AN NCS PREMIERE: SOUL DISSOLUTION — “FAR ABOVE THE BOILING SEA OF LIFE”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Feb 092018
 

 

The photograph that appears on the cover of Stardust, the new album by the Belgian black metal band Soul Dissolution, is beautiful, otherworldly, and haunting. You can imagine standing on that cold, craggy shore, gazing in wonder as the sea becomes illuminated by a column of celestial light, as if a window on the cosmos has been mysteriously opened and what was once inexpressibly distant has now been brought near.

It’s not the cover art alone that might make listeners feel a sense of wonder, or to become rhapsodic in their reactions to the album. The music has a similar effect, as you’ll soon discover: Today we open a window into Stardust’s own celestial vistas in advance of its March 25 release by Black Lion Records through our premiere of the album’s closing track, “Far Above the Boiling Sea of Life“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: NEGATIVE SLUG — “BLISS OF CORPSE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 082018
 

 

On February 9th — tomorrow — Cimmerian Shade Recordings will release a new EP by Negative Slug from Zagreb, Croatia. Before this record, the band had released a trio of EPs and a debut album. I hadn’t heard any of them, but I read the song titles before listening to the new release.

As a representative sample, they included tracks named “Horrendously Noxious”, “Black Smoke Atrocities”, “Rotten Existence”, “Thermal Piss Eyes”, and “Blotted Rotted”. I began to expect something foul and mean-spirited was headed my way. And of course the name of the new album is Bliss Of Corpse.

Some of the song titles on the new record can be found on the earlier releases, as well as the title track and an ode named “Slugs & Snails”. I was not expecting happy or polite music. Aural hell was what I was expecting. I mean, look at that creepy-as-shit album cover up there. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ERYN NON DAE. — “ASTRAL”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 082018
 

 

When you have followed, enjoyed, and praised the work of a band for as long as our site has been doing in the case of Eryn Non Dae., there is some risk that objectivity will be lost, or at least as much objectivity as can play a role in the appreciation of music, which some might argue isn’t very much at all.

Our site has been alive since November 2009, and one of our earliest reviews, only two months later, was of this French group’s debut album, Hydra Lernaïa. Since then, we’ve written about them more than a dozen other times, the last of which was a post in which my comrade Andy Synn named the band’s new album, Abandon of the Self, one of his most anticipated albums of 2018. It has been one of mine as well.

Eryn Non Dae. do not hurry themselves. More than five years have passed since their second album, Meliora; and it took roughly three years for Meliora to arrive after Hydra Lernaïa. If you’re a fan, you must be patient, but we’ve learned that the patience is rewarded. We’re about to learn that again. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ALL MY SINS – “ZOV IZ MAGLE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  7 Responses »
Feb 082018
 

 

(We present the premiere of a new two-song EP by the Serbian duo All My Sins, which is now available on Bandcamp, preceded by a review of the release by Andy Synn.)

 

There are some people out there who would have you believe that there are only really two types of bands – “innovators” and “imitators”.

But this is a vast, and misleading, over-simplification of how things really are.

The truth of the matter is that most bands will never be the next Mayhem/Opeth/Meshuggah… or whoever… but that doesn’t mean their music doesn’t have value.

In fact I’d contend that it’s more important to be distinctive, rather than “innovative”, in your chosen field, and that the willingness and ability to truly pour your heart and soul into your music, to twist and tweak established facets and features into something that truly represents your vision, is the most vital thing of all. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AUTOKRATOR — “AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Feb 082018
 

 

The first two Autokrator albums — the self-titled debut in 2015, and The Obeisance To Authority in 2016 — were senses-shattering experiences. On my own senses, the first album (reviewed here, with an interview) probably had a more stupefying impact, because I didn’t know what was about to hit me. For the second one, I had the good sense to wear body armor and flame-resistant head-gear before listening; but it wasn’t enough. It blew right through me like a howling hurricane.

I’m speaking in a figurative sense, of course, but only barely. The almost unmitigated savagery and destructive power of Autokrator’s death/industrial assaults are overpowering. But the music also exerts a powerful primal appeal; you can become easily intoxicated by this brand of violence. And so, with steeled nerves but with a trembling mix of fear and excitement, I confront the fact that Autokrator are about to unleash hell again.

The band’s new album is Hammer of the Heretics. It will be released on April 10 by Krucyator Productions. It consists of five tracks, including one mind-scarring interlude, and today we present the album-opener, a piece called “Against Flesh and Blood“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FORMALIST — “ARSON”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 082018
 

 

If you have not yet heard a note of music from the Italian band Formalist, there are still ample reasons to expect that Formalist will be formidable. Four reasons, to be more precise: Their vocalist is Ferdinando Marchisio, frontman of Forgotten Tomb; their bassist Nicola Casella and drummer Riccardo Rossi (also in charge of electronics) come from Malasangre; and guitarist Michele Basso has been the central figure in Viscera///.

One would expect that an alliance among those four would produce an amalgam of doom, black metal, sludge, and ambient/drone capable of opening “new gates to total sonic horrors”, “with a completely hostile, nihilistic approach to vocals and lyrics” — just as the labels who will jointly be releasing Formalist’s debut album on March 16th have claimed. Those labels are Third I Rex (UK), Wooaaargh (Germany), and Toten Schwan Records (Italy). The name of the album is No One Will Shine Anymore.

Yes, these are completely legitimate expectations. But we will see for ourselves whether they prove true. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RITES OF THY DEGRINGOLADE — “ABOVE THE HIGHEST”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Feb 072018
 

 

“Above the Highest“, the track we’re premiering today from the new album by Rites of Thy Degringolade, is a strange kind of looming obsidian monolith, twisted and cracked yet glowing with the shimmer of a perilous and otherworldly light. It is a jarring and jolting experience on many levels, and yet for all that it has an undeniable charisma. How can something so unearthly and disorienting be so addictive? You shall see….

Of course, anyone familiar with the previous creations of this Canadian band will not be surprised to read that last paragraph. Over a 20-year span, Paulus Kressman and his eventual ally J. Wroth have been responsible for a collection of striking, and strikingly distinctive, works. Now, after a hiatus of more than a decade, they are returning with their first new full-length since 2005’s An Ode To Sin, and are joined on the record by new members — guitarist N.K.L.H. (Antediluvian, Weapon, Amphisbaena) and bassist C.W.

The name of the new album is The Blade Philosophical. It is being released on CD today by Nuclear War Now! Productions, with digital and vinyl editions coming in March. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRIPPLE BASTARDS — “GRIMCORPSES” AND “L’UOMO DIETRO AL VETRO OPACO”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 072018
 

 

Very few grindcore bands have lived as long, or have been as influential, or have remained as true to the genre’s roots as Italy’s Cripple Bastards. In this year, they celebrate their 30th anniversary, and one way in which they’re doing that is through the release of a monster box set of music that in itself has been years in the making. Entitled The Outside World, it’s a collection worth investigating by any die-hard grind fanatic, not only as a historical “document” but also because the music has remained relevant and powerful straight up through today. And at the end of this post we have streams of a couple of songs to prove that.

The discography of Cripple Bastards includes a vast number of singles and EPs (the reason for which we’ll come to in a moment), and this box set includes all of them in one place — every single non-album track, including those which appeared on compilations, that the band has recorded since 1988. Equally significant, the recordings have been retrieved from their original archived sources (the original reels, DAT tapes, etc.) and remastered to provide maximum sound quality.

The box set also includes a lot of other rare and previously unreleased material, including songs from a 2003 studio session, rare demos, and live tracks. All told, the collection includes 362 tracks (!) housed in five LPs and two CDs, accompanied by a lyrics book and a photos book. Continue reading »

BLOODSHOT DAWN: “REANIMATION”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 072018
 

 

(We present TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by the UK’s Bloodshot Dawn, which was released on January 12, 2018.)

 

Bloodshot Dawn as a concept was at an existential crossroads after everyone but frontman, founder, and guitarist Josh McMorran left the band. The departure that hurt most, though, was that of lead guitarist and co-writer Benjamin Ellis, who went on to join Scar Symmetry. I would have to imagine that there was some hesitancy on McMorran’s part about continuing on; the lineup, while only two albums old, had already become iconic in the underground, and the sound of Bloodshot Dawn had already established in definitive terms. Combine this with Demons becoming an extremely successful sophomore record that garnered them lots of acclaim, and I think the idea of trying to continue would have been intimidating.

But McMorran, not content to hang it up, decided to push forward. The new lineup now consists of guitarist/vocalist Morgan Reid, bassist Giacomo Gastaldi, and Vader drummer James Stewart. Now, in Reanimation, we have Bloodshot Dawn’s first offering since this new lineup formed, and of course the question is, how does it stack up against the band’s previous output? Continue reading »

AGRIMONIA: “AWAKEN”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Feb 072018
 

 

(After an absence of more than two years, our old comrade deckard cain has returned to NCS with a guest review of the fourth album by the Swedish band Agrimonia, which was released by Southern Lord on January 26th.)

 

In an Old English medical manuscript, ‘Agrimonia’ was cited as an herb, a panacea for all supposed ailments.

‘If it be leyd under mann’s heed,
He shal sleepyn as he were deed;
He shal never drede ne wakyn
Till fro under his heed it be takyn.’

Daniel Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal paints quite a vivid picture of the country’s trajectory into death metal haven, the first chapter of which is dedicated entirely to hardcore punk and its variants. The gradual shift from heavy metal to speed/power to thrash metal might as well have been wholly discarded in favour for a much more two-way exchange between hardcore and death metal.

There are exceptions to this, of course, but for the sake of brevity one cannot dissociate one from the other. Most of the now seminal Swedish death metal bands had a background in hardcore punk and crust, and one cannot miss the clear crossover spirit that so pervades the earlier releases of said bands. So, the Swedish lineage may be considered a tad different from other strains. Continue reading »

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