GENOCIDE PACT AND GRUESOME

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jun 072014
 

I was in a death metal mood this morning and spent some time exploring music from death metal bands I hadn’t heard before. From that foray, I surfaced with two offerings that I’d like to recommend.

GENOCIDE PACT

Genocide Pact are from Washington, DC. Two of their members (Tim and Nolan) also play in a grind core band named Disciples of Christ, and the third (the drummer, Connor) is a member of other bands as well. To date, Genocide Pact have recorded a demo that was released in 2013 by Malokul, which I discovered because A389 Recordings is distributing it on 7″ vinyl with cover art by Joshy of DC’s Ilsa.

The four songs on the demo are stripped-down and devoid of frills or fads. They lumber and crunch like a phalanx of huge earth-moving machines that haven’t had a tune-up in decades, belching the smoke of distortion and periodically squealing with feedback as the gears come close to locking up. The rhythms alternately bolt forward in a d-beat-driven rush, chug like a hellish locomotive, and stagger like a dying giant, with the crash of cymbals and the vocalist’s hoarse growls cutting through the cacophony of this brute-force demolition project. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IN FLAMES, MASTODON, OPETH

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  32 Responses »
Jun 062014
 

As a general rule, when I put together these “Seen and Heard” collections of new music I write about what I like (of course) and I also try to spotlight music from bands who are often overlooked by other metal sites. This particular collection is a departure from the norm. First of all, In Flames, Mastodon, and Opeth are among the biggest names in metal. Over the last week, each of them has premiered a new song from a forthcoming album, and the odds are high that you’ve already heard the music — because every metal site in creation has been spreading the word about them. Second, I have mixed feelings about the music. So what I’m really doing with this collection is trying to satisfy my own curiosity about what our readers think about this new material — which means I want your comments!

IN FLAMES

The new In Flames album Siren Charms will be released on September 15. The first advance track from the album, “Rusted Nail”, is now available to European Spotify users (here), and it has also started appearing illicitly on YouTube. So of course I listened to it. I ought to repeat that this band were one of my gateways into the more extreme genres of heavy music. For that I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for them. In addition, unlike many hidebound fans who haven’t liked anything In Flames have recorded since Clayman (or even before), I remained enthusiastic all the way through Come Clarity. But even with that said, “Rusted Nail” is failing to make much of a mark. Continue reading »

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO THIS YEAR — PART DEUX

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  26 Responses »
Jun 062014
 

(Back in February NCS contributor KevinP shared with us an early list of 2014 albums that were peaking his interest. More than three months have passed, and now Kevin brings us five more recommendations.)

2014 hasn’t slowed down with the new releases worthy of all our time. If you’re playing catch up, you can see Part 1 here.

Hexis – Abalam

I never liked straight-up hardcore and I’m not a huge fan of straight-up black metal either. Wasn’t in 1992, still not today. But when you mix the two together, it’s like “somebody put gasoline on my fuckin’ balls and lit it” (yes, I’m quoting Joey DeMaio, gotta problem with that?). Take the darkness and evil tint of black metal, mixed with the fury and bottom end of hardcore in a nice concise package of mainly 1-2 minute songs & nothing overstays its welcome.

http://hexisband.bandcamp.com/album/abalam Continue reading »

OCULUS INFERNUS: IN WHICH THE PROFESSOR INVESTIGATES ELECTROCUTION, FALCONER, SABBATORY, SAGE FRANCIS, AND MOODIE BLACK

 Album Reviews, Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jun 052014
 

(We welcome the return of Professor D. Grover the XIIIth with the results of his latest musical investigations.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. It has been less than a month since my last missive, which makes the timing on this a bit of a surprise. However, the timing is just right, and so you are joining me for a look at 5 new albums from various artists with whom you may or may not be acquainted. In a bit of a deviation from form, I’m including three artists who have been covered here at NCS, but they have relevant new albums that need to be addressed. Without further preamble, we commence.

ELECTROCUTION

Our first artist, possibly one of the best-known of the previously-mentioned artists, is… wait, what? Electrocution has never been mentioned on No Clean Singing before?

Seriously? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PANOPTICON, BASTARD FEAST, MIDNIGHT, BELOW THE SUN, ÁRSTÍÐIR

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Jun 052014
 

I will never catch up. So many new songs and videos erupted from the underground while I was doing other things over the last week, but I can’t look backward for long because each new day brings more eruptions. The seismic plates of metal are in constant motion, and the skies are always red with fire and black with ash. So I’ll mix and match between the new and the not-quite-as-new — starting with a song that premiered yesterday.

PANOPTICON

There are some bands about whom I fear I’ve lost my objectivity. I’m so enthralled by everything they’ve done that I expect nothing less than excellence in whatever comes next. Panopticon is one of those bands. I’ve had not only high expectations for Roads To the North but also no doubt that it would prove to be brilliant.

