AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ROTTEN EVISCERATION — “ASCENDING FROM THE PUTRID GRAVE”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Aug 232018
 

 

All of the outward trappings of the Perúvian death metal band Rotten Evisceration suggest an experience of depraved, gore-splattered, blunt-force horror — from their name, to the cover art for their debut album Ancient Grave Ascension, to the titles on the album’s track list. All these outward signs might lead some to conclude that their music is entirely devoted to brutal bludgeoning and mindless mayhem, and that’s not far from the truth, but it’s definitely not the whole truth, as you’re about to discover.

It’s our putrid pleasure to announce the details of this release, along with that ghastly cover art: Ancient Grave Ascension will be released by Blood Spattered Axe Records in conjunction with Guts ‘N’ Blood Records on November 1st of this year. And we also have for you the premiere of the breathtakingly destructive but tremendously electrifying title track from the album, delivered through a lyric video that revels in the terrors of the cover art. Continue reading »

MANTAR: “THE MODERN ART OF SETTING ABLAZE”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Aug 222018
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the German duo Mantar, which will be released by Nuclear Blast on August 24th.)

There comes a moment, in every band’s career (ok, not every band’s career) when they need to decide whether to “go big or go home”.

And it looks like that time has finally come for Mantar, as The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze is easily the biggest, boldest, and most shamelessly bombastic, album of their short but celebrated career, and is practically crying out to be performed on bigger stages and in front of even bigger crowds. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEDSORE — “AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Aug 222018
 

 

I feel compelled to begin the introduction to this premiere with an uncalled-for comment about the band’s name: Don’t be fooled by it.

At one time or another we’ve all been bedsore, waking up cranky and achy. But sleeping poorly and moving slowly upon rising is such a drab, mundane experience, one you just want to banish with the aid of a gallon of coffee. But there’s nothing mundane about the song you’re about to hear, nothing dull or forgettable. To the contrary, it’s a big eye-opener, an unexpected bolt from the blue that proves to be both mystifying and harrowing, a labyrinthine excursion through a nightmare realm. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR: THE BEST NU-METAL RECORD OF ALL TIME?

 Album Reviews, THE REARVIEW MIRROR  11 Responses »
Aug 222018
 

 

(Our Rearview Mirror series, which used to be an NCS fixture on Sundays, has been eclipsed by black metal, but has been temporarily revived today as a vehicle for this retrospective by TheMadIsraeli.)

This is one of my favorite albums of all time.  I’ve never heard anything like it, not before it and not after it.  Nu metal was a weird, kooky-ass genre but it produced some gems, and this is one of them. For me personally, this is probably the best record ever made during nu metal’s reign.  The passion and the weird inter-sectional nature of the elements involved made this album, for me, basically perfect.

American Head Charge themselves are a weird band, releasing a 1999 debut (an underground, very rare release that mostly had songs from this album with much worse production and less fleshed-out sounds), this album where they hit an unreal stride, followed by a detour into just… kind of plain nu metal.  I’m not sure why they didn’t continue what they did on this album; it’s a mystery that bugs me to this day, but I genuinely do believe that The War Of Art is one of the best albums made in metal’s history, in addition to being the best of its entire sub-genre. Yeah, I said it. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: IMPERIAL DOMAIN, HITWOOD, LA PETITE MORT, RANCORUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 222018
 


Imperial Domain

 

I’m in between things at the moment. Got home later than usual last night, lungs choked and eyes watering from the thick smoke shrouding the Puget Sound region all day yesterday, and the forests here aren’t even the ones burning, though they seem to be the only ones in the West that aren’t on fire (yet). I slugged a few fingers of Scotch and hit the rack without dinner, and without getting anything ready to go for NCS today.

My brother Mr. Synn tells me he’ll be sending in a Mantar review at some point this morning, TheMadIsraeli has given me a review as well that I need to get ready to go, and I have a premiere slated for later today but haven’t written it yet. I’m feeling antsy about the page just sitting here with nothing new at a time when we normally have something new, so here’s this thing for you.

As I listen to new music I make lists of things I think might go well together. Sometimes I get around to pulling them together in a round-up; more often I don’t. What you’ll find here is one such list I made a couple of weeks ago. You’ll figure out why I thought these four songs would go well together. Actually, you’ll have to figure out everything about them for yourself, because in order to get this posted before more of the morning disappears, I’m dispensing with my usual commentary. Hope you enjoy. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HADAL MAW / IRON FLESH / TAKEN BY THE TIDE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 212018
 


Hadal Maw

 

(In this post Andy Synn has assembled three reviews of three new EPs that deliver diverse forms of metal extremity.)

