AQUILUS: “GRISEUS”

 Album Reviews  21 Responses »
Nov 232012
 

Aquilus is the one-man project of an Australian wizard named Horace “Waldorf” Rosenqvist, and Griseus is his one-hour, twenty-minute masterpiece — at least until he creates the next masterpiece.

I first learned of this album in April through a message from an NCS reader who calls himself FistForFun. And then I got another message from him in May, and another in August, and another in October. Though they grew increasingly strident, the content was essentially the same: Pull your head out of your ass and listen to this damn record!  (I kid, FistForFun was more polite than that.)

It only took me seven months, but I’ve finally done that. There is a reason why the slow loris is the official mascot of NCS. Having now heard Griseus, I can understand FistForFun’s enthusiasm.

I think it’s fair to say that Griseus is unlike anything else we’ve ever reviewed at this site. It’s also unlike anything else I can remember ever hearing that could conceivably be classified as metal. The metal elements are scattered in the music — harsh vocals that are sometimes of the shrieking black metal variety and sometimes deep and howling; big booming riffs, heavy chugs, jabbing distorted chords; bouts of double-bass percussion; even a shrill electric guitar solo (in “Latent Thistle”).

But these elements appear infrequently, and even the harsh vocals are balanced by clean vocal harmonies and the sounds of choirs. Yet the vocals themselves are really only accents in what is primarily an instrumental album of neoclassical, folk-influenced orchestral music — one that’s endlessly interesting. Continue reading »

OBOLUS: “LAMENT”

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 232012
 

Lament, grievance, hatred, reflection, desolation. Those could be the five steps of reaction to a wrenching loss or to a wrong inflicted, the steps of an emotional processing that doesn’t end well. Those are also the titles, in order, of the songs on Lament, the remarkable 2012 EP by San Francisco’s Obolus.

The songs flow together, like a five-part suite, creating an immersive atmosphere that’s both beautiful and harrowing in its intensity. The sound of rain begins each song except the one called “Hatred”, and as the music slowly fades at the EP’s end, it rains again. Clouds hang heavy overhead throughout. Storm fronts move through and lash the listener, with brief moments of respite from the deluge before the next front begins its assault.

The first song (“Lament”) is a relatively short instrumental-only piece, comparatively subdued, with no drums to provide an undercurrent of power. The music is slow and sad, consisting principally of a layered acoustic and electric guitar melody.

The following track, “Grievance”, at first continues the mood, slowly building in volume and intensity until a surge of feedback breaks the repeating melody and the song explodes in an attack of blasting drums and a wall of distorted guitar noise. A harrowing, incoherent shrieking can be heard (as it can on “Hatred” and “Desolation”), but just barely, because it’s an almost indiscernible part of the dense background shroud of battering percussion and guitar distortion. A tremolo melody rolls through the haze in repeating waves, enhancing the song’s emotional intensity. Continue reading »

ANCIENT ASCENDANT: “INTO THE DARK”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 222012
 

(We got pretty excited when we saw the news in August that the UK’s Ancient Ascendant were planning to release a new EP.  Now, Andy Synn gives it the once over in this review.)

Ok, so I’ve had this one on the back-burner for a while now it seems. What have I been doing that’s more important? Fuck you. That’s what.

Anyway, I’ve been busy.

But that has given me the chance to give this EP a thorough listen several times over, and really appreciate every second of the music contained therein.

Into The Dark sees the band making a transition away from the sound they established on their first two releases (The Heathen Throne and The Grim Awakening) but managing to do so in a way that feels utterly natural and fresh – expanding their early death metal palette, rather than abandoning it.

The thrashier stylings of The Grim Awakening have been drastically pared back to make room for a more cutting, blackened approach, replacing thrashing vigour with blackened vitriol, while maintaining the monstrous death metal heart of the band. The songs now have more of a cut and thrust to them, slashing and slicing with psychotic precision, where before they were, at times, simply content with a more bludgeoning form of sonic brutality. Continue reading »

EARTHSHIP: “IRON CHEST”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Nov 202012
 

(NCS contributor Tyler Lowery provides this guest review of the new album by Earthship from Berlin.)

