POST-CHRISTMAS NECROSIS: ATOMWINTER, LIMOS, REX DEMONUS, HUSK

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 262017
 

 

I hope everyone had a good Christmas Day, even if the day itself is nothing special to you. As you may have seen, NCS was alive and kicking despite the holiday, with three premieres yesterday. And we’ll continue to kick for the rest of the week with a rollout of more year-end lists by NCS contributors and invited guests, plus assorted other posts.

I wasn’t able to get a SHADES OF BLACK post done for Sunday, but it’s coming soon… and may be a two-parter, because there’s a lot I want to write about. But to start the six days that remain before New Year’s Eve, I selected three recent songs and one new EP that sound like the antithesis of peace on earth, good will toward men, because I can only take so many demonstrably impotent platitudes of that nature before I have to dose myself with flesh-eating music.

ATOMWINTER

The consumption of flesh commences with a track from Catacombs, the new third album by the German harbingers of total death in Atomwinter. The album will be released by Trollzorn on February 9 (digital, CD, and gatefold LP). And isn’t that a hellishly fantastic album cover? Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LOST TO THE WAVES — “CRUCIFIED”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 252017
 

 

This makes the second time this year that we’ve premiered a music video for a song by the Boston-area band Lost To the Waves. The first time, last spring, we debuted a video for “Remember Me“, a song that was then destined to appear on the band’s EP, Nightfall. Nightfall was released not long after, and today, as 2017 winds its way to an end, we present the video for another track off Nightfall — a song called “Crucified“, which features guest vocals by Donnie Lariviere (ex-Death Rattle).

The song starts digging its melodic hooks into your head right away, but it starts pummeling and battering pretty quickly as well, and vocalist Ben Lavoie sounds like he’s coming straight for your jugular, fueled by scorn and rage. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: L’HOMME ABSURDE — “CLEANSING THE TEMPLE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 252017
 

 

The 2016 album, Monsters, by the Russian band L’Homme Absurde was a compelling debut. Part black metal and part post-metal, both heavy as hell and completely captivating, it consisted of well-written songs performed with impressive skill that combined gripping, usually dark melodies, big rhythmic headbang triggers, and fiery, jugular-shredding vocal intensity.

It is thus welcome news that L’Homme Absurde will be releasing a second album next year, entitled Sleepless. And from that album we bring you the premiere of the band’s first music video. The name of the track is “Cleansing the Temple“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORTIS MUTILATI — “CREVANT-LAVEINE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 252017
 

 

Mortis Mutilati will welcome 2018 with The Stench of Death. That is the name of this French black metal band’s new album, the fourth one created by its mastermind and alter ego, Macabre, and its aroma will plague the air on January 1. A few songs have been released for listening so far, and today we have another one — “Crevant-Laveine“.

Consistent with the album’s title and with Macabre’s apparent attraction to funereal ceremonies and the beckoning of graves, “Crevant-Laveine” is steeped in gloom and infected with melancholy, but the song also experiences a kind of transformation, one that moves the listener’s mood in perhaps unexpected directions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SNØGG — “ABELOTH”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Dec 242017
 

 

There is something to be said for waiting until the year really is ended before making a year-end list. To take but one example, the EP we’re about to premiere (which could be called an album because of its length) is being released digitally tomorrow — the 25th of December, less than a week before 2017 is interred in the tomb of calendar time — and if I had already made a list of the year’s best EPs, I would have to revise it to make a place for Abeloth.

I admit that the learning phenomenon expressed as “recency is primacy” may have something to do with my reaction to this EP, which is the latest release by the Slovenian black metal duo Snøgg. But I suspect that if I had first heard it on January 1, 2017, I would still be revisiting it here in December — because it’s completely fascinating.

The compositional history of the song is also fascinating. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE… NEVERMORE SONGS

 Exceptions to the Rule  17 Responses »
Dec 232017
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote this installment of his occasional series about things that come in fives.)

As you’ll no doubt be aware, a little over a week ago saw the sudden and untimely demise of Sanctuary/ex-Nevermore vocalist Warrel Dane.

