AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CLOUDS — “DESPRINS”

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Jan 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Today the Romanian/UK band Clouds are releasing their sixth album, Desprins, and we’re helping spread the word by sharing the premiere of the entire record.

From “Disguise” through “The Fall of Hearts,” Desprins includes seven new songs, plus two bonus tracks — “Sorrowbound” and “Chasing Ghosts,” which were released as stand-alone singles in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The band describe the album as “a fearsome journey into the darkness of consciousness, an introspective reflection upon the human existence.”

The lyrics of the new songs are poetic, which is what we’ve come to expect from songwriter Daniel Neagoe. As we have also come to expect, they are expressions of the crushing disappointments, pain, and hollowness of life (“this mockery of hope”) — dark reflections filled with acrimony, loss, regret, and the realization of delusion. Insanity and rage also mark the narrator’s bleak memorials, but not joy or hopefulness; life has extinguished those. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SCITALIS — “SUFFERING”

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Jan 102025
 

(written by Islander)

It seems to have become a tradition at our site to spread the dark word of the Swedish black metal band Scitalis: In 2021 we premiered their 2021 debut EP Awakening (and what an awakening its was!). In the following year we then premiered a song from their debut album Doomed Before Time. In 2023 we also premiered their stand-alone single “Thy Offering,” which was the work of a revised lineup. And now…

…and now we’re helping Vendetta Records announce a new Scitalis album, which has been set for release on January 24th. Entitled Maledictum, it is described as “a haunting exploration of despair and wrath inspired by Sweden’s witch trials during ‘Det stora oväsendet’ (1668–1676).” Once again, today we’re also hosting a song premiere from the new record. Accompanied by a gripping video, its name is “Suffering“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRAVE ALTAR — “SHRINES OF HATRED”

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Jan 092025
 

(written by Islander)

To cut to the chase: You are about to hear one of the most thoroughly exhilarating, constantly surprising, and utterly devilish albums this baby of a new year has yet given us. We will be lucky indeed if the rest of the year gives us anything else that’s this much fiendish fun.

What we’re referring to is Shrines of Hatred, the second full-length of Grave Altar from South-West UK that’s coming out on January 13th via the Vicious Witch label. “Black/Thrash” is the genre label that will be affixed to it, but it’s better called Black Magic. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MŮRA — “NEEDLE CATHEDRAL”

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Jan 082025
 

(written by Islander)

Můra is a Prague-based Blackened Death/Doom Metal band originally formed in 2020. In the following year they released their debut EP, Doom Invocations and Narcotic Rituals. Later this month two respected labels (Doomentia and Caligari) will jointly release Můra‘s second EP, Needle Cathedral, and today we proudly premiere its title song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FUMES — “KAMAZOTZ”

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Jan 072025
 

(written by Islander)

In naming their records and their songs the Mexican black metal band Fumes have shown a talent for combining words in distinctive ways that also point the way toward the character of the music: Their 2022 debut EP was named Stellar Murders Upwards. The title of their forthcoming debut album is Skeletal Wings Unleashed. And that album’s first single was “Stellar Ascension Infernal.”

Today we present a second single from the album. The name of this one — “Kamazotz” — will be less understandable for many fans, but it also turns out to be suggestive of meanings behind the music and its sensations as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VINTRAS — “IN DEATH’S DREAM”

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Jan 062025
 

The old adage is true: Misery does love company, especially when the company is as powerfully talented as the UK post-black metal band who call themselves Vintras. But even listeners who are happily basking in brightness will be gripped by how well Vintras shatter all rose-colored glasses.

The band’s debut album Timescarred will be co-released in late March by Void Wanderer Productions and War Productions. They have presented an eloquent statement about the grim perspectives that inspired the music: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VOMITRISTE — “VOID SERMON”

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Jan 032025
 

(written by Islander)

We are about to premiere a surreal video for a track from a new album fittingly named Black Abyss Invocation by the enigmatic Finnish duo known as Vomitriste. Set for co-release later this month by Roman Numeral and Machine Tribe Recordings, it represents a horrifying new chapter in the band’s creative impulses.

What they’ve done before consists of six albums, which Vomitriste have recently released as a compilation called Droneworks (2022-2024). As that collective title suggests, the music could be (too simplistically) summed up as an amalgam of “colossal, noisy drones and profound dark ambient.” But what they’ve done on Black Abyss Invocation leaves that behind and makes a new start.

The change was unexpected even to the band. They say the new creations, which were created in a single session overnight, left them “perplexed” as they opened their minds and accidentally stumbled across new methods of expression. Here’s how they explain it: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NAKED WHIPPER — “DEPRAVED TO THE BONE”

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Jan 032025
 

(written by Islander)

I don’t think I’d heard of Naked Whipper until Neill Jameson mentioned their forthcoming album not once but twice in his year-end articles at NCS, as something to look forward to in January. He made the same observations on social media. Just about every time, he included exclamation points. I began to think that was part of their actual name: “Naked Whipper(!)”

And then serendipitously we got asked to host this premiere. Sadly, I discovered that exclamation points aren’t part of their official name. Happily, I discovered why Neill was always adding that punctuation.

One reason is that their new album, Chapel Defilement, is the band’s first release of any kind since 1995, so there’s the surprise that comes from thinking something’s dead and dusted and then suddenly seeing it breathe again. But there’s another reason, which you’re about to discover. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEJECTER — “FIENDS”

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Jan 022025
 

On January 31st the Kansas City outfit Dejecter will build upon and expand what they’ve done on two previous EPs through the release of a new one named Oblation Husk, and today we’re helping to introduce it through our premiere of one of the four new songs. Its entirely fitting name is “Fiends.”

For those who haven’t yet discovered the band, it began in the summer of 2022 when Sean Rehmer (Mercurial) and Josh Caldwell (Godhammered, One Inch Punch) begun writing together at Storm Crow Studio just outside of Kansas City. Some months later, they sought out a vocalist to complete their vision and found what they sought in Silas Olson (Devourist).

They then put out those two EPs mentioned above, Human​(​v​)​oid in 2023 and Majesty Artificial last year. Those two led Metal Archives to brand Dejecter‘s music as “Death/Sludge Metal,” and you’ll detect both of those genre ingredients in the new EP, but other ingredients are now also apparent. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FELL OMEN — “DUNGEON METAL PUNKS BESIEGING DIGITAL CASTLES”

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Dec 302024
 

(written by Islander)

There are so many aspects of the Fell Omen song and video we’re about to premiere that are just… bonkers. But I hasten to add, they are bonkers in very good and highly entertaining ways. Let me count the ways:

There is the name of the song: “Dungeon Metal Punks Besieging Digital Castles“. There is the fact that Fell Omen‘s Greek mastermind Spider of Pnyx performs the song in a suit of medieval armor. There is this armored warrior’s use of a hurdy-gurdy to open the song, and the fact that it’s not even the most “out there” aspect of the music. Continue reading »

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