DODECAHEDRON: “KWINTESSENS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 292017
 

 

(We present Austin Weber’s review of the new album by the Dutch band Dodecahedron, recently released by Season of Mist.)

Back in 2012, Tilburg, Netherlands natives Dodecahedron came out of nowhere and dropped a rightly revered self-titled album, one that was far ahead of the curve for black metal at the time as well. When you release a black metal album as forward-thinking and nightmare-inducing as Dodecahedron, where exactly does one go from there?

It’s a bit of a long answer since the band write such complex and dynamic songs, but basically the music they’ve come up with on Kwintessens hits even darker while frequently dropping into lighter and oddly calming flourishes as well. A lot of new elements are at play here, and it’s also a slightly trimmer effort at 41 minutes versus their self-titled album, which was 52 minutes long. Simultaneously more deranged, yet also littered with a stronger prog influence and an influx of heavy grooves to their arsenal, the album also includes some grind-gone-technical black metal moments that caught me off guard too. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MICHEL ANOIA — “TWO MOUNTAINS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 232017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new music video from the French band Michel Anoia.)

A bit over one year ago from now, Islander premiered the song “Two Mountains” from French metal maniacs Michel Anoia off their album Plethora, and the utterly demented and brain-melting experience of that song had me instantly hooked on their impossible-to-categorize and unique style of extreme metal. When premiering it, Islander astutely described it as “..like a musical Frankenstein’s monster assembled with bits and pieces of grindcore, technical death metal, psychedelia, and jazz. But simply stitching those words together falls short as a means of trying to capture the sound.”

If you missed it then, you’re going to want to check out today’s music video premiere for “Two Mountains”. It’s not a typical band performance music video. The well-shot black-and-white video for “Two Mountains” has a very rich and cinematic look to it, with choppy frenetic scenes to match the equally disturbing music. Hit play, and give in to the madness contained within, both visually and aurally. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: TRILATERAL — “ELLIPTIC ORBITS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 082017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us this stream premiere of the new album by Trilateral from Ontario, Canada.)

While there’s plenty of bands on the deathcore and djent side of the spectrum fusing death and groove together, it’s not as big a phenomenon in more technical death metal circles, though that seems to be changing. Granted, you have groups like Soreption already, but overall it’s still fresh territory to explore, as evidenced by last year’s Dischordia release and others.

Though groove is far from all that Trilateral offer, their integration of it within a largely technical death metal (without coming across as tech-death) and prog metal sound is what gives their upcoming album Elliptic Orbits a fresh feeling all its own. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAMSKARAS — “FUELSCAPE” (AND AN INTERVIEW)

 Interviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 012017
 

 

(Austin Weber brings us this premiere of a new music video from Samskaras, along with an interview.)

Last we covered Montreal-based progressive death metal duo Samskaras, the band had just completed a new single, “Red Hill”, and we premiered the lyric video for it alongside an interview with the band’s vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, Eric Burnet (Unburnt, Derelict) in 2014. Just recently, the band dropped Asunder, a fantastic four-song EP, which shows the band experimenting with a lot of new ideas including the integration of tasteful clean singing in some of the songs.

In the spirit of keeping up with artists we’ve covered before, we’re happy to premiere a new music video today for “Fuelscape”. Eric asked if we’d be interested in pairing it with an interview like last time, and this one features some additional answers from their drummer Alexandre Dupras (Teramobil, Unhuman) too. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEROCS — “AND SO IT BEGINS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new video from Serocs.)

Multi-national technical brutal death metal act Serocs have remained an ongoing favorite of mine ever since I first stumbled upon their 2013 album, The Next, and reviewed it at the time here at NCS. Even then the band was onto something special, but they truly took themselves to a higher level on their 2015 album, And When The Sky Was Opened, from which NCS helped launch a single called “Itami”.

Since that time, the band’s founder, guitarist Antonio Freyre, has been busy starting other projects, including last year’s side-project Punished, for which Islander was nice enough to premiere a song called “The Absent” (since I guested on it briefly and it wouldn’t have been right for me to cover it).

But I digress. Seeing as it’s now 2017 and Serocs is ramping back up again, that provides the impetus for us helping to launch this new video today. Continue reading »

LATE DECEMBER AND EARLY JANUARY GEMS (PART 5): SIMULACRE AND BALANCE INTERRUPTION

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

(This is Part 4 of a 5-part series by Austin Weber about noteworthy January releases and a few from the end of last year.)

 

Simulacre – La Jaiba

Simulacre is a brand spanking new offshoot of the legendary (in underground circles) French “technical/progressive black metal” band Asmodée. While it’s a pain in the ass, I’m quite thankful as usual that Facebook allows you to “follow” a band’s every post, since I would have never heard about the birth of Simulacre otherwise. Continue reading »

LATE DECEMBER AND EARLY JANUARY GEMS (PART 4): PLASMODIUM AND CZAR

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jan 262017
 

 

(This is Part 4 of a now-five-part series by Austin Weber about noteworthy January releases and a few from the end of last year.)

Plasmodium – Entheognosis

There’s something about truly dark and disturbing metal that connects with me in a deep way, as it also does for an assortment of other odd individuals too. Trying to understand the reason for that is the more difficult part, but overall, I think it has something to do with finding some odd sense of peace in hearing sounds that reflect the bleakness and harshness of the world all around us.

Forming a cathartic energy which we can lose ourselves in, that’s exactly what the otherworldly music from Melbourne, Australia-based Plasmodium has to offer. Continue reading »

LATE DECEMBER AND EARLY JANUARY GEMS (PART 3): PARIUS AND KERATOCONUS

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 242017
 

 

(This is a delayed Part 3 of what started as a planned  3-part series by Austin Weber about noteworthy January releases and a few from the end of last year. However, during the interval between Part 2 and Part 3, the series has expanded to 5 parts — so more lie ahead.)

Parius – Let There Be Light

Parius are a Philadelphia-based melodic death metal band, one that was unknown to me until last week when my friend showed me their newest release that dropped on January 17th, Let There Be Light. Continue reading »

LATE DECEMBER AND EARLY JANUARY GEMS (PART 2): THEORY IN PRACTICE, ANTIPSYCHOCIRCUMSEPTEMSOMAMBULATION

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jan 172017
 

 

(This is Part 2 of a 3-part series written by Austin Weber about noteworthy January releases and a few from the end of last year. Find Part 1 here.)

While the quantity and quality for label-released metal in January seems a bit sparse as far as my tastes go, the underground never disappoints and 2017 is already off to a fantastic pace due to plenty of lesser-known acts dropping killer new material. Just recently I came across a number of new releases (and a few largely unknown ones from 2016) that you just might want to check out — presented here in three parts.

THEORY IN PRACTICE – Crescendo Dezign

I’ve already reviewed this elsewhere, but since it’s a self-released effort, I felt it was worth sharing here for anyone who didn’t catch it when it dropped last week without much media attention. These legendary Swedes have a long and rich history in the death metal and technical death metal scenes dating back to the mid-’90s to the early 2000s before their initial hiatus. Since returning in 2015, Theory In Practice have deftly proven that they’ve lost none of their initial spark, with an inspired two-song EP we covered here called Evolving Transhumanism. Continue reading »

LATE DECEMBER AND EARLY JANUARY GEMS (PART 1): CARBON COLOSSAL AND NOSTRIL CAVERNS

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 162017
 

 

(This is Part 1 of a 3-part series written by Austin Weber about noteworthy January releases and a few from the end of last year.)

While the quantity and quality for label-released metal in January seems a bit sparse as far as my tastes go, the underground never disappoints and 2017 is already off to a fantastic pace due to plenty of lesser-known acts dropping killer new material. Just recently I came across a number of new releases (and a few largely unknown ones from 2016) that you just might want to check out — presented here in three parts.

CARBON COLOSSAL – The Disassembly of Earth

Recently a friend shared Carbon Colossal with me, and I’m really glad he did. Longtime NCS fans may recognize the distinctive artwork as familiar, since it’s done by a perennial favorite here, Luca Carey. Using his bright and extremely psychedelic art for such a dark release works quite well in a fucked-up kind of way. The Disassembly of Earth is some sort of technical doom from hell, gone a death-metal-infused path, with fleeting blasts of black metal peppered in between all that. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries