UPDATES: BLODSGARD AND OBLIVION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 232013
 

The last few days I’ve fallen down on the job of watching for, and writing about, new music and news, because the old fucking day job has had me in one of those armlocks the cops use (used to use?) to choke out unruly citizens. But I’m at least going to make time to report on exciting new developments from two “old friends”.

BLODSGARD

Thanks to sharp-eyed NCS supporter Austin S-K, I found out that Blodsgard have posted to YouTube a “teaser reel” of song excerpts from their forthcoming album, Monument.

Back in mid-June I provided some updates about that forthcoming full-length debut (including the killer album cover by Mark Cooper of Mindrape Art), and that post is a good place to go if you want to find out more about the band and their previous demo releases. At that time, the band had posted on their website separate excerpts from each of the tracks on Monument, but as of today they’ve now packed them into a single “medley” clip that you can hear straight through. Continue reading »

GOJIRALTERNATIVES REVISITED, BECAUSE DOUBLE PANDA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, Reviews  6 Responses »
Jul 232013
 

(Guest contributor Old Man Windbreaker finds a perhaps not-so-obvious connection among the latest albums by Gojira and a group of other bands, and includes some bonus items at the end.)

A little more than a year ago, we read a piece by Andy Synn titled ‘Gojiralternatives‘, describing music by half a dozen bands as an alternative of sorts for those who are not that into Gojira’s music. Old Man Windbreaker decided to catch up to the bands featured in that list, since most of them have released a new album since the date of that article. But, Old Man Windbreaker is lazy. Hence, you have a review of the albums a full 2 months after the release of the latest album on this playlist. By the way, here are the albums on this playlist, in chronological order:

  •  L’Enfant Sauvage by Gojira
  •  Meliora by Eryn Non Dae.
  •  Vertikal by Cult of Luna
  •  Possession by Benea Reach
  •  Back to Where You’ve Never Been by Hacride

You might notice that Burst and Oceans of Sadness are not in this playlist. That is because they both split up; before the publishing of the original ‘Gojiralternatives‘ article, I might add. So, they will not be revisited, despite having produced amazing music. You might also notice that Eryn Non Dae. is here on this list. That is because of Double Panda. One happened to be playing Double Panda while listening to the album the first time, and One thought they sounded somewhat like Gojira at the time. This eventually led to One revisiting the other Gojiralternatives as well. Continue reading »

RETURNING WE HEAR THE LARKS: “FAR STEPPER / WIDE SEA”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jul 232013
 

(DGR reviews the swansong album by England’s Returning We Hear the Larks.)

Returning We Hear the Larks was one of the many guitar projects that really gained steam in late 09/early 2010. The brainchild of one young guitarist Jak Noble, it first came to my attention as one of the many solo guitar projects that were then being released for free. Come to find out, I was ridiculously late, as this specific train had long since left the station and kicked a whole slate of material out from the then still-new concept of a bedroom guitar prodigy’s studio.

Yet, there I was, checking in with the disc Ypres, which dealt with a famed World War I battleground. The music was decidedly djent, but something about it really caught my attention. Maybe it was that Jak had already developed an amazing sense of ambience and was using it to build pictures with sound – managing a very difficult feat of making the music actually evoke something.

Maybe it was partially the note he attached to the disc about how he had lost it at said battleground and felt he had to do something with the rush of emotion that hit him. I always felt that specifically suggested that Returning was something far deeper and more mature than simply another multi-string dick-waving affair.

When he turned around and added vocals to the next release, an EP known as Proud England, I found myself initially skeptical, but surprisingly it worked out. Jak proved to have quite the set of lungs on him, for a good, harsh high scream and a decent low. Little bit of an awkward singing voice, but nothing so offensive as to subtract from the excellent music underneath.

Another thing that differentiated Returning from other groups of similar ambition was that Jak never made it as prolific as other projects. Some serious time passed between his previous Returning release (the single Line-Trap) and this one, 2013’s late-June release, Far Stepper/Of Wide Sea. Given my childish gushing about this project in the opening you’d better believe that I was excited about this one. Continue reading »

WE’RE GOING TO BE BIG

 IQ Subtraction  40 Responses »
Jul 232013
 

We don’t run this site like a business. There’s no reason to, since we don’t take any money for anything. But we still try hard to make NCS good, and we want more and more people to come here. Your humble editor obsessively watches our traffic statistics, and all of us do what we can to spread the word far and wide. We want to be BIG. I’m really not sure why. I think it’s probably the testosterone.

