SEPULTURA: “THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 182026
 

(What follows is TheMadIsraeli’s review of an EP announced as the final release by Sepultura. It came out in April of this year via Nuclear Blast.)

Some of us here at NCS are believers in modern Sepultura. I’ve always come to bat for them because the thing that spoke to me of a band who shamelessly and uncompromisingly followed their creative instincts was how, even by the sub-genres of metal they are considered part of, they have chosen to take progressive off-kilter approaches to all of it.

Ever since Max’s departure, and especially from Roorback onward, Sepultura have chosen the hard path. I’m not saying that to imply that Against and Nation aren’t good in and of themselves, by the way, but there is a definitive locking-in that occurs at Roorback. I’d chalk this up to those two records being the warm-up, adapting to Derrick’s inclusion and trying to find who they wanted to be. Some people may not fully appreciate what Sepultura was faced with when Max left and Andreas Kisser had to overcome the perception which had taken over that Max WAS Sepultura.

Andreas Kisser will forever be one of my favorite songwriters and guitarists in metal purely because his answer to that challenge was to not play the fame game at all. He essentially ditched the band’s previous legacy for a new one. I think this decision obviously paid off, but they’ve had to deal with a never-ending barrage of people crying about how this wasn’t the old thing anymore. Continue reading »

NERVOSA: “SLAVE MACHINE”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 142026
 

(Erstwhile NCS writer TheMadIsraeli returned to us with a review earlier this week, and he’s already back again, this time writing about a new album by Brazil’s Nervosa that was released in April by Napalm Records.)

I know the band we’re reviewing today is Nervosa, but I just need you guys to take a detour with me, okay? We’re doing a Tarantino sort of introduction here. It will come together with time. I want to talk about Arch Enemy first.

We’re talking about Arch Enemy because I love Arch Enemy. Well, mostly… The Johann Liiva era of Black Earth, Stigmata, and Burning Bridges is arguably still the strongest first three-record run of any of the Gothenburg bands during the ‘90s. If I make a list of my top 100 albums of all time, there’s more than one Arch Enemy record in there, including even the Gossow era for a time or two. Their music was sonic indignation. You felt this unhinged lashing out at the world and all of the unfairness of it in everything they wrote, on top of first-class guitar work both from a riff-writing and a lead-playing standpoint.

I ate and breathed this band for a long time. Then Rise Of The Tyrant came out, and while it’s a solid record, it’s the start of a very noticeable slide into complacency and just… you could tell Michael Ammot was in full careerist mode. Continue reading »

APOGEAN: “WASTE WHERE LIFE BEGINS”

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Aug 122026
 

(Former NCS writer TheMadIsraeli returns after a long absence with the following review of a new album by the Toronto death metal band Apogean, which was released on July 10th by The Artisan Era.)

It sounds so fucking stupid to say, but a pretty good barometer of a good album especially if you’re on the AuDHD spectrum like I am is “does this album make me pay attention to it while grinding on Diablo 4?”. Diablo has oddly enough been a crucible through which many albums have been deemed good or bad in my mind; if something can catch my attention through the demands of playing the game especially at end-game sweat levels it means it stands out or it stands on its own.

Apogean’s now sophomore album Waste Where Life Begins is a great record, and one that oddly in my opinion takes quite a divergent path from their debut. Cyberstrictive was good, don’t get me wrong, a good but rather standard tech-death-metal/deathcore middle ground album. I liked it. My life was in turmoil at the time so it wasn’t exactly a priority list to write about in my life but it got a few spins.

Waste Where Life Begins has within the span of a week already gotten more spins out of me than Cyberstrictive ever did. Partially because those scant deathcore touches have been entirely abandoned, which to me, I’m sorry, is just always objectively good, and also due to a commitment toward an oddly more atmospheric, almost blackened death metal direction. The serpentine riffs are still there, but there’s a much greater emphasis on riffs and rhythmically impactful sections that are designed to seize your attention. Continue reading »

SYLOSIS: “THE NEW FLESH”

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Feb 182026
 

(We welcome back one of our early writers, TheMadIsraeli, and his review of a new album by Sylosis that’s due for release on February 20th by Nuclear Blast.)

It’s been a long while hasn’t it? More than six years by my count and I’ve been checked out as a music enthusiast for most of it. I won’t go into why, but I’m ready to come back and talk about some sick metal records, and starting my return to NCS with a Sylosis record feels about as appropriate for me as it gets. Before we get to talking about The New Flesh we ought to talk about my history with this band.

I discovered them all the way back when their debut full-length Conclusion Of An Age had just come out, and it blew me away. The commitment to mixing modern metalcore conventions and melodic vocal hooks with an extremely technical and precise thrash approach in the vein of Forbidden, Metallica, Testament, and the like really spoke to me, and it kept me hooked.

Sylosis is an all-time favorite band of mine. Edge Of The Earth is one of modern metal’s ALL TIME GREATEST records. I am a fanboy for this band, a simp, and an admirer as a guitarist of Josh Middleton and his commitment as a composer to keeping things melodic, technical, and deep. UNTIL that is, Cycle Of Suffering. Continue reading »

DARKANE: “INHUMAN SPIRITS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jun 242022
 

 

(Today is the day when Massacre Records releases a new album by the Swedish band Darkane, and to celebrate the occasion long-time NCS writer TheMadIsraeli has returned from a long hiatus with the following review.)

Metal, in its current form, from where I observe it, is dealing with an arms-race problem.  Specifically, a technicality problem.  Obviously, I’m not saying that technicality is bad, or compromises the music, or is indecipherable, but THERE IS a trend with modern bands toward what is straight-up a lack of capacity to write an actual song with twists, turns, peaks, valleys, crescendo and climax.

