You learn something new every day. You may not think you do, but you do.

Like on Friday, I learned that the German word for emptiness is “leere”. On Saturday, I learned that if you live in the Pacific Northwest and forgetfully leave your car window down overnight, spiders will move in and later drop on your arm while you’re driving, causing unexpected vehicular fun ‘n games. And yesterday, I learned the secrets of how extreme metal vocalists can shriek and growl really low without requiring hospitalization.

I’ve always wondered, and finally, after years of listening to non-clean singing, it now all becomes clear to me. It’s like some trade secret that finally leaked. And it turns out to be something that is easily duplicated. It just takes the right preparation and the right record producer (like Chris “Zeuss” Harris).

I’m not making this up. I learned it from a dude who ought to know — Adam Warren, who happens to be the frontman for deathcore heavyweights Oceano. It’s all in that video at the top of this post. It just takes sleeping ’til noon, some microwaved elixir, a little Lion King chord-stretching, and someone who can tell you which buttons to push.

Go ahead, see for yourself. The secrets are out. We won’t even charge you to watch. In the video, you can also see some spirited debate over whether “Contagion” is the kind of album title people will have to look up, as compared to a common street-word like, uh, “harbinger”.

Truly, Adam Warren is an engaging dude, and we can pretty much guarantee this thing will make you smile, even if you’re not an Oceano fan.  And while we’re on the subject of deathcore, word of a Whitechapel-Impending Doom-Miss May I-Oceano-I Declare War tour has leaked out. Details about that breaking news, plus an Oceano video, follow after the jump. Wonder what I’ll learn today?

Shit, we might as well just surrender the day to deathcore (not counting my goofy MYSPAZZ post). As punishing breakdowns go, that clip we put up earlier today from Thy Art Is Murder is pretty satisfying, if you can get past the foam-at-the-mouth-and-belch-blood vid accompaniment — or maybe you’ll greet that as a plus factor.

But now we’ve just stumbled across a newly minted, almost freshly unwrapped official goodie from our Seattle homeboys I Declare War performing “Federal Death Alliance” from their new album Malevolence — which my man IntoTheDarkness gushed about in our review here.

And no, we still don’t have any more light to shed on the rumored departure of IDW’s frontman Jonathan Huber, except it definitely is true that he’s not playing with the band on the current tour and Molotov Solution’s Nick Arthur is standing in. We’re still hoping for more news.  The vid is after the jump. It’s murderous . . .

Our sometimes NCS collaborator IntoTheDarkness just alerted me to this piece of news on Lambgoat:

I Declare War (Artery/Razor & Tie) vocalist Jonathan Huber has reportedly left the group, though nothing official has been announced thus far. The band just kicked off a tour with For The Fallen Dreams and Legend and have been using a fill-in singer (apparently Nick Arthur of Molotov Solution).

To which all we can say is, What The Fuck?

We’ve been following these hometown deathcore favorites for a while, and no one was more stoked to learn earlier this year that they’d been signed by a label (as we reported here). We were even happier to discover that their recently released second album, Malevolent, kicked massive amounts of ass (as IntoTheDarkness reported here). And with that release and the label backing, the dudes started hitting the road and building their fanbase.

Now this? It really don’t make sense. We’ve got no explanation at the moment. Maybe it’s all just a baseless rumor. When we find out more, we’ll put it up here for you IDW fans in the audience.

If you’re a baseball fan, you’re familiar with the term “stuff.”  And if you’re not? Well, inarticulate baseball players, managers, and fans (like us) use that term to refer both to what pitchers are capable of throwing and how they actually perform in games. It can refer to the speed of the ball, the location of the pitch as it crosses the plate, the guile of the pitcher in varying the pitches from batter to batter — basically, everything that goes into keeping hitters off balance and generating outs.

When a pitcher is on his game, keeping batters off the bases and cruising through a low pitch count, the manager or some teammate will be quoted as saying, “he had good stuff tonight.”  And when a pitcher gets shelled and removed without going at least five innings, you can bet someone will say, “he didn’t have good stuff.” Hey, they don’t pay those dudes for their public speaking skills.

So, you might ask, what the fuck does that have to do with metal? And we would answer: If you’re a metal band and you pick the name “Legend,” you better have the “stuff” to back it up. And in the case of this metalicized hardcore band from Michigan and their recently released debut album Valediction, they abso-fucking-lutely do.

We’ve written before about our disappointment in Bury Your Dead’s change in musical direction since the departure of vocalist Mat Bruso and his replacement by Myke Terry. We were further chagrined to learn that BYD bassist Aaron “Bubble” Patrick left the band last fall. And we were equally disappointed by the defection of band members from another repeat-play favorite of ours, For the Fallen Dreams.  (more after the jump, including a song and tour dates . . . )

I know, I know, I have been absent from No Clean Singing for quite a while now but what do you want from me? I am in college after all. I have many important things that occupy my time like girls, sleep, cookies, movies, shooting the shit with friends, cookies, (mmmm cooooookies) and did I mention girls? Oh and there is that foreign entity called homework…wait; fuck homework. Anyway, all that being said, I have been brought out of hibernation by the multitude of new releases today and I am here to tell you about two of them that will fuck your ears repeatedly until you beg for mercy. (more after the jump, including songs…)

Job For A Cowboy, Whitechapel, Cattle Decapitation, Revocation, and I Declare War hit Seattle hard on JFAC’s current Ruination tour on the night of May 18 at El Corazon. All three of your NCS collaborators turned out for the carnage and we file this somewhat incomplete report, along with a somewhat incomplete batch of our half-assed photos (be sure to scroll to the end of the review to see those).

Somewhat incomplete, because we had to leave before JFAC’s set. Maybe if we were being paid to run this site, we’d have stayed to the bitter end, but the people who actually do pay us were expecting our asses to show up on time early the next morning. Life is full of fucking compromises, isn’t it?.

I DECLARE WAR

Well, what can we say? It’s just so fucking cool to see our local boys making good. As we reported here back in March, IDW has signed with Artery Recordings and has a new album (Malevolence) due out on June 8, with two of the songs currently streaming on their MySpace page. They played some dates earlier this month in California with Whitechapel and Son of Aurelius, and next month they start a nationwide tour with Molotov Solution, Dr. Acula, and Monsters.

But this night was a show for the home folks — something of a coming-out since the news of their label-signing, and man, did the home folks turn out. El Corazon was packed to the gills in time for the first chord of IDW’s first song, and they showed these hard-working, hard-playing dudes a lotta love.  (more after the jump . . .)

We’ve had a weakness for our local boys in I Declare War ever since we first saw em play live a couple years ago. They work their butts off and they churn out some brutal death metal. Plus, one of our favorite band shirts is theirs, with the following in big letters on the back: “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, BLAST BEAT THE FUCK OUT OF IT.”

We put up a post last November about IDW entering the studio to begin recording a new album. What we didn’t know then but have just learned today is that they had a deal in the works with The Artery Foundation. Now the news is public. Excerpts from a press release issued by the band and Artery:

“Seattle, Washington-based death metallers I DECLARE WAR have inked a deal with Artery Recordings, the new joint venture between The Artery Foundation and Razor & Tie. The band’s self-produced new album,“Malevolence”, will be released on June 1. . . .

“During I DECLARE WAR’s first tour in 2007, the band happened to cross paths with well-known death metal band WHITECHAPEL, and played what [guitarist] Evan [Hughes] calls ‘one of the worst shows both of us ever played.’ The unfortunate concert turned into a lasting friendship and one of the best things to happen to the band. When Alex Wade from WHITECHAPEL was approached by Artery in regards to possible bands to sign, he suggested I DECLARE WAR, and so the relationship began.”

(more after the jump . . .)

Seattle upstarts I Declare War entered the studio on Friday (Nov 27) to begin tracking their second CD. They’re recording at the Red Room in Seattle with Chris Common, who plays drums with These Arms Are Snakes and co-owns the studio with Matt Bayles.  IDW guitarist Evan Hughes is writing a studio blog about the process, complete with photos and promises of video material to come. Unlike a lot of similar blogs by other bands, this one is well-written and very interesting.  So check it out here.

IDW’s first offering, Amidst the Bloodshed, was a promising start — brutal, punishing deathcore, played with passion and high energy. A new track (“New Age Holocaust”) now up on the band’s MySpace page makes us anxious to hear the new CD when it’s done. The guys practice what they preach. As advertised on one of their killer shirts: “If it ain’t broke, blast beat the fuck out of it.” IDW’s still unsigned, but we’re hoping for good news about a label soon. They’re totally committed to their music, they deliver the goods, and they deserve more exposure.

They also put on a sweet live show. In fact, if you’re in the Seattle area on January 16 and in the mood to bang and mosh, get yourselves over to Studio Seven for an IDW performance and video shoot.

And in the meantime, here’s the band’s last official video. (No creepy stalkers at the shoot on 1/16 we hope.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all you hornheads out there who are indulging in that quitessential American tradition: surfing the web before, during, or after your Thanksgiving feedbag.  And here’s hoping that your Thanksgiving food will be something that was once alive, as opposed to a dozen Twinkies and a six-pack of PBR.

Yes, it’s a national holiday but No Clean Singing is open for business, because we’re here to serve you.

Last night was Thanksgiving Eve. (That doesn’t roll off the tongue quite like Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, does it?).  And our buds over at Seattle’s Showbox in the Market decided to host a night of live metal to commemorate the occasion — the “Into the Mouth of Hell We Tour” show, making its first stop back in the U.S. after a series of dates in Canada. The NCS triumvirate were all in attendance, and here are some notes from Nov 25, 2009, at The Showbox: