Feb 292016
 

Gloria Morti-Kuebiko

 

No, “The Foul Stench of Vomiting Blood” is not a tender ballad. But whatever you may guess about the music from the title, you’re probably still not going to be prepared for what hits you. But we’ll come back to that momentarily.

The song is one of nine on Kuebiko, the new album by the Finnish horde Gloria Morti, which will be released on the 18th of March by the band’s new label, Willowtip Records. This is the band’s fourth album in a career that began in 1999, and it is INTENSE.

The album’s title, as explained by the band, is a word that represents “a state of exhaustion inspired by acts of senseless violence, which force you to revise your image of what can happen in this world — mending the fences of your expectations, weeding out all unwelcome and invasive truths, cultivating the perennial good that’s buried under the surface, and propping yourself up like an old scarecrow, who’s bursting at the seams but powerless to do anything but stand there and watch”. Continue reading »

Feb 292016
 

Gadget-The Great Destroyer

 

Ten years have passed since the Swedish grind veterans in Gadget released their last album, The Funeral March, but a new one will soon be upon us. We are fortunate that the passage of time hasn’t dulled the band’s taste for using music as a weapon, or their talent for drawing upon elements from extreme genres beyond grind to enhance the sonic power of their rage.

The new album, to be released next month by Relapse Records, is entitled The Great Destroyer — which would seem to have a double meaning, one of which is a description of the album itself. A few songs from the album have already appeared, and more will follow every day this week. You’re about to hear the first of these new premieres: “Choice Of A Lost Generation“. Continue reading »

Feb 292016
 

Oranssi Pazuzu-Värähtelijä

 

(Here’s the second of KevinP’s monthly selection of releases for 2016, naming his Top 5 favorite albums released during February.)

So much for the notion that the beginning and end of the year are slow times for new releases. We have another month stacked with quality through and through. As pleasing as it is to spread the love of great releases to people far and wide, I wouldn’t mind a slight respite during a busy time of the year (I do have other obligations and hobbies). But yeah, #FirstWorldProblem. Continue reading »

Feb 292016
 

October Tide - Winged Waltz

 

It looks like it’s going to be yet another one of those crazy weeks where if we snooze for about 5 minutes we’ll miss the debut of at least 5 new things worth getting excited about. For example, everything in this post appeared in just the last few hours of this Monday morning, except the penultimate one, which erupted like a volcano of dementia last night.

These are all videos. Because I really hadn’t planned on trying to inject a round-up into an already full schedule of posts at our site this morning, I don’t have time to write much about them. Of course, I do recommend you give them your time.

OCTOBER TIDE

Winged Waltz is the name of the fifth album by these beautifully gloomy Swedes, and it will be released by Agonia Records on April 22. Here is the brand new lyric video for the first advance track from the album — “Sleepless Sun”: Continue reading »

Feb 292016
 

Rotten Cold-Distaste split

 

(DGR brings us two reviews of two new cataclysmic musical assaults.)

The foraging for new sounds with which to ruin your hearing never stops here at NoCleanSinging, it just happens to move a little slower than usual as work hits its busy season for a few weeks. As such, I’ve been in the mood for the sort of music that can wipe away any sense of reality by fire, and I figured I’d share my two most recent listens that have allowed me to do that.

Both of these hit in January and have been sort of waiting in my back pocket, armed and ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice and, almost inevitably, something happens that causes one’s day to go sideways. Both of these releases are short, quick hits of adrenalin to the system and they both appear angry as hell. So if you need a good way to light a match on your day, here goes…

ROTTEN COLD / DISTASTE: A SPLIT

A few years ago I went on something of a grind kick here at NCS. Never really delved too deep into the underground, but had found a list of bands that I thoroughly enjoyed. A lot of them, to no surprise, took a lot of inspiration from bands like Nasum/Rotten Sound (who themselves have a disc hitting really soon) and more, from that specific breed of grind band. They were all lightspeed-heavy, blaster-style bands, and the whole thing that triggered my exploration was curiosity as to what musician had been in what project and what side projects they had been in. Continue reading »

Feb 292016
 

Mgla live video

 

By now, when I say that Mgła’s Exercises In Futility is an album for the ages, I expect no argument.

