NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: PSYCHOTRON — “LETHAL PARALYSIS”

Apr 082016

Psychotron are a six-piece thrash metal band from Sylhet in Bangladesh. They formed in 2011, and their debut EP Lethal Paralysis will be released on April 28 by Mortuary Productions, which we’re told is the first-ever metal label founded in Sylhet. What we have for you today is a premiere of the new EP’s title track.

Thematically, the song explores the miseries of drug addiction — but there’s nothing miserable about the music. It bolts from the starting gate at full speed with a catchy-as-hell riff, and more highly infectious riffs follow in short order — along with a couple of scorching solos and a spray of highly acidic vocal shrieking. It’s a hell of a thrill ride that we’re happy to bring your way from a part of the world that tends to fly under the radar for lots of metal heads in the West. Hope you enjoy the song as much as I have. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ROTTING CHRIST, THE ACCUSER, INTER ARMA, VULTURE, KAWIR

Apr 082016

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon sifting through that massive spew known as the NCS e-mail in-box and then wading through the hip-deep effluent of the interhole, searching for things worth hearing and seeing, so that you don’t have to dirty yourselves doing it. It was filthy work, as it always is, but as always happens I found some chunks of gold gleaming amidst the vast rivers of mediocrity. I actually have a pretty long list of discoveries that I think are worth sharing, but here are a few of them. Perhaps I will have time to include more later today, or this weekend.

ROTTING CHRIST

Rotting Christ delivered a new lyric video yesterday for the song “Les Litanies de Satan“, which includes guest vocals from Vorph’s frontman Samael dramatically reciting (in French) excerpts from Charles Baudelaire’s poem of the same name (from the volume of poetry entitled Les Fleurs du Mal), which inspired the song. The track, which appears on the band’s latest album Rituals (reviewed here), is a majestic, surging hymn to the fallen angel, and the video is interesting to watch as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EARTH ROT — “CHTHONIAN VIRTUES”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Apr 082016

Australia has a vibrant and diverse metal scene, with great bands across a broad range of genres. I know this with the rational part of my brain, the part that tries to observe and remember. But when I think of Australian metal, I admit that I tend to reflexively think first of death metal, and in particular the kind of death metal that resembles what you hear about all the flora and fauna in the Outback, i.e., that everything is trying to kill you.

Earth Rot come from Perth, Australia. They are a death metal band, but not a straight-forward, undiluted death metal band, as you will discover when you listen to the title track we’re premiering from their new EP, Chthonian Virtues. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZEALOTRY — “CYBERNETIC EUCHARIST”

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Apr 072016

Especially as a non-musician, I’m constantly amazed at the enormous array of technical skill that’s on display in the temples of extreme metal worldwide. But as most serious listeners understand, even eye-popping technical skill will only take a band so far… and actually, not very far at all when the performer’s sole objective seems to be displaying dexterity at high speed. Similarly, throwing in such things as a few bursts of discordant noodling or contrasting ambient sections does not make a death metal band “progressive”. Which brings me to the song we’re about to premiere by the Boston-based band Zealotry — a band that includes members of such other notable groups as Chthe’ilist, Serocs, Inhumatus, and Myth of I.

The name of the song is “Cybernetic Eucharist”, and it appears on their second album The Last Witness, set for release by Lavadome Productions on April 22. The technical performances do indeed display top-shelf skill, often at speed levels near the red zone, but there’s an ingenious method to this madness — this is the kind of death metal that in my book genuinely does merit the label “progressive”. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DOMOVOYD (OSKAR TUNDERBERG)

Interviews 1 Response »

Apr 072016

(Comrade Aleks re-joins us with this interview of vocalist/guitarist Oskar Tunderberg from Finland’s Domovoyd.)

Domovoyd is an extravagant experimental doom quartet from Finnish Seinäjoki; the band have existed since 2010 and the guys were both talented and lucky enough to get a contract from Svart Records. Their music is dreamy, heavy, loud, and slow – it’s not for everyone, yes. But their albums Oh Sensibility (2013) and Domovoyd (2015) earned the band a solid reputation.

Oskar Tunderberg (vocals, guitars), Niko Lehdontie (guitars), Dmitry Melet (bass), and Axel Solimeis (drums) do their doom magic and weave their psychedelic spells into a heavy dormant trance. Are they still here? – I wondered. And yes, they answered, they are here. This interview with Oskar discovers different aspects of Domovoyd and shows some things from a new angle. Continue reading »

VIRULENCY: “THE ANTHROPODERMIC MANUSCRIPT OF RETRIBUTION”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Apr 072016

(In this post our friend Vonlughlio (Blast Family and Reign of Death) reviews the new album by Virulency from The Basque Country.)

Here at NCS we premiered the song “Myriapod Constructology I” in early January, and last week Islander included Virulency’s full stream of their debut album The Anthropodermic Manuscript of Retribution.

