AN NCS PREMIERE: WALLACHIA — “HEATHEN SHORES”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 142018
 

 

The opening bars of “Heathen Shores” transports the listener’s mind like a time machine, deep into centuries long lost. And then, without losing the thread of the melody, Wallachia rocket forward again, jabbing and jolting, galloping and gliding, snarling and shrieking, in a display of highly head-bangable heavy metal might.

“Heathen Shores” is a track off Wallachia’s new album Monumental Heresy, which will be released by Debemur Morti Productions on April 13th, and we’re joining with other sites around the globe in bringing you the premiere of the song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ALTARS OF GRIEF — “DESOLATION”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 132018
 

 

In 2015 we devoted significant attention to the Saskatchewan band Altars of Grief, premiering a track from their superb split with fellow Canadians Nachtterror, publishing an interview by Comrade Aleks with Altars guitarist Evan Paulson, and naming that same song from the split (“In Dying Light”) to our list of that year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

Now, roughly three years later, Altars of Grief will be releasing their second album, Iris, through Hypnotic Dirge Records, and it’s our pleasure to bring you the stream of an album track called “Desolation“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BASALTE — “VERTIGE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 132018
 

 

More than three years ago the Montréal black metal band Basalte released a debut album named Vestige that hit me like a bolt from the blue. It affected me so strongly that I did what I have a tendency to do when experiencing such episodes of euphoria — I launched into a spontaneous spate of metaphors (here):

“Vestige consists of three long songs (from 9 minutes to almost 17), ‘Mirage’, ‘Luminaire’, and ‘Obtuse’. They are guitar manifestos, strange journeys across distortion-shrouded alien soundscapes that sometimes seem like the eruption of volcanos on a Saturnian moon and then at other times shine like the Saturnian rings themselves, shimmering with the glint of sunlight on ice crystals. The drumming is just as unpredictable and just as transfixing, like a comet with a mind of its own that moves around and through the cosmic lightshow, heedless of the pull of gravity.”

I didn’t stop there, but the subject of this post isn’t a reminder of Vestige but an introduction to Basalte’s new album Vertige, which is being released today, and which you can stream after the bulwark of paragraphs I’ve written on this occasion. I’m not surprised I’ve become euphoric again; I am surprised that Vertige not only reaches the heights of its predecessor but exceeds them. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVEHILL — “THE PROFANE”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Feb 132018
 

 

In the summer of last year Dark Descent Records released a sampler of music that consisted of nothing but previously unreleased tracks from forthcoming albums — 11 premieres in one fell swoop. One of those was a song called “The Unchaste” by the veteran Southern California death metal band Gravehill. I was sold immediately, fired up like a Roman candle by that grisly, gruesome, up-tempo dose of barbarity, which included both spectral and face-melting solos and a highly headbangable interlude.

“The Unchaste” is one of 8 tracks on a new Gravehill album, The Unchaste, the Profane, & the Wicked. It’s now set for release by Dark Descent on March 16th. Pre-orders have just gone up today, and to help spread the word, we get to bring you the premiere another track from the album. To go along with “The Unchaste”, today we present “The Profane“. Continue reading »

REVIEWED: A SPLIT RELEASE BY STARKWEATHER AND CONCEALMENT

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Feb 132018
 

 

I have no trouble expressing my enthusiasm for individual songs in words that usually spill out in a rush. Reviewing albums, on the other hand, isn’t so easy for me. Reviewing albums like this one by Starkweather and Concealment (set for a March 9 release by Translation Loss and available for purchase here) is an especially difficult challenge.

I’m not a musician, and I’m certainly under no delusions that I’m some kind of music critic. I like to think I have a discerning ear, but about all I know how to do is describe the sensations of what I hear, the way the sounds make me feel, and perhaps provide a bit of guidance to readers. And in the case of this massive, labyrinthine split, that somehow seems grossly inadequate.

