METALITY RELEASES A HOT NEW FREE COMPILATION

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 152013
 

It’s been too long since we last recommended Metality.net , a site that provides broad coverage of global metal but also has a special focus on metal from the Middle East. In the past they’ve released some kickass digital compilations that we’ve been delighted to co-sponsor, and this morning brings us the most impressive one yet — Volume 3: Global Waves of Destruction.

This comp features free music from around the world (with the permission of the labels and acts involved) that includes songs from the likes of Omnium Gatherum, Mors Principium Est, Scarab, Oblivion, Nervecell, Destinity, Nightrage, Universum, and Zonaria — that track from Egypt’s Scarab is brand new and will appear on their upcoming album, Serpents of the Nile

But the comp also includes a big collection of exclusive tracks by less well-known, unsigned bands that are definitely worth hearing — including some (like Voice of the Soul) that we’ve praised here at NCS in the past.

Here’s the track list, and after that you can hear the music and we’ll give you a download link for the comp if you like what you hear. 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 »

SEEN AND HEARD: NE OBLIVISCARIS, DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT, AND SMOHALLA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 122013
 

Yeah, I’m going back to the “Seen and Heard” caption for these round-up posts. But probably just for today. Here are items of interest I spied over the last 24 hours, including new music, that I thought were worth sharing.

NE OBLIVISCARIS

We’ve talked about this Australian band a lot at NCS. Their 2012 album Portal of I made several “Best of 2012” lists we posted in our Listmania series. And so it was sweet indeed to see this morning’s announcement that NeO have been signed by Season of Mist. The press release I received also included this delicious piece of news: “The band is currently in the middle of writing their Season of Mist debut with plans to record late 2013.”

Congrats to Ne Obliviscaris!

DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT

This news will disappear shortly. Yesterday, the UK’s Dragged Into Sunlight, about whom we have also posted endlessly, announced that they have now begun work on a follow-up to their 2009 album Hatred For Mankind (last year’s Widowmaker was less a follow-up than something written and recorded more or less in parallel with the first album). In addition, DIS began streaming what they described as “a collaboration with our fellow wrongdoers in Gnaw Their Tongues.” But the stream is going to end any minute now . . .  Continue reading »

GRAMMY vs GRAMMY: THE 2012 SPELLEMANN AWARD NOMINATIONS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 122013
 

a photo of Enslaved that I took last night

A nice coincidence:  Last night I saw Enslaved perform at a bar in Seattle. This morning, Enslaved were nominated for Best Metal Album of 2012 in Norway’s version of the Grammy awards, which are called the Spellemann awards.

The other nominees in that category are Nekromantheon for Rise, Vulcan Spectre and El Caco for Hatred, Love and Diagrams. You gotta love a country where fuckin’ Enslaved and fuckin’ Nekromantheon get nominated for Grammy’s. Songs from each of their albums made our list of 2012’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Hell, last spring I even wrote about a song from El Caco’s album (here) — though the song is more hard rock than metal.

Contrast this with the American Grammy Awards: Although there were 81 award categories for 2012, there is no award for Best Metal Album. As close as we get is an award for Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance. And Halestorm won that award two nights ago. Uh huh. Continue reading »

GRINDING FOR A CURE TO ALZHEIMER’S

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 112013
 

“Grinding for a Cure” is a project that started small and eventually exploded. The organizers set up shop and started spreading the word about their mission only in mid-January; I discovered it only a couple of weeks ago. And their mission was (and is) to raise money to fund research into a cure for Alzheimer’s disease — by selling a grindcore compilation.

The compilation was assembled by Dorian Rainwater of Noisear, Christine Coz, and Chris Messina of Swamp Gas, and last night Volume 1 of the comp went live on Bandcamp.

I was pretty proud of the grind/crust/powerviolence comp that Alex Layzell put together with modest help from NCS (which we’re still giving away here). We have 46 tracks on that baby. But Volume 1 of Grinding for a Cure contains . . . 100 tracks! And it looks like the whole thing was pulled together in the space of less than one month. Pretty fuckin’ impressive.

The line-up is pretty fuckin’ impressive, too. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: SHATTERED SKIES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli reminds us about an Irish band he first introduced to us back in June 2011 — a band who have just released a single and video called “15 Minutes” from their forthcoming debut album.)

I decided to use a shirt design by this band since they don’t have official artwork for their upcoming full-length revealed yet.  I thought it quite badass.

Shattered Skies are a band I only gave a brief mention to on the site when I first started writing here.  They had a free to download debut EP out at the time called Reanimations which I included in an EP download bundle I had put together. I’ve followed the band since, because I really liked their sound and found it quite engrossing.  I felt doing a spotlight feature on them was appropriate at this time, especially since they’ve finally announced a full-length to be out this year titled The World We Used to Know.

