Jul 032026
 

(Kyle Doerksen is a very good photographer of varied scenes and subjects, as you can see here. He also has a taste for metal, and that led him to The Regent Theater in Los Angeles last weekend to witness performances by Monolord, Acid King, and Mizmor. We are greateful that he sent us the following report on the show and his accompanying photos.)

I arrived way too early, as I had never taken photos at The Regent and wanted to get the lay of the land. The room is an old theater from 1914 that operated as a high-end film house, a grind house, and then the logical conclusion: an adult movie theater. The theater eventually shuttered in 2000 and reappeared in 2014 in its current form.

A corridor leads you to two sets of double doors that open into the main room, with a bar to the left and right. A flight of steps down to the sloped floor makes for great sightlines but an awkward pit. There is also a fairly sizable upstairs that hosts another bar, a VIP area, and some sort of makeshift bleacher seating.

After a quick loop, I settled in up front and patiently waited for the show to start. Continue reading »

Jun 082026
 

(With the month of May now behind us, Gonzo returns to review and recommend five albums released during that month.)

Like fucking clockwork, this column was once again interrupted by last-minute additions.

On one hand, I completely realize the futility of adding albums to a list that I conjure out of nothing each month. On the other, it’s my list, goddammit, and my commitment to being needlessly meticulous with it is something you can pry from my cold, dead hands. (Much like the collection of physical media sitting in a walk-in closet that I’ve been hoarding since I was 15.)

Alas, this sentiment tracks with how most of us approach our writing at NCS. We’re nerds about this shit.

If you read below the fold, maybe you’ll understand why I nixed such new releases from Elder, All Them Witches, and to a lesser extent, Devin Townsend, for the ones included here. You could also debate whether any of those bands fit the mold of these pages, but I don’t have the energy for that. Continue reading »