VERMIN LORD AND NIHTWINTRE: A SPLIT

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 082017
 

 

As regular visitors to our site well know, I’ve been carefully following the releases of Seattle-based Vermin Lord, beginning with the project’s excellent 2016 debut album Anguish. Last Friday brought another new Vermin Lord release, this time a split with the Seattle black metal project Nihtwintre.

Both sides of the split are very good, both of them shrouded in darkness, sorcery, and loss, though musically the two bands are quite distinct from each other. There’s a full stream of the split at the end of this post, preceded by some thoughts about the songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: BLACK HARVEST — “ATTRITION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 082017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us this premiere of the new EP by New York’s Black Harvest, along with some introductory impressions of the music.)

Some musicians are content to play within traditional sounds and genre boundaries, while others (Devin Townsend comes to mind) see all of music’s many genres as a vast palette that one can draw from and combine in new ways to paint a musical world all their own. This form of vast experimentation lies at the heart of all that Kishor Haulenbeek does, as both an incredibly talented visual artist and also as a musician with multiple musical projects that he has used to explore different facets of his interests, all of which convey an honest emotional feeling yet cover dramatically  different musical terrain.

Last year here at NCS, I finally got around to covering his fantastic mathcore-addled technical grindcore band Crisis Actor, and shoehorned in some coverage of his primary project, Black Harvest, at the same time. Today we’re bringing you an early stream of the group’s fantastic new EP, Attrition. Continue reading »

ULSECT: “ULSECT”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
May 082017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the self-titled debut album by the Dutch band Ulsect, which will be released on May 12 by Season of Mist.)

It seems like you can hardly turn around these days without tripping over another angular, off-kilter Death Metal band who worship at the throne of Gorguts/Deathspell Omega.

I’m not quite sure when, or how, it happened, but someone somewhere appears to have opened the floodgates, and the torrent (ok, maybe “torrent” is pushing it) shows little sign of dying off just yet.

As a result it’s more important than ever to learn how to sift through all the dross, panning for those morsels of burnished gold which shine brighter than all the rest. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 22) — TNBM SPECIAL: BEASTCRAFT, ENDEZZMA, ÖRTH, WHOREDOM RIFE

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 082017
 

 

(Our friend Gorger from Norway sings the song of his people in this 22nd installment in his ongoing series reviewing releases we’ve overlooked. To find more of his discoveries, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

 

☠ True Norwegian Black Metal ☠
 

When realizing I had four pieces of True Norwegian Black Metal to share with you, I obviously decided to pile them together. I’ve sorted them alphabetically, allowing me to finish of with a favored newcomer. All the others are veterans, each with a more or less significant background and history. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CASTLE (MAT DAVIS)

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 082017
 

 

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with guitarist Mat Davis of the North American heavy doom band Castle.)

Castle is one of the most powerful bands of the States’ heavy scene. They’ve combined doom and heavy metal since 2009, and each of their four albums is an impressive and focused work filled with concentrated energy.

The recording lineup hasn’t changed since the band’s founding: Elizabeth Blackwell on vocals and bass, Mat Davis on guitars, and Al McCartney on drums. Liz’s voice is thick and charged; each line she sings and each chord Mat produces really count.

Their latest album Welcome to the Graveyard was released in July 2016 by Ván Records and since then Castle has played a damn lot of shows, so I wondered if they’ve had time to compose some new tunes. Are you wondering this too? Okay, then this interview with Mat will shed some light on the band’s past, present, and a bit of future. Continue reading »

BLOG BREAK

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 072017
 


Artwork by Adam Burke

 

For those of you visiting NCS this weekend expecting to find one of the Saturday round-ups of new music or a Sunday SHADES OF BLACK feature, sorry to disappoint you. As I mentioned last week, I’m on a short vacation with my spouse and taking a break from blogging, in part so that my spouse won’t break me into tiny pieces.

We’ll be back home by late tonight, as long as the airplane doesn’t fall out of the sky, and NCS will revive on Monday morning. In the meantime, enjoy some new music by Triumvir Foul: Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT: OUR REVIEW OF “VERSVS 1” AND OUR PREMIERE OF “DIE GLOCKE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
May 052017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by The Monolith Deathcult, and we also present the premiere of a song from the album after the review. We apologize in advance to all our readers.)

Dedicated readers of the site will no doubt be aware of my long-running relationship with The Monolith Deathcult, dating all the way back to 2011 and encompassing, in the intervening years, numerous reviews, interviews, and tour dates (the most recent only a few weeks ago).

Heck, I even ended up helping the band rewrite the press release for this record simply because I didn’t think the original materials were up to scratch!

As a result you might be wondering whether this review is going to be full of bias, favouritism, and partisan hyperbole, to which I’d answer… of course it is.

In fact you’re probably better off thinking of this as a paid advertisement on behalf of Deathcult Inc.

Except I’m not getting paid…

And I’m actually going to be a bit critical in places… Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CRAVEN IDOL (S. VRATH)

 Interviews  1 Response »
May 052017
 

 

(Argentinian writer Matías Gallardo presents this interview with S. Vrath, guitarist/vocalist of Craven Idol, whose savage new album The Shackles of Mammon was released in April by Dark Descent Records.)

 

Four years ago, Craven Idol’s debut Towards Eschaton put the London four-piece among the most insane and relentless heirs of old school extreme metal. This year the band takes its blackened metal one step forward with The Shackles of Mammon, an album where the influences of Poison (Ger), Bathory, Manilla Road, and Deströyer 666 resonate in an impressive landscape of filthy and addictive noise.

Guitarist/Vocalist S. Vrath spoke with NCS to share his thoughts about Craven Idol’s new masterpiece. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HORIZON OF THE MUTE (JANI KOSKELA)

 Interviews  1 Response »
May 042017
 

 

(We present the interview by Latvian music writer Evita Hofmane with Jani Koskela, the man behind the Finnish band Horizon of the Mute.)

Finnish one-man doom/industrial metal act Horizon of the Mute has announced more live dates in support to its debut album release Trobar Clus. These shows will take place in Baltic countries, Romania, Slovakia, and France in May. Trobar Clus was released digitally and on CD in November 2016 by Death Shrine Offerings.

I had a chat with Jani Koskela (also or previously of Cynabare Urne, 0xíst, Let Me Dream, and Saattue) to hear all about his new project. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ENTRAILS, AU-DESSUS, KOLLAPSE, QRIXKUOR, SATANARCHIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 042017
 

 

Things are going to slow down here at NCS until early next week. As of this morning I’ve left Seattle with Ms. Islander for a short vacation, and blogging isn’t part of any planned activities. Any attempts by me to do any NCS stuff besides hurriedly post whatever I might receive from other contributors would be met with severe punishment, or at least a cold shoulder.

I thought I’d pull together a round-up of new music before we left, but found myself with too little time to write impressions of the songs I chose. So this will be more bare-bones than usual.

ENTRAILS

The last time I wrote about this band, almost exactly two years ago, I began by saying that, “By my lights, Sweden’s Entrails can pretty much do no wrong”. Back then the context was their new album Obliteration. Now they have a new one named World Inferno, which will be released by Metal Blade on June 16th. Continue reading »

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