VIDEOGRAPHY: DEALS DEATH – “POINT ZERO SOLUTION”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 052013
 


The last time we featured Gothenburg’s Deals Death (here) was way back in April 2012. Their debut album on the Spinefarm label (Elite) had recently been released and they had just premiered a video for the song “Collapse”. In typically eloquent fashion, I wrote that “it pushes all those ‘Fuckitall, let’s headbang!’ buttons.”

Now we have a new video, and a new album on the way, with a September 13 European release date. The album is named Point Zero Solution, and the video is for the title track. And guess what? It pushes all those headbang buttons again.

The video was directed by Patric Ullaeus, who’s a real pro at this kind of thing, so it’s a slick production. Lots of fireballs and contrasts between light and shadow, and of course plenty of opportunities to admire (or get jealous over) frontman Olle Ekman’s impressive physique. The song plays to Deals Death’s strengths, which is to say it’s a thundering gallop of wild-eyed, flame-maned Gothenburgian stallions, all pounding hooves and compulsive riffs, with Ekman’s glass-scraping howls and brief keyboard notes rising above the fray. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY (HORROR DIVISION): AVULSED; BISON, BISON; MAMMOTH MAMMOTH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 042013
 

The Horror Division of NCS hereby delivers unto you three new videos. We like them. We would like them better if the first band were named Avulsed Avulsed, because that would provide a second thing in common that all three videos share. As it is, they only share one thing (apart from the fact that they’re all fun to watch and hear): horror thematics.

AVULSED

When my NCS comrades and I were gathered together in Seattle last week we spoke of many important things, including which metal songs included the best opening grunts and growls. No one mentioned “Dead Flesh Awakened” by Avulsed, but then again none of us had heard it last week. It appears on this long-running Spanish band’s brand new album, Ritual Zombi, which just came out (and is available for purchase or download on Bandcamp).

As of today, however, “Dead Flesh Awakened” has become the subject of a brand new video that premiered at DECIBEL. The song starts with Dave Rotten giving voice to what sounds like a lion’s growl. More lionine growling comes later. Along with a lot of skull-cleaving grooves and grisly melody and filthy death metal goodness. Plus zombies. Don’t forget the zombies. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TOO DAMNED MANY THINGS TO PUT IN THE TITLE OF THIS POST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 042013
 

Yesterday I posted our final article of the day at about 1:30 pm EDT and then turned my attention for the rest of the day to what I actually get paid to do. While I wasn’t looking, someone re-opened Pandora’s box and a horde of red-eyed bat-winged things flew out in a blizzard of leathery wings and ammoniac guano. Yeah, baby, a veritable flood of nasty shit — so many noteworthy news items and new songs that to fit all of them in this post will require that I wire my jaws shut and mumble only a few words per item. Here . . . we . . . GO!

SLAYER-GOJIRA-4ARM TOUR

It started with dates in Hollywood and NYC and predictably has now mushroomed into a full U.S. tour. Well, at least 16 cities in the fullness of the U.S., which do not include all the wonderful cities in the Pacific Northwest or 36 other states. But fear not, others may yet get to see Gojira (!!!), the aging remnants of Slayer, and Melbourne’s 4ARM, because more dates will be announced later. Here are the ones announced yesterday:

OCTOBER
25 The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV
28 Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA
30 Events Center @ San Jose State, San Jose, CA Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NECROPHOBIC, DEVOURER, HAMFERÐ, AND CARPE NOCTEM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  15 Responses »
Sep 032013
 

This is a round-up of new songs and videos that debuted over the last 24 hours. There is a unifying theme to what I’ve selected: Although the styles of metal range from rampaging black metal to the sublime weight of doom, darkness pervades the sounds.

NECROPHOBIC

Only yesterday we posted Part 1 of Andy Synn’s review of the recently completed SUMMER BREEZE festival in Germany. It included words of praise for the live performance by Sweden’s Necrophobic. And today brought us the North American premiere of the first single from this influential band’s new album Womb of Lilithu, their seventh studio album and the first one in four years.

The new track is “Splendour Nigri Solis” and it’s now streaming at Spotify (here), though because it debuted in Europe earlier, it has also made its way to YouTube. It’s a thumping, thrashing, swirling whirlwind of black metal vehemence (with imperious, cleanly-sung, off-tempo sections that are as cool as the speedy parts). Continue reading »

A LABOR DAY QUINTET: NEW VIDEOS FROM THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, HAIL OF BULLETS, BODYFARM, DEMONIC RESURRECTION, AND DEAD TROOPER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 022013
 

Because of The Great Seattle NCS Confab, coupled with a bit of day-job grind, I largely missed happenings in the world of metal over the last 10 days. I made an effort to go back and find news and new music worth recommending from that stretch of lost time, and felt overwhelmed. I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of catching up and have decided to start fresh — with this round-up of five new videos that debuted this morning.

DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT

Fans of Devin Townsend are aware that September 30 will bring the release of a new DVD/CD entitled The Retinal Circus which captures the stunning three-hour show of the same name that took place in October 2012 at London’s Roundhouse venue (reviewed by our own Andy Synn here). The show featured a full choir, a theatrical cast, and enough visual and sonic bombast to mimic the blitz in WWII.

We previously featured the first publicly released clip from the DVD — the show-stopping performance of “Grace”. Today, DT premiered a second clip, for the song “War” from his third solo album Infinity. Watch and listen next. Continue reading »

DEATH METAL TO DESPISE BOB FILNER TO

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 022013
 

(We take our holidays damned seriously here at NCS, so when the calendar says Labor Day, then by god we’re going to fuckin’ LABOR! — beginning with this second guest post by Leperkahn, who introduces us to three bands from San Diego: Imbalanced, Memory, and Ruinist.)

