NO CLEAN SINGING

DÉPARTE: “FAILURE, SUBSIDE”

Sep 232016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Tasmania’s Départe.)

So this is the point where I would usually say something about how great the last few years have been in terms of Australia’s Metal exports, coupled with some tongue-in-cheek reference to the country’s proclivity for producing some of the world’s most vicious and venomous creatures… the Box Jellyfish, the Eastern Brown Snake, Mel Gibson… ok, I know that last one’s originally from America, but cut me some slack ok? It’s hard to be funny when you’ve just had your eardrums pummelled and your soul scalded by an album like Failure, Subside. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DOOMED — “ANNA”

Premieres 16 Responses »

Sep 232016

The new album Anna by the German project Doomed is astonishing — astonishing in its conception, astonishing in its execution. Immensely evocative, as intricate and meticulously crafted as a Byzantine mosaic, and as staggeringly heavy as a cascade of bunker-busting bombs, in all ways I can think of it’s one of the most powerful albums I’ve heard this year.

Now, how do I back up those over-the-top accolades? I will try, but fortunately I don’t have to rely entirely on my own strained efforts, because at the end of this post a full stream of the album awaits you. Be good to yourself, and seize the chance to hear it in advance of its September 26 release by Solitude Productions. Continue reading »

RANDOM REVIEWS: MARTRÖÐ, VAULTING, DAGGER MOON, MASTER BOOT RECORD

Reviews 6 Responses »

Sep 222016

I wish I had more time to write reviews of new releases, not because anyone really needs them but because it helps ME to unbottle my enthusiasm and to offer public thanks to bands who brighten my days. Reviews may be especially unnecessary in the case of EPs and albums that have already appeared on Bandcamp, as these have, where the sounds are far more meaningful than any words written about them. But I suppose scribbling at least a few words may help guide a few souls to the music streams…

…and so here is some brief scribbling about four recent releases that can now be heard and acquired on Bandcamp. Apart from the quality of these releases and the breadth of the variety in styles they represent, I picked them out of the hundreds of worthy releases I haven’t written about this year because they happened to be the ones I’ve spent time with most recently.

MARTRÖÐ

Thanks to an e-mail from our Norwegian friend eiterorm (and several other friends on Facebook), I learned in August that the band Martröð would finally be releasing their EP, Transmutation of Wounds — on 12″ MLP via Fallen Empire Records and Terratur Possessions. I first heard about this project almost two years ago (and wrote about it here). The band’s eye-catching line-up reportedly consists of: Continue reading »

TOURISM: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT’S ABYSSAL COMMUNION TOUR

Metal News 4 Responses »

Sep 222016

(Austin Weber reports on an impending tour by Imperial Triumphant.)

While the US black metal scene is far from a dry and empty wasteland with nothing worth talking about, there’s always one group I’ll continue to champion above almost all else. And that would be Imperial Triumphant, a New York City-based group that our site’s architect Islander has been covering since 2011, before I even began writing for No Clean Singing. If memory serves correctly, my initial post about the band was in December of 2012, when I placed their initial 2012 full-length, Abominamentvm, on my very first NCS year-end list after first covering them for the local magazine gig I was a part of prior to NCS.

In the years since, the band have flourished in a way that almost defies even the earliest expectations. They’ve continued to up the ante with each release, and continue to prove their worth with a rare and evil brilliance you’re hard-pressed to find much of in a scene often obsessed with repeating the same sounds in the same ways as their forbearers, ad nauseam. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SETENTIA — “SEEDS OF DEATH (DEPARTURE)”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Sep 222016

Last May the title track to the debut album by New Zealand’s Setentia, Darkness Transcend, hit me between the eyes in a fracturing blow and then thoroughly scrambled the meager gray matter behind them. Many more wonders were waiting to be discovered in this striking debut, and now the album will get the widespread physical release it deserves. On November 11, 2016, the esteemed Finnish label Blood Music will issue the album in a six-panel fold-out digipack CD edition, and to help pave the way for that event we’re bringing you a stream of the album’s fourth track, “Seeds of Death (Departure)“.

