FROWNING: “EXTINCT”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Mar 022017
 

 

(Grant Skelton returns to NCS with this review of the brilliant new album by Frowning.)

Today I have the pleasure of presenting one of my early favorites from 2017, a stream/review of the new album Extinct by Germany’s Frowning. You may know Val Atra Niteris, the “man behind the curtain” of Frowning, as a member of the DSBM band Heimleiden. Also in Val’s repertoire is the blackened doom project Ad Cinerem, whose vocalist Hekjal appears on Extinct.

Frowning’s origin dates back to 2011, in which the band released a series of singles. One of those songs, the evocative instrumental “Day In Black” would later resurface on Frowning’s first full-length album. Three years later, Frowning released said debut album, entitled Funeral Impressions, along with Of Graves, Of Worms, And Epitaphs, a split with Aphonic Threnody. Extinct is Frowning’s second full-length album.

With the exception of the exquisite cover of Chopin’s “Marché Funebré,” Extinct consists of four dismal dirges which gradually progress in length. “Nocturnal Void,” the first track, is just shy of 10 minutes, while the sullen epic “Buried Deep” is over twice that. But what distinguishes Extinct is musicianship and songcraft. Let me explain what I mean. Continue reading »

MY MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUMS OF 2017 (BY ANDY SYNN)

 Metal News  19 Responses »
Mar 012017
 


Dyscarnate in the studio…

 

(Andy Synn shares a list of his most anticipated releases of 2017… along with musical reminders… and a request for your own most-anticipated releases.)

Somehow, even though it’s only March, I’m already well behind in terms of covering new and upcoming releases. Partially that’s due to how many albums from last year I still had left to catch up on during January/February, but it’s also a testament to the sheer number of killer albums which have been released already in this year.

Now it was around this time last year (in fact, I just checked, and it was almost exactly one year ago) that I published a list of five albums whose impending release had me afroth with anticipation, including two albums (Death Fortress, Khonsu) which ultimately proved to be two of my absolute favourites of the year… although another two, Nidingr and Decrepit Birth, ended up being delayed until 2017, with the latter still not having a confirmed release date even now…

So, in a vain bid to get ahead of the curve a little, here are five six seven upcoming releases which I’m extremely stoked/jacked/hyped to hear this year, starting with… Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: MINDFUL OF PRIPYAT AND STENCH OF PROFIT — “NEW DOOMSDAY ORCHESTRATION”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 012017
 

 

If you’ve been paying close attention to the more violent attractions at our putrid site, then you will already be aware of New Doomsday Orchestration, the forthcoming split release by Italian grind bands Mindful of Pripyat and Stench of Profit. We have previously premiered songs from each band’s side of this electrifying split, but now it’s our sinister pleasure to bring you a full stream of the split on the day of its official release by Everlasting Spew Records — preceded by still more demented introductory words of praise.

MINDFUL OF PRIPYAT

The Font of All Human Knowledge tells us that Pripyat is a ghost town in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a town whose inhabitants were evacuated in a frenzy the day after the disaster at the Chernobyl plant. It has figured in works of literature, film, television, and of course music. And the Milanese band whose 9 tracks launch this split assure that we will remain mindful of its fate. Continue reading »

DEGOTTEN: “HEXENTROST”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Mar 012017
 

 

Over the last 10 years I’ve used an alarm clark maybe a dozen times, tops, usually when I stupidly got wasted the night before and absolutely couldn’t risk oversleeping the next day. Usually I just rely on my restless mind to wake me: Before I go to sleep I tell myself when I need to wake up, and it happens, though usually even earlier than needed.

I do tend to get a little extra rest right up until my internal alarm goes off when I know I’ve finished the first NCS post the night before. Last night I hadn’t made much of a start on anything, and I wanted that extra sleep, so I wrote this instead of what I had been planning to do — and I did it as an experiment.

I normally wouldn’t dash off an album review as quickly as I have here, after only one listen to the album, but I did that. And I picked the album on a fairly random basis, knowing nothing about the band and having heard only a few songs over the weekend. However, the songs left me amazed, and I knew I would come back to this. So here we are — with what has turned out to be one of the biggest and best surprises of the year so far. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): K.L.L.K. — “LE BRASIER DES MONDES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Feb 282017
 

 

Le Brasier des Mondes is the debut album of the French band K.L.L.K. It will be released on March 3 by Caligari Records on both tape and CD, with different artwork for each (the CD art is above, the tape art is below). Today we have for you all the music on the album, presented as a continuous stream without breaks between the tracks, which is undoubtedly the best way to hear it — because it’s a completely immersive, mind-altering, and unsettling experience whose power is at its zenith when heard straight through from beginning to end.

