FOREVER PLAYING CATCH-UP (PART 4): ANTHESIS, TRAUN, DIRT

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 172017
 

 

(We resume the rollout of Austin Weber’s ongoing series devoted to reviews of 2017 releases we haven’t previously covered. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.)

In spite of what the naysayers will tell you, I’m of the opinion that there’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of good metal releases coming out all the time, many of them coming from new groups or independent groups that we’re just now catching onto for the first time.

This lengthy round-up has been in the works for awhile, but I kept adding more and more to the list of what I wanted to cover. Hopefully you will find something new you enjoy in each installment.

ANTHESIS – THE AGE OF SELF

Anthesis are yet another killer band I was made aware of by my good friend and fellow obscure music junkie, Amir Ostrowsky. I was very impressed with the music here after he sent me The Age Of Self, so it definitely warranted coverage in this article. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: RETORTION TERROR AND INVIDIOSUS

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 162017
 

 

(Austin Weber presents our premiere of a new split release by Retortion Terror and Invidiosus.)

We’ve got a special early stream of the new split release from grinders Retortion Terror and longtime NCS favorites Invidiosus for you today.

While the name Retortion Terror may not ring any bells, knowing that legendary grindcore guitarist Takafumi Matsubara (Gridlink, Mortalized) is the main person behind it should pique your interest.

For those who don’t know the story, in 2014, shortly after the critically lauded release of Gridlink’s Longhena, Takafumi suffered a crippling and tragic brain infection that made it seem like he would never be able to play guitar again. But his tireless spirit fought against all odds to come back, and his material here with Retortion Terror is his first musical creation to come out since his incredible recovery. Continue reading »

FOREVER PLAYING CATCH-UP (PART 3): PSUDOKU, VMTHANAACHTH, FELIX MARTIN

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Sep 292017
 

 

(This is Part 3 of Austin Weber’s ongoing series devoted to reviews of 2017 releases we haven’t previously covered. More installments will be presented next week.)

In spite of what the naysayers will tell you, I’m of the opinion that there’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of good metal releases coming out all the time, many of them coming from new groups or independent groups that we’re just now catching onto for the first time.

This lengthy round-up has been in the works for awhile, but I kept adding more and more to the list of what I wanted to cover, and that delayed it until now. The focus here is on releases that dropped in 2017 that haven’t been covered at NCS yet. We’ll run through a boatload of harsh and unorthodox black metal, mountains of mathcore, death metal of all stripes, a few technical grindcore acts, a ton of different prog-metal bands, some sick instrumental metal jams, and a whole lot more. Hopefully you will find something new you enjoy in each installment.

PSUDOKU – DEEP SPACE PSUDOKUMENT

Cult favorite weirdo grinders from Norway, Psudoku, are back again with a new release of strange grindcore from an alternate timeline. This isn’t the first time I’ve covered them at NCS, having previously highlighted them in a 2015 article regarding their prior album, Planetarisk Psudoku. Somehow the group continue to push their already out-there songs into ever-stranger territory on their new 2017 album, Deep Space Psudokument. Continue reading »

FOREVER PLAYING CATCH-UP (PART 2): KUUJEOJABENOJUJANOMIASHIKUSHIJA, THE HEADS ARE ZEROS, EMPIRINE

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 272017
 

 

(This is the second part of a multi-part series by Austin Weber focusing on 2017 releases that we haven’t previously reviewed. Part 3 will follow tomorrow, and further installments are expected next week.)

 

In spite of what the naysayers will tell you, I’m of the opinion that there’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of good metal releases coming out all the time, many of them coming from new groups or independent groups that we’re just now catching onto for the first time.

This lengthy round-up has been in the works for awhile, but I kept adding more and more to the list of what I wanted to cover, and that delayed it until now. The focus here is on releases that dropped in 2017 that haven’t been covered at NCS yet. We’ll run through a boatload of harsh and unorthodox black metal, mountains of mathcore, death metal of all stripes, a few technical grindcore acts, a ton of different prog-metal bands, some sick instrumental metal jams, and a whole lot more. Hopefully you will find something new you enjoy in each installment.

KUUJEOJABENOJUJANOMIASHIKUSHIJA – HHEOALLE

If the name wasn’t a dead give-away, Kuujeojabenojujanomiashikushija are a strange fucking group, but thankfully it’s the good kind of weird. Avant-garde and experimental black/death is the name of the game here, and yet Kuujeojabenojujanomiashikushija’s take on the burgeoning style is fresh and uniquely eerie. At times quite minimalist and subtly psychedelic, the music on HHEOALLE has a distinctly smooth feeling in how it unfurls that I really enjoy.  Continue reading »

FOREVER PLAYING CATCH-UP (PART 1): RETAIL MONKEY, INCREATE, ESCHER

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 262017
 

 

(Today Austin Weber begins a multi-part series focusing on 2017 releases that we haven’t previously reviewed. Parts 2 and 3 will follow tomorrow and Thursday, and further installments are expected next week.)

In spite of what the naysayers will tell you, I’m of the opinion that there’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of good metal releases coming out all the time, many of them coming from new groups or independent groups that we’re just now catching onto for the first time.

This lengthy round-up has been in the works for awhile, but I kept adding more and more to the list of what I wanted to cover, and that delayed it until now. The focus here is on releases that dropped in 2017 that haven’t been covered at NCS yet. We’ll run through a boatload of harsh and unorthodox black metal, mountains of mathcore, death metal of all stripes, a few technical grindcore acts, a ton of different prog-metal bands, some sick instrumental metal jams, and a whole lot more. Hopefully you will find something new you enjoy in each installment.

RETAIL MONKEY – ADD/NIHILISM

Once again, I have the fine folks at Mathcore Index to thank for showing me another band I felt compelled to cover, and this time it’s Retail Monkey. Continue reading »

PYRRHON: “WHAT PASSES FOR SURVIVAL”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Sep 192017
 

 

(Austin Weber wrote this review of the new album by Pyrrhon, which was released on August 8 by Willowtip Records and Throatruiner Records.)

Pyrrhon occupy a unique place in the death metal landscape. From their inception on, they’ve only gotten stranger, darker, weirder, and more unorthodox, after beginning as an already outside-of-the-norm band but one still recognizable in most ways as a purely death metal group in their early years.

The real turning point was 2014’s The Mother of Virtues, a release that really saw them dive into the deep end of madness and experimentation paired with searing and uncomfortable heaps of dissonance. It was an album that even I struggled to comprehend initially, though countless repeat listens helped, as did seeing them play the material live in 2014, which really helped it click for me even more.

After that, they embarked on a series of EPs, simultaneously pushing the improv. and experimental aspect harder, while also returning to a more “digestible” form of death metal for some of the songs. Given that, I had high hopes and a lot of questions as to what their newly released album, What Passes for Survival, would have to offer. But above all, I went into it knowing not to place expectations on it, since Pyrrhon are an amorphous and ever-shifting beast — and this album holds true to that established maxim. Continue reading »

LOUISVILLE DEATHFEST: A PREVIEW

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Sep 062017
 

 

(Austin Weber prepared this post highlighting the upcoming 2017 edition of Louisville Deathfest, which boasts an especially killer line-up this year.)

Here in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky we have a yearly metal fest event called Louisville Deathfest. The event serves to highlight a mix of local acts and acclaimed national groups many of us know and love. I’m writing a short post about it here because this year’s line up is fucking ridiculous and it only seemed right to try to shine a spotlight on it for anyone who may not have heard about it but might be intrigued enough to make the trek for it.

A two-day pass for the event is currently a mere $30, with single one-day passes just $20, though I would assume day-of-show prices might be higher as is normal.

Without further adieu, here is the incredible line-up I was speaking of, and I’ll have some short observations to make after listing them. Continue reading »

COMA CLUSTER VOID RETURNS TO SHARE “THOUGHTS FROM A STONE”

 Metal News  No Responses »
Sep 062017
 

 

(Austin Weber prepared this post about news of a new release by a favorite band — the multinational combine known as Coma Cluster Void.)

Just one year after their amazing 2016 debut, Mind Cemeteries, made a massive and terrifying impression on the death metal world, the international dissonant death metal/math metal collective that is Coma Cluster Void are back at it again.

Yesterday, the band unveiled the artwork and teaser video for their upcoming EP entitled Thoughts From A Stone. Which is a single-song composition clocking in at over 21 minutes. The EP is set for release on Friday, October 13th, through Translation Loss Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: CORA CANNING — “UNVEILED WEBBING”

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Sep 042017
 

 

(Austin Weber presents our premiere of the debut album by the two-person project Cora Canning.)

Some of our readers may be familiar with the mind behind today’s stream of Cora Canning – Unveiled Webbing, as it was spawned by the mad scientist from a project called Nostril Caverns that I’ve been covering here at NCS since last year.

Nostril Caverns is Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Chris Balch’s one-man band, which has been active since 1999. The project’s music has covered a wide variety of styles and mergers between genres depending on the release, but often revolves around grindcore, technical grindcore, death metal, black metal, prog metal, and also improvised/experimental music. Earlier this year at NCS, I covered his latest 99-song technical deathgrind (with black metal influences) release, Spatial Lacerations, and I continue coming back to it.

In between sessions of work on his current absurdly ambitious plan for an upcoming release in which each song will be composed of 100 unique sections (instrumental demos of which are available for two of them here and here), he partnered with his friend and fellow multi-instrumentalist Dave Turnbull to create Cora Canning’s Unveiled Webbing, which we’re streaming early below. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): EHNAHRE — “THE MARROW”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Aug 212017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us his review of the new album by the Boston-based ensemble Ehnahre, as well as the premiere of a full stream of this fascinating new record.)

Ehnahre are one of the most interesting groups in metal, a lot of which is due to how much their music draws so liberally from outside of metal, specifically from classical music, chamber music, jazz, film score music, avant-garde, improv, and beyond, with all of this married to a love for all things experimental and harsh, wrapped inside a doom metal, death metal, and sometimes black metal influenced framework.

They’re a rare group, one whose sound is amorphous and ever-shifting from release to release and from song to song, delivered with a scope and love for long-form compositions that ends up making their music feel like it’s a world all its own. For those new to Ehnahre, both current and former members have spent time playing in fellow avant-garde metal experimentalists Kayo Dot  if you need further evidence that this project is worth paying attention to.

I’ve been following the project for many years now, and finally got around to covering them here at NCS starting in 2016 when we helped Ehnahre do an exclusive early stream of their sprawling double album, Douve. That was followed by a second 2016 release in the form of an EP called Nothing and Nothingness, that I also made sure to cover here at NCS. So I’m happy to continue supporting them here with an early stream of their new album, The Marrow. Continue reading »

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