AN NCS PREMIERE: DEPRAVITY — “AWFUL MANGULATION”

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Oct 302025
 

(written by Islander)

It’s always a pleasure to adorn our page with a painting by Paolo Girardi, especially when it’s as monstrously grotesque as the one that leaps off the cover of Depravity’s new album, Bestial Possession.

It’s also always a pleasure to re-connect with the music of this Australian death metal band, which we’ve been covering in our articles beginning in 2011, and to host a premiere of their songs (today’s is our fourth Depravity premiere since 2016).

It’s been a bit of a wait since our last encounter with Depravity, due to the five-year gap between their last album (Grand Malevolence) and this new one. But in the case of Depravity, it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, assuming one is fond of getting musically mauled and mangled.

Speaking of which, the song from Bestial Possession that we’re premiering today is named “Awful Mangulation“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEPRAVITY — “CASTRATE THE PERPETRATORS”

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Oct 092020
 

 

With a song named “Castrate the Perpetrators“, conceived and executed by a band named Depravity, you’re already expecting a savage experience even if you haven’t previously heard the music of these Australian death-dealers. And trust us, your expectations will be satisfied, in spades. Yet you’ll also discovery that maniacal savagery is only part of the experience (albeit a significant part), and that the other dimensions of the music are just as gripping. And thus this is the kind of death metal brutality and rage that doesn’t wear out its welcome.

Of course, many of you already know something about the musical proclivities of Depravity thanks to their 2018 debut album Evil Upheaval, which was an eye-popping display of the belligerent yet ingenious talents of Depravity’s experienced line-up. Their new album Grand Malevolence is likely to open eyes even wider. It will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on December 4th, and it’s home to the song we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEPRAVITY — “INSANITY REALITY”

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Feb 142018
 

 

Morbid Angel’s release of Kingdoms Disdained last year provoked a lot of discussion (and heated arguments) about where the album stood among the most revered works of that hugely influential band. Meanwhile, Australia’s Depravity were readying an album that might be an even more powerful bringing-forward of Morbid Angel’s legacy into the current era. Its name is Evil Upheaval.

Transcending Obscurity Records, who will be releasing Depravity’s new album on April 30, also recommends it to fans of the New York Death Metal elite — Immolation, Suffocation, and Incantation — as well as such bands as Hour of Penance, Ingurgitating Oblivion, Drawn and Quartered, and The Furor, whose Louis Rando (also in Impiety) is Depravity’s drummer.

Such adjectives as “vile”, “twisted”, and “deafeningly heavy” also appear in TO’s promotional missives, and that’s not fake news, as you’re about to discover through our premiere of an album track named “Insanity Reality“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEPRAVITY — “NEW WORLD ORDER”

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Dec 212016
 

depravity-logo

 

Necrophagist will probably never rise from the crypt where they have entombed themselves, but they seem to have been reincarnated in a new Polish band named Depravity, whose debut demo New World Order we’re premiering today.

Depravity is the solo project of a musician who calls himself Exile (also a member of the Polish death metal band Sphere). He performs bass, guitar, and gruff growls on New World Order, with a guest vocal appearance by Mikołaj “Rlyeh” Naklicki of T.S.M.E.D. and a guest guitar solo on one of the tracks by Marcin Budaj of Rockasta. Continue reading »

ANNIVERSARY REVIEWS BY WILLIAM SMITH: THE CLASS OF 1993

 Album Reviews, Listmania  6 Responses »
Jan 152013
 

(William Smith is the vocalist for Buckshot Facelift and a Long Island band named Artificial Brain that I’ve written about twice — here and here. He also writes a very entertaining blog called Vitos Squid Stop and Death Metal Museum. I asked him around this time last year if he would write something for NCS . . . and he gave us a 2-part list of “anniversary” albums — five albums recorded 10 years and 20 years earlier, respeectively. And this year he’s done it again. In this first part, he discusses some death metal gems from 20 years ago.)

Wow, time flies! I can’t believe another 12 months has passed and I’ve had my head in the thrift store record bins too long to be a credible judge of what came out since last year. Now, I could scrap together a hodgepodge of the random demos and albums I acquired in 2012, but it’s so much more fun to look through my personal vault and bring you all on a trip down memory lane to that most special of years in Death Metal – 1993.

We all know the story – bands such as Deicide, Morbid Angel, Sinister, Death, Carcass, and so on and so on, were proving their mettle in the worldwide markets, and tape trading was still the most viable and pragmatic way to get new music.  Here now, I present to you 5 of my favorite obscure gems that were just bubbling under the surface during this glorious period in Death Metal.

(In all honesty, I was 11 years old in 1993 and got into tape trading about 3 years later – what a poser!). In the (German-translated) words of Mangled Torsos, let’s “hold on the past”… Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (NO. 2)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 302011
 

(Brutish friend of NCS, SurgicalBrute, brings us a further installment in what may be turning into a continuing series.  This time he’s spotlighting Drowned (Germany), Speedwolf (U.S.-Denver), Depravity (Finland), and Grá (Sweden).)

I remember when I first got into metal I was trying to absorb everything. I’d see names like Dismember, Overkill, and Darkthrone tossed around message boards and off I’d go to check them out. I was discovering new bands every day, and even if a band didn’t appeal to me the first time around, I would do my best to give them a fair try because my tastes were always changing.

It was around this time that I discovered something fairly simple….I hate technical metal. Bands like Nile, Meshuggah, and Necrophagist. I tried them over and over again, and while I can appreciate the skill of the muscians involved, more often than not, it sounds so cold and clinical that it comes across flat to my ears.

I think that’s why I eventually found myself gravitating toward the darker underbelly of metal. While the music is rarely complex, it’s the raw energy these bands bring with them that I enjoy so much.

So, in an effort to bring a few more of these bands to wider attention, it’s time for another dose of underground metal. \m/ Continue reading »