Sep 302016
 

mdf-xv-final-flyer

 

I’m a few hours late spreading this announcement, but better late than never. The news is that Maryland Deathfest has announced the final round of confirmed bands for the 2017 edition of America’s best metal fest, set to take place in Baltimore on May 25-28. Here they be, cut and pasted from the MDF Facebook:

Candlemass (Sweden) – Nightfall set
Tiamat (Sweden) – Exclusive U.S. appearance
Grave (Sweden) – Exclusive U.S. appearance
Root (Czech Republic) – Exclusive U.S. appearance
Oranssi Pazuzu (Finland)
Acheron
GosT
Samothrace
Occultist
Mother Brain
Fucking Invincible
Organ Dealer
Junior Bruce
Myxoma
Flash Out
Night Raids
Disparo (Australia) Continue reading »

Sep 292016
 

dark-tranquillity-2016-photo-by-dirk-behlau
Photo by Dirk Behlau

 

I intended to prepare a round-up much earlier this week than I have, but commitments to write premieres plus interferences from my fucking day job screwed those plans. So, I’m behind once again. Catching up isn’t realistic, but I’m going to make a stab at it anyway by doing a two-part Seen and Heard.

In this first installment I’m giving a tip of the hat to two widely popular bands — and no, Metallica isn’t one of them, though if you want to talk about the new Metallica track in the Comments, feel free. Then we’ll dive deeper into the underground with the final two bands in this group (with help from our contributor Grant Skelton).

The second installment, at least as I’ve planned it (because it’s not written yet), will be devoted to perhaps even more obscure and ferocious new music. But I do also have a couple of premieres to prepare for today, plus my day job isn’t leaving me alone… so there’s a chance Part 2 will slip.

DARK TRANQUILLITY

Earlier this week Century Media announced a new Dark Tranquillity album, their 11th. Named Atoma, and again featuring cover art by the band’s guitarist Niklas Sundin, it will be released on November 4, 2016. Coincident with that announcement, DT released the video that’s the first item in this round-up, for an Atoma track called “The Pitiless”. The video was filmed during the band’s appearance at the Turock Open Air Festival 2016 in Essen, Germany, by director Dirk Behlau. Continue reading »

Sep 222016
 

imperial-triumphant-tour-bill-photo

 

(Austin Weber reports on an impending tour by Imperial Triumphant.)

While the US black metal scene is far from a dry and empty wasteland with nothing worth talking about, there’s always one group I’ll continue to champion above almost all else. And that would be Imperial Triumphant, a New York City-based group that our site’s architect Islander has been covering since 2011, before I even began writing for No Clean Singing. If memory serves correctly, my initial post about the band was in December of 2012, when I placed their initial 2012 full-length, Abominamentvm, on my very first NCS year-end list after first covering them for the local magazine gig I was a part of prior to NCS.

In the years since, the band have flourished in a way that almost defies even the earliest expectations. They’ve continued to up the ante with each release, and continue to prove their worth with a rare and evil brilliance you’re hard-pressed to find much of in a scene often obsessed with repeating the same sounds in the same ways as their forbearers, ad nauseam. Continue reading »

Sep 212016
 

the-lost-hours-iii

 

Where I live, the season is changing rapidly. The daylight hours are diminishing, the darkness constricting like a noose. A chill is in the air. The fall is coming.

Last night a strange and serendipitous thing happened as I was making my usual way through a list of new songs I had discovered yesterday. I happened to listen to everything I’ve now collected in this post, one after the other, right in a row. I was struck by how perfectly they suited the mood of the change in seasons. I’ve re-ordered them slightly in this post, as compared to the order in which I originally heard them, to include two songs that are exceptions to our “rule” in the middle of this chilling playlist.

LOST HOURS

I discovered Lost Hours through an e-mail they sent us yesterday. They’re from Atlanta and a few days ago they released their third album (III) through Bandcamp. It consists of two songs, “Gently Before She Dies” and “Your Vice is a Locked Room”. Continue reading »

Sep 202016
 

Noctem-Haeresis

 

Maybe I should have divided this round-up of mostly new music into multiple parts in an effort to reduce the sensory-overload risk. But I was so happy with the range of diversity in this collection that I decided to leave it alone. Hope you find some things to like in here.

NOCTEM

Haeresis is the name of the new album by one of our site’s favorite bands, the Iberian horde known as Noctem. They’ve been dribbling out tracks from the album since August, with “Through the Black Temples of Disaster” and “The Submission Discipline” having been previously released, and yesterday I discovered a third single, “Pactum With The Indomitable Darkness“. Continue reading »

Sep 192016
 

memoriamlogo

 

(NCS contributor Grant Skelton returns with a round-up of music from three bands.)

Like each of you, I am disappointed to hear about the demise of Bolt Thrower. The official announcement surely comes as no surprise a year after the passing of drummer Martin “Kiddie” Kearns. Over the last five years or so, I’ve brushed up on Bolt Thrower’s back catalog, and they remain among my favorite death metal bands. Their discography has impeccable consistency and has aged well with time.

I’m one who prefers my death metal in the slow to mid-paced range. Good death metal is like a good steak — it needs to be fresh, meaty, juicy, and bloody. It’s got to be seasoned and marinated to perfection. It takes finesse, but if you over-complicate it with technicality, it morphs into a science experiment instead of nourishment. In the legacy of Bolt Thrower, I’ve rounded up some vicious vittles of death metal for your consumption.

MEMORIAM

Bolt Thrower fans can celebrate the fact that vocalist Karl Willetts has started a new band called Memoriam. Within their ranks are folks who’ve been around the death metal morgue on more than one occasion. In addition to Willetts, Memoriam’s lineup includes: Continue reading »

Sep 182016
 

man-must-die-band-2016
Man Must Die

 

I decided to dispense with the usual Sunday installment of The Rearview Mirror in order to spend the time writing this thing. I spent several hours yesterday listening to new metal (when I wasn’t talking calls from world leaders anxious for help in solving their many problems), and these five songs and videos pounced on me like the vicious head-wrecking predators they are. I found a lot of other things to like in my listening excursions, but it just made sense to my addled mind to package these together so as to inflict maximum trauma on you, our beloved readers.

I’m afraid these won’t be the only audio assaults I intend to facilitate today, since I also have a Shades of Black post in progress. Between that post and this one, it will add up to a lot of listening. Just ignore your friends and/or your families and/or food, water, and bathroom breaks, and you’ll be able to take it all in.

MAN MUST DIE

We have been writing about Scotland’s Man Must Die for many years (beginning in December 2009 when we were only one month old)… but years have passed since MMD released an album (the last one being 2013’s Peace Was Never An Option). Two years ago they did release a single called “Slave To the Animal” (which we dutifully covered here), and last year they released a video for  a cover of the song “Milk” by S.O.D. (featured here). And now, finally, they seem close to releasing a new EP named Gagging Order. Continue reading »

Sep 182016
 

blake-judd

 

Last night when I was just about to go to sleep I checked the NCS e-mail, and the most recent message sitting there was from an Argentinian magazine named Jedbangers telling me about a 3-hour interview of Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd they had conducted by phone in June, with a link to an excerpt of the interview they’ve recently uploaded to YouTube. Figuring that I would regret the decision, I chose to put off sleep long enough to start listening to it.

Having read so many despicable stories about the guy (including some from his former friends that weren’t intended for public consumption), I wondered why I would be bothering with it — but anyway, I started the YouTube clip, expecting to hear some self-serving bullshit. But before the interview started, these words appeared on the screen: Continue reading »

Sep 132016
 

Wormrot-Voices

 

(DGR steps forward with a round-up of new songs and videos. We will have a second round-up later today as well.)

Wormrot – Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Grind

If it feels like this summary is a little shorter than usual, it’s because the song itself is kind of like a car crash that you didn’t see coming. One moment, you’re blissfully unaware of anything around — then you blink, you see headlights and hear the crunch of metal, and that is the end. Such is the case with Wormrot’s new blink-and-you’ll-miss-it song.

Yes, the end of last week brought welcome news to the NCS fold in the form of new music from Singapore’s Wormrot. The newly released song, entitled “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Grind” comes off of the group’s new album Voices — due next month and their followup to 2011’s Dirge. Like many of Wormrot’s songs, “Spotless Grind” clocks in at just over a minute and is punchy as can get, having said all it needs to say in the meantime — which can mostly just be boiled down to “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH” over a series of unrelenting grind blasts. Continue reading »

Sep 082016
 

saor-guardians

 

As usual, I’ve accumulated a long list of new songs and videos that emerged over the last 48 hours, hoping to throw many of them your way in this Thursday round-up. Alas, I’ve been scrambling to leave on a trip this morning for my day job that will take me away until Sunday night. I figured that I had time (barely) to spew praise on maybe two songs, and I picked these two, because they’ve spiked my brain like none of the others.

SAOR

Andy Marshall ought to be declared a Scottish national treasure. Under the name Saor, he has crafted two wonderful albums in 2013’s Roots and 2014’s Aura. And on November 11, a third one will be released, with the title of Guardians. Continue reading »