BEYOND GRACE: “MONSTROUS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Mar 262014
 

My friend and NCS colleague Andy Synn is the vocalist for Beyond Grace. My objectivity about the band’s new EP, Monstrous, could therefore be called into question. But the truth (so help me Satan) is that I’m writing about it for the same reason I write about every other song, EP, or album I choose to write about: I’m enthusiastic about the music. (Andy, by the way, doesn’t even know I’ve written this review.)

The three songs on Monstrous represent a change of course for this band formerly called Bloodguard, so if you happen to be familiar with their work, its time to turn the page and listen again. What you will hear is something like Spawn of Possession with more convulsive grooves, or Blotted Science with unexpected digressions and more sharp teeth, or The Black Dahlia Murder with an added progressive bent.

If you’re up on those references, then you may be ready for the combination of jabbing, jamming riffs, serpentine melodies, sparkling solos, and an enveloping atmosphere of alien menace that make up Monstrous. Continue reading »

CHRISTIAN MOLENAAR’S GUIDE TO GORENOISE

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  40 Responses »
Mar 262014
 

(Christian Molenaar plays guitar (and flute) in San Diego’s Those Darned Gnomes. He also performs, on those or other instruments, in Mortal Bicycle, Static Goat, City of Brass, Cëmetricity, and the Cooldad Memorial Volcanic Orchestra, among others. And as you’re about to see, he knows a thing or two about a host of subterranean sub-sub-sub-sub genres. And he can write. And he’s funny.)

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call… The Gorenoise Zone.

Halfway between the utter pretension of so many in the noise scene and the legitimately questionable tenets of goregrind (here’s looking at you, Cemetery Rapist) lies the paragon of human musical innovation, a hybrid creature so truly beautiful it can only be heard by those pure of heart. Welcome, friends, to the world of gorenoise.

After Islander wrote about Phyllomedusa’s most excellent Puddle Dependency I felt compelled to spread the gospel of gorenoise, its history and what may lie in its future. Take my hand, friend, and walk with me into a beautiful new world… Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: PHOBOCOSM, MIASMAL, KRIEGSMASCHINE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 252014
 

I haven’t had time to pull together a round-up of new discoveries in a couple of days, but I thought that before I get further behind I would at least call out four recent songs that are worth some attention Two of them are precursors to new albums due for release later this year and otwone come from an album that hit the streets in February.

PHOBOCOSM

Phobocosm are from Montreal and in recent days they were signed by the Dark Descent label for the release of their debut album, Deprived, which was mixed and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Krallice). NCS scribe Austin Weber brought them to my attention, thinking their music would be up my alley, and man was he ever right.

Just a few days ago the band released the first song from Deprived for public consumption, and it’s a monster. The dreadful chiming chords that begin “Solipsist” are like the bells that herald the final doom, and the rest of the song provides a reasonable approximation of that event. Phobocosm marry crushing riffs and ever-changing drumbeats to bleak, needling tremolo melodies and a gargantuan voice that emanates from some deep pit in the earth. Continue reading »

ANCIENT ASCENDANT: “ECHOES AND CINDER”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 252014
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the forthcoming second album by the UK’s Ancient Ascendant.)

“Raise the crone to burn again!”

So begins the opening track of Ancient Ascendant’s second full-length opus, Echoes and Cinder.

The song in question, “Crones to the Flames,” is a mammoth concoction of dense, tightly welded riffage and scorched-earth vocals, propelled by a series of unerring, martial drum beats and an undercurrent of writhing, prominent bass work.

Cold, calculating, and crushingly heavy, its razor-edged death metal hooks, seething tremolo melodies, and even lithe touches of acoustic harmony all add their poisonous flavour to this bubbling cauldron of pure molten metal.

A savage statement of intent, if ever there was one. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORBID FLESH — “EMBEDDED IN THE OSSUARY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 252014
 

Spain’s Morbid Flesh are about to follow up their 2011 debut album Reborn In Death with a new EP — Embedded In the Ossuary — and in cooperation with Germany’s Unholy Prophecies, we’re bringing you a full stream of the EP, right here, right now.

I was already primed to like this EP without hearing a note, based on the grim cover art (by Javi Castaño) and the fact that the band includes members of two other excellent Spanish death metal groups — Graveyard and Insulters. My interest was peaked by the first single from the EP — “Charnel House” — which we featured in this post in February. As it turns out, the rest of the EP fully justifies all those optimistic expectations.

Morbid Flesh have a potent ability to unleash rampaging death metal in the vein of Dismember, Entombed, and Grave, with huge grinding riffs, punishing percussion, spitfire soloing, and cruel, savage vocals — all of which unite to create an atmosphere of dread and menace. But the band bring something more to the table as well. Continue reading »

LORD MANTIS: CHARLIE FELL RESPONDS TO OUR “DEATH MASK” REVIEW

 Mosh Pit  31 Responses »
Mar 252014
 

(Yesterday we posted BadWolf’s review of Lord Mantis’ forthcoming album, Death Mask. The review led to some interesting exchanges in the Comment section, most of which revolved around the album’s controversial cover art by Jef Whitehead. BadWolf now follows up with this post.)

Here at NCS, we are blessed with a great stable of readers and commentators. For the most part, you guys respond with decorum and thoughtfulness, even when we cover transgressive and confrontative music, like the kind we covered yesterday in my review of Lord Mantis’ new album, Death Mask. That album features a striking piece of cover art, which some people have claimed is transphobic, or otherwise vile toward transgendered persons. That artwork was produced by another controversial member of the metal community, Jef Whitehead of Leviathan, among other projects.

In that thread, Charlie Fell, bassist and vocalist in Lord Mantis, spoke up. And he had this to say:

“The art work wasn’t meant to offend it was made to be a portrait of myself destructiveness as well as my minds eye view of my humanity and sexuality. The last album also featured a transgendered Christ on it and its been a theme in our cover art through out the bands existence. Im not always the best with words and come off a bit crass and insensitive to some people but I have no problems or prejudices with any race, gender (cis, trans or otherwise) or sexual orientation. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE — MORDBRAND’S “THAT WHICH CRAWLS” — AND A REVIEW OF “IMAGO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Mar 252014
 

I’ve been waiting eagerly for the time when Sweden’s Mordbrand would release a full album’s worth of songs, and that day is finally approaching. After a string of well-regarded splits and EPs (most of which we’ve praised in reviews on this site), their debut album Imago is projected for release in late April by Deathgasm Records and Doomentia Records. One song from Imago has already premiered, and today we’re sharing with you a second one: “That Which Crawls”.

But first, a review of Imago.

If you’re a Swedish death metal addict, Imago is your fix. It is both steeped in the familiar musical traditions of the genre and enlivened by Mordbrand’s own creative twists and turns. If you think you’ve heard it all before, think again. Listening to Imago is like spending time with an old friend you thought you knew inside and out, and then being surprised by something you hadn’t noticed before. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KONKEROR – “I, MONOLITHIC”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 242014
 

In October 2012, NCS writer TheMadisraeli went bonkers over the debut album by a band from the outskirts of Detroit named Konkeror. He threw around comparisons to the likes of Melechesh, Nile, Vader, Obituary, and Immolation and concluded by praising The Abysmal Horizons as “a collection of songs that prove potent enough to compete with even the most legendary of death metal veterans — it’s impressive, it’s vicious, it’s sophisticated, it’s badass.”

Now, Lacerated Enemy Records is on the verge of re-launching Konkeror’s debut worldwide with brand new eye-catching artwork by Mark Cooper (above), in physical as well digital formats, and including Konkeror’s recently recorded cover of Bolt Thrower’s “Cenotaph” as a bonus track. And to help add fuel to the launch we’re premiering the band’s official video for the album’s first track, “I, Monolithic”. To borrow TheMadIsraeli’s words about this song:

“A foreboding acoustic intro followed by a doom riff with badass solo work ushers in a torrent of blackened death metal ferocity.  The riffs here just catch your ear, attach to your memory like leeches, and mummify you from the inside out…. After this song alone, you’ll feel like someone just hit you with a truck.” Continue reading »

TOUR UPDATE: ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, PANZERFAUST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Mar 242014
 

NO CLEAN SINGING is proud to sponsor the forthcoming North American tour by Abigail Williams, Lecherous Nocturne, and Panzerfaust. This promises to be a string of nights that metal fans are going to remember, as soon as they dig out of the rubble left in the wake of this onslaught.

Since we originally the announcement of the tour last week, there have been some changes in the schedule, and so in addition to posting the updated tour flyer you see above, we’ve got the revised calendar and list of locales after the jump (this is now current as of April 25).

And because we always like to have music whenever possible at this site, we’re including music videos of one song from each  bands’ latest album. Continue reading »

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