AN NCS PREMIERE: KVAL — “KUOLONKUU”

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Jul 182017
 

 

In the right hands, and shaped with the right spirit, seemingly simple musical structures can become intensely evocative and even spellbinding. In fact, the ability of a piece of music to carry the listener away in a waking trance, where the mind conceives its own visions under the influence of the sound, may become even stronger with simplicity — if the songwriting and the execution are as good as they are on the self-titled album by the Finnish atmospheric black metal band Kval.

The album by this one-man project was first released under the name Khaossus in 2015, but it has been re-recorded for this release under the band’s new name, adorned as well in new artwork (by Moonroot Art). It will be released by Hypnotic Dirge Records on July 27th. This 43-minute work is composed of four long songs, interspersed with three minimalistic ambient tracks. Of those four long tracks, “Kuolonkuu” is the last one — and it’s the one we’re premiering for you in this post. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NATTVERD — “DER TRONEN BLENDER, VENDER VI OSS MOT MØRKET”

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Jul 182017
 

 

Not for the first time, I find myself wondering about the use of the term “cold” to describe black metal that’s hot enough to melt lead, hot enough to put a fever in the blood, the heat of unchained human violence run rampant.

This time, that wondering was prompted by the wondrous track you’re about to hear, a scorcher named “Der Tronen Blender, Vender Vi Oss Mot Mørket” by the Norwegian black metal band Nattverd. It will appear on their debut album Vi Vet gud Er En Løgner (We Know God Is A Liar!).

Background information about Nattverd is scarce. They are a two-person band that began in 2010, consisting of guitarist/bassist Atyr and vocalist Ormr, with session drums on this track performed by Serpentr. An earlier version of this song appeared late last year, but what you’re about to hear is the final mixed and mastered album track. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZARAZA — “WULKAN”

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Jul 172017
 

 

2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Slavic Blasphemy, the first groundbreaking album by Zaraza, a duo now divided between Québec and Ecuador. Six years after their full-length debut they released a second album, No Paradise to Lose. And now, a long fourteen years later, they have brought forth a third one, Spasms of Rebirth, a name that could be considered a description of their own reemergence.

The new album is being released today — July 17th — and to celebrate this dire occasion we’re premiering a song from the album named “Wulkan“, a track that entwines and mutates elements of sludge, doom, and industrial metal into a nightmarish shape capable of thoroughly chilling the blood. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GLOSON — “ANTLERS”

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Jul 142017
 

 

“Antlers” is one of the staggeringly good songs on Grimen, the most recent album (released by Art of Propaganda earlier this year) by the Swedish sludge/post-metal group Gloson, and it’s the subject of a live performance video that we’re premiering in this post, a video that’s just as riveting to watch as “Antlers” is to hear.

This is the second live Gloson video that it’s been our privilege to premiere; the first one (for the song “Cringe”) debuted here in April. Like that one, this new one was also filmed and edited by Gustav Bondeson (whose web site is here) at Kajskjulet in Halmstad, Sweden, on February 25th 2017. And as was true of the video for “Cringe”, the sound in this one is the live audio, recorded during the performance (mixed and mastered by Christian Larsson). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OCCVLT HAND — “HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS”

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Jul 142017
 

 

Winnipeg’s Occvlt Hand chose one of the year’s best titles for their new album: Not Everyone Deserves A Happy Ending. And who could argue with that? In fact, one of life’s great, infuriating ironies is that so many people who don’t deserve a happy ending get one anyway. It would be so much sweeter if the assholes could all be subjected to the righteous ministrations of Occvlt Hand, from which they would emerge beaten, bruised, and broken.

Occvlt Hand didn’t exhaust their storehouse of bleak, memorable titles after they named the album. They’ve got a song on the record called “Total Fucking Absence of Light” and another one named “Smash My Bones, Inhale the Dust“, which my comrade DGR wrote about in a round-up at our site not long ago, describing it as “a harsh track that seems to drain the color out of the room, absolutely blatant about its stomping disregard and hopelessness”.

More good song titles are to be found in this punishing new release, including the track we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s September 13 release by Possessed Records: “He Who Walks Behind the Rows“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (PRESENTED BY NEILL JAMESON): A SPLIT RELEASE BY VVEGAS AND LONG GONE

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Jul 132017
 

 

(Neill Jameson (Krieg) brings us the streaming premiere of a new split release by two excellent bands — VVegas and Long Gone — together with an interview of the mysterious figure behind VVegas.)

