NO CLEAN SINGING

ALLEGAEON: “PROPONENT FOR SENTIENCE”

Sep 022016

(Here we have Andy Synn’s review of the much-anticipated new album by Colorado’s Allegaeon.)

So I’ve already seen a few reviews for this album eking their way out onto the interweb, several of which have gone down the desperate, obsequious route of “OMG guys! This is the best album ever! It’s perfect! Allegaeon are the future of metal! Please pay attention me!”

And don’t get me wrong, this is definitely a great album, and I’ve been a big fan of the Colorado quintet myself for quite some time now, it’s just that I fail to see the value in such shameless fawning and bootlicking. Do these people really think there’s some sort of value in blowing smoke up a band’s ass like this? When everything is written about IN BLOCK CAPITALS HYPERBOLE!!! and when every album is given a 10/10 rating… what’s the damn point?

Heck, as much as it must be nice to be praised for your work, the majority of the bands I’ve dealt with and spoken to over the years have told me that they’d rather read one well-thought-out review that offered a balance of creative compliments and constructive criticism than ten sprawling screeds written by people who either clearly have their own agenda to promote, or who are simply unable to write something that isn’t just gushingly saccharine and sycophantic.

Anyway, now that I’ve got that little rant out of my system we can get down to the business of reviewing (and praising) Proponent for Sentience, Allegaeon’s fourth full-length album, and their first with new vocalist Riley McShane. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IN THE WOODS… — “MYSTERY OF THE CONSTELLATIONS”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 022016

Two months ago we had the honor of premiering the first new song by Norway’s In the Woods… in 17 years. The name of that song was “Cult of Shining Stars” and it appears on a a new album entitled Pure that will be released by Debemur Morti Productions on September 16. Since then Debemur Morti has revealed another song (accompanied by a beautiful music video), “Blue Oceans Rise (Like A War)”, and we have published our review of the album (by Andy Synn), who called Pure “as unique and enigmatic a musical experience as you could wish for” and “one of the most compelling, captivating, and truly complete musical masterpieces of the year”.

Today it’s our pleasure to bring you a third song to hear in advance of the album’s release, and the name of this one is “Mystery of the Constellations”. When Andy reviewed the album, he wrote that “some of [the songs] rock a little harder, and some of them err a little more sombre. Some of them brood, some of them swagger, and some of them drift in a dreamless languor – at times all within the same song – but each and every one of them has something special about it, something magnificent that truly lets it soar… its own particular identity, its own particular brace of distinctive hooks and melodies.” And “Mystery of the Constellations” is further proof of that. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BANISHER — “ONIRIC DELUSIONS”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Sep 012016

On September 3rd, Deformeathing Productions will release Oniric Delusions, the third album by the Polish death metal juggernauts in Banisher, and today we’re giving you a chance to hear the entire album before its release.

For those who are only now discovering (or re-discovering) Banisher, their current line-up includes members of such bands as Decapitated, Redemptor, Darzamat, Nuclear Vomit, Shodan, and Ketha.

Until the band ease back on the throttle somewhat in the closing track, they fly like the wind on this album — if the wind were capable of changing directions at the speed of thought. And that’s not the only metaphor that springs to mind in listening to this intricate, inventive, technically eye-popping collection of savage assaults. Continue reading »

BOOKS WORTH READING: A DIFFERENT KIND OF LIST FROM NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

Off Topic 12 Responses »

Sep 012016

EDITOR’S FOREWORD: We’ve had a few posts over the nearly 7 years of our existence that have focused on works of literature, but very damned few. That’s not shocking, because this is first and foremost a blog about music. But for some musicians who dare to talk about it, and for many ardent fans, there are connections between these two forms of art.

Beyond those connections, some of you (maybe even the majority of those who visit this putrid site) spend as much time reading for pleasure as you do battering yourselves with violent sounds. For those in that group, and for those who are open to finding new inspiration, we bring you a very different kind of list from Neill Jameson of Krieg. I selfishly hope this will spawn both comments on this post and more features on our site about written works of art that dovetail with our interests in metal.

Our thanks to Neill for the following words: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DARKRYPT — “DARK CRYPT”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 012016

Darkrypt are a death metal quartet from Mumbai, India, whose debut album Delirious Excursion is set for release on October 15 by Transcending Obscurity India. An impressive array of extreme metal luminaries have applied their talents to the album: Rogga Johansson makes a guest vocal appearance (as does Nitin Rajan of Primitiv); Greg Chandler of Esoteric and Lychgate mixed the album; Dan Swanö mastered it at Unisound Studios; the artwork was created by Turkka G. Rantanen, who has also created covers for the likes of Demilich, Adramelech, Demigod, Paganizer, and many others.

But of course the music must stand or fall primarily on the strength of what Darkrypt themselves have accomplished. As a measure of their accomplishments, we present a song from the album named “Dark Crypt“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: STENCH PRICE — “PRESSURE”

Premieres No Responses »

Sep 012016

(We have Austin Weber to thank for this premiere of a new song from a band named Stench Price, accompanied by his introduction. We have Stench Price to thank for forcible re-wiring our brains, because they weren’t much good originally.)

