AN NCS PREMIERE: BENEATH — “CHALICE”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Mar 212014
 

In early February we featured the fetching piece of cover art by Raymond Swanland that you see above, along with the fetching news that Iceland’s Beneath would be releasing a new album named The Barren Throne, via Unique Leader on April 29. We’ve written frequently about Beneath. To quote our chum Gemma Alexander, who interviewed members of the band in Iceland a couple of years ago, they are fairly new, but the musicians behind the name are some of the heaviest hitters in Icelandic metal.

“[W]ith Unnar Sigurðsson of Ophidian I fame on guitar, and with drums provided by Atrum’s Ragnar Sverisson, Beneath came out swinging in 2009, winning Iceland’s first Wacken Metal Battle. An EP followed in 2010, with their first full-length, Enslaved by Fear, released [in] July [2012]. Needless to say, all of the usual metaphors involving blunt force trauma apply.”

Beneath have a new vocalist since their last release — Benedikt Natanael Bjanason (also with Azoic) — and we’re delighted to give you a first listen to him and to what Beneath have cooked up for their new record as we premiere the official lyric video for “Chalice”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: OPETH, ARCH ENEMY, THE AGONIST, BLOODBATH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  34 Responses »
Mar 212014
 

Well, yesterday at NCS didn’t go exactly as I had planned. We did have a couple of excellent song premieres and an interesting play-through video, but my old fucking day job prevented me from pulling together a round-up of new developments in the world of metal — of which there have been many in the last 48 hours. So I’m gathering a few in this post even though the reports aren’t as timely as I would have liked. By coincidence, all the items (but one) involve venerable Swedish bands.

OPETH

Few albums in recent years have generated as much controversial commentary at our site than Opeth’s Heritage. It seems that all we had to do was mention that 2011 album, and conflicting opinions would come out of the woodwork like termites. It has been used as an example of both a band who betrayed their fans and one who felt free to let their artistic impulses dictate their direction rather than commerce. Some thought it was a fine album, others thought it was as dull as dishwater.

Yesterday, we got news about the band’s next album. Via an interview of Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt and Fredrik Akesson, Loudwire reported that the 11th studio (not yet titled) has been completed and projected for release in June. Loudwire has heard the album and wrote this: “Opeth’s songwriting is top notch on the album, but once again, the record features no guttural vocals.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE AND A REVIEW: DEAD IN THE MANGER — “TRANSIENCE”

 Premieres, Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Mar 202014
 

Transience is the name of the debut EP by a mysterious new group named Dead In the Manger. Although the band has not publicly disclosed their identities or location, nor even shared much information about themselves with 20 Buck Spin — the label that pounced on this EP after hearing it and will be handling the release on April 29 — their music says all you need to know.

The EP consists of six songs, entitled “Parts I – VI”, and it’s a multi-headed beast. “Part I” for example is a slow guitar instrumental, the slightly distorted notes conveying a somber, affecting melody while deep in the distance the vocalist howls in a throat-bursting agony.

“Part II”, on the other hand, races from the starting gate, driven by a swirling, swarming lead guitar melody and a high-speed drum assault. And that brings us to the song we’re premiering today: “Part III”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTIVERSE — “BETHLEM”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Mar 202014
 

Antiverse is a band of old friends from Minneapolis who have been involved in other musical projects since the 90s but have now united under the Antiverse name to release Cosmic Horror. To be clear, Cosmic Horror is the title of their debut album (due for release on April 8), though it could also appropriately describe the forces summoned by their music. At the end of this post we’ll give you and the rest of the world a first taste of the album as we premiere a song named “Bethlem”.

The band’s guitarist and backing vocalist Carl Skildum described the album’s concept this way: “It reflects our interests in dystopian science fiction and horror, and humanity’s tenuous place in the universe. The name Cosmic Horror obviously is a tip of the hat to Lovecraft although none of the songs specifically address his literary creations, just the general feeling of dread and a sense of being taken unaware by events far beyond our ability to comprehend. It’s a loosely organized grand tour of mayhem, with scientific hubris, North American folklore and cryptids, and otherworldly invaders all taking their turns.” Continue reading »

MORGAN BERTHET (THE MARS CHRONICLES): “ABYSS”

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 202014
 

I’m not a musician. I’m just a fan. When I watch a play-through video, I’m not capable of critiquing the fine points of a performance, especially a drummer’s performance, because almost all drummers amaze me. Having made that confession, I’m now going to offer a few thoughts about Morgan Berthet’s drum play-through for “Abyss”, a song by his band The Mars Chronicles.

There are times in the play-through when what he’s doing looks simple — and then he’ll twirl a drumstick through his fingers in mid-beat so fast that you wonder if you really saw it. Those drum twirls having nothing to do with the sound on the song, but they’re still really impressive. The actually drumming is impressive, too. Continue reading »

AN NCS-SPONSORED TOUR: ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, PANZERFAUST

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Mar 192014
 

Ever-evolving black metal purveyors Abigail Williams have announced new North American tour dates for May-June, and NO CLEAN SINGING is proud to sponsor this special run of new performances. Joining AW for this rampage will be two extreme black/death bands, Willowtip recording artists Lecherous Nocturne from South Carolina and Toronto-based Panzerfaust.

