AN NCS PREMIERE: ASTRAL BLOOD: “FREE OF MY SCARS”

 Premieres, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Dec 212016
 

astral-blood-free-of-my-scars

 

To celebrate the Winter Solstice today, the Minneapolis-based black metal band Astral Blood have just released the first single from their new album SYZYGY, which will be released in early 2017 by Throats Productions. The song’s name is “Free of My Scars” and it’s an irresistibly captivating track, one that’s both hauntingly atmospheric and electrifyingly vibrant.

SYZYGY is the band’s first full-length and follows the 2014 release of a self-titled EP. I started paying attention to the band when I learned that its line-up includes Joe Waller (ex-Amiensus, Adora Vivos, Sarasvati, Nuklear Frost) — who performed guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, and vocals on the new album — as well as vocalist/guitarist Andrew Rasmussen.

What you’re looking at above is the artwork for the single by Reuben Sawyer (Rainbath Visual), but also check out the wonderful cover art for the album by Jas Helena: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEPRAVITY — “NEW WORLD ORDER”

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Dec 212016
 

depravity-logo

 

Necrophagist will probably never rise from the crypt where they have entombed themselves, but they seem to have been reincarnated in a new Polish band named Depravity, whose debut demo New World Order we’re premiering today.

Depravity is the solo project of a musician who calls himself Exile (also a member of the Polish death metal band Sphere). He performs bass, guitar, and gruff growls on New World Order, with a guest vocal appearance by Mikołaj “Rlyeh” Naklicki of T.S.M.E.D. and a guest guitar solo on one of the tracks by Marcin Budaj of Rockasta. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2016: LIFE METAL (A YEAR-END LIST FROM AUSTIN WEBER)

 LISTMANIA 2016  6 Responses »
Dec 212016
 

listmania-2016

 

(This is the first of several year-end lists assembled by Austin Weber that we’ll be posting this week.)

As 2016 comes to an end, I remain quite thankful to Islander for allowing me to contribute here over the last few years. I really believe in this site and our mission of sharing more of what’s out there than most other sites. So with that in mind, if anyone about to intake this hasn’t seen my prior year-end lists here at NCS, I try to do something different than most people.

My goal is to bring you a massive alternative list of my favorite lesser known releases of the year. Which means I won’t post a lot of releases that you see on other lists. Not because I didn’t dig a lot of them, but because you already know about them and will be seeing a lot of the same names being repeated elsewhere. Continue reading »

THE DGR-NCS HOLIDAY BUYERS’ GUIDE AND YEAR IN REVIEW FOR THE METALHEAD WHO HAS TO HAVE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING 2016 EDITION (PART 2)

 LISTMANIA 2016  6 Responses »
Dec 202016
 

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(DGR created year-end lists of great length. He wrote many words about each listed item. Your humble editor feared that the site would collapse beneath this great leviathan of words if it reared its bulk in a single post, and therefore decided to split it up, with one part appearing each day this week. Part 1 is here.)

You knew this was coming, or you would if you had been around here the last few years. It’s been a long-standing tradition here at NCS that when the Listmania series happens, I take the filter completely off and just produce a gigantic screed of words that is occasionally interrupted with album art, music streams, and album titles with little numbers next to them. This year is no different.

In my attempt to rationalize an enormous year of music, I’ve capped my list at fifty albums, ranked in order of whichever numbers my fingers were closest to on the keyboard. On top of that, I have my usual small collection of not-metal stuff, some fun stuff, my list of shame, a likely happy face where number 8 should be because I’m a moron and put the numbers in front of a parenthesis and WordPress translates that into an emoticon, and my personal favorite award that I hand out each year.

The 50-album list continues today: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: IN DEATH… — “GODZILLA”

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Dec 202016
 

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If you haven’t had your head hammered and your spine jolted lately, we’re going to fill that need right now. Actually, an Australian band named In Death… will do that for you. We’ll just stand off to the side and wait to sweep up the bone fragments after they’re done.

