SHADES OF BLACK: AIN SOPH AUR, LIGHTLORN, GALVANIST, PAINIST

 SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 222026
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday’s column was shorter than usual. I explained then that I was leaving home early for a day-long outing with my spouse. That happened, and what we did together was a tremendous amount of fun. But we didn’t get back to our island home until nightfall, and I didn’t spend what was left of the evening messing with NCS stuff.

As it happens, I’m leaving home again with my spouse this morning to do something else she planned. So once again, I’m having to shorten the volume of music as compared to what this column usually includes. Luckily, I had already listened to everything I picked during the past week, so I wasn’t starting from scratch. But with more time I would have included more.

The first three selections came easily — I initially paid attention to them based on my past experience with the bands’ music, and their new stuff definitely doesn’t disappoint. The fourth one was just me getting a wild hair, and the impulse paid off. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AT THE GATES, THE SILVER, THE LEAVING, DEFECT DESIGNER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 212026
 

(written by Islander)

Today’s collection will be shorter than usual, because I need to leave house and computer fairly early this morning for a day-long outing with my spouse. We have a ferry departure we need to make, so I won’t have any wiggle room.

I suppose my first choice for today is an obvious one, for reasons I suppose I’ll identify in case it’s less obvious than I think. After that I settled on a couple of “proven commodities” who are proving their worth again, and one new band that drew attention because of its lineup. I hope these songs and videos get your weekend off to the right start, as they did for me. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BURIED SHALLOW — “RISE, I THE MARTYR”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Buried Shallow’s new single “Rise, I The Martyr” is not about golf. To oversimplify the lyrics, they are essentially about the joys of making heavy music and raging on stage. But someone had the genius demented idea to send these Australians out on the links for the song’s video, adorned in apparel that you’re unlikely to see on any course, public or private.

The result is a hell of a lot of wild fun, over on the “batshit crazy” side of the sanity scale. A large part of the fun is the brutal soundtrack to the increasingly brutal match, i.e., the song itself. Somehow it all works, or at least that’s our assessment. You can assess for yourselves down below, because (with big smiles) we’re premiering the song and video today in advance of the single’s official release on February 27th.

But first, let’s have a look at the band in their usual finery: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SURTURIAN — “BLOOD WITCHERY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Are you tired of your face? Have you reached the point when you don’t even want to look in the mirror? Has the task of trying to mask your horror at daily life just become an exercise in futility? Would you prefer to just erase the slate and start over? Well, you’ve come to the right place, because we have a song for you today that will rip your face right off.

The song in question is “Blood Witchery” and the ripping is performed by the bloodthirsty Munich band Surturian. The track, which is being released today as a single, is the one that closes the band’s new album II – Hessian Spears, which is set for release on March 13th by Crawling Chaos Records. The album follows Surturian’s debut EP, I – The Eyemaster. Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XXVI: NEW YEAR, NEW METAL

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 202026
 

(Daniel Barkasi is back with us from chilly West Virginia, presenting another monthly roundup of reviews and recommendations, this time focusing on releases from January of this year.)

Howdy, and hope everyone had a great holiday season! If you had some quality downtime, the envy is immense. We finished our move a few days before Christmas, which made for a hectic time. We’re settled now, thankfully. I go more into it on my year-end list, so we’ll avoid repetition – hope you all checked it out and found something good that you may have missed.

With all of that considered, we have finally returned. Continue reading »

SLAUGHTERDAY: “DREAD EMPEROR”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 202026
 

(Our Norway-based correspondent Chile sent in the following revel of a review for the new album by Germany’s Slaughterday, which was released last week by Testimony Records.)

Some bands are the epitome of working class heroes. You know, somebody who just goes about doing their thing and doing it great, but not really getting the kind of appreciation and attention needed, yet every time the need arises, they come through and become the heroes we both needed and deserved.

German band Slaughterday are exactly that band. Wearing their influences on their proverbial sleeves (they are named after an Autopsy song, after all), they have been doing their own thing for over fifteen years now in a career that has already spawned several great albums.

Last time we met Slaughterday was just a couple of months back when the NCS writer Zoltar did an interview with the band’s bassist/guitarist Jens Finger, with the occasion being them signing to Testimony Records and the first release on the new label being a step away from their usual brand of death metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BIZARREKULT

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 192026
 

photo by Radmila Volchenkova

(Here we have a new interview by our Comrade Aleks of Roman V., mastermind of the Norwegian black metal band Bizarrekult, whose new album is due for release on February 20th — tomorrow! — by Season of Mist Underground Activists.)

