Late last year we wrote about the storm surge of new metal over the last few years. Even if you confine yourselves to bands with labels, it’s enough to swamp the average listener. And if you also consider extreme metal being churned out by unsigned bands, it’s impossible to hear everything that might actually appeal to you, even if you’re devoted to only one or two sub-genres and don’t care about the rest.

Given this state of affairs, one of the most useful things a site like this one can do is help you sift through the floodwaters and try to point out the hidden treasures that might actually change your life (or at least your week). And here at NCS, we try to give equal coverage to extreme metal from other lands.

This week we’ve been on sort of a mini world tour of metal. On Monday, we visited Greece and wrote about Gus Drax. The next day we hopped the Atlantic to visit Costa Rica and Sight of Emptiness. And today we’re jumping back across the ocean to Italy and Vomit the Soul.

The first two bands we visited this week produce metal that’s infused with melody. But if melody is what you’re after, you should continue your web-surfing right now, because you won’t find even a whisper of it in what Vomit the Soul blasts out. But if every now and then you like to have your brains scrambled by a visceral sonic assault that completely removes you from what’s going on around and within you, this is a band you should definitely check out.  (more after the jump . . .)

Every now and then we’ve told you about a word or phrase we’ve stumbled upon that has nothing to do with metal, but sounds exactly like it oughta be the name of an extreme metal band. We’ve stuck those posts under the category of “Band Name Fodder.” Now we’ve stumbled across something new: words and phrases that have nothing to do with metal but sound like they could be the names of brutal songs.

You know the kind of song titles we’re talking about — the kind that at first blush (and sometimes second and third blushes) make no sense, but just sound really evil, uncompromising, and vicious.  Songs like:

“Carrion Sculpted Entity” (Cannibal Corpse), “Megacosm of the Aquaphobics” (Cephalic Carnage), “Postmortal Coprophagia” (Devourment), “Prosthetic Erection” (Annotations of An Autopsy), “Diaboloical Submergence of Rebirth” (Goatwhore), “Intestinal Putrefaction” (Abominable Putridity), “Pestiferous Subterfuge” (Aborted), “Gestation of Malevolence” (Abysmal Torment), “Cyclopian Scape” (High On Fire), “Ceremonian Disembowelment” (Impetuous Ritual), “Gestated Human Slurry” (Infected Disarray), “Damnation Pentastrike” (Lightning Swords of Death), “Into the Qliphot of Golachab” (Malfeitor), “Fermented Offal Discharge” (Necrophagist), “Postmortem Dissection” (The Pathology), “Cataclysmic Purification” (Suffocation), “Contemporary Perception Narcotics” (Trigger the Bloodshed), “Cranial Media Parasite” (Magrudergrind). And so on.

Well, just in case the well runs dry for bands like these (or they lose their thesaurus), we’ve found a gold mine of source material. (see what we’ve discovered after the jump . . .)

It’s 2010, and last night two of your NCS Co-Authors made it to our first metal show of the new year as the “Bound By the Road Tour” barreled its way through Seattle. We emerged unscathed (barely) with a few decent photos, which we hope to put up a bit later today, and this report.  [Editor's note: we've now got photos from NCS Author Alexis up in this post for all the bands but DevilDriver.]

In a nutshell, experiencing a night with the likes of Thy Will Be Done, Goatwhore, Suffocation, and DevilDriver was the sonic equivalent of being suspended by your ankles over a blast furnace. It was an intense, blistering, full-bore onslaught by four bands who are superb live musicians and know how to whip a crowd into a frenzy.

And for the cherry on top, we got to see three of the most charismatic frontmen in the business on one bill: Dez Fafara, Frank Mullen, and Ben Falgoust (and J. Costa is no slouch either). What a truly ass-kicking way to start a new year of live metal in the Emerald City! Now, for a few details about each band’s performance (after the jump).

I bet the title of this post got your attention, didn’t it? And I bet that if someone does a Google search for “haggis and bong” in the next day or two, we’ll be one of the first returns. Of course, I can’t imagine why anyone would do that — unless you live in South Africa or you stumbled on this news at Blabbermouth:

South African Metal Festival Aims To Set Record For ‘Most People Headbanging Simultaneously’ – Jan. 10, 2010: 21 of South Africa’s top metal bands will perform at the MotherFUDD festival, set to take place March 12-14, 2010 at Malonjeni Guest Resort, South Africa. The event will also host what it claims to be “the first-ever official Guinness World Record for most people headbanging simultaneously” on March 13.

Following the above intro was a list of those 21 bands scheduled to play at the “MotherFUDD” festival, including — you guessed it — Haggis and Bong. (more after the jump . . .)

What more remains to be said about Frank Mullen, the larger-than-life frontman for legendary NY death metal band Suffocation? You might think, not very much. But you’d be wrong.

If you’ve seen Suffocation on stage or even read about their live performances, you know that Mullen constantly talks to the crowd between (and sometimes during) the songs, and his stage banter is just in a different universe from what you usually hear.

Your NCS Co-Authors got the chance to see Suffocation when they hit Seattle in 2009, touring behind the release of the absolutely awesome Blood Oath album. It was one of those experiences that imprinted itself on the brain — a crushing live performance by the band.

And then there was Frank the Tank. Everything we’d heard was right: there’s no one quite like him. Just over-the-top crazy, veering between hysterically funny, scary as shit, and lecturing the crowd about whatever happened to be popping into his head. The dude is clearly very bright, and just vastly entertaining.

So what else is new to be said or seen about Frank Mullen? How about the forthcoming documentary DVD about the band, called Legacy of Violence, which is due for release sometime later this year. In October, Relapse Records released Suffocation’s only official live album, The Close of A Chapter: Live in Quebec City, but in addition to concert footage, the DVD will include lots of interviews and behind-the-scenes shit.

And as of today, you can see a 5-minute excerpt from the DVD that’s just become available.  Based on the excerpt, it looks like the DVD will be some kick-ass entertainment. In the clip, you’ll see lots of people talking about Mullen — including his daughter — and of course you’ll see the man himself acting out. And what comes across from the clip is that all the guys in the band are the kind of dudes you’d really like to hang out with if you had the chance.

Check out the 5-minute video excerpt below:

Legacy of Violence Dvd preview

SUFFOCATION | MySpace Music Videos

[Editor's Note: NO CLEAN SINGING was originally founded by three metalheads who go by the names of Islander, Alexis, and IntoTheDarkness. In this post, IntoTheDarkness tells you a little bit about himself, and below that, Alexis introduces herself. Islander hasn't yet written anything about himself, other than what you can read into what he writes on this site -- and this photo.]

Why is there such a separation within the metal scene? Why is it that if someone likes more than one distinct type of metal, he or she gets ridiculed? For example, if you’re someone who likes both death metal and deathcore, you are suddenly no longer a true metal fan.

So you all have probably read some things by the author islander, but there’s a new girl in town! I’ll be writing about the music I love and things I’m passionate about. Here is the music I love

A couple days ago, we reported on Decibel magazine’s (premature) publication of its “Top 40 Extreme Albums of 2009” and gave you the list of 40.  Many more “Best of 2009” metal lists will soon be appearing on the netz and the newsstands.  Why do people create these kinds of lists and why do we read them?  Music is a matter of personal taste.  These lists represent the personal tastes of particular critics and fans, no more or less valid than my favorites or yours.  So what’s the fucking point?  I’m not sure there is a fucking point, but I’ll make a stab at it.