Album Reviews Archives - Page 74 of 563

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME VIII: SUMMER BLUES & BLACK METAL

Aug 132024

(Below you’ll find Daniel Barkasi‘s reviews of 8 albums released in July that he enthusiastically recommends to you.)

As summer continues its dreadful humidity-laden romp, I’m reminded of a bit from Robin Williams’ (RIP legend) Live on Broadway standup special where he talked about climate change. More specifically, “It’s beyond Global Warming at this point – it is cooking!” Just over 22 years ago, and he got it like only Robin could. Seriously, watch that entire special if you want to writhe in pain from laughter. Some of the references may be dated to some younger than dirt, but man it’s a good time from one of the funniest people to ever live.

Going from my “If I go outside, I’ll be peeling sweat-ridden clothes off like a layer of Saran Wrap” Florida life, a subject that’s been bugging the crap out of me is generative AI. More specifically, it’s application of generating album artwork – and we use the term artwork in this case very loosely. It’s not artwork at all, but a prompt-drive monstrosity that almost always looks like cheap junk. Continue reading »

ZNOUS: “ZNOUSLAND 4”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Aug 122024

(Our Vietnam-based writer Vizzah Harri prepared the following highly entertaining review of the latest album by the Tunisian band Znous, released in early June of this year.)

And now for something completely different. No, I’m not referring to the Flying Circus, the music and the band is anything but unserious. Znous hail from Al Rudayyif, Gafsa in Tunisia and were covered by Andy Synn back in 2021 as “socio-political Punk-Metal firebrands” not to miss.

DUHKHA – A PLACE YOU CAN’T COME BACK FROM

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 122024

(Andy Synn says that listening to the new Duhkha album is an experience you can’t come back from)

While a lot has been written about the various Death Metal bands incorporating more and more stripped-back, straight-to-the-throat Hardcore dynamics over recent years (some more successfully than others, I might add) much less has been written about bands going the other way.

Which is a shame, because the last few years alone have seen the likes of END, Incendiary, Bridge Burner, End Reign, Underneath and Umbra Vitae (whose latest I still haven’t gotten around to reviewing) all stepping up to demonstrate that the lines between the likes of Earth Crisis and Entombed, Overcast and Obituary, Cro-Mags and Cannibal Corpse, have always been blurrier than the “scene police” pretend.

And now we’ve got Duhkha, whose absolutely devastating debut album, A Place You Can’t Come Back From is here to put one more humongously heavy nail in that particular coffin.

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MNAJDRA — “IN THE NAME OF THE GODDESS”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Aug 092024

(Writtenby Islander)

Last year the mysterious U.S. band Mnajdra made a splash with its self-titled debut album. Granted, it was a splash in a far corner of the small tributary of metal that spikes away from the vast ocean of music on a broader scale, but it still sent ripples, especially through devotees of terrorizing yet surprising musical extremity.

We attempted to review the album here, from which this is an excerpt:

The music isn’t easy to sum up, because it draws from scattered wellsprings of black metal, death metal, sludge/doom, post-metal, and psychedelia — whatever works to create wide-ranging sensations of catastrophe…. [B]e prepared to have your head spun and your dreams disturbed.

It is a relief that the secretive people behind Mnajdra, who clearly had done other things before that album, decided not to make the record a one-and-done effort. Instead, they’ve recorded a second album, and we’re thrilled to premiere it today — on the day of its release by Fiadh Productions and Snow Wolf Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MEKIGAH — “TO HOLD ONTO A HEARTLESS HEART”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Aug 092024

(Writtenby Islander)

Metal-Archives currently brands the Australian band Mekigah “Gothic/Doom Metal” based on the band’s first four albums. Based on Mekigah‘s forthcoming fifth album they may have to put an “(early)” parenthetical next to that genre description. But what will they put in front of “(later)”? What kind of genre label does the fifth album suggest? That turns out to be a very tough question.

Mekigah itself describes the new album as “a purposely designed ugly, drawn out, raw, awkward journey,” with “no attempt or desire to either embrace the slow slow doom, to aggressively technically impress or to build upon previous motifs”:

“Everything is caught between worlds, as Mekigah itself is caught between worlds. Nothing is where it belongs as things are uncomfortably forced together through the sheer necessity of only gaining satisfaction via sonic self sabotage and harm, creating audial-mazes which then have to delicately be navigated through.”

