Sep 012016
 

Stench Price album art

 

(We have Austin Weber to thank for this premiere of a new song from a band named Stench Price, accompanied by his introduction. We have Stench Price to thank for forcible re-wiring our brains, because they weren’t much good originally.)

Grindcore in 2016 has reached an interesting division, one present in the past but prevalent even more so now than ever. As we all know, grind is one of the metal sub-genres most difficult to fuck up — all you need is to be caustically loud,  have your music consist of brief raging sonic bursts, and throw in a bit of passion (or ideally, a lot).

But more than that, to rise above the majority of garden-variety grind in the modern era, it seems to take one of two things: Either a group’s willingness to take things in a more technical and complexly written direction, or to go the avant-garde route and deliver something super-weird and out there.

I enjoy both approaches equally, and even more so when a new grind group like Stench Price combines both of these schools of thought to create modern, highly adventurous grindcore. Continue reading »

Aug 312016
 

Theory In Practice

 

(We present Austin Weber’s interview of the Swedish band Theory In Practice, with news about a new release, among other things.)

Some of you all may recall that legendary Swedish progressive death metal band Theory In Practice became active again last year and put out a – comeback, Evolving Transhumanism, which I covered here at NCS. As an über-Theory In Practice fan/geek, I had planned to follow up that post by interviewing the band about their unexpected return, but that got delayed due to my dumb brain forgetting to make it happen. But finally our brief interview was conducted, and here’s your chance to catch up on all things Theory In Practice related!

*Questions 1-6 were answered by Andreas Lyngmo (vocals) and Question 7 was answered by Peter Lake (Guitar/Bass),, with both joining in the answer to No. 3. Continue reading »

Aug 292016
 

Veilburner-The Obscene Rite

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Pennsylvania’s Veilburner.)

When working on new articles or premieres for bands I’ve already covered in the past, sometimes it helps as a refresher to go back to what we said about the band before, to help put in context the new music being presented to us by such a group. Yet again, this line of thought came to mind in reflecting on our continual coverage of the unique form of  industrial and psychedelic-infused take on black-metal-meets-death metal that Pennsylvania duo Veilburner continue to crank out year after year.

Looking back at our NCS archives, we first covered Veilburner here at NCS in 2014 in a multi-band article I posted soon after hearing about their incredible debut, The Three Lightbearers. Since then the band released a follow up full-length last year called Noumenon, from which we helped premiere a song called “Ever Relapsing Fever”. That was followed by the album’s placement on year-end lists here by both Andy Synn and myself.

While I failed to do a full review for either of those first two albums, both of them have continued to be releases I come back to, so I kinda feel like a dick for not doing more to help spread the word about them. I will have a chance to do better this time around, starting with this premiere of a killer new song off their upcoming third full-length, The Obscene Rite, entitled “Eucharist of the Breathing Abyss”. Continue reading »

Aug 192016
 

An Endless Sporadic art

 

(Austin Weber takes over round-up duty on this Friday, focusing on new music from 8 bands. And no, the new Metallica song isn’t one of them.)

I was going to try to add some items to the next Seen and Heard when Islander told me he would be unable to do one for today. So call it serendipity, call it good timing, whatever it is, here I am with a varied post of new songs and releases to cover today since Islander is trapped in work hell. Let’s get to it!

An Endless Sporadic

While adventurous instrumental prog metal unit An Endless Sporadic may have gotten their biggest visibility boost from being featured in the videogame series Guitar Hero some time ago, the band has never ceased to continue delivering killer music. After a pause in new music for a bit of time, the band is set to release a new album, Magic Machine, on September 16th. Yesterday the band release a new animated music video/new single for “Sky Run”, which heavily features famed Dream Theater-associated keyboardist Jordan Rudess. The amazing visuals that grace the music video are from none other than NCS site favorite Costin Chioreanu, which adds that extra something special to the experience of enjoying “Sky Run”. Continue reading »

Aug 092016
 

Singularity cover art

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Arizona’s Singularity.)

One of my favorite things about what we do here at NCS is our devotion to showing you new and lesser known acts, and then continuing to cover their careers over the years. While there are many bands I’ve been excited to continue covering over the years, Arizona-based black-metal-infused tech-death band Singularity are one of my absolute favorites.

We first started covering them here in 2013 when I stumbled onto some early tracks by the band, and then later helped them premiere “Throne Of Thorns” off their forthcoming 2014 full-length (and then latered review the full album). Now they’re back at it again with the upcoming Friday, September 2nd, release of a brand new EP entitled Void Walker. And we’ve got the first premiere from it with today’s launch of a stunning new song that doubles as a spacey lyric video journey for “The Refusal”. Continue reading »

Aug 072016
 

Rearview Mirror

 

(Austin Weber steps up with this week’s Rearview Mirror feature, focusing on the 1995 debut album by Candiria.)

It’s been far too long since I contributed to our Rearview Mirror series here at NCS, and there’s still an endless number of old and forgotten gems I’d like to cover in this series when I have more time! If you’re ready to step into the time machine for a lesser-known gem by Candiria, come prepared with an open mind. This isn’t easy-listening or genre-by-numbers material. You ready for some supreme weirdness?

Brooklyn-based and never content to confine themselves within a single genre, Candiria have always created the music they want to make, critics and fans be damned. The band have had a long and storied history ever since their inception in 1992, going through multiple styles and sonic territories on different releases, a myriad of line-up changes, a tour-van-related crash tragedy that shook the band to its core, and a couple of breakups/hiatuses followed by multiple comebacks. Recently the band returned with 2014’s Invaders two-song release, and are set to release a new full-length next year. So it seems quite fitting to cover their initial album, Surrealistic Madnessin light of the band’s newly re-activated status. Continue reading »

Aug 012016
 

Coma Cluster Void-Iron Empress

 

(Austin Weber arranged, and now introduces, our premiere of a song from the debut album by the multinational band Coma Cluster Void.)

While 2016 has been an exceptionally good year for quality metal releases so far, there’s one album I’ve been anxiously awaiting above almost all else, Coma Cluster Void’s debut full-length, Mind Cemeteries. Some of you may be familiar with the group from when we premiered the album’s title track here at NCS last year. Others still may have noticed that our esteemed editor placed the album on a list of his most anticipated 2016 releases back in January at NCS. It seems things have come full circle, as we get to debut another song by the band! The one we are premiering today is a ferocious ode to chaos and bleakness entitled “Iron Empress”.

From what the band told me, the song title is a reference to the foreboding being that adorns the cover art of the album, the Iron Empress on the cover standing in as a metaphor for the album’s concept and themes. Coma Cluster Void members John Strieder and Mike DiSalvo explained a bit about this in the following statement: Continue reading »

Jul 122016
 

Defeated Sanity-Disposal of the Dead

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song from the new two-part album by Germany’s Defeated Sanity.)

Legendary German brutal/technical death metal unit Defeated Sanity need no lengthy introduction at this point; the band have long since proven their craft over a span of many years, over time growing more sophisticated and refined with each release. Their career so far has culminated in their upcoming release, Disposal Of The Dead // Dharmata, which the band have dubbed a “split with themselves”– an assertion that rings true, if you give me a moment to explain.

The first half of the album is a tried-and-true slab of crushing Defeated Sanity tunes as they normally sound, albeit a bit more stripped-down at some points — but I dig it. Then, the second half is the band experimenting with tracks that are inspired by, and pay homage to, old-school progressive death metal sounds of old, such as Cynic, Death, and Atheist. For these tracks, the band recruited Max Phelps (vocalist/guitarist for Exist, and a live performer with both Cynic and Death To All) to perform his similar-to-Chuck-Schuldiner screams over-top these songs. Continue reading »

Jul 042016
 

Brain Drill-Boundless Obscenity

 

(To celebrate Independence Day, we would like to drill your heads, and Austin Weber would like to review this new Brain Drill album — and we are both getting our wishes!)

While not the first of their ilk, preceded by Origin and to degrees Cryptopsy and several others, California natives Brain Drill ushered in a new dimension of hyper-frenetic technical death metal upon their unholy birth in 2006, bearing instant fruit with an initial EP that year entitled The Parasites. From there the group linked up with Metal Blade Records for two over-the-top-yet-face-melting albums, 2008’s Apocalyptic Feasting and 2010’s Quantum Catastrophe.

After Quantum Catastrophe the band seemed to drift away, but founding member and main composer Dylan Ruskin announced about a year ago that a new album was in the works — and it has now arrived. Continue reading »

Jun 282016
 

Goodthink-Grief

 

In this post we bring you a premiere that’s near and dear to our cold black hearts, because it includes vocals by one of our own contributors, Austin Weber. It has a lot of other things to recommend it, too, which I shall attempt to describe in a moment.

The music on this song — “dont throw that at me!” (with lack of capitalization and apostrophe fully intended) — is the creation of Maya Chun, operating under the moniker Goodthink, and it will appear on Goodthink’s new album Guilt. To be more precise, Maya wrote and performed all the music and mixed and mastered it as well. She contributes vocals on some of the album tracks, with additional vocals not only from Austin Weber on two songs but also through other guest appearances (including one by John Dickinson of Youth Novel).

And now, my attempt to describe what happens on “dont throw that at me!“: Continue reading »