A TRIP ON THE WAYBACK MACHINE: SIX MORE ALBUMS FROM EARLIER THIS YEAR YOU PROBABLY MISSED

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Nov 062024
 

(After a bit of a break our Vietnam-based writer Vizzah Harri returns to our miserable halls with reviews of six albums that struck some chords in his head, and may have damaged them.)

On the 9th of October ominous news surfaced that a group of hackers decided to lay siege to an internet institution that can generally be considered as a universal good. It was universally seen as a dick move. The Internet Archive is a library of audio, visual and textual resources as well as old website archiving with the mission of providing a library with omniversal access to all knowledge.

Flummoxed at the stupidity, because 99.9% of hackers love this site, and unable to use the Wayback Machine (it is back up now so this link is not compromised as of this writing), I simply had to take a hard stare at my ‘Catching Up’ list. October has been another stacked month for releases and November still has some serious offerings before the end-of-year bonanza. The list of what we weren’t able to get to is not always a question about quality or subjective – or even objective – partiality, it’s the sheer volume of content out there.

With the year almost over, I took it upon myself to go on the ‘way back machine of metal’ and jump back 282 days to January 26th. On its own an insane day for metal releases, two of the releases below fell on that same day. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ASENHEIM — “IM ZWIELICHT”

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Nov 062024
 

(written by Islander)

For as much music as we’ve written about in our nearly 15 years of existence there are still many bands, even long-lived ones, that we’ve managed to overlook. The German black metal band Asenheim is one of those.

Principally the vehicle for vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Tiwaz, joined in partnership by drummer Valfor for the last seven years or so, Asenheim has been releasing music since 2007, with eight albums to their credit and a multitude of demos and EPs.

Not surprisingly for a project of such duration and prolific creative output, the nature of the music hasn’t remained entirely constant, though its connection to pagan legends and other themes beyond the confines of the mundane world have been throughlines of long standing.

Where Asenheim proudly stands today is represented by a forthcoming ninth album, Wolkenbrecher, which is set for release on December 10th by the Dominance of Darkness label, and today we share with you a lyric video for a song from the album named “Im Zwielicht“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HIERARCHIES — “ABSTRACT”

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Nov 062024
 

(written by Islander)

We’re in the camp of people who believe that album cover art is a vital part of musical releases, not merely as a way of attracting attention to what’s inside but as an end in itself.

Of course, we can all think of instances when bland cover art has accompanied fantastic music, and conversely when stunning artwork has heralded what turned out to be bland music.

But today the artwork and the music align. Both are fantastic. And both are terrifying. And both will freeze you in place. Credit to Belial NecroArts for what greets the eyes. Credit to Hierarchies for a self-titled debut album that will do a real number on your psyche. Continue reading »

SWALLOW THE SUN: “SHINING”

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Nov 062024
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of Swallow the Sun‘s new album, which was released a couple weeks ago by Century Media.)

Listening to Swallow The Sun‘s newest album Shining, you get the sense that this is the sort of album every doom band has in them and one that they’d slowly been building toward for some time. In that sense, Shining is a fascinating release because after hesitantly testing waters more and more with each record, much of the material on Shining sounds like the band themselves were finally ready to make the jump.

Of course, with Swallow the Sun it is always going to feel like there is an overarching narrative because – credit to the band for being as brave as they are – they haven’t really been shy about personal struggles and tragedies over the years. Maybe, Shining is an album that Swallow The Sun needed to make, as a chance to escape and set themselves free of the artistic frost that they’ve long called home. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PLOUGHSHARE — “SECOND WOUND”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 052024
 

(written by Islander)

Think of things you’ve witnessed that have astounded you, things that have shocked and surprised you but also popped your eyes and dropped your jaw in wonder. And not just sudden experiences that end after moments, but continuing cavalcades that catch you quickly, swallow you up, and allow no quick release.

Maybe a circus (when such things still existed)? Maybe a riot? Maybe a brazen symphony? Maybe blizzards and floods that weren’t forecast?

Asking you to recall such events is the best and briefest way I can think of to prepare you for Ploughshare‘s new album, Second Wound. Listening to their previous releases would be another kind of preparation, but not entirely adequate because on the new album these Australian experimental extremists have looped together both newer and older phases of their output to create an even more elaborate and more mind-lacerating (but wondrous!) experience.

Here’s how they briefly describe what they’ve done: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE GATES OF SLUMBER

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Nov 052024
 


photo by Marshall Kreeb

(Indiana-based doom metal behemoths The Gates of Slumber have revived and return with a new self-titled album that’s set for release on November 29th via Svart Records. Our Comrade Aleks needed to find out more, and the band’s founder Karl Simon graciously took his questions.)

There are the bands who are long inactive, and after some time checking their profiles on social medias or metal-archives in hope of finding any new information, you just give up. The same was true for me with The Gates of Slumber. I loved the heroic doom metal they played in the first album …the Awakening (2004); Suffer No Guilt (2006) was a blast; and I still listen to other albums too – especially Hymns of Blood and Thunder (2009).

Karl Simon (guitars, vocals) disbanded The Gates of Slumber in 2013 only to form Wretch, which didn’t last long. So Karl’s last official full-length was Wretch’s self-titled debut released in 2016, and I was surprised when Svart Records announced that a new The Gates of Slumber album would be released on November 29th.

Of course, it was a natural necessity to learn the album’s background, and the result of my curiousity is this interview with Karl. Continue reading »

ONLY DEATH IS REAL: BLACK CURSE / LIFESICK / LIVING GATE

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Nov 052024
 

(Andy Synn dives back into the Death Metal scene)

I’ve been accused, not entirely unreasonably, of being a little jaded and cynical when it comes to Death Metal these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Death Metal, in all its different forms – ok, maybe not all its different forms – but… you’ve got to admit… it can get a little tiresome being told that [X] band is “the next big thing” or “the saviour of the genre” when all its doing is rehashing the same old HM-2/Swe-Death/OSDM revivalist tropes as the last band to get the exact same sort of hype just a few months previously.

Thankfully there are lots of bands out there who – while not necessarily breaking the mould or reinventing the wheel – are still more than capable of reminding us all, me included, just why we like what we like, hype be damned, and I wanted to highlight three bands, with three distinctly different flavours, for you today.

PS – while I couldn’t find time/space for them you should also check out the extremely promising debut albums from Weeping and Recidivist (though, at just over fourteen minutes, calling the former an album seems like a little bit of a stretch) as well as the riff-tastic new one from Ripped to Shreds (which contains one of my favourite Death Metal songs of the year in the form of the irresistibly hooky “冥婚 (Corpse Betrothal)”)

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVESLAVE — “STRETCHED UNTIL WE BLEED”

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Nov 042024
 

(written by Islander)

Spreading the word about new music from Minnesota’s GraveSlave has become an NCS tradition. What else would you call it when we’ve hosted seven premieres in support of their releases since 2016 — today marking the seventh occasion?

To be brutally honest (which is the only kind of honest we know how to be around here), tradition is often a hollow thing, perpetuating events or activities that have often long lost their meaning or value. But not in this case. We continue welcoming GraveSlave because their music has so consistently been… welcome!

And so it is again today, when the occasion is the debut of a new video for a song from their most recent release, the Relinquish, Life EP that detonated earlier this year. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RVKKVS — “SHACHIKU”

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Nov 042024
 

(written by Islander)

I wonder what made me curious about the etymology of the word “ruckus“? Maybe it will come back to me.

In searching for an answer I found no clear answer. Its meaning is clear enough — a commotion, a disorderly disturbance, a row. Per one source, it has been compared to ruction and rumpus and rampage, but the early forms vary and include rookus (1882), rucus (1877), rukus (1879), also rukas, roockus, rucuss. And there’s this:

Apparently a regional word in the U.S. West and South; when Sen. William J. Stone of Missouri used it in 1914, the editors of the New York “Sun” were baffled, but the Bismarck, N.D., “Daily Tribune” (March 3) replied that ruckus was “a word in perfectly good standing almost anywhere west of the Ohio.”

Anywhere west of Ohio… apparently including… New Zealand! And now it comes back to me! Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Nov 042024
 

(Andy Synn presents four of October’s most outstanding releases you may not have checked out)

Time’s arrow marches ever forwards my friends, and soon enough – sooner than you think – it will be “List Season” all over again, where we look back and take stock of the year gone by before we turn our attentions to 2025.

As a result I’m having to be incredibly selective about where and how I spend my precious time in regards to reviews, which means that I’ve had to make some fairly lamentable omissions this past month, including the new album from Cosmic Putrefaction (though hopefully I’ll get to that one in more detail in one of my end of year retrospectives), plus both the new Doedsmaghird and Iotunn releases (though you can find excellent write-ups of both over at AngryMetalGuy), and many more besides.

But let’s not focus on what we may have missed and instead focus on what we shouldn’t, shall we?

Continue reading »

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