I don’t have the words to describe this video. Just watch it. Trust me. Right after the jump. (Thank you Jess.)
Credits
Alessandro Bavari: Camera Tremula 1, Noise Melange, XYZ Ocula Depth
Fulvio Sturniolo: Camera Tremula 2
Jeff Ensign aka Evolution Noise Slave: Sonic Harmonium
(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »
We got the yin and we got the yang. We finished yesterday’s postings with TesseracT and we start today’s with Flayed Disciple. We may not be good, but we’re sure as hell not monotonous.
Can you understand why I couldn’t resist listening to the new EP by Flayed Disciple?
Well, in my defense, allow me to say that although I have a strong impulsive desire to shock people when they least expect it and a personal taste for horrifyingly brutal death metal, I have never actually ejaculated while killing anyone or anything, and the idea of doing that does NOT appeal to me. I also get disgusted by metal bands who sell themselves with lyrics and album art that exploit the vicious degradation of women.
However, I do appreciate a good turn of phrase, and “ejaculate while killing” is just so over-the-top that I couldn’t resist. But as much fun as I have throwing big wet curveballs at all of you from time to time, I still wouldn’t be writing about this band if the music weren’t surprisingly VERY GOOD.
Flayed Disciple are from the UK and their latest EP apparently includes two older songs and two new ones. I say “apparently” because the Ejaculate EP as it’s available for purchase here in the U.S. (on iTunes and Amazon mp3) only includes the two new songs. Those two songs spun my head around so hard I had to check the mirror to make sure it wasn’t stuck in an ass-wards direction. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »
TesseracT isn’t the kind of band we typically feature at NCS. Y’know, because of all that clean singing. BUT, I do like the band and their music. The songwriting is creative, the instrumental work is sharp, the mix of heavy, Meshuggah-style rhythms and penetrating melodies works well, and I tolerate the clean vocals because I like the instrumental work so much.
A few hours ago, a new music video appeared for the song “Eden”. The music on the video is is a revision of the song that appeared on the band’s album, One. It’s shorter than the original, and it includes the band’s new vocalist Elliot Coleman instead of the now-departed Dan Tompkins. I know there’s been a mountain of shit-talking controversy among the band’s fans about Elliot Coleman joining the band — not that I really care all that much about the issue — but I don’t hear a huge difference between the two performances of this song.
As for the video, it’s well-made and interesting to watch. Coincidentally, it’s the second video we’ve featured today that involves mermaids. Granted, the sea creatures in this video don’t have tails, and they seem to have glowing boxes in place of hearts, but it’s close enough. The video is after the jump. Continue reading »
Metsatöll is a band from Estonia who released their first demo in 1999. Four albums plus assorted splits, EPs, and singles have followed that first effort, and the fifth album — Ulg — is due for release via Spinefarm Records on November 1. Until today, I had never heard their music. I’m not even positive I had heard their name. Just to display my ignorance even further, I wasn’t even sure where Estonia was, other than having a vague recollection of a Central European location (which turns out to be wrong)..
And then today I saw the album cover for Ulg, which is above, in conjunction with a notice that the album is streaming in full on yet another Finnish web site, Imperiumi (that Lantlôs album we discussed earlier today is streaming on Finland-based Inferno). There’s something about that cover that really hooked me, even though it’s not as “metal” as most cover art for the albums we feature around here. So, I decided this would be a fitting test subject for our continuing investigation of the hypothesis that cool album art correlates with cool music.
So, I cranked up that full album stream and started listening. Now, I warn you that because of interference from my fucking day job, I haven’t yet finished listening, which of course hasn’t stopped me from posting about this anyway. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »
Lantlôs is a two-man German band consisting of Herbst, who writes the music and plays all the instruments (other than session drums), and Alcest’s Neige, who supplies scarifying vocals. Their 2010 album, .neon, made several of the “best of the year” lists we published last December. Even after seeing the name on those lists, I never listened to it. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. However, the band have already finished a new album titled Agape — five songs totaling about 35 minutes of music. It’s scheduled for release on October 28 and it’s available for pre-order in a variety of formats from Prophecy Productions at this web store.
Thanks to a tip from BadWolf, I can report that the album is also now streaming — for one week only — at the Finnish web site Inferno, which also hosted a stream of the new Solstafir album that we featured not long ago. Accompanying the album stream is a track-by-track commentary (appearing in Finnish on the Inferno site) by Herbst. This offers two attractive opportunities:
First, you get to hear the new Lantlôs album. Second, English speakers get another chance to see what kind of new hilarity will be produced by running the text through Google Translate. I sure hope whoever’s working on the Finnish-to-English algorithm for Google Translate stops trying to improve it, because it’s perfect just the way it is. For example, Inferno’s description of the Lantlôs music comes out this way: “post-called black metaliksikin”.
Me-tal-ik-sik-in. Beautiful word. It has dueling connotations — it sounds like either “sick metal” (a good thing) or metal that makes you sick-up your breakfast (not so good). I’ve only just started listening to the Lantlôs album stream, and so far I’d say it’s sick metal. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »
Anyone who’s been reading NO CLEAN SINGING over the last two months knows how pumped we are for the release of the debut album, A Fragile King, by Vallenfyre. Hell, we got very excited before we knew who was in this band or how they came together, just based on hearing pieces of two songs the band had released on a 7-inch single — which apparently was sufficient to land them a record contract with Century Media. Sharp ears, those Century Media folks have.
Once we found out who was in Vallenfyre, our excitement grew. The band was started by Greg Mackintosh, whose name you will recognize as the long-standing guitarist and a co-founding member of Paradise Lost. He wrote Vallenfyre’s music and the lyrics and called together a group of friends to fill out this band — and they happen to be top-shelf musicians too: Hamish Glencross (My Dying Bride) – Rhythm and Lead Guitars; Mully – Rhythm Guitars; Scoot (Doom, Extinction of Mankind) – Bass; and Adrian Erlandsson (At the Gates, Paradise Lost) – Drums.
Many albums are inspired by the songwriter’s personal experiences, but A Fragile King is a more personal creation than most. The music and the lyrics were largely the result of Greg Mackintosh’s effort to work through the grief he experienced over the death of his father John from cancer. It’s an album that’s in part a reflection of the anguish and the anger he felt, in part a tribute to his dad, and in part a re-connecting to the kind of metal he loved in younger and happier days — a voyage back in time to a place of refuge and comfort. Continue reading »
I was going to save this for tomorrow, but what the fuck. This day at NCS has shaped up to be more nasty and demented than usual, so I’m just gonna go with the flow.
So, there’s this band from Finland called Medeia. Yes, I know I have a Finnish metal fixation. I’ll eventually let go of that — when my fuckin’ corpse has turned blue and cold. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Anyway, Medeia are from Finland, which means, without knowing anything else, there’s about an 80% chance their music will be awesome.
And so it is — a powerhouse blast of death, thrash, and power-groove metal all rolled up into a nice package with a bit of metalcore sprinkled on top (thanks mainly to keyboardist Laura Dziadulewicz’s clean vocals). What’s that you say? You’re reminding me that I wasn’t going to allow anything clean in the house today. Well, I’m not. Because I don’t hear any cleans on the video I’m gonna show you after the jump.
And the video is just nutzo in so many ways I don’t even no where to begin describing it. It’s been out since May, so I suppose there’s a chance you’ve already seen it. It’s insane enough to have made the rounds. But I didn’t see it until TheMadIsraeli threw me the link last night. You may laugh, you may cry, you may want to bust shit up, you may experience the full range of human emotions, but you should definitely watch this (after the jump).
By the way, if it helps sell you on the idea, the vocalist for Medeia is Keijo Niinimaa — who fronts both Nasum and Rotten Sound. Continue reading »
When you start the day with Maax, move right along to Claws, and then get a lot of F-bombs out of your system texting with a banker in Burkina Faso, there’s just no way you’re going to allow any clean singing in the house before the day is out. Nope, that ain’t happening. NCS is staying nasty today, through and through.
Hemoptysis is certainly nasty enough to qualify. “Hemoptysis” is a medical term for the coughing up of blood or blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs. It’s also the name of a metal band from Arizona who self-released an album called Misanthropic Slaughter in March. This album has stirred up quite a bit of hype since then, with glowing reviews from much of metal blogdom. I didn’t pay attention, because the descriptions used the word “thrash”. I thought to myself, “not another re-thrash band”, and just passed right on by.
But yesterday, the band released a music video for a song called “M.O.D.”, and I finally decided to hear what Hemoptysis was all about. That opened my eyes to something really good, despite my aversion to about 80% of straight thrash. But this isn’t straight thrash. At least based on this one song, there’s a heavy blackened crust on this music, plus there’s some quality instrumental ripping going down. I really liked the 2-minute riff-fest of an intro, the capable solos near the beginning and end, and the subtle melodies that have kept the song ringing in my head since it ended. Very good stuff. Catch that after the jump if you haven’t already seen it at MetalSucks today — and then I’ve got a word about something else over at MS that you may have overlooked. Continue reading »
It’s been a while since the last time I answered one of those bankers/orphans/lawyers in Africa who regularly write me, trying to give me money. I kinda gave up on them, because none of the fuckers has yet sent me any kind of payoff, even after I’ve given them all my personal details. But I could use a little extra cheddah to tide me over ’til the next payday, and $25 million would just about do it. So, I decided to answer this e-mail I got yesterday. First, that e-mail, then my reply:
FROM MR NYEJIOWANAKA GOGO
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER.
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU , BURKINA FASO .
Dear Friend,
CONFIDENTIAL
I am Nyejiowanaka Gogo; I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance Department of BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I would like you to indicate your interest to receive the transfer of US$25M (Twenty five million US Dollars only). I will like you to stand as a next of kin to my late customer, (Mr. andreas schranner from munich ,germany) who died along with His entire family in July 2000 in a plane crash, whose account is presently dormant, for claims. Continue reading »
Lasse Pyykkö is one busy Finn. According to Metal Archives, he’s a vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and/or keyboardist for the following active bands: Phlegethon, Vacant Coffin, Hooded Menace, Swarming, and Ruinebell, in addition to being involved in the past with Acid Witch, Shrouded, and Sarnath (and many other bands). But what hooked our interest for purposes of this post was his one-man project called Claws, which he started in 2008 in an effort to recapture the style of death metal embodied by old-school bands such as Crematory, Nihilist, and Incantation.
The Claws discography consists of one album (Absorbed in the Nethervoid – 2009), one EP (The Funeral Barge – 2009), and a split released late last month with Grave Wax titled Pestilent Formation. I got turned onto Claws by NCS reader Utmu, who sent me a link to a YouTube clip for the song “Macabre Manifestations”, which appears on the Nethervoid album. I knew I was going to like this after about 5 seconds. It’s raw, ugly, buzzed-to-the-max, and smells like the crypt:
[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/06-Macabre-Manifestations.mp3|titles=Claws – Macabre Manifestations]That song was all it took to send me searching for more music. I found the Pestilent Formation split and listened to the two Claws tracks on that release. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »