Album Reviews Archives - Page 379 of 557

COBALT: “SLOW FOREVER”

Feb 222016

(Andy Synn reviews the eagerly awaited new album by Cobalt.)

Where to start with this one? Obviously the dead horse of the Erik Wunder/Phil McSorley split has been comprehensively beaten to a pulp and rendered down for glue by this point… so let’s not get into that whole ordeal again.

No, I think we have more important issues to consider, not least of which is the question of whether or not Slow Forever, the first new Cobalt album in seven long years, successfully lives up to the band’s hard-won and well-earned legacy.

And our survey says… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: TOTAL HATE — “LIFECRUSHER – CONTRIBUTIONS TO A WORLD IN RUINS”

Album Reviews, Premieres 3 Responses »

Feb 222016

Six years have passed since the last album by Germany’s Total Hate, but on February 26 Eisenwald will release the band’s third full-length in this, the fifteenth year of the group’s existence. The title gives you fair warning of what’s to come: Lifecrusher — Contributions To A World In Ruins. And we give you the chance to experience it in full today.

With an album title like that one, brought forth by a band with a name like Total Hate, who are devoted to old school Scandinavian black metal, you expect full-bore sonic savagery. And that is indeed what Lifecrusher delivers — but that’s not all you get. Continue reading »

GARGANJUA: “A VOYAGE IN SOLITUDE”

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Feb 192016

(Andy Synn reviews the debut album by Britain’s Garganjua.)

One of the best things about writing for NoCleanSinging – apart from the fame, the drugs, the fast cars, the easy women – is just how much freedom we get here to write about whatever we feel like (within reason), with no-one dictating to us what we have to cover, or when. Instead we’re largely left to our own devices, free to follow our passions or simply see where our listening takes us.

As a result we often stumble across stuff unexpectedly, so it’s almost impossible to predict, week-in and week-out, precisely what we might be writing about, with any reasonable degree of accuracy.

Today’s review is a case in point, as I discovered the doomy delights of Garganjua purely by accident over the weekend, drawn-in by the eye-catching artwork which adorns the cover of this, their self-titled debut album. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MOROS — “LIFE ASSISTED SUICIDE”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Feb 182016

I’m VERY late in writing about this EP — it was released last August. I had started scribbling some typically half-formed thoughts, as one might expect from a half-formed brain, and then got distracted by… something… I can’t remember what. I hope it was an important distraction, because Life Assisted Suicide is deserving of attention. Which is why, six months later, I feel compelled to finish what I started.

The EP is the first release by Philadelphia’s Moros, a triumvirate whose members have spent time in such other fine bands as Krieg and Occult 45. What you’re reading now isn’t the first attention given to the EP at this site. It appeared on the year-end list of Krieg’s Neill Jameson that we posted here in December, where he had this to say about it: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KZOHH, HÜZÜN, WINTER NIGHTS, NUCLEUS, WORSHIP OF KERES

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 12 Responses »

Feb 182016

I mentioned yesterday that this week has brought yet another flood of new music. Continuing to sift through what I’ve been seeing and hearing, I’d like to share and recommend new songs and videos from five bands today. Lots of diversity here…

KZOHH

The Ukrainian black metal band KZOHH includes members of such other excellent groups as Khors and Reusmarkt, among others. In early December I included some words about a great song named “Alousia et Pestilentia Ignearia” from their just-released second album, Rye. Fleas. Chrismon.

Yesterday the band released a multi-camera, pro-shot live video of their performance at the Via Sinistra III Festival in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on December 6, 2015. The name of the song performed in the video is “Massebegravelser”, which is also from Rye. Fleas. Chrismon. Continue reading »

FAST CASKETS

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 17 Responses »

Feb 162016

I seem to have the attention span of a fruit fly. I was working on a “Seen and Heard” round-up of newly discovered music and decided to pause and take a quick spin through the NCS in-box. There I discovered a new video and more new songs, prolonged my break long enough to give them a quick listen — and then a longer listen — and then it occurred to me I could package them together under a clever post title. Sometimes having a short attention span is not all bad.

The bands are Black Fast, Casket Raider, and Casket Robbery.

BLACK FAST

This first song isn’t new, but it happens to be one I’ve liked a lot since I first heard it last year, and this time it’s packaged in the form of a new lyric video. Continue reading »

DAYS OF YORE: DARK AMBIENT, BLACK METAL, AND THE BIRTH OF DUNGEON SYNTH (VOLUME 1)

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 16 Responses »

Feb 152016

(Kaptain Carbon returns to NCS with a feature devoted to Dungeon Synth”. Kaptain Carbon operates Tape Wyrm, a blog dedicated to current and lesser known heavy metal. He also writes Dungeon Synth reviews over at Hollywood Metal as well as moderating Reddit’s r/metal community. We’ve heard that he is also a fantastic dungeon master and has some wonderful EDH decks.)

If you have been following my exploits and research into dungeon synth, this article should come as no surprise. For the past year or so I have taken a swan dive into this genre without any hesitation or thought of the consequences. If you are new to dungeon synth, allow me to give you a proper introduction.

OCEANS OF SLUMBER: “WINTER”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule 4 Responses »

Feb 152016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Houston’s Oceans of Slumber.)

WARNING – EXTREME AMOUNTS OF CLEAN SINGING AHEAD

Ahem, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me just say that I’ve honestly fallen in love with this album after being introduced to it by the Angry Metal Guy himself a few weeks back. And whilst it’s not 100% perfect, there’s definitely something special, and truly unique, about Winter.

Rather than racing out of the gate and grabbing you by the throat, the album opts instead for a sublime slow-burn, beginning with the sombre, slowly unfurling strains of its title-track whose gleaming fretwork and subtle, progressive drumming provide a languid canvas upon which the utterly astounding and captivating vocals of Cammie Gilbert take centre stage.

It’s several minutes before the band unveil their heavier side, dropping into a sonorous, distortion-soaked groove, layered with scintillating, shamelessly progressive lead guitar work and gorgeous atmospheric touches and interspersed with some impressively gruff, pseudo-melodic vocals and rough-hewn growls, which play off against Gilbert’s silken tones perfectly, as the song builds to a stunningly powerful, Prog-Death denouement.

It’s quite unlike anything else I’ve heard in some time, and provides a perfect example of the album’s distinctive blend of proggy intricacy and metallic intensity. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MANTAR, GERM, GRAVDAL, NOX FORMULAE, KASSAD, DISSVARTH

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 5 Responses »

Feb 152016

I had originally planned to post this yesterday, to make the Sabbath blacker, but didn’t quite get it finished. I’ve collected five new songs from forthcoming albums and a brief review of an EP released last month. The songs are stylistically diverse — in fact, this is one of those installments of this column where not all of the music is even going to fit the broadest definitions of black metal — yet there is a shared “depressive” quality among many of the songs (and I use the term in a genre sense). And of course I found everything very good and very memorable and hope you’ll enjoy it, too.

MANTAR

As I’ve previously written, Mantar’s new album Ode To the Flame is one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of 2016, both because I thoroughly enjoyed their debut album Death By Burning and because I was so blown away by their live performance at last year’s Maryland Deathfest. A few days ago we got our first full glimpse of the new album via the premiere of a song called “Era Borealis“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DEATH FETISHIST, PTAHIL, WALDGEFLÜSTER, CANTIQUE LÉPREUX, GOATPSALM

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 8 Responses »

Feb 122016

I usually post collections such as this one on Sundays, to make the Sabbath blacker. But I’m sitting on so much good new metal in a blackened vein that I decided to share this collection now. I’m hoping to put together another one for Sunday.

DEATH FETISHIST

Just a couple of days ago, the eminent Debemur Morti Productions announced the signing of a new band from Portland, Oregon, named Death Fetishist, whose debut album will be released by the label later this year. To commemorate the blessed event, Death Fetishist released a single-song EP entitled Lucifer Descending yesterday — which follows a two-song EP (Whorifice) released on the first day of this month. Both EPs are available on Bandcamp.

The person behind Death Fetishist is the prolific Matron Thorn, who is also the principal driving force in Ævangelist as well as the protagonist in a large number of solo projects, including Benighted In Sodom. He is the vocalist in Death Fetishist and performs all the instruments other than drums and percussion, which are handled by Grond Nefarious. Continue reading »

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