AN NCS PREMIERE: COLDCELL — “TAINTED THOUGHTS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 162017
 

 

“ColdCell is the musical manifest of the modern individual’s prison: The modern new world, the globalized, digital society, a virtual designed image. Humanity as a sick species without consciousness, arbitrarily exchanging its gods, its ethics, its principles, isolated within the anonymous masses. The only benchmark is mammon, the individual is lost within stimulus satiation and shallow-brained social networks.”

The bleakness of this Swiss band’s worldview is manifested again in the name they chose for themselves, reflecting both the idea of “a constructed, bred human cell, produced and used for industrial purposes: human being as a single wheel within the system”, and as “a metaphor for the isolation arrest of the individual, lost within the masses, needing no connections”.

And it is further reflected in the music, as you shall see. What we have for you now is a track called “Tainted Thoughts” from ColdCell’s new album, Those, which will be released on November 3 by Czar of Crickets. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TENGGER CAVALRY, AETHERIAN, OUTER HEAVEN, DYPHTÊ, FRAMEWORK, DREAMSHIFT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 162017
 

 

You may have noticed that my posts have been scarce over the last few days — nothing at all over the weekend (Andy’s Best of British kept us from going dark altogether) and only one post on Friday and one on Thursday. The reason is that last Thursday my employer hosted its annual retreat, which was in Montana this year.

As usual, it has a very good time. But between the travel, the work-related meetings, the staying up late while getting hammered with co-workers, and the watching of some playoff baseball, NCS temporarily fell far down the ladder of my life. I wasn’t even been able to keep up with our e-mail traffic or my usual daily searching through statuses of friends, bands, and labels on Facebook.

Needless to say, I’m way behind. So what I’m doing here is collecting some music I actually had planned to post last Thursday, but ran out of time before leaving Seattle — though I have added two more songs I became aware of since then. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH, 2017 (PART 8): HORRIFIED / OVEROTH / THE KING IS BLIND

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Oct 152017
 

 

(Here’s another edition of Andy Synn’s series of reviews focusing on sonic extremities from his homeland.)

So it turns out that it’s been over two months since I last put together one of these columns.

That doesn’t mean that there’ve been no good albums issued from these green and pleasant lands in the meantime of course (as a matter of fact I’ve reviewed albums by Dvne, Vacivus, Paradise Lost, and Dawn Ray’d in the intervening period), just that I haven’t had the time or the wherewithal to collate the right candidates for a proper “Best of British” collection.

That all ends today though, with this Death Metal focussed feature on three of the UK’s brightest and fastest-rising stars. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BATRAKOS AND AISNA — A SPLIT RELEASE

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Oct 132017
 

 

Xenoglossy Productions is making its first appearance today at our site, and so a word of introduction is in order: Xenoglossy is an Italian label formed by a collective of underground musicians who specialize in black metal, noise, experimental, and extreme music. On October 20, the label will be releasing a split by two Italian bands who are also making their first appearance here — Batrakos and Aisna.

Batrakos is a trio consisting of Heliogabalus (vocals, noise), F. (guitars, programming, noise), and Stilgar (effects, noise). Their motto is “Ugly Music For Ugly People“. However, although everyone who visits our site is, by definition, beautiful in every way, their music is for you too. Maybe. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NEPHREN-KA — “LA GRANDE GUERRE DE L’EPICE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 122017
 

 

Nephren-Ka, a group of French brutalizers with a welcome thematic devotion to the universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune, made a very impressive full-length debut with 2013’s The Fall of Omnius. Four years later, they are returning with a new opus named La Grande Guerre de L’Epice, which will be released on October 13 (tomorrow) by Dolorem Records. And although it’s predictable that people may wonder whether the band will fall prey to the dreaded sophomore slump, fans can rest easy. With this new album, Nephren-Ka have moved from strength to further strength.

The new album, which includes French lyrics for the first time on some of the tracks, is a concept record consisting of nine chronological phases based on the Houses prequel stories written by Frank Herbert’s son and deals “with the attempt to create synthetic Spice and the ensuing imperial war”. We previously hosted the premiere of a slaughtering track named “Watch and Learn“, but now we have a full stream of this breathtaking album on the eve of its release. Continue reading »

HUMAN EXCORIATION: “CELESTIAL DEVOURMENT”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 122017
 

 

(Our friend from the Dominican Republic, Vonlughlio, who loves brutal death metal more than food, prepared this review of the first album in a decade by Human Excoriation.)