And while this is, assuredly, a heavy blow indeed for his friends and loved ones, it’s also a loss for the Metal scene as a whole, since I would contend that Dane was, without doubt, one of the most unique and distinctive singers (not to mention lyricists) of the past twenty years.

His death also means that the long hoped for Nevermore reunion will never happen and, even though there was some lingering bad blood between them, I’m sure that his ex-bandmates (Loomis, Sheppard, and Williams) must still be reeling from the shock of his passing.

So, having given things a little bit of time to settle (I didn’t want us to be accused of “cashing in” on his death, or anything like that) I’d like to present you with five of my favourite Nevermore songs, as a minor tribute to Warrel Dane and his remarkable voice. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PESTILENCE, ATARAXY, WHOREDOM RIFE, TALSUR, VIELIKAN, HOLYARROW

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Dec 222017
 

 

After a nearly two-week vacation in which I blogged very little, I returned to Seattle late last week and was promptly slammed by my fucking day job, unforeseen personal obligations, bad weather, and a whole bunch of NCS articles to write or edit, including the continuation of our LISTMANIA series, interviews, reviews, and a bunch of premieres. I can’t really say I need another vacation already… but I kind of do.

Anyway, I haven’t written one of these round-ups in 12 days, and I’m way behind in even listening to all the new songs that have appeared since my vacation began 19 days ago. I started working on this collection early this week but decided to include a couple of songs that have appeared more recently. I hope to do more catch-up round-ups this weekend, including a Sunday SHADES OF BLACK feature, because holidays don’t mean shit around here.

PESTILENCE

Roughly four and a half years after their last album, Pestilence will release a new one via Hammerheart Records named Hadeon, and earlier this week Hammerheart previewed the album with a single called “Multi Dimensional“. It didn’t take long for my NCS comrade TheMadIsraeli to send me an alert about the song, wth a positive message. Continue reading »

SHINING – “X: VARG UTAN FLOCK”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Dec 222017
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Sweden’s Shining, which will be released by Season of Mist on January 5, 2018.)

 

Wubalubadubdub! What up, my glip-glops?

That’s right, it’s time for another album of musical misery from everyone’s favourite alcoholic, misanthropic, existential nihilist Rick Sanchez Niklas Kvarforth and his merry band of Mortys… aka Shining! Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: WIL CIFER’S TOP 25 METAL ALBUMS OF 2017

 LISTMANIA 2017  8 Responses »
Dec 222017
 

 

(We present NCS contributor Wil Cifer’s selection of the Top 25 metal albums of 2017.)

 

Here’s my top 25 metal albums of 2017. Making these lists can send my OCD into a spiral, so I have learned to abandon my more complex methods of ranking them and leave it to what Last Fm said I listened to most. In some cases it didn’t feel right so I flipped entries around.

While I adhere to a pretty strict policy of not feeding the trolls, these lists can lead to a great deal of grumbling, so this time around I have included a brief blip explaining why one album ranked higher than the other.

In short these are MY Top 25 Albums of 2017, so if your name is not Wilhelm Satanchild Cifer, then I don’t really care what you think, but feel free to share your thoughts any way since this is the internet. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: SONIC POISON — “COMBAT GRIND”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 212017
 

 

It’s fair to say that Caligari Records has had a banner fucking year in 2017, releasing extremely well-received albums and EPs by such bands as Rope Sect, Boia, Devoid of Thought, Ziggurat, Shaman Ritual, Uttertomb, Funeralium, and Amnutseba (among others). But the year isn’t (quite) over yet, and Caligari has one more release for us, one that will help bring the year to an end in a pile of smoking rubble. And that one last release is the second EP by the Finnish grinders Sonic Poison, which it’s our pleasure to premiere on its release date — which is today!

Entitled Combat Grind, this is Sonic Poison’s second release, following their 2016 debut (also released by Caligari), Harsh Demonstration…, and it reveals the work of a band who have surged ahead to new heights of mauling destructiveness. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries