ENSLAVED: NEW ALBUM AND TOUR NEWS — “IN TIMES”

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Dec 152014
 

Norway’s Enslaved have been teasing their new album for months, but today brought some especially enticing details — along with the announcement of a month-long North American tour next March, with support from YOB and Ecstatic Vision.

First, the album news: The title of this 13th studio full-length is In Times, it features painted artwork by Truls Espedal, and it will be released on March 6 in Europe and March 10 in North America. The artwork is wonderful, so let’s have a look at it next (click the image to view a larger version): Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CALIFORNIA DEATHFEST, ALKALOID, THULCANDRA, MANILLA ROAD, WERESQUATCH, AND A VIKING CHANT

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Dec 132014
 

 

Happy hangover day, aka Saturday. I myself do not have a hangover, though not for lack of trying to sew the seeds for one last night. I can’t really explain the good fortune, but I’ll take it. Having a relatively clear head this morning, I did a bit of catching up on metal news and song premieres and randomly selected the following items for your entertainment and edification. Most of these items include eye-catching artwork, too.

CALIFORNIA DEATHFEST

This first piece of news sure caught me by surprise yesterday. It appears that the organizers of the Maryland Deathfest have decided to franchise their operation. They’ve announced a three-day event named California Deathfest that will take place from October 9-11, 2015, at the Oakland Metro Operahouse in Oakland, California. The show on Friday, October 9, will feature grind, punk, and hardcore bands, and the shows on October 10 and 11 will feature death, black, and doom metal bands.

Unlike MDF, there will only be one stage, in a club setting, though if this first California Deathfest proves to be a success I’m guessing it will grow — and given the stellar line-up for this debut event, it will surely succeed. Continue reading »

BLACK MUSIC FOR BLACK FRIDAY: NEW SONGS FROM MARDUK AND MAHTOWA DEATH MARCH, AND NEW INQUISITION ART

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Nov 282014
 

 

Here in the U.S. the day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, when people spend money they don’t have buying gifts for other people who don’t need them. It puts retailers in the black and consumers in the red. Ho Ho Ho and Hail Santa! How about some black metal instead?

MARDUK

As previously reported in these pages, Sweden’s Marduk will be releasing Frontschwein, their 13th studio album, via Century Media in January. Yesterday the band revealed the cover art and track listing and began streaming a new song named “Rope of Regret”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HATE, ISRATHOUM, SECRET CEREMONIES, CUREZUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 272014
 

To those of you who will be celebrating Thanksgiving today, Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes for a deep and restful tryptophan coma (though data show that dining on sea lion kidney would get you a bigger dose of tryptophan than turkey). For those who treat this as just another day, Happy Just Another Day.

We’re not planning a lot of posts today, just the premiere we launched a bit earlier and this round-up of new sightings and hearings from my interhole excursions over the last 24 hours. Here we go…

HATE

In mid-October we reported that Poland’s Hate will be releasing a new album named Crusade: Zero on January 15, 2015, via Napalm Records. I was excited about that news even before hearing a note of the music. Now that I have heard many notes, I’m even more eager for the album. You shall hear those same notes in this teaser reel, which excerpts parts of several new songs: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DYSANGELIUM, OPHIDIAN I, WILDERNESSKING, WINDS OF GENOCIDE, XERATH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Nov 262014
 

 

For four days I’ve been on the other side of the country from my home in the Seattle area, and I’ll be working here for 10 more days. It’s one of those projects that engulfs me periodically, a night-and-day kind of thing that squeezes my blog time down to acorn size. I did make room late last night for some exploring and found the following new music I thought you might like. I sure as fuck did. Presented in alphabetical order by band name.

DYSANGELIUM

The German black metal band Dysangelium have a new album on the way from W.T.C. Productions. The title is Thánatos Áskēsis, it’s due for release on December 24, and it’s available for order here. I haven’t yet listened to the entire album, but I did catch Decibel’s premiere of one of the new songs yesterday, and have really been enjoying it. Continue reading »

FESTIVAL UPDATES: EISTNAFLUG, TRONDHEIM METAL FEST

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

We have a couple of festival updates to share with you:

EISTNAFLUG

I’ve been gleefully following the line-up announcements for next year’s edition of the Eistnaflug festival in Iceland. With each new announcement I’ve wondered to myself, “How can they top this?!?” — and then they do.

