NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEV LEZU — “MAN’S EVIL GIFT”

Aug 182026

(written by Islander)

Sev Lezu is a relatively new bi-coastal U.S. black metal band whose three members are drummer, vocalist, lyricist, and producer Sasha Stroud (Belexum, Onw), guitarist Melissa Moore (Crossspitter, Sonja), and bassist FW (Manat). Their debut album Blood Conscript also includes a guitarist/songwriter guest appearance by Mia Priest (ex-Impiety) on the track “Corpse Step”.

Some or all of those names should grab the attention of listeners based on the music of their other bands. But if there’s any justice in the world (and of course that’s as rare as hen’s teeth), the “Grinding, Melodic Black Death” of Seb Lezu should grab just as much attention.

Here’s how the press materials describe the band’s musical intersections: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROCENE — “SCUMOCRACY”

Premieres No Responses »

Aug 182026

(written by Islander)

Our suspicion is that anyone would have great difficulty finding any adult anywhere in the world who thinks things are just swell. Even billionaires who blare their opinions always seem to find something about modern life that offends them. Less well-heeled people feel genuine anxiety, anger, or despair, though depending on where they are on the political spectrum and the information they consume (or choose to ignore), the causes and solutions vary dramatically.

Here is what drives the Italian death metal band Necrocene, as described in materials distributed to people like us on behalf of their label Personal Records:

There is a crushing weight bearing down on the globe presently, an unbridled destruction that breeds indifference. It is from this bleak reality that NECROCENE draw their breath, subverting geological terminology into a grim political statement on the unstoppable, death-driven momentum of modern capitalism. This overarching thematic rot directly shapes the band’s sonic architecture. Rejecting modern hyper-technical virtuosity, NECROCENE deliver a style of death metal that is deliberately pedantic, abrasive, and deeply rooted in the genre’s foundational essence.

That description concerns Necrocene’s debut album Scumocracy, which follows their Detrimental Paratomy EP and which Personal Records has set for release on September 18th. Those themes resonate here, and so does the music, which (again to quote the press materials) “translate[s] their shared counter-cultural roots into severe musical weight” and “transforms concepts of social decay and technological obsolescence into a perfect, clear-sighted manifestation of a world careening toward its final, self-inflicted epoch.”

We have an example of this today in our premiere of the album’s title song. Continue reading »

SEPULTURA: “THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Aug 182026

(What follows is TheMadIsraeli’s review of an EP announced as the final release by Sepultura. It came out in April of this year via Nuclear Blast.)

Some of us here at NCS are believers in modern Sepultura. I’ve always come to bat for them because the thing that spoke to me of a band who shamelessly and uncompromisingly followed their creative instincts was how, even by the sub-genres of metal they are considered part of, they have chosen to take progressive off-kilter approaches to all of it.

Ever since Max’s departure, and especially from Roorback onward, Sepultura have chosen the hard path. I’m not saying that to imply that Against and Nation aren’t good in and of themselves, by the way, but there is a definitive locking-in that occurs at Roorback. I’d chalk this up to those two records being the warm-up, adapting to Derrick’s inclusion and trying to find who they wanted to be. Some people may not fully appreciate what Sepultura was faced with when Max left and Andreas Kisser had to overcome the perception which had taken over that Max WAS Sepultura.

Andreas Kisser will forever be one of my favorite songwriters and guitarists in metal purely because his answer to that challenge was to not play the fame game at all. He essentially ditched the band’s previous legacy for a new one. I think this decision obviously paid off, but they’ve had to deal with a never-ending barrage of people crying about how this wasn’t the old thing anymore. Continue reading »

WARFORGED – THE GROVE | ALMANAC

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 172026

(Andy Synn courts controversy yet again with his review of the new Warforged album, out now)

We should probably start things out today by laying all our cards on the table, yes?

While many people were impressed by Warforged‘s debut album, I: The Voice, I’m afraid I wasn’t one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still an impressive number of ideas, and a lot of technical talent, on display across the album’s unwieldy, almost 73 minute run-time (this is definitely not a band who ascribe to the theory of “less is more”, that’s for sure) but I ultimately found the execution to be disjointed and uneven, with too much of it just haphazardy thrown at the wall in the hope that something would stick.

Their second album, however, showcased a darker, more atmosphere-heavy, sound (as well as a new vocalist) that felt – with a few slightly janky exceptions – more focussed and intentional, harnessing the band’s more experimental and unpredictable impulses with a greater sense of direction that made all the various parts, even the ones which didn’t quite work, feel like they were actually contributing to a greater whole, rather than pulling the record in a thousand different directions at once.

And, luckily for me – though this may end up disappointing a certain section of Warforged‘s fanbase – Almanac is very clearly both a spiritual and sonic successor to Sundial, continuing the ongoing story by adding a fresh new chapter to the band’s career.

SHORT BUT SWEET ON A SATURDAY: HELL IS REAL / MOUTHBREATHER / RACETRAITOR

SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Aug 152026

(Andy Synn picks up the slack today while the boss is away)

Our beloved leader, he whose eyes are all-seeing and whose arms encircle the sun, is currently off on a scenic break, leaving myself and DGR in charge of the site over the weekend.

And, as consumnate professionals… we have nothing prepared.

