AN NCS PREMIERE: FAYENNE — “PRIMORDIAL SURFACE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 192025
 

(written by Islander)

This marks our second encounter with the Swedish black metal band Fayenne. The first occasion (and one not soon forgotten) was their 2019 demo Ancient Womb of Mercury, about which I frothed at the mouth thusly:

“In these three tracks, Fayenne come for your throat, teeth bared and blood boiling. But while the light-speed drum blasting, beautifully vibrant bass, wild, spinning riffs, and howling, hate-filled vocals burn like a wildfire out of control, there’s a lot more going on in the songs than a soundtrack to the Wild Hunt.

“The reverberating leads (both darting and sinuous) are exhilarating, and have the sorcerous feel of black magic incantations, and there’s both classic heavy metal bombast and blood-pumping thrash in the riffing. The songs also manifest rhythmic dynamism as the momentum turns from racing to d-beat-like gallops or the stateliness of a grim but solemn procession.

“Ancient Womb of Mercury is a great blend of styles, black metal being only one of them, and even at only three tracks it will kick your adrenaline into overdrive.”

I and many others hoped for more Fayenne tirades, but we’ve had to bide our time. At last, however, Fayenne are returning, and with a debut full-length that’s now set for an MC release on February 26, 2026, by Void Wanderer Productions. The album’s name is The Calling From The Depth. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EARD — “QUIESCENCE (YULE)”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 192025
 

(written by Islander)

This coming Sunday, December 21st, is the Winter Solstice, a day of both practical and mystical significance. In scientific terms, it marks the beginning of astronomical winter in the northern hemisphere. When the sun is out, the shadows will be the longest of the year because of the sun’s low angle above the horizon, and the night will also be the longest. Above the Arctic Circle there will be no daylight at all. After this solstice the days will slowly begin to grow longer until the Summer Solstice arrives.

In less verifiably measurable terms the day is a symbol of rebirth and the beginning of light’s return. It has been identified and commemorated by ancient civilizations (witness the alignment of such monuments as Stonehenge in England, Newgrange in Ireland, the Goseck Circle in Germany, and the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak) and celebrated for many millennia with festivals, including Yule (a word whose origins and forms are likewise ancient).

To honor the day and celebrate Yule in their own way, the Italian atmospheric black metal duo Eard will release a new song on the Winter Solstice this year. Its name is “Quiescence (Yule)“. As they explain, “Yule marks the return of the light at the heart of the year’s longest night, and the song embodies the hush before rebirth.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INVICTUS — “WANDERING ASHDREAM”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 182025
 

(written by Islander)

We’re about to spill a considerable volume of words about a single song of death metal that ends just shy of the four-minute mark, because it is such an explosive reminder that even the last month of the year is a bad time to sleep on new music.

The song is “Wandering Ashdream” and it’s from the forthcoming second album by the Japanese band Invictus which will be released next month by Memento Mori and Me Saco Un Ojo. As mentioned, it’s the kind of track that inspires a great flooding of words, but the album as a whole does the same thing, witness these portions of the labels’ press statement about the record: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VOID MONUMENTS — “THE SIGN OF BLASPHEMY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 172025
 

(written by Islander)

Occasionally in these premiere features we dive right into the music we’re showcasing, just for the pure hell of it, and then afterward come back and give you some details about who’s doing it and where the music comes from. This is one of those times.

The name of the death metal song you’re about to hear is “The Sign of Blasphemy“, and it’s as brazenly wicked at its core as that title signifies. It’s also vicious, poisonous, revelrous, frighteningly sinister, grimly oppressive, supernaturally chilling, furiously bone-smashing, and so well-written that it quickly drives its many fiendish hooks deep into a listener’s head. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BIZARREKULT — “BLIKKET HENNES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 172025
 

(written by Islander)

The creation of music and its exposure to listeners is, as we all know, an inherently synergistic phenomenon. At least when the music is honest and authentic, the artist thinks something, feels something, is driven by the need to express those thoughts and emotions, maybe even as compulsively as the need to eat and drink. But the listener exposed to musical creations reacts based on their own thoughts, feelings, and histories. What they interpret, whether reflexively or through a thoughtful contemplation, is as much a function of themselves as it is the intention and spirit of the artist.

