Reviews Archives - Page 352 of 601

EARTH ROT: “RENASCENTIA”

Mar 292017

(Andy Synn reviews the new second album by Australia’s Earth Rot.)

As much as some people hate it, I find making comparisons between bands to be very useful when writing reviews, as they help me to set the reader/listener on the right path, and allow me to put them in the right frame of mind when listening to a new album.

But picking and choosing the right references to make is more of an art than a science, and inferring what other bands may have influenced a certain artist is more complex still.

Case in point, during a recent conversation about the heavy influence of Dismember and early Entombed (particularly in their cutting, buzzsaw-through-bone guitar tone) I hear when listening to Earth Rot, two of the band’s members happened to chime in to inform me that, as a matter of fact, none of them are massive fans of either group, and would all consider both Dark Funeral and Emperor to have had a much greater impact on their sound than anything from the Stockholm scene!

Like I said, it’s an art, not a science…

Still, now that it’s been made painfully clear I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, what else can I actually say about Renascentia?

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “ADVENIENS”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Mar 282017

(DGR turns in one of his typically detailed reviews, this time focusing on the new album by Italy’s Hideous Divinity.)

I tried something different with my first few listens of the new Hideous Divinity album Adveniens. I put the whole thing into a shuffled order, so that the first few times Adveniens breathed life into my speakers, it was done in a random order each time. I did so because I wanted to really see what songs captured my attention, which ones really reached out into the ether and punched me hard enough to make me check what song I was on.

I say this, in part, because the branches of the hyperblasting brutal-death metal tree that Hideous Divinity hail from are many, and at times it can be difficult for bands to stick out. Now three albums deep, Hideous Divinity have never had too much of an issue with it — having written their music like lyrical mad scientists unleashed upon the brutal death world — but the line between a solid hunk of speedy and caveman-level groove-heavy death metal and the monotonous whirring of a truck engine can be a little thin, and even the best of bands have failed the wire-walking act and fallen into that crevasse before. Adveniens does not. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 20): IN AETERNUM, ACOD, FIDES INVERSA, NASTY SURGEONS

Album Reviews No Responses »

Mar 282017

(We welcome the return of our Norwegian friend Gorger with the first 2017 installment of his ongoing series embarrassing us about releases we’ve overlooked. To find more of his discoveries, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

Ah, finally back in the NCS saddle. This is my first post on this putrid site in 2017. About fucking time.

I decided to get off to a soft start; EPs. I wrote down a dozen candidates, but when finished removing those that had been covered here, I was left with only three. Although a small number of items suits me just fine, I’ve added a short review of an album to make the equation true. I’ve sorted them by release date, not that it matters. Continue reading »

WOLFHEART: “TYHJYYS”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Mar 272017

(DGR reviews the new album by Finland’s Wolfheart.)

Tyhjyys, the new album by Finland’s Wolfheart, is a moody album, shrouded in fog, happy to stew in cold and detached misery. It has actually shown itself to be an excellent soundtrack for the rain-drenched and fog-shrouded drives home from work in the month since its release, the perfect encapsulation for grey skies and dense mist rolling in off the water.

Tyhjyys also marks the third album for founder Tuomas Saukkonen’s Wolfheart project — his name should be at least somewhat familiar as the founder of many an NCS-covered band: Before The Dawn and Black Sun Aeon, to name two — itself having since evolved into a full group as of 2015’s Shadow World album.

It is also a disc of transformation — one that sees Wolfheart traversing from one genre to another, finally giving into their gloomier leanings and going for the melodeath/doom hybrid that the region traffics in so well. And it does so organically across eight songs, starting out with music that feels like it is picking up right where Shadow World left off and slowly getting colder and colder from there before finally landing on its title song and overall theme of the album. Fitting for a release whose title translates to the word ‘Emptiness’. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET (PART 2): CAGE OF CREATION, TORCH THE SKY, DEAD SOUL ALLIANCE

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Mar 252017

This is the second part of a collection of short reviews that I began earlier today (here). The idea was to focus on new EP-length releases I had recently discovered and enjoyed, though the ones addressed below are substantial — all of them in the 24-to-26-minute range.

CAGE OF CREATION

The first release in this collection (III) is the final part of a trilogy of EPs by the Russian trio Cage of Creation. It was released on March 4th. I became enamored of it almost immediately, from the first ringing, scratchy notes, the burly bass line, and the dark chant in the opening track, “Act IX”. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET (PART 1): PUTERAEON, ENSEPULCHER, SONS OF FAMINE

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Mar 252017

I decided to devote a couple of this Saturday’s posts to new or newly discovered short releases. I’ve also started work on a SEEN AND HEARD round-up of advance tracks from forthcoming releases, though I’m not sure when I’ll finish that one. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday. There will be a SHADES OF BLACK feature tomorrow as well. Hope you enjoy these first three EPs.