After a good first experience writing and commenting here at No Clean Singing, I’ve decided to give it a go at another post. Seeing as I am now back from Dublin – sweating bullets in sunny San Diego – I thought I might do a round-up of a few San Diego-area bands. Coincidentally, they all sway toward the death-metal end of the spectrum. And, death metal being the antithesis of the outdated morals employed by the scumbag that is Bob Filner, I figure you could use it as a soundtrack while you beat the living shite out of a punching bag with Filner’s Joker-esque smile pasted on it

Imbalanced

I first saw Imbalanced when they opened for San Diego’s best metal export, Cattle Decapitation, earlier this year. So far they have only one EP to their name, Wet & Wreakless. Until recently, they were a two-piece of guitarist/vocalist “Dirty” Ben Cockerham and drummer “Terrible” Tim Bennett, yet my last-minute research indicated that they have added bassist “John Zombie” (evidently Rob’s long-lost cousin). Cliché stage names aside, these guys make some truly blistering technical death metal

After a brief and frankly pointless intro of various vomiting sound effects, the band get down to business with “Skin Deep” (YouTube-able below), with its breackneck pace and scathingly melodic riffs bringing about a bit of Arsis. The Arsis comparison also extends to the ferocious and blindingly fast drumming of Tim Bennett. Continue reading »

INQUISITION, IHSAHN, AND MAN MUST DIE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 282013
 

I haven’t been keeping my eyes peeled for metal news since last week because I’ve been too busy hob-nobbing with my fellow NCS scribes in Seattle. I did take a few quick minutes this morning to glance around and found the following three items that I thought were interesting.

INQUISITION

At the end of July we reported the welcome news that black metal powerhouse Inquisition had revealed the name of their next album (Obscure Verses for the Multiverse) and announced its release dates via Season of Mist — October 29 in North America and October 25 elsewhere. Today brought more information about the album, beginning with the cover art above, which is quite fetching.

We have also been treated to a teaser of music from the album. The video clip that I’ve included beyond the jump includes short snippets from 9 tracks. Except for the snippet of the last track, which features a harsh roar, you’ll learn that Dagon has not changed his vocal style, which continues to sound like a bullfrog being strangled with barbed wire. Continue reading »

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY COMPS FOR GRIND AND DOOM FREAKS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 222013
 

This week brought us the debut of two new compilations that are definitely worth looking at hard, because they go really fuckin’ hard. One is for a worthy cause and one is free.

GRINDING FOR A CURE – VOL. 3

“Grinding for a Cure” is a project that started small back in mid-January and quickly exploded into one of the best on-going comp projects in recent memory. The mission of the organizers (Dorian Rainwater of Noisear and many other bands, now including Excruciating Terror, Christine Coz, and Chris Messina of Swamp Gas) is to raise money to fund research into a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Volume 1 (featured at NCS here) contained 100 tracks, Volume 2 (featured here) matched that total, and the bands participating in both those installments included a bunch of eye-catching names.

The new Volume 3 has just gone “live” with the first 8 tracks, though it’s also going to have 100 by the time it’s finished. This time, the music is being uploaded to Bandcamp as the songs become available so people can hear the music as the comp grows.

Those first 8 tracks are really good. They includes songs by Phobia, Dim Mak, Inhabitants, Scars of Deceit, Gooze, Horse’s Silhouette, and Human Trade. But I want to make special mention of the first song — “Look At the World” — because it’s by Excruciating Terror. Continue reading »

FUCK THIS BIRD BITCH, DRINK THIS BLEACH: NEW DEATH GRIPS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 222013
 

“Birds” is the name of a new Death Grips jam that came out of nowhere this morning. It’s a free download. If you click this link, the download will start immediately:

DOWNLOAD

If you’re the cautious type, you may want to hear it before you download. You can do that after the jump.

If you wonder why this metal blog has been on the now-crowded Death Grips train since early days, it’s because we drank this bleach. It goes big.

I GOT TOMORROW COMING
I GOT GOT I GOT
I GOT TOMORROW COMING

I GOT TOMORROW COMING
I GOT GOT I GOT
I GOT TOMORROW COMING
IN

BIRDS

FUCK YOU Continue reading »

YOUR BRAIN, IN A BLENDER: BATILLUS, LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, CLERIC, AND AQUILUS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Aug 222013
 

As usual, I have a few things for you. As usual, the selection consists of new things I found yesterday. As usual, the music is diverse (and possibly also different, diverse, divergent, distinct, dissimilar, and disparate, though I’m still not sure I grasp the distinctions among these words). They do have one thing in common: they’ll put your brain in a blender and tune the setting to purée.

BATILLUS

In February I reviewed an album named Concrete Sustain by Batillus. I characterized it as “a 2013 must-listen for fans of doom, especially those who might want to do more than stand in place and nod dreamily at the floor.” When I wrote that line, I had in mind a couple of songs on the album, chiefly “Concrete”, which I tried to describe as “black industrial funk, the dancebeat at the end of the world.” I’ve probably had better days at the keyboard, but that’s what popped into my head.

Yesterday, Invisible Oranges premiered a video for “Concrete”. I can now describe the song as “the soundtrack to that creepy video named ‘Concrete'”. The video risks dominating the music, it’s so weirdly magnetic. But the music and the imagery definitely go hand-in-hand. A lot of people deserve credit for it, but I’ll name three: director Gretchen Heinel, editor Matthew Silver, and SFX specialist Jacqueline Valega. Prepare to be weirded out (and puréed). Continue reading »

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