NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRIMSON CROWN — “BURN THE CHAINS WITH UNHOLY FIRE”

Apr 112025

(written by Islander)

We’ve had a few occasions in previous years to froth at the mouth about the extravagant music of the Russian black metal band Malist, on one occasion summing it up as “…blazing and boisterous… thrusting and thunderous… moody, melancholy, and mysterious at times, but mainly explosive and exhilarating (and highly addictive)…”

Now we learn that the Russian musician behind Malist, Nick Kholodov (Ovfrost), has a new project named Crimson Crown and a debut album for the project entitled Vae Victis that will be out next month. Like Malist, Crimson Crown is devoted to black metal, but there must be differences, mustn’t there? Else why create a new project? Well, let’s find out together as we listen to a song from Val Victis named “Burn the Chains With Unholy Fire“. Continue reading »

BUTCHERBIRD: “DROUGHT/DELUGE”

Apr 112025

Artwork by šaška

(On May 30th Drowning Sea God Records will digitally release the debut EP from the London-based metallic hardcore band ButcherBird. Wil Cifer has had a chance to hear it, and sent in the following positive review.)

I’m always up for checking out a hardcore band that is willing to venture off the beaten path. So here we are with ButcherBird, a hardcore band from London that has a metallic groove to their feedback-squealing attack.

The angry shout of the vocals is the most straightforward thing about the overall sound this band is throwing at you. They do use breakdowns, but these cropped up in less expected places. There is a more rock n roll vibe underlying the whiplash of angular riffs, making them more of Rollins Band than Full of Hell when it comes to the sonic scope these guys have crafted. Unwieldy sections of choruses collide to create a celebratory ambience. They are not fueled by a singular mood, but express a wide range of varied emotions with little pretense. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANCESTOR OF KAOS — “ETERNAL NIGHT”

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Apr 102025

(written by Islander)

The marauding black/thrashers Ancestor of Kaos have followed a long and winding road, a twisting and turning path that now leads to the April 18 release of their new album Animal Ritual by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.

They began as a black metal band formed in Havana, Cuba in 2005 under the name Ancestor. Under that name they released a first demo, a split, and two albums. In 2013 the band moved to the U.S following an invitation to play at South by Southwest that same year. Initially they were based in Miami and were active on stage, opening for such bands as Deicide, Acheron, and Goatwhore, among others.

We’re told that from 2015 until 2020 the band went into a brief hiatus where they changed their name to Ancestor of Kaos. In 2022, after resuming activity, they released their Ancestor of Kaos album, which consisted of new versions of old songs, re-recorded in Las Vegas, Nevada. And then, in 2024 (with a renewed lineup) they began releasing singles that would lead to the discharge of this new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KA’APER — “EYES OF KA’APER”

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Apr 102025

(written by Islander)

Today we encounter once again the term “dark metal“, which is how two labels are describing a debut album they’re releasing from the Cypriot band Ka’aper. It is one of the most amorphous genre descriptions you can find in the realms of metal, most often used (it seems) when none of the other more established and more descriptive labels fit very well, even the multiply-hyphenated ones.

What it means in the case of Ka’aper and their first full-length While Flows The Nile is a subject we’ll explore today through our premiere of a song from the album named “Eyes Of Ka’aper“. But first, a bit of background about what has motivated the band. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CONSUMPTION

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Apr 102025

(Here we present Zoltar’s interview with the ever-busy Håkan Stuvemark, the focus being on his death metal band Consumption, whose latest album Catharsis was released in January by Dusktone.)

Hard to say when the disease started spreading but most extreme metal historians (if there’s such a thing) would probably agree that General Surgery, Dead Infection, and/or Pathologist were the first ‘official’ Carcass clones, as early as 1988. And it somehow never stopped since then: Haemorrhage, Necrony, Golem, early Exhumed, Butcher ABC, etc. The list goes on and on and never ceased to grow. Yet, from time to time and despite the heavy competition, somebody decides to pick up the gauntlet and run with it, reaching for the extra yard, today’s case pick being Consumption.

Just like the ‘fake’ band The County Medical Examiners vowed in the ’00s to record the sequel to Symphonies Of Sickness but never got the time nor the will to record, Håkan Stuvemark from Wombbath decided instead to raid that even better guarded citadel known as Necroticism. And it looks like he’s having a blast doing so, as although he’s got his fingers in so many pies at the same time, he still did find the time to record three albums of pure Necroticism-worship over the course of five albums, the latest being the just-released Catharsis on Dusktone.

Yet based on what he’s telling us, there is more here to be found than ‘just’ extremely well-made fanart. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SONUM — “THE OBSCURE LIGHT AWAITS”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Apr 092025

(written by Islander)

Those of us who first came across the Italian death metal band Sonum through their 2021 EP Divide et Impera encountered a head-spinning array of wild musical adventures, a free-wheeling experimentation in which death metal was only one of many stylistic twists and turns. They followed that with their somewhat less genre-bending but still multi-faceted 2022 debut album Visceral Void Entropy, and now they’re returning again with their new full-length The Obscure Light Awaits, set for release on April 11th by the Dusktone label.

