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Jun 102017

Daniele Valeriani: “Vexilla Regis Prodeunt Inferni” (2017)

(Andy Synn wrote this thought piece — and provides some musical recommendations at the end.)

As part of a new initiative here at NCS, designed to give Islander some time off over the weekend (as well as serve as an intervention for his crippling blog addiction), I’m planning to put together a little something every Saturday – be it a review, an interview, or an opinion piece – to help tide over our readers until the inevitable Monday (editor’s intrusion: and Sunday!) rush of content comes back around.

So here goes nothing… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ANTHESIS — “THE AGE OF SELF”

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Jun 092017

Today marks the official release of The Age of Self, the new album by the Canadian trio Anthesis, and their first full-length in more than seven years. To commemorate the occasion, we bring you a full stream of the album’s 11 tracks.

A pervasive air of insanity and incipient (or actual) catastrophe surrounds almost everything on the album, but the derangement manifests itself in very different ways. To describe the shattering intersection of styles on display within the album may make you think of a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces don’t fit — except they really do. And so while the band never let you get comfortable at any point, their off-balancing strategies succeed in keeping a grip on your throat and a hammer-lock on your head all the way through. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAM-PAGE — “THE PRESIDENT”

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Jun 092017

The Grave of Seven Billion is the name of the new album by the Russian metal band Ram-Page, and it’s a name that would seem to reflect a fairly unkind view of our planet, or at least the swarms of people who crawl upon it (as if you couldn’t tell from the death’s-head globe being clubbed and slashed on the album’s cover). The music isn’t very kind either, as you’re about to discover, but it sure is electrifying.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a song from the album named “The President“, along with streams of two previously released tracks. Those three and seven others make up the album, which is the band’s fourth full-length. It will be released on June 30 by the Belarusian label GrimmDistribution. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IN HUMAN FORM — “ZENITH THESIS, ABBADON HYPOTHESIS”

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Jun 092017

We’ve been following In Human Form since 2013, reviewing both their debut album Earthen Urn that year and their contribution to the Northeastern Hymns split in 2015. Late last fall they independently released their second album, Opening Of The Eye By The Death Of The I, which was spotted by the sharp eyes and ears of I, Voidhanger Records — who will now release the album both digitally and on CD later this month. And that provides the occasion for us to stream a mammoth (and utterly fascinating) track from the album named “Zenith Thesis, Abbadon Hypothesis“.

For those who haven’t yet encountered the music of this Massachusetts band, it’s far from easy to classify in recognizable genre terms. The label refers to it as “an audacious blend of aggressive black metal and progressive music, tinged with jazz-fusion colours” and recommends it for fans of Abigor, early Satyricon, Taake, Enslaved, Death, King Crimson, and Frank Zappa. Not surprisingly, under such circumstances, the band conceived their own term for the music: “Atra Metalli Metaphysicam”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FATHER BEFOULED — “UNGODLY REST”

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Jun 092017

Five years on from the release of Revulsion of Seraphic Grace, the Georgia death metal monstrosity known as Father Befouled returns with its fourth album, Desolate Gods. It will be released by Dark Descent Records on the 23rd of June, and it includes the terrifying new track we’re about to premiere — “Ungodly Rest“.

Prepare yourselves for a deep descent into a nightmarish crypt filled with still-festering corpses and hungering ancient evil, for what you’re about to hear is the kind of staggering doom and seething death that spawns such visions. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH, 2017 (PART 5): CHAOS TRIGGER / FROM EDEN TO EXILE / A TRUST UNCLEAN

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Jun 092017

(In this edition of Andy Synn’s ongoing series focused on British bands, he reviews the heavy new albums by Chaos Trigger, From Eden To Exile, and A Trust Unclean.)

Originality is overrated.

There, I said it.

Of course, I don’t actually think that (well, not 100% anyway), but it got your attention, didn’t it?

But the truth is that “true” originality – while perhaps always something to aim for – is actually quite rare, and isn’t necessarily the be-all-and-end-all of music.

Granted, being a second-rate knock-off of another band isn’t exactly something to be proud of, but it’s entirely possible to make great music without breaking the mould or realigning the paradigm (or whatever your metaphor of choice might be).

Sometimes it’s enough just to write a bunch of great songs, great hooks, and great riffs, and stamp them with a sense of your own identity.

So here we have three bands from the UK, none of whom I would necessarily call “original”, in the strictest sense of the word, but who each still kick out the jams with an impressive amount of energy and integrity all the same. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM ARKHON INFAUSTUS, MONOLITHE, SPECTRALE, AND HEIR

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Jun 092017

Yesterday, in a single release, Les Acteurs de l’ombre Productions premiered enough new music from stylistically significant bands to populate an entire SEEN AND HEARD post here, in addition to furnishing many other previously released songs that are well worth hearing and re-hearing.

I spotted this compilation not through the push of press promotion, but because many of my musician friends and other appreciators of extreme music spattered my Facebook feed with notices about it. So glad they did.

And because the stream is on Soundcloud and Bandcamp, I’m installing it below. And there you will hear brand new songs by Arkhon Infaustus, Monolithe, Spectrale, and Heir — about which I’ll offer some unrequested impressions — plus other excellent songs from previously released albums by Au-Dessus, Time Lurker, Pénitence Onirique, Maïeutiste, and Pensées Nocturnes. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: SIERPES — “VISIONES CAÓTICAS”

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Jun 082017

Sierpes is a new demonic duo from Columbia and Ecuador consisting of vocalist/drummer Melissa and guitarist/bassist Muerto. Their first offering was a four-track demo released by Tanatofobia Productions and later re-issued by the Salvadoran label Morbid Skull Records, and now the same Morbid Skull is poised to release Sierpes‘ debut album, Visiones Caóticas. That will happen tomorrow… but today you can listen to the album through our streaming premiere at the end of this post.

Sierpes were inspired by an array of old-school South American and European bands to re-create the classic sound and feel of primitive black speed metal and black thrash, and on this new album they’ve done that with authentic spirit and scorching vehemence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CYTOTOXIN — “GAMMAGEDDON”

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Jun 082017

The last time we encountered the German death metal band Cytotoxin was in 2012, as they released songs from their then-forthcoming second album Radiophobia. The music made a strong impact, provoking impressions at our site such as these: “sonic insanity… vicious, pulverizing, technically off-the-hook… thoroughly body-slamming… radioactive… blistering… a brutal tech-death-metal flamethrower… hyper-speed riffing… high-bpm drumwork… heavy on the groove and laced with ominous melody.” Naturally, we’ve been very interested to hear more from this band, and now we can — and so can you, because we’re premiering the title track to the band’s new album, Gammageddon. It will be released by Unique Leader Records on July 28th.

Thematically, Radiophobia took as its subject matter the horrifying accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine that began during the night of April 26th, 1986, a catastrophic reactor meltdown that spewed a cloud of poison into the atmosphere and across large swaths of Europe and devastated the region around the plant. Gammageddon is connected to the same terrible incident, its conceptual focus described as follows: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MAVRADOXA — “ACROSS THE NIVAL GROVE”

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Jun 082017

Lethean Lament is the second album from the New York black metal band Mavradoxa, which follows their full-length debut early last fall, a wonderful album named Sojourners. The new one will be released on June 22nd by Hypnotic Dirge. One song named “Crimson Waves of Autumnal Flame” has already premiered, and today we’re fortunate to host a second one: “Across the Nival Grove“.

For those new to Mavradoxa, it is the musical vehicle of two people, guitarist/bassist Nival and drummer Lux, both of whom also contribute their voices to the music. Their atmospheric, nature-influenced music is often grouped within a realm populated by such bands as Agalloch, Alda, Waldgeflüster, Falls of Rauros, and Obsidian Tongue. Continue reading »

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