MUTOID MAN: “HELIUM HEAD”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  10 Responses »
Jan 102014
 

(Guest writer Leperkahn reviews the new EP by Mutoid Man.)

2013 was the year where I finally came to accept the EP. In years past, I had been a bit of a quantity guy with music: I found it hard to pull out my hard-foraged earned cash to buy less than an album’s worth of music. However, extremely strong EP (and shorter) efforts from Black Crown Initiate, Bolzer, Obliterations, and Exmortus, among others, luckily broke that habit, as I now would easily go for 20 minutes of great music over an hour of decent stuff.

I say this because, had I not kicked that habit, I might never have listened to Mutoid Man’s new EP, Helium Head.

Granted, there were some very strong reasons unrelated to length that spurred me to press play; namely, that this is a “supergroup” featuring Ben Koller of Converge and Stephen Brodsky of Cave In in its ranks. Also, that cover art is pretty alluring.

Thus, I did indeed press play, especially now that the release is Bandcamp-able. Turns out, I should have done this about a month ago when this was released. Continue reading »

TYRANNY ENTHRONED: “BORN OF HATE”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 102014
 

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this review of the 2012 debut album by Tyranny Enthroned.)

“Polish imperialism meets American grit” is pretty much what sums up Tyranny Enthroned on their debut Born of Hate.  They hail from St. Louis, Missouri, and their blistering brand of caustic blackened death is a solid, tried and true approach by a band who’ve got their songwriting chops honed and fine-tuned like long time vets.  This shit is like a sonic napalm run, hell from above and below, with all the ferocity and dignity of a chimera of legend.

The band is a four-piece comprising front man and guitarist Jesse McCoy, bassist Anthony George, drummer Steve Lee, and second guitarist Winston Alvarez (Alvarez is credited as “session/live guitarist” on their Facebook), and together these guys bring it fucking hard.  The Polish imperialism meets American grit statement can be basically broken down to this: Polish speed, melody, and percussive excess, accompanied by more American technicality and explosive attacks.  They bring the two worlds of the pristine royal Polish sound and the American unrestrained violence together very well, creating a debut that is, to say the least, impressive. Continue reading »

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF 2013, PART 2

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 102014
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews albums released in 2013 by Hatesphere, Reptilian Death, and Nephren-Ka.)

That’s right, there’s even more stuff we failed to cover last year. Lots more, in fact. And time is growing short, as we’re slowly starting to see the first of what 2014 has to offer appear in the NCS mailbox.

So it’s time to pick up the pace. Here’s three death metal friendly albums that we unfortunately overlooked last year. All killer, no filler.

Round 2… fight!

HATESPHERE – MURDERLUST

It’s undeniable that The Haunted were/are a key influence on the development of Hatesphere. But where the Swedish legends seemed unable to settle on a style or direction for very long, the Danish death-thrashers have long stuck to their guns and forged themselves a distinctive, manically aggressive, identity – largely thanks to the unswerving dedication of guitarist Peter Hansen. Continue reading »

THE DOWN TRODDENCE: “HOW ARE YOU? WE ARE FINE, THANK YOU”

 Album Reviews  17 Responses »
Jan 102014
 

(In this post India-based guest writer deckard cain reviews the debut album by an Indian group named The Down Troddence.)

As the world turns a year older, as the cosmos realigns itself, as darkness dusts off its latest guise, humanity shall once again usher in a new age of depravity and violence. Sometimes faith is not always associated with religion, but in the gradual degeneration of the human race. 2013 bore witness to tyranny, unilateralism, despotism, and general wanton disregard. Just another page in the book of nations crumbling, economies entering concentration camps, diplomatic acrobatics, and brazen aggression. The passing of the year is just another point of reflection on human unity/irony. How we’ve all joined hands in lighting the fuse that burns ever so slowly, yet moving forward to that eventuality of lasting peace, with a scent of gunpowder.

But amidst all that unappealing chaos is this likeable and harmless variant. A manifestation of notes, tones, and patterns that has grown to become our lifeblood. Heavy music has forever kept our frustrations at bay and in a way made them enjoyable masochistically. It did so in 2013 and it will do it again in 2014, hopefully.

Despite listening to all those international releases, sometimes one does ache for something entirely homebred. Continue reading »

EL DRUGSTORE: “PLAGUE SHIP”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 092014
 

(In this post NCS contributor Austin Weber reviews the debut album by a New Jersey band named El Drugstore.)

After Kevin Conway departed East Of The Wall last year, it didn’t take him long to release something new, through a project called El Drugstore and their debut album Plague Ship. Rounding out El Drugstore’s line-up is current East Of The Wall drummer Seth Rheam, and bassist Roland Alvarado. While sonic comparisons to East Of The Wall could be made, compositionally El Drugstore is playing an entirely different game. In fact, the biggest similarity to East Of The Wall actually has nothing to do with the music, but the song titles, which are oddly funny and reminiscent of the song titles way back on East Of The Wall’s first full-length, Farmer’s Almanac.

El Drugstore often reminds me of the mind-numbing dexterity and style of fellow instrumental metallers Electro Quarterstaff, both structurally and riff/drum-wise, especially during “Wheel Of Sadness” and “The Natives Are Getting Useless”, and at certain parts of other songs. The heart of the rest of their identity resides somewhere between Botch, Keelhaul, and Dysrhythmia. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: WARFORGED — “ESSENCE OF THE LAND”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jan 082014
 

(Earlier this month TheMadIsraeli briefly raved about a Chicago band named Warforged after seeing their video for part of a new EP. Now he reviews the whole thing — still raving.)

