AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ERNTE — “THE WITCH (WAS BORN IN FLAMES)”

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May 072024
 

Today we renew our admiration for the Swiss duo Ernte, whose music we’ve previously described as “black metal that’s atmospheric and immersive, creating nightside experiences of mysticism and old magic”, but also simultaneously delivering “visceral punch and mind-scarring intensity”. Ernte’s music, we’ve written, “can be disorienting, depressive, unsettling, and even deranged, but it’s still very easy to fall prey to the music’s unearthly sorcery”.

What we’ve fallen prey to this time is a song named “The Witch (Was Born In Flames)” from Ernte‘s forthcoming third album Weltenzerstörer (“world destroyer”), which will be released by the esteemed Vendetta Records on June 7th.

Before providing the premiere of this song stream, we should put it in the context of the album as a whole, which Ernte describe as follows: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ERNTE — “CUTTING THE STARS FROM THE SKY”

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Mar 232023
 

A bit more than a year after the release of their debut album Geist und Hexerei, and the release of a 7” EP in September 2022, the Hellvetic black metal duo Ernte are returning with a new album named Albsegen, and it confirms this band’s talents as formidable spellcasters. As forecast by Vendetta Records, which will release the record on April 7th, it “captures real world hate and frustration while calling back to a distant past with an invoking of old energies and spirits”.

This Swiss duo — V. Noir (guitars, bass, drums) and Witch N. (vocals, bass, violin) — have hit upon a formulation of black metal that’s atmospheric and immersive, creating nightside experiences of mysticism and old magic, but they also simultaneously give their songs visceral punch and mind-scarring intensity. Their music can be disorienting, depressive, unsettling, and even deranged, but it’s still very easy to fall prey to the music’s unearthly sorcery.

One song-and-video has already emerged into our consciousness, and today we present a second one, which give us a chance to see the performers doing their thing. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SWAMP LANTERN, USNEA, BLACKBRAID, ERNTE, UPCDOWNC

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 182023
 

Today I woke up late and moved lazily. For most of my life, and probably yours, that’s the way Saturday mornings always were. Except in my case I had the lunatic idea when I started this blog in the fall of 2009 that I’d post something about music I liked even on Saturday and Sunday, and every holiday.

I thought of that as a way of underscoring that NCS would never be a business, and would consider none of us here as “workers”, because people working “jobs” almost always get weekends off. I think I also believed we might get more visitors due to the lack of competition on the weekends from the somewhat more-established metal sites that were beginning to dot the internet landscape.

And I probably thought the lifespan of NCS would be about a year, so how tough would it be to listen and write on the weekends for a year? Who knew it would go on like it has? I sure as shit didn’t.

In the last 13+ years I’ve failed to make some weekend posts, after a long stretch of never failing, though the number of failure days is still small. So now when I wake up late and move lazily it doesn’t take long before I start to feel like I’d better get my shit in gear, even if the lateness of the morning hour means I’m not able to make the Saturday roundup as extensive as I’d like (which is true today). But… no failure today at least…. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ERNTE — “THE ENDING VOID”

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Nov 172021
 

 

The plague year 2020 was the year that gave birth to the Swiss black metal band Ernte, but the pair who gave it life were not newcomers. V. Noir, who became the main songwriter and guitar player (and was also responsible for recording and programming), had spent almost 20 years creating dark ambient music, photography, painting, and graphic art. The other member, Witch N. (vocals, bass, violin), had played bass and violin in the doom band shEver (2003 – 2012, Svart Records / TotalRust Music) before she started as front-woman in the Swiss black/doom band Ashtar (since 2013, Eisenwald, Throne Records).

Through Ernte they set about to invade the darker side of their listeners’ souls, drawing inspiration from the contemplation of ancient spirits as well as cold and barren landscapes, and the results have been captured in a debut album named Geist und Hexerei, which will be released by Vendetta Records on December 3rd.

What we have for you today is a video for an album track named “the ending void” that’s equal parts enthralling and intensely unsettling. As the band themselves tell us, “‘The ending void’ is maybe the darkest song on this album – it finally leads to the absolute nothingness, narrated by the last human being on earth”. Continue reading »