AN NCS PREMIERE: “FOUR SORROWS” — A SPLIT BY STARER, MYVANDRER, AMBERGAZE, AND MISTRAL

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Mar 192025
 

(written by Islander)

On March 21st Fiadh Productions and Snow Wolf Records will co-release Four Sorrows, a four-way split among bands around the world who deserve your close attention. Those bands, who are carving their own path through the realms of black metal, are Starer (USA), Myrvandrer (Norway), Ambergaze (Mexico), and Mistral (Poland). As an explanation of how the split came to be, we’ve seen this statement by the person behind Starer (and Snow Wolf):

I have been a huge fan of Mistral since both our debut albums released together on Folkvangr Records back in January 2021. Janek has become a good friend and I’m thrilled to be working together. All credit to him for introducing me to two amazing bands Ambergaze and Myrvandrer and convincing them to share their incredible music with us.

What we have for you today is a premiere stream of this new split, which includes one new song from each band, preceded by a bit of background about the artists and some thoughts about what you will hear. (Here’s a hint: the music is quite diverse and mostly beyond the bounds of traditional/conventional black metal.) Continue reading »

GREY AURA – ZWART VIERKANT: SLOTSTUK

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Mar 192025
 

(Andy Synn may not understand “art”, but he knows what he likes… and he likes Grey Aura)

They say that you can’t spell “Avant-Garde” without the letters “A”, “R”, and “T”… and it turns out they – whoever they are – were right!

Of course, Grey Aura have known that for a long time, as both of their previous albums – 2014’s double-disc debut Waerachtighe beschryvinghe van drie seylagien, ter werelt noyt soo vreemt ghehoort (which chronicled the final exploits of Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz) and 2021’s equally ambitious, but considerably more concise, Zwart Vierkant (which retold and reinterpreted the first half of a story of obsession and insanity written by the band’s own Ruben Wijlacker) – more than qualify as true expressions of avant-garde “art”.

So it should come as little surprise that Slotstuk (as I’ll be referring to it) – which picks up, thematically speaking, where its predecessor left off, unravelling the tale of “a 20th-century Modernist painter whose attempt to dismantle physical reality through abstraction leads him to the brink of madness” – continues to push the boundaries, further blurring the lines between not just the various different genres which comprise the band’s creative palette… but also the lines between sanity and insanity as well.

Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XIV: DARK CHASMS OF BLACK METAL AND STUPIDITY

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Mar 182025
 

(Once again, we welcome Daniel Barkasi and his latest monthly roundup of recommended albums. These were released in February.)

We’re back! Yup, the ole’ brain hasn’t completely capitulated upon itself yet, but the year is young! The country is a fucking laughing stock, but the punchline is to the level of a petulant toddler throwing their toys about. If you didn’t know what a tariff is, you probably do now. Check out this feature from Last Week Tonight from six years ago. I’m no economist, but broad tariffs are stupid, and it’s not hard to figure out. Even worse, trade wars are even stupider. We pay the cost increases, nobody else. But screw Canada, eh? I never thought that Canadian Bacon would become some sort of reality. David Dunning and Justin Kruger were really onto something, am I right?

While we try to survive the insanity, my beloved Liverpool Football Club have sorrowfully exited the exalted Champions League in the cruelest of fashions – the dreaded penalty shootout. Even worse – it was against PSG, a team whose ownership group is exceedingly morally bankrupt, to put it kindly. They also lost the Carabao Cup as I’m writing this, to another face of sportswashing in Newcastle. However, the Premier League title is a realistic possibility, which would be an incredible achievement, in the first year of who has thus far been a brilliant new manager after the departure of an absolute club legend in Jürgen Klopp – now starring in a Trivago ad. Life is weird. Continue reading »

EMBRIUM – TIMEKEEPER

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Mar 172025
 

(Andy Synn dedicates some of his precious time to the recently-released debut album from Embrium)

While we’re not averse to covering some of the “bigger” names – relatively speaking – in Metal now and then (we’ve recently written about new releases from the likes of Whitechapel and Septic Flesh, for example, and will be saying a few things about the new Allegaeon pretty soon) our primary focus is, and has always been, on covering artists and albums who don’t receive as much attention and exposure as they probably deserve.

Case in point, today we’re taking a look (and a listen) at the debut album from San Francisco-based Blackgaze crew Embrium, a band so underground they don’t even have an entry on the Encyclopaedia Metallum yet!

Continue reading »

TENTACULT: “UNTAMED REVULSION”

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Mar 172025
 

(On March 11th Transylvanian Recordings released a disgusting new album by Sacramento-based Tentacult. It’s fitting, therefore, that Sacramento-based NCS slave DGR is reviewing it today.)

Like any good proper umbrella genre that has absolutely exploded you can take the phrase “death metal” and draw ever finer concentric triangles from it into a pyramidic tower of subgenres with each sprouting two to three more lines from it until eventually you reach descriptors long enough that you run out of breath before you finish defining the sounds that make up a group.

By the end of it, you can construct a very pretty geometric structure of lines that’ll entrance your local social media “spiritual” influencer. At times it can be like trying to speed-read aloud a complicated dinner recipe in a single breath, your very last utterance of “blank-death metal” usually followed by the sound of you collapsing to the floor due to lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain.

In layman’s terms though, you can often break down the view of death metal into four categories: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DROUTH, DÉMONOS, SVARTA HAVET, LUX INTERNA, AASH, MRAKOMOR

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Mar 162025
 

(written by Islander)

I’m afraid I have a self-imposed deadline to finish this weekly collection of music from the blacker arts so I can turn to other obligations, and so I’ll dispense with an introduction and dive right into all the quite varied music I’ve picked for your entertainment and edification.

DROUTH (U.S.)

To begin, here’s “False Grail“, a startling new song from a new album named The Teeth of Time by Portland’s Drouth. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: RALE, MONDOCANE, JADE, MINUTTI HULLUUTEEN, SLUDGE KEEPER, THAT GODFORSAKEN WRETCH

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 152025
 

(written by Islander)

I had an attack of spring fever this morning. It’s definitely not springtime weather here in the Puget Sound (it’s quite cool and wet, the wind is howling, and if that keeps up our power will inevitably go out). I just didn’t want to do anything that seemed remotely like work, and compiling these roundups is remotely like work.

But the old obsession not to let any days go by at NCS without spreading the word about music eventually won out over laziness, though it may not win out over wind, and so I will attempt to be not too windy in what I write.

I thought about leading with some of the bigger names who have recently released new music in an effort to draw people toward more obscure names in today’s collection (I was thinking about the likes of Cancer, Gaahls Wyrd), Benediction, and Rivers of Nihil) but so many of the more obscure names are so appealing to me that I decided to just get right to them. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CLACTONIAN — “EVERLASTING PALEOLITHIC”

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Mar 142025
 

(written by Islander)

We have written frequently over the last seven years about the music of the Italian band Thecodontion, whose primeval and prehistoric thematic interests have been as interesting and erudite as their guitar-less but ever-evolving formulations of death metal. And so we were highly intrigued to learn last year that Thecodontion vocalist G.E.F. had started a new band named Clactonian, joined by Thecodontion drummer V.P. (also in SVNTH), Finnish bassist K.H.P.K. (from Ashen Tomb), and Italian guitarist B.Z. (Spell of Decay).

Like Thecodontion, the thematic interests of Clactonian are rooted in prehistory, and particularly the Paleolithic Age. The name itself is a term given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tools made by an extinct species of archaic humans who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago. (You can find more about here.)

Last summer we premiered Clactonian‘s debut demo, Dea Madre, whose cover art you won’t have forgotten if you saw it. The music followed a path of early bestial black/death metal that drew strong influence from Beherit but also should appeal to fans of Archgoat, early Bathory, and some bass-driven bands like Barathrum or early Necromantia for the slower sections.

And now we’re bringing you Clactonian‘s second demo, Everlasting Paleolithic, in advance of its official release on March 28th. Prepare for… PALEOLITHIC BLACK METAL OF DEATH! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MÜTTERLEIN, CARONTE, CAUSTIC WOUND, AUSTERE, KORSAKOV, WAR MAGIC

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Mar 142025
 

(written by Islander)

I had a narrow opening in today’s schedule for a roundup of new songs and videos, and not a lot of time with which to fill it, so I won’t waste the time with further introductory remarks. We’ll get right to it, beginning with:

MÜTTERLEIN (France)

Ever since seeing the recent announcement of a new Mütterlein album a group of metal-loving friends and I have been greedily rubbing our blood-stained hands (contrary to rumor we don’t have talons and the blood is from paper cuts). The rubbing has become more intense since hearing the album’s first single (not that kind of rubbing, get your minds out of the gutter). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ALZHAGOTH — “AD FINEM”

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Mar 132025
 

(written by Islander)

What is “pagan death metal”? It might be death metal that lyrically honors and celebrates old pre-Christian mystical belief systems, or current non-theistic ones, without much other connection between the music and what inspires the lyrics. Or the connection might be deeper than the words. Or the words might open doors to an imaginary cosmos of recent origin but ancient trappings, accompanied by music designed to reveal what lies beyond the door.

Which brings us to the Italian “pagan death metal” band Alzhagoth. Thematically, they have created their own cosmogony, a vast cosmogony of chaos and even monstrosity, and a cult devoted to the dark god whose name is the name of the band. As for the music, they’ve explained in a recent interview:

“For us, chaos isn’t merely random, but filled with potential. Each element can become part of a subtle order, crystallizing into a track that reflects the darkness of Alzhagoth. In this way, the music becomes an attempt to capture eternity in a single moment, transforming turmoil into something sublime, in the romantic sense of the word.”

What this means in more concrete terms is revealed in Alzhagoth‘s debut album Ad Finem, which will be released tomorrow through Inertial Music, and which we’re now revealing in its entirety. Continue reading »

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