This is way off-topic, except it does have singing and music. Also, I laughed until I pissed myself. So I thought I would feel even more comfy as I soak in my own urine if I knew that you were pissing yourself, too. In fact, I do feel comfy already! Continue reading »
Here are a few items of interest I saw between yesterday and today that I thought were worth throwing in your general direction. Catch!
DAYLIGHT DIES
A Frail Becoming, the new album by North Carolina’s Daylight Dies, is being officially released today by Candlelight Records. It’s very, very good. I hope we will have a review soon, because the album deserves whatever we can do to help spread the word.
The latest song to be released for streaming is the album’s fourth track, “Dreaming of Breathing”, which is the subject of a music video directed by Ramon Boutviseth that debuted yesterday. It’s a beautifully filmed video, and the narrative portion suits the moody, dreamlike ambience of the music, while the band footage suits all the thundering that Daylight Dies do so well in their doom-influenced brand of melodic death metal.
Check it out next . . . Continue reading »
About a half hour ago the organizers of MARYLAND DEATHFEST announced the final line-up for MDF XI, the 2013 edition of the best extreme fest in these United States — except for one band whose name is yet to come.
This line-up is stunning. I don’t really have anything more to say about it. Feast your eyes on the new additions and the full line-up, plus some explanatory notes and ticket info from MDF at the end:
DOWN
(the) MELVINS
THE OBSESSED
ASCENSION (Germany) – Exclusive US appearance!
UFOMAMMUT (Italy)
COBALT
DEIPHAGO (Philippines/Costa Rica)
EVOKEN
NECROPSY
Confirmed for Baltimore Soundstage (no barricade shows): Continue reading »
Roughly a decade has passed since Undercroft left Chile for Northern Europe. Roughly six years have passed since the band’s last studio release, during which time Undercroft’s vocalist and bassist Alvaro Lillo became a live performing member of Watain. But this group has re-grouped, and the blood of their homeland beats in this new album, the band’s sixth since 1995, Ruins of Gomorrah.
Undercroft hook you up like Frankenstein’s monster. They drive those iron bolts into your neck and then bring down the lightning in one super-charged rhythmic blast after another until you just can’t help but jump and bang your helpless head. This is maggot-ridden, old-school death metal that’s so packed full of deep-grooved, beefy riffs and mauling percussion that even rotting flesh could not help but move with the rhythm.
But as much of a riff-monster as this album is, it’s also something more. Listen to “El Triunfo De La Muerte” and “Emplando Al Invasor” and you’ll hear the rhythms of South America in the “tribal” drumming and the melodies, and you’ll even be surprised by brief trumpet notes in the latter track before being engulfed in a decimating explosion of blast beats and huge, grinding riffs. And, holy hell, there are congas and acoustic guitar in the title track. Continue reading »
(One of the most-read pieces we’ve ever published at NCS was BadWolf’s May 2011 interview of Blake Judd and his bandmates in Nachtmytium. This year brought us a new Nachtmystium album — Silencing Machine — and another BadWolf interview of Blake Judd, which follows.)
This interview happened on july fifth.
Yeah.
This interview sat on my hard drive for a few months, gumming up the works. Blake Judd was my first ‘break’ as a blogger on this very website. Since then he’s become one of my favorite people to work with (when you can keep him in one place for more than ten seconds). Honestly, I found that interview so hard to follow that I nearly deleted this one. But you deserve to hear it. Judd only gives excellent interviews, and his new album, Silencing Machine [reviewed here] is likewise excellent.
Judd and I shot the shit for close to a half hour, talking about the cancellation of Gathering of Shadows fest, Roadburn, the new record, marriage, and what makes a good song.
BadWolf: The heat’s really fucking with me. I don’t know how people stand it.
Blake Judd: I was at South by Southwest earlier this year. Probably the tenth time I’ve been to Austin and I love that city, I’d love to live there. When it gets cold I keep saying to the wife we should move down there. Then you get a day like this? No way I could ever live somewhere this hot. Continue reading »
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sweden’s Aeon are set to detonate their latest album Aeons Black via Metal Blade Records on November 20, 2012. The 15-track opus was recorded at Empire Studio in Östersund, Sweden and was engineered, mixed, and mastered by Ronnie Björnström (Garageland Studios). It features cover art by the legendary Kristian “Necrolord” Wåhlin. And it’s available for pre-order here. To say it’s highly anticipated around this place would be an understatement.
Today, we’re fortunate that our guest contributor KevinP has brought us an interview with the band’s founding guitarist Sebastian “Zeb” Nillson. And at the end of the interview, catch the new lyric video for the title track to Aeons Black.
KP: So what’s behind the title to your new album, Aeons Black? Is this your ode to Metallica? (smiles)
ZN: (Laughs) At first you could believe it would be. But the title track´s lyrics are all about the end of the world. When the sun has been burnt out and nothing can save you. So for me it would make more sense to have the title Black Aeons since that is what you can expect after the sun has burned out. But I guess Tommy [Dahlström] just wanted to give it a little twist.
The title track (released for the world to hear), is one of the consistently slower songs you have ever recorded. How did that come about ?
