AN NCS PREMIERE: AKERBELTZ — “A DEED WITHOUT A NAME”

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Apr 272017
 

 

Now more than 20 years into a varied musical career, Spain’s Akerbeltz has released more than a half-dozen demos and splits as well as five albums under the name shared by its sole creator. The sixth full-length, Satanic, is now set for a June 2nd release by the Spanish label BlackSeed Productions. As a sign of what the new album holds in store, today we present a stream of the second track in its running order, “A Deed Without A Name“.

Akerbeltz (the musician) has participated in a variety of other musical projects since 1989, not all of them in the vein of black metal. Among other endeavors, he has played guitar for Countess, Beheaded Lamb, and Harridan; appeared singing and playing drums in one song of a Sale Freux album; performed vocals for a Winter Frost demo; and has been the drummer for Körgull The Exterminator since the band’s inception. But Akerbeltz (the band) has been his oldest and longest-running project. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IRAE — “IN THE NAME OF SATAN”

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Apr 272017
 

 

Over the course of the 15 years that have passed since the spawning of Irae in the Portuguese black metal underground, the project has been prolific, with Irae’s music being released in two dozen demos and splits, as well as compilations, live recordings, and three full-length albums, with the last album of new music being 2008’s Hellnation. On May 12th of this year, Altare Productions will release a new album by Irae entitled Crimes Against Humanity. One track from the album (“Genocide Journey”) has debuted previously, and today we bring you a second one, the song that opens the album, “In the Name of Satan“.

Operating from within a Portuguese alliance known as the Black Circle, Irae’s sole creator Vulturius has pursued a nihilistic vision of malice and misanthropy, and in this forthcoming album (to quote Altare) Irae “explores the lawless aesthetics of hate, extermination of feeble mankind and allegiance to the Adversary”. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: AZIZA — “IMPOSTER” AND THE “MANA RAZOR” VIDEO

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Apr 262017
 

 

By their own account, Minneapolis-based Aziza play “Thunderpunk”, combining “sludge, hardcore, and heavy metal”. “We play buttrock for the thinking man’s metal head”. Aziza released a debut demo in 2014 named Thunderpunk? Jesus., and an EP in 2016 called High Hopes Are At An All Time Low. Now they’ve got a new EP on the way named Council of Straitjackets, and today we’ve got a dual premiere: the song “Imposters” from the new EP and an official video for the song “Mana Razor” off the last EP.

Let’s talk about the video first. It’s a hellacious amount of fun to watch, and to listen to. “Mana Razor” is a real ass-kicking bruiser of a song, with lead-weight riffs, gut-punching bass, and head-cracking drums doing their damnedest to fracture bones, and a vicious vocal squall that underlines the song’s bleak and violent undercurrents. Highly mosh-worthy, too.

The music may be a dark piece of battering nastiness, but the video looks like a hell of a good house party among friends. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ASSAULT — “THE FALLEN REICH”

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Apr 262017
 

 

After making their recording debut in 2011 with an EP named The Exceptions of the Rebellions, the Singaporean band Assault are returning with a debut album named The Fallen Reich, which features Mark Riddick cover art and is set for a May 10 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. Today we bring you a lyric video for the album’s title track.

While Assault are billed as a death/thrash band, this song is reminiscent of the ferocious style of fast-moving melodic death metal that erupted on At the Gates’ Slaughter of the Soul, due in part to the similarity of the vocals to Tompa Lindberg’s distinctive snarls. Continue reading »

CONJURER / KAIJU DAISENSO: A SPLIT

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Apr 262017
 

 

(Todd Manning wrote this review of a 2016 split release by Indianapolis-based Conjurer and the NY band Kaiju Daisenso.)

A little late to the game here, but I recently had the pleasure of discovering this split from two devastating sludge acts, Conjurer and Kaiju Daisenso. Originally released as a split flexi 7” last November via SMALLHANDFACTORY records, both tracks are now available on Bandcamp as well.

Conjurer are a based out of Indianapolis, and this track marks an impressive follow-up to their formidable full-length Old World Ritual. Under the title “You’re in Here with Me”, Conjurer spill forth burly, mid-paced sludge riffs with moments of psychedelia peeking out through the bile. Continue reading »

RAGANA: “YOU TAKE NOTHING”

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Apr 262017
 

 

(Here’s Wil Cifer’s review of the new album by Ragana from Oakland, California.)

With the tone of recent world events providing the inspiration for their new album You Take Nothing, the Oakland two-piece have returned with a feral vision of their brand of blackened crust.

The album opens with a deliberate crunch before it turns toward placing more emphasis on atmosphere. Where they part ways with many American black metal bands is in the concise nature of their songwriting. It never feels like you have lost your place in a bloated drone of tremolo picking, and the blast beats always feel as if they are wisely implemented. Continue reading »

BEYOND GRACE: “SEEKERS” IS ON THE WAY

 Metal News  9 Responses »
Apr 262017
 

 

Shameless cronyism alert: Andy Synn, my old friend and steadfast NCS comrade for the last six and a half years, is the frontman for the band that’s the subject of this news announcement — Beyond Grace. With that pesky disclosure out of the way, here’s a synopsis of the news we’re announcing (with more detail to follow): Beyond Grace’s new album Seekers is complete; it will be released in July; it features cover art by Michael Cowell; and it will become available for pre-order on Monday, May 1st.

Now for the details. First of all, the image at the top of this post is only the top portion of the cover art created by Michael Cowell (who has a web presence here). This is what the middle and lower portions look like, along with the complete piece: Continue reading »

TORTURIZED: “OMNIVORE”

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Apr 252017
 

 

(DGR wrote this review of the new album by Germany’s Torturized.)

Here at NCS, we’re proud of the spelunking we do to find underground metal, in between our fawning over the genre as a whole. We also enjoy helping get folks’ names out there — in my case, especially when it comes to some machine-precise death metal.

The idea of musicians as machinery is one that still proves exciting, and hearing a band execute on that idea to crank out some crushing death metal still impresses. Which is how I wound up at the doorstep of Torturized‘s disc Omnivore. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: FUMIGATION / THE PATH TO R’LYEH — “INVASION”

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Apr 252017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new split by two Canadian bands, Fumigation and The Path To R’lyeh.)

Split releases are a great way to discover more than one new band at once, and even in the digital age, the split-release tradition runs strong in the metal world. So here we are today offering up an early stream of killer Canadian death metal from Fumigation and The Path To R’lyeh, two bands with quite different sounds within the death metal sphere. A yin and yang type release, if you will, one that I hope our readers will enjoy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYPT ROT — “EMBRYONIC DEVILS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 252017
 

Crypt Rot are a relatively new Ohio band whose line-up includes current and former members of such groups as Homewrecker and Scorched (with whom they’ll be releasing a split later this year). Their debut album Embryonic Devils will be released by Southern Lord on April 28th, and today we’ve got a full stream with which to violate your earholes.

The music on the album is a head-wrecking horror, but the album title could be misleading. These are not embryonic devils. Both Crypt Rot and their songs are full-grown, fully formed devils with a monstrous capacity for spreading pestilence, destruction, and an atmosphere of paranormal terror and derangement. Continue reading »

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