AN NCS PREMIERE: ARALLU — “ADONAY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 032017
 

 

It’s not uncommon to hear wisps of traditional Middle Eastern music in extreme metal — or at least what most of us in the West would identify as Middle Eastern music based on some kind of passing experience (putting to one side that Middle Eastern music spans an enormous breadth of territory and cultures, from Morocco to Iran).

In many instances, the incorporation of such melodies by Western bands seems intended to create an exotic atmosphere (or at least exotic to Western ears), or in some cases a sense of ancient demonic forces looming in the shadows, or a feeling that the listener is in the presence of pagan rituals or arcane forms of mysticism that pre-date today’s dominant forms of monotheism by millennia.

But very few metal bands go as far as Arallu in making Middle Eastern musical traditions the beating heart of their compositions. You will hear the extent of their dedication in the song we’re premiering today, the third track from their new album, Six, a song called “Adonay“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: COLOSSO — “IN MEMORIAM”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 022017
 

 

Last September the Portuguese death metal band Colosso released their second album under the title Obnoxious, which refers not to the sound of the music but to the lyrical focus of the songs — “the extreme void of society, a black hole created by egos, profit and chaos.” In advance of that release we premiered a lyric video for the album’s second track, “The Unrepentant“, and today it’s our pleasure to premiere yet another Colosso video. This one is for the album’s opening song, “In Memoriam“.

When we debuted “The Unrepentent”, I asked you to imagine the combined, coordinated sounds of a giant threshing machine applying its ministrations to a packed mass of fleeing bodies, a titanic rock crusher operating at tumultuous speed in a smoking quarry, and swarms of mechanical xenomorphs at war in an uncomfortably near-Earth orbit — because those were the visions that the song spawned in my own head. I have some different mental pictures this time. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: REBEL WIZARD, THE KING IS BLIND, OWLCRUSHER, VOIDSCAPE, PROJECT OMEGA, NESSERIA, THE INVICT, VOREAN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 022017
 

 

Well, as you can see, I’ve gotten carried away again.

Here’s a selection of new music by 8 bands, chosen in part to display once again the diversity and promise of extreme music in the current day.

REBEL WIZARD

The sound of Rebel Wizard has now become branded in my head; I would have known this first song was a Rebel Wizard creation even if the music’s source had been concealed. And in an age in which new metal arrives every day in a flood, with so many bands rushing through ravines already carved by their influences, creating a distinctive style and sound is a rare achievement, and even more rare when it’s distinctive despite being difficult to categorize in conventional genre terms. Continue reading »

CENOTAPH: “PERVERSE DEHUMANIZED DYSFUNCTIONS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 022017
 

 

(Vonlughlio returns! With a guest review of the first new album in 7 years by the brutal death metal band from Turkey, Cenotaph.)

Brutal death has been great so far this 2017 (at least for me), with great releases such as those from Animals Killing People, Bacteremia, Dissociative Healing, Seminal Embalmment, Abuse, Coprobaptized Cunthunter, Exsanguinate, Intoxicated Blood, and Interminable Corruptions, to name a few.

What makes it even more special is the release of Cenotaph’s Perverse Dehumanized Dysfunctions after 7 years of silence. This is one of my all-time favorite BDM bands, ever. When they first announced the plan to release new music, I literally shed tears of happiness (yes, I’m not afraid to say it). You have to understand that at that moment in time I thought the band was done and that a new album would never see the light of day. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH, 2017 (PART 7): ABHORRENT DECIMATION / DYSCARNATE / SUBSERVIENCE

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 022017
 

 

(Here’s the latest installment in Andy Synn’s 2017 series focusing on outstanding releases from Albion.)

For this latest edition of “The Best of British” I’ve picked out three fantastic examples of UK Death Metal at its absolute finest – one a cleverly composed concept album which may well prove to be the band’s “big break”, another a long-awaited and highly-anticipated return from one of the most underappreciated and unfuckwithable acts on the scene, and the third a shockingly good debut that should open a lot of doors and (hopefully) put the band on all the right radars. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RESURGENCE — “BESIEGED”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Aug 012017
 

 

When I listened to Besieged for the first time I was left wide-eyed and slack-jawed by the end of just the first track, with a spike in my pulse rate that would have made my doctor anxious, and already wondering how to describe what I was hearing — and already thinking about fireworks displays. By the album’s end I was shaking my head, fairly astonished at this tour de force — and still thinking about fireworks, but also about large-scale demolition jobs and rousing anthems.

