NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: AXIOMA — “MONOLITH OF FIRE”

Sep 192016

Monolith is the title of the first EP by a band from Rome, Italy, named Axioma, and today we present the debut of a song from the EP named “Monolith of Fire“.

The song is a fascinating one. It’s dark as a moonless night and heavy as hell, with dissonant unearthly guitar melodies suggestive of arcane forces at work, and deep, heartless growls that reinforce the sensation of ominous, unseen threat. Yet the song has other facets that reveal themselves as it moves forward along its twisted path. Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN PRESENTS: REVIEWS IN HAIKUS (MARE COGNITUM, BLOOD INCANTATION, MESARTHIM)

Album Reviews, Reviews In Haikus 8 Responses »

Sep 192016

(Andy Synn brings us a new installment in his series of album reviews in haiku. Three reviews of three lines each come after the jump. With music, of course.)

Despite what I’ve seen suggested by certain slightly ill-informed commenters recently, Metal’s obsession with space and the vast potential and possibilities of the great beyond is nothing new.

Let’s be honest for a second – a bunch of the genre’s progenitors were massive nerds who stole took inspiration from some of sci-fi’s biggest (and some not so big) names to feed their lyrics and concepts, and this basically laid the groundwork for everyone from Agalloch to Obscura to Wormed to draw their own inspirations from the same deep well, be it the pulpiest of science fiction or the hardest of science fact. Sometimes both.

So for the latest edition of this column I’ve selected three fantastic albums which, to date, haven’t been covered properly here on NCS, each of which firmly and confidently puts its own spin on the great interstellar enigma and our place as insignificant motes of fleeting life within the vast and unending void. Continue reading »

MONASTERIUM: “MONASTERIUM”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Sep 192016

(Our friend Grant Skelton prepared this review of the self-titled debut album by Poland’s Monasterium.)

I have yet to reach satiety when it comes to doom metal. Each new release I come across only seems to whet my appetite rather than quench it. Perhaps a hearty diet of doom simply begets a desire for even more doom. And since I dine daily on doom, I discovered a gem of an album from Poland’s Monasterium. Their self-titled album is currently available from Greek label No Remorse Records.

The stoneclad cover art by Michal “Xaay” Loranc depicts a skeletal coat-of-arms. This banner seems to mark a threshold that, once crossed, will entreat the listener on a journey throughout various mythologies of history. Lyrically, the songs featured on this debut deal with subjects such as martyrdom (“Christening In Blood”), persecution (“A Hundredfold Cursed”), and human sacrifice (“In The Shrine Of The Jackal God”). The liner notes also feature seven unique drawings to accompany each of the seven tracks. Loranc’s artwork adds a deeper dimension to each of the tracks, allowing the listener a visual narrative into the lyrical descriptions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HALSHUG — “VOLD”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 192016

Halshug (“decapitate”) are from Copenhagen, Denmark. Their first album Blodets Bånd kicked my ass so hard last year that it’s only now recovered its beautiful shapely form. Unfortunately for my ass, Southern Lord is releasing Halshug’s second album on September 30. I’m in the market for ass armor. Overnight delivery would be a big plus.

The new album is named Sort Sind, which appropriately means “black mind” in English. It was recorded live, and you can tell that when you hear the music. It was also mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, who of course has a very accomplished history of helping bands beat the hell out of their listeners. We have a song from the album to share with you named “Vold” — which means “violence”. I’m already having trouble sitting down. Continue reading »

CAR BOMB: “META”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Sep 192016

(Todd Manning is the author of this review for Meta, the new third album by New York’s Car Bomb.)

I’ll admit it, I was disappointed with the direction Dillinger Escape Plan took starting with their third full-length Miss Machine. That’s not meant to disparage the band or their later work — it’s actually quite good and I’m sure they don’t need my approval anyway. But, the promise of sheer chaos was so strong with Under the Running Board and Calculating Infinity that I bought into the premise hook, line, and sinker. And honestly, some of the group’s more recent work had headed back to their original direction, which was a pretty awesome turn of events. But what I want to talk about is the third full-length coming from New York-based mad men Car Bomb.

Car Bomb have always embraced the chaos and confusion and have taken that original Dillinger-inspired blueprint to new and unforeseen depths of madness. Their latest release Meta sees them further explore their sound, continuing to add more dimensions and explore greater ranges of dynamics. These qualities are fleshed out well by the production work of Gojira’s Joe Duplantier, who also contributes vocals to the track “The Oppressor”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE RITUAL AURA — “TE – NO – ME”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 192016

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by The Ritual Aura from Australia.)

It’s been an amazing experience to be a small part of what NCS has to offer. I feel like this site is frequently well ahead of many others when it comes to highlighting and exposing talented new bands. It’s a good feeling when this happens, and it seems to been the case for The Ritual Aura, an Australian act I started covering here at NCS in February of last year when we premiered their debut single “Time-Lost Utopia”. We then went on to premiere a second song, “Erased In The Purge”, before their 2015 debut, Laniakea, dropped. While it wasn’t at NCS, earlier this year I also helped the band premiere two new songs from their upcoming album Tæther over at Metal-Injection.