Grindcore in 2016 has reached an interesting division, one present in the past but prevalent even more so now than ever. As we all know, grind is one of the metal sub-genres most difficult to fuck up — all you need is to be caustically loud, have your music consist of brief raging sonic bursts, and throw in a bit of passion (or ideally, a lot).

But more than that, to rise above the majority of garden-variety grind in the modern era, it seems to take one of two things: Either a group’s willingness to take things in a more technical and complexly written direction, or to go the avant-garde route and deliver something super-weird and out there.

I enjoy both approaches equally, and even more so when a new grind group like Stench Price combines both of these schools of thought to create modern, highly adventurous grindcore. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HELCARAXË, ORAE, HANGING GARDEN, ARKAIK EXCRUCIATION, NOTHGARD

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Aug 312016

I followed a different course in this round-up of new music than I usually do. Instead of focusing almost entirely on new advance tracks from forthcoming releases, this time I’m including three complete new albums or EPs for your listening pleasure, but only writing about one track from each of them. I truly wish I could write stand-alone reviews of those three, and I might still, but they are far too good to risk doing nothing to help spread the word.

I’m also including two new videos for individual songs that appeared within the last 24 hours, both of which I enjoyed. I’ve arranged the order of the music in this compilation in a way designed to keep you off balance, because an unbalanced mind is the devil’s playground. So without further ado, let’s play!

HELCARAXË

I was greatly surprised to discover that in our nearly 7 years of existence we have never posted anything before about New Jersey’s Helcaraxë. I’ve now added that failing to the list of things for which we’ve scheduled our monthly submission to a vigorous horse-whipping. Even now, only mentioning one song from the band’s amazing new album is pitifully inadequate. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 76: APATHY NOIR

Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT 3 Responses »

Aug 312016

Viktor Jonas // Vidar Wetterhall

(For the August edition of The Synn Report, Andy compiles reviews of all the releases by Sweden’s Apathy Noir, including the band’s 2016 album Across Dark Waters.)

Recommended for fans of: Opeth, In Mourning, October Tide

By my current reckoning I’ve got at least another two years’ worth of entries for The Synn Report lined up, and I don’t doubt that I’ll end up discovering even more bands worthy of inclusion during that period, so we’re in no danger of running out of potential candidates just yet. Hell, I’d hazard that there’s probably several other bands in my current collection who’ll be eligible by that time as well. So there’s no need to worry. This particular column won’t be ending any time soon.

For today’s entry we’re off to Sweden to touch base with Prog-Death duo Apathy Noir (formerly Apathy), the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Viktor Jonas, who have so far produced one EP and three stand-alone albums, the most recent of which, Across Dark Waters, was released in January of this year.

Now, to address the elephant in the room, I’ll acknowledge that the solemn Swedes owe a very heavy debt to early Opeth – particularly around the My Arms, Your Hearse period. But I’m confident you’ll find that there’s more to them than just that, particularly when they delve into the doomier, gloomier side of their repertoire.

Still, with Akerfeldt and co. treading ever further down the path of pure retro-proggery, there’s something of a vacuum out there right now, and Apathy Noir seem to be doing their damnedest to fill it! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THEORY IN PRACTICE

Interviews 6 Responses »

Aug 312016

(We present Austin Weber’s interview of the Swedish band Theory In Practice, with news about a new release, among other things.)

Some of you all may recall that legendary Swedish progressive death metal band Theory In Practice became active again last year and put out a – comeback, Evolving Transhumanism, which I covered here at NCS. As an über-Theory In Practice fan/geek, I had planned to follow up that post by interviewing the band about their unexpected return, but that got delayed due to my dumb brain forgetting to make it happen. But finally our brief interview was conducted, and here’s your chance to catch up on all things Theory In Practice related!

*Questions 1-6 were answered by Andreas Lyngmo (vocals) and Question 7 was answered by Peter Lake (Guitar/Bass),, with both joining in the answer to No. 3. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WORMHOLE — “SYMBIOTIC CORPSE POSSESSION”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Aug 312016

Beginning last fall, a band named Wormhole began releasing singles — first a track called “Existence Gap” and then early this year another song called “Nurtured In A Poisoned Womb”. These songs caught the attention of Lacerated Enemy Records, which is announcing today that they have signed Wormhole for the release of the band’s debut album Genesis. To celebrate this unholy event, we have partnered with Lacerated Enemy to bring you another new Wormhole song: “Symbiotic Corpse Possession“.

For those new to Wormhole, it’s the creation of a Baltimore duo, Sanil and Sanjay Kumar, with fearsome vocals by Duncan Bentley of South Africa’s Vulvodynia and Calum Forrest of Scotland’s Operation Cunt Destroyer and Engorging The Autopsy. Lacerated Enemy is recommending the new album for fans of Defeated Sanity, Aborted, Coprocephalic, Visceral Disgorge, and Abominable Putridity (among other slaughterers).

For those who may be unfamiliar with those bands, or with Wormhole, we have some introductory words: Continue reading »

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