PAY WHAT THOU WILL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Jun 132017
 

 

(Andy Synn assembled this collection of recommended music.)

Greetings and salutations good people of the NCS hive mind. Today just so happens to be my birthday and, in a twist to the usual way of doing things, I’m here to offer YOU a bunch of presents in celebration of this momentous event.

So, after the jump, you’ll find some EPs and albums that are all on offer at “name your price” – if you like what you hear though, I recommend you give the bands some money, whatever you can afford, and/or pick up some merch while you’re there!

After all, if we don’t support them… who will? Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 3): EREB ALTOR, LVX HÆRESIS, BLYH, FELLWARDEN, WĘDROWCY-TUŁACZE-ZBIEGI

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Jun 132017
 

 

This is the third and final installment of a SHADES OF BLACK feature that I began two days ago. You’ll be shocked to learn that as long as this post has been, I added music from two more bands on top of what I originally planned for this Part 3 yesterday. If I hadn’t been placed in restraints by orderlies here at the asylum, I would have added more.

EREB ALTOR

The wonderful Swedish band Ereb Altor, who have taken their main cues (but not their only ones) from the mythic Viking metal of Bathory as established in Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods, have a new album named Ulfven that will arrive on July 21 via Hammerheart Records. Earlier today they revealed a song from the album that’s simply magnificent. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORBUNDO — “SUICIDIO ILUSTRADO”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 132017
 

 

Raíz Amarga (Spanish for “Bitter Root”) is the first recording by a group of experienced Spanish musicians who have taken for themselves the name Moribundo (“dying” in English). The album’s four long tracks are based on four poems of death and despair, drawing upon traditions of cold, melancholy doom and craggy death metal to carve a musical course that’s intensely atmospheric as well as physically jolting. One song from the album has appeared previously, and we have another one today named “Suicidio Ilustrado” as a further prelude to the album’s release on June 18.

“Suicidio Ilustrado” is in some ways a study in contrasts — in part a grim, crushing dirge, in part a ravaging juggernaut, and in part a mystical haunting. The riffs are mountainous; the drums hit hard enough to vibrate your spine; the vocals are usually the kind of cavernous growls that seem to emanate from some subterranean leviathan crawling toward the surface, or the shrieks of painful torment. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EL CAMINO — “CROOKED WAND”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 132017
 

 

Four years on from the release of their last album, Gold of the Great Deceiver, the Swedish band el Camino are returning with a new one named Cursed Congregation, which is set for a July 2nd release by Night Tripper Records. In April the band delivered a two-track single of music from the album (Stars and Silence), and today we have another new song for you, this one named “Crooked Wand“.

If this is your first encounter with el Camino, prepare yourselves for a very interesting discovery. “Crooked Wand” casts a spell of mystery and menace, incorporating differing musical traditions (including doom, black metal, and heavy rock) in a way that both mesmerizes and chills the skin, drawing the listener into the presence of what might be a ritual summoning of some unseen and hungering terror. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LLNN AND WOVOKA — “MARKS / TRACES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 122017
 

 

It would be difficult to imagine a more well-matched pairing of bands than the two whose music is captured on the new album-length split we’re about to premiere, and it would be difficult to imagine an album cover that’s more evocative of the chilling, unearthly, and inhumanly destructive power of these 7 tracks, or their ability to seize and hold the listener’s attention. The bands are LLNN from Denmark and Wovoka from Los Angeles, and the name of the split is Marks/Traces. It will be released by Pelagic Records on June 16th.

The album’s advance press contains this advice: “Fans of Cult Of Luna, Neurosis, Amen Ra, Rosetta, and ISIS pay heed”. And that’s good advice, but we have a few more introductory thoughts about the music as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TIRED MINDS — “LOOM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 122017
 

 

Loom is the new album by the post-hardcore band Tired Minds from Newcastle, Australia. It’s scheduled for release on June 16 by Art As Catharsis, and today we bring you a full stream of the album.