With that confession, I will say that the first advance track from that new album is… brilliant. The song is “Chase the Grain” and it premiered at Stereogum yesterday. Even before hearing it, I was already in agreement with Stereogum writer Michael Nelson’s pronouncement that Panopticon’s Austin Lunn “is one of the few genuine visionaries in American black metal”. If you need more proof, listen to “Chase the Grain”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PALLBEARER, BLOOD OF KINGU, YOUNG AND IN THE WAY, CANNABIS CORPSE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jun 042014
 

You may have noticed that over the last three or four days I haven’t written as much for the site as I usually do. The explanation, as usual, is my fucking day job. It’s going to continue to impinge on blog time for another day or two. But I find myself with a sliver of free time at the moment, so I thought I’d collect some new things that I discovered over the last 24 hours.

I’ve found so much that I’m dividing the discoveries into two collections, this being the first. With luck, more will come later today. I’m going to start with a couple of album announcements.

PALLBEARER

I really loved Sorrow and Extinction, the 2012 debt album by Pallbearer from Little Rock, Arkansas. I was hardly alone. It was deluged in critical praise and made heaps of year-end lists. Today Profound Lore announced that Pallbearer have completed work on a new album entitled Foundations of Burden and that it will be released in NorthAm on August 19. Continue reading »

A NEW ANIMATED VIDEO FROM “CASUALTIES OF COOL”: DEVIN TOWNSEND AND CHÉ AIMEE DORVAL REACH THE MOUNTAINTOP

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 042014
 

When our man Andy Synn reviewed Casualties of Cool, the new album by Devin Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval, he called the music “Canadian Space Country”. I thought that was a clever turn of phrase, but also an apt description of the songs. And when he came to the album’s second track, “Mountaintop”, he wrote that it generated an “earthy, alien-country vibe”, the “ghostly strumming and phantom background radiation conjuring a series of strange, synchestrated visions out of simple sound and silence”. Only today did I realize that “synchestrated” isn’t in the dictionary. But it too somehow sounds… apt.

And I’m thinking about “Mountaintop” because today the UK’s Independent premiered an animated video for the song. The artwork is by Jessica Cope, who also created the fantastic video for Steven Wilson’s “The Raven That Refused To Sing” (which you should watch here if you haven’t already). Here’s the description from the Independent: “It follows the story of a traveller who is lured to a sentient planet which feeds off of the fears of its inhabitants. He finds solace in old objects he finds there, including a vintage radio and a phonograph, and eventually confronts his fears. In turn, his actions free a woman trapped inside the planet.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DESULTOR, SAMAEL, CORONAL MASS EJECTION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jun 012014
 

I’ve been attending a two-day picnic with friends and co-workers, this Sunday being the second day.  On the one hand, it’s been a shitload of fun. On the other hand, it has diverted from me from catching up on new metal, and I was really far behind even before the weekend began. But I hate to let a day go by without posting something, so I grabbed a few things to throw your way. This is a truly random assortment, but perhaps it will prove entertaining anyway.

DESULTOR

My NCS comrade Andy Synn sent me a link to a debut album entitled Masters of Hate by a Swedish duo named Desultor that’s streaming in full on YouTube. I’ve been listening to it with half an ear while doing some other things, which is hardly a good way  to listen to an album. And this obviously isn’t a review. But the album is so striking that I thought I would at least pass it along.

The first track is a two-minute introduction that sounds a bit like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It makes the songs that follow all the more surprising. The music is an explosion of extravagant melodic death metal. The blazing instrumental work is almost completely overpowering, with massive jet-fueled riffs and off-the-hook percussion roaring like a silo on fire (Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse came to mind as I listened). The songs are hugely infectious while also unleashing an obliterating sonic assault. Continue reading »

TOURISM: AMON AMARTH, EYEHATEGOD, FIELDS OF ELYSIUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 302014
 

I’m slowly moving back into what I normally do at this site after more than a week of living in the world of Maryland Deathfest, first by attending it and then by re-living the experience in NCS posts. And part of what I do is attempt to highlight news items of interest. I’m a bit late featuring the three collected here, but I think they’re worth mentioning, even if tardily.

AMON AMARTH

Beginning in September and running into November, Sweden’s Amon Amarth will be touring the US and Canada. Sadly, they will only have the Viking ship on stage at the October 18 New York City (Manhattan)  date, which is a show that’s part of Decibel magazine’s 10th anniversary celebrations. At that show, the UK’s Vallenfyre will also be appearing.  I would give your left arm to see that show.

Except for that New York City event, Skeletonwitch will also be a part of this tour, which makes it doubly enticing. Sabaton will be on the tour as well. However, although Vallenfyre will be playing the Manhattan date in place of Skeletonwitch, Skeletonwitch and Evoken will be playing later that same night at St Vitus Bar in Brooklyn; that show is also part of the Decibel anniversary festivities. I would give your right arm to see that one. Continue reading »

GOATWHORE: “FBS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 292014
 

I’ve not been paying much attention to new song and video premieres or metal news since leaving town for Maryland Deathfest last week and I’ve fallen way behind. But I did just see what you’re about to see in this post — a pair of brand new goodies from NOLA’s Goatwhore relevant to their new album Constricting Rage of the Merciless.

First, we have the cover art created by Jordan Barlow. Very nice.

Second, we have a lyric video for an advance track from the album named “FBS”. It is also very nice (I’m pretty sure I heard them play this on the recent Metal Alliance tour). It’s a nasty, thrashy stun-gun of blackened speed metal with riffs galore and an off-speed instrumental break that’s just as cool as the pedal-to-the-metal parts. Continue reading »

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