Warforged will be the face of American neo-tech death.  Count on it.  If you have become a fan of the heavily blackened and post-y direction of bands like Fallujah, Warforged are an example of the absolute pinnacle of that stylistic hook.  Essence of the Land isn’t a mere EP, or a mere first glimpse, it’s a powerhouse mission statement.

The EP is a sixteen-minute suite of next-level proggy tech precision that looks to boggle the mind and shatter the bones.  This is a perfect song and an absolute haymaker of a way to introduce yourself to the metal audience.  So many things here are so right: The weird intersection between neo-classical and outright alien angular tendencies, the exceptional caliber of riffing and interplay between guitarists Paul Alculessi and Richard Stancato, the scathing vocal assault of Adrian Perez’s transitions from blood-vomit gutturals to blackened last-breath gnashes, it’s all so fucking good. Continue reading »

NAMI: “THE ETERNAL LIGHT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Jan 082014
 

(In this post DGR gets around to reviewing a 2013 album that appeared on his year-end list of best metal.)

For those of you who suffered through my gigantic list of music that I enjoyed in 2013 (which btw, was trimmed down!), you may have spotted, out of nowhere, a disc by a band hailing from Andorra called Nami. I made reference to the fact that by the time the list was read, I would have already been well on my way to reviewing the group’s latest release, The Eternal Light Of The Unconscious Mind, which came out on November 4, 2013. So, welcome to what will likely become something of a recurring bit here on NoCleanSinging called, “DGR attempts frantically to review and talk about a whole bunch of discs that came out last year”.

My discovery of Nami actually dates back to the last few days of the previous site I wrote for. My editor GroverXIII reviewed the group’s debut disc Fragile Alignments and really sang the praises of it – which in my mind was an almost immediate tip to check this band out. He was right. Fragile Alignments had its issues, but the disc was really ambitious for a band just starting out and it held some heavy promise of what this group might do in the future.

Fast forward to 2013 and I see the name again, this time attached to a new album entitled The Eternal Light Of The Unconscious Mind. Having not yet heard it, all I could think was that while Fragile Alignments was an ambitious album in terms of its ethos, lyrics, and what the band were trying to do with the progressive death metal sound, it sure had a mouthful of a name. However, I immediately dove into the disc. Were it not for the fact that I spent much of the back half of the year swearing up and down that I wasn’t going to forget about all the fantastic music that hit in the early part of 2013, Eternal Light Of The Unconscious Mind would’ve ranked super-high on the list — because it is an album that has enveloped me as a listener every time I have given it the chance to do so. Continue reading »

A DEFENSE OF BLACK SABBATH’S “13”

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Jan 072014
 

(Guest writer marious has delivered unto us this review and defense of an album with an unlucky title by a band named Black Sabbath. I know I’ve heard that name somewhere…)

Hey all, this post is something of a defense of Black Sabbath’s 13. So, batten down the hatches, because I’m going to rant about some clean singing old guy metal for a little bit. I personally think this album is pretty incredible and a lot of people seem to be refusing to give it a fair chance due to some really negative hype online and their own preconceptions. If you have given the album a full listen or two and still don’t like it, I doubt I will persuade you. I’m not going to appeal to a sense of nostalgia or what not to bring the faithful back to the fold. This is for those people who have yet to hear it, or have only listened to one or two tunes at a glance. So, here goes.

One of the most common complaints I hear is that Ozzy can’t really sing anymore and that the processing on his voice is simply a method of making his singing passable. Honestly, Ozzy was never that great of a singer. His vocal patterns were always relatively simple in Sabbath and his range is not all that wide, but he’ll always be the voice people associate the most with Black Sabbath. However, if you listen to his vocal patterns on 13, they are pretty different from the classic Ozzy-era Sabbath stuff. Generally, he would sing along directly with the rhythm, but he has broken into some more interesting patterns on 13. I’ve heard a bunch of the new tracks live via the interwebs, and while it does sound like his voice is getting a bit strained, it is pretty much the same as it’s always been to me. The vocal processing on 13 doesn’t sound bad or out of place to me, especially since Sabbath had been using effects on Ozzy’s voice well before he was “too old to sing”. Check out Planet Caravan from Paranoid for a bit of evidence. Continue reading »

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF 2013, PART 1

 Album Reviews  18 Responses »
Jan 032014
 

(In this post Andy Synn begins a series of short reviews of selected 2013 albums that we failed to review before the year ended.)

2013 was a fantastic year for metal, if I do say so myself. The sheer wealth of stellar material produced – from old favourites to new discoveries – was absolutely astounding. As a result there was always going to be a lot of stuff that simply fell below the radar, or which was missed out due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Obviously we try to cover as wide a spread of stuff as possible here at NCS, but even the combination of the five of us, plus our many guest contributors,  can’t give our full attention to absolutely everything that comes out during the year.

It’s an unavaoidable consequence of a year in which there was simpy too much to deal with all at once. An enviable position in many ways, but an unfortunate one in others.

As such, there’s a host of albums that I listened to – and loved – last year that I never got the chance to write about. So I’m going to dedicate the next week or two to briefly covering some of those records that I/we didn’t manage to write about last year, and try and give them their due. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: COGNIZANCE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  11 Responses »
Jan 032014
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli brings us another recent discovery — a brand new two-song demo by an English band named Cognizance.)

It would appear there is a quality death metal overflow from 2013 left over; first Warforged (featured here yesterday), now these dudes.  Cognizance play an extremely violent brand of tech death that calls to mind Cryptopsy, Aeon, a lot of Polish and Italian influences, and just overall kick assery.

This is really turbulent stuff and completely brings the brutality in spades.  Looking forward to seeing what these guys pull out later this year.  Enjoy the two-song demo they just released, which is a “pay what you want” download at Bandcamp. Continue reading »

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