Before last week the festival was already going to be headlined by Behemoth, Enslaved, and Godflesh, and then last week the organizers added Carcass to the top of the bill. In addition, they announced that Norway’s Kvelertak will be appearing — as well as eight additional Icelandic bands. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GRAFVITNIR, ELDVÅG, ARMAGEDDON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 222014
 

 

Happy Saturday to one and all. It’s not exactly a happy Saturday for me because I’m away from home for the old fucking day job and won’t get back to Seattle until December 6 or 7. While toiling away in distant environs I do hope to continue posting at least one new thing of my own each day, in addition to contributions from others.

This morning I had the chance to check out some new songs, from which I sifted the following three that I recommend to your earholes.

GRAFVITNIR

Grafvitnir are a three-man occult black metal band from Sweden who describe themselves as “the faceless emanations of primordial chaos”, and based on the new song I heard this morning, I can believe that. Continue reading »

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

 Birthday Posts, Metal News  88 Responses »
Nov 212014
 

 

Well, here we are. The blessed day has arrived. NO CLEAN SINGING is five years old today. We made our first post on November 21, 2009.

As a five year-old, we still poop our pants, scream at the top of our lungs for no good reason, have a growing fascination with what’s between our legs, and throw our food against the wall because, fuck, you only have a brief time when you can get away with shit like that.

Last year at this time I wrote that there’s a word for metal blogs who are still around as long as we’ve been: They’re called “survivors”. “Stubborn” and “too dumb to quit” are still good alternative labels. I can’t promise you we’ll be here this time next year — because no one can count on being around for another year. So we rejoice in the fact that we’re still here, as you should, too — you have also survived another year. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ASCENSION, AT THE GATES, BLACK SHEEP WALL, CENTINEX, CRETIN, FAITH NO MORE, NAPALM DEATH, RAMMING SPEED, SATANIC WARMASTER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Nov 202014
 


Photo credit: Dustin Rabin

 

I need to whine for a couple of minutes. Yes, even I, with my usually sunny disposition, need to whine every now and then.

First, I’ve been getting so little sleep lately that my eyes are as red as a baboon’s ass. Second, I inflamed a muscle in my arm from curling massive amounts of weight at the gym, the kind of crushing weight that’s comparable to a grocery bag loaded with a single loaf of bread. Third, and most egregious of all, my fucking day job has been making me run the gauntlet the last two days, with no end in sight, leaving me no time for my usual self-appointed NCS duty of scouring the web for news and new music.

I do know about a bunch of song and album premieres that appeared over the last 24 hours, but only because of messages received from my co-writers and some sharp-eyed readers. I’ve collected streams or links to them in this post, but don’t have time to write about them or even provide album art or helpful links. Shit, I haven’t even listened to all of them. How embarrassing. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: INFESTUM, WITCHRIST, HELLFEST, JEFF LOOMIS AND ARCH ENEMY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Nov 172014
 

 

I’ve seen and heard a lot of metal things on this Monday. I thought I’d try to collect all of them for tomorrow’s first post, because that way I could do some other things with what’s left of my Monday, such as doing some work for my fucking day job, because there are some people who actually think I should do something I’m actually paid to do. But fuck that. I decided to make a start right now and finish everything up in tomorrow’s first post.

INFESTUM

Last week the European Space Agency landed a small spacecraft named Philae on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a 2.5-mile-wide ball of rock, ice, and dust that was moving faster than 40,000 miles an hour and was 317 million miles from Earth at the time of the landing. Not a bad piece of work. I have trouble landing my car in my driveway.

Unfortunately, the spacecraft shut down on Saturday after its batteries were drained. Apparently it landed against a cliff or crater wall where it couldn’t get enough sunlight to recharge those batteries. Before that happened, Philae did send back some photos. As you can see above, one of them looks suspiciously like the cover of Monuments of Exalted, the new album by Infestum from Belarus that was released by Lacerated Enemy Records just a couple of days earlier. If you’ve heard anything from the album, you may be less convinced this was a coincidence. Continue reading »

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