Since their last album, Sonum‘s lineup has dropped from five members to three, and by some measures their music has become more streamlined as well, certainly more carefully structured and cohesive.

But let us quickly banish any thought that Sonum have become “conventional”, in any sense of the word. This is an ingeniously elaborate and thoroughly dazzling album of progressive and atmospheric death metal (though its varying moods are quite dark), and heads that lean into it won’t stop spinning until it’s over — as you will learn for yourselves through our premiere today. Continue reading »

CARONTE – SPIRITVS

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Apr 092025

(Andy Synn wants you all to help him make Caronte a much, much bigger deal)

In light of the increasing success of bands like Unto Others and Tribulation, as well as the massive popularity of a little band you may have heard of called Ghost, it’s surprising that occult Doom coven Caronte haven’t received a similar amount of love and attention.

Maybe it’s because they’re still – despite their love of infectiously psilocybic melodies and gloomily gothic grooves – a little too dark, or a little too rough and rugged (though to me that’s actually part of their appeal) to appeal to a more “mainstream” audience quite as much, or maybe they’re just hanging out with “the wrong crowd” (they’re still very much associated with the Black Metal scene to some people… heck, it was at Inferno Festival that I first encountered them myself).

Whatever the reason, however, I’m making it my mission to give the band’s profile a bit of a boost… especially since their new album, Spiritvs (which comes out this week), might just be their most artfully accessible yet!

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MORBIFIC

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Apr 092025

(On April 21st a group of labels will release a new album by the Finnish death metal band Morbific, and that induced our contributor Zoltar to reach out for an interview, which now follows.)

Samples of forgotten horror flicks, a crude-as-fuck production, distorted bass breaks one hasn’t heard since Impetigo‘s debut album back in 1990, dual vocals and lyrics about mutilating a corpse or draining into a tub various secretions of a putrefied body… You can’t really blame Finnish youngsters Morbific for beating around the (dead) bush can you?

Various splits and an EP plus three albums, including the soon-to-be-released Bloom Of The Abnormal Flesh, in, the trio stick to what they do best: old-school, primitive, and ghastly death metal, yet surprisingly catchy thanks to its underlining groove and straight-to-the-point attitude. Next to other rather ‘new’ European acts like Stockholm’s Repuked or Copenhagen’s Undergang, their undeniable faith in a certain deeply underground and untouched-by-modernism definition of what death metal stands for is undeniable.

And yes, based on their bass player and vocalist Jusa‘s not quite extensive answers, they don’t seem to give a fuck about anything, but it’s probably because at the end of the day, it’s just all about playing freakin’ death metal and celebrating gore, nothing less nothing more. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FINAL DOSE — “UNDER THE ETERNAL SHADOW”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Apr 082025

(written by Islander)

Like other genres of extreme metal, a good case can be made that black metal in its earliest stages evolved from punk rock. But black metal continued to evolve in ways that essentially left punk behind. Some bands did not completely cut the tie, but many did, and so the fundamental tropes of subversive “second wave” black metal as they took shape in the early ’90s, and which persist to this day, bear little resemblance to where things started.

Yet in more recent times, maybe most notably over the last decade I’d say, we’ve seen a new emergence of punk influence in black metal, not really a rolling back of the clock to the earliest days but a hybridization of punk, hardcore, or crust and second wave Scandinavian black metal.

Many bands have embraced that hybrid form, and Final Dose from the UK are one of them, and one of the best. But they have also evolved, bringing other stylistic ingredients into their mix besides those two main ones in order to better express the emotional torrents that fuel their work.

The results are vividly on display in their viscerally powerful new album Under The Eternal Shadow, which we’re premiering and reviewing today in advance of its release on April 11th by Wolves of Hades. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Apr 082025

(It may be April, but Andy Synn is still catching up on March’s bumper crop of releases)

Like I said last week (and also yesterday) it’s patently impossible for anyone to keep up with everything that’s released each month… so the best move is to not even try.

Of course, I’m immediately going to contradict that by covering another quartet of releases from March, but the point still stands.

After all, despite my best efforts here (and last week) I’m still not going to be able to write about the new ones from Cult of Fire (Czechia) or Cthuluminati (Netherlands) in full, or talk about the immersive Post-Metal intensity of Båkü (France) or Druma (Germany), or give hefty death-dealers Nothing (Australia) and Thanatophobia (Russia) their due.

On top of that, while I’m really liking the new Gates to Hell album the fact that they’re already signed to a big label and getting a lot of coverage means that it’s probably best for me to focus my efforts elsewhere (same for the vicious, visceral – yet slightly too long and drawn-out for its own good – new one from This Gift Is A Curse).

And even though I’ve been loving the new Teitanblood (unsurprisingly) I feel like our good buddies at AMG already said everything that needed saying about that one, so make sure you go and read their review for some cool insight into that one.

But, anyway, enough of all my that… let’s get to the music, shall we?

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