SEEN AND HEARD ON A SUNDAY: BAEST, SERPENT, GORMA, FORTRIU, DAWN OF SOLACE, HOLY DEATH, GEISTERFAUST, BELTEZ

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Nov 012026
 

(written by Islander)

We all know that expectations can be disappointed even when the expected person is dependable. You probably expected a roundup of new songs and videos here yesterday, especially because it was Halloween, maybe even a grab-bag of horror videos. What you got instead was the premiere of an album whose themes had nothing remotely to do with Halloween.

What you’ll get today is the roundup you were probably expecting yesterday instead of the usual SHADES OF BLACK column, which I suppose is another dashed expectation. Rest assured that this collection does include some black metal, but overall it will be more cross-genre in its scope.

As usual, the choices were difficult because there was so much to choose from. With Friday being devil’s night and Saturday being Halloween, metal bands and labels really loaded up the week with new stuff. Hope you enjoy the picks I struggled to make. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SNĚT’, GREH, GOMMA, SHABTI, HOLY DEATH, CARCERAL

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Jul 042026
 

(written by Islander)

I have mixed feelings about the Fourth of July, probably a result of living through wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan in which U.S. government officials wrapped themselves in the flag, exalted themselves with military fly-overs, and belched “patriotic” rhetoric while lying to citizens and sending their children overseas to be maimed and die, and using the flag and that same distorted rhetoric in many other contexts to cudgel their political opponents and try to silence dissent.

The feelings are even more mixed on this 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as we see the legacy stained by a megalomaniacal old man with the moral compass of a snake who has attempted to co-opt the anniversary and turn it into a celebration of himself. He rages, foments rage, and has prepared for the arrival of this milestone anniversary with a daily dose of hatred, division, and dementia. He maliciously erodes our democracy instead of protecting it, “seeing it as a hindrance to his lust for untrammeled power and cash grabs” [as one writer put it today].

On the other hand, I still revere the revolutionary ideals set forth in the Declaration, respect the best parts of the country’s history in which people sought to make them a reality, and hope for better days ahead. I also enjoy fireworks and parades and eating and drinking to excess with family and friends. If you have such plans today, I hope you have an abundance of fun (and I hope you wake up tomorrow with all 10 fingers still intact).

But I know you didn’t come here to read about my mixed feelings concerning the Fourth. As you’ll easily guess, I don’t have mixed feelings about the new songs and videos I’ve collected for today’s roundup, but recommend them whole-heartedly. (Heyo! How’s that for a transition?) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SABHANKRA, ANDE, HOLY DEATH, MEGATON COMMUNION, CRACKWHÖRE, GASH FAITH, THE FALL OF MOTHER EARTH, ЧЕРНОПЛОДЬ

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Jan 042025
 

 

We’ve reached the end of a long holiday period and that left me feeling glum last night, morose over the realization that the rat race will resume on Monday. I felt much better after going through a big batch of songs I wanted to consider for this Saturday roundup.

Apart from enjoying the music, I’m enjoying the idea of how wobbly these eight selections will leave people who make it through all of them; there are many twists and turns along the way.

I arranged the choices in four two-band blocks. This doesn’t mean the selections in each part sound alike, but I did perceive some connections, except in the final two. Those two are together at the end only because I didn’t want to leave them out. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HOLY DEATH — “SAD BUT TRUE” (METALLICA COVER)

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Oct 302024
 

(written by Islander)

This Halloween will mark five years of Holy Death, the doom-drenched death metal crushers who call Long Beach, California home. To commemorate the anniversary, and to tide fans over while the band work on their next album, they’re releasing a new EP of cover songs.

The EP leads with Holy Death‘s rendition of Metallica‘s “Sad But True“, and that’s the name of the EP as well. It’s the group’s way of paying respects to a band and a song that have been a “massive influence” on them, and we’re premiering that cover today.

The EP also includes re-mixed and re-mastered versions of two other cover songs they’ve previously released — Metallica‘s “Creeping Death” and Entombed‘s “Wolverine Blues“. Altogether, the EP makes for an excellent way to make your Halloween more electric — and more horrifying. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HOLY DEATH — “NECK WOUND SESSION”

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Jun 142023
 

We’ve been fans of the underground California death/doom band Holy Death ever since coming across their second EP, Supreme Metaphysical Violence, soon after its release in February 2020. We’ve followed them closely ever since, like a pack of hounds chasing after a car, witness the fact that we’ve written about them on seven separate occasions over these three years.

And so my heart sank last September when I read a statement by the band’s vocalist/guitarist Torie John that jut a few days after the band released their 2022 Moral Terror EPs he was diagnosed with metastatic papillary thyroid cancer, and that it had spread from his thyroid to his lymph nodes.

Torie also explained that the cancer could be treated with surgery, and that it was curable. At the time of that first announcement, he was still searching for a surgeon and hospital to perform a complete thyroidectomy and removal of lymph nodes. Ultimately, the search was successful, and the extensive surgery on his neck was scheduled to take place last November.