But it’s nice for things to come full circle, so here we are at NCS with another song premiere for the band, this time for a sweet new jam called “Te-no-me”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (BY GRANT SKELTON): MEMORIAM, ERASERHEAD, OLD CHAPEL

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Sep 192016

(NCS contributor Grant Skelton returns with a round-up of music from three bands.)

Like each of you, I am disappointed to hear about the demise of Bolt Thrower. The official announcement surely comes as no surprise a year after the passing of drummer Martin “Kiddie” Kearns. Over the last five years or so, I’ve brushed up on Bolt Thrower’s back catalog, and they remain among my favorite death metal bands. Their discography has impeccable consistency and has aged well with time.

I’m one who prefers my death metal in the slow to mid-paced range. Good death metal is like a good steak — it needs to be fresh, meaty, juicy, and bloody. It’s got to be seasoned and marinated to perfection. It takes finesse, but if you over-complicate it with technicality, it morphs into a science experiment instead of nourishment. In the legacy of Bolt Thrower, I’ve rounded up some vicious vittles of death metal for your consumption.

MEMORIAM

Bolt Thrower fans can celebrate the fact that vocalist Karl Willetts has started a new band called Memoriam. Within their ranks are folks who’ve been around the death metal morgue on more than one occasion. In addition to Willetts, Memoriam’s lineup includes: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: VOID MEDITATION CULT, HOLYARROW, АMEЗAPAK, PESTILENTIA, SOLITVDO, VINDLAND, INTHYFLESH, ANAL BLASPHEMY

SHADES OF BLACK 4 Responses »

Sep 182016

Welcome to our usual Sunday feature on metal in a blackened vein. I had already pulled together most of these songs last Sunday, hoping to prepare a Part 2 of the Shades of Black installment that I posted then. But I got carried away by the usual flurry of activity that begins on Mondays, and failed. Since then, of course, I’ve come across more black metal that I’d like to recommend. The result is this gargantuan collection. I hope you can find time to at least sample everything.

The songs I originally chose for this post a week ago were mostly on the melancholy, depressive end of the black spectrum, sometimes with a folk influence. I’ve now interspersed some different moods and energies in the collection. (I want to thank my friend Miloš for originally recommending a number of the releases that I chose for this collection.)

VOID MEDITATION CULT

To begin this playlist I have a song from the debut album of the hooded Ohio band Void Meditation Cult — Utter the Tongues of the Dead — which will be released on October 31 by Hells Headbangers. It follows a 2011 demo named Sulfurous Prayers (and those songs were also included in a 2013 split with Sperm of Antichrist, which seems to have been another project of the main man behind Void Meditation Cult, who goes under the name of Desolate Defiler). Continue reading »

SUNDAY SLAUGHTERING: MAN MUST DIE, INSISION, DAHACA, RUINOUS, SOMNUS AETERNUS

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Sep 182016

Man Must Die

I decided to dispense with the usual Sunday installment of The Rearview Mirror in order to spend the time writing this thing. I spent several hours yesterday listening to new metal (when I wasn’t talking calls from world leaders anxious for help in solving their many problems), and these five songs and videos pounced on me like the vicious head-wrecking predators they are. I found a lot of other things to like in my listening excursions, but it just made sense to my addled mind to package these together so as to inflict maximum trauma on you, our beloved readers.

I’m afraid these won’t be the only audio assaults I intend to facilitate today, since I also have a Shades of Black post in progress. Between that post and this one, it will add up to a lot of listening. Just ignore your friends and/or your families and/or food, water, and bathroom breaks, and you’ll be able to take it all in.

MAN MUST DIE

We have been writing about Scotland’s Man Must Die for many years (beginning in December 2009 when we were only one month old)… but years have passed since MMD released an album (the last one being 2013’s Peace Was Never An Option). Two years ago they did release a single called “Slave To the Animal” (which we dutifully covered here), and last year they released a video for a cover of the song “Milk” by S.O.D. (featured here). And now, finally, they seem close to releasing a new EP named Gagging Order. Continue reading »

BLAKE JUDD (NACHTMYSTIUM) GIVES AN INTERVIEW

Metal News 7 Responses »

Sep 182016

Last night when I was just about to go to sleep I checked the NCS e-mail, and the most recent message sitting there was from an Argentinian magazine named Jedbangers telling me about a 3-hour interview of Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd they had conducted by phone in June, with a link to an excerpt of the interview they’ve recently uploaded to YouTube. Figuring that I would regret the decision, I chose to put off sleep long enough to start listening to it.

Having read so many despicable stories about the guy (including some from his former friends that weren’t intended for public consumption), I wondered why I would be bothering with it — but anyway, I started the YouTube clip, expecting to hear some self-serving bullshit. But before the interview started, these words appeared on the screen: Continue reading »

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