AN NCS PREMIERE: ENOQUIAN — “HERENCIA TERRENA”

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Nov 062017
 

 

A cacophony of demonic shrieking and roaring is the first assault on the senses that you’ll hear in this new song. It builds tension, and it conveys a warning that a violent and blood-freezing experience will follow on its heels… and that promise is fulfilled.

The name of the song is “Herencia Terrena” (“Earthly Inheritance”, according to Google Translate), and it appears on Llamas De Gloria Primera, the impressive debut album of the Argentinian black metal band Enoquian, which will be jointly released on November 25 by Satanath Records (Russia) and Morbid Skull Records (El Salvador). Continue reading »

A DOUBLE PREMIERE: DOMINANT (“VACANT SOUL INVASION”) AND INFESTUM (“MONSTRA TE ESSE BESTIAM”)

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Nov 062017
 

 

We have not one, but two, premieres for you in this post, each of them drawn from forthcoming albums that will be released on the first day of 2018 by Lacerated Enemy Records. The first one is a track off the debut EP of the Norwegian death metal band Dominant, and the second comes from the fourth album by the Belarusian band Infestum.

DOMINANT

Dominant’s first release, which will be discharged on January 1, is named The Summoning. Although Dominant may be a new name, the band’s lineup is composed of members of such groups as Hideous Deformity, Necrotic Disgorgement, Conjuration, and Dauden. The track you’re about to hear is “Vacant Soul Invasion“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): HALPHAS, INSANITY CULT AND ISOLERT, ASGRAUW AND MESLAMTAEA

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 052017
 

 

To blacken the Sabbath this week I picked a lot of new music to share with you. I again decided to split the collection into two parts, to make it a bit less daunting, and also because I’m not positive I could finish writing a post that included all the choices before having to leave my computer for the rest of the day. For that same reason I’m not sure I’ll finish Part 2 in time to post it today. If I can’t, you’ll see it tomorrow.

HALPHAS

To begin, I have a track named “Through The Forest” from the forthcoming debut album Dawn Of A Crimson Empire by the German black metal band Halphas. It will be released by Folter Records on December 15. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BASTARDÖS — “APOCALIPSIS THRASH”

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Nov 052017
 

 

After releasing demos in 2009 and 2011 the Argentinian thrash metal band Bastardös released their self-titled debut album in 2015. That album is now about to be re-issued (on November 24) by GrimmDistribution (Belarus) and Morbid Skull Records (El Salvador), and today we bring you a song from the album called “Apocalipsis Thrash“.

To get straight to the point, “Apocalipsis Thrash” is a big flood of adrenaline — venomous, electric, and lethally infectious. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CRUCIAMENTUM, KAUNIS KUOLEMATON, RABID DOGS

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Nov 042017
 

 

I have a big bulging list of new music I’d like to recommend, but rather than try to stitch them all together, which would probably take all day, I just picked one new EP and two singles. As usual, the selection of these three bands off the list was pretty random. But as usual, I like the music a lot and I wanted to provide some variety, and as you’ll discover, there sure as hell is some variety here.

CRUCIAMENTUM

I wrote no fewer than four posts about Cruciamentum’s 2015 debut album Charnel Passages, including one in which I picked a song from the album called “Piety Carved From Flesh” for my list of 2015’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Cruciamentum have now returned with a new EP called Paradise Envenomed, which was released digitally via Bandcamp and other platforms (and on 7″ vinyl by Profound Lore) just two days ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVILPRIEST — “DEVIL INSPIRED CHANTS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  7 Responses »
Nov 032017
 

 

Hailing from the Silesian region of Poland, Devilpriest is a trio whose turbocharged debut album Devil Inspired Chants will be released by Pagan Records on November 10, and we have the premiere of a full album stream for you today.

This is an example of a debut release that doesn’t sound anything like a first effort, but rather the kind of supremely powerful and highly accomplished music that you would expect from a band deep into their career. Fueled by satanic fervor, the band combine elements of mainly ’90s-era death metal and black metal and deliver the addictive results with clarity, stunning force, ravaging ferocity, and eye-popping technical skill. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KAWIR — “EXILASMOS”

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Nov 032017
 

 

Anyone who has studied the fascinating annals of Hellenic black metal will recognize the name Kawir. Their roots are deep and old in the underground, their music has always been distinctive, and the lyrical themes of their songs have consistently drawn from the wellsprings of ancient Greek mythology. They were the subject of a Rearview Mirror post that I wrote (here) to celebrate one of their older works, and yet they also released a fantastic album more than 20 years after that one in the form of 2016’s Father Sun Mother Moon.

Even though that album included more than an hour of new music, Kawir have returned with a new 42-minute opus named Exilasmos, which is being released today by Iron Bonehead Productions. It is a rare piece of art, one that follows a fascinating conceptual narrative extracted from Greek myth and provides powerful music that’s a match for that enduring narrative’s larger-than-life scale and the horrors and tragedies it describes. Today we have a full stream of the album, along with the following review of its remarkable accomplishments. Continue reading »

DEVANGELIC: “PHLEGETHON”

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Nov 032017
 

 

(Our brutal-death-minded friend Vonlughlio from the Dominican Republic wrote this review of the new album by Italy’s Devangelic, and if our damned editor weren’t so scatter-brained it would have been posted before the album was released. On the plus side, you can listen to all of it now.)

I’m honored, to say the least, that I have the opportunity to review Italian BDM band Devangelic’s sophomore effort Phlegethon.

The band was founded back in 2012 by Mr. Mario Di Giambattista (Vulvectomy, Corpsefucking Art). That same year the band released a demo of two songs, and it was raw and crushing from start to finish, one of the most-played, if not the most-played, demo for me that year.

Subsequently they signed to Comatose Music and in 2014 released their debut album Resurrection Denied, one of the sickest albums from that year, from the gory cover of a decapitated Jesus to the songs themselves, just raw and riffs for days on end with relentless blast beats. Also Mr. Paolo Chiti’s vocals may have been the best part of it all — the man is one of the best in the genre, with low gutturals and vocal patterns that are memorable. I certainly have to say that among my top debuts in BDM, Resurrection Denied is one of them. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NEOCAESAR — “VALHALLA RISING”

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Nov 022017
 

 

In the early months of this year the Dutch death metal band Neocaesar independently released their debut album 11:11 in a limited pressing of CDs, but since then have teamed up with Dave Rotten’s Xtreme Music label for worldwide distribution and a proper push of the music out onto the radar screens of death metal addicts across the globe. And to aid in that effort in advance of Xtreem’s release on November 27, we’re bringing you a track from the album called “Valhalla Rising“.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Neocaesar, the name may be new but those four men you see up there are veterans. And in fact, all four of them — vocalist Mike van Mastrigt, guitarist Bart van Wallenberg, bassist Michel Alderliefsten, and drummer Eric de Windt — were members of the landmark Dutch death metal band Sinister during the ’90s.

It is thus no coincidence that if you’re a fan of such Sinister albums as Hate, Diabolical Summoning, and Aggressive Measures, 11:11 is gong to bring back fond memories. But at the same time, 11:11 isn’t some weepy nostalgia trip down memory lane — it’s explosively alive and more than capable of holding its own with death metal competitors in the current age. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AH CILIZ AND CHIRAL — “ORIGINS”

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Nov 022017
 

 

As the seasons change, and the colors of autumn leaves briefly flare like blood and fire, only to be sapped of life and scattered by cold winter winds, it’s not uncommon for our thoughts to turn darker as the days become grayer. Daily tribulations seem magnified, grim memories push back to the surface, reflections on what might have been crowd away hopes of what might be. At such times, some of us search for music that catches these moods, plumbs their depths, and enshrines them in sound with the kind of emotional intensity they require.

And that’s just what Ah Ciliz and Chiral accomplish, each in their own way, on the album-length split we’re premiering today. Named Origins, it will be jointly released on November 6 by two fine labels, Canada’s Hypnotic Dirge Records and Mexico’s Throats Productions. I have some introductory thoughts about each band’s tracks on the split, followed by a stream of all the music. Continue reading »

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