AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELLISH GOD — “THE EVIL EMANATIONS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 052018
 

 

Hellish God may be a relatively new name in the annals of death metal, but one need not be clairvoyant to predict that it’s a name which will spread like wildfire, much like their particular brand of musical brutality blazes like a hellish bonfire. Their debut album is The Evil Emanations, and it’s set for release on Monday, January 8th, by the Italian label Everlasting Spew Records — but we’re giving you a chance to hear all of it today. If you were thinking of blasting your weekend to smithereens and burning what’s left of it to the ground, you’ve come to the right place.

Hellish God’s line-up includes current and former members of such bands as Antropofagus, Imposer, and Mindful Of Pripyat, and this new album (which follows their 2016 EP, Impure Spiritual Forces) is conceptually focused on the Qlipoth — “metaphorical shells which represent evil spiritual forces in the Jewish mysticism”. The music embraces a particular kind of old-school death metal sound that’s recommended for fans of Azarath, Rebaelliun, Centurian, Krisiun, and Abhorrence. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM GRANT SKELTON

 LISTMANIA 2017  21 Responses »
Jan 052018
 

 

(We present NCS contributor Grant Skelton’s excellent 2017 year-end list, curated to present dark releases that haven’t gotten as much attention as they deserve.)

 

Greetings friends! Regrettably, I’ve been more absent from NCS this year than I would have liked. My spouse and I have been unburdening ourselves of student loan debts, which meant more overtime, which then meant less free time for writing. We’ve a good way to go yet, but we’re much further along than we were. But, I digress. Onward to the list

I went for a bit of a different approach this year. Rather than breaking down the genres (and subsequently driving our editor-in-chief further into mental instability than he already is) I made a single list representing a variety of genres. A caveat: these albums are certainly not ALL of what I think deserves the title of “best” of this year’s releases. Below, you’ll see my criteria. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NORTT

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jan 052018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks secured the opportunity to interview Nortt, the influential Danish black/funeral-doom band, whose new album was released near the last day of 2017 after a 10-year absence.)

 

Nortt is a semi-legendary project that first appeared in the European underground about 22 years ago. Tagged as “pure depressive black funeral doom metal”, this one-man band held its position as the genre’s pioneer ’til 2007. Nortt’s cold and nihilistic sound inspired his followers, and after a collection of well-received records (including three full-length albums) the project simply disappeared.

The news of Nortt’s fourth coming on December 29, 2017 become a kind of event for those who remember the dark and ominous records Gudsforladt, Ligfaerd, and Galdenfrist. So now, as the new full-length Endeligt (and the first one in ten years) is appearing on the famous Italian label Avantgarde Music, it’s a damn right time to ask some questions to Nortt himself! Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM AUSTIN WEBER

 LISTMANIA 2017  6 Responses »
Jan 042018
 

 

(We present Austin Weber’s list of 20 favorite releases from 2017, which include excerpts from his reviews both here and at Metal Injection.)

 

While I usually do very long year-end feature focusing almost solely on obscure music for NCS each December since 2012, our overlord Islander was in need of some holiday relief so we’re sticking to a mainly Top 20-ish format this year to ease the burden he graciously undertakes of working on all our lists for publication.

I don’t really think of my year-end favorites in a ranked-number-focused way, so the order of the ranking below is fairly irrelevant, just as a heads-up. Although a Top 20 constraint means I can only list a small fraction of my 2017 favorites, I tried to balance this list by covering a number of my top favorites from this year that didn’t get as much attention and will hopefully be new to some of you. So my goal here with a capped limit of 20 was to pick the 20 releases I felt stood out most as releases I know for sure I’ll come back to a lot after the current year ends. I also urge you to check out the hyperlinked Honorable Mentions I’ve included below the Top 20 to find more killer music worth checking out. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM GORGER (BENEATH THE NCS RADAR)

 LISTMANIA 2017  25 Responses »
Jan 042018
 

 

(Norwegian NCS contributor Gorger, the author of the continuing “Beneath the NCS Radar” series, provides this list of favorite 2017 albums, valiantly but grudgingly attempting to comply with the editor’s request that contributor lists this year be limited to an even 20 selections.)

 

Ah. Ain’t this the loveliest time of year. Attempting to review releases that’s being tossed at you by Donkey Kong, whilst also trying to decide who’s been naughty, who’s been nice, and who to treat with Yuletide presents, plus what the fuck to get them, and at the same time making an effort at finding out who delivered the most memorable and indisputably best shit throughout the year. Yes, this intro was written before the season flushed over me like a tidal wave.

This year there’s even rules to abide by. A maximum limit of 20 releases has been set by that sadistic autocrat Islander. That’s 1.666666666 (with those 666-decimals continuing ad infinitum) release per month. Now just where the hell am I supposed to find ⅔ of an album each month?

Due to this rule, I’m not allowed to mention such acts as Venenum, Balfor, The Ominous Circle, Zornheym, Caïnan Dawn, Aosoth, et al. As a law-abiding citizen here in Naughty City State, I’ll obey with a suitable portion of lack of respect. If your favourite ain’t on the list, that right there is the main reason. I swear. (I swear a lot. I don’t know what that’s got to do with anything, though.)

Come to think of it, there’s a second reason too. I’ve missed out on a lot of nifty shit, like A Hill to Die Upon, Kreator, Svart Crown, AntropomorphiA, Sinister, Hetroertzen, Paradise Lost, Belphegor and much more. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DRUID LORD — “NIGHT GALLERY”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jan 032018
 

 

From their inception in Orlando more than seven years ago, Druid Lord had a firm grasp on what they wanted to do. As described by guitarist Pete Slate in our recent interview of him, the vision was: “Four guys playing Doom/Death Metal. Nothing pretty or overproduced. Just nasty music taking from the influences I grew up with, like Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Cirth Ungol, Necrovore“. And as a huge fan of B-type horror movies from the ’60s and ’70s, Slate also wanted the music, lyrics, and artwork all flowing together “to make one horrid package”.

The band released their debut album Hymns For the Wicked in 2010 and followed that with a series of splits and EPs, but now their second full-length is approaching its international release date of January 19th via Hells Headbangers. Appropriately entitled Grotesque Offerings, it features hideously colorful artwork by Daniel Corcuera. A couple of grisly new tunes have surfaced already, and today it’s our ghoulish pleasure to present a third one: “Night Gallery“. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: JOSEPH SCHAFER’S TOP 10 NON-METAL ALBUMS OF 2017

 Exceptions to the Rule, LISTMANIA 2017, Off Topic  10 Responses »
Jan 032018
 

 

(In what has become an annual tradition, former NCS writer, ex-Invisible Oranges editor, and current contributor to Decibel and Noisey, Joseph Schafer (whose NCS moniker was BadWolf) brings us a year-end list of favorite Not-Metal albums.)

 

As in previous years, this is my favorite article to write. There remains something delicious and transgressive about extolling the virtues of mainstream pop music to metal fans on a metal-centric platform. The reason why is no mystery: metal is intended itself to be delicious and transgressive, but too often becomes a stale and staunch conservative vomitorium. Eat the same diet of blast beats, high-gain distortion, and Lucifer sigils, vomit them back up, ingest a new round of the same, repeat.

I like a Roman feast as much as the next guy, but I also know to take myself out to sushi every so often, remaining Fukushima background radiation be damned. And yes I know that’s not what a vomitorum was actually used for but you all gleaned my meaning regardless, and if not what’s wrong with you?

Besides, as any social media window left open too long will tell you: even staunch metal fans love plenty of extra-metallic material. Tom G. Warrior loves David Slyvian. This is no great act of rebellion, this is the simple acknowledgement that metal is pop music, as in art meant for popular consumption. That is no damning admonishment. It describes Mozart, too. Continue reading »

WATAIN: “TRIDENT WOLF ECLIPSE”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Jan 032018
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Watain, which is slated for release on January 5 by Century Media.)

 

There once was a band named Watain
Whose music and gimmick became
Extremely divisive
They dressed up like bikers
And from it reaped “fortune” and fame

Ok, so the above limerick may not be 100% accurate, but I think it gets the broad strokes right for the most part. But perhaps, for an album as important (and potentially provocative) as this one, some more context is needed? Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM SEB PAINCHAUD (TUMBLEWEED DEALER)

 LISTMANIA 2017  2 Responses »
Jan 032018
 

 

(2016 was the year when I discovered Montréal’s Tumbleweed Dealer through their extremely cool album Tokes, Hatred & Caffeine (and may there be a new one soon, please). The band’s main man Seb Painchaud has very expansive and very eclectic musical tastes, and a way with words, and so for a second year I asked him to share his year-end list with us.  As before, he pulls us off our usual beaten paths by highlighting favorite releases that are outside the usual metal lists… including a lot of very interesting Not-Metal.)

 

 

 

  1. Kusanagi – Aeon

A band I always enjoyed yet never recommended, they seemed like a 2nd- or 3rd-tier math rock band with really good albums but never transcending into anything great. This all changed with Aeon. The band puts song writing before technicality on this album and 5 songs averaging a format of 8 minutes each puts emphasis on that, as these are actual songs with recurring riffs and melodies rather than a collection of angular riffs.

https://kusanagi.bandcamp.com/album/aeon

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Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ENTHEOGEN, JASSA, DAEVA, UR, NIGHTGRAVE, INFERNOTION

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jan 022018
 

 

This is the second part of a post I began here on the last day of the old year, delayed by one day so that I could recover from a cataclysmic hangover produced by unforeseen New Year’s Eve revels; the old year died, and then I felt as if I had, too.

I’ve collected streams of six albums here, all of them released in December or November, accompanied by nothing that would justify the term “review”, only a few inadequate words of description and praise that I hope will induce you to explore the music. This won’t be the last of my efforts to catch up with music released last year, though inevitably we’ll start paying increasing amounts of attention to the march of metal in 2018.

ENTHEOGEN

Andy Synn already included this record on his listing of 2017’s “Great Albums”, and it recently appeared on Brendan Sloan’s list (here) as an Honorable Mention — but only because he thought it would be greedy to put more than one Alex Poole project in his Top 17 list (the other being Chaos Moon). Yet despite this attention, both at NCS and elsewhere, I wanted to give my own nudge to those who haven’t yet heard Without Veil, Nor Self. Continue reading »

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