Long-time readers of our site will be quite familiar with Abigail Williams and Lecherous Nocturne because we’ve written about them repeatedly, and both bands put on killer live shows. Panzerfaust may be a new name around these parts, but they’re a band whose music is also well worth getting to know.

The tour is scheduled to begin on May 15 in Wisconsin and to conclude on June 14 in Illinois. Abigail Williams’ main man Sorceron told us he’s excited to be hitting the road again with the band’s long-time brothers in Lecherous Nocturne, “and getting out there to show people some new songs.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IMBALANCED — “ASSIMILATION OF THE ENSLAVED”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  9 Responses »
Mar 192014
 

(Our man Leperkahn reviews the new EP by San Diego’s Imbalanced., and delivers a full stream of the EP to boot.)

If you’ve followed NCS for a decent amount of time, you may remember the Imbalanced name from when I covered them in my second post for the site, a San Diego death metal/Bob Filner-themed affair. Luckily for us, the trio have returned with a new mini-slab of their blistering technical death metal for us all, in the form of a new EP entitled Assimilation Of The Enslaved, replete with the intriguing cover art of David Correa.

When describing Imbalanced’s sound to interested parties, I’ve pretty much always used Arsis as a reference point, and that point still stays. However, the grittier production of this EP (as compared to most of Arsis’ output), whether by design or necessity, has helped these guys create a different sound, a sound that is wholly and uniquely Imbalanced. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 64: NUCLEARHAMMER, NECHBEYTH, OLD CHAPEL, SLOMATICS

 MISCELLANY  6 Responses »
Mar 192014
 

Are you shocked? I know I’m shocked. After doing these MISCELLANY installments about once every three months, here I am writing another one less than a week after the last. I wish I could say this is the beginning of a new regime, but I ain’t nearly that fuckin’ organized. This is today and tomorrow is another day.

The rules of this road: I randomly pick bands whose music I’ve never heard, I listen to one or two songs and write my impressions, and then I stream what I heard so you can form your own opinions. As I did last week, I decided to just pick the last three bands I heard about over the weekend with recent Bandcamp streams. Although I didn’t know exactly what they would sound like, it turns out there’s a common theme, and it can be summed up in this immortal line from Aliens II: “Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Substitute “your skull” for “site”.

NUCLEARHAMMER

I know I’ve heard this Toronto band’s name before. How could you forget a name like Nuclearhammer? But I’m virtually certain I’d never heard their music before. I became aware of them via a message from our longtime supporter Utmu. It turns out they have a new album coming in June named Serpentine Hermetic Lucifer, which follows their debut full-length from 2009, Obliteration Ritual, with an EP and a bunch of splits in between. Naturally, the album is being released by Nuclear War Now. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TEITANBLOOD, CASTLE, INFERNAL CURSE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Mar 182014
 

As explained in an earlier pissing-and-moaning post today, I was way out of touch yesterday and have been spending some time today catching up on what I missed. But of course I found a whole lot of new likable things that appeared today as well. To avoid falling too far behind, I’m gathering a few of today’s goodies in this post and will collect some of those catch-up items in a piece for tomorrow.

TEITANBLOOD

Teitanblood from Madrid, Spain, were one of my first introductions to the kind of apocalyptic music that some people call blackened death metal and others term war metal. I wrote about them here, not long after making the discovery, in a post that also included music from Blasphemophagher and Diocletian. At the time, I was hunting for the right phrase to describe the music — “Atmospheric death metal”? “Apocalyptic prog”? “Post-death metal?” I decided “war metal” was as good as any label.

Teitanblood’s second full-length, entitled Death, is now scheduled for release on May 13 — five years after Seven Chalices. It’s available on CD and double LP from The Ajna Offensive. It features suitably black cover art (and to see a much larger image, click the one above.)

I’m pleased to say that I have an advance copy of the music. I’m displeased to say that I haven’t yet listened to it. BUT, I have heard one song that has became available on YouTube — “Anteinfierno”. Continue reading »

CONQUERING DYSTOPIA: “CONQUERING DYSTOPIA”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 182014
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Conquering Dystopia, the instrumental supergroup that features Jeff Loomis, Keith Merrow, Alex Webster, and Alex Rüdinger.)

The instrumental metal conversation has perpetually carried a narrative that it’s inevitably dying, always about to reach its life expectancy, with no room soon to be left for it because no one wants to hear a bunch of musicians directly line-in to a PC and show off.  It’s amazing to me that in a genre that is partially, in some of its sub-cultures, built around technical proficiency, and sometimes excess, that such things are said.  Although to be fair, there is good reason for that narrative as of late, and it boils down to djent.  Djent, especially bedroom djent, nearly killed the instrumental metal market for any widespread appeal. You hear so many Axe-FX rich kids trying to compose generic, boring, ambient soundscapes with chugs — can you blame those who now shy away from instrumental metal?

The thing is, the idea that instrumental metal is an unwanted musical movement not worth exploring is just false.  We’re now seeing some of the best composers, both bands and solo individuals, putting out some of the most stunning material in years:  Mendel, Angel Vivaldi, Exivious, Blotted Science with their comeback a couple years ago, and most relevant for this review, Jeff Loomis with his post-Nevermore output and Keith Merrow.  Not only do these guys all write stellar music, I see educated fans slobbering over this kind of music a lot.  The problem is, we’ve been bombarded by so many bedroom djenters that the good music sometimes seems to be drowned out. Continue reading »

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