SATURDAY SLAUGHTER, SWEDISH STYLE: TORTURE DIVISION, MORDBRAND, PAGANIZER, JOHANSSON & SPECKMANN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Dec 272014
 

 

It’s been a little while since I posted some real Swedish fucking death metal on the site, long enough that I was starting to get the shakes, the night sweats, the dry mouth, and the volcanic gut rumbles. So I decided to do something about it. I’m tending to my needs, and bringing you some slaughter for your Saturday at the same time. But as you’ll find out, this is also a very bittersweet post for me to write.

TORTURE DIVISION

I first discovered Torture Division in March 2011, when they released a cover of Mastodon’s “Iron Tusk” from the Leviathan album, accompanied by an introduction that included these words:

“This is how we would have made this song, had we written it in the first place. But we didn’t, we just thought it would be nice to MASTODON to make a proper tune out of it. Kidding, kidding… MASTODON‘s cool. They are no TORTURE DIVISION, but hey — can’t win them all.”

I became an immediate fan, and have remained one in the years that followed (you can still hear that “Iron Tusk” cover in the first Mordbrand feature I prepared). I wrote about most of their other releases over the last three years (collected here) and liked every goddamn one of them. And now, sad to say, I’m writing about their final effort. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 3

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  20 Responses »
Dec 262014
 

 

We bring you Part 3 of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here. Today we add two more songs — and I’ve paired these two for reasons that will become obvious.

GOATWHORE

We published two reviews of Goatwhore’s new album Constricting Rage of the Merciless, Andy Synn’s three-line, 14-word haiku review and DGR’s 1337-word tome. I’ll quote excerpts from each review:

“Rabid dogs learn some new tricks”

…

“In comparison to the group’s previous albums, Constricting Rage Of The Merciless is the most pit-fueled and ballsy of the Goatwhore albums. There is some serious stomping swagger on this record, like outlier ‘Baring Teeth For Revolt’. That song has a bluesy rock and roll riff made heavy by the rest of the band and a gallop designed, it seems, for the sole purpose of making people run in a circle.” Continue reading »

ELEMENTAL NIGHTMARES RACES TO THE FINISH LINE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Dec 262014
 

 

We’ve been writing about the Elemental Nightmares music project since July 2013, when it was barely more than a bright idea. We followed its progress closely and posted about each of the first four splits when they were released (and even premiered two of the songs from one of the splits). And then, in a big rush, Elemental Nightmares released the last two splits over the space of the last two days, with Parts VI and VII coming on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, respectively. (This accelerated finish was actually part of the release schedule as it was announced back in August, but still caught me by surprise.)

For those who haven’t yet heard of this project, it began as a vinyl subscription series and changed a bit as time passed. In its final (and now complete form), it has released seven 10″ vinyl splits featuring songs from 28 up-and-coming bands, most of which we had previously written about at this site. Each release has featured one segment of a single large piece of art, and you can now see the complete work at the top of this post (click the image to view a larger version). It’s fantastic.

I subscribed to this series as soon as I could and have relished the arrival of each installment. Later, Elemental Nightmares began offering each split for sale on a standalone basis, and the music is also available for download on Bandcamp. I’m not sure whether vinyl copies of each split are still available, but if they are, they can be acquired via the Elemental Nightmares online store, here: Continue reading »

A LIST OF PREVIOUSLY UNFEATURED RELEASES — PART 2

 LISTMANIA 2014  7 Responses »
Dec 262014
 

(Mortifera. Image borrowed from this location.)

(We present today the second part of a year-end list prepared by one of our Norwegian readers, whose pseudonym is eiterorm,  and who has been a valuable source of musical recommendations to our site. His list focuses on releases we’ve not written about on this site before.)

This is a continuation of the list of previously unfeatured releases of 2014 that began with Part I (here).

Grand Magus – Triumph and Power

This is another exception to the rule of “no clean singing”, and among the milder types of metal that’s been mentioned on NCS, so I won’t say too much about it. Grand Magus released a new album in 2014, entitled Triumph and Power. It’s a good heavy metal album, and a big step up from their previous one, which, at least to me, was a big disappointment. If you enjoy heavy metal and can appreciate clean vocals (did someone shout “blasphemy”?), you should check out the following couple of songs from the album. And if you don’t know the band from before, make sure you don’t miss their first two albums. Continue reading »

A CELEBRATION OF THE DAY, WITH KRODA AND MISANTROF ANTICHRISTMAS VOL. 7

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Dec 252014
 

 

I used to write an annual Christmas rant at this site. The first one I wrote, creatively entitled “FUCK CHRISTMAS”, still gets a few hundred new page views around this time every year despite the fact that it’s now more than four years old. I haven’t changed my mind about what I wrote four years ago, but I also don’t really have anything new to say. I guess I’ve also mellowed — somewhat — and now spend more time focusing on things that genuinely are worth celebrating during this season instead of things that turn my stomach. And so it will be today.

