AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SURROUNDING THE EARTH — “PART I”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
May 202016
 

Surrounding the Earth logo

 

Long-time followers of our site will be familiar with Nick Vasallo, but for newcomers in the audience, he is the lead vocalist and songwriter for the excellent technical death metal band Oblivion — and he has a Ph.D. in Music, he is the Director of Music Industry Studies at Diablo Valley College and Artistic Director for Composers, Inc., and he is a composer of contemporary classical music whose works have been performed internationally.

When last we featured him in these pages (here), the subject was a video for an experimental composition named “Inches From Freedom” performed by the guitar-and-drum duo known as The Living Earth Show (Travis Andrews and Andrew Meyerson) and two clarinetists — John McCowen and Gleb Kanasevich (yes, THE death metal clarinet cover guy).

Since then Vasallo (vocals/guitar) and those same four other musicians have formed a new project called Surrounding the Earth, and what we have for you today is a video for a 13-minute opus composed by Vasallo and performed by Surrounding the Earth called “Part I“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ÆVANGELIST — “THRESHOLD OF THE MIRACULOUS” (AN EXCERPT)

 Premieres  15 Responses »
May 202016
 

Blut Aus Nord-AEvangelist-Codex Obscura Nomina

 

A vast distance on the planet’s surface separates Blut Aus Nord and Ævangelist, but in the perilous, un-fleshed shadow realms from which their music seems to emanate, they are not so far apart. A split release by these two bands is one of those ideas that was ingenious in its conception but once revealed makes obvious sense — and it is an idea that has become a reality.

On June 17, Debemur Morti Productions will release Codex Obscura Nomina, a split LP by these two conjurors of otherworldly hallucinations. Blut Aus Nord contributes four songs while the split includes only a single track by Ævangelist — “Threshold of the Miraculous” — but it’s more than 21 minutes long. As a preview, today we’re bringing you the streaming premiere of an excerpt of that song, along with some thoughts about the song as a whole. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PERIHELION — “FENEKETLEN”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
May 202016
 

Perihelion-Hold video

 

I hope that most visitors here have realized by now that our site’s name is not entirely serious and not entirely impervious to the attractions of clean singing. But we are at least partially serious: Given our own prejudices and predilections, exceptional music is necessary for us to make exceptions to our “rule” — and Perihelion have earned a permanent pass.

Last year I wrote frequently about the wonders of Zeng, the remarkable 2015 album by this Hungarian band. We had the pleasure of premiering a song from the album (“Vég se hozza el”) and named a different one (“Égrengető”) to our list of last year’s Most Infectious Metal Songs. And now Apathia Records has brought us a new Perihelion EP named Hold that is a marvel in its own right — with a song transformed into an even more wondrous experience by the video we’re premiering today: “Feneketlen“. Continue reading »

GOJIRA: “SILVERA”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 202016
 

Gojira-Magma

 

I haven’t heard Gojira’s new album Magma, but my comrade Andy Synn has. And last night he alerted me to the fact that Gojira would begin streaming a new song today — a song he described as “one of the really good ones” on Magma. And so they have. And so it is — really good, I mean.

The name of the song is “Silvera”, and it’s presented through a video directed by Drew Cox. The music is powerful and jolting, with a swirling Eastern-influenced melody that’s urgent and intense. It’s unmistakably a Gojira song, bursting with passion and displaying many of the band’s hallmark ingredients — yet it also differs from their past output, featuring more clean vocals (which will evidently be a hallmark of this new album) and coming to a close in a way that might seem premature in comparison with the band’s older work. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: INQUISITION, INSOMNIUM, NAILS, SHATAAN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 192016
 

Inquisition-Bloodshed Across

Here are a quartet of things I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that I thought might peak your interest as they did mine.

INQUISITION

Yesterday Season of Mist revealed details about the new album by Seattle-based Inquisition as well as a new song. The name of the album is Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith, it includes 13 tracks, and it will be released on August 26. Here’s a statement about the album by guitarist/vocalist Dagon: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: (ECHO) — “BLOOD AND SKIN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
May 192016
 

EchO-Head First into Shadows

 

On May 23rd the Russian label BadMoonMan Records/Solitude Productions will release Head First into Shadows, the second album by the Italian band (EchO). Today we bring you the premiere of the new album’s opening track, “Blood and Skin“.

Since the band’s 2011 debut album Devoid of Illusions, there have been changes in (EchO)’s line-up as well as movements in the band’s sound, and the new record (mastered by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler) also features guest appearances by Daniel Droste (Ahab) and Jani Hala-Hukkala (Callisto) on two songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): IN TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE — “TREMBLING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
May 192016
 

In Twilight's Embrace-Trembling

 

For me and many others, The Grim Muse by Poland’s In Twilight’s Embrace was one of 2015’s highlights — a multifaceted and uniformly strong melodic death metal album loaded with fantastic riffs, memorable lead-guitar melodies and solos, powerful performances by the rhythm section, and absolutely ferocious vocals. The band are now following that stand-out album with a new three-song EP entitled Trembling, which will be released by Arachnophobia Records on May 25 (which is also the day set for Arachnophobia’s release of a vinyl edition of The Grim Muse). Today we bring you a full stream of the new EP.

These three new songs were recorded by the band during the same sessions that produced The Grim Muse, but were set aside with the idea of this EP specifically in mind. True to the band’s penchant for creating variations in their core sound, each song is distinctive, no one of them quite like the other two — yet all three are both dark and blistering. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: A NORDVIS SAMPLER

 Free Shit  No Responses »
May 192016
 

Nordvis-Poor Music For Poor People-Vol 1

 

I’ll make this quick because I’m busy readying a few more posts for today — but this news doesn’t require a lot of elaboration anyway.

The news is that the excellent Swedish label Nordvis has today made a sampler of music by Nordvis artists available for free download. The sampler includes tracks by 12 bands, nearly all of whom we’ve praised at this site, including Forndom, Murg, Grift, Lustre, Panopticon, Nechochwen, and Stilla. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VOID MOON (PETER SVENSSON)

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 192016
 

Void Moon - band 1

 

(Comrade Aleks interviews Peter Svensson of the Swedish doom band Void Moon.)

Void Moon rises again, radiating its mournful and dark shine for those who prefer slow and low doom metal. Their second full-length Deathwatch released by Sun & Moon Records in March 2016 has a deeper concept behind it, so it’s not just a collection of true doom dirges but also the result of considered and rigorous work. Void Moon bass guitarist Peter Svensson was on tour with Goatess when I sent him the request about an interview, but answered pretty soon on my recall — much appreciated. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GREY AURA — “IJSHOEK”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
May 182016
 

Grey Aura cover

 

Grey Aura are a two-man Dutch band who have recorded a massive debut album, a double-record entitled Waerachtighe beschryvinghe van drie seylagien, ter werelt noyt soo vreemt ghehoort that was initially self-released on Bandcamp and will now be released in June by the astute Finnish label Blood Music, both digitally and in a remarkable 2-CD set housed in a 60-page hardback book with foil-stamped printing.

Now, you may have already heard something about this unusual and tremendously ambitious album. In fact, if you have long memories, you may have heard about it here at NCS, because I wrote about two of the songs when they were first released for streaming in late 2014. Yes, this has been in the works for a long time, but when you understand more about the nature and scope of the project, you’ll understand why so much time has been invested in it. And so here’s the context of this album — followed by our premiere of yet another song: “Ijshoek“. Continue reading »

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