Hmmm…I´m not really sure. Our last album did lack heavy songs IMO, so I tried to actually make songs that were HEAVIER and did not have blastbeats in them this time. And I feel much more happy with it now. It´s much more varied. But we still have fast songs as well.
Some people have asked us “is that cause Arttu [Malkki] can’t play fast like Nils [Fjellström]“? But if he couldn´t play fast, that would mean that he couldn´t play our old songs live and he would never been given the job as drummer of Aeon. We always play “Forever Nailed”, “Kill Them All”, and “Forgiveness Denied” live, and unless you can perform them as a drummer, you simply won’t fit the bill. So to get to the point somehow….we just wanted to have more heavy shit this time! Continue reading »
This is a milestone day for NO CLEAN SINGING. Today, in collaboration with GRIND TO DEATH, we’re launching the NCS Bandcamp page and releasing our first compilation of recorded music — The Only Good Tory — a FREE collection of 46 songs by 46 UK bands who are on the cutting edge of grind, powerviolence, harsh crust, and fastcore. It’s guaranteed to wreck heads.
The lion’s share of the credit for this blockbuster goes to our friend Alex Layzell of GRIND TO DEATH. It was he who conceived of this idea, contacted the bands, assembled the tracks, and arranged for the preparation of a killer artwork booklet prepared by the talented Kex Whelan — which includes separate artwork for each of the 46 tracks on this comp.
We’re making the comp available as a free download to support the bands — this comp is dedicated to them and their passion — and to thank the fans of honest music wherever they may live. But in the near future we’ll be offering the comp on limited-edition tape produced by DIY Noise as a prize for a competition among NCS readers. We haven’t yet thought up a contest for how to do this, but it will probably involve the submission of nude photos. Or not. We’re working on it. Continue reading »
(In this post, TheMadIsraeli reviews the Scion A/V release of a new EP by one of our favorite bands, Boston’s Revocation.)
I’m just gonna put this out there: Scion A/V are my heroes.
So we’ve got a new FREE EP from hybrid deathrash hoplites Revocation titled Teratogenesis. I don’t even know what the fuck that title means, but I love the album art and this EP contains some of the best music Revocation have written so far. The assault of Teratogenesis is definitely more brutal and more focused as compared to the band’s last opus, Chaos of Forms, which I reviewed last year.
It seems that when a band does an EP, especially if it consists of material meant only for that EP, the result tends to be more intense. I like this situation, because it’s here when a band just goes completely balls-deep with the more brutal aspects of their sound. As such, don’t expect to find anything on Teratogenesis comparable to the more experimental numbers found on Chaos of Forms.
Teratogenesis is nothing but an adrenaline rush of hyper-speed fusion metal that definitely brings more of Revocation’s thrash influences to the forefront. Everything else Revocation are known for is still here, it’s just that apparently they wanted to write something fast as fuck, which this EP definitely is. Continue reading »
You know how when you get really excited about something you just want to tell everyone you know immediately? I mean, other then when you get excited because you realize no one got your license plate after that hit-and-run accident, the one where the little girl is going to talk funny and have a really bad limp for the rest of her life but will damned sure start looking both ways before she enters a school cross walk again, at least as soon as she gets out of intensive care and physical therapy? I hope her parents have major medical coverage, ’cause they’re gonna fuckin’ need it.
Where was I? Oh yeah, being really excited and wanting to share. That’s how I feel about these two news items.
ROTTING CHRIST
Today I saw this on the Facebook page of these stupendous Greeks:
“We proudly announce that the recording session for our new album is close to the end. A hard but majestic simoultaneously trip for more than 4 months in Deva Soundz studios-Athens have found the band creating maybe its Darkest and more Mystical and Occult outcome ever. Stay tuned for samples and updates.”
Yes, I believe I will stay tuned. Also, Rotting Christ have a revamped official web site that includes 11 songs for free download HERE. Also, Sakis has a beard now (thanks for the photo link, Utmu)! Also . . . Continue reading »
I’m feeling doomed today. I started with a review of the debut album by Seattle doom duo Bell Witch, and now I’m moving on to the new LP-length split by Rituals from Phoenix, Arizona, and DeZafra Ridge from Leipzig, Germany. Both bands are new discoveries for me, and very fortunate ones. Though their musical approaches differ from each other, the songs they’ve created for this split on the Alerta Antifascista label are excellent.
RITUALS
Each of the two bands contributes two long songs to the split, with the pair created by Rituals clocking in at more than 9 minutes each. Forlorn guitar notes and the harsh whistle of a cold wind open “It Means Nothing”, and a slow, shimmering guitar melody follows that, with the intermittent thump of a drumbeat backing it. Eventually, ragged vocal roars convey bestial malignancy as the glittering guitar melody builds in intensity.
Past the halfway point, the intensity diminishes and a clean dual guitar harmony weaves seductive magic. The vocals build to a harrowing howl. The song seques into a slow, beautiful, hypnotic finish. The aura is one of bereavement and pain, but the melody is also glorious. There’s an almost post-black metal feel to this doom, and it strikes a strong emotional chord. Continue reading »