SEEN AND HEARD: NEW SONGS FROM SÓLSTAFIR, PALLBEARER, AND EXORDIUM MORS

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jun 242014
 

Once again I waded through the fetid swamp of the interhole this morning in search of new things worth blabbing about. Once again, I found new riches in the muck. Here are three of them.

SÓLSTAFIR

If you think I’m ever going to get tired of pimping Sólstafir, think again. My pimping energies are endless. The latest excuse for writing about them is today’s premiere of yet another new song from their next album, Ótta, which will be released by Season of Mist on August 29 in Europe and September 2 in North America.

The new song is named “Lágnætti”. From the slow piano chords, the sound of strings, and Adi Tryggvason’s plaintive vocals at the beginning, the song builds in intensity with a driving beat and riffs that moan and claw at the sky. Tryggvason’s voice turns searing, but the haunting melody persists through to the end, the piano and the distorted guitar chords forming a duet that sinks it home. Wonderful.

To stream “Lágnætti”, go to this place (and pre-order the album here, or you and I will be having some words):

http://www.revolvermag.com/news/solstafir-premiere-new-song-lagnaetti.html

Find Sólstafir on Facebook here. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: DEMONIC RESURRECTION, NORIKUM, OVERKILL, TSJUDER, WILSON

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 242014
 

I watched a lot of new music videos yesterday, many of which made me smile, though not all for the same reasons. I decided to put all the smile-inducing ones right here for you — five of ’em, in alphabetical order by band name. That’s right, five. Settle in, fix a bucket of popcorn and douse it in that movie theater goop that should be labeled IT TASTES LIKE BUTTER BUT IT’S NOT!, and watch. And listen. Listening is important.

If none of these makes you smile, then I surrender and will take my lashes without complaint. Because I never complain when that happens.

DEMONIC RESURRECTION

As we’ve previously reported, India’s Demonic Resurrection have a new album entitled The Demon King that’s due for release on July 14 by Candlelight Records (and by Universal Music in India). Yesterday the band started streaming the album’s first single, “Trail of Devastation”, and it’s a winner — well-written, well-produced, dynamic, memorable, and made for fist-pumping.

It combines swirling guitar melody, sweeping orchestration, and riffs that alternately twist insidiously and jab like a prize-fighter. The Demonstealer puts his multifaceted vocal talents to good use in the song, too, with an array of harsh roars, scalding shrieks, and carefully placed, soaring clean vocals that really work. Continue reading »

YOB, OVERKILL, BEASTMILK

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jun 122014
 

I mainly wanted to put up a couple of cool new album covers before calling it quits for the day, but I just saw a new video that I decided to throw in here, too, because we always need music.

YOB

The first cover is for Clearing The Path to Ascend, the new album by YOB, which is due for release by Neurot Recordings in September. I’m expecting great things from this album. I take PR reports with a grain of salt, but this excerpt from today’s announcement still gets me pumped up:

“Those threads of progressive rock and drone that have always underscored the music of YOB are now fully realized with Clearing The Path To Ascend, as each track forges into the next with a ferocity that’s as completely unhinged as it is utterly focused. Drummer Travis Foster wields his signature rhythmic furore here with bombastic precision while bassist Aaron Rieseberg, coils around the sonic tide with an unforgiving churn – all the while in a deadly synchronicity with Scheidt’s uncanny vocal range and its pendulous movement between the triumphant howls of a medieval madman and the earth splitting growls of a war-battered titan.”

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SÓLSTAFIR, GOD MACABRE, OAK PANTHEON, ELUVEITIE, ALESTORM

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jun 122014
 

Here are some new things I found over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth sharing around. I’m doing my best to finish a review, so I’m going to atypically attempt to be brief. I know this will cause mass depression among readers, but that’s just the way it has to be.

