SHADE EMPIRE, DEATHEMBER, MOSS, AND BEHEMOTH

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Mar 292013
 

Time for another round-up of new music. What grabbed my attention this morning were the following new songs from Shade Empire (Finland), Deathember (Sweden), and Moss (UK), plus a small video announcement by Behemoth (Poland).

SHADE EMPIRE

Shade Empire are a Finnish metal band whose massive, 74-minute-long fourth album — Omega Arcane — will be released by Candlelight Records on May 3 in Finland, on May 6 in the rest of Europe, and  sometime in June in North America.

June is so far away that it might as well be Pluto, but although patience will be tested, I’m absolutely convinced the wait will be worthwhile. Why? Because Shade Empire have just released an official video for an edited version of the album’s first single, “Ruins”, and it’s really impressive.

The song is scathing, sweeping, and soaring, a riveting mixture of styles that include elements of black metal, melodic death metal, and doom, with orchestral touches that enhance the drama rather than clog the arteries with cheese. Fans of bands such as Insomnium and In Mourning would do well to pay attention — especially because the video itself is just as magnetic as the music. Beautifully filmed and edited, it’s a badass feast for the eyes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMMOLATION, LIAR IN WAIT, AND PSYCHOTIC PULSE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Mar 282013
 

There’s a song in this little round-up of new stuff that’s an outlier on this site. To make it go down easier, I’ve sandwiched it in between two slices of festering filthiness. You’re welcome.

IMMOLATION

One week ago Immolation debuted the title track from their forthcoming album Kingdom of Conspiracy, which will be discharged on May 14 by Nuclear Blast. I wrote about it then, praising it as a song that sinks its teeth into your neck but transfixes your attention while you bleed out with shifting dynamics and the effective incorporation of infected melodies in the midst of bludgeoning riffage.

Yesterday the band released a lyric video for the song, and while I would have selfishly preferred a new track, this one can stand being heard again (and again). Here’s the new lyric video for “Kingdom of Conspiracy”: Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: TARDIVE DYSKINESIA, PENTAGRAM (CHILE), ASG, AND ENTRAILS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 262013
 

Here’s another installment of things I saw and heard over the last 24 hours while merrily rambling along the by-ways of the interhole. The theme of this installment is METAL ART RULES!

TARDIVE DYSKINESIA

This Greek band’s debut release The Sea of See Through Skins was one of my favorite albums of 2009. One version of the album apparently included a bonus track named “Crawling Through the Mud”, though I don’t think it was on the copy of the CD I bought; at least I don’t see it on my iPod, which is where I transferred the music from the disc before eventually storing the CD away with a gazillion others that my spouse made me remove from our cluttered house.

And that’s all I can say about the wonderful artwork above that mysteriously appeared on Tardive Dyskinesia’s Facebook page yesterday. I don’t know who created it, and I don’t know what music it will eventually accompany. Maybe the band is about to release that bonus track as a single?

Anyway, the band’s 2012 album Static Apathy In Fast Forward ain’t too shabby either. Here’s TD’s cool official video, released earlier this month, for “Time Turns Planets” from that album. Prepare for a spine-jolting, head-scrambling experience. Continue reading »

“BAD MOTHERFUCKER” IS THE BEST MUSIC VIDEO YOU WILL SEE THIS YEAR

 Exceptions to the Rule, Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Mar 202013
 

Yeah, that’s a pretty grandiose claim since it’s only March and I have no crystal ball that would tell me what the rest of 2013 will bring. But I can’t imagine any other music video will be more fun than “Bad Motherfucker” by Biting Elbows.

Our friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth e-mailed me about this video two days ago, and I’ve been so smashed by work that I didn’t watch it until this morning. His e-mail gave it a big build-up, and man, was he right.

Biting Elbows are an indie/punk band from Moscow, so I guess you’d have to say they’re “off topic” for this site — but the video is definitely metal. After seeing it I did a bit of research and learned that 18 months ago they released another one named “Insane Office Escape” with the music from their single “The Stampede” as the soundtrack. It was directed by the band’s front man Ilya Naishuller, and it apparently racked up 2 million hits in a matter of days.

The new video, also directed by Naishuller, is for a song named “Bad Motherfucker”. Sub-titled “Insane Office Escape 2”, it starts right after the closing moments of the previous video. It’s a piece of branded content for the Russian vodka company Neft, whose product is used at the start of the video as an impromptu disinfectant; if you pay attention, you’ll also see the company’s logo reappearing in odd places later. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HACRIDE, DYNASTY OF DARKNESS, ZOMBIEFICATION, AND HATE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Mar 152013
 

I caught a slight break from the daily work grind last night, long enough to find three items I think are worth your time, and then NCS writer DGR added a fourth.

HACRIDE

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Hacride’s new album is in my “highly anticipated” category for 2013. As in, I get high thinking about it. It’s not simply that the band have proven their worth with their past releases, it’s that they’ve proven they’re unlikely to stand still and simply deliver more of the same (though I would be happy enough with that). So, curiosity is one reason I’ve been eager to hear Back To Where You’ve Never Been.

The first taste came yesterday when Metal Sucks premiered a song from the album named “Overcome”, and man, it’s really strong. It’s loud, it’s brash, it’s packed with energy, it’s built around some killer grooves, and it’s interesting. I even dig the clean singing. Don’t waste time, go here to check this out. Continue reading »

LIVE IN HARRISBURG: ROYAL THUNDER, ANCIENT VVISDOM, AND BACKWOODS PAYBACK (Feb. 28, 2013)

 Concert Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Mar 012013
 

(In this post, guest contributor The Uncool Guy Down the Hall gives us a show review with photos.)