In an early display of marketing acumen (to be repeated in many other ways, both before and since), the Church created the festival of Christmas by co-opting and incorporating many of the traditions of various pagan celebrations that had occurred around the time of the winter solstice for many centuries before the birth of Christ. Celebrations of the birth of the Sun, for example, became celebrations of the birth of the Son. And in our time, of course, commerce has successfully co-opted the celebration of the Son, drowning it in an orgy of gift-giving.

But putting all that history to one side, we still have things worth celebrating today that have nothing to do with the traditional trappings and calculated origins of Christmas — time spent with family and friends, and of course, metal! And for me, it seems appropriate to celebrate with some excellent pagan metal, plus a compilation of Anti-Christmas music that costs nothing. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 2

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  16 Responses »
Dec 252014
 

 

Welcome to Part 2 of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here. Today we add two more songs.

MISERY INDEX

There was really never any doubt that one of the songs from The Killing Gods would appear on this list — “Fucking flawless” was the way TheMadIsraeli summed up his review of the album for our site. The hard part was deciding which song.

“The Harrowing” received support from some of our readers as well as my comrade DGR, who prized the song’s speed as well as the awesome solo in the middle of the track. But after repeatedly bouncing back and forth between that song and the one I ultimately chose, I’m going with “Conjuring the Cull”. I’ll just repeat here what I excitedly exclaimed upon first hearing the song: Continue reading »

A LIST OF PREVIOUSLY UNFEATURED RELEASES OF 2014 — PART 1

 LISTMANIA 2014  8 Responses »
Dec 252014
 

(Orange Goblin. Image borrowed from this location.)

(We present today the first part of a year-end list prepared by one of our Norwegian readers, who will introduce himself, and who has been a valuable source of musical recommendations to our site. Part two will follow tomorrow.)

I guess this is the part where I introduce myself, seeing as this is the first post I’m writing for No Clean Singing. My name (pseudonym) is eiterorm, and I’ve been following NCS for about two years. At first I only visited the blog occasionally, but about a year ago I subscribed via RSS, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t missed a single blog post since then. NCS has introduced me to a lot of great music, and to offer what little I can in return, I’ve been e-mailing news tips to Islander every now and then. For this blog post I wanted to write some words about a few releases of 2014 which haven’t been featured on NCS, and Islander kindly allowed this. Here is the first part of that list.
Orange Goblin – Back from the Abyss

The first item on my list is Orange Goblin’s latest album, entitled Back from the Abyss, which was released in October. This excellent album hasn’t been featured on NCS, but seeing as it is on my personal top-three-list of albums of 2014, I decided to do something about that. Orange Goblin is, of course, an exception to the rule of “no clean singing”, but considering how infectious the entire album is, I’d say it fits NCS perfectly nonetheless. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 1

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  12 Responses »
Dec 242014
 

 

Welcome to Part 1 of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the other songs as we add them to the list, go here.

As was the case last year, I’m starting the rollout of this list before finishing the selection. Between the list of candidates I built for myself over the course of this year and the songs recommended by our staff and our readers (here), I have more than 700 tracks to choose from. I’ve listened to most of them at least once, but the selection process isn’t finished. It will be a work in progress — all the way up until I make myself stop.

Which means, as was true last year, that I have no idea how many songs will be on the list. Last year’s list consisted of 73 songs. I’m going to try really hard to make this year’s list shorter — but who knows? All I really know is that this thing isn’t going to write itself. If I don’t start it now, The Ides of March will arrive before I finish it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DEVOURING STAR, KRES, LEGION OF ANDROMEDA, WORSHIP

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Dec 242014
 

 

Rumor has it there’s some holiday tomorrow, with lots of talk about happy and jolly. I’m not feeling it myself. I’m more in the mood for head wreckage. I found these new songs over the last 24 hours that do the job nicely — music that’s full of power and passion, and no joy.

DEVOURING STAR

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering (here) a new song by a Finnish horde named Devouring Star from their forthcoming debut album Through Lung and Heart, on the Daemon Worship label. Since then two more songs from the album have been revealed, the latest one just this morning. Austin Weber described the song we premiered as “an apocalyptic ode to true worshipers of the dark arts, teeming with sourness and bitter pain and delivering a bludgeoning and a sense of horror comparable to few.” The new song is no less decimating.

“The Dreaming Tombs” is an unmitigated onslaught of percussive hammer blows, howling riffs, and wretched vocal extremity. The music swirls like a cyclonic vortex, broken in places by a massive doom-drenched stomps. It’s bleak, black, brutally ferocious music that very effectively creates an atmosphere of calamity and collapse. Continue reading »

WIL CIFER’S TOP 10 BLACK METAL ALBUMS OF 2014

 LISTMANIA 2014  13 Responses »
Dec 242014
 

 

(In this post Wil Cifer presents his list of the year’s best black metal albums.)

At this point half the bands in metal today are trying to be blackened something, so here are the top ten black metal bands, that aren’t death metal bands trying to grim it up or post- rock bands with some anguished screams mixed in… these are all bands that are so pure… so cold. The cream of the crop this year came from not only Norway, but also France, Canada, Sweden, Chicago, and the Deep South. So here we go… Continue reading »

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