AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MUSKET HAWK — “DESOLATE”

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May 052016
 

Musket Hawk-Desolate

 

Every now and then, this question may cross the minds of metalheads with a certain bent in their listening (it even crosses what’s left of my mind on occasion): Why are we drawn to music that’s near-catastrophic in its ugliness and seems to revel in the abandonment of hope and the exaltation of violence? When music vividly catapults us into a war zone where everything is falling apart, why don’t we want to leave?

Well, don’t look at me for answers. I’ve only got questions. I’m thinking about those questions because I’ve been listening to Desolate, the aptly named new album by Baltimore’s Musket Hawk. It includes eight tracks from which mercy, remorse, and all vestiges of human kindness have been banished. Sanity doesn’t seem to be welcome either. But you travel these mean streets, and you’ll also perversely feel vibrantly alive.

This may not make sense, but maybe you’ll soon see what I mean, because a full stream of Desolate waits for you at the end of this post. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEEDNA — “WANDER”

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May 052016
 

Seedna-Forlorn

 

Forlorn is the name of the debut album by the Swedish band Seedna, and it will bring a wintry chill to the deep summer in the northern hemisphere when it arrives in July. Whereas some advance premieres for forthcoming albums amount to little more than tantalizing teasers, what we have for you today is a long, immersive excursion into the spellbinding darkness that lies within this album. If you give yourselves to it, it has the capacity to overpower your senses and take you far away from your earthly surroundings. The name of the song is “Wander“.

At more than 22 minutes, “Wander” is the album’s longest song and perhaps the best representation of Seedna’s power, but Forlorn contains six other tracks, including another long one (“Abyss”, at 11 1/2 minutes). If you fall under the spell of “Wander”, your journey is really just beginning. Continue reading »

DOOM SONGS: A “SEEN AND HEARD” FEATURING CANDLEMASS, WO FAT, TEMPLE OF ABANDONMENT, FUNERAL MOTH, MERCHANT, AND COME TO GRIEF

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 052016
 

 

(Grant Skelton returns to NCS after a bit of a hiatus with a round-up of new doom songs.)

I’ve been a bit MIA from our beloved NCS for the last couple of months, as my educational pursuits had taken priority over my creative ones. But now I have returned to the fold, bringing with me a harvest of disinterred dredgings of doomy delight. Continue reading »

FALLUJAH: “DREAMLESS”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
May 052016
 

Fallujah - Dreamless - Artwork

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by California’s Fallujah.)

Depending on who you speak to, Fallujah are either the future of the Technical/Progressive Death Metal genre(s), or simply the latest in a long line of interchangeable faces to front the modern edge of the movement.

Coming off the back of a sophomore album (The Flesh Prevails) which also divided opinions over whether it was a potential masterpiece, or simply a solid enough album which caught the crest of an unexpected wave of hype (my own opinion falls somewhere in between those two extremes), the Californian quintet certainly have a lot to prove and, as a result, there’s a lot riding on both the critical and commercial success of Dreamless, their third… and finest… full-length release. Continue reading »

ROADBURN 2016: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY (DAY THREE)

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May 042016
 

Roadburn-2016-OfficalArtwork1

 

The 2016 edition of the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands, is now in the history books. It was the first edition of the festival to be presented at the newly renovated 013 venue, and it boasted a typically impressive and diverse line-up of bands. While none of the NCS scribes was on hand for this year’s event, we do have beautiful photos of many of the performances, thanks to Kris T. Therrian of 17 seconds photography.

We’ve divided these photo collections into four parts, one for each day of the festival, and we’re rolling them out on successive days here at our site. You can see photos from Day One here and Day Two here. The remaining installment will appear tomorrow. Many thanks to Kris for letting us share these memories with you. For more info about her work, visit these links: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HATESPIRIT — “BLOOD & POETRY”

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May 042016
 

Hatespirit-Blood and Poetry

 

Finland’s Hatespirit are musically manifesting themselves without prior warning, as if bursting into existence like a form of spontaneous combustion. Their first release is their debut album Blood & Poetry, and it was discharged on May 1 via Altare Productions. This is not a timid first step, but a full, 12-song black metal explosion of hatred and disgust toward humankind, combined with a reverence for the mystical and fearsome power of the natural world. Below you can listen to the entire album.

The band’s anti-modernist lyrical philosophy is reflected in their music. At a time when many black metal bands have pushed their song lengths into marathon territory, Blood & Poetry’s tracks are compact and delivered with savage power; they hit like uppercuts to the jaw at the hands of a trained heavyweight. Or perhaps like simulacrums of volcanic eruptions, raging hurricanes, and twisting tornados happening one after the other inside your head. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZØRORMR — “THE ADVERSARY”

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May 042016
 

Zorormr-The Aftermath

 

After three full-length albums released over the last five years, the one-man Polish black metal band Zørormr will be releasing a new EP named The Aftermath on June 10 through the Via Nocturna label. What we have for you today is a track from the EP called “The Adversary“.

The Aftermath is a kind of retrospective on Zørormr’s career so far and a pause along its path into the future. It includes four tracks that were recorded during the sessions that produced the band’s last album, 2015’s Corpus Hermeticum, three of which have not been previously released, as well as two bonus tracks from the recording sessions for the first two albums, 2010’s Kval and 2013’s IHS. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CAECUS — “PERPETUAL NIGHTFALL”

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May 042016
 

Caecus-The Funeral Garden

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by the Illinois band Caecus.)

Just to get it out of the way from the onset, no this is not the same Caecus from Scotland that NCS covered last year. This Caecus is based in the United States for starters, and play a completely different style of death metal entirely. Now that we’ve cleared up any potental confusion, I can delve into the phenomenal debut single we have for you today called “Perpetual Nightfall” off the band’s upcoming full-length, The Funeral Garden.

These Champaign, Illinois, natives pack a hell of a punch and loads of sonic diversity within the depths of “Perpetual Nightfall”. At its core, the band craft an atmospheric-infused take on technical death metal that also features inklings of black metal elements as well. Continue reading »

WARRIORS IN FORESTS: WARBELL AND FEJD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 042016
 

Warbell-Havoc

 

Few metal video concepts have been beaten to death more thoroughly than visions of sword-wielding warriors from a mythic age spilling blood in a northern forest. Somewhere, as you read this, a Ph.D. student is writing a thesis devoted to this subject, morbidly aware that he’ll still have no job when it’s done, but deluded by the belief that he can develop an explanation for the ubiquity of this trope which is more meaningful than the simple truth: metal videos have warriors in forests because it’s fucking metal.

Of course, it helps tremendously if videos of warriors in forests are accompanied by enjoyable music, and the two recent videos in this post have that going for them.

WARBELL

Warbell are a melodic death metal band from Jelenia Góra, Poland. They emphasize that they are “female-fronted”, because, let’s face it, that still gets certain fans interested. When I see that kind of advertising, however, it tends to make me want to run the other way, not because I think female growlers are less capable than male ones but because it often means a band have nothing else going for them besides a pretty face at the front of the stage. In Warbell’s case, I’m glad I didn’t run away. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH 2016, PART 1: ALLFATHER / BURIAL / WODE

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
May 042016
 

Allfather-Bless the Earth With FireBurial-Unholy Seditionwode cover art

 

(Andy Synn presents a trio of reviews, with accompanying music streams.)

So today’s column is actually a bit of a coincidental confluence of events and circumstances.

My original intent was simply to put together a single piece of writing covering three separate bands as something of a direct response to last week’s epic Schammasch triple-review. However, as I started to pull together the necessary three albums to fulfil this idea it dawned on me that what I was actually doing was accidentally putting together another edition of my “Best of British” column, such as originally reared its ugly head last year.

Call it coincidence. Call it kismet. Call it what you will. But whatever you call it, prepare yourself for some homegrown metallic thrills and spills of the Sludge/Doom/Hardcore/Black/Death variety! Continue reading »

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