AN NCS PREMIERE: HERESIARCH — “STORMING UPON KNAVES”

 Premieres  15 Responses »
May 122017
 

 

Despite its stunning physical beauty, New Zealand has long been an ominous fortress of black/death supremacy, and Heresiarch have defiantly stood on the battlements ever since the release of their Hammer of Intransigence EP in 2011, with their looming presence growing even more formidable after the release of 2014’s Wælwulf. Given the strength of those EPs, we have been eagerly awaiting their debut album, Death Ordinance, which will be released by Dark Descent Records on July 7th — and now we finally have music from the album to share with you.

The song we’re premiering today is “Storming Upon Knaves“. It’s the second track in the running order of Death Ordinance. It follows the opener “Consecrating Fire”, which is a slow, stunningly bleak decree of doom that evolves into a militaristic march. You get the sense near the end of “Consecrating Fire” that things are ramping up… and sure enough, all hell breaks loose when “Storming Upon Knaves” begins. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH, 2017 (PART 3): CRAVEN IDOL / SYNAPTIK / TELEPATHY

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 122017
 


Craven Idol

 

(Andy Synn focuses once again on a trio of recent or forthcoming releases by UK bands, this time selecting material from Craven Idol, Synaptik, and Telepathy.)

What a veritable smorgasbord of metallic delights I have here for your delectation. Though, with the joys of Brexit coming up, I suppose I won’t be able to use words like “smorgasbord” for much longer, lest I be declared a traitor to the crown…

Anyway, putting the politics and pontificating to one side, here are three stellar slabs of UK Metal for you all to savour – the throat-ripping Black/Thrash of Craven Idol, the epic and extravagant Prog-Metal of Synaptik, and the intricate instrumental storytelling of Telepathy. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WHITE WARD — “FUTILITY REPORT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
May 122017
 

 

Futility Report is brilliant in a way that few albums are in any year. As much as anything else, it’s brilliant because in its vaulting inventiveness and unexpected juxtapositions it could have been a train wreck, mangled bodies strewn about like broken toys, and fractured machines burning in a jumble of warped iron and splattered diesel. Instead, like mad scientists who are in fact visionaries, White Ward have produced something through their freakish gene-splicing of genre families that’s utterly mesmerizing.

We’ve had the pleasure of premiering two songs from Futility Report already, and I could hardly be happier that we’ve been asked now to premiere a full stream of this remarkable album on the date of its release. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ANTROPOFAGUS — “METHODS OF RESURRECTION THROUGH EVISCERATION (M.O.R.T.E.)”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
May 112017
 

 

Prepare yourselves for utterly relentless punishment, coupled with utterly electrifying speed and precision in the administration of the beating you are about to receive. In other words, prepare for a full stream of the new album by Italy’s Antropofagus, aptly titled Methods Of Resurrection Through Evisceration.

If you’ve heard the advance tracks that have appeared leading up to the May 12 release of this album (including the two we have premiered), then you will have a good idea of what awaits you. But that still won’t adequately prepare you for the cumulative impact of these 10 explosive songs. And “explosive” is the right word to use, because the album has been produced in a way that causes it to detonate (repeatedly) with staggering power, and with a balance and clarity that enhances its galvanizing effect without detracting from its stunning brutality. Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN PRESENTS: REVIEWS IN HAIKUS (DYNFARI, BEREFT, FRACTAL UNIVERSE)

 Album Reviews, Reviews In Haikus  No Responses »
May 112017
 

(We present another edition of Andy Synn’s three-line reviews.)

 

That’s right, it’s time for the return of everyone’s favourite irregular (in more ways than one) column, Reviews in Haikus.

This time around it’s an intriguing mix of Icelandic Black Metal, American Doom, and French Prog-Death, so there should be something for (practically) everyone! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REQUIEM FOR OBLIVION — “BURNING NATION”

 Premieres  12 Responses »
May 112017
 

 

The song you’re about to hear is both an eye-popping mind-bender and a big adrenaline trigger. It’s so multifaceted and so constantly surprising that it’s likely to leave most listeners exclaiming, “WTF did I just hear?!?,” and then hitting the Play button again without delay.

The song is the title track to Burning Nation, the second full-length by a band from Erie, Pennsylvania, named Requiem For Oblivion. It will be released on June 9th. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW (PART 2): KOZELJNIK (THE STONE, KOZELJNIK, MAY RESULT, OCULUS)

 Interviews  1 Response »
May 112017
 

 

(Music journalist Konstantin, who in past years has written for Serbia’s Nocturne Music Magazine, makes his first appearance at NCS with this extensive interview of Kozeljnik, founding guitarist and composer of the long-running Serbian black metal band The Stone and a participant in many other groups as well. Part 1 of this interview can be found HERE.)

Proudly standing in the underground waters for more than two decades, The Stone have engraved their name as one of the pivotal names in the Eastern European black metal scene of the ‘90s. From a war-torn country under embargo where buying the latest CD of your favorite band was practically impossible to touring with Revenge and Inquisition, they have cleared their path with strength and spirit.

In a detailed conversation with Kozeljnik (The Stone, Kozeljnik, May Result, Oculus, Murder, Ophidian Coil) we recall those days; and we discuss such topics as where metal has made mistakes in the last years and why that one legendary US act decided to have special gigs in the Balkan woods years ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: HOLOCAUSTO CANIBAL — “CATALEPSIA NECRÓTICA: GONORREIA VISCERAL REANIMADA”

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May 102017
 


Photo by: João Fitas, Post-edition: Raphael Gabrio

 

The gruesomely brutal Portuguese death/grind band Holocausto Canibal released their first demo oPus I in 1998 and followed that two years later with their debut album Gonorreia Visceral — and they haven’t relented in their slaughtering since those savage beginnings, with an ever-growing discography that has included more albums, splits, EPs, and a live recording.

Reflecting back on two decades of mayhem, the band decided to re-interpret and re-record the songs on those first two, long-unavailable early releases, and the result in this 20th year of the band’s existence is a new album named Catalepsia Necrótica: Gonorreia Visceral Reanimada. And yes, although the original compositions date back to the early days of the Oporto extreme metal scene, the re-working of the tracks and the use of modern recording technology really does make this a new album — one that was mastered by the legendary Dan Swanö at Unisound.

The album was officially released on April 28th in a variety of formats by a consortium of labels, but we’ve agreed to bring the full on-line stream of this riveting monstrosity to you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SANGUE NERO — “III”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 102017
 

 

The use of dissonant melody in black metal (and other genres) to build discomfiting atmospheres of tension, instability, and fear isn’t a new development, but that hardly means that all black metal bands who employ dissonance sound alike. Of course, significant distinctions can still be drawn based on a variety of other factors, including not only the degree of dissonance but also the ways in which it’s integrated with the numerous other ingredients that may find their way into the music.

The Italian trio Sangue Nero favor dissonant chords and unsettling melodies in the songs they’ve crafted for their debut album Viscere, but they’ve mixed them together with tribal and folk elements (including the use of a didgeridoo), a changing array of vocal expressions, and staggeringly heavy rhythms (among other ingredients) in ways that make Viscere a debut worth serious attention. As a first sign of the talents that Sangue Nero display on Viscere, we have the premiere of a track denominated “III“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VONNIS — “APOPTOSIS”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
May 102017
 


Vonnis EP artwork by Planeet Janus

 

A dead sun burns
Over a grey and barren waste
Wander in contempt of life
Murder children
Unknowing

Eat the hearts of mothers
Bury them alive
A dead sun shatters
Shatters us all

 

Those are the lyrics to the unsettling song “Apoptosis” that we’re premiering today through a vivid video. It comes from the new EP EVIL.AGAINST.EVIL by the Belgian band Vonnis, which will be released through Consouling Agency on June 23rd. Continue reading »

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