“Post-hardcore” can be an amorphous label, encompassing a range of different sounds with greater or lesser degrees of hardcore in the scaffolding of the music and variations in the other construction materials as well. In the case of Tired Minds, attempting to formulate a linguistic synopsis for the music is especially challenging — Art As Catharsis pulls together references that extend from The Dillinger Escape Plan to Converge, from La Dispute to Cursed, and even The Bronx. And indeed, this wrecking crew aren’t moving down any well-manicured, well-mapped, straight-ahead path. And “easy listening” definitely isn’t a term in their vocabulary. Continue reading »

SHADOW OF INTENT: “RECLAIMER”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jun 122017
 

 

(Guest contributor “Bathy Kates” makes his first appearance at NCS with this review of the new album by Shadow of Intent from the northeastern U.S.)

Deathcore gets a bad rap. Sure, it has plenty of trendy and mediocre bands but it has lots of music worth listening to as well. The genre shares with other great metal institutions, like power metal and thrash metal, a steady flow of bands who ignite a visceral reaction in listeners, and hasn’t that always been a major selling point of metal? Deathcore was created to bring out the primal energy within its listeners. When deathcore fails it’s usually due a serious lack of originality, relying too heavily on gimmicks, and annoying vocals. When it succeeds, it combines the grisly aesthetic of death metal with well-distributed breakdowns and hones in on a particular abdication of sanity that hardcore and death metal share. Deathcore should be about relinquishment. It should go there.

Shadow of Intent succeeds in going there. From the onset of the refreshingly not-pointless introduction track, this band makes their unique brand of sophisticated depravity clear for all to see. With snarling, diverse vocals, crystal-clear guitars that speed by like lightning, and a rhythm section that can do more than just keep up, Reclaimer lives up to its name. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ELFSGEDROCH, IMPERCEPTUM, WHITEWURM, TRUE LOVE, CWEALM

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Jun 122017
 

 

This is the second part of a collection of new black metal recommendations that I began yesterday. There were eight bands whose music I included in Part 1, and originally there were eight more here. Yes, I know, I’ve gone overboard. But since that’s never ever happened before, I know you’ll be in a forgiving mood — especially when I tell you that I’ve siphoned off three of the second group of eight and have put them into a Part 3, coming later today or tomorrow.

ELFSGEDROCH

The debut album of Elfsgedroch (which is apparently Dutch for “mischief of elves”) was released on tape during the spring of 2016, but was released as a digital download and on vinyl in the spring of this year. The album’s name is Op de beenderen van onze voorvaderen (“on the bones of our ancestors”, if Google Translate is to be believed).

I’ve written twice before about individual tracks from the album as they appeared, and intended to write a proper review of the entire album. But now I’m afraid I may never get around to doing that — which makes me feel guilty because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this record. Not only is the music exceptional, so is the care with which it has been packaged. Take a look: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): GRAVEIR, MAR MORTUUM, SINMARA, GLACIAL TOMB, SOLBRUD, WHOREDOM RIFE, CRYPTIC WANDERINGS, AZAXUL

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jun 112017
 

 

It’s been three weeks since the last time I compiled music for a Shades of Black post, mainly because I was away from home the last three weekends. To somewhat make up for lost time, I’ve picked recommended new music in a blackened vein from more than a dozen bands and have divided the collection into two parts. Not sure if I’ll get Part 2 posted today or Monday, but most likely the latter.

GRAVEIR / MAR MORTUUM

I decided to start this post with a new split release by the Australian bands Graveir (Brisbane) and Mar Mortuum (Melbourne) so I would have another excuse to prominently feature Jef Whitehead’s artwork for it (I already posted it on our Facebook page yesterday). The music is also very good. Continue reading »

MOULDERED: “CHRONOLOGY OF A ROTTEN MIND”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 112017
 

 

The dictionary tells us that “mouldered” is the past tense of the word “moulder” (or molder), which means to slowly decay, rot, putrefy, or disintegrate. And Mouldered is the name chosen by a brutal death metal band from the north coast of Colombia whose album Chronology Of A Rotten Mind will be jointly released on July 13 by the trio of Satanath Records (Russia), More Hate Productions, and Butcher Entertainment (Ukraine). What we have for you today is the title track, along with streams of two previously released songs from the album.

Mouldered was initially created in late June of 2013, drawing influence from such bands as Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Vader, Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy, and Death, and Chronology Of A Rotten Mind is their first album, following the release of a self-titled demo last year. Continue reading »

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