end, which I learned about through a conversation on Sunday with Austin Lunn (Panopticon). And since I’ve now dropped his name, maybe you’ll be more likely to give the song a chance.

CHURCHBURN

The dark handiwork of Nestor Avalos adorns the new album by Rhode Island’s Churchburn, the name of which is None Shall Live…The Hymns of Misery. It will be released on July 13 through the Armageddon label. Some new members have joined the band since their last album four years ago, and guest performers appear on the album as well. The first advance track, “The Misery Hymns“, is the song I’ve chosen to lead off today’s playlist. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NOTT — “LIFELESS WILL”

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Jun 052018
 

 

The obscure Italian black metal band Nott, which is the work of the lone wolf Mortifero, has released three albums so far since 2013, the most recent of which was the Disfacimento full-length last year. And although that album may still be fresh in the minds of Nott’s adherents, the band has chosen to present a new EP this year, the title of which is Vestigium Mortis. Five of these seven tracks were originally composed more than a decade ago, intended for a first album that was never recorded, while the opening and closing tracks were composed by Noctuaria for Nott in 2018.

Vestigium Mortis will be released by the Italian label Obscvrvs Records on September 15th. While that seems a long way off in a world that rushes at a frantic pace, we have something for you that will make the wait worthwhile and fortify your patience: the premiere of a track from the EP named “Lifeless Will“, which is one of the songs first composed years ago and now finally recorded. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CONSTRUCT OF LETHE — “TERRACES OF PURGATION”

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Jun 052018
 

 

Metal feeds a multitude of needs, both emotional and intellectual. At one end of the genre’s vast multidimensional spectrum, it can induce a dreamlike revery, guiding the mind in a gliding drift across astral planes. At another end of the spectrum, it can slug you in the neck and jellify the brain with explosions of chaotic savagery, playing upon our darkest fears. With the song you’re about to hear, we’re at that latter end of the span.

The song in question is “Terraces of Purgation” from Exiler, the powerful new death metal album by Construct of Lethe, which will be released on June 20 by Everlasting Spew Records. It features guest vocals by Enrico H. Di Lorenzo (Hideous Divinity). This is the second premiere from the album that it’s been our privilege to bring you, following “Rot of Augury”, and if you missed that one you’ll also have a chance to hear it at the end of this post along with the album’s first advance track, “The Clot”. Continue reading »

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