November 2016 - Page 9 of 11 - NO CLEAN SINGING

A ZHRINE TOUR DIARY (aka “THE EVERYTHING IS FINE TOUR DIARY”)

Nov 082016

Zhrine in Seattle

On November 2, the Shrines of Paralysis North American Tour launched in Los Angeles, headlined by New Zealand’s Ulcerate and also including the Icelandic band Zhrine, and Phobocosm from Montreal.

Zhrine was one of the biggest and brightest surprises at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest (as we discussed here and here, with photos), and now large numbers of other metal fans are getting the chance to discover what makes Zhrine so special. And so we count ourselves very fortunate to bring you the first in what we hope will be a series of tour reports from Zhrine’s manager Bogi Bjarnason (accompanied by his photos) — though as you’ll discover, it may be the last as well as the first.

You’ll also discover that this particular tour diary displays an articulateness and eloquence that’s rare in observations and musings about the highs and lows of metal tours. So read on, and enjoy. Continue reading »

DAMNATION FESTIVAL 2016

Concert Reviews 4 Responses »

Nov 082016

(Our man in the UK, Andy Synn, attended Damnation Festival 2016 in Leeds on November 5, and provides this report along with videos he made.)

Oh Damnation Festival how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

Whereas too many other events seem content to book the same big-name crowd-pleasers, year in and year out, buttressed by an interchangeable selection of generic sound-alikes and contrived gimmicks – all carefully selected purely for their mundane mass-appeal – the Damnation team seem to operate on an unwavering ethos of only booking the bands they truly like, bands (big and small) that they truly believe in, who have something unique or special to offer.

This is how every edition of the festival features an array of bands from multiple different styles, from Death to Prog to Doom to Hardcore to Sludge (and beyond), from across the length and breadth of the underground Metal scene coexisting under one roof and why, over the years, Damnation has seen everyone from Ahab to Asphyx, Carcass to Katatonia, Mono to My Dying Bride, playing to the sort of packed crowds that are a regular occurrence in Europe, but which only rarely seem to be achievable here in the UK.

This helps make Damnation Festival’s line-up a much more interesting affair than many of their peers, as the organisers seem to operate on the principal of “if you build it, they will come”, putting their faith in the belief that the UK scene doesn’t just want to be fed the same old bands and the same old performances, time and time again. And this year was no different, with a wide variety of different acts, of different styles, on display, coupled with a bunch of exclusive performances which practically justified the ticket price on their own! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MIST OF MISERY (MORTUZ, PHLEGATHON)

Interviews 4 Responses »

Nov 082016

Norway-based metal writer Karina Noctum brings us another interview, this time with members of Sweden’s Mist of Misery, whose new album Absence we premiered and praised in a review at our site here.)

So, you guys are by no means amateurs. Tell us about your other projects, and have any of you been to a school of music?

Mortuz: I have several other projects, such as Eufori and Soliloquium, and yes, I have been to a school of music, or rather a school of audio engineering several years ago.

Phlegathon: I also play guitar in Hyperion. For a while I studied various musical courses at The University of Stockholm, but I would not regard it as such a particularly serious undertaking. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: XOTH — “INVASION OF THE TENTACUBE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Nov 072016

In the distant future when the Tentacube invades our pitiful, beleaguered planet (by which I mean three days from now, on the other side of our ghastly election), the widely differing strands of extreme metal will be fused into a single, monstrous, throbbing tentacle groping for your pleasure centers. By which I mean that Seattle’s XOTH will release their debut album, Invasion of the Tentacube, which you will be able to hear in its entirety below.

It may be an exaggeration to claim that XOTH have fused together all of the divergent strands of metal into a single heavy chord, but it’s true that attempting to cabin this head-spinning collage of sounds within a few simple genre terms would be a fool’s errand. The part about the pleasure centers? That’s totally true. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: EVOCACIÓN — “EVOCACIÓN”

Premieres 1 Response »

Nov 072016

Prepare yourselves for an atmospherically oppressive and unnerving concoction of skull-splintering death-doom and pestilential black metal, because that’s what we’re about to bring you through our premiere of the debut, self-titled demo by a young band from Murcia, Spain, named Evocación. It will be released on tape by Caligari Records on November 11.

