AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SINIESTRO — “EXITIUM VIVORUM OMNES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 102018
 

 

In a high forest under a spectral moon with the air biting-cold, you’ve built the woodland fuel for a fire to warm your bones. The kindling comes to life slowly as clouds pass like ghosts across the face of the moon. The wind stirs the flames and they leap higher and higher until you stagger back from them, eyes wide at the sudden violence of the pyre you’ve made.

In its sound, “Exitium Vivirum Omnes” builds in a similar way, and once it’s roaring in the fullness of its heat, it produces a bonfire-like effect on the mind.

This is the second single from Arctic Blood, the new EP by the Swedish strike-force Siniestro, and it comes with a lyric video that revels in visions of apocalypse, with death in the skies and the earth bathed in blood. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEXEKRATION RITES — “CHAOS ABSOLUTION”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 102018
 

 

As most NCS visitors are well aware, we only write about what we enjoy and want to recommend, and that goes for the music we agree to premiere. But I will say, perhaps inadvisedly, that I really really really love this new song by Hexekration Rites. Really.

Maybe that word will seem too soft and sentimental for such head-hammering and harrowing music, which combines the heaviness of death metal and the esoteric atmosphere of black metal. Maybe “lust” is a better word, because the appeal of the music is definitely more carnal than romantic, more rooted in atavistic impulses and more likely to trigger primal reflexes. And as the song’s name suggests, “Chaos Absolution” is wild, channeling a feeling of frenzied liberation and savage ecstasy. Continue reading »

EXPULSED: “KINGDOM OF DESOLATION”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 102018
 

 

(Vonlughlio prepared this review of the debut album by the Australian brutal death metal band Expulsed.)

This time around I am going to introduce you to a small label located in the depths of Ukraine (Reality Fade Records) founded by Dimitri in 2016. I was fortunate to discover the label when it had only released three albums. Through interactions on Facebook I became friends with him, and from there I saw that he had a clear vision of what to do with the label, with a focus on bringing out music that he was passionate about, without focusing on commercial consequences.

From there, Reality Fade signed many bands, such as Interminable Corruptions (whose first album I reviewed here, and placed on my 2017 year-end list as well), Coprobaptized  Cunthunter, Habitual Depravity, Dymorfectomy, Decomposition of Entrails, MDMA, Ineffable Demise, and ByoNoiseGenerator (whose new album I reviewed here), to name a few. But the subject of today’s small write-up is the Australian band Expulsed and their debut album Kingdom of Desolation. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MALTHUSIAN, VALDUR, SPEARHEAD, LORDS OF THE CEMETERY, HOT GRAVES

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Sep 092018
 

 

The music I’ve picked for this week’s column is among the shades of black that shade into death metal, or vice-verse, depending on the stylistic ingredients that you think are more dominant. But while “blackened death metal” might be a suitable description for some of this music, that label doesn’t fit all of it, at least as I think most listeners interpret the term.

All but one of the bands in this collection are old favorites of mine who are returning with new music, sometimes after extended absences; one is a new discovery. I’ll add that this weekend has been a busy one for me (busy with non-NCS activities), so I’m hurrying to get this done before I have to turn again to other stuff. Which means I’m having to cut short my usual rhetorical embellishments, and mainly let the music sell itself.

MALTHUSIAN

After two powerful previous releases, the MMXIII demo in 2013 and the stellar 2015 EP Below the Hengiform (which we had the privilege of premiering), the Irish black/death band Malthusian will at last release a full-length this year. Across Deaths is set for release on September 28th by Dark Descent Records and Invictus Productions.  Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: EYE OF SOLITUDE

 WAXING LYRICAL  No Responses »
Sep 082018
 

 

(In this new edition of Waxing Lyrical, Andy Synn posed his usual questions to Daniel Neagoe of the UK-based funeral doom band Eye of Solitude.)

As far as I can gather, we’ve been writing about Romanian/British Doom lords Eye of Solitude for well over five years now, and have featured articles on their work a number of times (such as here, here, here, and here).