What we have for you is an official video for a track named “Godzilla” off In Death…‘s new album The Devil Speaks, which is headed your way early next year. Good name for the song, as you’ll soon discover. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE MANX — “MYSTERY SKUM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 202016
 

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We’re about to take a large step off our usual beaten paths, though maybe you’ll come to realize that it’s not as big a leap as first appearances might suggest.

What we’re presenting today is a music video for a new song called “Mystery Skum” by a band from Los Angeles who call themselves The Manx. The video was filmed during a 2015 tour with Nekrogoblikon and Crimson Shadows, though the song itself hasn’t yet been officially released. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MARTYRDÖD — “HANDLÖST FALLEN ÄNGEL”

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Dec 202016
 

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I’ve already opened the floodgates to a torrent of words about Martyrdöd’s new album List. Count yourselves lucky — I could have gone on at even greater length extolling the virtues of the album. It remains one of my personal favorite releases of this year that’s about to expire. Insofar as I’m able to create any kind of objective distance from the music despite the immense, visceral impact it has had on me, I also think it’s one of the best albums of 2016. You may now be able to imagine my excitement at the chance we’ve been given to premiere the video you’re about to see for a song from the album, “Handlöst Fallen Ängel“.

List was released by Southern Lord on November 25. The video provides an excuse for people like me to urge other people who may not yet have explored List to STOP FUCKING AROUND AND DO IT. But happily, the video is a great stand-alone combination of sights and sounds, wholly apart from the excuse it gives me to hector you about this riveting album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ENDALOK — “ELDHAF”

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Dec 202016
 

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In August we wrote about the debut demo Englaryk by a mysterious new Icelandic band named Endalok, which was released by Hellthrasher Productions and Signal Rex in October. It made an immediate and powerful impression, delivering chilling but enthralling music that seemed to emanate from alien spheres and nightmare realms. And now Endalok have already come storming back with a new EP. Entitled Úr Draumheimi Viðurstyggðar, it will be released on January 20 by Signal Rex.

We discovered the first single from the EP in late November, a track named “Afskræming holds og sálar”, which felt like a trip through a wormhole, a weird and wondrous trip in which the listener senses vast dark panoramas flashing past, with ravenous alien creatures racing after you, howling their unhinged rage at your invasion of their domains. Today we have the pleasure of bringing you another song from the EP, this one entitled “Eldhaf“. Continue reading »

BRUTAL UNREST: “TRINITAS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 202016
 

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(TheMadIsraeli prepared this review of the new album by Germany’s Brutal Unrest, coming in January from Hammerheart Records.)

I don’t demand originality or diversity of sound when it comes to my metal. All I ever ask of you is that if you aren’t going to do something interesting or experimental, write good riffs, show that you have a fundamental understanding of what makes metal great. And so I tend to like only super-out-there experimental/avant-garde/progressive extreme metal, or super-meat-and-potatoes, tried-and-true metal that pays homage to the roots and legacy of the genre.

Brutal Unrest definitely fall into the latter category, a majestic German death metal behemoth that listened to too much Aeon, Deicide, Suffocation, and Dismember and came out sounding exactly like the above album cover looks. Continue reading »

MYSTICUM: “PLANET SATAN”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 202016
 

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(We welcome back guest writer Lonegoat, the Texas-based necroclassical pianist behind Goatcraft, whose latest album Yersinia Pestis was released earlier this year by I, Voidhanger. In this piece, Lonegoat provides a different kind of review for the latest album by the Norwegian band Mysticum.)

Synopsis: Mysticum goes on a raging binge, warps to Planet Satan, dies.

Slowly and unwillingly, Mysticum recovered consciousness. He lay on his back, eyes tightly closed, trying to postpone the inevitable awakening. But conciousness returned and brought sensation with it. Needles of pain stabbed at his eyeballs, and the base of his skull began to pound like a giant heart. His joints seemed to be on fire, and his stomach was a deep well of nausea. It was no relief for him to realize that he was suffering from the absolute embodiment of all hangovers. Continue reading »

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