AN NCS PREMIERE: CONTRARIAN — “TRANSCEND THE MUNDANE”

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Jul 032017
 

 

Contrarian’s 2015 debut album Polemic opened a lot of eyes across the breadth of metaldom, introducing listeners to this New York band’s remarkable technical skills and inventive, outside-the-box approach to song-writing. We had the pleasure of premiering the title track to Polemic, and today is like welcoming back an astonishingly impressive and eccentric old friend, because we again have a Contrarian premiere for you. This is a lyric video for a track called “Transcend the Mundane” from the band’s second album, To Perceive Is To Suffer, which Willowtip Records has scheduled for release on July 28.

As on the first album, Contrarian’s line-up again features guitarist Jim Tasikas and bassist Ed Paulsen (both also members of Delirium Endeavor), lead guitarist Brian Mason (Sulaco), and drummer extraordinaire George Kollias from Nile. On this new album, however, George Kollias also handles vocals. Continue reading »

TYRANOSORCERESS: “SHATTERING LIGHT’S CREATION”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jul 032017
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the debut album by the Texas band Tyrannosorceress.)

A couple of weeks back I got caught up in a… let’s call it a “discussion”, for the sake of politeness… with a certain individual about whether or not all Black Metal bands have to ascribe to a certain “ideology” or ethos in order to actually be counted as Black Metal.

Now this question is nothing new – it’s been argued back and forth for eons (well, eons in internet years), with no definitive answer in sight – yet it still retains its strange power to fascinate, provoke, and repulse in equal measure.

Take even a small sub-section of Black Metal fandom and you’ll undoubtedly find as many different opinions on this matter as there are individuals to hold them, from those who believe that all Black Metal should be all-Satan, all the time, to those who’ll settle for just a general anti-Christian (or, more broadly, anti-religion) approach, to those who feel that the focus should be purely on nihilism/nature-worship/none-of-the-above, and most of whom will soundly reject any suggestion to the contrary as not being “true” Black Metal.

I don’t have an answer for this conundrum myself. In fact I’m not even sure there is one, seeing as how some of the most seminal and respected figures in the scene itself all seem to have different ideas and opinions on the matter.

But I know what I like. And I like this album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EMULSIFIED — “CADAVERIC ABDOMINAL INFLATION”

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Jul 032017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a single off the debut EP by Indiana’s Emulsified.)

The Indiana death metal scene has been on a roll lately, birthing multiple talented new acts, including ones we’ve covered here before such as Breeding Filth. Two of their members can now be found in a new project called Emulsified, whose debut single we’re premiering today. This new project leans even more heavily toward the endlessly brutal and bludgeoning side of death metal, yet with a fresh twist on it that’s their own thing.

The project started in 2016 and currently consists of two Breeding Filth members, Derick Harshbarger on guitar and vocals and Angel Gaeta on bass and vocals. Rounding out the line-up is drummer Kevin Baum, who also plays in Human Filleted.

Today we’re bringing you the exclusive premiere of the group’s debut song, a filthy and deranged ode to sonic savagery called “Cadaveric Abdominal Inflation”. Continue reading »

ARPHAEL: “ARGENESIS”

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Jul 032017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this review of the new album by the Ukrainian musician Arphael.)

I’ve been working on this review for a long-ass time. This album came out a couple weeks ago now, I think? The time has escaped me, but this album needed the attention because it’s fucking TWO HOURS+ LONG. I wanted to give it its proper due, given that I love Arphael’s music, but also because there’s A LOT to dissect here.

Argenesis is the finale of Arphael’s primary trilogy of albums he was working on besides the spinoff album Ancient I reviewed last month. This album’s length raises questions about how much we’ll ever hear from Arphael again.

This trilogy — Ambigram, Guiding Light, and Argenesis — were planned from the get-go. I know of one more release that’s coming, which is a re-recording of Ambigram so he can do it justice with his current production style and vocal improvements, but I’m not sure what’s after that. If he never releases anything else, the guy has contributed a unique and challenging sound to the metalsphere that will always stand out to me. Can’t say I would complain if he goes on after this, though. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): VACIVUS, CHAMBRE FROIDE, THE AUSTRASIAN GOAT, MITOCHONDRION, GROK, BLOODLUST, SHAMAN RITUAL

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Jul 022017
 


Vacivus 2015

 

As I started pulling together this Sunday’s round-up of new or newly discovered black and black-ish metal I once again found myself with too many recommendations to squeeze into a single post, despite the fact that I posted one of these SHADES OF BLACK features only two days ago. So, even though 7 bands are featured here, there will be a Part 2, which I probably won’t finish and publish until tomorrow because I’ll be visiting a friend’s licensed weed farm this afternoon. Horticulture FTW.

VACIVUS

The first song in this collection was a last-minute addition, and it comes from a band who are more death metal than black metal, but I was so damned excited when I heard this track that I couldn’t wait to foam at the mouth about it. It’s also a damned vicious, pitch-black piece of audio electrification, so I don’t think I’m bending the SHADES OF BLACK format very much by including it.