I thought while Islander is off working on his Evil Super-Science project this would be the perfect opportunity to break the NCS rules and present an all clean singing review. And while I know Islander did provide a review (here) of Ancient VVisdom and Royal Thunder along with Pallbearer when they supported Enslaved, the focus of that review was (understandably) more on Enslaved. I’d like to put the focus on Royal Thunder and Ancient VVisdom for this review, as well as perhaps introduce Backwoods Payback to the NCS readers who may not have heard of them.

First off let me talk about the venue a little bit. The Fed Live is located in downtown Harrisburg, PA, a city well known around the Commonwealth not only for being the location of the state capital, but also for having filed for bankruptcy. This, combined with the fact they were hosting three metal acts, did not give me high expectations of the place.

Turns out, the bar/restaurant portion of venue (The Federal Taphouse) is a rather upscale place featuring a tap room of over 100 craft/micro brew beers and a respectable food menu. Getting there pretty early and having time to kill, I indulged in both the food and beer offerings, feeling a bit out of place mixed in with the after work suit and tie clad business types and/or legislators, but the food and beer were both excellent. Continue reading »

PATHOGEN, NONEXISTENCE, AND DEVIL

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 012013
 

Hey there dudes and dudettes. I’m just quickly checking in from the bottomless pit of my day-and-night job with a few goodies I discovered on a break early this morning.

PATHOGEN

Pathogen are based in the Philippines. Since forming in 2001 they’ve release an assortment of demos and splits and three full-length albums. The second one, Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations, was self-released on tape in 2010 but was recently picked up for re-issue today (on CD and vinyl) by the German label Dunkelheit Produktionen. The release includes new cover art, which, as you can see, is fuckin’ aces.

This morning I came across a song from the album named “Atrocity Exhibit” that Dunkelheit put up on YouTube, and that led me into the rest of the album. Listening to Pathogen is like cracking open a subterranean vault and finding a tape created in the late 80s or early 90s in a rehearsal room. It has an authentic old-school sound reminiscent of Autopsy and Morbid Angel, with maybe a little Celtic Frost in the mix, too, and it’s catchy as hell. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BOLT THROWER, FINNTROLL, AND KING LOSES CROWN

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 142013
 

Hey mutants, welcome to the 14th of February at NO CLEAN SINGING. To begin, I’d like to share with you a trio of interesting items I spied last night: a goddamn club tour by the almighty Bolt Thrower, a brand new song by a buncha filthy Finnish trolls, and how daily life might look with robots among us.

BOLT THROWER

It has been known for months that Bolt Thrower will be one of the headliners at Maryland Deathfest this year and will also be making a followup appearance at the Chaos In Tejas festival in Austin, which begins in late May. But yesterday Bolt Thrower announced that they have added a limited string of club dates while they’re here in the States. This is mainly a West Coast thing, so those of you who are scattered throughout the vast wasteland to the east, you have my deepest sympathies.

For all the club shows, Bolt Thrower will be supported by Benediction — and fuckin’ Autopsy will also be on the bill for two of the California dates. Here’s the schedule: Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 3): ROTTING CHRIST, STARKILL, CULT OF LUNA, AND MUSE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This is the third and final installment in my Sunday round-up of new music. These are all items that emerged last week, but I didn’t make room for them on the days of their release. After the first item, the remainder are all new videos.

ROTTING CHRIST

Allow me to repeat, for the third time, the new Rotting Christ album is brilliant. Its name is ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ (“Do What Thou Wilt”), and it’s scheduled for release by Season of Mist in North America on March 5. We’ve previously posted about the first two songs from the album that have been publicly unveiled — the title track “Kata Ton Demona Eaftou” and “In Yumen – Xibalba”. Last week, one more went up for listening — “P’unchaw Kachun – Tuta Kachun”. Since we’ll have a review soon, I’ll say only this about the new track: Listen.


Continue reading »

MANILLA ROAD’S NEW ALBUM “MYSTERIUM” IS NOW UP ON BANDCAMP

 Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This caught me by surprise.  I was taking one last, fast look around the internet before crawling into bed last night and happened to see a blurb that Manilla Road had released a new album for streaming and download on Bandcamp. Its name is Mysterium. The last I knew, it had been projected for release on February 19, but the debut clearly has been accelerated.

This is Manilla Road’s 16th full-length album in a career that goes back more than 30 years. But as someone who turned to metal relatively late in life, I missed most of that career, and really only started learning about them through my interest in Mark “The Shark” Shelton’s Hellwell project, which released an excellent debut album last year by the name of Beyond the Boundaries of Sin (featured here).

As I write this, I’ve only just begun listening to the album, but I sure am intrigued by what I’m hearing. This is, of course, a departure from the Rule around here — but even though the singing is clean, much of it still sounds evil. And the guitar performances are head-spinning (check out the fire-breathing solo on “Stand Your Ground”, for example). I’m digging the rough guitar tone, too. I’m even digging “The Battle of Bonchester Bridge”, which is pure old-school ballad, with another riveting guitar solo.

I’ll shut up now, schedule this post to appear on Sunday morning, and go back to listening to this album — which you can also do right after the jump. Continue reading »

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