AN NCS PREMIERE: CONJONCTIVE — “LET BLOW THE GRIM WIND”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 102017
 

 

In the Mouth of the Devil is the name of the second album by the Swiss metal band Conjonctive. In advance of its March 10 release by Tenacity Music, we bring you today the premiere of a song from the album called “Let Blow The Grim Wind“, which is presented through a video of the band performing the song at Conatus Studios, where the album was recorded.

After the band released their debut album Until The Whole World Dies in 2013, they spent time touring Switzerland and opening for the likes of Crowbar, Biohazard, and Aborted, among others… and their music evolved as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYPTIC BROOD — “SLURPING REEKING SLIME”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 102017
 

 

Somewhere, sometime, there must be a convening of psychotherapists and musicologists who will devote themselves to analyzing why large factions of metalheads revel in the sound of rot and bathe their minds in the filth of suppurating decay. I certainly can’t explain it, but I certainly do enjoy it — and I’ve found a new group of ghouls who deliver the experience with precocious mastery.

I’m referring to a trio from the wonderfully named town of Wolfsburg, Germany, who call themselves Cryptic Brood. In 2015 they self-released a demo cassette named Morbid Rite, which was soon released by different labels that same year, and then Xtreem Music vomited forth the band’s debut EP Wormhead in September 2015. Now the same death-loving Spanish label is going to release Cryptic Brood’s debut album Brain Eater on the first day of March.

In advance of that foul event we have a song to share with you. Not mincing words, the band named it “Slurping Reeking Slime”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVOURING STAR — “ANGEL OF NULL”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 102017
 

 

When I first learned last October that the Finnish black metal band Devouring Star planned to discharge a new EP this year, it immediately vaulted into the upper reaches of my personal list of most anticipated 2017 releases. I wrote about the news then, but now I can share with you further details about the new EP — which is named Antihedron — and we also have the privilege of bringing you the premiere of one of its three powerful tracks, a song called “Angel of Null“.

Antihedron will be released by the band’s new label Dark Descent on March 24 and becomes available for pre-order today.

I haven’t been alone in my eagerness for this EP. Devouring Star’s debut album Through Lung and Heart was widely recognized as one of 2015’s highlights, and an especially striking achievement given that it was the band’s first full-length. With Antihedron, they have moved from strength to further strength. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LVX HAERESIS — “IV”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Feb 102017
 

 

Last month the first advance track from the debut album by Lvx Haeresis hit me like a meteorite, unexpectedly rocketing in from the void and leaving a smoking crater in my skull. Now there’s a second crater to go along with the first one, and you’re about to hear it as well.

Lvx Haeresis is a Swiss black metal band formed in 2013, and their debut album is named Descensŭs Spīrĭtŭs. It was mastered by V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress, Secrets of the Moon, etc.), its cover art was created by Lemmy Gonthier, and it’s scheduled for a March 11 digipack CD release by Atavism Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AYAHUASCA DARK TRIP — “ETERNAL RETURN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 102017
 

 

As we all know, technological advances have made possible musical collaborations among people separated by significant distances that once would never have been possible. But even though multinational collaborations are no longer a rarity, few bands have been drawn together personnel from as many widely separated parts of the globe as Ayahuasca Dark Trip — and the music has drawn together an almost equally broad and unusual array of traditions as well.

When the band was first formed in 2010, its members included Buddy Van Nieuwenhoven from The Netherlands, Brayan Buckt from Peru, and Pedro Ivo Aráujo from Brazil. Now, the band also includes Dutch musicians Floris Moerkamp and Robin Van Rooy, U.S.-based Indrayudh Shome, and Sifis Karadakis from Greece. Continue reading »

AUSTIN TERROR FEST 2017: ANNOUNCING THE FULL LINE-UP

 Metal News  No Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

A few days ago we announced the names of the first 15 bands confirmed to appear at the first annual NorthWest Terror Fest that we’re co-sponsoring in Seattle on June 15-17, 2017, and now we’re bringing you news about another festival that’s coming up even faster — the first edition of Austin Terror Fest, which will take place deep in the heart of Texas on March 16-19.

As with Northwest Terror Fest, we’re helping to present the first edition of Austin Terror Fest with Invisible Oranges and the folks behind Southwest Terror Fest. For this first installment of what will also become a continuing festival series, The Lost Well and Worshiper Cabinets are also backing the event. Here’s the (nearly) full line-up of the more than 40 bands who will perform at Austin Terror Fest 2017: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FELL RUIN — “SPY FICTION FOLDS IN READY STREETS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 092017
 

 

The 2015 debut EP from Michigan’s Fell Ruin, Devices, made an immediate and powerful impact on the scribes here at NCS, delivering a genre-bending amalgam that we described as “a potent combination of black metal, progressive metal, and heavy, grinding doom — ominous, perilous, and mesmerizing”, moving between “bouts of explosive, instrumentally acrobatic aggressiveness, oppressive, doom-drenched crawls, and passages of sombre, unsettling beauty.” We wished out loud for a longer release, and now we are fortunate to have one.

On March 17th, the respected I, Voidhanger Records will release Fell Ruin’s debut album, To The Concrete Drifts, and we have for you the first sign of what it holds in store — the premiere of the album’s third track, with the intriguing name “Spy Fiction Folds In Ready Streets“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ACRIMONIOUS — “QAYIN REX MORTIS”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

On the 20th of March W.T.C. Productions will reveal the third album by the Greek band Acrimonious, bearing a title that’s manifested without words in the record’s striking cover art: Eleven Dragons. In 67 minutes the album encompasses 11 songs, and we have for you today the premiere of the seventh of those, “Qayin Rex Mortis“.

The roots of Acrimonious reach back in time to 2002, though by 2011 changes had occurred in the creative forces behind the name, with founding member Cain Letifer (vocals, guitar) then joined by Semjaza of Thy Darkened Shade as second guitarist and C. Docre on drums. In that configuration Acrimonious released their second album, Sunyata, which made an impact akin to a meteor strike on the mind of this listener (and many others).

It has been a long wait for this trio to stoke the flames of Satanic chaos again, but now they’ve done it, and though I wouldn’t have expected it, Eleven Dragons surpasses even the high pinnacle reached by Sunyata. Continue reading »

MAYHEM PERFORM “DE MYSTERIIS DOM SATHANAS”: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

 Concert Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

Editor’s Introduction: For years I’ve been an admirer of the photography of L.A.-based magician Levan TK. In my humble opinion, there is no better concert photographer to be found. And so we feel fortunate indeed to present his photographs from the performance of the legendary Mayhem in southern California on February 7, 2017, along with Levan TK’s thoughts about the show. To view more of his photographic art, go HERE.

And by the way, to hear the first time De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was ever performed live in its entirety (in Norrkjöping, Sweden, on Dec. 18, 2015, at the Black Christmass Festival), it’s available on Bandcamp HERE.

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Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas US tour hit LA — well, Santa Ana, which is part of the greater Los Angeles area to be precise. Though the band had performed the album in its entirety last year at Maryland Deathfest, as well as a few European fests and shows, they have never before attempted a full stateside tour for the pivotal album. Continue reading »

GLOSON: “GRIMEN”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Sweden’s Gloson.)

Don’t you love it/hate it (delete as appropriate) when a band comes along, seemingly out of nowhere, with a debut album so good you struggle to grasp how they’ve actually managed it?

Because that’s exactly what Swedish Post-Sludgebringers Gloson have done. Continue reading »

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