COGNITIVE: “THE HORRID SWARM”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
May 052013
 

Cognitive’s debut EP The Horrid Swarm really crossed  me up. As I started listening to it, I thought it was going to be one thing, and it turned out to be many things. By the time it ended, my head had been spun around, like that possessed chick in The Exorcist. You know, all the way around, but somehow still attached.

The opening track, “In the Form of A Drone”, is a speedy, brutal battering about the head and shoulders, a tech-death manifesto that proclaims itself with pummeling riffs, blasting drums, and skittering guitar leads, not to mention a harsh vocalist who bellows, roars, and barks like a demon hound quite convincingly.

The song even has a bass drop, a breakdown, and some slam chords woven into the mix. And like everything else on the EP, the music channels the power of compulsive groove even when the rhythms are changing rapidly and the notes are flying like bullets.

But looking back on it, I can see that the song included hints of something more to come — a couple of brief guitar solos that writhe and spiral, and whose prog-ish melodicism contrasts with all the surrounding brutishness. Continue reading »

ATTEMPTING TO CONSTRUCT A GREATEST HITS DISC FOR A BAND THAT DOESN’T NEED ONE YET: ARSIS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
May 052013
 

(DGR took it upon himself to create a “greatest hits” album for Arsis, with explanations for his picks. Too bad the album is only in his mind.)

Some people are good with lists, amazingly good. The fact that they can cut something down to five or ten seems incredible, especially given my wishy washy bullshit where if you have an album I enjoy, I’ll probably talk about it to some extent. Andy is one of those guys, and it was while reading his top 5 underrated discs post that I found myself listing something of my own, although to a slightly bigger extent. It was when he mentioned Arsis’ Starve For The Devil as an underrated album that I found about all six of my available neurons firing off at once, for a couple of reasons.

One was that it never really seemed like the folks who hated on Starve had much of a legitimate reason, other than it leaned heavier toward the melodic side of things; if I were to nominate any disc as underrated, it would probably be We Are The Nightmare. Not that I’m claiming that disc was amazing, because I actually think it’s the weakest of the Arsis albums, but I’d really love to see an impassioned defense of it.

The other was that, man, I have followed Arsis for a seemingly long time. Like, since late 2004 long time, when I received a message in an IRC chat from a friend who used to turn me on to all sorts of good music, notifying me that he was emailing me the song “Seven Whispers Fell Silent” and that I needed to hear it. My tastes in metal were not that spectacular at the time, but that song kicked my ass and I needed to have more.

Unfortunately, the local Sam Goody didn’t exactly carry the latest Willowtip releases, so I basically found myself shit out of luck since I hadn’t quite acclimated to my new town and had no idea that places like Dimple or Tower existed – which had sprawling metal sections in comparison. I wound up waiting half a year to make a trip to the Bay Area and hit up a Rasputin’s where I bought A Celebration of Guilt and Evergrey’s Recreation Day, because opposites get you really weird looks at the checkout counter – also paying the last three dollars in rolled-up pennies because you’re poor. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT FROM HELLS HEADBANGERS (INCLUDING NEW SONGS FROM MIDNIGHT, WITCH CROSS, PROFANATICA, AND IMPIETY)

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  24 Responses »
May 042013
 

Many of our readers are intimately familiar with Hells Headbangers, but for those who aren’t, it’s an online distro and record label specializing in death, black, thrash, grind, doom, and heavy metal. As a label, Hells Headbangers is home to a tremendous line-up of slaughtering bands, many of whom we’ve featured here at NCS. This morning I discovered that HH has made available a free summer comp of music from many of those bands. The comp consists of 20 tracks and includes brand new songs from forthcoming albums by Midnight, Witch Cross, Profanatica, and Impiety.

The comp also comes with artwork drawn by Antichrist Kramer as an homage to Slayer’s debut album Show No Mercy. The timing is coincidental, but it now seems like a fitting tribute to the late Jeff Hanneman. (There’s a track on the comp listed as a Slayer song . . . but it’s really Vomitor.)

The comp is available as a free digital download on Bandcamp, and HH says a double-LP and a CD version will be coming soon.

I’ve been blasting this shit this morning, and it’s awful strong. Links are after the jump, along with the new tracks and the complete album stream. Continue reading »

DISINTERRED: “DEMO MMXIII”

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, SHORT BUT SWEET  7 Responses »
May 042013
 

In April of this year a Belgian band named Disinterred released their first demo. They wrote us to see if NCS might review it. I made a mental note to check out the music. Unfortunately, it was a mental note instead of a real note. You see, mental notes depend on my mind, so at least half the time that means they’re fucked. Fortunately, yesterday a friend independently suggested that I check out Disinterred. This time I did it before I had time to forget.

How does this music work? The basics seem pretty simple. You figure out how to tune the guitars and apply the right distortion pedal (an HM-2 will do nicely), so the chords sound radioactive. This is a matter of technology and ear. I presume it helps to be possessed by an undead spirit. I’m pretty sure Disinterred are possessed.

You figure out that you want to go with up-tempo pacing, and you get a drummer who can hit that simple, old-school, d-beat, two-step kind of Swedeath drum thing . . . no blasting or double-bass needed. You find a vocalist who can get down really low but sound like he’s barking with a throat full of phlegm, or possibly blood. In the case of Disinterred, I’m pretty sure it’s blood. Is that it? Nope, it’s not.

You also need a guitarist who can deliver bursts of pure shred, like a welder’s torch that’s been opened wide and then dropped on the concrete and left to skitter around like a demented snake. You also want that vocalist to be able to elevate, get up into some ghastly shrieks, and hold them for  long time. Check.

Will that do it? Unh unh, not yet. Continue reading »

RAINBOWDRAGONEYES WRITES A LIM’RICK FOR NO CLEAN SINGING

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
May 032013
 


photo credit: JR Hunter Photography, Belfast, NI

Thanks to my NCS comrade DGR, I learned back in April that Rainbowdragoneyes — that one-man creator of “extreme chiptune dance metal” also known as Eric W. Brown — had begun offering an unusual piece of merch on Bandcamp. For the price of $8, Rainbowdragoneyes offered to write a personalized limerick and mail it to you, and provide an immediate download of an EP entitled Uentitled that collects 11 Rainbowdragoneyes tunes. Well fuck, how could I resist? I didn’t want a limerick about myself, but something that would be about NCS. So, I plunked down my $8 and waited.

Since then, Uentitled has become available separately (here) for the price of $4, so it seems that I paid $4 for the limerick. But it was $4 well spent. The handwritten limerick did indeed arrive in the mail this week, and here it is:

The blog is No Clean Singing
the place is the World Wide Web
if Extreme music ain’t your thingie,
better look elsewhere instead.

They review lots of pretty cool bands
and the occasional shitey one too
but I bet you can count with one hand
the ones that rhyme like I do.

Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: KALMAH, DECEASE, AND SLAYER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 032013
 

Here’s what I’ve been watching and listening to this morning.

KALMAH

Seventh Swamphony, the next album from Finland’s Kalmah, is set for release by Spinefarm on June 14 in Finland and Europe, June 17 in the UK, and June 18 in the U.S. About a month ago we spread the word about the album’s first single, “Windlake Tale” (here), and today the band released an official video for the album’s title track. The video seems to be a cautionary tale about the perils of burying waste in Finnish swamps, with interspersed film of the swamplords in their element (musically and geographically).

The song is a racing romp of invigorating, Finnish-style melodic death metal, or perhaps I should say “Kalmah style”, because it does sound like the Kalmah of old.

The editing on the video makes the music sound even faster than it is. You’ll see what I mean . . . Continue reading »

NEWS AND NEW MUSIC FROM TORTURE DIVISION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 032013
 

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Sweden’s Torture Division (pictured above), and some of you may be unfamiliar with them. Allow me to fix that. The three members of the band – Lord K Philipson (guitar), Tobben Gustafsson (drums), and Jörgen Sandström (bass/vocals) — collectively have over 60 years of combined death metal experience, including membership in bands such as Grave, Entombed, Vicious Art, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Vomitory, and God Among Insects.  In their words, “we know what we do, we love what we do and that we will keep on doing it until the end of days.”

They also have an unusual approach to recording and distributing their music. Their modus operandi is to release short demos and give them away for free. In fact, they have no plans to record an album — ever. However, every time they finish releasing a group of three demo’s, they’ve been giving labels permission to package them up and sell them as compilation CDs. So far, this has happened twice (two CDs have been released, each collecting three demo’s). The next compilation, The Army of Three, will include their two most recent demos plus some additional tracks and will be released by Abyss Records.

Based on a recent statement on their FB page, Torture Division also plan to release three new 3-track demos in 2013, as well as two split releases (one with Asphyx that will include a brand new track as well as a cover song, and a second split about which details haven’t yet been revealed). But while we’re waiting for all of this, Torture Division have just given all of us a stand-alone song for free download called “Gimp Grind”. Continue reading »

MALEFICE: “FIVE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 032013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album from Malefice of Reading, England.)

Malefice are one of the only metalcore bands still worth listening to. Hailing from Britain, long time vets of the scene, their new album Five is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. For the uninitiated, Malefice play a style of metalcore that, while old school (very KSE/Unearth/God Forbid), also incorporates quite a bit of love for thrash metal. The result has been a sound completely soaked in violence, jolting whiplash-inducing riffs, and circle-pit-inducing grooves.

The opener “V” pretty much speaks for the album. The galvanizing jackhammer of its verse is enough to get the blood pumping, but it’s the anthem of a chorus that really seals the deal. This is metalcore at its best, when it’s got that intensity, energy, and commitment to bruising the listener, whether being melodic or not. The rest of the music appropriately follows suit, all fast-as-fuck, balls-of-steel metalcore that borders on pure melodic death metal. The sound of Malefice has changed a little bit, though — they’ve tuned their guitars lower and their particular approach to riffs and melodies has definitely taken on a more epic, energetic feel. Continue reading »

JEFF HANNEMAN HAS PASSED AWAY

 Metal News  10 Responses »
May 022013
 

Slayer guitarist and founding member Jeff Hanneman died earlier today near his Southern California home. He had been forced to pull out of live performances after contracting necrotizing fasciitis, most likely from a spider bite. But the cause of death has been identified as liver failure.  From a press report:

Slayer guitarist and founding member Jeff Hanneman died earlier today of liver failure. He was 49.

“Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home,” the band’s longtime publicist said in a statement. “Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure.”

Hanneman co-founded the thrash metal greats with Kerry King in 1981; their breakthrough came in 1986 with the brutalist album “Reign in Blood.” Hanneman wrote or co-wrote the set’s standout tracks, “Angel of Death” and “Raining Blood.”

Hanneman is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry.

This is sad news. Jeff Hanneman is gone but his name will be remembered in the community of metal for a very long time.

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