February 2016 - Page 3 of 11 - NO CLEAN SINGING

SEEN AND HEARD: SCHAMMASCH, THE GREAT OLD ONES, LVTHN, OMNIHILITY, ONTOGENY

Feb 232016

Well, today isn’t going quite the way I planned. To follow my musings earlier today about last weekend’s Famine Fest, I had planned to bring you the premiere of a full album stream for a hot-as-hell new release. However, Soundcloud decided to block all of the song streams under a notification of copyright violation. I’m too stupid to realize this is always a possibility, and therefore I didn’t upload the tracks a few days ago to allow time for that to happen, to file my protests, and to have the blocks cleared. Now I’m sitting around waiting for the tracks to be released from bondage.

In the meantime, I thought I ought to whip something else up to pass the time away. So here are a few things I noticed this morning, beginning with a couple of exciting announcements.

SCHAMMASCH

No secret that we are big fans of this Swiss band. Also no secret that we’ve been very curious about the contours of the band’s next album. Andy Synn tried to pry some details from the band’s main man CSR in this interview last month — and received these cryptic answers: Continue reading »

A FAMINE FEST REPORT (PART 2)

Concert Reviews 11 Responses »

Feb 232016

On Saturday I hastily scribbled a few thoughts about the first night of Famine Fest, which took place at Panic Room in Portland, Oregon, on February 19-20. You may remember that I was having so much fun getting fortified for the festival with my old friend Joseph Schafer and my new friend Cat Jones that I missed a rather large section of the fest’s first-night festivities. This didn’t trouble me too much because I’ve learned that, at least for me, half the fun of going to metal fests is enjoying good conversation with good people over good cocktails. Still, I thought I’d make an effort to arrive at the second night of Famine closer to the starting gun.

Well, that didn’t really happen, but for the very same excellent reasons. The three of us, this time joined by yet another great new friend (Invisible Oranges writer Greg Majewski), were again having such a good time that I don’t think any of us felt any crippling anxiety about not showing up punctually.

And speaking of good cocktails, this had something to do with the lack of punctuality on the second night of Famine: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TEMISTO — “TEMISTO”

Premieres, Reviews 3 Responses »

Feb 222016

Last month we posted Allen Griffin’s enthusiastic review of the self-titled debut album by Sweden’s Temisto,. To borrow Allen’s words, “Temisto seem to simultaneously channel both pre-Entombed Morbid and Nihilist while also invoking more technical acts such as Atheist. At their fastest and most brutal, Temisto nearly reach Angelcorpse levels of kinetic violence.” But as Allen also explained, Temisto’s music displays ambitions and talents that extend well beyond the realms where tooth and claw reign supreme.

Make no mistake, Temisto do indeed display blood-lusting ferocity, with flesh-stripping tremolo assaults and bone-mangling drum and bass fusillades, not to mention bursts of flame-throwing solos and ghastly vocal excretions. But they also interweave electrifying thrash-influenced riffs, hammering punk-inflected grooves, and the grim bite of northern darkness in their melodies. Continue reading »

COBALT: “SLOW FOREVER”

Album Reviews 12 Responses »

Feb 222016

(Andy Synn reviews the eagerly awaited new album by Cobalt.)

Where to start with this one? Obviously the dead horse of the Erik Wunder/Phil McSorley split has been comprehensively beaten to a pulp and rendered down for glue by this point… so let’s not get into that whole ordeal again.

No, I think we have more important issues to consider, not least of which is the question of whether or not Slow Forever, the first new Cobalt album in seven long years, successfully lives up to the band’s hard-won and well-earned legacy.

And our survey says… Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: YLIASTER, SECRETS OF THE MOON, LORD IMPALER, AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN, GODLESS, FROM THE VASTLAND

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 8 Responses »

Feb 222016

Welcome to a new edition of Shades of Black. Today I’ve collected five new songs, one new video, and a snippet from the studio for an eagerly anticipated new album. As I sometimes do with these posts, I’ve included some things that aren’t black metal in the strictest sense of the term (or at all).

