MOVING PICTURES: KRISIUN AND ELITIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 302012
 

In this post, I have a few videos to start off your school-week, work-week, looking-for-work-week, or completely-fucking-off-week with a bout of headbanging. Because nothing sweetens up schooling, working, fruitlessly job-hunting, or fucking off like headbanging, am I right?  Yes, I am right.

Brazil’s Krisiun is currently finishing up a U.S. tour with Sepultura and Death Angel (the remaining dates are here). On April 15, they played Englewood, Colorado, and Superskum filmed a big chunk of the set. After the jump, I’ve embedded three of the song performances: “The Will To Potency”, “Ravager”, and “Combustion Inferno”. The video and sound quality are very good, and the music is pure spinal trauma.

In February I reviewed the 2011 album by Portland’s Elitist, Fear In A Handful of Dust. Among other words, I penned this immortal line: “Heavy fuzz, slamming or massively groaning chords, beefy bass, tremolo needling, and psychedelic swarming: these are among the implements of a wrecking machine that’s utterly heartless and wholly engulfing.” Today the band uploaded a video of their performance in Portland on April 28. The video includes two songs, “Tower of Meth” and “A Howling Wind”.

The video was filmed by Nick Gattman, and he did a helluva job. The band played this set on the floor of the venue, with no breathing room between them and the tightly packed crowd, and the camera viewpoint makes you feel like you’re right there in the middle of it. I love it when a band play on the floor, though I don’t get to see that happen much. Doesn’t take much for a vocalist to be consumed by a mosh pit, as happens in this video. It also exposes the band to loving caresses from audience members, which also seems to be happening in this video. But there’s no love in the music . . . it’s a mix of doomed, corrosive sludge and rancid death-grind blasting. Much fun to watch . . . after the jump. Continue reading »

THE AMENTA: AN UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 302012
 

I’m a big fan of Australia’s The Amenta. So how I missed this news is mystifying, but better late than never: They will be digitally releasing a new EP called Chokehold sometime in May via Listenable Records. It will include two new songs —  the title track, “Chokehold”, and a cover of “Christ Bait Rising” by Godflesh. The band reports that both songs were recorded and produced “with a modern take on GODFLESH’S influential Street Cleaner album’s sound and aesthetic.”

The EP will also feature two live tracks taken from the bands 2011 V01D Australian Tour, as well as a remix of the track “V01D” from their last album.

As you can see, the cover art for the EP is done, and therein lies a tale. Apparently, the band tried to set up an ad on Facebook to publicize the EP, and Facebook rejected the ad because the cover art was considered “too extreme”. I guess Facebook has drastically different standards for advertising than it does for what people can put in their profiles and photo albums.

I like the picture of vocalist Cain Cressall up there — nice and metal — but it’s really not very extreme. No intestines are hanging out, no human organs are being consumed, no veins have been opened. Go figure.

I’m not positive how this EP relates to the band’s next album. In March they announced the new album’s title — Flesh is Heir — and a track list, and at that time they were finishing up the recording work. Doesn’t look like the new songs on the EP will be on the album. Of course, I’d be happier than a pig in shit to get an EP AND an album from these guys in 2012.

Two more pieces of news, including a new video, are after the jump . . . Continue reading »

TEARING FLESH FROM BONE: NEW SHIT FROM MITOCHONDRION AND DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 292012
 

It’s only a coincidence. My rational mind knows that. But the still-superstitious part of me worries that there’s a chance, maybe only a 1% chance, that the appearance on the same afternoon of new videos of Mitochondrion and Dragged Into Sunlight is a sign that Cthulhu is commanding me across the dimensional membrane to write this post. And if there’s even a 1% chance of waking up tomorrow with all my orifices gorged with tentacles greedily sucking out my nutrients, I think I’m gonna play it safe.

Besides, I love these two bands. Or maybe I fear them. Maybe I love my fear. They both create apocalyptic atmospheres  – dark, anti-human, scourging.

Mitochondrion plays ritualistic war metal. In one of my previous posts about them this year (here), they were looking ahead to a show with the powerful Antediluvian on April 28 — last night — in Vancouver. Turns out they played a new song at that show, a song called “Insummation”, being played in public for the first time. There’s a video of it after the jump. The visual quality is decent, but the audio quality isn’t great. Still, it captures the brutalizing insanity of the song.

Dragged Into Sunlight played a show last night, too — at the SWR Metalfest in Barroselas, Portugal. The line-up for that festival was amazing, headlined by Immortal. Two videos have surfaced of the DIS performance. The sound quality is better than the Mitochondrion vid. Looks like DIS is still playing mostly with their backs turned  to the audience. The music is still ear-wrecking and flesh-rending. Continue reading »

UTMU’S VISIT TO MOJO 13

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 292012
 

(Welcome NCS reader/commenter/suggester-of-great music, Utmu, with his first guest post at this site.)

Hello everyone, this is my first full-article contribution to NO CLEAN SINGING—that’s right, after submitting a good number of bands and news articles to Islander and posting comments for quite some time, I’ve decided to get off my ass and really contribute something substantial to the site. So, to get on with what this post is about . . .

I recently went to the Wilmington, Delaware date of the excellent Occupation Domination 2012 Tour at Mojo 13 headlined by the mighty Origin and supported by a killer lineup, including the likes of Cattle Decapitation, Decrepit Birth, Aborted, Rings of Saturn, Battlecross, and Face of Ruin. As much as I may like or love some of those bands, I don’t plan on talking about them in this article. Instead, I’m going to give you information on some relatively local and generally unknown bands who played before Face of Ruin and the other aforementioned groups. You can find all of the bands’ Facebook pages at the bottom of the article.

MARCH TO VICTORY

What we have here is a magnificent melodic death act from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. These guys have been tearing up the local and East Coast music scenes since 1998, releasing a handful of material, including one demo, two EP’s, and a full-length called Frostburg 666, the first metallic assault of theirs to be released by a label, Born of Chaos Records. I also plan on reviewing Frostburg for you all at some point.

March to Victory started out as a straight-up black metal band and progressed into what I would say has become a melodic death metal group based on the change of style from Frostburg 666 and previous songs to the new single “Your End”.  In fact, since they have a “new” vocalist, Ron Evens (who, by the way is a really cool dude), they’re now harnessing a growl instead of a rasp, so in my opinion they’ve taken a big step into Amon Amarth territory with this new song. You can stream “Your End” exclusively on Vampirefreaks.com, where you can also stream two other tracks that are on the EP’s as well as a fifth track called “Pure Fucking Hatred”, which is from a 1998 demo, and what seems to be an early version of a song off the full-length called “Funeral Blizzard Beast”. Continue reading »

FRESH HELL ON EARTH: DIOCLETIAN AND PTAHIL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 282012
 

The reason why it’s so easy for human beings to imagine the horrors of a supernatural place called Hell is because we do such a bang-up job of creating it right here on Earth. When it comes to destroying minds and brutalizing bodies, our own species’ sordid history provides a textbook of how to do it up right. At least when metal bands paint pictures of Hell with their music, no people or animals are harmed in the process. Usually. Unless you count self-abuse.

Two of the bands I’ve gotten into lately do an especially effective job of creating musical Hell, and yesterday both of them released videos of themselves recording new releases. I looked closely, and I didn’t see any humans or animals being maimed or killed in the studios. But the music is sure as fuck killing me. I want these records yesterday.

DIOCLETIAN

Thanks to comments from NCS readers, I’ve been developing a lust for war metal. New Zealand’s Diocletian is one of the bands whose music I’ve been getting into (see our March 2012 feature about them here). Earlier this month, they dropped a Facebook post about their plans to release a compilation album to be titled Annihilation Rituals, which will include their first four rituals: an untitled 2005 demo, the Decimator EP (2007), their part of the Chaos Rising split (2008), and the Sect of Swords EP (2008). That should be worth grabbing. The release date hasn’t been announced.

We previously reported that Diocletian has also recorded music for a 7″ vinyl (European Anniilation) that will be distributed on their European tour this May. One of the two new tracks for that 7″ (“Antichrist Hammerfist”) is up on SoundCloud, and yesterday the band released a video of themselves recording the other one — “Deathstrike Overkill”. Continue reading »

CATCHING UP (Part 3): NILE, MUTILATION RITES, PSYCHOPATHIC TERROR, KATAKLYSM, MEANS END, AND BLACKLODGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Apr 272012
 

As explained previously, I’ve been catching up on what I missed in the metal world over the last couple of weeks while being otherwise occupied. So much happens every day that I can’t include everything I’ve discovered, but I’ve been trying to feature a mix of news and stylistically divergent new music that might have escaped your attention as well as my own. This is the final installment.

Some of what’s in here is VERY recent. And yes, this is long . . . but just treat it like six posts in one. Just pretend that it dribbled out all day long, like posts on some other metal sites that don’t want to tax their readers’ attention spans. Or you could set your alarm to go off once an hour and come read another piece of this as if it had just appeared. Or I could just shut up and get on with it.

NILE

Actually, I suspect this didn’t escape many people’s attention, because it’s Nile, after all. Thanks to Metal Sucks and TheMadIsraeli, I found out yesterday that Nile has now released the cover art for their next album (above), At the Gate of Sethu, which Nuclear Blast plans to release in Europe on June 29 and in the U.S. on July 3. The artwork is by Seth Siro Anton of Septic Flesh.

