NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: CARNAL TOMB — “BENEATH THE COFFINS”

Jul 202016

Greetings, sickos. I see that the stench of rotten, festering death has led you to our humble morgue. That fetid scent in your nostrils, which has drawn you here like an alluring perfume, emanates from the foul reanimated corpse of Carnal Tomb, and more precisely from a song named “Beneath the Coffins” that it’s our pleasure to unveil for you today. It comes from this German band’s debut album Rotten Remains, which will be spread before you like a maggot-infested banquet on July 25 by Spain’s Memento Mori label.

This full-length offering follow’s the band’s 2014 demo, Ascend, and last year’s Inevitable Decomposition EP. It includes nine tracks of monstrous death metal horror delivered with a ravenous spirit and skull-splitting power, remaining true to ancient traditions while reviving them with vibrant, unholy energy. And how about that delicious cover art? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THY CATAFALQUE — “MEZOLIT”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Jul 192016

How does Thy Catafalque follow up an album as remarkable as 2015’s Sgùrr, especially only one year later? That’s the first question that popped into my head when I learned the surprising news just yesterday that Season of Mist would be releasing a new Thy Catafalque album later this year; the name of the album is Meta, and it’s now set for release on September 16, 2016.

I don’t yet have a complete answer to the question I asked myself, but I do have a partial one because I’ve now heard the first advance track from Meta — and you can too. Today we bring you the premiere of “Mezolit“.

The existence of Meta really did come as a shock. There’s been very little in the way of hints about its existence, or at least none that reached my greedy ears. But when I wondered how Thy Catafalque’s brilliant alter ego Tamás Kátai would choose to follow the music on Sgùrr, it wasn’t because I thought he had reached a pinnacle on the album that he could not surpass, or necessarily a reflection of doubt that he could produce an album of great quality so soon after the release of the last one. It was more a question born of sheer curiosity about what direction he would choose to follow. Continue reading »

HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY: “III: TRAUMA”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jul 192016

(Andy Synn reviews the great new album by Austria’s Harakiri For the Sky.)

A rose by any other name, would smell as sweet. Or so they say. But when it comes to musical genres… is that really the case?

Now I’m sure some of you are already sharpening your claws ready to declaim that all genres are bullshit, and that you’re above such petty concerns… but for the rest of us who live in the real world, genre terms remain a useful way of tagging and identifying music – though I’m more than happy to admit that once we start getting bogged down in arguing about sub-sub-sub genres things start to get a little silly.

I’d contend that tagging a band with the right term remains important though, particularly when you’re introducing them to a potential new fan. Because, like it or not, using the wrong genre when talking about a band can give a new listener a false impression of what to expect, and sometimes it can be a real uphill battle to overcome this and and get them to judge it for what it is, not for what it isn’t.

Such is the case with Austrian angst-merchants Harakiri for the Sky. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): MARYLAND DEATHFEST XV, ASPHYX, OPETH, MEGADETH, AMON AMARTH, MESHUGGAH, HIGH ON FIRE

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 22 Responses »

Jul 192016

Ten days have passed since the last time I put together a round-up of news and recommended new music, which is an unusually long gap. Perhaps needless to say, trying to catch up is out of the question. What I’m going to do instead is just pull together some big news announcements from the last 24 hours in this post (plus one related recent song), and then collect a few more recent music streams in a second part that I’ll post a bit later today.

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES SECOND ROUND OF CONFIRMED BANDS FOR 2017

On June 30, as we dutifully reported, the organizers of Maryland Deathfest announced the first round of confirmed bands for the XVth edition of the festival, scheduled to take place on May 25-28, 2017, in Baltimore. Just minutes ago, MDF announced a second round of confirmed bands — plus some surprising news about where the festival will, and won’t, take place next year. Here are the new confirmed names: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SURGEON — “BURN”

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Jul 182016

Beast of Light, the new album by Philadelphia’s Surgeon, is remarkable. It blazes with creative exuberance, in both its compositional approach and in the high-caliber performances of the band, delivering one intense (and intensely interesting) listening experience after another. The dynamic music also masterfully crosses genre boundaries, combining elements of black metal, death metal, and progressive metal in scintillating and powerful ways.