Or, at least, I should say that we had nothing prepared, since – as luck would have it – a surprise release yesterday has allowed me to complete another tripartite “Short But Sweet” article (which, thankfully, I already had half written) so as to ensure we don’t go another day without feeding the internet’s constant craving for new content to consume.

SHADES OF BLACK: DARK PLAGUE, PYRE OF DESCENT, LA BESTIA DE GEVAUDAN, MATAVITATAU, SPIRIT POSSESSION, SKELETAL SERPENT

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK No Responses »

Aug 142026

(written by Islander)

As many of you will know, I usually post a column at NCS on Sundays with recommendations in the expanding orbit of black metal. I wasn’t able to do that last Sunday due to leaving home on the early side of the day for what turned out to be a cool birthday celebration in a forest for a friend. I had made some choices for the column by then, and wanted to carry through with them whenever I could this week, while adding a couple of songs I’ve discovered since last weekend.

But it took me nearly all week to get this finished. It comes to you on another day when I’m about to depart from home and computer for most of the day; I have a ridiculously early start on a journey to the Seattle airport for a long weekend vacation. I’m doubtful that I’ll be able to assemble the usual new-music roundups for this coming Saturday and Sunday, but we shall see.

In the collection you’re now looking at I’ve interwoven an album, an EP, and four singles. Continue reading »

NERVOSA: “SLAVE MACHINE”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 142026

(Erstwhile NCS writer TheMadIsraeli returned to us with a review earlier this week, and he’s already back again, this time writing about a new album by Brazil’s Nervosa that was released in April by Napalm Records.)

I know the band we’re reviewing today is Nervosa, but I just need you guys to take a detour with me, okay? We’re doing a Tarantino sort of introduction here. It will come together with time. I want to talk about Arch Enemy first.

We’re talking about Arch Enemy because I love Arch Enemy. Well, mostly… The Johann Liiva era of Black Earth, Stigmata, and Burning Bridges is arguably still the strongest first three-record run of any of the Gothenburg bands during the ‘90s. If I make a list of my top 100 albums of all time, there’s more than one Arch Enemy record in there, including even the Gossow era for a time or two. Their music was sonic indignation. You felt this unhinged lashing out at the world and all of the unfairness of it in everything they wrote, on top of first-class guitar work both from a riff-writing and a lead-playing standpoint.

I ate and breathed this band for a long time. Then Rise Of The Tyrant came out, and while it’s a solid record, it’s the start of a very noticeable slide into complacency and just… you could tell Michael Ammot was in full careerist mode. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATHGRAVE — “HELL IS EVIL”

Premieres No Responses »

Aug 132026

(written by Islander)

By this point the Bay Area grindcore miscreants Deathgrave probably need no introduction to the kind of miscreant listeners who visit our site, but there’s also a chance someone just awoke from a long coma or just recovered from a debilitating mental disease, so we’ll make a quick one.

Originally formed in 2013, Deathgrave brings together the talents of guitarist Greg Wilkinson (Autopsy, Brainoil), bassist Fern Alberts (Amber Asylum), vocalist Andre Cornejo, and drummer Clint Zane (Owl). Even from their earliest releases, they were prone to stewing together differing genre ingredients from punk and metal, but the stew has become more rich over time. Their new album Hell Is Evil is the richest yet.

We’ve already published a review of the album (here), which concludes with this paragraph:

This is the sound of what happens when grindcore grows up. Fans of the more feral punk-tinged offshoots of death metal would be advised to give this album a listen. Overall, it proves it does not matter how heavy or intense your sound is; there is always time to slow down and create memorable songs, without having to sacrifice the confrontational elements of your sound. This is the primary reason why this is one of the best albums on the more extreme side of things so far this year.

And today we have the pleasure of premiering the new album’s title song in advance of the record’s release by Tankcrimes on August 21st. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: EXTINCTION OF MANKIND / HAAST / THE SALT PALE COLLECTIVE

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Aug 132026

(Andy Synn tries to beat the heat with three more home-grown recommendations)

It’s another hot one here in the UK right now, and people are definitely looking for something to take their minds off the oppressive heat.

And in the absence of any particularly icy Black Metal to cool us down, I thought I’d instead focus on a trio of recent releases (“recent” being a relative term) all capable of capturing your attention and distracting you from the oppressive weight of the weather, in three distinctly different ways.

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE BLACK THUNDER — “VERIFICATION OF WOUNDS”

Premieres No Responses »

Aug 122026

(written by Islander)

Today we have the pleasure of helping announce that in October Pagan Records will release a new album named Time Obliteration by The Black Thunder from Poland, and to help build anticipation for that event we’re also premiering a video for the album’s first single, the genre-bending “Verification of Wounds“.

If you are already familiar with The Black Thunder via their previous releases, including their two previous albums, you may be in for a surprise, because the band have shifted their sound, moving on from the stoner and groove-based sounds of those records into darker tones that feature a mixture of black metal elements, sludge elements, technical elements, and crust-punk elements.

Moreover, The Black Thunder recorded Time Obliteration in a live studio recording. Pagan Records further explains that, lyrically, the album “focuses on themes of existential anxiety, internal conflict, and distorted perception”.

Here is how bassist, vocalist, and founder Marcin Szczepański explains some of the changes in the context of the new song you’re about to hear: Continue reading »

Older Entries