June 2010 - Page 3 of 5 - NO CLEAN SINGING

TOURZ

Jun 162010

Debates have broken out in blogdom and metal fandom over the last month about the awesomeness or suckiness of summer tours that will be criss-crossing North America in the coming months: The Cool Tour, Thrash and Burn 2010, and Summer Slaughter, among others. (We added our two cents on the last two here and here.)

This morning, we saw news about two more we thought you might like to know about — even though both of them gave the back of their hand to our home base of Seattle. The organizers must think it always rains in Seattle like a cow pissing on a flat stone, even though the truth is it only rains here 10 months out of the year. Bunch of fucking pussies. Get some fucking umbrellas and come anyway!

The first tour announcement caught our eye because it includes the awesomeness that is Children of Bodom. Your NCS Co-Authors have lost count how many times we’ve seen ’em play in the Northwest, but they never disappoint. Interesting thing about this new tour is, they’re not the headliners, and wait til you see who else is on the line-up. Oh yeah, there’s also some news today about a new Children of Bodom album on the way.

The other tour (called Over the Limit) is a bigger one — nine bands — and of course they’re by-passing Seattle too (and it’s not even a near-miss). But we’ll give you the info about it anyway. (get all the details after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

HEAVEN SHALL BURN: INVICTUS

Album Reviews No Responses »

Jun 152010

The odds are probably slim that any of you who visit this site have never heard Heaven Shall Burn, and you’ve probably made up your minds already about whether to check out their new album, Invictus. But we’re writing about it anyway because it’s just so damned good that we’d feel guilty if we didn’t.

What has always been distinctive about Heaven Shall Burn’s music is on full display in the new album, except even more so: passionate, politically charged lyrics; a blistering instrumental assault delivered at a furious pace; bludgeoning percussion and headbanging rhythms; irresistible melodic hooks; and Marcus Bischoff’s distinctive, paint-peeling vocals.

Invictus includes a few surprises, too, plus some eye-catching album art. More about the music and the surprises, pictures of the album art, a song to hear, and an unusual video all come your way after the jump . . . . Continue reading »

FILTER (unfiltered)

Metal News 7 Responses »

Jun 142010

Filter has been playing, off and on, since 1993. They’ve released four studio albums, and their fifth one, The Trouble With Angels, is due in August via Rocket Science Ventures. So why are we writing about them today? Good question, since they’re not exactly an extreme metal band. Two reasons.

First, to be brutally honest (and brutal is the only kind of honest we know how to be here at NCS), there’s an element of nostalgia at work. Filter songs such as “Hey Man, Nice Shot”, “Where Do We Go From Here?” an “Take A Picture” formed the soundtrack to some deliciously fucked-up times in my life. I listen to those songs, and a kaleidoscope of those moments come cascading back.

But reason number one wouldn’t be enough for me to take up your time with this post. Because, to be brutally honest, we think bands that trade on nostalgia should be rectally impaled on spikes.

So that necessarily brings me to reason number two: Filter has released a new single from the forthcoming fifth, called “The Inevitable Relapse”, along with a performance video of the song filmed on May 31 in Hollywood. And it’s that song that grabbed our attention, cuz it’s a heavy-as-fuck return to Filter’s nasty industrial-metal roots. Follow along after the jump and you can see the video and download the song for nothing (well, almost nothing . . .) Continue reading »

KEEP OF KALESSIN

Album Reviews 8 Responses »

Jun 132010

Lift yourselves from your Sunday morning slumbers and feast your carnivorous ears on the wonders of Keep of Kalessin. We could run off at the mouth with genre labels and call this Norwegian band’s just-released fifth album blackened, paganized, anthemic, proggy, power melodic death metal. Or, we could keep it simple and just call Reptilian dragon metal. You know, simple things for simple people.

Thematically, Keep of Kalessin has always included elements of fantasy and folklore in their music. “Kalessin” itself is the name of the arch-dragon in the wonderful Earthsea trilogy written by Ursula K. Le Guin between 1968 and 1972. But in Reptilian, Keep of Kalessin have given themselves over entirely to the worship of “claw and fang,” in homage to the imagined reawakening of the “reptilian king of kings.” And musically, the creative fires in the lair of these dragonlords have never burned hotter.

We were first drawn to this album back in April by the announcement of its amazing cover art by Brazilian graphic designer Marcelo Vasco, and we included it in the first installment of our “Eye-Catchers” series. At that point, we had one track from the forthcoming album (“The Awakening”) available to us on the band’s MySpace page, and were bowled over by it. Now, we’ve heard the entire album, and it’s filled to overflowing with draconic treasure. (more after the jump, including a track for you to hear . . .) Continue reading »

VIDEO MINDFUCKERY, DELUXE

Metal News 4 Responses »

Jun 122010

Here at NO CLEAN SINGING, we don’t spend much time looking at metal music videos. Mainly, that’s because we’re in too much of a damned hurry to get our shit done for the day — which includes imagining something to write about, writing about it, feeding the cat (that would be me), reading other metal blogs, working our fucking day jobs, dealing with the rest of the shit in our daily lives, etc., etc.

And there’s also the feeling, grown through experience, that most extreme metal music videos are going to be imminently forgettable — even when we really dig the songs — so really, why bother?

But every now and then, we see something that defies our presumptions. Case in point: the new video of a song called “Sleepwalker” by Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive. One of our NCS collaborators, IntoTheDarkness, brought this thing to our attention a few days ago, insisting that we had to watch it without delay.

Coincidentally, about 5 minutes before getting that urgent message, we’d seen a write-up on the video by Axl Rosenberg over at Metal Sucks. He thought certain aspects of the video were “kinda cool” but thought the song was “FUCKING AWFUL” and invited readers to suggest a better song that would fit the video.

So we watched the video — and it’s completely mind-blowing. Really, it is. (see for yourselves, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FRENCH GORING, INTACT

Album Reviews, Metal News 3 Responses »

Jun 122010

In our dog-eat-dog world, effort alone doesn’t count for much. You can pour yourself into something heart and soul, and that doesn’t mean anyone else will notice. It may be that despite the intensity of your desire, you’re held back by a deficit in your ability to express what you feel. It may be that you’re only missing the right launching pad for the delivery to a wider audience of what you create.

Or it could be that somewhere in your past you stepped on the wrong ant, which unbeknownst to you was the reincarnation of some godlike being that just doesn’t like to be stepped on and decides to take revenge by fucking up every significant thing you try to do.

But here in our meager domain, we have the ability to give a modicum of recognition to whatever the fuck we want to recognize, and no fucking ant is going to stop us!

We’ve got a reader who recently has made enough time to delve deeply into all sorts of shit we’ve written over the six-plus months this site has been in existence, and he’s left thought-provoking comments on lots of posts we’d forgotten we even wrote. His nom de plume is “Elvis Shot JFK.” And he deserves some recognition. Not to presume that he really needs recognition from us, and not to presume that we’re terribly objective in doling out recognition. To be honest, we’re pathetically grateful to anyone who bothers to leave comments on our site.

But what this dude did yesterday is way over the top, not just in terms of effort, but in terms of quality. What he did can only be described as a labor of love — for the most extreme forms of extreme metal — and what’s more remarkable is that he did it even though he isn’t even a fan of the sub-genre he wrote about. He paid homage to effort, through his own effort. And we ain’t gonna let that pass by unnoticed. What the fuck are we talking about? Please stay with us after the jump, and all will be explained . . . (plus we have some songs for you to stream) Continue reading »

NECRONOMICON

Album Reviews 13 Responses »

Jun 112010

I’ve always had a soft spot for three-piece bands, particularly three-piece bands in the deeply extreme end of the metal pool. It’s just a helluva lot harder for mediocre musicians to hide within the sound when there’s only three of you. The spotlight shines with particularly unforgiving brightness on the guitarist, jumping from rhythm to lead and back again. So when a three-piece band fails, they tend to fall hard, and when they deliver the goods, the achievement is all the more impressive.

Of course, multiple tracking in a recording studio can make three people sound like a dozen, and the wonders of modern engineering can do a lot to mask mediocrity in the digital rendering of songs. But pursuing that strategy disables a three-piece band from delivering a live performance that sounds faithful to the recorded songs. You might sell some albums, but touring is either out of the question or doomed to failure.

As it turns out, Necronomicon is a three-man band from Quebec that can stand the spotlight.

Their new album on Napalm Records, The Return of the Witch, was on that mega-list of June 8 releases we wrote about a few days ago, and I was especially interested to hear it because, although it’s the band’s third album, it’s the first one from Necronomicon in about six years. To peak my interest further, I’d read that the band’s first two albums were quite different from each other, and so predicting the style of the new one was likely to be a bit of a crap shoot. But that seemed like another plus reason to hear The Return of the Witch, because I like surprises — and I sure got a few from this album. (more after the jump, including a song to hear . . .) Continue reading »

A MASSIVE FLOW OF BULLSHIT

Off Topic No Responses »

Jun 102010

We don’t read The Onion except when when one of our buds sends us a link — which happened yesterday. The piece we read has nothing to do with metal, but it’s just too fucking perfect not to share. If you’ve already seen it, we’ve got another new post today below this one about a creepy new music video from a band called Criminal. If you’ve already seen that one, well, I guess we’re just shit out of luck for today. Anyway, without further introduction, here’s that piece from The Onion, which appeared under the headline, “MASSIVE FLOW OF BULLSHIT CONTINUES TO GUSH FROM BP HEADQUARTERS.”

LONDON—As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico entered its eighth week Wednesday, fears continued to grow that the massive flow of bullshit still gushing from the headquarters of oil giant BP could prove catastrophic if nothing is done to contain it.

The toxic bullshit, which began to spew from the mouths of BP executives shortly after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April, has completely devastated the Gulf region, delaying cleanup efforts, affecting thousands of jobs, and endangering the lives of all nearby wildlife.

“Everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest,” said BP CEO Tony Hayward, letting loose a colossal stream of undiluted bullshit. “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean, and the volume of oil we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total volume of water.”

Hayward’s comments fueled fears that the spouting of overwhelmingly thick and slimy bullshit may never subside. (more after the jump, including some ghastly photos . . .) Continue reading »

CRIMINAL

Metal News No Responses »

Jun 102010

Criminal was formed in Santiago, Chile, in the early 90s. They play a blend of thrash and melodic death metal. In February 2009, they released their latest album, White Hell, on Germany’s Massacre Records. In January of this year, they supported Metallica in an open-air concert in Santiago that drew over 55,000 fans.

We’d never listened to Criminal until yesterday, when we randomly decided to check out a new video they’ve released for a song from White Hell called “Incubus”. The video was directed and edited by a Chilean visual artist named Carlos Toro, who has previously worked with Kreator, Vader, Lacrimosa, and Mercenary, among others.

The song itself is pretty good — good enough to interest us in checking out the rest of White Hell. But the video? We’re still trying to make up our minds about it, cuz it’s fucking creepy.

The camera work, special effects, and editing are high-quality. The shots cut back and forth between the band hammering out “Incubus”, some kind of spiraling thing swirling into the air among the band members, and some extremely disturbing scenes of a partially dressed (or totally undressed) old man writhing in agony.

And what’s making him writhe in agony? Someone who doesn’t dig this song might say it’s the music. Or it could be a visual metaphor about the way old people in general react to extreme metal. Or it could be what’s going on underneath this old dude’s wrinkly skin. We’ll let you figure it out for yourselves, after the jump . . . . Continue reading »

LEGEND

Album Reviews, Metal News No Responses »

Jun 092010

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 . . . ) Continue reading »

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