The song, which first appeared on YouTube this morning, is “Oubliette” and it comes from Temple of the Abyss, the new album by UK-based Vacivus. Profound Lore will release the album on September 22. Continue reading »

A ROLL OF THE DICE: DENY THE URGE AND ART AGAINST AGONY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 012017
 

 

Happy Saturday to one and all. My original plan was to take the day off, but I began to experience that needling feeling of urgency, the one I can’t ever completely suppress — sort of like that feeling you get in your bladder soon after drinking a gallon of beer, except in my case it’s the urge to post new music at NCS.

But it’s late in the day or well into evening for most people who might read this, and later than usual for a Saturday post here in the Pacific Northwest, so I decided to hurry this along by just posting two new songs. I decided to pick music by bands I didn’t recall hearing before, and I decided to make the selection a random one, like a roll of the dice. And so these are the first two good songs I heard this morning by bands I hadn’t heard before.

DENY THE URGE

When I saw this band’s “verb-the-noun” name I guessed they would be a deathcore or metalcore group and nearly skipped past them. I’m glad I didn’t.

When I saw Dan Seagrave’s album art, I realized my guess based on their name was most likely wrong, and the music definitely proved me wrong. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (WEEKDAY EDITION): MYRKUR, KOSMOGYR, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, THETA, VULTURE INDUSTRIES, ASAGRAUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Jun 302017
 

 

I began writing this post on Tuesday, intending to finish and publish it the next day. Events conspired against that plan, and I was defeated again yesterday by technical problems ironically created by malfunctioning software installed in our web-host server by the company we pay to armor us against malware.

I’ve resisted the temptation to make this burly collection even bigger by including more new music I’ve spotted in the days since I started it. I also resisted the temptation to just shove this column into its usual place on Sunday, especially because I’ve taken a few liberties with the usual configuration of SHADES OF BLACK. Posting it today will also me to harness different new audio assaults to char the coming Sabbath.

MYRKUR

I stay away from metal message boards for fear of losing IQ points, which as you well know are meager enough already. But I could guess that the people who think they are the trve keepers of the holy black flame are gnashing their teeth all over again because Myrkur has released a new song and soon enough will release a new album. Based on experience, I presume that the readers of this site will take the music as it comes and assess it on its own merits, which is what I’ve done — and I do like what I hear. Continue reading »

BACTEREMIA: “FURIOUSLY REDUCED”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 302017
 

 

(Our loyal and good friend of many years, Vonlughlio from the Dominican Republic, a man with an experienced and refined taste for brutality in metal, brings us this review of the new album by a group of Colombian slaughterers who call themselves Bacteremia.)

Bacteremia is a Brutal Death Metal band founded in 2006 in Colombia. I discovered the band in 2013 with the release of their debut album Cerebral Wrong Settings. I loved the raw sound, the crazy riffs, the intense drumming, and the powerful vocals. I included it in my year-end list here at NCS.

The current line-up of the band is: Carlos Andres Penagos (Drums), Andres Felipe Soto (Guitars), Sebastian Guarin (vocals), and Oscar Callejas (Bass). Continue reading »

AFTERBIRTH FRIDAY! (PREMIERING “DRILLS AND NEEDLES”)

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Jun 302017
 

 

Here in the U.S. of A. we’re about to begin a long holiday weekend that rolls through Independence Day next Tuesday (except for the poor souls who have to work anyway), and what better way to launch all the shenanigans than with a big heaping helping of Afterbirth!

And to be clear, I mean the band Afterbirth — the New York-based death metal maulers whose ranks include members of Helmet, Artificial Brain, and Buckshot Facelift. Their debut album The Time Traveler’s Dilemma will be released by Unique Leader Records on July 28th, and we’re revealing a track from it today named “Drills and Needles“.

Don’t be misled by the fact that this is a debut album. Though this music is fresh Afterbirth, their first discharges occurred long ago. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 86: MERRIMACK

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  3 Responses »
Jun 302017
 


Photo by Alizee Adamek

 

(The subject of Andy Synn’s 86th SYNN REPORT is the discography of the French black metal band Merrimack.)

 

Recommended for fans of: Marduk, Enthroned, Watain

 

Black Metal has gone in a lot of different directions since its inception, expanding its horizons and stretching its boundaries in so many different ways that it’s almost impossible to count them all.

But sometimes you just need a dose of pure sonic sadism. Sometimes you need Merrimack.

Over the course of five albums (the most recent of which came out at the start of this month), guitarist Perversifier (the last remaining original member of the group) and his merry merciless men have unleashed their own particular brand of auditory hell upon the world with little to no regard for those innocents who might end up caught in the crossfire, as well as delivering a live show which often teeters on the edge of “unhinged”.

So if you’re looking for something black as pitch, and just as incendiary, then please… read on. Continue reading »

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