May 162014
 

I started writing this post last weekend, when the featured songs were fresh out of the blast furnace and had just appeared online, but every day since then has thrown distractions in the way of finishing it. Finally, it is done. I’m afraid there’s nothing in this collection that’s suitable for the faint of heart, but if you’ve become acclimated to ravaging sonic assaults I think you’ll find a lot to like.

TEMPLE DESECRATION

I re-ordered the appearance of Temple Desecration since I began writing this post because what started as a feature about a single song is now a review of a two-song 12″ EP, the name of which is Communion Perished. It’s due for release by Germany’s Iron Bonehead Productions on June 27.

Temple Desecration are a blackened death metal band from Poland and their previous output consists of a 2012 demo named Abhorrent Rites, which I’ve not heard. The new release includes two songs — “Ghoul Prayer” and “Apotheosis”. Both of them intertwine passages of rapacious, storming riffs and merciless percussive fusillades with ghastly doom dirges, the guitars and bass drenched in distortion and the bestial vocals reverberating as if recorded in a catacombs. Continue reading »

May 152014
 

With the album collections that Professor D. Grover the XIIIth and Austin Weber recommended earlier today, we’ve thrown a lot of music your way in a short stretch of time.  But does that mean we will stop? No, of course not. We’re like a hyperactive yappy little dog that will not stop trying to hump your leg. So you might as well just sit back and prepare for a sticky leg.

NADER SADEK

Three years ago the extravagantly talented musical and visual artist Nader Sadek delivered an album named In the Flesh, with the help of an eye-popping line-up of guest musicians. Now, Sadek has re-recorded a song from the album named “Mechanic  Idolatry” and re-titled the new work “Re:Mechanic”. This time the recording artists include Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstrosity), Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy), Rune Eriksen (Mayhem, Aura Noir), Orestis Nalmpantis (Greek band Genna Apo Kolo), and Kelly Conlon (Death, Monstrosity).

But that’s not all. Sadek has also directed a new video for the song that debuted today at DECIBEL. Visit that link to learn more about Sadek’s vision for the video. But to see it without delay, just go past the jump. Continue reading »

May 152014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 (and 2012) releases that he feels were overlooked.  This is Part 3 of a four-part piece; we’ll have the final part tomorrow.)

AEONS OF ECLIPSE

How I missed out on this killer death/black metal band from my home state of Kentucky is beyond me. As I found out, Aeons Of Eclipse is unfortunately now broken up, and The Parasite was released after they broke up, but it’s a damn fine statement.

The Parasite walks a fine line between old school influence and modern complexity without devolving into lead guitar overload all the time. Aeons of Eclipse find a solid balance between dark, furious riffing, smooth fitting melodies, and brutality without boring you. This is one of those highly consistent from start to finish albums that beg to be bought and replayed while headbanging relentlessly.

http://aeonsofeclipse.bandcamp.com/ Continue reading »

May 152014
 

(Professor D. Grover the XIIIth surfaces from his investigations of the nether regions with his findings on four bands.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. Your Honorable Professor finds himself in the midst of a very busy time, between four weddings (two in the last week, two more in the next three weeks), three birthday parties (my daughter, whom you may remember as the original Baby XIII, is now four years old, my nieces are to be three, and my nephew will be eight), an impending stretch of working ten days in a row, and vain attempts to find time to work on a fantasy novel that has been kicking around in my head (and thus far exists only in a handwritten form and a collection of notes on the world, characters, and magic system). My music listening time has been more limited than in the past, but that has not stopped me from finding some semblance of listening time.

Thus, I bring you four more practitioners, in their own ways, of the Devil’s Musick. As always, I am attempting to cover groups not previously mentioned within the fine pages of No Clean Singing (apologies if some of these have been mentioned, as I am basing these claims off a cursory search and little else). Let us commence! Continue reading »

May 142014
 

As you know if you were following our site, yesterday brought such a great flood of new song, video, and album premieres that it was hard to keep up — in my case, like trying to keep up  with Usain Bolt over 100 meters (even if he were wearing flip-flops). In fact, I couldn’t keep up. By noon I had spotted three more new things worth featuring (and one that’s a few days old), but instead had to stop blogging and start doing what I’m paid to do. So, later than I would like, here’s that foursome.

TRAP THEM

Prosthetic Records will be releasing a new album from this vicious East Coast band on June 10. Its name is Blissfucker, and how could you forget that name? One song has previously appeared for streaming and yesterday brought another (via Lambgoat), by the name of “Organic Infernal”. It begins like an alien ant swarm, and then the ants start rocking hard (while continuing to devour whatever writhing creature is caught in their mandibles). Vicious, and memorable.

Blissfucker can be pre-ordered via Prosthetic Records or iTunes. If you missed “Salted Crypts”, which premiered last month, I’m including that below as well. But first, “Organic Infernal”… Continue reading »

May 142014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 releases that he feels were overlooked.  This is Part 2 of a four-part piece; we’ll have the other parts on each of the remaining days this week.)

REDEEMING TORMENT

The French seem to have a stranglehold on killer brutal complex death metal bands, a diverse but somewhat familiar regional style if you will, with various shades. Approaching the more brutal side of things are Redeeming Torment. This brutetechtesticular raging group rarely relent on their 2013 EP, The Dominion, but their penchant for thundering grooves gives the music a strong sense of dynamics, and they are adept at delivering a wall of thick, feverish sound that sticks with you.

The band are offering The Dominion for free, as I saw from a link they posted on their Facebook page: Continue reading »

May 132014
 

This is turning into a monster of a day for new song and album streams. Not long ago we posted about the full-album stream from Misery Index, and just since then I spotted four more song and album streams that are worth your attention. Here we go:

ORIGIN

Origin have now premiered a new song entitled “Manifest Desolate”, the first advance track from their forthcoming sixth album, Omnipresent. The album is due for release on July 4 in Europe by Agonia Records and June 8 in North America via Nuclear Blast. Pre-order here.

“Manifest Desolate” comes in the form of a video that displays the many formats in which the album will be released. The song itself is a blistering explosion of tech-death fireworks, kind of like jamming your face into a fistful of Roman candles. But my favorite part of the song actually comes when the band down-shift the tempo. Listen next… Continue reading »

May 132014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 releases that he feels were overlooked.  This is Part 1 of a four-part piece; we’ll have the other parts on each of the remaining days this week.)

At a certain point, from time to time, trying to cover a lot of different bands in a single article can feel like a chore — a chore similar to an ugly child left in the ICU, one whom I have finally found the time to visit and finally snuff out! But I hope the emotional reaction you have is different from how it felt to complete another mammoth article. [Editor’s intrusion: I’ve divided this piece into four parts in an effort to make the readers’ emotional reaction more pleasurable.]

Much like last year, when I compiled a Remnants of 2012 post, I once again found some music I felt the metal scene greatly overlooked. Unfortunately, I’m overloaded in my life right now, so I don’t have time to write as much as I would like about each of these releases. A few of them are also from 2012, deal with it. And a few aren’t metal, deal with that too. Enjoy! Continue reading »

May 132014
 

Wolvhammer’s new album is named Clawing Into Black Sun. That’s a name you should remember, because I’m betting it’s going to get a lot of very favorable attention both before and after Profound Lore releases it on my birthday. I have many good reasons for this bet, but I’ll give you three of them.

First, the band’s last two albums — Black Marketeers of World War III (which I reviewed in 2010) and 2011’s The Obsidian Plains (which I did not review because I’m a halfwit) — were very good. I even really liked their cover of “Burn” by The Cure that was included on a Record Store Day split with the The Atlas Moth last year (it’s streaming here).

Second, some talented people are in this band: guitarist Jeff Wilson (Abigail Williams, Chrome Wave, Doomsday, ex-Nachtmystium, ex-Krieg), bass player Joe Noel (ex-Samothrace, ex-Altar of Plagues (live)), vocalist Adam Clemens (ex-Iron Thrones), drummer Heath Rave (ex-Across Tundras); and new guitarist Brendan Seven.

And the third reason is “Death Division”. That’s the name of the new song that premiered yesterday at DECIBEL. Hell of a song. Continue reading »

May 122014
 


Vinterbris — drawing by Kim Holm

A lot of music and videos reached my ears and eyes over the weekend and today, and I’ve been collecting the best of what I heard in a series of posts. I guess I could have called all of them “Seen and Heard”, but I labeled the first one today “Videography”, and the next one (to be posted tomorrow) will be “Shades of Black”. Here are the next three goodies:

VINTERBRIS

I first came across this band from Bergen (Norway) last month after discovering that the very talented Norwegian artist Kim Holm had created the cover art for their forthcoming new album, Solace. I found an advance song named “Fathoms”, liked it a lot, and featured it here. (You can listen to another one at Pitchfork, where Kim Kelly spotlighted it.)

Today Vinterbris unveiled a wonderful music video for another new song, “Dysphoria”, which fittingly features Kim Holm’s creation of artwork for the songs on the album. As the band have explained, nothing in this video is sped up or otherwise altered. Continue reading »