SÓLSTAFIR

As previously reported, the next album by Iceland’s Sólstafir is named Ótta and will be released by Season of Mist on August 29 in Europe and September 2 in North America. Today the album became available for pre-order in triple-LP format (here) and the cover art was disclosed (above). I don’t know what thinking is behind the use of this photo or how it relates to the music and/or lyrics, but I like it — such a dramatic setting, and such a fascinating face. Bought it.

Also today Stereogum premiered the new album’s title track. You may not be prepared for it. You may not even think it’s metal. But I think it’s goddamned awesome. It’s icy and adrift, bleak and beautiful, melancholy and memorable. But it has a harsh edge as well, it rocks in its own way, and the soaring of the vocals into a howl near the end are very cool. And is that an electrified mandolin I’m hearing, along with the synth and strings? (Answer:  Nope, it’s a banjo!)

Go HERE to listen.

GOD MACABRE

I’ve written before about the Relapse reissue of the one and only album by Sweden’s God Macabre — a band who’ve frequently been on my mind ever since seeing their magnificent set at Maryland Deathfest XII last month. One of my friends who was there with me surprised the hell out of me a few days ago with a gift of the special MDF edition of the LP. And then yesterday I noticed that the digital version of The Winterlong reissue is now available on Bandcamp. If you haven’t heard it, you should. It has lost nothing in the two decades since its original release. Here it is: Continue reading »

ANATHEMA: “DISTANT SATELLITES”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  22 Responses »
Jun 092014
 

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the new album by Liverpool’s Anathema.)

Let’s start things off by getting a few things out of the way first, shall we? If your initial reaction to this post is:

“That’s a stupid name. I won’t listen to what any site named No Clean Singing has to say!”

Or:

“What is this? This is not metal! This site is stupid!”

Then there’s the door. Feel free to let it hit you on the way out.

For those of you who’re still reading (hopefully that’s most of you, because our readership here at NCS is, in the majority, pretty open-minded and interested in the albums/bands we elect to cover), thank you for sticking around, and I hope to make it worth your while. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IN FLAMES, MASTODON, OPETH

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  32 Responses »
Jun 062014
 

As a general rule, when I put together these “Seen and Heard” collections of new music I write about what I like (of course) and I also try to spotlight music from bands who are often overlooked by other metal sites. This particular collection is a departure from the norm. First of all, In Flames, Mastodon, and Opeth are among the biggest names in metal. Over the last week, each of them has premiered a new song from a forthcoming album, and the odds are high that you’ve already heard the music — because every metal site in creation has been spreading the word about them. Second, I have mixed feelings about the music. So what I’m really doing with this collection is trying to satisfy my own curiosity about what our readers think about this new material — which means I want your comments!

IN FLAMES

The new In Flames album Siren Charms will be released on September 15. The first advance track from the album, “Rusted Nail”, is now available to European Spotify users (here), and it has also started appearing illicitly on YouTube. So of course I listened to it. I ought to repeat that this band were one of my gateways into the more extreme genres of heavy music. For that I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for them. In addition, unlike many hidebound fans who haven’t liked anything In Flames have recorded since Clayman (or even before), I remained enthusiastic all the way through Come Clarity. But even with that said, “Rusted Nail” is failing to make much of a mark. Continue reading »

A NEW ANIMATED VIDEO FROM “CASUALTIES OF COOL”: DEVIN TOWNSEND AND CHÉ AIMEE DORVAL REACH THE MOUNTAINTOP

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 042014
 

When our man Andy Synn reviewed Casualties of Cool, the new album by Devin Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval, he called the music “Canadian Space Country”. I thought that was a clever turn of phrase, but also an apt description of the songs. And when he came to the album’s second track, “Mountaintop”, he wrote that it generated an “earthy, alien-country vibe”, the “ghostly strumming and phantom background radiation conjuring a series of strange, synchestrated visions out of simple sound and silence”. Only today did I realize that “synchestrated” isn’t in the dictionary. But it too somehow sounds… apt.