Shattered Skies are a rather interesting band, stemming from the djent movement but having moved out into a rather odd arena that is all their own.  This band is an exception to the rule around here, a huge one, but one I feel worth bringing to the forefront.

Essentially what we have is a band who combine djent rhythmic conventions with Evergrey-style power metal. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 2): A HILL TO DIE UPON, THORNGOTH, AND OBLIVIONIZED

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

Here’s our second installment, with one more coming, of a Sunday smorgasbord of new metal for your entertainment and edification. Once again, we’re graced with brand new music from three old favorites around these parts. Let’s cut right to the chase:

A HILL TO DIE UPON

This Illinois band is a big favorite of ours; all of our previous ravings about them can be found here. Their last album, 2011’s Omens, garnered these words of praise from Andy Synn: “One of this year’s great discoveries, A Hill To Die Upon ply their trade in the bloodstained arena of blackened death metal, taking their cues from the crushing power of Satanica-era Behemoth and the decaying grooves of Sheol-era Naglfar all wrapped up in a monumental package of fire-brand riffage and pulsing drums that recalls Immortal in their prime.”

Yesterday, A Hill To Die Upon released a new single named “manden med leen”, which can be acquired for the dirt-cheap price of $1 on Bandcamp. The mid-paced song is majestic and magnetic (in part due to the effective addition of keyboards to the band’s repertoire), and includes an unexpected and quite interesting acoustic-sounding interlude. But at its core it still rips and crushes. Killer stuff. Continue reading »

MORE GEMS: CREST OF DARKNESS AND OCTOPUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 072013
 

It’s getting late in our usual posting day, but I thought I’d throw a couple more things your way that I discovered today.

CREST OF DARKNESS

Norway’s Crest of Darkness have a new album (their sixth studio release) scheduled to appear on February 25 via My Kingdom Music. Its name is In the Presence of Death, and the cover art is above. This band trace their origins back to the mid-90s, though I haven’t ever explored their albums with any care. After hearing the first song to be released from In the Presence of Death, that’s about to change.

The track is called “From the Dead”, and it grabbed my interest within the first 10 seconds. And by the time it really began to roll 30 seconds later, I was hooked. There’s no doubt that this is black metal with lots of bite, but not the kind that depends heavily on drum blasting and knife-edged whirlwinds of tremolo guitar. Depending on where you are in the song, it includes rock beats, industrial rhythms, progressive guitar parts, a head-spinning solo, and ominous, pounding riffs. I really like this and want more!

Continue reading »

TOURISM: GHOST, IDES OF GEMINI, INTER ARMA, AND MUTILATION RITES

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Feb 042013
 

The purpose of this post is to provide info about two tours announced today. The first is Haze Over North America, headlined by the mysterious Swedes in Ghost, with support from a west coast trio known as Ides of Gemini. The month-long run will commence on April 18 in Denver and continue through May 18 in Pittsburgh.

I know all I need to know about Ghost. Though not an immediate fan, I grew to become one on the strength of two live shows I saw in Seattle. Yessir, I will definitely line up to see these guys again. I’m less sure about Ides of Gemini. They released a well-reviewed album of “ethereal doom” last year named Constantinople. I’m going to stream a Scion A/V-sponsored video after the jump and come back and watch it a bit later.

The second tour is certainly more clearly in my own personal wheelhouse. It’s a spring U.S. tour by Virginia’s Inter Arma (whose new album was the subject of an NCS feature just this past weekend) and NY-based Mutilation Rites — and I dig them, too..

I’m very happy to report that both tours will stop in Seattle. I know you were extremely curious about that since it’s an issue that directly affects my own happiness. Both schedules are after the jump . . . along with that video from the Constantinople album. Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT: A “TETRAGRAMMATON” PREVIEW

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Feb 042013
 

One of our number has heard The Monolith Deathcult’s new album, Tetragrammaton. Not wanting to say too much at this early stage of the ramp-up to its release, we present only this brief diagnostic analysis:

As food for the brain, The Monolith Deathcult’s new album Tetragrammaton is a well-balanced diet.

Most immediately noticeable, it includes a super-sized helping of nutrition for the cerebellum and the brain stem, those parts of the organ responsible for motor control and involuntary physical activity such as headbanging and fist-pumping. It’s loaded with industrial strength pneumatic grooves. It also includes breakdowns. We think they threw in the kitchen sink, too.

Tetragrammaton also feeds the deep limbic system, which plays a vital role in setting a person’s emotional state. The album contains moments of high drama and even darkness. It also provokes impulses of aggression, as in the desire to tear shit up. And it also tickles the funny bone.  That’s in the brain, isn’t it?  Two words: Optimus Prime. Continue reading »

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