Bizarrekult is the black metal musical vehicle of Roman V., a native of Siberian Russia who moved to Norway roughly 20 years ago and then began recording music as a lone wolf, accompanying poetic verses he’d been writing since childhood. A demo emerged in 2006, followed by an early split with Theosophy, but then nothing surfaced until an EP in 2019 and then a first album in 2021, Vi overlevde (“We Survived”), followed by a second one, Den tapte krigen (“The Lost War”), in 2023.

Now a third one is on the way. Its title is Alt Som Finnes (“All There Is”), and it includes guest vocalists from Predatory Void, MØL, and Dødheimsgard. What inspired this one? Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DAIDALOS — “DIS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 162025
 

(written by Islander)

The German symphonic black metal band Daidalos was founded in 2020 by Tobias Püschner, originally as a one-man project. For the band’s debut album, The Expedition (2022), Daidalos drew inspiration from a truly harrowing tale from history, the Arctic journey led by the British explorer Sir John Franklin in 1845, an expedition that ended in disaster as Franklin’s two ships (Erebus and Terror) became trapped in the ice, suffering for more than a year; both Franklin and the entire crew perished.

Daidalus now has a second album coming our way in February 2026. For this one the band took its inspiration not from history but from the realm of imagination, and specifically from one one of the greatest works of global literature, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.

But rather than simply retelling the epic through music, Püschner has crafted the new album (titled Dante) as a “reinterpretation” of the descent into Hell, one that “explores doubt, despair, and the hidden truths between faith and fear – a symphonic black metal audio drama, melancholic rather than evil.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MALIGNANT AURA — “BENEATH A CROWN OF ANGUISH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 162025
 

(written by Islander)

About 3 1/2 years ago we premiered a jaw-dropping debut album named Abysmal Misfortune Is Draped Upon Me by the Australian death/doom band Malignant Aura. We called it “a towering and soul-shuddering success, one that’s just as capable of kicking your heart into over-drive as it is of dragging you into abyssal netherworlds where dread and grief endlessly reign.” And now Malignant Aura return, building upon the success of that debut with their second full-length, Where All of Worth Comes to Wither.

The new album is more concise than the debut — five songs and 46 minutes versus six songs and 53 minutes — but it surpasses expectations that the band’s compelling debut generated, which is no mean feat. We have a sign of that achievement through our premiere today of the album’s second single, “Beneath A Crown of Anguish“, in advance of the album’s collaborative release by Memento Mori, Grindhead Records, and Primitive Moth. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ELEVATE THE VIRUS — “THE GROWTH OF DECAY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 152025
 

(written by Islander)

Today we welcome to our site Elevate the Virus, a deathcore band from Saint John, New Brunswick, a place latitudinally close to our site’s Seattle-area HQ but roughly 3400 miles (5500 km) to the east of us. They formed up in 2012, and began making a name for themselves in the Maritime Provinces and elsewhere in Canada through their live performances, and eventually through a continuing sequence of releases starting in 2014.

The band’s latest release is a five-track EP named The Growth of Decay, which was discharged on November 13th. To help spread the word about it, what we bring you today is an official video for the EP’s title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SADAEL — “ERASURE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 152025
 

(written by Islander)

More than 20 years ago Sadael began life in Yerevan, Armenia as the death/doom metal brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Vahe Soghomonyan. Since then Sadael has amassed an extensive discography that includes 20 albums and many shorter releases.

Vahe now lives in Austria, but the changes in Sadael’s life include more than the geographic shift. For Sadael’s newest album, Paralytic Thrall, he recruited experienced U.S. vocalist Andrew Gossard (Nekrofade, Putrefaction), changed the logo, and created a conceptual underpinning for the album as well as alterations in musical style.

The new album is now set for release on December 28th by a trio of labels, and they preview the album this way: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EYELESSIGHT — “VUOTA SOLITUDINE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 112025
 

(written by Islander)

The Eyelessight duo from Pescara, Italy present themselves as manifestations of the name they chose — blindfolded and bloodied, as if their sight had been destroyed by violent events, and their visions must now come from some other means of perception.

The pair have lived together in music since the project’s inception in 2011. The following years brought forth a demo, a live album, a collaborative release with Imber Luminis, and two albums — Mantra per sopravvivere inutilmente (2014) and Athazagorafobia (2018).

Originally released on CD, Athazagorafobia is now receiving vinyl treatment by Talheim Records Germany. The vinyl reissue will occur on December 17th, and it will include two bonus tracks, one of which we’re now premiering with a visualizer video. The song’s name is “Vuota Solitudine“. Continue reading »

 Older Entries