What did he do to prepare for the surgery? Of course, he and his bandmates spent November 5, 2022, recording a new release with Raul “Riff” Cuellar at his Riff Audio studio in Burbank. Naturally, they named the record Neck Wound Session. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: AETHERIAN, APHONIC THRENODY, ARKONA, ASCENDED DEAD, ASHBRINGER, DÅÅTH, DEATH OF GIANTS, HOLY DEATH, IMMORTAL, NOCTURNAL TYRANT

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Apr 222023
 

Saturdays are usually days when I pick a handful of new songs and videos to recommend, accompanied by some of my own peerless prose (HA!). But as I waded through possibilities this morning it quickly dawned on me that there was just way too fucking much stuff for me to pare down to a handful without experiencing some mental agony in making the choices.

So, I’ve thrown up my hands and resorted to this “Overflowing Streams” format, where you will find a lot more music than in the usual “Seen and Heard” columns, a lot fewer of my own words (dry your eyes), and very little cover art — other than Yoann Lossel’s stunning artwork “Les Fleurs du Mal”, which is on the cover of the new album by the first band in this roundup.

Today the musical arrangement is alphabetical by band name (heavily weighted by the A’s). I’m deferring most of the black metal discoveries until tomorrow.

AETHERIAN (Greece)

Wonderful news to see that this Greek melodic death metal band are returning with a new album, six years after their fantastic full-length debut, The Untamed Wilderness. They say this marks “the start of a new era for Aetherian“, and it appears that they’ve added a couple of new guitarists to an already formidable lineup. The first sign of what the new album brings is a lyric video for the song “Army of Gaia“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: HOLY DEATH — “MORAL TERROR VOL. 1”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Apr 282022
 

It’s fair to say that we’ve been following the L.A.-based death-doom outfit Holy Death very closely ever since discovering their second EP in 2020 — following them like a panting dog scampering after a moving car, tongue wagging and slobber flying. In fact, the post you’re now reading marks the sixth time we’ve written about them in barely two years. Yes, we are big fans.

The occasion for today’s slobber is a new Holy Death EP, a two-song discharge entitled Moral Terror Vol. 1, so-named because it’s the first in a three-part series that the band plan on releasing this year. It’s set for digital release on April 29th, but we’ve got a premiere stream of its two diabolically punishing tracks today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HOLY DEATH — “CREEPING DEATH” (A METALLICA COVER)

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Jan 152021
 

 

Just after last Thanksgiving Day, our man Andy Synn wrote combined reviews here of the three EPs released in 2020 by Holy Death, who describe themselves as “three piece death doom out of the Nevada desert by way of Los Angeles”. Those EPs — Supreme Metaphysical Violence, Celestial Throne ov Grief, and Deus Mortis — revealed a multi-faceted and evolving approach, with the most recent of those EPs demonstrating that (in Andy‘s words) “the band continue to (somehow) get even harsher and even heavier as they grow in confidence and skill”.

With those EPs stacked up in very impressive fashion, Andy predicted “there’s a very good chance that the group’s next release will be their best yet!” What we didn’t know then but do know now is that Holy Death‘s next release (which we’re now premiering) is a cover song — a cover of Metallica‘s “Creeping Death“. Not completely surprising, since Deus Mortis closed with a cover (of Entombed‘s “Wolverine Blues”), but also kind of an intimidating choice as a song to cover. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HOLY DEATH

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Nov 272020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s combined reviews of the three EPs released this year by the Nevada band Holy Death.)

Today’s edition of “Short But Sweet” is a little different.

Rather than covering three EPs by three different bands, instead we’re going to be taking a look at three different EPs by the same band, Las Vegas-based Death/Doom disciples Holy Death, whose debut EP, Supreme Metaphysical Violence, came out back in February, and was followed soon after by June’s Celestial Throne ov Grief.

Then, right at the end of last month, they dropped Deus Mortis, which is around about the time I jumped on the bandwagon… which brings us right up to date.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DARK TRANQUILLITY, OMEGAVORTEX, SEPTAGE, WATASHI DAKE, VALDUR, HOLY DEATH, NOVARUPTA, DEAD SHAPE FIGURE

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Sep 112020
 

 

Earlier today one of our writers, purporting to speak for all of us, asserted that we at NCS are not perfect. I disagree. I, for one, am perfectly aware of my inability to keep up with the release of new music.

Last night I did manage to plow through the last two days of e-mails in our bulging in-box and checked a few other valued sources. From that effort I added roughly two-dozen new songs to check out, on top of a similar number I had identified the last time I went exploring just a couple of days ago.

A laughable thing to do, of course, given there’s no way I could make my way through all of that in time to write anything for today. So I threw mental darts at the list, with some hits and some misses. The following eight new songs were among the hits. I’ll pick some more for your listening pleasure on Saturday.

DARK TRANQUILLITY (Sweden)

In “Phantom Days” Dark Tranquillity launched the run-up to their new album Moment with a sure-fire crowd-pleaser — nothing terribly different, but capable of stimulating the pleasure centers of fans. I confess that I felt stimulated, though not to the point of tumescence. Will I remember it? That’s a different question. Continue reading »

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