The band’s last release was the 2015 EP Between the First Heliocentric Wind and the Great Devourer of Light, which itself followed a pair of demos and a compilation. Unfortunately I can’t compare the album to those previous works because I haven’t yet heard them. So the following words provide an introduction to Le Brasier des Mondes, standing alone. This is how the band describe the conceptual basis for the album: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER — “REDENCION”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Feb 282017
 

 

Man, what a rush! The first time I pressed play on the new song you’re about to hear from the Spanish death/grind band Looking For An Answer, I thought I’d detonated a bomb. Or been hit by a semi-truck without warning. I thought about not telling you anything about the song so you would experience the same sense of shock and awe, but I don’t have enough self-control, or possibly any at all.

The track’s name is “Redencion” and it comes from Dios Carne, the first full-length from Looking For An Answer in six years. The album will be released by Willowtip on April 28. Mark that date on your calendar — you have that long to finish your bomb shelter. Continue reading »

PERSEFONE: “AATHMA”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Feb 282017
 

 

(DGR prepared this detailed review of the new album by Andorra’s Persefone, and we have a full music stream for you at the end.)

If there is one thing that I’ve come to admire in music over the past few years, it is a sense of ambition. As music has become democratized and we’ve found bedroom and studio projects achieving just as much as groups with label backing, I’ve found bands who seem to have decided that since there is no more ‘living within their means’ any more, they can just go for it every time they step up to the plate. Persefone are one of those bands.

Now a handful of albums deep into their career, each disc has seemingly grown in size and scope compared to the last one. They come off as a group that has overdosed on just as many Dream Theater and Symphony X keyboard-laden discs as they have the late ’90s and early 2000s melodeath scene. Continue reading »

DOWNCAST: LOSS, FUNERAL TEARS, FUNERALBLOOM, ARCHITECTS OF AEON, BLACK TREMOR, SEA WITCH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 272017
 

 

This weekend I did my usual rambling through the bowels of the interhole and our overstuffed in-box in search of things I might write about today. Among the worthy discoveries I made were the new songs I collected in this post, and they seemed to belong together. Although the music is in fact quite varied, they all invoke downcast feelings in different ways and degrees. But before turning to the music, let’s begin with a news item about another band who are quite adept at plumbing the depths of despondency and doom.

LOSS

Six years after releasing their debut album Despond, Nashville’s Loss have a new one on the way named Horizonless. Over the weekend, Profound Lore announced that it will be released on May 19th and revealed Adam Burke’s killer cover art. Continue reading »

SLAGMAUR: “THILL SMITTS TERROR”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 272017
 

 

(Wil Cifer wrote this review of the long-awaited new album by Norway’s Slagmaur.)

This band from Norway have found their own dark path to stomp down with a grandiosity that elevates them over many of their peers.

They often find themselves chugging into more death-metal-like waters while holding the guitar textures with enough darkness to earn them the label of blackened death metal. At the end of the day, sub-genres be damned, it’s clear these songs are crafted with the understanding that no matter how heavy you are, the songs have to come first. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SOMNIUM NOX — “THE ALNWICK APOTHEOSIS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 272017
 

 

The powerful debut album of the Australian band Somnium Nox ushers the listener into another world, operating at a depth that seems to affect the subconscious mind like a form of hypnosis, as well as frequently pushing the pulse of the blood to racing levels. It’s an immersive, emotionally compelling experience, by turns spellbinding and abrasive… and in the opening minutes, it includes the haunting tones of a didgeridoo.

“Haunting” may be the single best word to describe the atmospheric black metal of Somnium Nox, as it does seem to emanate from a shadow realm, giving voice to primordial powers and wandering spirits that may be submerged but haven’t disappeared.

The album consists of three long tracks that connect to each other seamlessly, and today we have the premiere of the second one — “The Alnwick Apotheosis” — in advance of the album’s May 15 release by Transcending Obscurity Records. Continue reading »

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