PUTERAEON

When last we heard from Sweden’s Puteraeon back in 2014 they had inflicted The Crawling Chaos upon us, which was their third album. They have returned this month with a new three-song EP, The Empires of Death. They’ve launched videos for two of those songs so far, “Providence” and “At the Altars” (which was just released today), and there will be one for the third track, “Epitaph“, as well. Continue reading »

HERETOIR: “THE CIRCLE”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule 6 Responses »

Mar 242017

(This is Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Germany’s Heretoir.)

“Post-Black Metal” is a funny old term. Its relatively amorphous nature means that no-one can really fully agree quite what it refers to, or quite what its defining characteristics are as a (sub)genre.

But, to my mind, in order to be considered “Post Black Metal” a band has to have at least some actual Black Metal in their sound (yes, I know that, strictly speaking, “Post” implies after/beyond, but no-one expects a Post-Metal or Post-Rock band to NOT have any Metal/Rock in them, do they?).

It’s not enough to just have a little bit of blackened DNA left over in your system, or just to count certain bands among your influences… if your music doesn’t contain at least some of the sonic markers of Black Metal, then why even bother referring, even obliquely, to it at all?

The reason I’m saying all this is that there are a lot of bands out there, particularly in these Post-Alcest years, who could be considered as Post- “Post Black Metal” at this point, and a full 666 degrees of separation removed from the genre from which they (supposedly) derive their sound.

And while there are those who still think/act like using the words “Black Metal” gives whatever they’re talking about a certain amount of instant credibility, the truth of the matter is that the over-use of terms like “Black Metal” and “Post Black Metal” has not only diluted their meaning in a frankly rather unhelpful manner, but also led to many otherwise worthwhile artists being judged (and found wanting) by a wholly inappropriate set of standards.

So please, don’t think of The Circle as a “Post Black Metal” album. It’s not. But if you judge it on its own merits, by what it is, rather than what you think it should be, I think you’ll find that it really is a great album on its own terms. Continue reading »

FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY: “THE GREAT COLLAPSE”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Mar 222017

(Andy Synn reviews the fourth album by New Jersey’s Fit For An Autopsy.)

It’s a little-known fact, but we actually quite like Deathcore here at NCS… at least, when it’s done well.

After all, our purview has always been to write about Metal, in all its forms, regardless of style or sub-genre. As long as it’s good, as long as it has the passion, the power, and the energy we’re looking for, we’ll write about it.

It doesn’t matter if the band is big or small, new or old, mainstream or underground. Black Metal, Death Metal, Prog, ‘core, or Post-… if the quality is there we’ll do our darnedest to cover it.

Which leads us, nicely, to the new album by New Jersey noisemongers Fit For An Autopsy. Continue reading »

DEVIN TOWNSEND / TESSERACT / LEPROUS – LIVE AT ROCK CITY, NOTTINGHAM 18/03/17

Concert Reviews 3 Responses »

Mar 212017

(Andy Synn attended the performance of Devin Townsend, Tesseract, and Leprous in Nottingham, England, on March 18th and files this report.)

Despite the fact that this site is called “No Clean Singing” we’re actually big fans of clean sung vocals here… well, in the right circumstances anyway.

No, the site’s moniker originally stemmed not from a blanket hatred of clean singing, but from Islander and co’s growing dissatisfaction with all the bands shoehorning clean vocals into their songs in a desperate attempt to appear more “accessible”, and therefore more marketable, at the cost of both their overall intensity and their underlying integrity.

I personally have a lot of love, and a lot of respect, for bands on the heavier end of the spectrum who are able to integrate and incorporate clean vocals into their sound in a way that feels totally natural. After all, it’s generally a lot more difficult to hold onto a melody and to hit all the right notes than it is to simply scream your lungs out atop a parade of blastbeats/breakdowns/bombastic riffs (not that I’m attempting to downplay the skill and strain involved in being a good screamer/growler).

So when a show like this rolls around, featuring three bands whose singers are all capable of knocking it completely out of the park (and practically into orbit) with their clean singing abilities, you’d best believe that we’re going to write about it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CRANEIUM, SUICIDE WRAITH, ENDON, NAGA, MOSS UPON THE SKULL

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Mar 182017

I’m in a jam again. This was a busy week for me at my fucking day job, and I had a bunch of personal stuff to deal with that was unrelated to NCS, so I didn’t have time to post any round-ups of new music on top of the other things I did write and edit. I didn’t even have time to make my all of the usual daily forays through our clogged in-box or pay close attention to the music that friends and bands were posting on Facebook.

Even so, when I started listening to new things last night I had a large list of songs to check out. I liked more of those than I’ve got time to write about now. I picked the following five because they make a diverse playlist (and because they’re really good, of course).

CRANEIUM

I’m beginning with a track that absolutely floored me when I heard it, and it has continued to floor me every time I listen to it again. It’s the final song on an album named Explore the Void by the Finnish band Craneium. Continue reading »

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