UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (HALLOWEEN EDITION)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Oct 222013
 

 (Long-time NCS supporter and guest writer SurgicalBrute brings us this collection of metal to enhance your Halloween experience. The bands are Ctulu (Germany), Malichor (Australia), Orloff (US), Attic (Germany), and Demon Lung (US).)

Its been far too long since I’ve written an actual guest post for No Clean Singing. Part of that has to do with a combination of work, friends, and my own personal laziness, but the bigger reason has been I just haven’t felt like the site has really needed any input on band recommendations… and that’s awesome. It really says a lot about how great this site is, with its ability to cover such a wide variety of metal styles, that even a self-proclaimed curmudgeon like myself is satisified.

So what’s got me writing a post today? Well hell, that’s easy… it’s October and my favorite holliday is just a few weeks away. I love Halloween. Whether it’s the gothic imagery, the cheesy horror movies, or the child-like glee of picking a pumpkin, I cannot get enough of this time of year and everything that goes with it. Now, when it comes to Halloween the music is always important, and for metalheads there’s plenty to choose from…bands like King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Deceased, and Electric Wizard probably all spring to mind. But for those of you looking to add a few more albums to your Halloween rotation, give these bands a try. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: PROTEST THE HERO, EYE OF SOLITUDE, OLD SKIN, REFLECTIONS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 212013
 

I thought I’d make you aware, if you aren’t already, of a handful of full-album streams that became available in recent days. I’ve heard bits and pieces of most of these albums, enough to believe they’re all worth hearing straight-through. So here goes (and if you know of other recent streams that we should be noticing, leave a link in the Comments):

PROTEST THE HERO

I’m not nearly as zealous a fan of this band as other people I know, but I’m finding the tracks previously released from their next album — Volition — interesting enough that I think the album as a whole will be worth the time. It comes out on October 29th via Razor & Tie and can be pre-ordered here. Here’s your full stream of the album (via Metal Sucks):


Continue reading »

DEVEYKUS: HASIDIC DOOM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 202013
 

I’m on the tail end of that four-day retreat I mentioned yesterday, still largely metal-deprived, and with a long plane flight home looming on the horizon. But I hate to let a day go by without posting something. Yesterday I put up some videos from an unusual Japanese band. So I thought, in keeping with the theme, that I ought to look for something equally off the beaten path. And my wishes were answered.

I happened to see a link posted by a Facebook friend to a recent interview that Kim Kelly conducted with trombonist Dan Blackberg about his band Deveykus. They’re a Hasidic doom metal band. I thought, fuck yeah, that sounds way off the beaten path. In the interview, Blackberg explained:

“The music we make is based on traditional Hasidic wordless melodies called nigunim (or nign in the singular) that are meant to be sung over and over again until your spirit either reaches some transcendent state, or your vocal chords give out. Hasidic culture, like a lot of cultures based around religious fundamentalism, has a ton of totally fucked up things about it, and then some seriously amazing music! One of the great traits of the culture is that they put singing these melodies above praying as a way to get your spirit lifted towards some divine energy. I can get behind that. Another great thing they do is appropriate all kinds of music with the excuse that they’re “reclaiming some divine spark in the melodies.” I think it’s great to turn that around and “reclaim” these melodies that almost no one outside of that world would ever hear for everyone!”

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GOJIRA, LIVING SACRIFICE, SO HIDEOUS, AND MAN THE MACHETES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Oct 182013
 

Here’s a collection of items I spotted on a quick dash through the interhole today.

GOJIRA

I saw that the gents at Metal Sucks premiered a new Gojira video. It’s a professionally filmed live performance of “The Gift of Guilt”, from last year’s L’Enfant Sauvage, at London’s O2 Brixton Academy. I confess that when the first finger-tapped notes of the melody began, I got chills and a flood of beautiful memories of the live Gojira shows I’ve been lucky enough to attend. The video is also fresh evidence that Mario Duplantier is one of the best drummers in metal today.

To watch the clip, jump over to this location.

On top of that, MS reported that Roadrunner Records has released a live EP that includes three Gojira songs (including “The Gift of Guilt” and three songs by Norway’s Kvelertak, and it can be yours for the price of an e-mail address. To stream and or download it, go here. This is the track list: Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: KATAKLYSM (“ELEVATE”) AND REVOCATION (“FRACKED”)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 172013
 

In this post we bring you two excellent new videos that premiered this morning.

KATAKLYSM

The new video from Canada’s Kataklysm is for a new song — “Elevate” — that will appear on this veteran band’s latest album, Waiting For the End To Come. The song is somewhat surprising, in that it’s a bit of a departure from what might be considered the band’s typical style. It still thunders and howls, but as my colleague Andy Synn put it, it’s a lot more spacious and has a big central melody. There were even moments near the song’s end when I was thinking “melodic black metal”. I haven’t listened to the song more than twice yet, but so far it is solidifying my impression that Kataklysm are coming back strong and that Waiting could be one of their best albums in a long time.

The video itself is also excellent. Its jerky-jerky motion and dramatic atmosphere suit the music, and it’s really well-made and interesting to watch. Also, zombies.  You can’t go wrong with zombies. Continue reading »

EXTOL’S “BETRAYAL”: A NEW VIDEO, A NEW SHIRT, AND A CHANCE TO HELP HOMELESS KIDS IN KENYA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Oct 172013
 

Most metalheads I know are good-hearted people (maybe because I steer clear of the assholes). Most metalheads I know also live from paycheck to paycheck — if they’ve got a paycheck. So when someone asks metalheads to spend money on a charitable cause, there needs to be an extra incentive; worthy causes are almost endless, but disposable income is in short supply. Offering something tangible that people are going to be tempted to buy anyway — and then donating all the proceeds to a good cause — that’s the kind of idea that should succeed. And that’s what Norway’s Extol and their record label have just done.

