EMBERTHRONE: “CURSIVE”

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Jul 112025
 

(Sacramento-based DGR reviews a very recently released EP by Sacramento-based Emberthrone, and comes away happy.)

Sacramento’s Emberthrone are one we’ve kept a curious eye on for a little bit now. Part of a small-town-sized wave of deathcore-leaning projects that sprang up in the lockdown years wherein a lot of people suddenly had a bunch of free time out of nowhere for some reason, Emberthrone seemed like a solid union with a lot of potential just based off of its lineup alone at the time. Uniting some of the scene’s workhorses for vocals and drums in the form of Monte Bernard and Gabe Seeber, the group’s complete portrait included bassist Quentin Garcia and guitarist Martin Bianchini.

Their group’s four-song debut Godless Wonder found them a home on Seek & Strike, a label that has slowly developed an arc for being the home of boutique ass-kickers in prefix-core heavy form. Godless Wonder was a reliably solid brick of music that fell perfectly in line with a lot of the bruisers that’ve emerged from California’s filing cabinet over the years. In the three years hence, though, the lineup for Emberthrone has remained fairly solid save for what seems to be a new face behind the kit, translating into an interesting round two for the band.

Now more matured and gelled together as a band, Emberthrone returned in early-July with a second EP bearing the name Cursive that seems to be forged by experience and a stronger vision of what sort of project they want to be, while also much more determined to throw its heft around than they did before. Continue reading »

DEFILED SERENITY: “WITHIN THE SLUMBER OF THE MIND”

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Jul 082025
 

(NCS writer DGR pays a debt today, finally reviewing a debut album released five months ago by Finland’s Defiled Serenity that he’s been enjoying since then.)

Just in time to be late enough for the bus tracks from the public transit we missed to not only fade away but also be paved over again as the street is resurfaced!

Just before we set off on our jet-setting lifestyles that had a block of this website traveling coast to coast in May to take in only the finest vintages of heavy metal on stage, yours truly set out with a machine to absorb an equally large block of the heavy metal that had been released throughout the year in order to queue up the website to always have something to chat about while we were off wandering venue to venue.

The result was a wide snapshot of the world of underground heavy metal as it had existed so far in 2025, a disorganized ball of chaos that didn’t really have much of a throughline existing in it so far. Some years become reflective of society at large, others take after more recent events, but 2025 has been as odd as your more avant-garde wings of an art museum — somewhat unnerving and almost surrealistic horror-movie in that sort of way. Whatever themes may be developing to define this year musically — not socially, we’ve already landed on “hell” there — they just haven’t congealed yet and are almost refusing to do so.

We have, however, landed within a realm of a few amusing statistical blobs for those who love themselves some numbers nerd-ery, such as how it seems a contingent of Finland decided that all of their projects should see a release in some form or another within the first half of this year. Granted, it’s a wide net to be casting but it’s a pattern I’ve been joking about for months now. Continue reading »

PATRISTIC: “CATECHESIS”

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Jul 072025
 

(What follows is DGR‘s review of the stunning debut album from the Italian band Patristic, out now on Willowtip Records.)

The evolution of black metal as a genre remains as constant as ever. Its grasp is one that artists cannot seem to escape; there is an unholy draw to the offerings of the dramaticism, high-end shrieking, and outwardly reactionary and purposeful abrasiveness of the style. Each person approaches it as if they have something different to lay at its altar (offerings small or large) and thus the genre continues to find itself in a steady yet chaotic rate of high-speed metamorphosis. New ideas are interjected, rejected, stitched onto, and forced into place at times, but all creates this whirling sphere of metal that could eclipse galaxies in utter darkness.

Not every group is original or looking to change the book on things, which is how we’ve wound up with generational views of a genre that is also now well-aged. We’ve codified and crystalized certain styles — hell you could argue some have even ossified to the point of near parody. But the infernal harvest does remain forever fruitful, and whenever an artist you’ve been following for a while decides to take a crack at it, you can’t help but be intrigued.

How does a genre emerge once it is filtered through that particular creature’s viewpoint? Are there changes? Do they seek to just replicate and add to the pile of skulls already creating the throne or are they looking to adapt and bend it to their own ways? Is there a statement to be made in any regard that black metal becomes the only screen through which they push their own music? Continue reading »

UPON STONE: “END TIME LIGHTNING”

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Jul 042025
 

(Here we have DGR‘s review of a new EP by California’s Upon Stone, which saw release in June of this year via Century Media.)