In due respect to Earthship’s new album Iron Chest, I’m not going to grease the wheels with any quippy one-liners or give any background at all. I’m just going to hit the ground at a sprint and let the music do its own talking. Earthship have released their second album, and it isn’t an exercise in extravagance or even beauty. It’s raw, no-nonsense sludge metal that would rather kick your teeth in than wow you with any fancy tricks, and because of that, it’s excellent.

The album starts with a bang and rarely slows down. The guitars shake and rumble through stripped-down leads and coherent riffs that have only one job — keep the movement gritty and propel the song into the next battering ram. The bass is fuzzier than a gerbil’s jewels, and the drums are loud and rudimentary. There aren’t tricky solos or self-indulgent post-rock inspired passages of layer upon layer of quiet sound that eventually arrives at something akin to satisfaction.

The leads are brilliant in their simplicity. You won’t find any weedly weedly here. The washed-out guitars play the part of caravan, carrying the music from the beginning to the end. Where your death metal lead guitar will slice through songs like a well sharpened knife, the guitars on Iron Chest present a more blunt approach. Each song is like a club coming swiftly down on the top of your skull. Continue reading »

THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA: “DANZA IIII”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 192012
 

(Kentucky-based guest writer Austin Weber makes a return appearance with this review of the final album by The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, which is out now on the Black Market Activities label.)

Worry sets in when a band announces the departure of founding members, leaving fans to wonder what will become of the music. In these types of situations, rarely does the change lead to a revolution, where a better version of the band’s signature sound emerges despite the loss of key members.

Such questions arose when Josh Travis joined The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza as a replacement for founding member and guitarist Layne Meylain. They were already an interesting band before he came along, but had yet to hone their chaotic output into linear, digestible songs.

The release of Danza III showed a mature band, elevated by a new line-up, as an unstoppable force of laser-guided vitriol. Now with the arrival of Danza IIII:  The Alpha – The Omega, comes a certain sadness as Josh Travis has already left for Glass Cloud, making this the band’s final statement and swansong. This time around they recorded with an even more stripped-down line-up, with Jessie Freeland performing vocals and Josh Travis handling all instruments, samples, and noise.

The most prominent aspect of these songs is how goddamn crushing they are. Each tune is propelled by a thick groove foundation, colliding with dissonant  riffs, whammy abuse, and robotic tapping in the most malevolent way possible. We’ll get to the noise issue in a bit. Continue reading »

ALGAROTHSYUM: “WASTELANDER’S EPOCH”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 182012
 

(Today we continue our series of guest posts with another review by “Andrew Jackson” . This time his subject is an album by Algarothsyum.)

Algarothsyum is a band that, chances are, you have probably never heard of. The band’s first LP is six months old and definitely has not received nearly as much exposure or praise as it should (unfortunately, so is the case for many other bands). So, when my good friend Israel (AKA: TheMadIsraeli) asked if I wanted to write a guest post or three for No Clean Singing this was one band that I just simply had to cover.

Algarothsyum is best described as an Atmospheric Blackened Death Metal band heavily inspired by apocalyptic themes and ideas. According to the band’s ReverbNation page:

 “The concept of Algarothsyum’s theme is based on a world consumed in a post-apocalyptic existence. The music provides an aural soundscape of life and survival in a nuclear wasteland.”

And Algarothsyum first release, Wastelander’s Epoch, is true to this theme. It is an entirely instrumental concept album centered on the hardships of life, catastrophes that lurk around every corner, and events that transpire in a post-apocalyptic world.

Interested yet? Then check this out: Continue reading »

PÕHJAST: “THOU STRONG, STERN DEATH”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 182012
 

(Guest writer Patrick — whose own blog is here — provides this review of the new album by Põhjast, which is out now via Spinefarm Records.)

