NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVANGELIC — “ABOMINATED IMPURITY OF THE OPPRESSED”

Oct 042016

2014 brought the release of the debut album Resurrection Denied by the Roman brutal death metal band Devangelic. They followed that near the end of last year with an EP named Deprecating the Scriptures. And now the band are moving into a new phase in their architecture of destruction, working toward the release of their second full-length in 2017. To provide a a glimpse of this new edifice of sound looming ahead of us, the band have recorded a promo track called “Abominated Impurity of the Oppressed” that will become available for free download today — and we’re bringing you its premiere in this post.

The word “brutal” understates the impact of this new song. It delivers massive, planet-busting riffs operating at maximum efficiency and with maximum destructive impact, in close coordination with titanic grinding lead guitar work and a supremely militaristic drum attack. The near-atonal quality of the song’s enormous grooves, coupled with the vocalist’s ugly gutturals, give the song a cold and merciless feeling that grows increasingly chilling as the minutes pass. The song begins at a furious pace, but slows briefly to ignite a determined bit of pile-driving before resuming laying waste to everyone within earshot. Continue reading »

DORMANT ORDEAL: “WE HAD IT COMING”

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Oct 042016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Poland’s Dormant Ordeal.)

Don’t you just hate it when someone steals your thunder? Case in point, I’ve been jamming We Had It Coming, the second album by Polish brutalisers Dormant Ordeal, for a good while now, waiting for the right time and the right opportunity to write about it, only for the ne’er do wells at Invisible Oranges to sneak in and feature the album at the top of their most recent From The Bandcamp Vaults column. The blaggards.

Still, I suppose it actually might save me some time and effort in the long run, as their write-up – particularly the phrase “influenced by fellow Polish legends Decapitated with a touch of Ulcerate” – is pretty much entirely on point, and I’m not sure exactly what else I can add.

But, then again, there’s every chance that many of our readers won’t also be IO readers, and I do so love to pontificate about albums that I love… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SORDIDE — “L’OMBRE”

Premieres No Responses »

Oct 042016

Two days ago, in one of our regular Sunday posts about black metal, I raved about a song (“Révolte”) I had come across by a band from Rouen, France, named Sordide. One thing led to another, and today we’re bringing you the chance to listen to another new Sordide song named “L’ombre“. Like “Révolte”, it appears on the band’s new album, Fuir la lumière (escape the light), which will be released tomorrow by Avantgarde Music — and if you come back to our site tomorrow you’ll have a chance to hear the whole album, because we’re premiering that, too.

The new album comes a bit less than two years after Sordide’s debut album, La France a peur, and after two French tours as well as gigs in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I’m going to resist the temptation to write about the album as a whole — or I’ll having nothing more to say tomorrow when we present a full album stream. So for now, I’ll just spill a few words about “L’ombre”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BRUTALLY DECEASED — “SATANIC CORPSE”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Oct 032016

Armed with a hellish imagination and the artistic talent to bring his nightmares to life on canvas, Paolo Girardi has executed an extensive array of album covers in his career, but none more monstrous than the one that’s savaging your eyeballs right now. And what’s more, this grotesquery is a perfect match for the strikingly savage music that lies within this particular album. And that album is Satanic Corpse by a group of Czech death dealers named Brutally Deceased. It’s being released by Doomentia, and we have for you a full stream of the album right here, right now.

We have some history with this band. Our first post about them appeared back in January 2011, with a review of their debut album Dead Lover’s Guide, decorated with photos of gigantic chainsaws — because the HM-2 force is strong with these ones, and has remained so through today. Continue reading »

INSOMNIUM: “WINTER’S GATE”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Oct 032016

(DGR reviews the new album by Finland’s Insomnium, which is out now.)

A few times over the course of my time here I’ve been able to function as an NCSstrodamus of sorts, and when it came to Insomnium’s recently released album Winter’s Gate, that time came once again. Winter’s Gate is Insomnium’s seventh full-length release and one of those albums where we could not possibly have been more prepared for it, almost like a couple of the reviews we’ve done this year were prescient glimpses into the future, so that when the band announced that Winter’s Gate would function as one strict over-forty-minute-long song, we were ready for it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECHELON — “PLAGUE OF THE ALTRUISTIC”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Oct 032016

I’m trying very hard to tone down the giddiness I feel as I’m writing this. If the words just peter out before I finish, you’ll know I had an aneurism from the effort. I’ve already wet myself, but the less said about that the better. And the cause of this overflow of excitement? First of all, two of my own personal metal gods — Dave Ingram and Rogga Johansson — have teamed up in a band named Echelon. And furthermore, we get to bring you a premiere of the first single from Echelon’s second album The Brimstone Aggrandizement. And furthermore, it’s as good as I imagined it would be.

Yes, you read that correctly. Dave Ingram, the former Bolt Thrower and Benediction vocalist and current vocalist for Hail of Bullets, has joined forces with guitarist Rogga Johansson, whose resume is nearly long enough to bridge the chasm between Earth and Moon and includes Paganizer, Demiurg, Putrevore, and Megascavenger. And that’s not all — check out the rest of Echelon’s savage line-up for this new album: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): SORDIDE, ENDLESS LOSS, CULTO NEGRO, 9 BEDS

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Oct 022016

This is Part 2 of a collection of metal in a black vein that I began earlier today. In this second half of the round-up I’ve chosen a couple of advance tracks from forthcoming albums and two recent EPs. I’ve again made these choices in part to provide variety and in part (of course) because the music is all very good.

SORDIDE

Sordide are from Rouen, France, with one album to their credit so far (2014’s La France a peur) and a 2015 single (Crève salope, a Renaud cover song). Their second album, Fuir la lumière (escape the light), is now set for release through Avantgarde Music on October 5th. A double-LP version will follow from Avantgarde Music, Immortal Frost Productions, Lost Pilgrims Records, and Saka Cost, and the tape version will be released by Breathe Plastic Records.

As best I can recall, I haven’t encountered Sordide’s music before, but I sure as hell am loving the first advance track from their new album. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): EASTERN FRONT, FLUISTERAARS, INSONUS, SURTR

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 15 Responses »

Oct 022016

We didn’t have an actual music post yesterday, so I’ve doubled up on this Sunday’s Shades of Black installment. In Part 1 I’ve selected three new songs, the first of which comes with a video, plus a full stream of a new demo. I’ll post Part 2 later today after I’ve finished writing it, barring a meteor strike on my house or an armed insurrection in the loris compound.

EASTERN FRONT

The British black metal band Eastern Front released their third album Empire (via Cacophonous Records) two days ago. Since their last album, 2014’s Descent Into Genocide, they’ve had a change of vocalists, with frontwoman Marder replacing frontman Nagant. On the official release date, the band also debuted a video for the third track on Empire, “The Fire Consumes“. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (CRYPTOPHOBISM)

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET, THE REARVIEW MIRROR 7 Responses »

Oct 022016

Yesterday I provided a teaser about the subject of today’s look back into metal’s past. I discovered this band and their two demos from the ’90s through a YouTube link to the song I streamed in yesterday’s post, which popped up in a Facebook conversation between a well-known underground label owner and an even more well-known musician, both of whom have enough gray hair that they may actually have heard these demos around the time of their release.

The band in question is Cryptophobism, and they were from Varna, Bulgaria. Their two demos were released in 1993 and 1998; the first one was a recording of a rehearsal. The one I’m focusing on here is the 1998 demo, which contains four tracks totaling about 15 minutes, one of which also appeared on the rehearsal demo. Continue reading »

BLOG BREAk

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Oct 012016

I’m going to spend today catching up on some personal shit, doing some shit for my day job, and trying to finish a couple of reviews that have been languishing all week and that I hope won’t be shit when I’m finished with them.

I tried to negotiate with the loris horde to see if they would team up and write about some music for today. That didn’t work out so well. But on the upside, I’ve nearly got the bleeding stopped, though I don’t have as much ass as I used to have. One of these days I’ll learn not to turn my back on those vicious fuckers.

Anyway, I’m taking a break. But just in case you’re all caught up on the ton of music we wrote about over the last week, I’ll leave you with this magnificent little monster. If you can’t guess what it is (and I’ll be really impressed if you do), I’ll explain in tomorrow’s Rearview Mirror post: Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries