OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XXXIII: RIP KENNETH GALLANT

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Nov 052026
 

(Here we present Daniel Barkasi’s latest monthly collection of reviews for NCS. This one focuses on albums released in October 2026.)

Thankfulness can be tricky. Everyone’s life situation is unique, of course, and we all have encountered strife, heartache, sadness, but also joy, elation, and warmth. Lately as I’ve seen folks really struggling, it isn’t lost upon me how fortunate we’ve been in many facets of this winding adventure that is life. As I write this, I’m looking out at our horses, petting our wonderful Australian Cattle Dog, Jericho, as he attempts to tackle me with affection, and the importance of such moments aren’t lost on me. A reflective mood has struck my often pessimistic brain, and it goes to show that sometimes you’ve got to slow down a bit and embrace every good moment. They’re the ones you want to remember and call upon during difficult times.

Solidifying this feeling is the loss of a friend and fellow passionate music writer in Kenneth Gallant, who passed away back in July, and I unfortunately only recently found out about it. Continue reading »

HALLOWEEN ’26: A PLAYLIST OF SCARY AND HAUNTING EXTREME METAL

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Nov 042026
 

(Our Italian friend Tito Vespasiani has brought us a Halloween-themed playist of extreme metal songs, both very new and somewhat older, from nine bands, which he introduces one-by-one in the following column. He’s got the collection up on Spotify too.)

Hello folks! It’s external contributor Tito V. here again. Long time no see. It’s been a while since my last playlist for No Clean Singing and I decided to come swinging with a new one suitable for this time of the year… haunting and eerie tunes only!

I know, there may be TONS more deserving to be added here. From zombies to monsters of all sorts, passing through ghastly guitar tones and more scary tunes, but we wanna keep this “fairly” short in order to be able to check it out properly and revisit it, alright. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WITCHGÖAT — “STORMING THE WALLS OF ETERNITY”

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Nov 042026
 

(written by Islander)

“With a name like Witchgöat, it’s safe to say we are probably not dealing with the latest Avant-Garde, Prog Metal sensation to sweep through the scene. Instead, these Salvadorians lay waste to everyone and everything in sight with their brand of Blackened Death/Thrash.”

That’s how NCS writer Todd Manning began his review of Witchgöat’s debut album Egregores of the Black Faith more than seven years ago. But he also took pains to point out that “while Witchgöat certainly owe a debt to ripping Black Metal, tons of molten Old School Metal and Thrash slag flow through their veins”, and that they achieved “a striking balance between brutality and memorability”.

In 2023 Witchgöat followed up with their second album, Altars of Necromancy, and it was an even more multi-faceted and eye-opening experience (one for which we hosted the premiere of a demonically wild and devilishly hypnotic song called “Rejected by the Demiurge“).

And now Witchgöat are coming back at us again, with a third album named Serpent Hordes that their new label Personal Records will co-release with Morbid Skull Records on December 4th. And we are again in the fortunate position of getting to premiere one of the new songs — “Storming the Walls of Eternity“. Continue reading »

HATEBREED – FATAL PARADOX

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Nov 042026
 

Hatebreed - Fatal Paradox

(Andy Synn says that these old dogs still bite just as hard as ever on their new album, out Friday)

What more is there to say about Hatebreed?

After all, we’re talking about a band who have been Hardcore royalty for almost thirty years now, and a veritable institution in the Metal scene for almost as long, selling millions of albums and touring around the world, from toilet bowls to stadium shows, along the way.

So you might think that everything that needs saying has already been said, in one way or another.

But you’d be wrong, because real fans know that while there’s never been a bad Hatebreed album, not all Hatebreed albums are created equal… especially when you consider their last few releases which, while never without at least a banger or two to their name (The Divinity of Purpose in particular features a bunch of killer cuts that have ended up on my regular playlist), have sometimes felt a little too formulaic for their own good.

Which is what makes Fatal Paradox worth talking about, because against all odds – and without radically reinventing the proverbial wheel or breaking the metaphorial mould – it might just be the band’s best album since The Rise of Brutality.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MACERATION — “LYCANTHROPIC CARNAGE”

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Nov 042026
 

(written by Islander)

The story of Maceration is such an interesting and inspiring one, at least if you’re a nerdy death metal historian. They began in roughly 1990 as a death metal side project of two guys (Jakob Schultz and Jacob Hansen) from the Danish thrash band Invocator, catching the building death metal wave in Europe. They played their first gig that same year with Darkthrone back when that band was playing death metal. And their 1992 debut album A Serenade of Agony was what most people consider the first Danish death metal album. At least for that reason, and maybe a few others (such as a 19-year-old Dan Swanö recording session vocals for the record), it achieved a kind of cult status.

But as a side project Maceration turned out to be short-lived. There was an independently relased Maceration demo in 1995, and then nothing further for quite a long time (i.e., nearly 30 years). Thought dead, but with its heart still secretly beating, Maceration revived in 2022 with a new album authentically titled It Never Ends…, and to draw the red line back to the band’s origins it included growls by Dan Swanö in what (so far as we know) was his last performance of harsh vocals.

They followed that hellaciously good comeback album with another terrific album just last year — Serpent Devourment — with Dan Swanö still involved as producer and mixer, but with the band’s live vocalist Jan Bergmann Jepsen behind the mic. And now they have fairly quickly brought forth another full-length. Titled Mercy to the Miserable, it’s set for release on November 20th by Emanzipation Productions,  a label that’s been with them arm-in-arm since the comeback album.

We are most happy today to premiere a lyric video for the final single from the new album in advance of that release, a song aptly named “Lycanthropic Carnage“. (And by the way, if you’re a nerdy metal historian like we are, it will be worth your time to read our contributor Zoltar’s wonderful 2025 interview of sole remaining founding member Jakob Schultz — here.) Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DISEMBODY — “AWAKENING OF ANCIENT EVIL”

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Nov 032026
 

(written by Islander)

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering the second single from Awakening of Ancient Evil, the second full-length from the Finnish black/thrash duo Disembody. It’s set for release by Helldprod Records on November 4th (tomorrow!), but you can listen to it in its entirety now through our album premiere below.

The label has summed up the music as “raw, vicious and uncanny” — “eight tracks packed with hellish aggression, piercing riffs, and relentless pounding evilness,” leavened with “haunting melodies [that] will lull you into a dark slumber.”

That is accurate and succinct, but of course we have more elaborate thoughts of our own to share about this very remarkable album. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANCESTROS — “INCOGNITUM HACTENUS”

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Nov 032026
 

(written by Islander)

Ancestros is a new Seville-based collective of musicians, writers, and visual artists, whose musical performers have been associated with such bands as Orthodox, Pylar, and Voidescent (among others). The name of their decidedly unorthodox debut album is Blasfemia Austral, and it’s set for release on November 16th by Cavsas, a division of Cyclic Law.

The label’s description of the music makes comparative references to the likes of Portal, Deathspell Omega, Teitanblood, Oranssi Pazuzu, Reverorum ib Malacht, Hellhammer, and Bathory, which should generate intrigue.

One song from the album surfaced earlier this month, and today we’re premiering a video for a second one — “Icognitum Hactenus“. But before we get to them, we want to share a more complete description of the album’s thematic conception drawn from the press materials circulated on behalf of the Cavsas label, because it is a further source of intrigue: Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Nov 032026
 

(Andy Synn presents another round-up of things from last month you may have missed)

Was October the busiest month in Metal so far this year?

Well, the jury’s still out on that one, but it definitely left me with so many options for this edition of “Things You May Have Missed” – including Black Royal, Coal & Crayon, The Curse Made Flesh, Dethroned, Detresse, Dread Witch, Hatalom, Hope Collapse, Litost, Minenfeld, Sneglefeber, Throes, Urarv, and Veret – that I might just have to do a another one of these articles next week, because four really isn’t a big enough number to even scratch the surface of what I want to recommend to you all from last month.

With that in mind then, let’s not waste any more time and get right to my first batch of recommendations.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROPANTHER — “THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD”

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Nov 022026
 

(written by Islander)

Let’s pause for a moment to admire the artwork created by Max Sherman for Necropanther’s new album The Book of Change.

More than a moment, actually, because it takes a more careful inspection to comprehend the detailed rendering of spiky crab-like legs and swirling tentacles, of pointed teeth and skull-like growths, of multiple eyes and sprawling coral-like creepiness. The colors are wonderful as well, including the shade of green that backstops all the alien weirdness in the forefront.

If you’re new to the musical works of Necropanther, you might wonder what the connection is (or if there is any connection) between that artwork and this Denver band’s music. Is it intended to signal something about what you’ll hear? Is it rooted in some way to the songs’ lyrical themes?

We’ll venture answers to those questions, and we’ll share comments from the band that shed further light on what they’ve gotten up to on this new album, but our main focus today is on the song we’re premiering today, whose title does seem to tie in very well to what’s on the album cover: “The Thing From Another World“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VÉR — “A FÉREG PUSZTULÁSA”

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Nov 022026
 

(written by Islander)

Vér is the name of a quintet from Budapest, Hungary who made their public debut with a demo in September 2024. It grabbed the attention of Me Saco Un Ojo Records, which released the demo on tape early the next year. And now that same label is about one month away from releasing Vér’s debut album, A Féreg Pusztulása.

Not having heard that demo, our first impression of Vér’s music, as captured on the album, was formed by the press materials we received — such as this:

Rare in the death metal realm does a record maintain resolutely old-school influences – the squirming horror of early Cemetary, the alternating gallop & tank-tread of equally early Grave, the angular beatdown of mid-’90s Immolation, the swarming miasma of early ’90s Absu – whilst emitting an essence that it is refreshing and (re)invigorating. Such is the case with A Féreg Pusztulása.

Those same press materials also made reference to the band’s “labyrinthine mindset” in their approach to songwriting, and that rings true repeatedly over the course of the album, and definitely in the case of the album’s title song, which we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

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