TRANSMISSIBILE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES — AN INFECTIOUS ADDENDUM PART 1 OF 3

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Feb 232026
 

(We concluded the rollout of our 2025 Most Infectious Extreme Metal Song list at the end of January, but our South African contributor Vizzah Harri has prepared a three-part Addendum of infectious songs that weren’t included in our main list. The complete title of this Part 1 is: “Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies – An Infectious Addendum Part 1 of 3 (Prog, tech, avant, death, schedule 1 drvgs, gospel music?).”)

2025 had a lot of people feel like it was out to get them, like we were all engineers in the Starfleet wearing red shirts (for the uninitiated: a trope oft parodied that has to do with people wearing red in a sci-fi show predestined to die before the third act). If you’re reading this, the scars might be real, hell does exist on earth, there are still monsters and beasties out there, but somehow and somewhere there is also a balancing counter effect.

The 26th year of the 3rd millennium is already well underway, and even though African shores that follow Gregorian calendars are where these words are writ, I still tend to live partially or at least in spirit, on Eastern shores where the year of the fire horse only commences in the middle of February.

Superstitions can have far-reaching effects if a whole populace gets hyped up by it. 1966, the last occurrence of the red horse, induced a significant drop in fertility in Japan because of oral traditions relating this astrological occurrence with misogynistic overtones. One origin story is of a real woman who was burned at the stake for an apparent attempt to commit arson, and though there are varying accounts, Yaoya Oshichi was born in the very metal year of the fire horse, 1666. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TERATOMA — “STERTOROUS WHISPER”

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Feb 232026
 

(written by Islander)

If you’ve ever listened to the music of the German band Teratoma, as first captured in their 2021 debut album Purulent Manifestations, you know their choice of band name wasn’t some random shot in the dark. They clearly searched for a real-world representation of the hideous ghastliness they sought to channel in their death metal, and they found the teratoma tumor to be suitably horrid. (FYI, the term comes from the Greek word for “monster” plus the “-oma” suffix used for tumors.)

But even within their debut album Teratoma’s brand of death metal manifested other aspects of monstrosity besides sensations of horrid disease and blood-congealing creepiness. Like the tumor whose name they chose, the music was abominably multi-faceted.

Their new album, Longing Voracity, further expands those other aspects, as the album’s title itself foretells, and we have a prime example of what they’ve achieved achieves through our premiere of the album’s closing track “Stertorous Whisper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CALVANA — “SUMMER STORM”

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Feb 232026
 

(written by Islander)

We are told that the Italian black metal band Calvana was established in 2015 at the foot of the Calvana massif, an imposing mountainous ridge north of Florence, and that the band exists “solely to amplify the voice of the mountain as a singular, monolithic entity”. On March 20th Adirondack Black Mass will release Calvana’s third album, Sub Janus.

The press materials for the album evocatively describe the music:

As trend-free as ever, the record captures the primal rage of the peaks and the elemental wrath of nature, forged in the fires of old-school black metal. Rough and robust, their roiling screeds of fury remain as potent as ever, locating that ever-elusive balance between the cryogenic and the lava-like. All instruments hold equal weight in their rustic, all-analog soundfield – particularly bass guitar, an instrument often relegated to nonexistence in black metal – further grounding Calvana’s elemental nature.

You’ll be able to appreciate these claims by listening to the second song from the album released for listening so far, “Summer Storm“, which we’re premiering today with an unsettling lyric video. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: CRYPTIC SHIFT / GOOD TIGER / SIDIOUS

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 232026
 

(Andy Synn serves up three more examples of high-quality British beef for your ears)

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating all the same… the UK Metal scene is as vital and as vibrant and as varied right now as it’s ever been.

And one of the reasons this particular column exists is to help highlight that variety – and today’s post is particularly diverse in its stylistic scope – beyond the borders of this green and pleasant (though currently quite wet) land.

Obviously I can’t cover everything that issues from these shores every year – for one thing, there’s some albums that I just don’t want or feel the need to cover – but hopefully I can help out at least a few of my fellows by exposing their music to a more international audience.

So, without further ado, let’s get to it… shall we?

Continue reading »

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

 SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
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”

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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”

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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 »

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