AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NECRAMBULANT — “UPHEAVAL OF MALIGNANT NECRAMBULANCE”

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Mar 062025
 

(written by Islander)

The Arizona band Necrambulant have a new album coming out tomorrow on Gore House Productions. Ever-interested in improving my vocabulary, I tried to look up the meaning of “necrambulant”, especially because a variant of the word also appears in the album title: Upheaval of Malignant Necrambulance.

Turns out it’s not in any dictionary (not yet). According to an 11-year-old interview of Necrambulant guitarist Ron Clark at Teeth of the Divine, it’s a word the band made up by combining the prefix “Necro” with “Ambulant” — “just a fancy way to say ‘Zombie.'”

At the time of that interview Necrambulant were about 9 months beyond the release of their debut album Infernal Infectious Necro-Ambulatory Pandemic. It might be time for another interview to figure out why it took the band so long to release more music, with 9 years passing by until their 2022 EP A Feast of Festering Flesh, and then 3 more years until this new second full-length, coming out a chunky dozen years after the first one. (I did find a quartet of more recent interviews, but they were all just the kind of stock questions that could be doled out to any band, and none of them delved into that question.)

But really, the answer is just a matter of bystander curiosity. It’s irrelevant to whether anyone should be paying attention to the band’s new album. Whether attention should be paid, of course, is a function of the music and the tastes of the listener. You’ll get to taste the whole thing — and it will get to taste you raw, without benefit of cooking or seasoning — because we’re providing a full stream today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HERSIR — “PURIFICATION OF FIRE”

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Mar 052025
 

(written by Islander)

The Swedish band Hersir wear the trappings of ancient hellish menace and vicious savagery. They seem to have named themselves for Viking raiders. They titled their debut album Hateful Draugar From the Underground (in Norse mythology the draugar were reanimated corpses or the restless dead). And the album includes songs called “Holocaust Winter“, “Purification by Fire“, and “Valgaldr” (an Old Norse word for spells that raise the dead).

And have no doubt, there is indeed much about their formulations of black metal that are hellish and vicious, but their thematic inspirations from ancient Nordic spirituality and folklore also give their music an unearthly and epic aura, both frightening and wondrous. Perhaps most unexpected from the outward trappings mentioned above, this is a refined beast, a wicked creature in which a certain kind of dangerous elegance lurks beneath the black cloaks, the decayed skin, and the ravenous and hateful hungers.

So if you might be expecting “bestial black metal,” perish the thought. It thus makes sense that their label Darkness Shall Rise (which will release the album on March 28th) invokes the influence of classic Darkthrone, Enslaved, Emperor, or Isengard. And you’ll understand all of this better when you hear the song we’re premiering today — “Purification of Fire.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHAMBER MAGE — “BLADES ON THE RAMPART”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 042025
 

(written by Islander)

WARNING! THERE WILL BE CLEAN SINGING!

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, for those of you who’ve forgotten that the name of our site has never been a hard-and-fast rule, let’s also add what else there will be: Glorious riffs galore, pulse-pounding gallops, blazing solo work, and mystical melodies.

We’re talking about “Blades On The Rampart“, the heart-jumping song we’re premiering from the debut album of Colorado-based Chamber Mage in advance of its March 28 release by Nameless Grave Records. The name of the album is By Light of Emerald Gods, and it’s a good name because it points the way to heavy metal that’s lit by magical and mythic colors, the stuff of swords and sorcery. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ROTHADÁS — “TETEMEK TAVA… LIDÉRCEK TÁNCA”

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Mar 032025
 

(written by Islander)

As you can see, we’re about to premiere a song named “Tetemek tava… lidércek tánca” by the Hungarian band Rothadás. It’s from their forthcoming second album Töviskert… a kísértés örök érzete… lidércharang, which will be jointly released by Me Saco Un Ono Records and Pulvesized Records on March 21st.

According to an online translation tool, the title of the song means “Lake of corpses… dance of ghosts” in English, and the album title translates to “Thorn Garden… the eternal feeling of temptation… a ghostly melody.” Those words point the way to the experience of the music, but we ought to quote from the press materials for the album, because they eloquently point the way in greater detail: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: FUNERAL DANCER — “MANANANGGAL”

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Feb 282025
 

(written by Islander)

The black ‘n’ roll band Funeral Dancer came together at the end of 2019 in Long Island, New York, rising from the ashes of the blackened death metal band Locus Mortis. Since then they’ve released a pair of demos and a 2023 EP (The Nightmare) and played well-known venues in the New York area (including opening for Devil Master and 200 Stab Wounds at Necrofest at Saint Vitus Bar).