What does this mean? We’ll find out together, through our premiere stream of this new album, To Hold Onto A Heartless Heart, now due for release on August 15th via the Aesthetic Death label. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MOON INCARNATE

Album Reviews, Interviews No Responses »

Aug 082024

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ excellent discussion with Christian Kolff and Matin Vasari, with the focus being on their band Moon Incarnate, whose debut album was released earlier this year by Iron Bonehead Productions.)

The death-doom coalition Moon Incarnate was created by experienced members of the German underground: Christian Kolff (guitar, bass, synths), the leader of the prog death-doom act Valborg and five other projects of different directions, as well as Matin Vasari (vocals, synths) from the death metal band Beyondition.

Hymns to the Moon is seven small fantasies on the theme of death-doom of the ’90s, the fruit of love for the legacy of The British Three, Tiamat, Katatonia, Samael, as well and others like them. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ANOXIDE — “MORALS AND DOGMA”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Aug 072024

Twelve years have passed since the birth of Anoxide somewhere in London. In that time they have released a pair of EPs, a demo, and a couple of singles, but nothing in the last six years. And so it comes as something of a surprise that two days from now they will release an album via Ghastly Music, their full-length debut at last.

They’ve titled it Morals & Dogma, and packed it with 9 songs (one of them an instrumental) that explore such subjects as the influence of misinformation in a media-saturated world, inescapable cycles of systemic corruption within society, the exacerbation of socio-economic disparity and the devastating effects of austerity policies on the working class and marginalized communities, the resurgence of far right ideologies, and visions of dystopian futures produced by suffering and inequality.

Weighty subjects to be sure, and there’s powerful heft in the music too, but also head-spinning adventures, as you’ll discover through our full album premiere today. Continue reading »

PRIVATE PRISONS – EXCOMMUNICATION

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 062024

(Andy Synn signs up for a life sentence with Private Prisons)

The joy of discovering new music is something I hope never leaves me.

Sure, everyone loves a good bit of nostalgia now and then, and I’m a big fan of long-running bands continuing to put out excellent work, but there’s something about stumbling across a new band or album that just instantly “clicks” with you that just feels right.

Heck, it’s one of the big reasons I enjoy writing for NoCleanSinging so much in the first place, as it gives me the chance to keep up with new releases and encounter fresh new faces in the scene and then share that experience and my enthusiasm with our readers.

So, without further ado, let’s get nasty with the new album from Californian crushers Private Prisons.

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 052024

(Andy Synn presents four albums from July which may have passed you by)

So apparently it’s August already? How the hell did that happen?!?

And spare me your scientific hocus-pocus about “the linear passage of time” and “the direction of entropy”… all I know is that it was just yesterday I was doing one of these “Things You May Have Missed” columns for June, and someone needs to answer for where all that time in between went.

Now, I know that there were some people who felt like July was a bit of an “off” month – both in terms of quantity and quality – but I’m here to tell you that those people are fools and not to be trusted.

Heck, I could have done an entire separate piece on “Black Metal You May Have Missed” (in fact, I did just that last week) and the number of artists/albums which ended up on the proverbial “cutting room floor” this month was enough to cause me almost physical pain.

Still, I think you’ll enjoy the four records I’ve selected for this month’s article, which cover a pretty decent spread of styles/genres, meaning there should be something for almost everyone.

SHADES OF BLACK: SWAMPWORM, ESOCTRILIHUM, ZEIT DER DUNKELHEIT, NOEN HATER OSS, HORRENDA, VICIOUS BLADE

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Aug 042024

It’s been tough sledding to pick music for this Sunday’s column. Not because of moguls — there’s no snow outside here in the Pacific Northwest, other than in the black metal, where it’s always snowing or sleeting somewhere. No, the sledding has been tough for the usual reason — too damn many options and not enough time.

Here’s what I chose for today before being thrown into a drift, head down, ass up. I think they will keep you off-balance.

SWAMPWORM (Germany)

Based on their name you might think Swampworm play some kind of murky, rotten-to-the-core death metal, but on their new EP Architeuthis they instead lay into a blast-furnace discharge of dissonant black metal and ruinous blackened grindcore, but with a few variations along the way. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries