Feb 072025
 

(Andy Synn is here to correct some egregious oversights by the rest of the NCS crew)

Well, I guess it’s finally time to draw a line under last year… in fact, it’s probably well past time… but before we consign 2024 to the great internet graveyard I wanted to get in one last edition of “2024’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs” focussing on some of the coolest and most killer cuts that my buddies Islander and DGR missed.

Credit where credit is due, however, the two of them did end up featuring a couple of tracks I assumed would end up on my list (namely “Dehumanize Me” by Candy and “Blackwater” by Bloom Dream) but the rest of these ten selections (I decided that was a nice limit, considering between them Islander and DGR already highlighted over 100 tracks) come from artists/albums/EPs they didn’t touch in their lists.

I’ve also resisted the temptation to include anything by my own band… although if I had it probably would have been “Until Morale Improves” (which, you know, you should definitely check out)… or any bands I’m too close to personally, but that still left a pretty massive “short list” (short being a relative term) to choose from, so whittling it down to just ten options meant a whole heap of songs were left behind on the cutting room floor.

But, hopefully, what you’re about to hear will encourage you to further check out the rest of these records.

Continue reading »

Sep 012024
 

(Andy Synn somehow manages to pick just four albums from an overloaded August to talk about)

I feel like August was even more jam-packed with new releases than any other month this year so far… right?

And I don’t just mean all the “big” names – of which there were several – I’m talking about all the cool, more underground records and releases which came out during the last 31 days.

There was the intricate, immersive Prog-Death of Moonloop and the intense, in-your-face Deathcore of To The Grave… the disgustingly dark and devastating double-team of Teeth and Pneuma Hagion… as well as rites, both Vile and Modern in the form of Senescence and Endless.

And then there was the unquantifiable, uncompromising new album from Uniform – which I hope, one day, to get round to reviewing (just as soon as I’ve got my head around it properly) – plus several more which I might just end up covering separately at some point.

Until then, however, please enjoy this genre-crossing look back at the last month!

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Jul 292024
 

Even if you don’t know anything about the Portuguese death-dealers Phenocryst and had managed to miss out on their 2021 debut EP Explosions (briefly reviewed here at our site), you could take your cues about their tremendous debut album from its name — Cremation Pyre — and its brilliantly molten cover art, with skulls bobbing in the lava, eye sockets glowing.

Another cue comes from the name of the album track we’re premiering today in advance of the record’s August 30 release by Blood Harvest — the perfectly named “Astonishing Devastation“. Continue reading »

Mar 202022
 

 

In rooting around among new releases over the past week I got myself into some pretty nasty and gnarly music. Because it’s my habit to impulsively share whatever I happen to be into, I’m sharing some of that with you here. But it’s not just the nastiness that hooked me to these releases. As I hope you’ll agree, the following two albums (and one EP) have other qualities that make them noteworthy.

Fair warning: on the spectrum of black/death metal, most of these lean more in the direction of death. Further fair warning: I haven’t had time to write thorough reviews, just some very broad and possibly superficial impressions, just a come-on for you to do your own listening.

SAVAGE NECROMANCY (U.S.)

The vocalist of this Arizona band has a great pseudonym — Diabolical Fuckwitch Of The Black Flame — and she also has a helluva voice. She opens the band’s debut album Feathers Fall To Flames with a gripping performance in the opening track “Milenio De La Crucifixión”. There she voices a fervent melodic chant in Spanish, though later in the album she also growls like a subterranean hell beast and howls like a rabid wolf. Continue reading »