In a word, the music is horrifying — the stuff of hallucinations and nightmares, or perhaps smoke-shrouded rituals in which incantations are uttered, blood is spilled, and lives are lost. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MYLINGAR — “FRIHETEN”

Premieres 1 Response »

Nov 072016

You might think that when we agree to premiere new music by a mysterious new band, we would have at least some inside information about the musicians, their origin story, precisely where they are from, etc. But in the case of Mylingar, we remain in the dark — which is where their music dwells as well. We do know they are from somewhere in Sweden, and we have heard their debut EP Döda Vägar, which will be released in late November or early December by Amor Fati Productions. An excerpt of one song from the EP (“Såren”) was made public last month, and today we bring you a second track called “Friheten“.

Apart from the music itself, which sends bolts of lightning into your head, perhaps some further insight into the band can be discovered through the name they have chosen for themselves. As explained by Wikipedia, “mylingar” is a Swedish word that invokes a legend “about ghosts/spirits of unbaptized and/or unnamed children that have been forced to roam the earth until they could force someone to name and/or bury them, in fact ‘killing’ them for real so they can finally rest”: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYPTIC REALMS — “ENRAPTURED BY HORROR”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Nov 072016

Imagine a swarm of giant carnivorous hornets from hell murdering a water buffalo and tearing its flesh into a bloody, quivering mass of viscera and bone. Okay, hold that thought….

On November 21 a collaboration of two Mexican labels, Iron Blood & Death Corporation and Death In Pieces Records will release the debut album of Cryptic Realms, which bears the descriptively accurate title Enraptured By Horror. Today we bring you the premiere of the title track, also descriptively accurate in its name. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 17): SACRILEGIOUS IMPALEMENT, BELENOS, WORMREICH, DIABOLUS AMATOR, GRAVESPAWN, VESTERIAN, VAHRZAW

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Nov 072016

( Norwegian blogger Gorger is back, highlighting still more releases that we have overlooked. To find more of his discoveries, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

Three months have flown by since my last installment. Sorry to keep you waiting. Not that you’ve been waiting, but you know you’ve been missing out on something in the meanwhile. I’ve grown a long list of candidates, but I’d rather not overheat your brain, so we’ll be focusing on a quadruple set as usual, with a further installment coming very soon. Continue reading »

SETENTIA: “DARKNESS TRANSCEND”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Nov 072016

(We’re grateful to New Zealand writer Craig Hayes (Six Noises) for bringing us this review of the debut album by New Zealand’s Setentia, which will be released on November 11 by the Finnish label Blood Music.)

Setentia are an atmospheric death metal band from New Zealand. They write hard-hitting, complex songs where jagged melodies do battle with tremolo deluges on dissonant soundscapes. The band’s accomplished full-length debut, Darkness Transcend, intertwines gut-felt ferocity with forward-thinking expressiveness. And yes, with those creative hallmarks, Setentia have been compared to New Zealand’s much-lauded death metal behemoth Ulcerate, many times.

That’s an understandable comparison to make. Sonic similarities aside, Setentia and Ulcerate have higher profiles than most other New Zealand death metal bands because they’re signed to international record labels (Finnish label Blood Music, in Setentia’s case). Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 101)

That's Metal -- But It's Not Music 13 Responses »

Nov 062016

Until our old friend Phro reminded me recently, I hadn’t realized that almost a full year (343 days, to be exact) has passed since the last time I did a THAT’S METAL! post. The last one was the glorious 100th edition of a series that began here in January 2010. I used to compile them almost every Sunday, and then the series became irregular, and then it sputtered to a complete halt, having been overwhelmed by my obsession with music.

I fell into the habit of posting Shades of Black compilations on Sundays, as a way of getting one more day each week to throw new metal at you while also indulging my own rapidly growing devotion to black metal. But with Phro‘s reminder I’ve realized that I do miss this series — not enough to restore its regular Sunday slot, but enough that I’ve resolved to make a THAT’S METAL! post on the first Sunday of each month, beginning now. The rest of the time I’ll continue to post in the Shades of Black series on Sundays (and I still plan to do a short one of those later today or tomorrow as well).

So much time has passed since the last of these installments that I ought to explain what I’m doing: I collect images, videos, and news items that I think are metal, even if they’re not metal music. And what makes something metal even though it’s not music? There’s no one exclusive reason. It could be something that’s morbid, frightening, awe-inspiring, nauseating, destructive, ludicrous, or just really fucking loud. I can’t give a comprehensive definition; but to quote what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said about porn in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), “I know it when I see it”.

I have nine items for you today, and the theme I’ve chosen for the first four of them is “The Thrill Of Descent“. You’ll see why. Continue reading »

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