Not much of a preamble today, I’m afraid, apart from affirming that you should really check out these three EPs if you’re after a short, sharp fix of sonic savagery.

‘Nuff said. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ULVEN — “DEATH RITES UPON A WINGED CRUSADE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 212018
 

 

We’re so spoiled, those of us with a taste for the bitter, biting salts and the boiling acidity of black metal. We lift the old vintages to our lips, and the new ones; we feel the sting of sulphur in our nostrils and see the pale beckoning hands or the charging cavalries of death in our minds; we might feel transported to nether dimensions that seem poised to swallow and sever us without a backward glance of regret. Satiety can lead to cynicism for some, and even for the never-sated but not easily impressed among the rest of us, we do tend to greet new black metal with the same demand that became the motto of Missouri: Forget the rhetoric, you’ve got to show me.

The PR rhetoric around Ulven’s new album was that it would be “based on the worship of death and reaching beyond the shadows of the deep abyss”, and that as compared to Ulven’s first album, the sounds of this new one — Death Rites Upon A Winged Crusade — “have shifted and morphed to become an entirely new and unholy creature.” Okay, I thought, show me. And Ulven did.

And now we’ll show you, too. There’s a full stream of the album at the end of this post; the album will be released on August 24th by Fólkvangr Records on tape and CD, with a vinyl edition coming from Death Kvlt Productions. Continue reading »

INFERNAL COIL: “WITHIN A WORLD FORGOTTEN”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 212018
 

 

(This is Todd Manning‘s review of the new album by Infernal Coil, which is set for release on September 14th by Profound Lore Records.)

Profound Lore is an underground label that has always enjoyed a certain amount of critical acclaim, with bands like Agalloch, Pallbearer, and Subrosa (to name a few) enjoying coverage across the entire Metal spectrum and even attention from such outlets as NPR, Rolling Stone, and Spin magazine. What is truly heartening for the underground fan is the label’s continuing commitment to releasing albums from some of the nastiest underground Death and Black Metal bands in the business.

The latest offering of unadulterated Death Metal from the label comes in the form of Idaho-based killing unit Infernal Coil. Their debut full-length Within a World Forgotten is due out on September 14th. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WITCH RIPPER — “THE WITCH”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Aug 202018
 

 

After the demise of the impressive Minnesota death metal band Iron Thrones about six years ago, its members moved on to other things. Bassist Curtis Parker moved on not only musically, but also geographically, relocating from Minneapolis to Seattle where he launched a new project named Witch Ripper. At first, it was essentially a solo project, though Parker’s ex-Iron Thrones bandmate Pete Clarke collaborated as the drummer on Witch Ripper‘s self-titled debut EP, which was released in 2012.

I heard about that 2012 EP not long after it came out, and found it hugely entertaining. As I wrote then, it brought to mind the likes of Mastodon, High On Fire, Neurosis, and Helms Alee, channeling the power of the riff at high-megawatt levels of addictive hookiness, but also delivering layers of memorable melodic complexity that made it stand out from the stoner crowd. You could be swallowed up in hard-rocking, hard-rolling jams one minute, stomped-on hard the next, and swimming off on astral streams the next. I immediately started looking forward to the next Witch Ripper release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BANGLADEAFY — “RIBBONCUTTER”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 202018
 

 

I was both perplexed and intrigued when I first encountered the name Bangladeafy roughly two years ago (and I was very late to this party, given that this NYC duo had already been making music together for many years before). The name made more sense when I learned that drummer Atif Haq is Bangladeshi, and that bassist, keyboardist, and vocalist Jon Ehlers is hearing-impaired. I was also temporarily perplexed and intrigued when I listened to the first music revealed from their then-forthcoming second EP Narcopaloma — and then quickly became amazed by what they’d done, which was to create an experience that was somehow brain-twisting but melodic, instrumentally jaw-dropping but spell-binding.

Now Bangladeafy have recorded a new album, the name of which is Ribboncutter. It will be released by Nefarious Industries on September 21st. That news, all by itself, was a source of fresh intrigue. It seemed a given that these two wouldn’t have done anything that could remotely be considered conventional. The only question was what kind of roller-coaster ride had they have created for us, and whether listeners would be left securely strapped in place for the spin or instead be vaulted way out into thin air, arms and legs flailing in frightened and gleeful exhilaration. The answer should have been obvious. Continue reading »

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