I find myself being kind of stuck between what feel like two extremes.  We’re dealing with the excessively technical to the detriment of everything else, while on the opposite end exists boring commercially line-straddling pseudo prog that barely qualifies under any semblance of the term or the philosophy of progressive style composition.

I had my phase of liking djent, and I certainly have my moments where I like Beneath The Massacre or Braindrill as much as anybody else, but as I’ve grown older I’ve realized the extreme metal that sits with me the best is a sort that has achieved this lunatic fringe, arguably near impossible, perfect symmetry of element and frame.  If you asked me to name my top ten bands of all time up to the point of writing this, without any form of hierarchy intended here, it’d be Byzantine, Meshuggah, Textures, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Vader, Kreator, Sepultura, Dark Fortress, and last and most relevant, Darkane. Continue reading »

ALLEGAEON: “DAMNUM”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 032022
 

(In late February Metal Blade Records released a new album by Colorado-based Allegaeon, and our old friend TheMadIsraeli has re-surfaced with the following review.)

I’ve been taking a sizable break from NCS to recover from the holidays, to the point where I decided not to submit year-end lists or any of the usual annual stuff you see from us here, and… I’m glad I took the break.  To be real for a second, sometimes it can just get exhausting to keep up with the constant barrage of new shit. Sometimes you want to just listen to old stuff, sometimes you don’t want to listen at all. At the peak of my NCS output I legit listened to 300 albums a month guaranteed.  ALL while juggling college and family that needed taking care of to some degree or another.

However, that doesn’t mean I still don’t get a rush out of hearing the new stuff, whether that’s from underdogs or reliable all-stars.  Allegaeon’s Damnum was always my album from the start as a way to come back to the site reviewing. It was the first thing I had knowledge of that I was truly excited about coming into 2022.  Also, it just felt fortuitous that it came out the same day as Elden Ring if I’m being honest. Continue reading »

OBSCURA: “A VALEDICTION”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 022021
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli has re-surfaced with this review because Obscura‘s new album left him no choice. It’s set for release on November 19th by Nuclear Blast.)

I’ve been keeping a low profile as of late and probably won’t be submitting a year-end list for NCS or doing any more reviews for the year. Many things have brought this about, just personal life things and trying to get my shit in some vague semblance of an order going into next year. I might even change the alias I use for this website, and I feel like in the spirit of that I’d do my last review for the year and talk about Obscura.

It’s funny, because in the same “different face, same presentation” manner that I’m thinking of changing my writing alias for this website, so too has Obscura decided to do the same regarding their sonic identity with A Valediction. Obscura is one of my favorite bands of all time, although I didn’t used to feel that way. I was that guy who in the case of Cosmogenesis was was using unimaginative, uneducated language like “boring”, “pretentious”, and “wanky”to describe what was in reality some of the most mature guitar-centric progressive and technical death metal produced aside from Necrophagist. Continue reading »

SEPIROTH: “CONDEMNED TO SUFFER”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jul 232021
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli‘s review of the third album by the Dutch death metal band Sepiroth, which was released earlier this month via the Petrichor label.)

I’ve had a tough time finding death metal that appeals to me these days. I’ve found it so difficult to locate anything that isn’t drowned in gimmicks of rudimentary slam or isn’t consumed with trying to write shit that would’ve felt dated in 1995.  I may take some heat for this, but at least from my perspective it feels like right now this is the main sub-genre of extreme metal that’s really lagging behind in 2021, and it’s REALLY lagging behind.

Death metal requires riffs, actual composition, and song-writing dynamics to work well.  Especially when its vocal approach is typically not diverse, the music consequently has to do a lot around it to avoid monotony.

Well, I present to you today a death metal band that aren’t living in ’95, don’t waste your time with vapid slam and brutal death metal’s purposefully shit production, and actually sound like they’ve kept up with the genre past the year 2000. Continue reading »

AT THE GATES: “THE NIGHTMARE OF BEING”

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Jul 122021
 

 

(We present TheMadIsraeli‘s review of the seventh studio album by At the Gates, released earlier this month by Century Media.)

Watching how your favorite musical artists deal with the inevitability of getting older, slower, and weaker is one of the more fascinating aspects of this media consumption thing we all do. That’s especially true of metal, which is a genre that’s often predicated on physical ability. It’s all technicality and endurance, coupled with demands on the performers to be emotionally resonant, to still maintain that human element that makes music touch our souls and make life just that little bit better.

It’s commonplace for a lot of long-running bands to slow down, dial back the technical aspects of their music a bit and try to compensate for their age in other ways. Sometime they try to make their songwriting better, and to try less mechanically demanding ideas. Sure, here and there they can still write a barnburner that’s on a crash course with a brick wall at two hundred miles per hour, but it’s tough to play a whole album of that anymore. Continue reading »

PESTILENCE: “EXITIVM”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jul 092021
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new ninth album by Pestilence, which is out now on Agonia Records.)

Patrick Mameli is a musician in the extreme metal music space I’m often conflicted about.

One one hand, I think he is an absolute genius. What he’s created with Pestilence and continues to do under the Pestilence banner never has been replicated convincingly, and probably cannot be replicated.  He has an unparalled command and mastery, both as a guitarist and as a songwriter of dissonance and chaos.  Pestilence is one of the few bands out there (and the only band that does it the way they do it) who completely shun away from conventional melody while using a jazz bent to create a twisted brand of death metal that I can only say sounds like what it feels like to experience real and severe mental illness and terror.  There is a pathos to Pestilence that is undeniable. Continue reading »

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