There are six people in Setentia’s line-up. Three of them are guitarists. This is not overkill. Instead, this small army of a band have strategically deployed their abundant talents to very good effect, creating a dense and brain-twisting musical experience that’s distinctive, as well as dark and destructive. The music brings to mind an imagined collaboration between Gorguts and Ulcerate. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MITHRAS — “ODYSSEY’S END”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Sep 222016

The new single by Mithras that we’re helping premiere today, “Odyssey’s End“, is like no other song I’ve heard this year. Given the many hundreds I’ve heard so far across a broad range of metal genres, that’s saying something. And so although I’m going to share a lot of information about the new Mithras album in this post, I have to start by expressing more elaborately my enthusiasm for this track.

Of course, I wouldn’t blame you for jumping straight to the music at any point, but you shouldn’t be reading (or do anything else) while you experience the music. Give it your full attention, and then prepare to loop right back to the beginning of it when you finish. This track requires way more than a single listen to take in all that it has to offer. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SARA TAYLOR (YOUTH CODE)

Interviews No Responses »

Sep 222016

(John Sleepwalker of Avopolis.gr returns to us with this interview of Youth Code’s astonishing frontwoman Sara Taylor. The band’s latest album, Commitment To Complications was reviewed on this site here.)

Youth Code is the most unconventional, yet simultaneously accessible, EBM band that would break into your house and smash your TV in pieces. By drawing their inspiration from old industrial to hardcore punk music, their blend of influences deliberately exhales remarkable amounts of intensity in ways rather provoking to all human senses. Sarah Taylor, however, was kind enough to answer our questions on the band’s not too distant past, as well as their current goals and creative focus on their music. Without denying, of course, how the internet is partialy responsible nowadays for a big loss of magic in our music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRUCIFIED MORTALS — “TRAITOR”

Premieres 1 Response »

Sep 212016

Cleveland’s Crucified Mortals have been reaping souls in the underground for 15 years, with a long string of short releases eventually leading to their self-titled debut album in 2011. More hellish splits and a single followed that full-length, and now the band’s second album is ready for discharge. Fittingly entitled Psalms of the Dead Choir, it will be released by Hells Headbangers on October 28, and today we have for you the premiere of a song called “Traitor“.

One song from the album (“Behind the Lurid Mask”) has been previously released, and we were given our choice about what to divulge next. That was not an easy decision, because for an album steadfastly devoted to death/thrash each song incorporates different ideas and sounds, and that makes the entire album-run a trip that doesn’t wear out its welcome. You’ll find impressive technical intricacy in this album, and rhythmic and chord progressions that often don’t follow a predictable path — even though the ultimate destination is still a flaming hell on earth. “Traitor“, however, got stuck in my head for several reasons. Continue reading »

A CHILL IN THE AIR: LOST HOURS, NIGHT PROFOUND, SINISTRO, EUFORI, SEA OF BONES

Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Sep 212016

Where I live, the season is changing rapidly. The daylight hours are diminishing, the darkness constricting like a noose. A chill is in the air. The fall is coming.

Last night a strange and serendipitous thing happened as I was making my usual way through a list of new songs I had discovered yesterday. I happened to listen to everything I’ve now collected in this post, one after the other, right in a row. I was struck by how perfectly they suited the mood of the change in seasons. I’ve re-ordered them slightly in this post, as compared to the order in which I originally heard them, to include two songs that are exceptions to our “rule” in the middle of this chilling playlist.

LOST HOURS

I discovered Lost Hours through an e-mail they sent us yesterday. They’re from Atlanta and a few days ago they released their third album (III) through Bandcamp. It consists of two songs, “Gently Before She Dies” and “Your Vice is a Locked Room”. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PER VALLA (VREDEHAMMER, ABBATH)

Interviews 1 Response »

Sep 212016

(Karina Noctum returns to us with this interview of Norwegian musician Per Valla, founder of Vredehammer and Valla and former member of Abbath.)

Tell us about yourself, your musical career so far…

I was born and raised in a small town in the north of Norway called Mo i Rana. Here I lived a typical small-town life with typical small-town friends and typical small-town dreams. When I was around 15 years old I injured my knee, and my dream of becoming a professional football player instantly died.

That same day after leaving the hospital, I went to our typical small-town music store, and the first thing I saw when I entered was a VHS with the amazing John Petrucci on the cover — entitled Rock Discipline. I bought the fucker and from that day on I started practicing guitar and my focus on being a professional football player quickly turned into working towards becoming a professional metal guitarist, preferably lead guitarist. Continue reading »

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