Norwegian project Bizarrekult emerged from the Siberian band Dryados and moved to Oslo with the relocation of its founder, Roman “Bizarre” (guitar, bass, vocals). Since then, Bizarrekult has had a virtual “studio” lineup, which, in addition to Roman, includes guitarist Ignat Pomazkov from the Belarusian doom band Adliga and drummer Alexander Pryakhin, based in Russia. At the same time, Roman maintains a live lineup of local musicians, so the band is fully active.

As you noticed due to NCS’ newsletter, Bizarrekult’s third album, Alt Som Finnes (“All There Is”), is here and it’s marked by a slight hint of moderate progress. The eight new tracks feature both pitch-black traditional black metal, with some post-branches. The material’s sound ranges from uncompromisingly apocalyptic and quite extreme to dreamy, transparent “philosophical” passages, presented in a softer, more tranquil manner.

Incidentally, the album features guest vocals: Yusaf Parvec (Manes, Dødheimsgard, Code) croaked on “Blikket Hennes,” Lina (St. Petersburg’s Cross Bringer and Predatory Void) sang on “Drøm,” and Kim Song Sternkopf (Møl and The Arcane Order) sang clean on the lyrical post-metal farewell “Tomhet.”

Conceptually, Alt Som Finnes sounds like an introspective, heart-wrenching album, untethered from conventional black metal themes, save perhaps for a profound sense of the inappropriateness of one’s place in a disorganized world. There was no other way but to do this interview with Roman, so you can read almost the entire story of Alt Som Finnes below. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PRISON OF MIRRORS — “DE SEPULCHRIS OCCULTIS ET IGNE PROFANATIONIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 192026
 

(written by Islander)

De Sepulchris Occultis et Igne Profanationis (Of Hidden Tombs and the Fire of Profanation) is the second album (or EP if you prefer, since it’s on the borderline) from the Italian band Prison of Mirrors. It consists of two very long songs — “Chants Beneath the Shunned Shrines” and “The Devouring Fire of Demonic Doctrine“. It will be released by ATMF on February 24th. And you can listen to it today through our full streaming premiere.

While making references to “the desolate lines traced by the darkest Blut Aus Nord and Akhlys,” ATMF describes the record as “a work that is bleak, profound, suffocating, and all-encompassing: a sonic ritual that grants no respite and, like a slow-acting poison, will wound its listeners, consuming both mind and senses” — “a journey into the core of an abyss with no bottom, where every step drags you deeper, until nothing remains of former memories — only the faint echo of a consciousness undone.”

After that, you’ll be happy to know that the record is survivable, but the mental wounds it leaves won’t heal quickly. The experience is hallucinatory and labyrinthine, and around all of the many strangely curling corners something very unsettling and intense awaits, though the intensity manifests in different ways, leaving different scars. Continue reading »

INGRINA – NÅVÆRENDE LYSS

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 192026
 

(Andy Synn is here to encourage you to lose yourselves in the new album from French Post-Metal collective Ingrina)

Here’s a funny story for you.

Recently, quite out of the blue, we received an email asking us – and I swear I’m not making this up – to stop using so many words in our reviews and to just boil things down to a score out of 10 at the end of each article so that they were more “useful”.

And while you almost have to admire the sheer gall it takes to contact us directly and ask us to change who we are and what we do purely for someone else’s convenience – as if that was ever going to elicit a positive response – it got me thinking about the power of expectations (particularly the wrong expectations) and how important it is to approach things on their own terms.

Which brings us, nice and neatly, to the new album from Ingrina.

Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, JANUARY 2026

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 192026
 

(Join us in congratulating NCS writer Gonzo on his engagement! Also join us in enjoying his reviews of four recommended January releases.)

I’ve yelled about how February is a useless fucking month at least once in the past, but this year feels a little different. For me personally, anyway.

Yes, you may have noticed that this column is hilariously late compared to my usual cadence, but since I’ve last posted here, I have:

  • Gotten engaged
  • Taken a last-minute trip to New York (I had the advanced notice of 24 hours in business days)
  • Had my byline in Decibel for the first time

Suffice to say some curveballs have thrown themselves into my schedule, but it’s not unwelcome. Despite living in a rapidly declining christofascist empire, life is largely good. It’s a very weird time to be happy in your personal life, if nothing else, and that alone is worth something. I also have the privilege of making my return to Roadburn this April, and with the recent announcement of Cult of Luna playing two sets there, I’ll have a hard time thinking about much else for the next two months.

God, where was I?

Oh, right. Here are another four albums you should really drop everything you’re doing and listen to. Yes, right now. Continue reading »

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