SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MELECHESH, KADAVEREICH, ARCHITECTS OF AEON, A FOREST OF STARS, THE HOLEUM, VOIDSPIRE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 142026
 

(written by Islander)

I felt a cold coming on yesterday when I woke up, and that was quickly followed by the discovery that anyone trying to get to NCS experienced frantic meltdowns from their browsers, which warned people that our site was insecure and might expose all their personal finances and identities to theft, might turn their children into ghouls, might cause cats to have sex with dogs, etc., etc. In other words, it seemed our site’s SSL security certificate had expired.

Or at least that’s what I concluded based on some googling, because I hadn’t received any advance notice or warning. I had forgotten what an SSL is, had no idea when we implemented it, and was completely clueless about what I was supposed to do to fix the problem. I e-mailed our IT consultant, who I think must have implemented SSL for NCS years ago (I still haven’t heard back from him).

I also opened a support ticket with our security provider, because our web host told me they maintain the site’s security certificate. I haven’t heard back from them either — though late yesterday afternoon the scary browser warnings stopped, so I guess they remewed our certificate, but I really am still in the dark about the whole incident. Which means I’m also in the dark about how to prevent this bullshit from happening again.

Oh, and my cold was also in full bloom by late afternoon yesterday. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EXORCISED — “HATRED KNIFE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 132026
 

(written by Islander)

On March 13th a new Spanish underground label named Cruel Gates Records will release Fire & Sulfur, a debut album from the Spanish band Exorcised.

Born from the ashes of the thrash band Madsher, Exorcised have devoted their hellish energies to the creation of old school death thrash, taking their cues from such bands as Deicide, Morbid Angel, and Devastation.

Today we have an example of the infernal sonic madness they’ve created through our premiere of a lyuric video for a song from their debut full-length named “Hatred Knife“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEIMLER — “DARKNESS FALLS”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 132026
 

(written by Islander)

In 2023 the Spanish death metal band Deimler released a concept album named Immortalized that was based on Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking 1979 movie Alien. Following that up, guitarist/vocalist Pako Deimler decided to pay tribute to a personal favorite series from the ’90s — The X-Files. More specifically, Deimler’s new album, Darkness Falls, is based on one episode from the show’s first season that itself was named “Darkness Falls”.

That was a standalone episode in which Mulder and Scully went looking for a group of loggers missing in the Olympic National Forest in Washington State (which coincidentally isn’t far from the HQ of our site), only to be confronted by a deadly form of mutant insects. Pako has said that he loves that episode in particular because of its “atmosphere” but also because it’s “one of the few episodes where the main characters have a hard time and are truly in great danger.”

The new album is now set for release on March 20th by Awakening Records, and what we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for its second single — the title track “Darkness Falls“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GUYOÐ

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 132026
 

(Below you will find our Comrade Aleks’ interview with guitarist Dohrn from the Austrian metal band Guyođ, whose new EP was released late last month.)

The Austrian band Guyođ announced themselves in 2023 with their debut, Heart of Thy Abyss. That furious work, at the intersection of extreme death metal and doom, unpolished and thunderous, was imbued with the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and Herman Melville, lending the album a special charm. Their up-to-date half-hour-long release, Death Throes of a Drowning God, which another band would list as a full-length album, is considered by Guyođ to be an EP. This mini-album consists of four full-length tracks, each nearly six minutes long, and four noise drone interludes, collectively titled “Signal,” but with a numbered designation.

Regardless, Guyođ, ignoring convention, delivers listeners dark, concentrated, and meaty stuff. According to the band, one of the ideas behind the EP was to create more disturbing and savage material compared to their first album, and they have succeeded in this quest. This time, the celebration of chaos and madness is presented in the form of vigorous, monstrous death metal with a touch of extreme doom and black metal. At times (“Behind the Walls of Ice”), one is tempted to use the adjective “avant-garde,” but that would be pretentious… but why not? This feast of entropy has its share of deceptive calm, as in the track “Hestia Drowning,” but there are also poignant moments.

Guyođ have taken a creative approach to such a relatively short work, and if you’re looking for a little shake-up, check out this EP. And yet I hate to talk about how I see the music, especially when there’s a chance to talk with its author. Another interview with Dohrn (guitars) is here before you. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WAMPYRIC RITES — “UNDER THE TRAGIC FULLMOON OF THE VAMPIRE”

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Feb 122026
 

(written by Islander)

Vampires and other undead entities reputed to feed on the essences of living humans have figured in the folk mythologies of many cultures around the world for millennia. Fear of such creatures has led to episodes of mass hysteria, executions, the exhumation and decapitation of corpses, and of course the staking of suspected revenants through the heart.

(Many such incidents and more are documented in Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World, an exhaustive scholarly work by John Blair published just last November.)

Vampirism lives on in our imaginations (hopefully, only there), itself a deathless dream that the passage of millennia can’t exorcise. In our tiny corner of modern culture, black metal has kept the nightmares alive more than any other sub-set of metal, and one of the most prolific exponents over the last seven years has been the Ecuadorian band Wampyric Rites.

This band’s newest album, Under the Tragic Fullmoon of the Vampire, is now set for release by Inferna Profundus Records tomorrow — Friday the 13th of February — and on the eve of that dreadful event we have a full stream of the album for your consideration. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NECROFIER

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Feb 122026
 


photos by Brian Sheehan

(On February 27th Metal Blade Records will release a new album by the Houston-based black metal band Necrofier, and the quality of the music convinced our friend Ben Manzella to reach out for the following interview with the band’s vocalist and guitarist Bakka.)

As I’m sure other writers here at No Clean Singing would agree, most record announcements or press releases eventually become like white noise. You feel like you can predict the claims and wording of it being the “best album we’ve made yet”; or, especially in metal, depending on the genre, the claim that the music is “the most brutal thing you will hear all year.” However, when I read about the upcoming release of Transcend Into Oblivion, none of these traps were set, and I knew I’d be eager for this conversation.

During a succinct and relaxed time of conversation with Bakka, vocalist and guitarist of Necrofier, I aimed to hear a bit more about the creative process involved in the detailed song structure that is Transcend Into Oblivion, as well as the recent move to Metal Blade Records. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: 1986 / MOLOCH / UNMOTHER

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 122026
 

(Andy Synn compiles three more albums from his “local” scene that he’d like you to check out)

As the resident Brit here at NCS, I’ve made it my mission to highlight as many bands from these green and (un)pleasant lands as I possibly can each year (with last year in particular being a big one in that regard).

And while this process hasn’t always gone smoothly – there have been at least a handful of bands over the years who haven’t taken kindly to my coverage, even though it always skews positive, because they didn’t think I praised them enough – generally speaking I’m proud of the fact that I’ve helped spread the word about our vibrant, versatile “scene”… even if that “scene” hasn’t always been kind to me in return.

Today’s triptych of recent and/or upcoming albums features a promising, if imperfect, debut (1986), an extremely ambitious second album that serves as something of a creative reboot/rebirth (Unmother), and the latest release in a long-running, uncompromising career of unrepentant ugliness (Moloch), all of which come with my personal recommendation.

Continue reading »

ULTIMA: “I: KATABASIS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 112026
 

(Our Norway-based writer Chile reviews the debut album of the Spanish black metal band Ultima, released last month by Obscurant Visions.)

The beauty of loving different genres of music, and in particular, different genres of metal, gives us the opportunity and a benefit of reaching out for precisely that single piece of music that befits our current state of mind.

Be it something hellishly heavy, calmingly droning, or just something in the middle, no one can argue that the selection of riches is not adequate. We are talking about decades upon decades of talented musicians spoiling us for choice.

Moving through those boundless vasts, we are today travelling to Spain for a fresh dose of black metal conjured in the deepest dwellings of the psyche tailored for anyone bearing a heavy mind, courtesy of Ultima and their just released debut album I: Katabasis. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: FORCEFED HORSEHEAD AND SHAVING THE WEREWOLF — “FROM HORRID TO WORSE”

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Feb 112026
 

(written by Islander)

“Next Friday, February 13, two of Norway’s most unhinged entities collide as Forcefed Horsehead and Shaving the Werewolf unleash their split EP From Horrid to Worse, a violently inventive, no-rules document of chaos that feels less like a release and more like a controlled detonation.”

That’s how the press materials have announced this new split, and it’s spot-on. So is this further introductory comment:

On one side: Forcefed Horsehead, weaponizing grindpunk, death metal, hardcore and hysteria with apocalyptic precision. On the other: Shaving the Werewolf, twisting powerviolence, noise rock, nu-metal and mathcore into something deeply uncomfortable and disturbingly catchy. Together, it’s all bruises, whiplash, and creative malpractice of the highest order.

To back up these words, what we have for you today (along with introductory comments of our own) is a full stream of Horrid to Worse in all its apocalyptic and poisonous glory. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ØRB — “PRESENCE:ABSENCE”

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Feb 112026
 

(written by Islander)

Last November we premiered a song called “Ghost Key“, the first single from the debut album of Ørb, the melodic death metal project of English/Danish solo artist Karl Koch. Today we’re presenting the second single, “Presence:Absence“. To set the stage for it, we’ll quote again from Ørb’s description of the album’s dystopian sci-fi theme — which focuses on a very real and urgent phenomenon:

The full-length album follows a lone resistance figure in a dystopian future where humanity teeters on the brink of extinction under the omnipotent grasp of The Nexus – an advanced AI network that has reduced humanity to obedient cogs in a machine-driven existence. Armed only with unwavering principles and the history of humankind, this stoic survivor embarks on a perilous journey to challenge the AI overlord.

The album’s narrative arc traces a revolt that may be liberation—or only another loop in the machine. Central questions drive the work: Can fate be overcome? What remains of human identity when autonomy is stripped away? Does a belief in determinism empower or limit us? These aren’t abstract philosophical exercises—they’re survival questions in an age where AI increasingly shapes human experience.

The project stands with one boot in tomorrow’s wasteland and one in the world we already feel tightening around us, creating a parable about resistance that resonates beyond the boundaries of extreme metal. Continue reading »

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