YLIASTER

Although I didn’t know it at the time, I first learned of Marcel Polit through his starring role in an excellent video for the song “Notion” by Poland’s Vesania that we premiered in December — which you can and should watch HERE. It turns out that Polit is a musician, too, and he has recorded a debut album with Dariusz ‘Daray’ Brzozowski (Vesania, Dimmu Borgir, ex-Vader). The name of this project is Yliaster, and the album is Soliloquy. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: TOTAL HATE — “LIFECRUSHER – CONTRIBUTIONS TO A WORLD IN RUINS”

Album Reviews, Premieres 3 Responses »

Feb 222016

Six years have passed since the last album by Germany’s Total Hate, but on February 26 Eisenwald will release the band’s third full-length in this, the fifteenth year of the group’s existence. The title gives you fair warning of what’s to come: Lifecrusher — Contributions To A World In Ruins. And we give you the chance to experience it in full today.

With an album title like that one, brought forth by a band with a name like Total Hate, who are devoted to old school Scandinavian black metal, you expect full-bore sonic savagery. And that is indeed what Lifecrusher delivers — but that’s not all you get. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (HEDON CRIES)

THE REARVIEW MIRROR 1 Response »

Feb 212016

(DGR prepared this Sunday’s metal retrospective.)

I figured for this Rearview column that I would take you on a shorter trip through time than we have been prone to. I know that this isn’t the shortest, as once before we made a trip to 2013 with The Amenta, but I figured that was a special-use case since we were zeroing in on such a specific section of that album.

This time, I thought we would travel all the way back to 2011, a time when No Clean Singing was actually a real website — although at the time not one I wrote for. We have a calnder at the office that refers to these years as B-DGR and A-DGR. I have noticed that someone has changed said calender to a picture of a dumpster fire, though, but I’m not sure who yet. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD FOR A SATURDAY: FAMINE FEST (ISKRA AND ACEPHALIX),

Concert Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Feb 202016

I drove from Seattle to Portland, Oregon, yesterday with my friend Joseph Schafer (Invisible Oranges) for the purpose of attending the 2016 edition of Famine Fest. The festival began last night and resumes again tonight. I’m going to quickly mention two bands I saw last night that made big impressions, and then toss some new music your way.

ISKRA

The chance to see this band from Victoria, British Columbia, was one of the main draws of Famine Fest for me. I really liked their 2015 album Ruins, and I had missed out on other chances to see them in the past. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VI — THE FRENCH TRUMPET OF ARMAGEDDON

Interviews 2 Responses »

Feb 192016

(Argentinian journalist Matías Gallardo rejoins us with this interview of INRVI, the man behind the French black metal band VI, which took place last fall.)

Before showcasing his talents as a bass player in Aosoth and Antaeus, guitarist and vocalist INRVI started VI back in 2007, a project that released an acclaimed EP in 2008 and a split with Aosoth two years later, only to remain silent until last year’s magnificent debut, De Praestigiis Angelorum. Without losing his distinctive French black metal DNA, INRVI translated his tortured existence into one of the most vicious yet epic albums of last year. Now, the man behind VI told us how it all came to be.

******

Why the name VI?

It is related to the 6th trumpet, the second woe. Continue reading »

GARGANJUA: “A VOYAGE IN SOLITUDE”

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Feb 192016

(Andy Synn reviews the debut album by Britain’s Garganjua.)

One of the best things about writing for NoCleanSinging – apart from the fame, the drugs, the fast cars, the easy women – is just how much freedom we get here to write about whatever we feel like (within reason), with no-one dictating to us what we have to cover, or when. Instead we’re largely left to our own devices, free to follow our passions or simply see where our listening takes us.

As a result we often stumble across stuff unexpectedly, so it’s almost impossible to predict, week-in and week-out, precisely what we might be writing about, with any reasonable degree of accuracy.

Today’s review is a case in point, as I discovered the doomy delights of Garganjua purely by accident over the weekend, drawn-in by the eye-catching artwork which adorns the cover of this, their self-titled debut album. Continue reading »

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