Now Funeral Dancer have signed with the revived Dark Empire Records (the Cleveland-based label started back in the ’90s by Integrity‘s Dwid Hellion) for the April 4 release of a new EP called Fiends of the Outer Wave. As a taste of what’s coming, today we’re bringing you the official lyric video for a song from the EP named “Manananggal“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AN AXIS OF PERDITION — “I AM ODIUM”

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Feb 282025
 

(written by Islander)

We have a rare treat for you today, not just an exceptionally good new song by An Axis of Perdition but also an exceptionally good new video.

Let’s get to the video first. It tells a story, something like a haunting fairy-tale that the Brothers Grimm might have imagined. It was directed by award-winning filmmaker Randal Plunkett. The interior settings and the costumes are beautifully made, the exterior settings well-chosen. It’s also well-acted and meticulously filmed, and the narrative unfolds in a way that’s gripping.

Here’s a comment about the short film by Randal Plunkett himself: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELVITNIR — “DRAUGR”

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Feb 272025
 

(written by Islander)

The lineup of the Norwegian metal band Helvitnir have resumes that make fans of black metal sit up straight and pay attention. They include three recent former members of Ragnarok, and two of those are also in Myronath. And their drummer is none other than Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg).

In July 2024, following several singles, Helvitnir released their debut EP Helborn on the esteemed Dusktone label, and it proved to be a masterful four-song blend of raw, chilling aggression and majestic, grandiose compositions that both honored the old ways of black metal from the far north and pushed it forward.

That EP did well, and so now Helvitnir and Dusktone have joined forces again for the release of the band’s debut album Wolves of the Underworld on March 14th. What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for the album track “Draugr“, and we want to begin our introduction with Helvitnir‘s own description of what it brings us: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GALLOWER — “BUBONIC BREATH”

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Feb 272025
 

(written by Islander)

About two and a half years ago we gleefully premiered a song named “Claws and Fangs” from a then-forthcoming EP by the Polish black-thrashing maniacs in Gallower. We introduced it with the observation that “Gallower incite a riot of violence that skillfully melds the Teutonic legendry of Destruction, Sodom, Kreator, and Violent Force with the first-wave black magick of Bathory, Hellhammer, Venom, and Japan’s Sabbat.”

And now, with equal devil-horned glee, we’re helping spread the word that Gallower will be returning on March 28th of this year with their second full-length, aptly titled Vengeance & Wrath, in collaboration again with Dying Victims Productions. And again, we’re happily hosting the premiere of one of the Gallower songs off the new record — “Bubonic Breath“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TER ZIELE — “EMBODIMENT OF DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 272025
 

(written by Islander)

“When we, as humans, accept subjection to suffering, resignation in life inevitably follows.”

With those words the Dutch band Ter Ziele introduce their debut album Embodiment of Death, which will be released on February 28th by Tartarus Records. The words pack a lot of meaning into a relatively brief sentence. They refer not just to human suffering, but to suffering caused by others or by oneself, hence the word subjection. They suggest that there is a choice among those who suffer about whether to accept the subjection or not. And they point to the consequences of acceptance: the inevitability of resignation in life.

And so the sentence is both an observation of bleak realities that beset the human condition and also (possibly) an argument. What does it matter if acceptance leads to resignation unless people have the ability to reject instead of accept? And what might motivate them to resist or to change?

Of course, the words don’t suggest that resistance or change will be easy. It may not even be possible. In some cases we know it will be futile, that some conditions are so terrible and hopes for relief so barren that despair seems inevitable, even when (and maybe especially when) those conditions are self-inflicted. But again, the words imply that acceptance is not the right answer, because that is the surest recipe for a never-ending cycle of misery. They seem to make an argument, though not a “preachy one,” for resistance.

Obviously, there is a connection between the sentence and what inspired the album’s music, and between the inspiration and the results. And you can draw all those connections today as we premiere the record as a whole. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: REJECT THE SICKNESS — “ACTA NON VERBA”

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Feb 262025
 

(written by Islander)

This year the Belgian metal band Reject the Sickness are celebrating their 15th year of music-making with a new album named Signs of the End that will be released worldwide on May 30th, and to help introduce it we’re premiering an official video for a multi-faceted song from the album named “Acta Non Verba.”

Over the course of that 15-year career Reject the Sickness haven’t stood still (and no one who’s heard their music would be able to stand still either). Instead, their music has evolved, along with their lineup, to the point where the new album discharges an amalgam of heavy-grooved death metal, accents of atmospheric black metal, and “a dash of metalcore.” It’s the kind of music that feeds the need for hard-charging, muscle-moving mayhem but also contributes memorable (though often dark) melody, and white-hot vocal intensity.

You’ll see what we mean when you listen to “Acta Non Verba.” Continue reading »

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