AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVEIR — “A FUTILE EXHORTATION”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 282026
 

(written by Islander)

For nearly a decade we’ve been recommending the recordings of the Brisbane-based black metal band Graveir, and we’re doing it again today. Their discography to date has included a pair of albums — Iconostasis (2016) and King of the Silent World (2020) — plus an EP and a pair of splits. And now they have a third album named The Festering Triad that’s set for release on May 29th by Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings.

As their label has accurately described, Graveir’s music has proven to be “bleak, violent and uncompromising.” It’s capable of evoking fury, chaos, and degradation, but also creating mind-warping melodic visions that are unearthly and even mesmerizing but also profoundly frightening. And here is how Apocalyptic Witchcraft describes their new full-length:

The Festering Triad, their third album, is a bleak vision of societal decay and corrupted power. Across eight tracks, bile-fuelled aggression surges through anxiety-ridden drums, convulsing guitars, and serpentine basslines—forming a suffocating, venomous descent into rot.

What we have for you today is a startling sign of just how accurate that description is, a song named “A Futile Exhortation“, which arrives with a tremendous video that captures many of the album’s dire concepts. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ABYSMAL DAWN, CENTINEX, COGNITIVE, COOLING TOWER, DEATH COURIER, DEVIN TOWNSEND, EVOKER, GRAVEIR, HELLHOOKAH, KRATER, LAMB OF GOD, LAUDARE, MALICYST, WHITE STONES

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 182020
 


Abysmal Dawn

 

Here we are again. with so many new songs and videos that I want to recommend that I’m resorting to what I did last weekend — compiling lots of sights and sounds (which are all over the map in genre terms), accompanied by only very brief comments of my own. I also added one news item that excited me, though there’s no music to be heard yet.

I should add that I hope you are all well, and that you’re doing your damnedest to physically stay away from other people to the greatest extent possible.

ABYSMAL DAWN (U.S.)

We begin with a jackhammering, shivering, and slithering piece of death metal menace, complete with thoroughly beastly vocals and twisted melodic accents and grooves that both prove to be ridiculously catchy. I could swear they actually used a heavy-caliber machibe gun instead of drums for parts of this, and that they tortured a poltergeist for the solos. Continue reading »

IMPURE SOUNDS: GOLGOTHAN REMAINS, GRAVEIR

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 102018
 

 

Impure Sounds is an appropriately named independent label and recording studio based in Melbourne, Australia. Their past releases have included works I’ve written about at NCS, including a split by Graveir and Mar Mortuum, and the debut album by Dødknell. Impure Sounds now has two new releases on the way, one of which can now be streamed and downloaded in full and the other of which has an advance track up for listening — and both are very good.

 

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: PERVERSE OFFERINGS TO THE VOID

Sydney’s Golgothan Remains launched their first demo two years ago and are now following that with a full-length record through Impure Sounds named Perverse Offerings To the Void. A digital version of the album is available now, and a 12″ vinyl is scheduled for April 20.

“Vehemence (Through Pain Divine)” opens the album in stunning fashion, with titanic rumbling and booming in the low end, bursts of freakish, swarming guitar dissonance in the upper reaches, and grim grinding in the mid-range, like a bone saw scything through gangrenous limbs. The destructive barrage of sound is segmented by slower cascades of pile-driving brutality. A heartless roaring monstrosity has somehow seized the microphone, venting a tyrannical tirade in the midst of this war zone. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): GRAVEIR, MAR MORTUUM, SINMARA, GLACIAL TOMB, SOLBRUD, WHOREDOM RIFE, CRYPTIC WANDERINGS, AZAXUL

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jun 112017
 

 

It’s been three weeks since the last time I compiled music for a Shades of Black post, mainly because I was away from home the last three weekends. To somewhat make up for lost time, I’ve picked recommended new music in a blackened vein from more than a dozen bands and have divided the collection into two parts. Not sure if I’ll get Part 2 posted today or Monday, but most likely the latter.

GRAVEIR / MAR MORTUUM

I decided to start this post with a new split release by the Australian bands Graveir (Brisbane) and Mar Mortuum (Melbourne) so I would have another excuse to prominently feature Jef Whitehead’s artwork for it (I already posted it on our Facebook page yesterday). The music is also very good. Continue reading »