Põhjast are a black/Viking metal group with members from Estonia and Germany. Early this year they released their first EP, followed by their full-length debut Thou Strong, Stern Death.

These guys are, more clearly and completely than any other band I have ever heard, throwbacks to Bathory, circa Blood Fire Death. The production maintains a similar feel, though it is notably cleaner than on those early works (more similar to Bathory’s final albums). The rough guitar riffs have almost exactly the same tone and the same distinctly thrash-based roots. The stylistic balance between black metal hostility, epic Viking metal passages, stark beauty, and primitive dirtiness is all in full form.

Perhaps most significantly, their vocalist sounds shockingly similar to Quorthon. This guy is a slightly stronger and more in-key singer, but his plaintive howls often come in a tone so like Quorthon’s that I almost forget I’m listening to another band. This, and in fact all my claims in this post, are perhaps most fully evident on the wonderful closing track “The Three Brothers”, though they certainly hold true elsewhere.

With all that said, obviously this band is not at all original in their style. That is the single, glaring fault one might find with this record, as it appears the band does not even pretend to forge their own path. However, as was true of the songs found in Bathory’s great “Viking trilogy”, these tracks are all clearly distinguishable from one another as separate compositions that flow well together, so good songwriting does play a distinct role in their music. Continue reading »

ACYL: “ALGEBRA”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  3 Responses »
Nov 162012
 

(New Zealand-based NCS patron Booker follows up his last guest review with another one.  The subject of this piece is the debut album by a Paris-based band named Acyl, who have a decidedly different approach to metal.)

 

So growing up in the 90’s (OMG! I’m like, so old!!), Sepultura were one of my favourite bands. Some say Arise was their best offering and despise all the ‘world-music/Brazilian’ influence on later releases, most notably Roots. Without wanting to revive the old chestnut of post-Max Sepultura (arguing about which never seems to die), whatever your opinion of Against-onward era Sepultura, or the direction of Soulfly, unarguably both have progressively moved away from the world-music influence into a more stripped-down sound.

Over the same course of time, the Western world has been exposed more and more to the Arab world, and let’s face it, not usually from the likes of Jim Al-Khalili expounding on how insightful those ancient Arab mathematicians and astronomers were, but more likely linked with post 9/11, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, radical Islam, and the like.

Well, who should come along and kill two birds with one stone (or album, more accurately – although really I don’t think the killing of birds was actually involved) but Acyl with their debut LP Algebra out this year – bringing a good ‘world music mixed with metal’ fix, and also some of the goodness the Arab world has to offer in terms of its language (one of the most ancient in the world, consider that for a while if you will) and old-school Arabian musical stylings. In doing so, these guys have achieved something incredibly difficult in this day and age – a debut album with a distinctive, unique sound. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 30: ANTESTOR

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  3 Responses »
Nov 162012
 

(In this milestone edition of The Synn Report, Andy Synn reviews the discography of Norway’s Antestor.)

Recommended for fans of: Cormorant, (early) Dimmu Borgir, Edge of Sanity

I really wanted to do something special to mark the 30th edition of The Synn Report. I searched through my list of worthy bands for a while, before finally settling on Antestor. It certainly helps that they have a new album out (their first in seven years) at the end of the month!

Formed in Jessheim, Norway, in 1990 under the name ‘Crush Evil’, changing to Antestor in 1991, the group have produced 3 full-length albums and one EP of what has been dubbed ‘Sorrow Metal’ – a blending of doomy, melancholic death metal with a depressive black metal undercurrent.

Starting out as they did, both in terms of the time and the place, it was inevitable that the rise of black metal would influence their growth over the years; certainly the speed and intensity of their caustic tremolo passages increased as the years progressed. That said, the group also incorporate some decidedly gothic moments into their sound and augment their classically influenced structures with some distinctly progressive tendencies. Continue reading »

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