Two songs from the album have already debuted in advance of its August 30 release by Anthropic Records, and today we’re privileged to bring you a third — a song appropriately called “Burn“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PUNISHED — “THE ABSENT”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Jul 182016

On July 29, the multi-national band Punished will release their debut EP, The Absent, and today we bring you the premiere of the EP’s title track.

Though the name Punished may be a new one to you, the band’s line-up includes former Ulcerate vocalist Ben Read as well as Serocs guitarist Antonio Freyre, plus guitarist/bassist Aldo Mora and drummer Ignacio Rizo. In addition, the EP includes guest vocals by Josh Smith (Serocs), Antti Boman (Demilich), Phil Tougas (Chthe’ilist/First Fragment), and our very own NCS comrade Austin Weber (whose vocal turn appears near the end of the song you’re about to hear). Continue reading »

COLDWORLD: “AUTUMN”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jul 182016

(Wil Cifer brings us this review of the new album by Germany’s ColdWorld.)

Finally after 8 years, Germany’s ColdWorld has released a new album, Autumn. This world might be more of a slight chill than a cold one, as the sound has certainly changed. With this album, everything is bigger, so the compromise is even up to some of the starkness created by the more lo-fi ambiance of this project’s earlier work. I love depressive black metal; if you have read my other reviews then you know I like it as dark as a band can give it to me. So after hearing the changes, which have made this more of an atmospheric black metal album than a depressive black metal album, I had to pry my stubborn old mind open even further.

The mood has changed; something hopeful lies within the chords propelling the scowling vocals. Things become even more refined when clean vocals appear in the first song, creating a more Porcupine Tree sound. Female vocals are even layered within “Void”. Synths set the stage for “Woods of Emptiness”. There is an emotive pulse to the guitar, but to my ears it’s not what I call dark; instead it paints the song in a hazy, dream-like gray. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOMBBATH — “EMBRACE DEATH”

Premieres 1 Response »

Jul 182016

For us, one of the bright spots of 2015 was the revival of Sweden’s Wombbath and the release of Downfall Rising, the band’s first album since 1993’s classic Internal Caustic Torments (and the source of this killer track that appeared on our 2015 Most Infectious Song list). Wombbath also started 2016 in fine form by participating in a split release with Revel in Flesh called Dragged Into the Obscure (which we wrote about here) and delivering a live performance in Baltimore that was one of the highlights of this year’s Maryland Deathfest (reviewed here). But there’s still more to come, as you’re about to discover with your very own ears.

Wombbath are participating in another split, this time with the Dutch band Departed Souls, and today we’re helping premiere Wombbath’s track from the split — “Embrace Death“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WITCHHELM (SEAN DETH)

Interviews 1 Response »

Jul 182016

(Comrade Aleks presents this interview of Sean Deth from Ohio’s Witchhelm, whose new album Dead Nights of the Moon Fear will be released on January 1, 2017 — or possibly sooner.)

Witchhelm is the gloomy and pagan doom outfit started by Sean Deth, a multi-instrumentalist who previously played in a few extreme metal bands. Sean wrote the first tunes for the project in 2012, but officially it was shown to the world in 2015. He had been in a lot of different metal bands before that, so all of his influences took form in this twisted sinister doom metal.

Two albums, one solid EP Jötunn, and a pair of singles in just two years – not bad, right? But Sean and his companions have already finished their third full-length record! Let’s go through Witchhelm’s story with Sean and find out about the rites of Conjuring and Invocations through Dead Nights of the Moon Fear!! Continue reading »

FREE SHIT FROM ARGUNAUTA RECORDS: “DEVOURING THE MOUNTAINS (VOL. III)”

Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Jul 172016

As explained yesterday, I intended to take a break from blogging this weekend. I have paused a few times in my eating, drinking, and merry-making long enough to scan what’s happening on Facebook, and I happened to see a status which revealed that Italy’s Argonauta Records just released a free compilation of songs from 16 bands on the Argonauta label, which tends to focus on sludge, doom, post-metal, stoner, and drone. The name of the comp is Devouring the Mountains (Vol. III), and the songs come from Argonauta releases over the last 12 months.

We’ve written previously about half of the bands included in this comp (Hollow Leg, Beneath the Storm, Among Gods, Surya, Wows, Filth In My Garage, Return From the Grave, Eyes Front North), praising them all, and that gives me high hopes for the songs from the other eight bands. Continue reading »

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