I assume you know who Extol are — but if not, they’re a progressive death metal band who’ve made one of this year’s standout albums (self-titled, and glorified in this NCS review). What they and their label Facedown Records have done is to make a special shirt available for sale, with all profits donated to New Life Mission Aid for use in helping homeless children in Kenya. As the band’s Peter Espevoll explains in a video for this project, New Life Mission Aid is a Norwegian charitable organization dedicated to providing food, shelter, and education to homeless kids in Kenya.

The shirt, as you can see, is badass. The design was created by Dave Quiggle. It’s dedicated to the new album’s opening song “Betrayal”, which in itself was inspired by the plight of those homeless children. Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: INQUISITION, SKINFATHER, BLIND TO FAITH, GODLESS ANGEL, AND BANDCAMP GOODIES

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  26 Responses »
Oct 162013
 

Herein, a collection of recommended music I discovered over the last 24 hours.

INQUISITION

Last night brought the premiere on three European sites of the title track from Inquisition’s forthcoming album, Obscure Verses for the Multiverse, which Season of Mist plans to release on October 29. Lambgoat then premiered it this morning for the North American market. Yet none of these sites chose to say anything about the actual song. It was just sort of “here’s a song, listen to it”. Maybe they know something I don’t know, i.e., that most people skip over words and go right to the music? Man, if that’s right I’ve sure been wasting a lot of time. But I can give it a shot:

Go HERE if you want to listen to “Obscure Verses for the Multiverse”. Continue reading »

YOUR BEHEMOTH ROUND-UP FOR TODAY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Oct 162013
 

I came across the three things in this post and they just seemed to go together. I really don’t know what else to say by way of introduction, so I’m not even going to try. Let’s just get on with it . . .

“THE BEHEMOTH PROJECT”

Are you like me? When you listen to Behemoth’s “Alas, Lord Is Upon Me”, do you feel like thrusting your pelvis, twerking, and trying to strangle yourself with your hair? Yeah, I thought so. It’s a common reaction. But not all of us are willing to get in front of a camera while we’re doing that. Thank goodness that Aneta, Katarzyna, and Izabela felt no such inhibitions.

Here they are, performing their dance routine to Behemoth’s classic at the Modelarnia fitness center in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. I feel sure that in no time “Alas, Lord Is Upon Me” will rapidly become a part of fitness routines worldwide, right up there with Deicide’s “Fuck Your God”. Continue reading »

YIN AND YANG: KUOLEMANLAAKSO AND HEAVY HOEMPA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 152013
 


Musta aurinko nousee — cover art by Markus Räisänen

Yesterday I discovered some new music, quite a lot of it actually. I picked two of those new discoveries as a pair for this post, but not because they are anything alike. In fact, they could hardly be more different — and that’s why I’ve paired them together.

KUOLEMANLAAKSO

This band’s Finnish name means “Death’s Valley” or “Valley of Death”. It began as a one-man project of guitarist Markus Laakso (Chaosweaver). After recording a handful of demo tracks, he recruited a group of talented comrades to flesh out the band:  vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun, Barren Earth), guitarist Savon Surma (“Kouta”) (Chaosweaver, ex-Verjnuarmu), bassist Tuomo Räisänen (“Usva”) (Elenium, The Nibiruan), and drummer Toni Ronkainen (“Tiera”) (Discard, Cult of Endtime).

Together they recorded an album at Woodshed Studio in Germany with V. Santura of Triptykon and Dark Fortress fame, who also mixed and mastered the music. The album is named Uljas uusi maailma (“Brave New World”) and it was released by Svart Records in November 2012. It was very good.

In August of this year the band recorded a second album with V. Santura, this time convening in a cabin in the Finnish woods near the shores of a lake. This morning I spent time I didn’t have reading Markus Laakso’s day-by-day studio diary, because it was both interesting and entertaining (and mouth-watering — this group ate well while together in the woods). If you have the time, and even if you don’t, I recommend it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SOUL REMNANTS, SPECTRAL LORE, SCARECROW, AND MALTHUSIAN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Oct 142013
 

We all have our own recipes for dealing with the grimness of Mondays, even if those recipes simply involve falling into a state of clinical depression or foul surliness. My own recipe today was to go in search of fearsome new metal, the kind that would put a shot of adrenaline into the old brainstem or open a door into the pitiless void. The search proved to be highly successful, as you shall see. Here are four new songs from forthcoming releases that brightened up my Monday (and by “brightened” I mean “darkened”).

SOUL REMNANTS

Soul Remnants make their home in the Boston area, and their second album Black and Blood is slated for release on October 31 by a Philadelphia label named Horror Pain Gore Death Productions (by coincidence, this band is the first of two in this post whose new releases are being handled by that label). This morning I listened to two recently unveiled advance tracks from the album that are worth your time — “Incinerator” and “No Afterlife”.

The music is a hot shot of adrenaline straight into the bloodstream, a burst of ripping riffage and furious drumming, segmented by powerful pneumatic grooves and fleet-fingered soloing and flavored with seductive melodies. The caustic harsh vocals are aces too, and the production gives the music the sharp edge of scalpels at work. It’s a bracing brew of melodic death metal, tech-death, and even black metal stylings. Very nice. Continue reading »

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