So today I wanted to do a small write-up about a band whose music I was familiar with only through a couple of songs from their first album. The band is the US BDM act Human Excoriation, and this past June they released their sophomore effort entitled Celestial Devourment via Pathologically Explicit Recordings.   The fact that this label released the album and that Justin Downs (Purulent Necrosis, Vituperate, Scatology Secretion) was in charge of vocals, peaked my interest in this project.

The band was formed back in 2006 by Travis Cook and Nate Turpin after Methadone Abortion Clinic. The purpose of this new project was to remove the skin of humanity, and with the release of their 2007 debut album Virulent Infestation you can witness that. It has all the BDM standards (lyrics and all) and it has become among my favorite debuts. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLOODSTRIKE — “EXECUTION OF VIOLENCE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 112017
 

 

When you listen to some albums, you get the undeniable feeling that the people in the band really — really — love what they’re doing, that they’re in the throes of a fierce enthusiasm for the kind of music they’re making. And when that kind of passion is communicated through the songwriting and the performances, it becomes highly infectious, like the raging fever of a disease. That’s the feeling I got when listening to Bloodstrike’s new album, Execution of Violence — which we’re streaming for you today in advance of its October 13 release by Redefining Darkness Records and Raw Skull Recordz.

In this band’s case, the principal subject of their explosive devotion is Swedish death metal of the old school, an homage to a pantheon that includes such names as Entombed, Grave, Unleashed, and Dismember — though there’s more than a little Bolt Thrower dedication in the music as well. “Explosive” and “infectious” really are the right words for it — or at least two of the right words. Other words include grisly, gruesome, supernatural, and macabre. Continue reading »

A DOOMED DESCENT (PART 2): MARCHAFUNEBRE, KABBALAH, ECHOLOT

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 112017
 

 

(We present Part 2 of a series of reviews by our Russian connoisseur of all things doom, Comrade Aleks, and today he shares impressions of, and music from, three more 2017 releases. Go here to check out Part 1 of this series)

Today we’ll meet three faces of doom: a traditional one performed by Marchafunebre, vintage rocking by Kabbalah, and psychedelic and bluesy stylings from Echolot.

 

Marchafunebre:  Under Will (Australis Records)

Inspired by Solitude Aeturnus and late Candlemass, this Chilean band appeared seven years ago. The hour-long EP includes Marchefunebre’s first demo Hymns Of The Final Holocaust (2010) and three new tracks. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: NAZGHOR — “INFERNAL APHORISM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 112017
 

 

The Swedish black metal band Nazghor continue their relentless march forward with their sixth album in less than five years. Their latest achievement, Infernal Aphorism, will be released on Friday the 13th of October by Non Serviam Records, and as we did when their last album was released in 2016, today we present a full stream of the new one.

As has become a pattern for Nazghor, established almost from the beginning, the new album is a 10-track, hour-long affair. In the face of such prolific creativity, it’s worth asking again the logical question: How good can the music be when it flows in such a torrent, with these very substantial albums appearing in such rapid succession?

Well, I’m pleased to report that the music of this new one, just as was true of 2016’s Death’s Withered Chant, is tremendously good — quite possibly the pinnacle of their achievements so far. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THROANE — “PLUS UNE MAIN A MORDRE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 112017
 

 

Almost one month ago we assisted in presenting the first excerpt from Plus Une Main A Mordre (“No Hand Left To Bite”), the second album by Throane, which is the musical alter ego of French photographer, illustrator, designer Dehn Sora, whose visual creations have accompanied albums by the likes of Blut Aus Nord, Ulver, Deathspell Omega, and many others. The album will be released by Debemur Morti Productions on October 20, and today it’s our pleasure to reveal the title track, which ends the album in stunning fashion.

Dehn Sora composed the music on the album and created all of the sounds, with the exception of the staggeringly powerful drumming of Gregoire Quartier of Cortez and the spectrum of voices you will hear on the song we’re premiering today, for which credit is due to Throane’s guests Colin Van Eeckhout (Amenra), Sylvain (Incivil Tragedis), and French graphic designer Valnoir. Continue reading »

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