Besieged is the remarkable debut album by a group of evil geniuses who dwell in the vicinity of Vancouver, BC. They call themselves Resurgence. The album has been released today — August 1 — and you can listen to it below, preceded by more than a few words of wonderment and genuine appreciation for what these dudes have done. Feel free to skip ahead and press play, I can handle it. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SATYRICON, ABIGOR, WINGS OF DAHAK, ONE TAIL ONE HEAD, UHTCEARU, ASTROPHOBOS, LUSTWORM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Aug 012017
 

 

In this past Sunday’s regular episode of this feature I explained that I had more new music in a black vein that I wanted to share and expected I would do it on Monday. So, I’m a day late, and with the delay I’ve expanded it a bit. The result is divergent music by seven bands from seven countries, but we begin with a news item.

SATYRICON

Today we got some additional information about the new album by Satyricon. As previously reported, it is entitled Deep Calleth Upon Deep and will be released by Napalm Records on September 22. The cover art is an obscure 1898 drawing by the famous Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The album has been described by the label as “a wholesale reinvention and a brand new era in SATYRICON history”. And with that titillating pronouncement we also have this statement by frontman Satyr: Continue reading »

NOOTHGRUSH AND CORRUPTED: THE REISSUE OF A LANDMARK SPLIT

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 012017
 

 

(Here’s Todd Manning’s review of the new reissue of a landmark 1997 split release by Noothgrush and Corrupted, coming in August via 20 Buck Spin.)

If Doom and Sludge are related, and surely they are, then Sludge is Doom’s younger brother, suffering from all sorts of complexes and probably killed their parents because they wouldn’t give him money for meth. 20 Buck Spin has taken it upon themselves to remind us of one of the seminal releases of this most toxic of genres with their reissue of 1997’s split record between Oakland’s Noothgrush and Japan’s idiosyncratic Corrupted.

Noothgrush kicks off the split with the punishing “Hatred for the Species”. Mid-paced, at least in relation to other Sludge acts, the sound here is not unlike EyeHateGod minus the Southern blues influence. What the listener is left with is a bleak and nihilistic condemnation of what it means to be human. If these guys saw the world through these eyes back in 1997, imagine how far humanity has come in twenty years to prove their judgment prophetic. Continue reading »

NADIMAC: “BESNILO”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Aug 012017
 

 

(Music writer Konstantin, who in past years has written for Serbia’s Nocturne Music Magazine, rejoins us with this review of the new album by the Serbian band Nadimac, recently released by Xtreem Music.)

Following their “schedule” of issuing a full-length album every two years, the Serbian band Nadimac have presented their latest work this July. The new offering comes as their fifth studio album and is titled Besnilo (“Indignation”); the album comes with song titles in both Serbian and English. This LP was preceded by only one split release, unlikely previous albums which always saw between two and five splits published before a new LP.

Without a doubt we can say that this is their most mature record so far, and, interestingly, comes as their shortest one to date (at 34 minutes). Although the band have experimented with several details that they haven’t used before, such as acoustic guitars, the sound is typical Nadimac, a sound we could hear on their previous offerings. Straight-forward thrash metal mixed with doses of grind, hardcore, and crust have again produced a record that you don’t separate into parts and listen to only a piece or two, but instead one that you take in completely, with no break. Crossover has been their trademark since the very beginning, and once again the guys have proved that the formula they created years ago still produces good results. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WODE

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Jul 312017
 

 

(Argentinian writer Matías Gallardo rejoins us with this interview of Michael Czerwoniuk, vocalist/guitarist of the UK black metal band Wode, whose new album Servants of the Countercosmos we reviewed here.)

 

After releasing their self-titled debut album last year, British black metal act Wode became one of the most exciting bands around the obscure corners of the underground. With a particular blend of fury and catching melodies that resemble both early ‘90s Norwegian legends and classic heavy metal heroes, the Manchester-based quintet started a path that was followed earlier this year with the release of their sophomore album, Servants of the Countercosmos.

Released by the renowed Italian label Avantgarde Music, Servants… is a massive and violent sequel plagued with some of the best and most extreme riffs you’ll hear this year. In barely 31 minutes, Wode managed to craft another piece of chaotic blackness. Below you can read the chat vocalist/guitarist Michael Czerwoniuk had with NCS. Continue reading »

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