The central figure looked familiar, and after a bit of  research at The Font of All Human Knowledge, I confirmed that it’s the Egyptian god Thoth, which The Font describes as a god who, in the later history of ancient Egypt, “became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes,the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.” Continue reading »

HOW ABOUT A FREE MESHUGGAH REMIX AND A DYING FETUS ALBUM PREVIEW? WELL, FUCK YES, DON’T MIND IF I DO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 262012
 

I’m commuting home from my fucking day job on a floating bus called a ferry boat and what do my bloodshot eyes spy but two items that I thought my NCS brethren and sistren might enjoy.

The first is a remix of “I Am Colossus”, which as any heathen knows is a Meshuggah track off Koloss. Now, remixing Meshuggah could be (and probably will be) considered a form of blasphemy punishable by castration, but this remix turns out to be good. Not as good as the original mind you, but I think it’s still worth hearing. And if you like what you hear, you can get it for free at this location, courtesy of those inexplicably generous metalheads at Scion A/V.

The remix was created by Engine-Earz & Foreign Beggars. I have no idea who they are, but they’ve made the song sound . . . both more and less evil. If you ain’t into electro even a little bit, you won’t like it. If you dabble some, then this might be your thing. I thought it was cool. Check it out following the jump. Continue reading »

HEAD EXPLOSION: DECAPITATED PREMIERES OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR “HOMO SUM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Apr 262012
 

The band, playing against a black backdrop, filmed in black and white. The camera, cutting and moving like a hornet swarm. The song, both brutal and hypnotic.

In a nutshell, that’s the brand new video for “Homo Sum”, the fourth track off of Decapitated’s amazing 2011 album, Carnival Is Forever. The video was directed by Marcin Halerz of Redpig Productions.

On an album full of gems, “Homo Sum” has over time become my favorite track. It is the epitome of pummeling, but that guitar solo makes such a striking contrast. When that solo starts, my eyes begin to glaze over and a little drool starts to run down my chin (on both sides, because I am level-headed). And then the pummeling begins again, and I get whiplash. Doesn’t that happen to you, too?

Watch after the jump. Continue reading »

CATCHING UP (Part 2): MISERATION, WRECK AND REFERENCE, CATTLE DECAPITATION, FEAR FACTORY, AND VILDHJARTA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 262012
 

As explained yesterday, I’ve been kind of off my game here at NCS recently and I’m now trying (hurriedly) to make up for lost time. While investigating the many things I’ve missed in the world of metal over the last week or two, I’ve found a shitload of things I think are worth sharing — both news items and new music. I’m collecting some (but not all) of them in this “Catching Up” mini-series. Here’s Part 2, and there will be one more installment coming.

MISERATION

This is a news item, which is the most recent part of this post.  This morning, Sweden’s Miseration revealed the cover art (above) for their next album (on Lifeforce Records), Tragedy Has Spoken. The artwork is by the ubiquitous and dependably awesome Pär Olofsson. I thoroughly enjoyed this band’s ass-blasting last album, The Mirroring Shadow (2009), and have high hopes for the new one. Conceptually, it’s described as an exploration of the nature of tragedy, both man-made and the result of natural disasters.

The new album was also recorded with 8-string guitars and get this: According to Lifeforce, it also incorporates “folk instruments such as the Indian harp Esraj, the Persian hammered dulcimer Santur, sawblade, organ, mandolin and piano, as well as Mongolian throatsinging”!!! I think we have many “what the fuck?” moments in store for us. Continue reading »

CATCHING UP (Part 1): LANDMINE MARATHON, ENSLAVED, EMPTINESS, KREATOR, ARCH ENEMY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  34 Responses »
Apr 252012
 

If you’re really perceptive (or you’re one of those people who have no real life outside the confines of the internet), you may have noticed that over the last 10 days or so, I haven’t contributed as much to NCS as I usually do. There are reasons for that, but describing them in detail would be boring. Let’s just say it involved unsuccessful transplant surgery, an inter-species paternity suit, and a rigged auction of antique trepanning implements, and leave it at that.

Anyway, I’m behind on all sorts of things, including current events in the world of metal. I was able to spend a little time today catching up, and I found lots of interesting stuff — a combination of news items and new music. Even after I filtered out items that every attentive metalhead already knows (because those items have already been covered on a dozen other metal sites), what’s left is still too much to cram into one post. So, I’m dividing them between at least two posts, and maybe a third. Here’s the first installment:

LANDMINE MARATHON

The first item is a news item. The news is that Arizona’s Landmine Marathon have recorded a new, self-titled 7″ EP. I like this news (a) because it involves Landmine Marathon, who are awesome, (b) because the cover art (above) is cool, and (c) because I’ve finally made the decision to buy a turntable, so I’ll actually be able to listen to this thing when it comes out. The EP will be released on May 14 and will consist of two songs that were recorded at the same time as the band’s last full-length (Gallows); reportedly, the songs won’t be available anywhere else. You can pre-order the EP at Deep Six Records. I am highly confident that it will be good.

Also, because I haven’t owned a turntable since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I have no idea what to buy, so please leave a comment if you have any recommendations, because that would make it easier on me than doing actual research. Continue reading »

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