Southern California’s Upon Stone continue to remain an interesting proposition in the world of melodeath. A newer upstart project in a world in which melodeath is starting to see acts of varying throwback styles – it seems right now we have groups specializing in particular ‘eras’ of the genre as a whole – Upon Stone could’ve easily gone the route of being a complete influence-worship act.

Considering that the band’s first full-length arrived early last year by way of Century Media after a single EP in 2021, you could’ve imagined the Upon Stone crew arriving with a gloss and sheen that might’ve blinded people from space. Instead, the band hewed pretty close to the late ’90s, early ’00s melodeath roots and combined it with a lot of gravel and grit that would’ve otherwise been associated with more thrash and trad-metal leaning counter parts. The result was a surprisingly fiery if not equally straight-shooting full-length in Dead Mother Moon and one whose bloody-knuckled scrappiness at least could not be denied.

Upon Stone still had some gas left in the tank though, as late June saw the arrival of a new three-song EP from the band entitled End Time Lightning. Armed with two new songs and a cover of the Manowar song “Outlaw”, it would seem as if Upon Stone felt they needed to resume right where they left off last time, just with a little bit more focus on the double-bass roll because you don’t get to entitle your new EP End Time Lightning without at least one of the songs sounding as if you were riding into a world-ending battle. Continue reading »

CHESTCRUSH: “ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ”

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Jul 022025
 

(DGR has conceived lots of ways of expressing just how crushing and destructive the new album from the multi-national group CHESTCRUSH really is, and they’re all laid out before you below.)

It is not uncommon for a metal band to ruminate on the concept of hate when the spectre of subject matter for an album arises. Hate is metal’s territory; it is logical for the musical drive of the extreme to tilt in such an extreme emotion’s direction. The force of hate as a concept is that it grabs hold of a human being like nothing else, refusing to let go. Whole personalities can be mutated by it, and if you’ve ever worried that our species hadn’t basically signed its own death warrant from the beginning, bear in mind just how well hate can grab hold of people.

The joyous moments of life are ephemeral and drift through memory; they are life as it should be, but the darker moments hover above us for eternities. Grudges can be held for lifetimes and generations. Hate can fester and turn into a cancerous ball that kills its host, snuffing out any potential for good being done in the world in favor of endless bleakness.

While many bands use hate and misanthropy as inspiration, few among the thousands that grace us with their presence each day have truly captured the oppressive weight that such an emotion can place upon a person. The utter disdain for anything in existence can often lead a group astray into carnival sideshow territory just as easily as it can serve as the spark for an auditory conflagration. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP AND VIDEO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): STORTREGN — “ONE ETERNAL”

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Jun 052025
 

(Today we help announce, and premiere a video playthrough, of a new EP by the Swiss metal band Stortregn, preceded by DGR‘s review of this very interesting and hair-raising new work on the eve of its release.)

Given the length of Stortregn‘s career it is impressive that they’ve been able to keep to such a consistent clip. Even while slowly metamorphosizing into a different genre from where they started, Stortregn have been a on a strong two-to-three-year cycle of quality releases. They even managed to land one well enough with 2023’s Finitude that it wound up ranking pretty highly at this here website’s year-end celebrations. If nothing else, we were certainly ready to throw down in defense of the one-two punch of “Xeno Chaos” and “Cold Void” in the early part of the album.

Stortregn specialize in a form of compositional chaos that is tightly controlled but still just off the map enough that they pleasantly surprise. Each song is a musical showpiece on its own without devolving into instrumental demo work, and that they do this at such a high speed for the majority of their last few releases has been stunning. Without ever letting their extremity become milquetoast, Stortregn have put in a valiant effort in the tech-death world. Continue reading »

T-800: “ANTIHUMAN”

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Jun 042025
 

(April of this year brought the debut EP from the Colombian death metal band T-800, and today we bring you DGR‘s review of it.)

There is an art to taking things at face value when it comes to music sometimes. All one needed to do was glance at Colombia’s newly formed death metal act T-800 and its constituent pieces to know that this would not be some big, world-changing event in music. Instead, and purely based off of how the group are constructed out of their local scenes in various other brutal death, slam, and even one tech-death and deathcore band, to know that T-800 are likely going to be about as rock stupid as it comes in death metal.

That is, of course, if you hadn’t already caught the Terminator homage in the name or song titles, or the fact that the artwork for their newest EP Antihuman goes with the classic pile of skulls, zombies, and mutilation for its overall motif. There’s not going to be anything progessive in the mission statement of Antihuman. This is death metal in a form about as thick-headed as it could come… and sometimes that is what you need. Continue reading »

LUCIFER’S CHILD: “THE ILLUMINANT”

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May 302025
 

(Here is DGR‘s evocative review of a new album released through Agonia Records in late March by the Greek black metal band Lucifer’s Child.)

The myths of black metal cast their subjects in many forms – conjurers, infernal priests, sorcerers, wizards, a whole barrel full of nihilistic entities. The evolution of the black metal show into ritualistic form has been an interesting – if obvious – evolution for a genre in which theatricality can be an important aspect. Over the years we’ve even archived many regional splits in the overall style, which has also made for fascinating subject matter to delve into on its own.

Exploring the anthopological and cultural aspects of the music is sometimes more interesting than the abyssal ablutions being dispensed for those who are seeking it. The genre has become almost synonymous with the cold and dense forests of a Scandinavian north, its ritualistic aspects becoming syncretic with Luciferian worship, magickal exploration, and melodramatic movement, to an effect that obviously speaks to so many people around the world – sometimes in reaction to an overbearing religious aspect of their daily cultural lives.

Where the regional splits have arisen is the equally interesting subject matter to speak of, because one of the more well-known yet still underrated ones is the black metal scene born out of Greece and its hellenic purveyors. Continue reading »

CARNAL FORGE: “THE FRACTURED PROCESS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 272025
 

(This is DGR‘s review of a new EP by the Swedish band Carnal Forge, released in March by ViciSolum Productions.)

Much as it is tempting to turn every review into a tome that could challenge Webster’s Dictionary in terms of pages, sometimes something shorter and sweeter is the order of the day. Carnal Forge have been kicking about since the late ’90s, with one real lengthy gap between releases in that time. Their 2019 album Gun To Mouth Salvation was their first full-length in close to twelve years so it’s not too hard to believe that in an age of ever-shifting lineups a near-six-year gap would then follow before we heard from the guys again.

March 2025 offered us a peak behind the curtain of what the band still have in the tank with a three-song EP entitled The Fractured Process, and judging by the near-eleven or so minutes of material that this EP is offering up, they’re not looking to rock the boat too hard. Carnal Forge are continuing the walk the pathway of some very sinister melodeath and thrash music, effectively kicking the machine back into motion right where it left off from Gun To Mouth Salvation. Continue reading »

MASSACRED: “MORTAL ANNIHILATION”

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May 262025
 

(What follows is DGR‘s review of the latest slab of brutality released by the Argentinian band Massacred.)

As if there were ever any chance we weren’t going to cover this one. We don’t have a military-grade spy satellite overlooking the entirety of the world when it comes to heavy metal, but even to those of us who may have bifocals thicker than a California Business Code Of Conduct book, this one wasn’t going to sneak by that easily.

We’ve reviewed some absolutely incredible albums over the course of the year so far and we’re always looking for more. That’s why this one went skating across the desk at the old NCS offices, as we continue our endless sisyphean task of attempting to track down new music for our readers to devour. As if they had a hunger, neverending, and a singular focus on simply obtaining more.

It’s rare that we get to touch base with the solo brutal death and slam scenes these days. The whole genre has seen explosive growth over the past decade as recording implements have democratized and been able to reach wider audiences. It’s resulted in a breed of musician whose desires are different than pure artistic expression, laying somewhere familiar to the grindcore crowd wherein music can be both emotional expulsion and an internet shitpost – the two need not be mutually exclusive.

Argentina’s Massacred is to be appreciated, then, as their aspirations are waved on a banner, worn proudly, and stated so up-front that you could never accuse them of trying to be more than what they are — which is pure and unadulterated Mortician-inspired death metal, one that just happens to have a taste for both horror movies and, surprisingly enough, the Resident Evil series of video games. Continue reading »

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