Yesterday these Polish magicians posted a video of a live performance of the song “VI” from that album. The video, which was filmed during the the Nidrosian Black Mass Aftermath tour in December, is as much a work of art as that magnificent album — and I bow my head in respect to Woda i Pustka, who filmed and edited it. Continue reading »

Feb 282016
 

Svarttjern-Dødsskrik

 

I guess I went overboard with this collection of new metal in a blackened vein. Believe it or not, even though eight bands are featured in this round-up, I made a lot of hard choices, leaving behind many other new releases I also heard over the last week that I thought were good. But eight is still a lot for a single post. Hope you won’t be deterred by its length from giving everything here a listen.

I organized these songs with a quartet of full-throttle assaults at the start, followed by a trio of more ritualistic, strange and/or atmospheric selections, and concluding with one final head-crusher.

SVARTTJERN

Norway’s Svarttjern signed with Soulseller Records for the release of their fourth album Dødsskrik, which our friend eiterorm tell us is Norwegian for “Scream of Death”. The song I have for you is the first advance track from the album, “All Hail Satan”. Continue reading »

Feb 282016
 

Rearview Mirror

 

Welcome to another Sunday edition of this continuing feature, in which we recall metal from the past. The band I’ve chosen for today — Kawir — is a Greek black metal institution, with a long string of splits, EPs, and albums dating back to 1993. The last full-length was 2012’s Ισόθεος (Isotheos) — though a new one will soon be upon us.

Though widely respected and influential, Kawir don’t have quite the same name recognition as other Greek black metal bands of a similar vintage, such as Rotting Christ, Septic Flesh, or Varathron, though perhaps to a greater extent than any of those bands, Kawir has embraced ancient Hellenic culture in their music, with lyrics sung in ancient Greek and songs built upon the rich traditions of Greek myth and legend. Continue reading »

Feb 272016
 

GDP-17-001.pdf

 

It’s possible that I owe each of these two bands an apology for reviewing their new releases alongside each other. I swear I wasn’t trying to be ironic or make any mischief. It just happened that I listened to both of them back-to-back, liked them both (for somewhat different reasons), and was anxious to spill some words about them. So I’m striking while the iron is hot in my head.

ITHAQUA: “THE BLACK MASS SABBATH PULSE”

When I first came across this band’s debut demo Initiation To Obscure Mysteries more than a year ago (here), I didn’t know anything about them other than the fact that they seemed to be from Greece. But that demo was an arresting experience, and I felt grateful that Iron Bonehead spread it around.

Now, a year later, Ithaqua finally have a page on Metal-Archives (along with the other bands with the same name who are not them), they seem to have attracted a following, and Iron Bonehead will again be releasing their music. This time it’s a two-song 7″ named The Black Mass Sabbath Pulse, and it’s even more impressive than the demo. Continue reading »

Feb 262016
 

Inverloch-Distance Collapsed

 

(Allen Griffin rejoins us with this review of the new album by Inverloch from Melbourne, Australia.)

Following up 2012’s critically acclaimed EP Dusk|Subside, Australian Doom/Death juggernaut Inverloch are set to release their debut full-length Distance|Collapsed this March via Relapse Records. Inverloch consists of Mark Cullen (guitars), Ben James (vocals), Chris Jordan (bass), Paul Mazziota (drums), and Matthew Skarajew (guitars), and you won’t read anything about this band without reference to Mazziota and Skarajew’s involvement with the seminal diSEMBOWELMENT, and this particular article will be no different. But there is certainly justification for this beyond the two bands’ sharing common members, seeing as how Inverloch started off under the moniker d.USK, performing material from diSEMBOWELMENT’s only official album, Transcending into the Peripheral. And while Inverloch might be performing original material, their sound is perfectly in keeping with their lineage.

For the uninitiated, what we are dealing with here is a Death/Doom hybrid that trawls through the darkest depths of crypt stench. The most immediate analogues for this sound are Incantation’s first two albums or, in more recent times, the work of Hooded Menace. But with Inverloch, there are also elements that add a more obscure, or what one might call a mystical, slant to the material. The group achieves this by juxtaposing clean guitars over the top of the crushing foundation laid down by the rest of the band. This is a consistent feature of both incarnations of this outfit and one of the things that makes them so fascinating. Continue reading »