MISERY INDEX: “THE KILLING GODS”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
May 152014
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Baltimore’s Misery Index.)

Misery Index have really come into their own over the course of their last couple of records.  Their transformation (for lack of a better term) from Dying Fetus-lite to a straight-up death metal titan all their own has been a pleasure for my ears, and has resulted in some of the finest death metal you can get your hands on nowadays.  I’ve always liked this brand of death metal (Man Must Die do something similar) — lots of grindcore, old school death metal riffage, hardcore groove, and the odd incorporation of melodic death metal, but with their own flavor, not to mention a taste for lyrical sociopolitical vitriol.  Of course, key early members of Misery Index were in Dying Fetus first, which had made a name as a musically excellent death metal band that addressed social issues with the anger and outrage they deserved.

The Killing Gods is the Misery Index standard-setter.  The song writing fat (what little fat there was) has been trimmed and the songs have been turned into efficient killing-machine Spartan warriors.  A toning down of the grindcore elements results in riffs that stick out more, quite a bit more melody has been introduced, and the central focus of this record seems to lean heavily on their particular brand of imperialistic might.  Misery Index have always had this quality, and it’s a vibe unique to them I think.  The “imperial vibe” has always been a Polish standard, but Misery Index never sound like they are copping the Polish sound.  Something is distinctly American, distinctly ruthless, about the majesty presented on The Killing Gods.  This truly is the definitive Misery Index record. Continue reading »

REMNANTS OF 2013 (PART 3)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
May 152014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 (and 2012) releases that he feels were overlooked.  This is Part 3 of a four-part piece; we’ll have the final part tomorrow.)

AEONS OF ECLIPSE

How I missed out on this killer death/black metal band from my home state of Kentucky is beyond me. As I found out, Aeons Of Eclipse is unfortunately now broken up, and The Parasite was released after they broke up, but it’s a damn fine statement.

The Parasite walks a fine line between old school influence and modern complexity without devolving into lead guitar overload all the time. Aeons of Eclipse find a solid balance between dark, furious riffing, smooth fitting melodies, and brutality without boring you. This is one of those highly consistent from start to finish albums that beg to be bought and replayed while headbanging relentlessly.

http://aeonsofeclipse.bandcamp.com/ Continue reading »

OCULUS INFERNUS: IN WHICH THE PROFESSOR EXAMINES P.L.F., DEMON HEAD, PORTRAIT, AND FARTBARF

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 152014
 

(Professor D. Grover the XIIIth surfaces from his investigations of the nether regions with his findings on four bands.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. Your Honorable Professor finds himself in the midst of a very busy time, between four weddings (two in the last week, two more in the next three weeks), three birthday parties (my daughter, whom you may remember as the original Baby XIII, is now four years old, my nieces are to be three, and my nephew will be eight), an impending stretch of working ten days in a row, and vain attempts to find time to work on a fantasy novel that has been kicking around in my head (and thus far exists only in a handwritten form and a collection of notes on the world, characters, and magic system). My music listening time has been more limited than in the past, but that has not stopped me from finding some semblance of listening time.

Thus, I bring you four more practitioners, in their own ways, of the Devil’s Musick. As always, I am attempting to cover groups not previously mentioned within the fine pages of No Clean Singing (apologies if some of these have been mentioned, as I am basing these claims off a cursory search and little else). Let us commence! Continue reading »

DEVIN TOWNSEND: “CASUALTIES OF COOL”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  8 Responses »
May 142014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Devin Townsend.)

When it comes to Exceptions To The Rule here at NCS, there’s one man who’s clearly the most exceptional of all. And it’s a damn good thing too, because the music on Casualties of Cool is simultaneously fantastic, rewarding, and thoroughly outside of the usual NCS ethos.

In fact if I had to describe this one in simple terms, I’d call it “Canadian Space Country”.

Wait, come back…!

It’s really, really good! Continue reading »

REMNANTS OF 2013 (PART 2)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
May 142014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 releases that he feels were overlooked.  This is Part 2 of a four-part piece; we’ll have the other parts on each of the remaining days this week.)

REDEEMING TORMENT

The French seem to have a stranglehold on killer brutal complex death metal bands, a diverse but somewhat familiar regional style if you will, with various shades. Approaching the more brutal side of things are Redeeming Torment. This brutetechtesticular raging group rarely relent on their 2013 EP, The Dominion, but their penchant for thundering grooves gives the music a strong sense of dynamics, and they are adept at delivering a wall of thick, feverish sound that sticks with you.

The band are offering The Dominion for free, as I saw from a link they posted on their Facebook page: Continue reading »

REMNANTS OF 2013 (PART 1)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
May 132014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 releases that he feels were overlooked.  This is Part 1 of a four-part piece; we’ll have the other parts on each of the remaining days this week.)