This, however, is the first time in quite a while where we’ve had the chance to speak to one of the band members directly – in this case vocalist/lyricist Daniel Neagoe – and learn a little more about what makes him tick! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): ANOMALIE, KORONAL, OBLIVION, OUTRE-TOMBE, THUNDERCROW, U-FOES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 072018
 


Anomalie – photo by Sunvemetal

 

We’ve thrown a gigaton of new music at you on this Friday, but the way I think about, why should we be the only ones who feel like we’re drowning in a sonic flood? The answer is, we shouldn’t. You should feel the same way.

And so here we have Part 3 of today’s gigantic round-up. The bands my NCS comrades and I decided to feature in Part 1 and Part 2 are among extreme metal’s better-known names. The ones I’ve included here (again presented in alphabetical order) are lesser-known, but worth more attention.

You might notice that this 3-part round-up is a bit light on black metal, but that’s only because I’ve pushed those selections a bit further down the road… until Sunday’s SHADES OF BLACK column.

ANOMALIE

We’ve devoted a fair share of attention to the previous releases by this Austrian band, including Andy Synn‘s devotion of one of his SYNN REPORTs to their discography last year and our premiere of a video for a song off their last album, Visions. Although that album was only released last year, Anomalie are back already with a new four-song EP named Integra. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: AGRONA / LEECHED / NOMAD

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 072018
 

(Andy Synn brings us another of his periodic columns devoted to metal from his homeland.)

Today’s edition of “The Best of British” features a nice amount of musical variety, from a bunch of different bands at different levels of fame/exposure (although, coincidentally, two of them hail from the same place – my original home town of Manchester), all of whom released their debut full-length album at some time in the last six months.

As a result, even if you’ve heard of one of these three acts before (and with the recent press furore over one in particular there’s a very good chance that will be the case) you should still be able to find some fresh new metallic morsels here to sink your teeth into. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): BEHEMOTH, CRYPTOPSY, RIVERS OF NIHIL, THE OCEAN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 072018
 

 

Well, this is just getting ridiculous. As you may have seen me observe in Part 1 of today’s round-up, the last few days have brought a proverbial flood of new advance tracks and videos. I had planned to make this a two-parter, with better-known bands in Part 1 and more obscure names in Part 2. But before I could even begin working on the second Part, my NCS comrades brought to my attention all the following new stuff, most of which just appeared this morning.

So, I decided to insert all this late-breaking stuff in Part 2 (again presented alphabetically, but with few words from me) and then turn to what has now become Part 3.

BEHEMOTH

To begin, here’s the official music video for Behemoth’s “Wolves ov Siberia“, which will appear on their new album I Loved You At Your Darkest. The song is a roiling, rapacious, dissonant piece of speed and savagery, with melodic accents that are emblematic of Behemoth‘s penchant for looming, sulphurous majesty. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ARSIS, EVOKEN, PROFANATICA, PSYCROPTIC, VOIVOD, WOLFHEART

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 072018
 

 

It’s been one of those weeks, one of those weeks when for various reasons I just haven’t had time to compile any round-ups of new music. Unfortunately, it also happens to be one of those weeks when a ton of new songs and videos have premiered (in addition to those we’ve premiered ourselves). I’ve picked a couple handfuls of those, and divided the collection into two parts. This one includes better-known bands, presented in alphabetical order. The next one will include more obscure names.

ARSIS

James Malone sports a shaven head in the Arsis video that appeared overnight, but still screams like a banshee and is obviously still capable of cooking up some tasty riffs, while the people around him help put the spurs to this galloping, groove-some new song and spice it up with a bit of occult aroma, too. Speaking of which… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OUTRÉ — “THE ORDER OF ABHORRENCE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 072018
 

 

Three days ago we published Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Polish black metal horde Outré, a group whose debut full-length Ghost Chants he declared to be the best Black Metal album of 2015, a year that brought many other similarly stunning releases, including Mgła’s Exercises in Futility and Misþyrming’s Söngvar elds og óreiðu. Of the new album, Hollow Earth, Andy wrote that it’s now immediately a contender for the best black metal album of 2018.

Three days ago Outré’s label, Debemur Morti Productions, who will be releasing Hollow Earth on October 26th, hadn’t yet officially announced the release or divulged any tracks for public listening — but now that’s happening, and we’re privileged to help present the first music from the album, a track named “The Order of Abhorrence“. Continue reading »

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