Since this isn’t a money-making enterprise, I ignore the e-mails we get every day from people who want to sell us on what they can do to make us BIGGER. As fast as it takes to see what the e-mails are about, I delete them. Except for yesterday. Yesterday, for no good reason at all, I read one from “Senior SEO Advisor Amanda Moss” (SEO standing for Search Engine Optimization). Ms. Moss had some very interesting things to say, so I drafted a reply, in line with her message to me:

“Hi Nocleansinging.com Team,

Hope you are doing fine.

Yeah, I suppose. What’s it to you?

I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting enough organic traffic & most often you stick to Ad words to get more traffic which is quite expensive and the chances is high of getting a spam traffic as well.

Huh. You mean spam traffic like your e-mail to me Amanda? That kind of spam traffic? Please, tell me this isn’t just some piece of cookie-cutter spam you send to an electronic mailing list of millions. Please tell me this is a highly personalized message you wrote because you genuinely care about NO CLEAN SINGING and our sacred mission. Go ahead: tell me. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JACOBO CORDOVA (MAJESTIC DOWNFALL)

 Interviews  7 Responses »
Jul 222013
 

(Guest contributor KevinP managed to snag an interview with Jacobo Cordova, whose latest album under the name of Majestic Downfall — “Three” — is a doom/death highlight of 2013. You can tell that Jacobo is a cool guy because he continued with the interview even after Kevin insulted the Dallas Cowboys. I would just like to add, on a personal note, that the Giants suck.)

 K:  Ok, just so you know I did my homework here. You were in a dark/doom metal band from Mexico called Antiqua, left in 2006 to start Majestic Downfall and moved to Dallas, TX.  So, why the change, why Texas, and most importantly, please tell me you loathe the Dallas Cowboys, like any self-respecting human being does?

J:  First of all, stay away from the Cowboys! They are too big for you ja.  I won´t go any further on their might, it is well known!

 

K:  Chinga tu Cowboys. JAJAJAJA

J:  Ok, about Majestic Downfall starting in Dallas, TX. I can tell you that I moved there in 2005 cause I got a job offer and that is when I moved to the States from Mexico.  Being there and not playing for 5 years since I left Antiqua, I could afford a home studio and that is when it all started.

In 2007 I recorded my first demo and from there everything became history till today and the new album release.  Regarding Antiqua, some of the ideas of the first Majestic Downfall album were unfinished or not recorded riffs of that band so I had a start already.  And regarding your homework done, nah, you have no idea, I don´t even want to know your shitty team. Continue reading »

THE BRIDAL PROCESSION: “DESCENT INTO ARCOLOGIES”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jul 222013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new second album by Parisian metal band The Bridal Procession.)

Two words: Symphonic deathcore.

…

…

…

There, now that I’ve cleared the room, the rest of us can talk privately.

I suppose that first line was like a red rag to a bull, or a canary in a coal mine (some sort of metaphorical animal anyway), to some people. Priming their rage, or warning them off, well in advance.

It was, however, also a little bit misleading. The (now sadly defunct) French band generally err closer to the “Death” than the “core” side of the equation, and their first album Astronomical Dimensions was a veritable kick in the teeth of bone-crunching Behemoth bludgeon and gruesome Whitechapel groove, with some fantastically menacing symphonic flourishes.

There’s still enough stylistic elements, if you’re a genre-Nazi like me, to stick the band with the “Deathcore” tag – despite the fact that a certain proportion of their fanbase is insistent on referring to them as “Progressive Death Metal”. But for me there’s no shame in being “Deathcore” when your material is this strong and your album itself provides a compelling argument for the existence of the style! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ÆVANGELIST — “OMNIQUITY”

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jul 222013
 

This past weekend I saw two pieces of news concerning the otherworldly black death entity known as Ævangelist, about whom we have written frequently. First, it appears the band have finished recording a new album, Omen Ex Simulacra, which will be released later this year by Debemur Morti. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Second, I saw that in the coming months an Australian label named Aurora Australis Records will be releasing an Ævangelist split with a Philadelphia black metal band named Esoterica . The artwork for it, created by Ralph Stewart, is displayed at the top of this post. Esoterica will be contributing three songs, including one on which MkM of Antaeus and Aosoth will be making a guest appearance. Ævangelist’s track is called “Omniquity”, and they posted it on YouTube yesterday.

It may only be one track, but that one track is the length of at least an EP: 22 minutes, 21 seconds. It’s a dense, harrowing, atmospheric piece, often violent and always unsettling. Yet for all its destructive power it exerts a strange hypnotic hold on the senses. Continue reading »

VARG VIKERNES WRITES ABOUT HIS ARREST, INTERROGATION, AND RELEASE IN FRANCE

 Metal News  14 Responses »
Jul 212013
 

I wrestled with myself about whether to continue writing about Varg Vikernes’ arrest in France on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack and its aftermath. About the only news we generally cover (and we don’t do anything like a comprehensive job of it) involves music, and this episode certainly doesn’t qualify. I also feel uncomfortable adding to the publicity about someone who I don’t want to publicize except to the extent he makes music as Burzum that’s worth hearing (and even then, I have some recurring qualms).

But I crossed a figurative bridge with the first post about Varg’s arrest and the second one about his release, and I’ve decided I might as well finish the story — or at least finish it as far as this site is concerned, especially because so many people read those first two posts.

As expected, Varg has now written — at length — about his arrest, interrogation, and release by French authorities. What may surprise some is that it is not a rant, nor does he seize on the events as an excuse to play the persecuted victim (at least not much) or to re-publish his anti-Semitic and racist ideologies. To the contrary, he is respectful and complimentary of the French police, particularly by contrast with his views about his treatment in Norway (which he refers to as “Soviet Norway”). Ironically, his treatment appears only to have solidified his love of France as an adopted home. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 78)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  3 Responses »
Jul 212013
 

Welcome to another edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which we collect photos, videos, and news reports about things that are metal, even though they don’t involve metal music. Today, we have a whopping nine items for you.

ITEM ONE

We’ll start with a pair of items from the natural world, and I’m not talking simply about the pair of eyes that are gazing hungrily at you from the photo at the top of this post. That alien-looking fucker is Phidippus pulcherrimus (Salticidae), one of the 5,000 species in a family called the Jumping Spider. And those aren’t all of the Jumping Spider’s eyes. There are two other pairs of eyes on the back of its head, making a total of 8 eyes.

Not surprisingly, The Font of All Human Knowledge reports that “Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting, and navigation”. Yeah, courtship. They can see a hot piece of spider ass both coming and going. But the main point of this item isn’t the Jumping Spider’s superior ability to check out potential sex partners. No, today we’re talking about predation.

Butterflies are among the prey of Phidippus pulcherrimus, but one species of butterfly has evolved in a way that gives it a unique ability to survive attacks by the Jumping Spider. Continue reading »

NECROSADIST, NECROSADIST, MONOMANIAC, AND WITCHRIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 202013
 

Your humble editor’s ass is dragging this morning, because this is a Saturday morning and Saturday mornings always seem to bring ass impairment here on my metallic island. Saturday mornings, they follow Friday nights, and on Friday nights I seem drawn to the demon alcohol like a fly to shit. It’s all fun until the new day dawns. The sun rises above the clouds, and the sun in my head goes supernova and then collapses into a black hole from which no light or sentient thought can escape.

Ah, what to do on mornings such as this? Lying curled in the fetal position and moaning can only be indulged for so long. Crawling into a chair, slumped over a computer screen, looking for something new to hear — that seemed like a viable alternative to suicide, so that’s what I did. On some Saturday mornings I just want to be surrounded by the silence of the void, but today it seemed like a better idea to find something that would overwhelm the destruction in my head with superior destructive force. I succeeded.

You might think that given my current state of mental impairment I made a redundancy-related typo in the title of this post, but you would be wrong. I will explain.

NECROSADIST

One of the things I found this morning was a debut album released on 11-11-11 under the name Abstract Satan. I can tell you from immediate personal experience that there is nothing abstract about Satan, and that I must have done something terrible to offend Him last night, given the magnitude of the punishment I am currently suffering. But listening to Abstract Satan does not produce suffering, although it is indeed punishing. Abstract Satan makes me glad to be alive, despite all the self-inflicted pain. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries