AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AHTME — “SUBHUMAN REMAINS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 292018
 

 

When last we visited Ahtme from Kansas City, Missouri, it was almost two and a half years ago, not long after they had signed with Unique Leader Records. At that time, Unique Leader was on the verge of reissuing the band’s debut album The Demonization and we were hosting the premiere of a video for one of that album’s demonizing tracks. The reissue was a paving of the way toward something new from the band, and at last, it has arrived.

June 1st is the date set by Unique Leader for Ahtme’s new album, Sewerborn, and we are in the happy position of again hosting a premiere, this time for the new album’s final track, a merciless but insidiously infection brutalizer named “Subhuman Remains“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: CAVEMAN CULT — “SUPREMACÍA PRIMORDIAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
May 292018
 

 

Yesterday, while recovering from a metal festival over lunch with six haggard friends, we somehow got off onto summing up each other’s personalities. Looking at a few of them I observed, “Some people wake up angry.” One friend chimed in, “Some people wake up anxious.” Another said, “Some people wake up irritated — at being awake.” No one mentioned waking up with blood on their hands and fire in their eyes; that’s how I imagine that the Floridians in Caveman Cult usually greet the day.

I guess if you’re one of those delusional souls who wake up smiling at the wonderfulness of life, or happen to be suffering from a cataclysmic hangover, Caveman Cult’s new EP won’t be the right way to get your game face on. But if you want music that will fuel your rage, vaporize your anxiety, squash your irritation, and put the look of a wolf in your eyes, Supremacía Primordial is a damned fine choice. Continue reading »

ROADBURN 2018, A PHOTO RECORD: DAY 4

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
May 292018
 

 

The 2018 edition of Roadburn Festival is in the history books. From April 19th through April 22nd at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands, metal fans got the chance to choose from among performances by more than 100 bands across four stages and a fascinating array of musical genres. NCS was fortunate to be represented by the fantastic New Orleans-based music photographer Teddie Taylor, who made a visual record of the event for us.

We left it to Teddie to decide which bands to see; no doubt she had a lot of difficult decisions to make — and we had difficult decisions of our own in determining which of her images to share with you (they’re all really damned good!). We’re dividing this collection of pics into four parts, one for each day of Roadburn 2018. You can find her photos from Day 1 here, Day 2 here, and Day 3 here. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEAD END

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 282018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us this wide-ranging interview with Alwin Roes, one of the original members of the resurrected Dutch death-doom band Dead End, who released a first album through Vic Records in 2016. As discussed in the interview they have a new album coming later this year, and many other plans in the works as well.)

Dead End is a relic of a past epoch. The band was formed in 1988 in North Brabant, Netherlands, and was one of those few first bands who explored death-doom metal. They managed to record two demos Tales (1991) and Purity (1992) that lead them to the EP Wartime In Eden (1993), and then Dead End was disbanded.

None expected it, but the band was resurrected in 2014, and their debut full-length Reborn From The Ancient Grave saw the light of day two years after this return. The details of Dead End‘s early years, the reasons to continue spreading death-doom bliss, and future prospects for the band are covered in this interview with Dead End’s original bass-player Alwin Roes. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: NAILED TO OBSCURITY

 WAXING LYRICAL  2 Responses »
May 262018
 

 

(For this week’s installment of Waxing Lyrical, Andy Synn presents thoughts from vocalist Raimund Ennenga of the German melodic death-doom band Nailed To Obscurity, who are now at work on a new album.)

The name Nailed to Obscurity should be a familiar one to you if you’ve been paying attention to NCS over the last year or so, as not only did I identify their most recent album, King Delusion, as:

“…one of the most intriguing and engaging releases of the year…”

in my review last March, but I also selected that same album as one of the runners-up in last year’s Critical Top Ten, and named it as a fitting companion piece to the most recent Paradise Lost album, Medusa.

Clearly I wasn’t the only one to feel that way either, as the band recently signed to Nuclear Blast, and are currently hard at work on their major-label debut (their fourth album in total), which means that now seemed like the perfect time to have a quick word with NtO vocalist Raimund Ennenga about the where, what, when, and how, behind his lyric-writing process. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LELAHELL — “PARAMNESIA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
May 252018
 

On their new album Alif the Algerian band Lelahell continue a conceptual narrative arc concerning the evolution of a character named Abderrahmane that has carried through their debut EP Al Intihar (2012) and their first album, Al Insane​.​.​. The (Re​)​Birth of Abderrahmane. The new album focuses on a variety of philosophical and spiritual subjects through the lense of ferocious, technically impressive death metal, accented by influences from the band’s homeland.

Alif will be released on June 15th by Metal Age Productions, and today it’s our pleasure to present a video for the album’s opening track, “Paramnesia“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VERANO’S DOGS — “DEADLY WHISPER”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 252018
 

 

The Campo Verano is a famous cemetery in Rome whose origins date back to the early 19th century, and includes catacombs that are far older. With the old burial site in mind, the Italian death/grind band Verano’s Dogs chose their name as a way of linking their music to death and to age-old traditions in which great hounds have guarded the land of the dead or ushered perished souls into the afterworld.

Consistent with this conception, Summoning The Hounds is the title of the band’s debut album, which will be released on June 15th by Metal Age Productions. Two singles have been released so far, and today we precent a lyric video for the third and last single prior to the album’s release. The name of this new advance track is “Deadly Whisper“. Continue reading »

ROADBURN 2018, A PHOTO RECORD: DAY 3

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
May 242018
 

 

The 2018 edition of Roadburn Festival is in the history books. From April 19th through April 22nd at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands, metal fans got the chance to choose from among performances by more than 100 bands across four stages and a fascinating array of musical genres. NCS was fortunate to be represented by the fantastic New Orleans-based music photographer Teddie Taylor, who made a visual record of the event for us.

We left it to Teddie to decide which bands to see; no doubt she had a lot of difficult decisions to make — and we had difficult decisions of our own in determining which of her images to share with you (they’re all really damned good!). We’re dividing this collection of pics into four parts, one for each day of Roadburn 2018. You can find her photos from Day 1 here, and Day 2 here. Continue reading »

A DIRTY HALF DOZEN: ACHERONTAS / ASCENSION / UADA / WIEGEDOOD / WILT / WOLVHAMMER

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
May 242018
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn has combined reviews of new albums by a sextet of bands from both sides of the Atlantic.)

Phew, I’ve been trying to get this particular column written for quite a while now, but a cruel convergence of work, illness, and prepping for this year’s MDF meant that I’ve honestly been struggling to find the time to sit down and put finger to keyboard.

On the plus side, however, this has given me a little bit more time to absorb each album, and will hopefully result in a better overall product, so perhaps I/we shouldn’t complain too much.

Anyway, without further ado, here are six albums, all of them Black Metal, yet all subtly different and differentiated, originating from a variety of different locations around the globe (Greece, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the USA), which I think are well worth your attention. Continue reading »

MDF BLOG BREAK

 Off Topic  9 Responses »
May 232018
 


airplane window view (it don’t look flat to me)

 

The little tracking map on my laptop says the airplane is somewhere over Wisconsin as I start writing this post. Supposedly, said airplane will land in Baltimore 2 house and 17 minutes from now. A few hours after that, I’ll start my Maryland Deathfest 2018 experience with a visit to the pre-fest show. And there will be a steady diet of metal from then through Sunday.

I’m not the only NCS slave who will be at MDF. Andy Synn and DGR will be there, too, along with assorted other miscreants (and a few saints) whom we are proud to call our friends. The likely outcome of this revelry is that the usual volume of NCS posts will dwindle to a trickle until next week… but it won’t disappear. Continue reading »

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