AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATH. VOID. TERROR – “V. (– —) DAPHNYR”

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Aug 252026
 

(written by Islander)

Less that two weeks ago the Swiss experimental extremists Death. Void. Terror returned after a five-year silence with their release through Sentient Ruin Laboratories of an EP named To The Great Monolith 2.5. The EP’s name signifies a progression from their 2018 debut album To The Great Monolith and their 2020 full-length To The Great Monolith II, but it was a progression in more than name.

That EP revealed a metamorphosis in sound from the band’s first two albums. As Cvlt Nation wrote when premiering the EP:

The cavernous, abyssal black/death deluges from their past releases surprisingly gives way to ritualistic, folk-tinged dirges of solemn tribal black metal with striations of occult rock and psychedelia. The guitars remain heavy and hypnotic but appear cleared of their debris, shimmering and resonating into the continuum with vibrant fervor as they trace the lineaments of a mystical liturgy accompanied by keys, synths, bone instruments, tribal percussion, and mantric chants. Urfaust comes to mind as the hypnotic, experimental dirge unfolds its contemplative wings, while the guitars’ solemnity and weight reverberate with the stern echoes of Bölzer or The Ruins of Beverast.

As it turns out, the EP functions as only the first stage of the band’s return, and the second stage is another album slated for release by Sentient Ruin on September 25th. Its title is To the Great Monolith III: Rifts, and today we’re premiering its fifth track, “V. (– —) Daphnyr“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SACRELIGIOUS — “VILE”

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Aug 252026
 

(written by Islander)

Given the current state of the world and “the music business” in particular, it frequently astounds us that young people continue starting up new bands and pouring their energies into creating songs and playing shows. Didn’t anyone tell them the odds of survival are near hopeless?

Well, no one told the Gothenburg death metal band Sacreligious, or they ignored such miserable advice — and death metal addicts who partake of their debut album Brutality Incarnated will be happy they did. We are certainly very happy to premiere the album’s diabolically exhilarating first single “Vile“. Continue reading »

DREAMWELL – HYMNS FOR THE DENIAL OF GOD

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Aug 252026
 

(Andy Synn has a few thoughts about the new Dreamwell, out on Friday, to share today)

Change is one of the few, reliable constants in life.

All of us change – sometimes drastically, sometimes subtly – whether we want to or not, and the same goes for bands… especially when they undergo any sort of line-up shift.

Case in point, after releasing two extremely well-received albums – 2021’s Modern Grotesque and 2023’s In My Saddest Dreams… (which landed on my “Critical Top Ten” for that year) – Providence-based “Post-Screamo-core” crew Dreamwell parted ways with long-time guitarist Aki McCullough (A Constant Knowledge of Death), transforming them from a quintet to a quartet for the first time since their formation.

Understandably then, I was intrigued as to how this might effect the group’s sound… after all, McCullough‘s absence inevitably leaves a gap, and just as nature always seeks to fill a vacuum so too will the rest of the group’s members have instinctively moved to establish a new equilibrium to fill this gap.

And now, with the imminent release of their third album (out this Friday), we finally get to hear just how much has changed for the band.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WHARFLURCH — “HEADLESS GOD”

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Aug 242026
 

(written by Islander)

Time flies when you’re having fun. It still flies when life looks like sheer hell, with nothing but more hell to come and no way of stopping the misery.

More than two years have flown by since we last commented about the music of the Florida-based death/doom band Wharflurch. The occasion then was a compilation forthrightly named Shittier/Slimier, which collected previously unreleased Wharflurch demos that showcased the more experimental and psychedelic side of the project. Commenting on just one song from it, we wrote:

“It’s more impressive than you might expect based upon the new album’s name. Sure, it’s foul and gross, with monstrous reverb-ed vocals, but also brutish and crazed, capable of triggering muscle reflexes and of spawning ghoulish visions. When the band slow down, that’s when you really feel like you’re being dragged by your hair into a stinking cesspool, and the feverish lead-guitar sounds like it’s gleefully reveling in your agony.”

Time has flown, and now we come back to Wharflurch, expecting both more fun and more hell. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DECONSTRUCTING SEQUENCE — “THE UNDYING VOID”

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Aug 242026
 

(written by Islander)

Last November Black Lion Records released a second album by Deconstructing Sequence named Tenebris Cosmicis Tempora. The band had been formed in the UK by Tiberius, but he relocated to Szczecin, Poland, and began shaping a new creative direction for the band that’s now manifested through this new album.

The new album leans much further into black metal than the debut album, Cosmic Progression: An Agonizing Journey Through the Oddities of Space (which we reviewed here), but also pushes even further forward into the progressive and avant-garde territories explored in that debut. As Black Lion summarized:

Tenebris Cosmicis Tempora blends the furious riffing of Mayhem, the majestic elements of DHG and Emperor, and the haunting depth of Akhlys, forging a journey through idiosyncratic sound and vision.

Tiberius recorded the album with new drummer Dark Soul and also recruited a new lineup for live performances. As an explosive reminder of what Tenebris Cosmicis Tempora encompasses, today we’re premiering a striking video for an unhinged and thoroughly heart-hammering song from the album named “The Undying Void“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TODOMAL

 Interviews  1 Response »
Aug 242026
 

(Earlier this year our Comrade Aleks interviewed Javier Fernández Milla, one of the two members of the Spanish doom metal band TodoMal. Today we present an English translation of that very good discussion. TodoMal’s newest album Graveyards of Joy was released on July 3rd by Season of Mist, and we reviewed it, along with their two previous albums, here.)

We simply couldn’t ignore the third album by the Spanish band TodoMal, Graveyards of Joy. While their second release, A Greater Good, clearly showcased innovative, luxurious doom metal with the global cinematic backdrop and emotional vibe of Anathema in the late ’90s, today the band’s founders Javier Fernández Milla and Christopher B. Wildman have taken a step beyond that. TodoMal’s new material sets a new standard for melodic, still-heavy doom music, laced with a genuine sadness and an ineradicable humanity.

What is this doom with a human face about? I believe Javier will answer that question, too. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ENSLAVED, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, FIRTAN, URNA, SELENOPLEXIA, STOFLONG

 SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Aug 232026
 


Enslaved – photo by Chantik Photography

(written by Islander)

I’ve been knocked askew by a bout of forgetfulness. Yesterday I forgot that I’d committed to join my spouse at an event that lasted all afternoon and into the evening. I also forgot another commitment I’d made for later this morning; I don’t always check my calendar on Sundays, and it’s a good thing I did today.

Anyway, because of those two forgettings I was left with not enough time to get this Sunday’s column done. But it pains me to leave nothing here for people who make a habit of dropping by on Sundays, so I decided to do something I’m not sure I’ve ever done before; if I have, it’s a rare occurrence.

What I’m doing is just embedding streams of a handful of new songs (the first three accompanied by excellent videos) that I want to recommend, plus a recent EP, without any commentary of my own and only bare-bones info about the releases.

It bothers me to do this. It bothers me even though I have no idea how many listeners actually read what I write, versus just punching the Play buttons. But it would bother me more to do nothing at all. So, here you go (and please feel free to leave your own commentary in place of mine): Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BLACK ROYAL, MOTHER OF GRAVES, ANAGNORISIS, OFFERNAT, STATIC ABYSS, LACONIST

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Aug 222026
 

(written by Islander)

My short vacation which spanned last weekend prevented me from writing both this Saturday column and the usual one on Sunday. So for today I had two weeks’ worth of possibilities to choose among, along with many more on my list from previous weeks. Deciding what to recommend is always difficult, but today’s decisions were monumentlly difficult. That will be true for tomorrow’s column as well.

I think I’m best advised to cut this introduction short and get right into the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HAINTGROVE — “I DREAM IN A TONGUE I CANNOT SPEAK”

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Aug 212026
 

(written by Islander)

On Juneteenth (June 19) Texas-based Haintgrove released “Starless Passage“, the project’s debut single and first track from a forthcoming album. I paid attention in part because I’m originally from Texas and spent nearly half my life there before moving to the Pacific Northwest, but mainly because of the song’s inspiration and lyrical themes, which Haintgrove described as follows:

“Starless Passage” serves as the opening chapter of a larger concept centered on the experiences of enslaved Africans in the colonial South. Rather than presenting history as a straightforward narrative, the project approaches it through atmosphere, landscape, memory, and emotional perspective. Coastal shorelines, flooded forests, forgotten crossings, and the natural world itself play a central role in the music’s identity.

The song proved to be quite impressive — and I’ll re-share my thoughts about it before we reach the end of this article, but the main subject is a second single from Haintgrove that we’re premiering today (along with a captivating video), a song called “I Dream in a Tongue I Cannot Speak“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DETHRASHED — “AVARITIA”

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Aug 212026
 

(written by Islander)

As their name suggests, Dethrashed are a death/thrash band. Having been founded just last year in Tbilisi, Georgia, they’re a new group (and a young one), but they’ve wasted no time in showing listeners what they can do. They independently released their debut album Existence Under Pressure in May of this year, and they’ve already got a second one waiting on the launch pad.

The name of their second album is The Weight Of The Vortex, and it will be released by Satanath Records on October 20th. To help spread the word, today we’re premiering a song from the album called “Avaritia“.

The label has given us this description of the album’s lyrical themes: Continue reading »

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