AN NCS PREMIERE: MEATWOUND — “SÉANCE”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Apr 122017
 

 

You can’t accuse Tampa’s Meatwound of picking a misleading name for themselves. But this song “Séance“? That title might be a bit of a misdirection… unless you contemplate a Lovecraftian seance, one that brings some nightmarish horror into the haunted house and you have to run for your life.

“Séance” is the name of the song we’re premiering. It comes from Meatwound‘s new album Largo, which Magic Bullet Records plans to release on May 12, I guess because they think you’d look better breathing heavy, with black eyes and fewer teeth. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BELOW THE SUN — “IN MEMORIES”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  11 Responses »
Apr 122017
 

 

We began following Below the Sun in 2014, with the discovery of a video for a song from their then-forthcoming debut album Envoy, and were then fortunate to premiere the album the next year. Envoy took as its inspiration the journey of the Voyager I spacecraft into interstellar vacuum, farther than anything touched by human hand. As we wrote then, “Envoy is a deeply atmospheric, irresistibly immersive work, a cosmic version of funeral doom that’s icy and vast and immensely powerful in its hypnotic appeal”.

At last, this enigmatic band from Krasnoyarsk in Siberian Russia are returning with a new album that bears the name Alien World. It will be released by Temple of Torturous Records on May 26. And on this 12th day of April — which is The International Day of Human Space Flight — we bring you the premiere of a video for one of the new songs: “In Memories“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TRIUMVIR FOUL, INVOCATION SPELLS, CONTAMINATED, PANPHAGE, SUFFOCATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 112017
 

 

Well, as you can see, I actually did find time to follow up yesterday’s round-up with a second one within 24 hours, even though I was loathe to make any predictions about that. As usual, there is metallic variety within this post, but it’s also fair to say that none of it is for the faint of heart.

TRIUMVIR FOUL

Spiritual Bloodshed is the vile new second album by Triumvir Foul from Portland, Oregon, who have now condensed their form back to the band’s original two-person line-up (both members have also been participants in such other projects as Ash Borer and Urzeit). The album will be released by Invictus Productions on June 9. It embellishes a discography that previously consisted of the band’s 2014 demo, An Oath of Blood and Fire, and their self-titled debut album from 2015. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEER — “THEY USED DARK FORCES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 112017
 

 

In 2015, Seer from Vancouver, British Columbia, made their first mark on the musical landscape with an EP entitled Vol. 1 and followed that in 2016 with a second EP, Vol. 2. That same year, Art of Propaganda released a compilation (Vol. 1 & 2) that combined both EPs. And now Art of Propaganda is preparing to release Seer‘s first full-length album, a 45-minute monolith called Vol. III & IV: Cult of the Void. Today we have for you one of the void-faring offerings from the new album in the form of a surreal music video — “They Used Dark Forces“.

Seer‘s choice of titles for their releases reflects the evolving narrative concept that runs through the lyrics of their material, just as the band’s name meshes with the mystical nature of their music; it calls the mind to venture beyond the bounds of what we can see and touch around us, just as its narrative arc crosses limitless primordial landscapes and moves into celestial realms, while the sanity of its protagonists is tested to the breaking point. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNGRAVED APPARITION — “ГНИЛОСТНЫЕ БАКТЕРИИ” (THE PUTREFACTIVE BACTERIA)

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 112017
 

 

Ungraved Apparition come to us from the Russian city of Ekaterinburg on the border of Europe and Asia. With their new concept album PULSE_0, they explore “the inner world of a person and his desperate struggle for every minute of life”, while merging two worlds: “the world of depression and despair from incurable diseases, the sadism of bloody surgery experiments; and the afterlife, inhabited by the suffering souls of the dead people, the chilling horror of which is squeezed by convulsive cries in the throat”.