Since the first time I was asked to write anything for No Clean Singing I’ve sung the praises of the enigmatic VVegas. I originally discovered this complex and, at times, downright fucking strange, beast through the split with Integrity and since then I’ve been a devotee. Mixing Holy Terror-infused dark hardcore with noise, neofolk, and some pieces which defy classification, VVegas is as prolific in sound as in their releases, which span across every imaginable format and can be somewhat frustrating to keep up with due to obscurity and limitation if you’re a physical collector. If not, then the VVegas Bandcamp site is a treasure trove.

Earlier this year, VV. released a split with the excellent Broken Cross (another band I’ve written about for NCS somewhat recently), but not one to let any moss grow there is also another split coming July 29th via Judas Chair Collective, this time with Long Gone. I asked VV.’s mastermind T. some questions regarding the split, which we present to you in full to accompany the conversation: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS — “THE OWL”

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Jul 132017
 

 

Markus Stock (aka Schwadorf) is best known as the creative force behind two prominent groups in the stable of Prophecy Productions, Empyrium and The Vision Bleak, as well as the band Ewigheim. But as long ago as 1998 he also began work on a solo project known as Sun of the Sleepless.

Schwadorf’s releases under that name have been sporadic — two EPs in 1999 and 2000, a 7” released in 2000 named Tausend Kalte Winter (which featured a trip-hop cover of Darkthrone’s “En As I Dype Skogen”), and a 2004 split with Nachtmahr. But now, almost two decades after the project began, Sun of the Sleepless will at last release a debut album through the same Prophecy Productions. Entitled To the Elements and featuring poetic lyrics inspired by great romantic writers across the ages, it’s set to arrive on July 21.

One fine track from the album (“Motions“) has premiered at Invisible Oranges, and now we bring you another one, a song named “The Owl“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLOODLUST — “FREAK OF THE NIGHT”

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Jul 122017
 

 

I remember nearly falling out of my chair (or more accurately being thrown out of it) when I heard the title track to Bloodlust’s new album in early June. It was a virally infectious, bestially ferocious, volcanically hot blast of blackened thrash, with the kind of riffs that seemed written to become instant classics, and the kind of soloing that seemed capable of turning lead ingots into slag. “At the Devil’s Left Hand” was the name of that track, and of course the name of this new second album as well.

Well, now we have the chance to bring you another track from that album in advance of its release by Caverna Abismal on August 24, and this one is called “Freak of the Night“. I thought it would be a heavy lift for Bloodlust to top the title track, but I do believe they have. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TIDES OF KHARON — “COINS UPON OUR EYES”

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Jul 122017
 

 

And we have another winner! Another wickedly rendered and eye-catching piece of cover art (this time by Indonesian graphic artist Dann Perdana) luring us into the sounds of new metal, like the creepy guy on the edge of the playground with an unhealthy hunger in his eyes, offering candy to the kids. Or something like that. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best metaphor I could have picked.

Anyway, I really like the cover art. I really like the song we’re premiering, too. It’s the title track to Coins Upon Our Eyes, the debut EP by a melodic death metal band from Edmonton, Alberta, named Tides of Kharon, which will be released on July 21st.

As the EP’s title might suggest to you, if you’re familiar with tales of the boatman on the river Styx who ferries the dead to the underworld, the songs all draw upon themes from ancient Greek mythology, including (in the band’s words) “the rape of Medusa, Orpheus’ quest to bring back his dead wife, and an unending battle involving the sons of the god of war, Ares”. And so, in addition to the appeal of the EP’s cover art, Coins Upon Our Eyes is also lyrically interesting.

Here’s an excerpt from the lyrics to the title track you’re about to hear: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GREY AURA — “1: GELIGE, TRAUMATISCHE ZIELSVERRUKKING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jul 112017
 

 

We all have our metal comfort food, the genres we go to even when the performers aren’t doing anything too different from what’s been done for decades. And to be sure, a band doesn’t have to break any molds, or even chip them, to be worth hearing. Yet to varying degrees, we all have our antenna up for something that does break molds, but doesn’t simply leave you with a pile of shards, as if to proclaim nothing more than, “You see? We can break things!”

The demo you’re about to hear is indeed something that sounds very different from anything you’re probably accustomed to, and its ambitions go beyond the music itself. The explanation will take a few paragraphs, but I encourage you not to skip past them, because it’s a story that will explain and deepen the appreciation for what you’re about to hear.

And what you’re about to hear is 1: Gelige, traumatische zielsverrukking by the Dutch “post-black metal” band Grey Aura, along with the spoken recital of the first chapters of a book, in advance of its Bandcamp release tomorrow (July 12). Continue reading »

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