TRANSMISSIBILE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES — AN INFECTIOUS ADDENDUM PART 3 OF 3

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Feb 252026
 

(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 3 is: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies – An infectious Addendum Part 3 of 3 (Shit’s about to get weird; BSL-4 entities + 1 bonus track).

 A lot of work goes into art. “Good art is that which brings meaning to reality. Creation is that what brings forth substance and truth.” A lot of us who look for new music become excited with new tones akin to being painted with colors imaginary, palettes that don’t yet exist. If that is all Leet-speak to you, then I’ll just say that you don’t need to fear this turning into the wheat and chessboard problem.

There’s one writer who perpetually fails to adhere to time constraints while jokingly asserting it’s nothing but a construct in this plagued rodent race. One that in aspirational pseudo-linguistical fashion was able to fool the underground in hacking his favorite metal blog by an enforced coup d’état on the infectious series 2 years ago. Sheeit, jokes aside, this is the infectious addendum nobody asked for (except for the fact that Islander has a Desert Eagle .50 pointed at my shiny head to get this shit done before the eschaton arrives). Here are the last infectious cuts you haven’t heard yet from last year. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELA — “A REIGN TO CONQUER”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 252026
 

(written by Islander)

Almost six years after their previous album Vegvísir (November 2019), the Spanish doom metal band Hela have created a new album, A Reign To Conquer, that will be released on February 27th by Ardua Music and Tormo Records. Those six years were of course tremendously eventful in the life of the world (and tremendously disruptive), and Hela encountered their own internal challenges which delayed the completion of their newest work. But sometimes the struggle to overcome challenge leads to triumphs that smooth sailing never would have produced, and that’s true of A Reign To Conquer.

To be sure, as the labels rightly describe, Hela’s new album is still a voyage “through realms of shadow and sorrow” — a voyage that in some important respects will be familiar to fans of their preceding albums. But other changes will be noticeable. Among them is the appearance of Hela’s new vocalist, Raquel Navarro, and we should begin with her contributions as we start introducing our premiere stream of the new full-length today. Continue reading »

TRESPASSER – יְהִי אוֹר

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 252026
 

(Andy Synn prepares to burn it all down again with the new album from Black Metal anarchists Trespasser)

Despite what you might think, I don’t necessarily have to agree with a band’s beliefs in order to enjoy and appreciate their music (the sheer number of Christian, Satanic, or otherwise religious bands I’ve written about and recommended over the years is testament to that).

Don’t get me wrong, there are certain ideologies, etc, I choose not to engage with or support – and that is very much my personal line to draw – but, for the most part, there’s just something about a band who truly believes in what they’re singing/screaming about which makes them far more engaging to me.

And, make no mistake about it, Swedish anarcho-philosophers Trespasser have never been afraid to wear their beliefs and ideals right out on their sleeves.

Continue reading »

THE ALGORITHM: “RECURSIVE INFINITY”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 252026
 

(Here’s DGR’s review of the latest album by Rémi Gallego in his guise as The Algorithm – a record released last November.)

Last of the 2025 releases

Sometimes you cover artists purely because you want to have some sort of written record that you can backtrack to in order to follow how your opinion of them over the years has changed. It is this approach that has led to me consistently covering French electronica-metal-adjacent act The Algorithm as it has gone through its many permutations since the early 2010s.

The brainchild of musician Rémi Gallego, The Algorithm has gone through a series of transformations, matamorphising over time upon different themes as heavy metal evolved and various electronica genres sprang into existence. Describing The Algorithm as being a creature of pure absorbtion would be reductive, but instead it is one that has seen new forms as Rémi has traveled the world of music. Some releases have been jarringly abrasive, others far more danceable. Occasionally The Algorithm has dipped heavily into a complete synth-heavy nightmare and other times it has been freewheeling in its painterly approach.

From album to album, it’s never been clear what to expect – sometimes that statement even works for remix-to-remix with other collaborators – and it wasn’t until the releases of Compiler Optimization Techniques and Data Renaissance that it had seemed like The Algorithm had grown into its own artistic shoes.