And I’m thinking about “Mountaintop” because today the UK’s Independent premiered an animated video for the song. The artwork is by Jessica Cope, who also created the fantastic video for Steven Wilson’s “The Raven That Refused To Sing” (which you should watch here if you haven’t already). Here’s the description from the Independent: “It follows the story of a traveller who is lured to a sentient planet which feeds off of the fears of its inhabitants. He finds solace in old objects he finds there, including a vintage radio and a phonograph, and eventually confronts his fears. In turn, his actions free a woman trapped inside the planet.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ACXDC, DEMONIC RESURRECTION, JOHN GALLOW, LAZER/WULF, ORIGIN, VINTERSORG

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 212014
 

By the time you read this I will have embarked on my journey from Seattle to Baltimore for the Maryland Deathfest. To be precise, I’ll probably be with the TSA at Sea-Tac having my rectum probed before hobbling to the departure gate (who knew that the Ghost butt plug would refuse to come out unless you could plead with it in Sumerian?).

Because of that trip, time is short and so, as I did yesterday, I’m just throwing a whole bunch of song streams (and a few links) at you, with few words of my own. This is all new metal I found yesterday that I liked. Presented in alphabetical order:

ACxDX

ACxDC are from SoCal. The last time I wrote about them was almost two years ago, soon after one of vocalist Sergio’s newborn twins (Savina) had to have surgery to repair a hole in her heart. After many short releases, they finally have recorded a debut album named Antichrist Demoncore. Yesterday an advance track from the album premiered. Its name is “Destroy Create”. It’s a powerviolence assault, both searing and crushing, and maybe more complicated than you might be expecting. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: “ORIENTAL FLAVORS — MIDDLE EASTERN MAYHEM VOL. 1”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit  6 Responses »
May 182014
 

For those who may be unaware of Misantrof ANTIRecords, it’s a nonprofit organization headed by Daniel Vrangsinn of Carpathian Forest that among other things distributes music for free download, allowing the artists to keep all rights to their own music. Misantrof’s latest release is Oriental Flavors, a free compilation of songs by 19 metal bands from countries across the Middle East. The comp was assembled in collaboration with Middle Eastern Mayhem and Mohareb Records, and it’s also available from Misantrof as a limited 2-CD set for fans who prefer a physical format.

Making extreme metal and getting it noticed is a challenge almost everywhere, but as Vrangsinn observes in his introduction to Oriental Flavors, doing that in certain parts of the Islamic world can be downright dangerous to the welfare of the bands. But as this comp demonstrates, metal lives and grows in even the most inhospitable places.

The music is described by Misantrof as a mix of black metal, death metal, thrash, “and other kinds of lovely extreme metal from extreme people, for extreme people!” Of the bands on the comp, I was previously familiar with only one — Tunisia’s Barzakh, who were included in a series on North African metal that I wrote almost four years ago (here).

I only discovered the existence of Oriental Flavors this morning (it has just been released), so I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of it yet. But I have taken the liberty of uploading three tracks to our Soundcloud so I can stream them for you here, as a sample. Continue reading »

NEW SONGS: VADER, VALLENFYRE, AND VOLTURYON; BARGHEST AND BONGRIPPER; DENIED

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 162014
 

Lots of new songs appeared today. I picked six to play for you, despite the fact that I could maintain alliteration for only two groups of them. In a rare display of concision, I will be concise. If you don’t find at least one thing to like in here, there may be no hope for you.

VADER

I’m borrowing Axl Rosenberg’s introduction to the new Vader song at Metal Sucks because it made me laugh:

Vader have released a new song, “Triumph of Death,” which you can stream below. It’s a visceral track which, believe it or not, may make you tear up a bit, as its subject matter is one to which we all relate: a metalhead is forced against his will to go see the (Hed)P.E. and SOiL tour, but he ultimately manages a bittersweet victory when he kills himself mid-show by inhaling next to a guy in a Primer 55 shirt, thereby attaining sweet release. The metal community has lost too many good men and women that way, and I commend Vader for calling attention to these tragedies.

Continue reading »

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