So I was given the opportunity to give my thoughts on what happens to be my favorite BDM release so far in 2016. I know it’s early, but have to say that the album has been constant in my playlist.

As mentioned in the earlier posts, the band is from The Basque Country of Spain and formed around 2011, the year in which they released a two-song promo. The following year they released their EP Unbearable Martydom Landscapes. I must admit that when I heard about the band in 2013, I only heard a song from that EP, which I liked, but I never managed to listen to all the songs. It was when New Standard Elite signed them that I bought a copy of the EP (shame on me). Once I gave that release a proper listen, I understood why the best label in the genre decided to signed them. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT — “INCESTE”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Apr 072016

(Austin Weber reviews the new EP by NY’s Imperial Triumphant — who just released another new song from the EP.)

Watching Imperial Triumphant grow and morph in so many odd directions over the years has been pretty interesting. I first started covering these guys back in 2012 when Abominamentvm dropped, and even then I correctly foresaw them as being a group focused on deconstructing black metal into an otherworldly force of disturbing imagination and horror. True to form, they’ve really been giving it their all ever since then. First there was the two-song crushing blow of Goliath in 2013. Then came another phenomenal full-length just last year called Abyssal Gods. I’m still reeling from the experience that record delivered, yet the band is already back with a four-song EP named Inceste that comes out pretty soon — on April 15th.

After a release as batshit crazy and eclectic as Abyssal Gods, I was excited to hear what new realms of misery they cooked up this time. And damn, Inceste does not disappoint at all. It traps and delivers all their many forms of sonic tinkering and dissonant filth, with a healthy round of guests aiding in their eerie quest to musically hit rock bottom and become purely chaotic noise. At least this time they were kind enough to brace us for the coming storm with “Libertine” as a subdued opener. But as soon as track two, “Kaleidescopic Orgies”, unfurls its queasy, almost Gorguts-like off-kilter opening rhythm, and then seesaws between dark swirling chaos and surreal sensory overload, you know this ride will be just as wild as any the band have given us before. If there is one sensation that comes to mind when I sit through this, nausea would be it. Imperial Triumphant continue to deliver frantic odes to death that never rest and endlessly rage into fits of madness. Continue reading »

DEATH FORTRESS: “DEATHLESS MARCH OF THE UNYIELDING”

Album Reviews 10 Responses »

Apr 072016

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the new album by New Jersey’s Death Fortress.)

Eons ago… in the cold, dark days of 2014… I stumbled across a certain album. An album absolutely overflowing with raw, visceral power and truly venomous, electrifying energy. That album was Among the Ranks of the Unconquerable, by verbose Black Metal marauders Death Fortress, and it quickly rose in the ranks to become one of my favourite Black Metal albums of the last decade.

I’ll admit though, I was a little late to the party, and the album had been out for some time before I finally got around to reviewing it. This time, however, I’ve been much more on the ball, as the band’s new album, Deathless March of the Unyielding, was only just released earlier this week.

So I guess the big question is, how does it stack up to its predecessor, an album about which I comprehensively struggled to find anything to criticise? Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BEHEMOTH, GORGUTS, UADA, BLACK SPACE RIDERS

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Apr 072016

We had such a big line-up of premieres and reviews yesterday that I didn’t have time to pull together a round-up of new things, so I’ll do some of that today. As a consequence of waiting, the first couple of items in this round-up of new videos (and one new song excerpt) will no doubt have been seen by most of you already. I still want to leave them here because they’re so good — though I don’t think I need to say much about them. The second two are somewhat more recent, and are by bands who don’t have quite the name recognition among metal heads as the first two, so I’ll spill a few words about those.

BEHEMOTH

Nergal has a reliably interesting artistic vision for Behemoth’s videos, and a knack for enlisting help from talented people in making them a reality — including Sharon Ehman of Toxic Visions for the costume and prop design in this video, among a long list of others (who are identified in the notes to the video here). Of course, the dramatic natural setting for this video is the real star. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NAZGHOR — “DEATH’S WITHERED CHANTS”

Premieres 12 Responses »

Apr 062016

Perhaps the first thing to observe about Nazghor’s new album Death’s Withered Chant is that it’s this Swedish band’s fifth full-length in four years, and like the band’s last three albums it’s roughly an hour long. With so much music being released in such a comparatively brief time, one might wonder how good it could be. We’re bringing you today a full stream of the album, so you’ll have a chance to decide that for yourselves — but I think it’s fantastic.

The songwriting is highly accomplished, with every song carrying evocative, frequently majestic melodies that beckon the listener back, and stylistically, the music should appeal to a wide range of fans. It includes the kind of aggressive melodic riffing that should appeal to fans of Scandinavian death metal and the kind of epic, sweeping melodies that should attract adherents of Northern European pagan metal, while preserving the truly venomous vocals, the infernal atmospherics, and the blood-freezing bursts of savagery that are rooted in black metal. Continue reading »

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