It is in this that I find myself covering The Algorithm over and over again: not only for a sort of personal attempt at archiving an opinion of an artist over the years but also to track how a project has changed, grown, and even matured in that same time. It is why, now almost two and a half months into 2026, I’m taking one last look into 2025 through the lens of a project that skates along the surface of metal without becoming a full-blown metal act, and why I find myself continually fascinated with the genre-blurring at play in The Algorithm’s late-November of 2025 release Recursive Infinity. Continue reading »

TRANSMISSIBILE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES — AN INFECTIOUS ADDENDUM PART 2 OF 3

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Feb 242026
 


(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 2 is: “Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies – An Infectious Addendum Part 2 of 3 (Blackened reaches, To stars and beyond, Unclassified viral infections, Queer cuts for bygone moons.”)

Wikipedia only lists around 1555 albums across all genres including metal for 2025 and only around 468 on the page for ‘heavy metal’. If you have Catamarcan dune sands’ worth of time on your hands you should really give the big list a scroll cos cool stuff like the Malatu Astatke’s reimagining and improvisation on old hits popped up. The encyclopedia for the archives of metal lists 32,613 releases for last year: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WINCE AND FRISSON — “KÄRRHÄXAN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 242026
 

(written by Islander)

We would like to introduce you to the “dissoblack and death metal” band Wince and Frisson. They are a duo, one in North Carolina and one in New Jersey. Their names are not “Wince” and “Frisson”. One of them goes by Triumvir Kaleido, and the other is Steve Wiener, who is the artist behind Am I in Trouble? and a member of Eveale, Negative Bliss, and Ashenheart.

Triumvir is the group’s songwriter, guitarist, bassist, and vocalist. Triumvir also creates the band’s artwork and is responsible for the animated music video we’re about to share with you for their first single, “Kärrhäxan“. Steve programmed the drums and produced, mixed, and mastered the music you’re about to hear.

But to briefly go back to the band’s name, “wince” is a word that describes “a slight involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the body out of or in anticipation of pain or distress” (as a visitor to NCS, you probably knew that already), while “frisson” refers to “a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear, a thrill”. Why did they pick this name? You’re about to get some clues. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CENOTAFIO — “ACAUSAL ESCISIÓN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 242026
 

(written by Islander)

This seems like a good time to leap right into a linguistic preview of the song “Acausal Escisión” that you’re about to hear, and then come back to you with further details about where the music comes from.

You would be best advised to gulp lots of air before listening, because violent madness and dreadful misery reign in the song with punishing power. The madness comes first. Without prelude, Cenotafio explode in a stunning assault of light-speed blasting, viciously roiling and insanely shrieking guitars, monstrously malignant roars, and fanatical howls. It is an absolutely unchained, electrifying, and harrowing experience. Continue reading »

ROSA FAENSKAP – INGENTING FORBLIR

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 242026
 

(Andy Synn recommends the new album from one of the most vital new voices in the underground)

If you’ve been in this game for a while, like I have, chances are you’ll have come across quite a few sites/zines/writers who only really cover “big” name bands (usually signed to well-known labels) in the hope of receiving some reciprocal attention and/or access in return.

And while we’ll occasionally cover some “bigger” (relatively speaking) names here at NCS – no-one’s going to be accusing Kreator of being “underground” any time soon, after all – that’s never been our primary focus.

I’ll grant you, in the past we’ve occasionally had a guest writer or two who’ve crossed the line from honest advocacy into outright sycophancy, but when it comes to the core cadre – myself, Islander, and DGR – we at least try to provide some context and justification for our recommendations, rather than just regurgitating the provided press-release materials and calling it a day.

But, let me tell you, as hard as we may try to maintain this self-imposed sense of pseudo-objectivity, it’s not always easy to do so, especially when it comes to an album like Ingenting Forblir… but I’ll try my best.

Continue reading »

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”

 Premieres  No Responses »
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 »

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