The fact that this is a split release poses a further challenge:  I usually refrain from comparing the music of one band to that of another, even as a short-hand reference point. With any split release, however, it’s very tempting to compare and contrast the two sides. After all, they’re being served up in a single package, and sometimes (but not always) the music of the participating bands has a stylistic, conceptual, or aesthetic connection, i.e., they’re intended to function as integral parts of a unified whole, to provide a single experience rather than separate ones. Here, I haven’t resisted the temptation to compare, as you’ll discover at the end of this very long review.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you thinking, Will you just shut up and get on with it? So I shall. Continue reading »

GRETHOR: “DAMNATIO MEMORIAE”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 122018
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Virginia’s Grethor, which is out now via Edgewood Arsenal Records.)

 

As the old saying goes, “too many cooks spoil the broth”. And the same could be said of influences too.

But while every Tom, Dick, and Harriet out there seems to be dead set on mashing together as many different styles and sub-genres as possible, often in a desperate attempt to maximise their appeal and marketability, there are still some bands – call them purists, call them elitists, call them whatever you will – whose primary goal is not to be all things to all people, but simply to be the best that they can be.

Blackened Death Metal demons Grethor are one such band. Continue reading »

DRONE THERAPY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 122018
 

 

(Grant Skelton returns to NCS with a round-up of new music with a particular stylistic focus, as he will explain below.)

Greetings, friends! It’s been quite some time since I’ve shared a proper roundup of music. The following four artists heavily employ the use of drones in their sound. I used to hate drone music, but have grown quite fond of it in recent months. I’m listing the artists at the beginning of the article while holding my usual lunatic ravings until the end. Why drone? And why should you care? Music first. Lunatic ravings after.

Bismuth

In 2013, our esteemed Editor-In-Chief covered Bismuth’s split with Undersmile (which featured a glorious noisy testament called “Collapse”). For those who, like me, are perpetually late to the party, Bismuth is Tanya Byrne on bass and vocals and Joe Rawlings on drums. Together they create a barbarically slow, deeply entrenched interdimensional wall of sound that is likely to entrance few and repel many. Bismuth’s music is best thought of less in terms of song structure and more in terms of an agonal cycle of musical misanthropy. The unrepentant ugliness of their sound, though, is an aloe for a soul made bitter by the frequent futility of life. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GLORIOR BELLI, ABRAHAM, OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE, SCIENTIST, FOEHAMMER, HOSTIA, KALMAH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 122018
 

 

The flood of outstanding new metal is unceasing. I actually wouldn’t mind a break — not long, mind you, maybe a week or 10 days of absolutely no new music at all. But since that won’t happen, I’ll continue doing my best to tread water and keep my flaring nostrils above the tide.

Here’s a collection of new tracks that I sifted from those that appeared late last week. In genre terms, they’re all over the map.

GLORIOR BELLI

It has gotten increasingly difficult to predict what Glorior Belli is going to do from album to album, or even from song to song. The one you’ll find below is “Deserters From Eden“, the first single off this French band’s new album, The Apostates. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SETSUKO — “CHILD WITHOUT BRAIN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 122018
 

 

The Stockholm group Setsuko think it’s fine for screamo bands to move more in the direction of metal (and grindcore in particular), and for grindcore bands to move more toward screamo as well. They’ve chosen to position themselves in the middle between those two camps, with a laudable objective:  “to combine the most violent sounds of both hardcore and metal and play the fastest, angriest stuff we possibly can”. And these Swedes do mean what they say, as you’re about to find out.

Setsuko’s debut album is The Shackles of Birth, which will be released in March on the UK label Dog Knights Productions. The song we’re bringing you is “Child Without Brain,” which according to Setsuko follows a “theme of paranoia and living in a world somewhere between lucidity and psychosis”. In fact, most of the songs follow that theme as well. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ECLOSS, SVNEATR, MORMÂNT DE SNAGOV, SVPREMACIST

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Feb 112018
 

 

As I explained in Part 1 of today’s long column, this collection begins with three substantial works of atmospheric black metal largely devoted to “long-form” compositions, and then makes some sharp stylistic turns. The first item in this Part 2 is the third of those opening pieces and becomes a bridge to the veering course in the final trio.

ECLOSS

Ecloss is a one-man project based in Paris. The Ecloss debut album, Diluvienne, was released on January 26 and consists of three long songs. The shortest of those, at about 9 minutes, is the opener “Mensonges De Profane“, which is what convinced me (without argument) to plunge into the even more substantial works that follow it. Continue reading »

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