Reviews Archives - Page 22 of 556

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AVERNUS — “GRIEVANCES”

Sep 182024

(written by Islander)

The first new album from Chicago’s Avernus in 27 years, which will be released at the end of this week by M-Theory Audio, is something like the closing of a circle (and the opening of other circles). Having been formed in 1992, and with a couple of early demos under their belts, they caught the attention of Marco Barbieri at Metal Blade, who became primarily responsible for including them on that label’s Metal Massacre 12 compilation, and would have signed them to something bigger on Metal Blade if Barbieri had had his way.

Avernus did go on to release their debut album …Of the Fallen on M.I.A. Records in 1997, and they followed that with a few more demos plus an EP, but the band fell away, releasing no new music after 2003… until this year.

Barbieri is now the president of M-Theory Audio, and thus the label’s release of a new Avernus album is a reunion that’s been decades in the making. Avernus has itself experienced a reunion, with a current lineup on the new album that includes three of the band’s original founding members (Rick Yifrach, Erik Kikke, and Rick McCoy), plus James Genenz (also a member of Jungle Rot), who joined the band in 1997.

Reunions of any kind are generally occasions for reminiscing and nostalgia, but this reunion has led to something new, an album of new music made by people who necessarily are very different people than the ones who made …Of the Fallen and all those demos in the ’90s — different because time re-makes everyone, in ways small or large.

What this particular reunion has accomplished, you will discover today, because we’re now premiering a full stream of the new Avernus album. Its name is Grievances. and it is stunning. Continue reading »

TYPHONIAN – THE GATE OF THE VEILED BEYOND

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Sep 182024

(Come and learn why the new album from Typhonian, out Friday on Transcending Obscurity, has reaffirmed Andy Synn‘s love for Death Metal)

Do I like Death Metal?

It seems like a pretty dumb question – I mean, I’ve toured with Hour of Penance, Blood Red Throne, The Monolith Deathcult, opened for Cryptopsy, Mithras, Darkane, and more – so of course I do!

But I get where people are coming from when they ask this question, because when it comes to many of the current “big” bands in the Death Metal scene… well, I’ve generally been a little more guarded with when, where, and how I dole out praise than a lot of other writers.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thrown a lot of love at artists like Tomb Mold, Ulthar, and Bæst, and am eagerly awaiting new albums from both Tribal Gaze and Ingurgitating Oblivion (though, spoiler alert, I’ve already heard the latter and will be reviewing it later this month), but I can’t help but feel like a lot of the more notorious names are playing it far too safe, happy to regurgitate the same recycled riffs and second-hand song ideas with only the most minor of variations (if any), because they know their audience will eat it up anyway.

Luckily, for every derivative disappointment that comes across my desk there’s almost always someone else doing something a little bit more interesting (to me anyway) – and while it was Typhonian‘s previous album (which you can, and should, read more about here) which initially piqued my curiosity, with The Gate of the Veiled Beyond they’ve really grabbed my attention.

WANDERING INTO BLACKENED REACHES — 4 CRITICAL BLACK METAL ALBUMS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Sep 172024

(In this article our Vietnam-based contributor Vizzah Harri brings us four reviews of four unusual albums from blackened realms — albums created by Skeletal Augury, Cemetery Trip, Conifère, and Xwîn.)

The following 4 albums have been on my to-do list for months. You won’t find a slew of reviews on their Bandcamp pages sharing the praises from bigger media outlets. I couldn’t even find many reviews of the albums themselves out there. And partially this could be because of it being one hell of a year for black metal, but isn’t that just every year?

If you like black metal, you’re bound to love at least one of what I’m sharing with you today. The only order here is chronological because I don’t have a favorite amongst them and their styles diverge violently. There were more albums which I will hopefully be able to get to soon, but 4 is a nice number for its tetraphobic propensities in East Asia. The number 4, you see, signifies shaking hands with Elvis (I only learned that slang phrase for death today). Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GORGERIN — “GORGERIN”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 162024

(written by Islander)

As trained self-defense advisers we urge you, before listening to the EP we’re about to premiere, to armor up with ballistic helmets and kevlar vests, and hunker down behind the thickest steal plating you can find. You might also want to have some antiemetics on hand, and a strong sedative available for the aftermath too.

Okay, we’re not trained self-defense advisers or medical professionals, but we do know gutting and gruesome goregrind when we hear it, and that’s what Québec-based Gorgerin catastrophically discharge on their self-titled mini-LP, now set for release by Gurgling Gore on September 20th. Continue reading »

MIND MOLD – EROSIVE

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 162024

(Andy Synn highlights one of his favourite new discoveries of the year)

One thing I’m sure you’ll notice, if you spend any amount of time online, is how often people complain that “there’s no good new music any more“.

They’re wrong, of course, but it occurs to me that there’s a cruel (and dispiriting) irony to the fact that the proliferation of streaming services, which should – in theory ay least- grant their users access to a seemingly endless and almost infinitely varied array of new artists and albums, has ultimately, through the use of increasingly solipsistic and artificially-unintelligent algorithms, ended up stifling a lot of peoples’ ability, or willingness, to actively go out and look for new music themselves.

If you’re reading this, however – congratulations, you’re probably not one of those people.

And your reward for that is that you get to listen to the disgustingly doomy, dissonance-drenched Death-Sludge of Canada’s Mind Mold and their new album, Erosive.

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PINCER CONSORTIUM, OTTONE PESANTE, DÖ, OUTER GRAVES

Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Sep 142024

Another Saturday, another opportunity to help spread the word about new music. It’s always difficult to decide what to include in these roundups, and a bit more difficult than usual because I’ve spent a fair amount of time addressing the first item below, which is a new album released at the end of last week.

In deciding what to do with my meager remaining time, I decided not to include new songs and videos I came across from bands whose profiles are high enough that most people probably already know about them, i.e., Mastodon and Lamb of God (collaborating), Defeated Sanity, 1349, and Ensiferum. But if you don’t know about those songs, now you have the links that will take you to them.

But now, let’s get to that new album, and then follow it with just a few other worthy new songs from forthcoming records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HUSQWARNAH — “PURIFICATION THROUGH SACRIFICE”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Sep 122024

(written by Islander)

In December 2021 we premiered and reviewed Husqwarnah‘s debut album Front Toward Enemy. I also put one of the songs from that album (“Ignoto1”) on our list of 2021’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs (here), a recognition of how hook-laden and compulsive the music was — in addition to it being tank-like, ravaging, fire-breathing, and morbid.

Today we see what these Italian death metal marauders have been up to since then, as we again host a full stream of Husqwarnah‘s newest album, Purification Through Sacrifice, which is set for release on September 16th by the distinctive Time To Kill Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAMMERFILOSOFI — “SOLUS”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Sep 122024

(written by Islander)

Tomorrow, on the first Friday the 13th of 2024, ATMF will release a new EP by the Italian/Norwegian duo Hammerfilosofi. Its full name is SOLUS (Igne Natura Renovator Integra).

The EP follows by almost exactly one year the band’s first release and debut album The Desolate One, which we premiered here, calling it ” fanatical, fiery, and frightening,” but also “a harrowing esoteric process of liberation and elevation.”

ATMF portrays the new EP as “four psalms of relentless, multi-layered, and hellish madness,” and the band’s NKTFR describes it as “an inward journey of spiritual violence and cathartic soul-searching,” picking up from where The Desolate One left off: “Both musically and conceptually we want to bring back some of that rebellious pride, wrath, and danger – some Blood, Fire, and Death – that for us are mandatory ingredients in Black Metal.”

As we did for the album, today we present SOLUS… from beginning to end. Continue reading »

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER – SERVITUDE

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 122024

(Today our man Andy Synn steps up to tackle one of the most difficult reviews he’s ever written)

How exactly, let me ask you, does one even begin to talk about – let alone judge – an album like this?

Let me be clear, the untimely demise of the band’s infamous (and seemingly irreplaceable) frontman Trevor Strnad hit a lot of us here at NCS very hard – hell, I was the one who volunteered to pen a few words in tribute after his passing – but it obviously hit his bandmates harder than almost anyone, and I don’t think anyone would have blamed them if they’d chosen to hang up their spurs in the aftermath.

But, as it turns out, giving up wasn’t in the cards for these Detroit death-dealers, who are set to solidify their return with the release of their tenth album – the first one to feature long-time guitarist (and last-remaining original member) Brian Eschbach taking over as the group’s vocalist, as well as the recording debut of the newly-formed guitar-duo of Brandon Ellis and the returning Ryan Knight – in just over two weeks from now.

With all that in mind then, perhaps the best thing I can do with this review is simply set your expectations appropriately, as while many (if not most) of us may have been hoping that the band’s big comeback would be an unqualified success and an unparalleled triumph over tragedy… the truth is that Servitude is not that.

Or maybe it is. Maybe I’m looking at it wrong. Maybe its very existence – it’s still a good album, just not a great one, after all – is enough of a triumph on its own… especially considering that it almost didn’t happen at all!

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAND OF OMEGA — “THE END OF THE BEGINNING”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 102024

(written by Islander)

We live in a world where Darwin’s radical old theory has been replaced and evolution is now determined by the survival of the shittest, a world in which some are sworn to the Mentat’s Oath and others have become cyberspace conscripts, with our lives supported by nothing but foundations built on shifting sands, watching the Amazon burning (and much of the rest of the world with it), our shapes determined by a wretched new convolution.

And there I’ve managed to stitch together all of the song titles from the debut album by the UK band Hand of Omega, the name of which is The End Of The Beginning.

I have no idea whether Hand of Omega would endorse this way of interpreting their thematic intentions, but their music seems consistent with it, because it’s both crushingly bleak and destructively enraged — as you’ll find out today through our premiere of the album in advance of its September 13 release by the Irish label Cursed Monk Records. Continue reading »

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