AN NCS PREMIERE: BLOOD OF THE PROPHETS — “MEGALITHIC”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 042017
 

 

(Our old friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth rejoins us after an extended absence, providing both an excellent song premiere and these words of introduction.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. I return from the forgotten depths to bring forth to you an exclusive listen to a new song by a band called Blood Of The Prophets.

There is, I would estimate, a better-than-average chance that you’ve never heard of this band, being that they have lain dormant for the greater part of seven years, but they are preparing for release their newest work, a concept album entitled The Stars Of The Sky Hid From Me. I will have a full investigation of said album at a date closer to its release, but for now we have a glimpse of that album in the form of “Megalithic“. Continue reading »

HOT DOGS: THE BEST METAL OF 2017 SO FAR (AN INVITATION FOR YOUR LISTS)

 Listmania  70 Responses »
Jul 042017
 

 

Today is Independence Day here in the United States, a day on which many Americans celebrate the beginning of the country’s great (and occasionally bizarre) experiment in democracy with vast quantities of cold beer, cookouts, and ardent efforts to blow off their own digits with equally vast quantities of illegally deployed explosives. Here in the metallic realms of NCS, however, it’s just another day (partly in consideration of the fact that more than half our readers are located outside the U.S.).

We have a couple of good song premieres coming your way, and maybe the second part of a SHADES OF BLACK post I began on Sunday, and who knows what else.

But to begin the day I want to talk about hot dogs, and then I want to ask our readers for your opinions about the best metal releases of 2017 so far. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BEYOND GRACE — “SEEKERS”

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Jul 032017
 

 

On July 7, the British band Beyond Grace will release their new album, Seekers, and today we present a full stream of all the music.

As many of you know, the band’s vocalist and lyricist Andy Walmsley is also the longest-running writer at this site (other than myself), better known to our readers as Andy Synn. And as you also therefore know, he has a way with words, which he has put to good use in penning the lyrics to Seeker’s nine songs, drawing inspiration from the writings of such sci-fi luminaries as Kim Stanley-Robinson, Jeff Vandermeer (who also gave permission for excerpts from his novel Annihilation to be used in the song “Apoptosis”), Edgar Rice-Burroughs, and Jeff Noon, as well as the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. And while I could be accused of bias based on friendship, he sounds damned good expressing those lyrics too.

The music on Seekers is damned good, too, as you’re about to find out — and I say that, never having met any of the musicians who created these vibrant tracks. They are: Tim Yearsley (guitars), Andrew Workman (bass), and Ed Gorrod (drums). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CONTRARIAN — “TRANSCEND THE MUNDANE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
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”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
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 »

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