At a certain point, from time to time, trying to cover a lot of different bands in a single article can feel like a chore — a chore similar to an ugly child left in the ICU, one whom I have finally found the time to visit and finally snuff out! But I hope the emotional reaction you have is different from how it felt to complete another mammoth article. [Editor’s intrusion: I’ve divided this piece into four parts in an effort to make the readers’ emotional reaction more pleasurable.]

Much like last year, when I compiled a Remnants of 2012 post, I once again found some music I felt the metal scene greatly overlooked. Unfortunately, I’m overloaded in my life right now, so I don’t have time to write as much as I would like about each of these releases. A few of them are also from 2012, deal with it. And a few aren’t metal, deal with that too. Enjoy! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VINTERBRIS, BINAH, TENGGER CAVALRY

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  15 Responses »
May 122014
 


Vinterbris — drawing by Kim Holm

A lot of music and videos reached my ears and eyes over the weekend and today, and I’ve been collecting the best of what I heard in a series of posts. I guess I could have called all of them “Seen and Heard”, but I labeled the first one today “Videography”, and the next one (to be posted tomorrow) will be “Shades of Black”. Here are the next three goodies:

VINTERBRIS

I first came across this band from Bergen (Norway) last month after discovering that the very talented Norwegian artist Kim Holm had created the cover art for their forthcoming new album, Solace. I found an advance song named “Fathoms”, liked it a lot, and featured it here. (You can listen to another one at Pitchfork, where Kim Kelly spotlighted it.)

Today Vinterbris unveiled a wonderful music video for another new song, “Dysphoria”, which fittingly features Kim Holm’s creation of artwork for the songs on the album. As the band have explained, nothing in this video is sped up or otherwise altered. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A FULL ALBUM STREAM OF MIASMAL’S “CURSED REDEEMER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  13 Responses »
May 122014
 


From the first seconds of the first song on Cursed Redeemer, Sweden’s Miasmal rip the door open on a death metal blast furnace, and the conflagration doesn’t diminish (much) from then until the album’s final notes. It’s an adrenaline rush that also happens to be adroitly composed and performed with top-shelf skill, and we’re damned happy to bring you a stream of the whole scorching thing, right here, right now, on the day before its US release.

Miasmal (who include two members of the excellent Agrimonia) call Gothenburg home, but don’t be fooled by the geography: This isn’t melodic death metal (though the songs do include a slew of memorable melodic hooks), and it’s not predominantly gore-drenched or doom-driven death metal either.

If you’re familiar with the history of death metal in Sweden, then you know that it was influenced in its early development more by punk and d-beat hardcore than the scene in the U.S., and that comes through loud and clear in Cursed Redeemer. But these dudes also know how to kick out some mighty galvanizing thrash licks, too. And they also deliver blunt-force trauma with convincing enthusiasm. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HUMAN BODIES

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
May 082014
 

I have poor impulse control.  Many people with poor impulse control die young. In my case, over many years, impulsive decisions have worked out to be good decisions. I know this is nothing more than being lucky in my dice rolls with an uncaring universe, but the experience hasn’t exactly motivated me to stop being impulsive.

Take last night for example. I have many partially written NCS pieces that are beginning to grow moss because they’ve been neglected for so long, not to mention a variety of interviews and reviews I told various people I would do but have not yet started. But did I make headway on any of those things-to-do? No I did not.

Instead, I impulsively checked out a link to a song posted on Facebook by someone whose taste has proven to be congruent with my own. And that song turned into five, and now I’m writing this — because it all worked out, yet again.

I think the soil of my mind had already been furrowed and fertilized and made ready for the seeds sewn by Human Bodies after listening to a song by the band Dripback whose album Andy Synn reviewed for us yesterday. Which is to say, I was already hammered by pissed-off music and was in the mood to receive more. Continue reading »

SCHAMMASCH: “CONTRADICTION”

 Album Reviews  17 Responses »
May 082014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the second album, released late last month in Europe, by the Swiss band Schammasch.)

Oh how I have fallen in love with this album. All 85 fantastic minutes of it. Over the course of nine songs, straddling two cds, the music on Contradiction combines elements drawn from some of my all-time favourite artists – the primal riffage of Keep of Kalessin, the pained rhythms of Deathspell Omega, the brooding darkness of Secrets Of The Moon, the impious grandeur of Behemoth – into, something utterly spellbinding.

Yet despite the references I’ve made above, Contradiction is still very much its own distinct entity, the culmination of an ambitious vision, far greater than the mere sum of its parts. Although the band’s underlying DNA shares many strands in common with the Black Metal genre, the music they produce interbreeds and interweaves elements from across the metallic spectrum, a natural synthesis of dissonant sounds and disparate styles all combined in one bold, enlightened display of unbound creativity. Continue reading »

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