NO CLEAN SINGING

SOUL TOMB: “DROWNING”

Mar 052025

(After a bit of a lull DGR returns to NCS with a review of a great discovery, the second EP by the Swedish one-person band Soul Tomb.)

After years of doing whatver you might refer to this as, you sort of develop a sense that the year in heavy metal has a flow to it. There are plenty of peaks and valleys and often Summer can feel like a massive deluge of releases as hardcore festival and touring season gets underway, but there is one thing that has proven to be as equally reliable as the end of the year clusterfuck season or the time set aside for the brave souls who defy the odds and attempt a December release: January is a weird month.

January comes to us at the end of a whole year’s closing, partially feeling like the recovery from a hangover rather than the opportunity to appraise things anew and appreciate the potential of upcoming opportunities. The month is not bereft of releases; in fact the reason why January tends to consistently feel strange is the opposite.

There are a ton of releases in January, but truth be told you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it’s by big, recognizable names but more often January gets to be a month of gambles and discoveries – which is how the year started on this end. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Mar 052025

(Andy Synn highlights four albums from a very busy February which you may have overlooked)

I don’t mind admitting that, due to a lot of different factors – being busy at work, having to spend time prepping and then playing with the band, and then finally succumbing to this really shitty flu (to the point where I’m still not back to 100%, to be honest) – I missed a lot of stuff I originally intended to write about last month.

To exacerbate this, there’s only a limited amount of space (and time) I have here to catch up on what I/we missed, which means the likes of Grima (really good, but perhaps not quite as good as its predecessor), Havukruunu (bombastic blood and fire heroics at their best), and Mantar (a punkier, more stripped-down album than their last one, albeit with a few tracks/riffs that sound a little too familiar in places), probably aren’t going to get the full write-ups that they deserve.

But, you know, those are pretty big names – or, at least, pretty notorious in our little scene – and if there’s one thing we’re known for here at NCS it’s focussing on less (in)famous bands wherever possible, so hopefully you won’t begrudge me my choices for this month’s column!
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 »

CRYPTOSIS: “CELESTIAL DEATH”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Mar 042025

(On March 7th Century Media will release a new album by the Dutch progressive thrash band Cryptosis, and today we present Daniel Barkasi‘s review of the album.)

Thrash and I have held a contentious relationship as of late. True as it is that thrash was my first foray into the heavier side of the metal spectrum many, many eons ago, memorable albums have been difficult to find in these last few years. Without bands like Enforced, what the hell would I do for my fix?

Well, let us not forget Cryptosis – a band that blasted out a semi-debut (formerly known as Distillator, so the group wasn’t brand new) in 2021 that dished a fresh view of Voivod-adjacent progressive thrash that left many heads a-spinning. The name change was indeed appropriate, and said first full-length Bionic Swarm made a steadfast impression. Buffering with an equally scrumptious EP The Silent Call in 2023, the time has arrived by the eagerly anticipated album number two, Celestial Death. Continue reading »

DECREPISY: “DEIFIC MOURNING”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Mar 042025

(Below we present Wil Cifer‘s review of the a album by Decrepisy, which will be released on March 28th by Carbonized Records.)

The Portland-based band Decrepisy allow themselves to plunge deeper into the darkness on their sophomore album Deific Mourning. They dig into the catacombs where death metal meets doom. This project features members of Negative Prayer, Vastum, and Coffin Rot. These songs are not heavy thanks to the guitar tones or down-tunings, but due to the songs coming from a place of inner ugliness that is allowed to take itself outward sonically.

Any band can capture Entombed’s sound in the studio, but you are not going to believe demons are in their veins, because they are likely well-adjusted kids with good credit who like the sounds and trappings of metal music, but are detached from the darkness it represents. Then some deal with that darkness by allowing themselves to feel it and live it and that is what comes out when they express themselves in their music. This project is tapping into those places so their instruments become the conduits, and the atmosphere manifested here is the natural progression of where the sound should go rather than neatly checking off the boxes of required genre tropes. Continue reading »

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

Premieres No Responses »

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 INTERVIEW: NOIRSUAIRE

Interviews No Responses »

Mar 032025

(Later this month Khaoszophy Productions will release the latest EP from the French black metal band Noirsuaire, a prelude to a debut album that’s currently being recorded. In the following interview, our French contributor Zoltar conversed with Noirsuaire‘s mastermind N. about what inspires the band, how the work is done, and other topics of interest.)

There’s always been a certain, especially perverse flair to French black metal and although the scene hit a wall in the late ’90s and early ’00s once all its precursors like Vlad Tepes or Mutiilation had gone either silent or simply beyond the grave, it’s been more vivid than ever lately, and not just with bands perpetrating a certain local tradition.

Noirsuaire is a good example of a band — or project, depending on how you look at it, as it is basically one man’s doing, the secretive N., helped by a drummer and some external contributors – rooted in the classic European sound of the ’90s yet not solely dedicated to reviving the flickering flame of French black metal as it also is largely in debt to the Finns, mainly Sargeist and Satanic Warmaster.

Yes, from head to toes so to speak, this is pure ’90s black metal alright, down to its extremely coded black and white imagery and staccato riffing, yet with a genuine FOAD attitude that really sets them apart, down to coming up with a short-but-sweet two-track EP of Misfits covers (Death Comes Ripping) simply because they felt like doing it… Continue reading »

WHITECHAPEL – HYMNS IN DISSONANCE

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Mar 032025

(Andy Synn is as shocked as anyone at how good, and how heavy, the new album from Whitechapel is)

As someone who considers themselves a long-time fan of Whitechapel it wasn’t until I picked up the promo for their upcoming ninth(!) album, Hymns in Dissonance, that I realised I’ve been more of a lapsed fan of the band for even longer.

Truth be told, the last time I enjoyed a Whitechapel album front-to-back was their 2012 self-titled record (still my favourite out of everything they’ve done, though I’ll happily entertain any arguments in support of 2010’s absolutely monstrous A New Era of Corruption), and although I’ve given every subsequent release a shot – from the lazy Slipknot-isms of Our Endless War and The Mark of the Blade (arguably the lowest point, creatively speaking, point in the band’s career) to the increasingly popular, but also increasingly generic, sounds of The Valley and Kin – it’s largely felt like the past decade or so has been all about doing whatever it takes to maximise the band’s popularity, at the cost of what originally drew me to them in the first place.

And, look, I get why so many people like the latter two albums – Bozeman has a great singing voice, no doubt, and it’s clear how much effort he’s put into expressing the necessary emotion and processing his trauma on each record – but so much of their recent music has just been so aggressively bland (and, on the occasion where it actually does show some teeth, so blandly aggressive) that I can’t help but feel disappointed in them for continually playing things so safe.

Which is why Hymns in Dissonance is such a revelation – because I don’t think anyone out there expected them to go this hard, or this heavy, ever again.

SHADES OF BLACK: ОБРІЙ (OBRIJ), LHAÄD, FAUSTIAN SPIRIT, KOLDBRANN, TYHJÄ , ANONYMOUS SKULL

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Mar 022025

(written by Islander)

My computer tells me that my introduction to yesterday’s roundup of new music and videos was 1,502 words long. I obviously had too much time on my hands, though I don’t know why I spent it doing all that sharing instead of covering more music. But don’t worry, I won’t do that again today. Today’s introduction is 47 words long:

I’ve alternated today’s selections between complete albums or EPs and individual songs from forthcoming records. Apart from that, there’s no rhyme nor reason in how I organized the choices. I made these choices because, to quote the English poet William Cowper, “Variety’s the very spice of life.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: THE WEEK THAT WAS, AND MUSIC FROM NINE BANDS

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Mar 012025

Marcus Larson (1825–1864) Ocean at Night with Burning Ship (detail)

(written by Islander)

It has been a week in hell. I don’t mean the stuff you’ve seen every day in the national news reports, including the vile treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House yesterday (I’m addressing the 3 of you who can still bear to read the national news), but hellish events closer to home that impacted our ~~putrid~~ precious site.

Specifically, beginning last Sunday night and carrying into Monday the Puget Sound area of Washington where I live got walloped by lightning storms, heavy rain, and very high winds. Windstorms are fairly common during the winter months here, and the results are predictable: In the heavily forested island where I live, trees fall, limbs break off, and they hammer themselves into the power lines, all of which are strung above ground close to trees. And pop! The power goes out!

Which it did in the early hours of last Monday. And when the power goes out here, so does the internet, because my ISP’s local servers and routing stations apparently don’t have generators or human beings close by to keep them going. And when the internet goes out for everyone in my neighborhood (and this time for nearly all of the 30,000 people who live on the island), the strength of cell phone signals drops to borderline non-existent. I guess because everyone is trying to use their phones in place of the stricken net service. Continue reading »

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