PULSE_0 will be released by GrimmDistribution (Belarus) on April 23rd. Two songs from the album have appeared so far, and we bring you the premiere of a third one, “Гнилостные бактерии“, which translates to English as “Putrefactive Bacteria”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WITCHAPTER, SARKOM, FÖRGIFTAD, MANIC SCUM, DYING FETUS

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Apr 102017
 

 

No sooner had I finished last week’s 4-part new-music round-up on Saturday than I began exploring other things, and of course found other things I’d like to recommend. But I’ll be smart this week and not forecast further installments. I’ll do this one, and we’ll see how the rest of the week plays out.

I chose the following music (and a new video) in an effort to cross through a few different metal territories, stylistically speaking. Someone said variety is the spice of life, and so it is.

WITCHAPTER

I found this new EP through a link on Facebook by Black Bow Records. Spellcaster is the debut release of a crushing UK sludge/doom trio named Witchapter. It’s available digitally now, and it seems that a physical release via Black Bow will happen on July 4th. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GLOSON — “CRINGE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 102017
 


Photo by Jari Välitalo

 

We loved Grimen, the debut album by the Swedish sludge/post-metal titans who call themselves Gloson, released earlier this year by Art of Propaganda. To borrow a few words from Andy Synn’s review at our site, “Grimen is an album with, for want of a better word, real presence. Something which makes it impossible to ignore, and impossible to forget…. There’s just something about this music, something so uniquely dynamic and utterly overpowering, that I find myself irresistibly drawn to it again and again, as if it has its own inescapable gravity…. [A]lthough it’s only February, I think I’ve already found one of my albums of the year.”

Early last fall, five months before the album’s release, Gloson delivered its first single, a stunning song called “Cringe“. And now we have the good fortune to be the bearers of an amazing new live video for that very song. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CONDOR (MAGNUS GARATHUN)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Apr 102017
 

 

(Argentinian writer Matías Gallardo rejoins us with this interview of guitarist Magnus “Magressor” Garathun of the Norwegian band Condor, whose blistering new album (and probably their last one) Unstoppable Power will be released on April 28th.)

 

You might have noticed Condor the first time they flew over our heads in 2011 with the release of the Speedwagon EP. Championed by none other than Fenriz from Darkthrone, that material secured the thrash/black Norwegian trio a cult following that embraced with joy their self-titled debut released two years later.

Fast forward four years and Condor is back with a great new LP, entitled Unstoppable Power. The successor of 2014’s split with Töxic Death, Victims of Burning Death, feels like the guys left the darker influences aside and chose to go with a full old-skull German-influenced thrash metal sound instead, which is – obviously – awesome news. Following, guitarist Magnus ‘Magressor’ Garathun tells NCS how unstoppable is the new menace that dwells in the skies. Continue reading »

ULVER: “THE ASSASSINATION OF JULIUS CAESAR”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 102017
 

 

(Andy Synn prepared this review of the new album by Ulver, which is released today.)

Have you ever wondered if Ulver’s career thus far might in fact be some elaborate joke that none of the rest of us understands? That the band have been engaged in one grand, meta-musical experiment for the last 15-20 years, seeing just how far they can take things, and how far they can push their audience outside of their usual comfort zone?

After all, frontman Kristoffer Rygg has been known to go by the pseudonym “Trickster G”, and the band even had their own label called “Jester Records” at one point, so it’s not like they haven’t given us more than a few hints along the way.

So what if it really is all just a game, a long-con, and we’re just not able to see it?

Would it really matter? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EVOKE THY LORDS — “HEAVY WEATHER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 102017
 

 

One of the best things you can say about a song that’s nearly 12 minutes long is that it ends too soon. “Heavy Weather” is so tremendously good that even at that length, you lose a sense of time passing until the song reaches its conclusion. If you’re like me, your first thought after this long, transfixing trip is over will be that it’s still not enough.

“Heavy Weather” is a new single by the Siberian doom band Evoke Thy Lords. We’ve paid attention to the band before, publishing not one but three different interviews of their vocalist/bassist Alexey Kozlov conducted by Comrade Aleks over the space of several years (collected here). But this is my own first occasion to lavish praise on their talents. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries