SONIC BOOM UPDATE: THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT IN THE STUDIO

 Metal News  1 Response »
Nov 252012
 

The John Wilkes Vocal Booth, a/k/a The Monolith Deathcubicle

We can hear it all the way over in Seattle: Sonic booms are emanating from The Netherlands. And no, the Dutch Air Force is not on a training exercise (do the Dutch have an Air Force?). The explanation is more interesting than Dutch jets doing barrel rolls at Mach I: The Monolith Deathcult are continuing to record their new album, TETRAGRAMMATON, at Mach II.

Okay, they’re not exactly recording their album at the speed of sound. That process is proceeding more deliberately, closer to the speed of a loris sprint. But it’s as LOUD as breaking the sound barrier.

If that deep thrumming sound in the atmosphere weren’t proof enough, we now have video evidence that TMDC are at work creating their new supreme avant garde death metal masterpiece, instead of merely pretending to work. Specifically, we have:

Video of Carsten Altena explaining how he one-upped Richard Wagner and Hans Zimmer on the synths, with helpful English subtitles that seem totally legit to me despite the fact that my Dutch is limited to “Heineken”, “Grolsch”, and “stroopwafel”.

Video of Ivo Hilgenkamp nailing the guitar solo on “Human Wave Attack” through the magic of his Ibanez White Zombie “J” model guitar. Reportedly, this is the first TUNED guitar solo on a TMDC album, ever, since the beginning of time.

Video of all the vocals on TETRAGRAMMATON being recorded in The John Wilkes Vocal Booth. I think the lyrics consist entirely of “Asliiiiiiimuuuu!!”

Continue reading »

SOM PLUIJMERS LEAVES CEREBRAL BORE

 Metal News  15 Responses »
Nov 252012
 

Vocalist Som Pluijmers has left Scotland-based brutal death metal band Cerebral Bore.

As you may have noticed if you’ve been visiting NO CLEAN SINGING for more than a week or two, we spend very little time reporting on band drama. Musicians leave bands and join bands every day, and honestly, I’d rather be writing about the music. About the only time it matters is if a changing line-up has altered the music of a noteworthy band in some significant way, and that’s unlikely to happen in this instance — so far as I know, Som was not involved in writing Cerebral Bore’s music.

So why am I making an exception here? I’ll tell you in a minute. But first, the details. Here’s a statement that appeared on Cerebral Bore’s Facebook page about 5 hours ago:

“Som walked out on us less than 24 hours before the US tour, and we were forced to either cancel or go ahead with it as an instrumental if need be. We didn’t want to let our US fans down, so we went ahead with our buddy Shawn Whitaker on vocals for the tour. Show us your support and make Shawn feel at home, he saved us from a disaster.”

Cerebral Bore began a U.S. tour on November 24 in support of Dying Fetus, Cattle Decapitation, and Malignancy. It’s scheduled to run through December 23. The Shawn Whitaker referenced in that statement is the sole member of a Houston band named Insidious Decrepancy. And now here’s Som’s response to the statement quoted above: Continue reading »

I, VOIDHANGER RECORDS: ÆVANGELIST, TEMPESTUOUS FALL, AND MORE!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 252012
 

 

(Our friend Utmu hath delivered this guest post, introducing us to a some great bands who share the same label.)

Hello all! I’m Utmu and I’m back with my second article for NCS this year—I’m on a roll! Anyway I was on From the Dust Returned recently and I came across Ævangelist; intrigued by the artwork and the band’s name, I decided to look into them. I also saw reviews for the bands Nar Mattaru and The Wakedead Gathering and I came to find out that they are all on the same label, I, Voidhanger Records.

The first part of I, Voidhanger’s manifesto reads, “Born in 2008 as an independent division of the Italian metal label AeternitasTenebrarumMusicaeFundamentum (ATMF), I, Voidhanger Records tolerates musical categorizations, but doesn’t like any kind of boundaries.” It goes on to say in the second part, “We are interested in black metal, death metal, avant-garde metal, progressive metal, doom metal, heavy rock, psychedelia, 70’s dark sounds, dark ambient and drone music, as long as they are the result of an obscure, unique, and uncompromising artistic vision.” That’s pretty accurate when comparing that to the bands they’ve signed. Continue reading »

SATURDAY WITH SONNE ADAM, PTAHIL, AND ALPTHRAUM

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 242012
 

As I write this, it’s a Saturday morning in the vicinity of Seattle, where the rain gods are taking a breath before going to work again. Actual rays of sunshine are illuminating the water drops that hang from every living thing in the forest around where I live, and the earth looks like a saturated sponge that can’t hold any more. I might take a walk later, before the sky starts peeing again. But for now, I’m just listening . . .

. . . and what I’ve been hearing are new tunes from Sonne Adam (Israel), Ptahil (U.S.), and Alpthraum (Canada).

SONNE ADAM

Israel’s Sonne Adam have recently loosed two bestial releases. The first is a vinyl EP entitled Doctrines of Dark Devotion, the magnificent cover of which is staring you in the face at the top of this post. That one was released by Imperium Productions.

The second release is Messengers Of Desolate Ways, a CD compilation from Century Media containing all the tracks on that new EP plus all the music from two previous vinyl-only EPs, Armed With Hammers and The Sun Is Dead, and three previously unreleased songs.

Recently, Sonne Adam began streaming “The Day I Chose to Rot”, which appears on both of the new releases. The song is fucking immense, a shattering mid-paced crusher of blackened death metal might. It brings down a dank, heavy shroud of doom, shot through with indigo melody and made all the more disturbing by truly horrific vocals. It sucks souls into the abyss and consumes them with grisly relish. Continue reading »

THE ASCENDANT: “THE SPIRITUAL DEATH”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 242012
 

Five years ago, former Excessum bandmates Daniel “Contagion” Abrahamsson and Lars Broddesson (Marduk) joined forces with vocalist K.W. (Ad Hominem) to record a two-song EP, with Daniel on bass and Lars on drums and both of them laying down guitar tracks. They chose The Ascendant as the name of their band. The songs were never released.

Fast-forward to 2012, and Daemon Worship Productions reaches an agreement with The Ascendant to release the two songs as an EP on vinyl and CD under the name The Spiritual Death, with accompanying artwork by Grindwerkz. Why it took five years for the songs to emerge is a mystery, especially because they are so damned good.

On one level, the music simply rips hell. The guitars blaze with infernal fire, jabbing, tearing, and grinding in a whirr of tremolo fury. The jet-fueled drum performance hits like high-caliber weaponry on full auto. Big, booming bass chords surface and come down like anvil blows. And K.W.’s mid-range vocals howl like an ice storm.

On another level, the music reaches near-epic levels of grandeur, with memorable, dramatic guitar melodies rising on wings through the shrapnel clouds. Continue reading »

AQUILUS: “GRISEUS”

 Album Reviews  21 Responses »
Nov 232012
 

Aquilus is the one-man project of an Australian wizard named Horace “Waldorf” Rosenqvist, and Griseus is his one-hour, twenty-minute masterpiece — at least until he creates the next masterpiece.

I first learned of this album in April through a message from an NCS reader who calls himself FistForFun. And then I got another message from him in May, and another in August, and another in October. Though they grew increasingly strident, the content was essentially the same: Pull your head out of your ass and listen to this damn record!  (I kid, FistForFun was more polite than that.)

It only took me seven months, but I’ve finally done that. There is a reason why the slow loris is the official mascot of NCS. Having now heard Griseus, I can understand FistForFun’s enthusiasm.

I think it’s fair to say that Griseus is unlike anything else we’ve ever reviewed at this site. It’s also unlike anything else I can remember ever hearing that could conceivably be classified as metal. The metal elements are scattered in the music — harsh vocals that are sometimes of the shrieking black metal variety and sometimes deep and howling; big booming riffs, heavy chugs, jabbing distorted chords; bouts of double-bass percussion; even a shrill electric guitar solo (in “Latent Thistle”).

But these elements appear infrequently, and even the harsh vocals are balanced by clean vocal harmonies and the sounds of choirs. Yet the vocals themselves are really only accents in what is primarily an instrumental album of neoclassical, folk-influenced orchestral music — one that’s endlessly interesting. Continue reading »

OBOLUS: “LAMENT”

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 232012
 

Lament, grievance, hatred, reflection, desolation. Those could be the five steps of reaction to a wrenching loss or to a wrong inflicted, the steps of an emotional processing that doesn’t end well. Those are also the titles, in order, of the songs on Lament, the remarkable 2012 EP by San Francisco’s Obolus.

The songs flow together, like a five-part suite, creating an immersive atmosphere that’s both beautiful and harrowing in its intensity. The sound of rain begins each song except the one called “Hatred”, and as the music slowly fades at the EP’s end, it rains again. Clouds hang heavy overhead throughout. Storm fronts move through and lash the listener, with brief moments of respite from the deluge before the next front begins its assault.

The first song (“Lament”) is a relatively short instrumental-only piece, comparatively subdued, with no drums to provide an undercurrent of power. The music is slow and sad, consisting principally of a layered acoustic and electric guitar melody.

The following track, “Grievance”, at first continues the mood, slowly building in volume and intensity until a surge of feedback breaks the repeating melody and the song explodes in an attack of blasting drums and a wall of distorted guitar noise. A harrowing, incoherent shrieking can be heard (as it can on “Hatred” and “Desolation”), but just barely, because it’s an almost indiscernible part of the dense background shroud of battering percussion and guitar distortion. A tremolo melody rolls through the haze in repeating waves, enhancing the song’s emotional intensity. Continue reading »

WHILE WAITING TO GORGE: AUTHOR & PUNISHER, NILE, and CHURCH OF DISGUST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Nov 222012
 

Happy Tryptophan Coma Day to one and all. I’ve been sitting here at my computer all morning with my gut rumbling and my mouth salivating as my wife and assorted other female culinary magicians  perform wondrous works in our kitchen. Eventually, a horde of gluttons will descend on the feast and the gorging will begin. I hope this happens soon, before the flood of gastric juices triggered by all the aromas eats a hole through my esophagus.

While resisting the urge to barge through the kitchen like a rabid wolverine and start stuffing my gullet with both hands, I’ve been listening to a few random selections of new metal that I thought I’d share with you. The offerings come from Author & Punisher, Nile, and Church of Disgust.

AUTHOR & PUNISHER

If you don’t know about Author & Punisher (the nom de guerre of one Tristan Shone), I suggest you read this post by BadWolf, which was my introduction to this dude’s amazing music. Wholly apart from the way the hellish music sounds, it’s noteworthy because much of it is made on machines that Shone designs himself and then performs. One of the devices he created is something called the Mute Mask, and he employs it in a new song called “Magnetik” that debuted about a week ago. Continue reading »

ANCIENT ASCENDANT: “INTO THE DARK”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 222012
 

(We got pretty excited when we saw the news in August that the UK’s Ancient Ascendant were planning to release a new EP.  Now, Andy Synn gives it the once over in this review.)

Ok, so I’ve had this one on the back-burner for a while now it seems. What have I been doing that’s more important? Fuck you. That’s what.

Anyway, I’ve been busy.

But that has given me the chance to give this EP a thorough listen several times over, and really appreciate every second of the music contained therein.

Into The Dark sees the band making a transition away from the sound they established on their first two releases (The Heathen Throne and The Grim Awakening) but managing to do so in a way that feels utterly natural and fresh – expanding their early death metal palette, rather than abandoning it.

The thrashier stylings of The Grim Awakening have been drastically pared back to make room for a more cutting, blackened approach, replacing thrashing vigour with blackened vitriol, while maintaining the monstrous death metal heart of the band. The songs now have more of a cut and thrust to them, slashing and slicing with psychotic precision, where before they were, at times, simply content with a more bludgeoning form of sonic brutality. Continue reading »

DARK FORTRESS / SATURNIAN / ETHEREAL — LIVE AT THE VIC INN, DERBY — NOV. 16, 2012

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 222012
 

(Andy Synn was both performer and spectator at the November 16 show in Derby, England, headlined by Dark Fortress and he provides both this concert review and video clips of each band’s performance.)

So the boys in Bloodguard and I were lucky enough to score an opening slot for one of my all-time favourite black metal bands, Germany’s own Dark Fortress. Needless to say we rocked the place mightily, but I also thought I’d take the opportunity to review the show, and get some video footage of each band for you all.  I am a river to my people.

 

Ethereal

Up first were Liverpool-based black metal monsters Ethereal. Performing as a four piece, due to a last minute problem with their line-up, the group shot through an all too brief, but absolutely blistering set of raucous, blood-curdling black metal. Blasting through an array of material drawn from their two EPs, Hell’s Divine Existence and Revelation Beast, the group hit hard with a sound that was neither overly primitive nor excessively polished, but utterly raw and ravenous in equal measure. Continue reading »

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