NO CLEAN SINGING

HANGING GARDEN: “HEREAFTER”

Nov 112016

(DGR wrote this detailed review of the new EP by Finland’s Hanging Garden.)

I will be the first to admit that I absolutely missed the bus on Hanging Garden’s 2015 release Blackout Whiteout. Not only did I miss the bus on last year’s album, while that bus is likely in another state by now, probably delivering the mail in rural counties on its cross-country trip, I have just now reached the bus stop, blissfully unaware the such an event had even taken place and now standing at the bus stop impatiently tapping my foot and staring in the oncoming direction wondering “just when will that goddamned thing get here….”

While I may have missed the bus on Blackout Whiteout, I did not do so with the band’s followup EP Hereafter, thanks in large part due our esteemed editor who has somehow, in between the mountain of premieres and news items he has written about, found a way to send along a note that basically boiled down to, “You need to check this release out. It’s so far in your wheelhouse that it is almost comedic”. Though the edgy, angsty teen rebel in me wants to shout, “You don’t define me! You can’t predict me!”, and go back to wearing all black like all my friends do, I’ve walked the Earth long enough to know when I’ve been pinned down because goddamnit, Hereafter is one of those releases that feels near tailor-made. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH 2016, PART 4: VENOM PRISON / THE WOUNDED KINGS / TERRA

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Nov 112016

(In this post Andy Synn combines a trio of reviews, focusing again upon releases from the UK.)

Grouping bands by their nationality, rather than by their sound, style, or ideology, is a remarkably lazy way of doings things.

Which is why I do it. Obviously.

But, on a more serious note, they do say that variety is the spice of life, and one of my big hopes for this series of columns (along with the usual aim of exposing our readers to bands they might not have discovered otherwise) is that established fans of band [X] might also find something to love in band [Y], fans of band [Y] might find something to love in band [Z]… and so on, and so forth.

Anyway, if you want to check out some of my previous efforts, which run the gamut from Deathcore to Doom to Black to Groove, you can have a gander at Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this year’s crop by clicking the appropriate link.

Otherwise, onwards you go, for a triple-header of deathly, doomy, blackened delights! Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LEBENSSUCHT — “BELOVED DEPRESSION”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Nov 112016

Lebenssucht are a multinational black metal band whose members are spread among Bulgaria, Germany, and Belgium. This past summer they released a debut EP named Fucking My Knife, and today we’re helping to premiere an official video for the EP’s opening track, “Beloved Depression“.

The song is intense, and so is the video. And be careful who’s looking over your shoulder when you watch it. It depicts a woman in the throes of despair and delirium, self-mutilating and soaked in her own blood… and acting out the title of the band’s EP. So yes, NSFW. Continue reading »

POWER ELECTRONICS AND NOISE-LIKE OBJECTS (NO. 4)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Nov 112016

(Todd Manning brings us a fourth installment of his series on power electronics and harsh noise releases. The first three can be found here, here, and here.)

If you can survive the global autopsy that is the nightly news and feel like you’re not drowning in toxic-fecal sludge, you must not be paying attention. But then again, who doesn’t love the smell of the apocalypse in the morning? Once again, desperate times call for even more extreme music than usual, so let’s once again take a peek in the darkest corners of the underground to find the soundtrack for the end times. Continue reading »

A NEW NIDINGR ALBUM IS ON THE WAY: “THE HIGH HEAT LICKS AGAINST HEAVEN”

Metal News No Responses »

Nov 102016

(Karina Noctum, who usually brings us interviews from her home in Norway, brings us some welcome news this time — and first reactions to the music.)

I’ve been actively looking for bands to interview or write about lately, and it’s getting difficult to find something that isn’t generic, synthetic, lacking feeling, or flawed somewhere. Lots of bands out there are just trying to fit into some pre-existing mold either musically or image-wise, and it may get tiresome and rather boring to go through them while looking for some jewel, but well, I keep doing it because something really awesome always comes to compensate for everything that’s uninspiring.

So today I got to listen to something really awesome that is going to be released on February 10. It’s Nidingr’s new album! if you are a Mayhem fan, you may know of them. It’s Teloch’s side project. Teloch is one of those guitarists who has developed a unique sound. (I wish he had taken more of his own style to Mayhem’s latest album). Teloch’s style is pretty harmonius, elegant, and absolutely representative of the Norwegian sound. So this is what you should expect to find in Nidingr’s new album. Continue reading »

A ZHRINE TOUR DIARY (aka “THE EVERYTHING IS FINE TOUR DIARY”): EPISODE II

Metal News No Responses »

Nov 102016

On November 2, the Shrines of Paralysis North American Tour launched in Los Angeles, headlined by New Zealand’s Ulcerate and also including the Icelandic band Zhrine, and Phobocosm from Montreal.

Zhrine was one of the biggest and brightest surprises at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest (as we discussed here and here, with photos), and now large numbers of other metal fans are getting the chance to discover what makes Zhrine so special. And so we count ourselves very fortunate to bring you a series of tour reports from the road, written by Zhrine’s manager Bogi Bjarnason (accompanied by his photos).

These Icelanders picked a hell of a time to explore America. At least the first Episode of this diary (here) didn’t turn out to be the last after all. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HOLY SERPENT (SCOTT PENBERTHY)

Interviews No Responses »

Nov 102016

(Comrade Aleks returns to us with this interview of Scott Penberthy of the Australian band Holy Serpent, whose new release Temples was revealed earlier this fall.)

Australia, with its vast areas, is a hard place to live when you play doom/stoner. You need to survive as the aborigines did, crossing huge distances to find a place where you could stay and play your tribal tunes. However, Holy Serpent have done it successfully since the year 2014 when they recorded their self-titled EP. Scott Penberthy (vocals, guitars), Nick Donoughue (guitars), Richard Orr (drums), and Michael Macfie (bass) continued to practice their hypnotic music ’til they attracted the attention of RidingEasy Records, who released the EP on CD and vinyl in May 2015 and has now released a full-length work, Temples.

Have you seen its artwork? Take a look, it’s really nice. And don’t forget to check the album. Meanwhile, let me introduce you to Scott Penberthy. He’s here to answer a few questions about new albums. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THRALLDOM — “STARS AND GRAVES”

Premieres No Responses »

Nov 102016

A decade has passed since New York’s Thralldom released their last album, A Shaman Steering the Vessel of Vastness. But Thralldom have returned after ten years with a new album named Time Will Bend Into Horror, which will be released through Ritual Productions on November 11. Last week an advance track from the album called “Chronovisions” ensnared me, and lo and behold, now we get to bring you another one: “Stars and Graves“.

Though many years have passed, the members of Thralldom remain the same: Killusion and Jaldagar, i.e., Ryan Lipynsky (Unearthly Trance, Serpentine Path, The Howling Wind) and Jared Turinsky, though in composing Time Will Bend Into Horror they haven’t remained creatively rooted where we found them long ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BARBARIAN SWORDS — “WORMS”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Nov 092016

There is some risk that when you look at this band’s name, their album art, and even some of their song titles, you’ll get the wrong idea about their music. My first thought was, “throwback speed metal, or maybe filthy black thrash”. That was wrong — very wrong — and the surprise turned out to be a big and stunning one.

The album’s name is Worms, and it’s the second full-length by the Spanish band Barbarian Swords. It will be released on November 11 by Cimmerian Shade Recordings and Satanath Records. We have for you a full-stream of the album in the player below. Continue reading »

DGR’S BIG OL’ MESS O’ REVIEWS (ONE): CHRONOLYTH, MALEVOLENTIA, KINNEFRET, OVARYROT

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Nov 092016

I know it has been a pretty hefty amount of time since I last touched bases here at NCS. I’ve found that the queue of reviews continues to build up and I fell victim to it, allowing the tremendous amount of stuff that I wanted to talk about to become absolutely paralyzing, to the point where I just couldn’t cohere thoughts anymore. In this case, it was because a handful of releases were clogging up the works — discs that I had been enjoying for the better part of half a year now but for some reason or another we just never got around to talking about.

So, this collection of smaller reviews is an experiment, an opportunity to try writing something briefer and more concise. Much as I love to dissect an album and romp around in its innards until I’m a gore-soaked mess from time to time, I also feel like this is a collection of discs that I need to get out there, especially as we draw closer and closer to the year-end collections, when there’s a good chance that some of these discs will be popping up on there. At the very least, I want to get these bands out there for people to listen to, as some of these are flying under the radar and absolutely shouldn’t. Continue reading »

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