NO CLEAN SINGING

LIKE RATS: “II”

Mar 182016

(Allen Griffin reviews the new album by Chicago’s Like Rats.)

Chicago-based Death Metal Quintet Like Rats are set to release their new album II on Southern Lord Records on March 25th. Composed of several members of Grindcore unit Weekend Nachos, Like Rats is a darker and more groove-oriented prospect, and II sees them making waves with their unique take on Old School Death Metal.

The band’s promotional material for this album draws comparisons between the unit and various well-known entities, particularly Obituary and Celtic Frost, and it’s certainly hard to argue with such assertions. Yet, to seasoned ears, Like Rats also seem to have tapped an obscure vein of early ’90s Midwestern Death Metal. Back then, groups such as Green Bay’s Bleed, Toledo, Ohio’s Gutted, and San Francisco’s Epidemic on their final full-length Exit Paradise (not Midwestern obviously, but the sound is there nonetheless) produced awesome, mid-paced Death Metal before the rise of Metalcore made such an approach so blasphemous in the eyes of True Metal fans. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WORMWITCH — “COFFIN BIRTH”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Mar 182016

Wormwitch are a trio from Vancouver, BC, consisting of vocalist/bassist Robin Harris, guitarist Colby Hink, and drummer Max Vüst — all of them former members of a local hardcore band named Dead Hand who have taken a sharp turn into the realms of European-influenced black metal. Last year they released their first EP, The Long Defeat, and are now at work on a second one. But in the meantime they discharged a stand-alone single in January named “Coffin Birth“, and today we bring you the premiere for an official video for the song.

Lyrically, “Coffin Birth” tells the tale of “nature taking charge and sacrificing and renewing itself, all in an effort to destroy the blight of man”. But the video isn’t one of those that sets the band’s performance in snow-dusted woods, where you wonder how they plugged in their amps. Instead, this video (which is really well-filmed and edited) attempts to confine this explosion of sound in a cramped practice room — and you really feel the band’s energy when watching it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATHFORGE — “LEAVING MATERIAL WORLD”

Premieres 1 Response »

Mar 182016

Although I and most of the other writers at our putrid site are based in the U.S., I would guess that we spend more time spilling words about bands from far-from locations around the world than most metal blogs and sites scattered around America. And we also try to devote plenty of attention to groups who aren’t household names. And we’re accomplishing both of those objectives with the song we’re about to premiere.

Deathforge are from Mumbai, India, and have been releasing conceptually related singles via Bandcamp. What we have for you today is a new one named “Leaving Material World“. The line-up consists of vocalist Varun “Rust Hammer” Sharma, drummer Jayram Karki, and guitarists Akshay G Ramuhalli and Abhishek Gawande — and this track also includes a guest session performance on the bass fills by seven-string bassist Mike Poggione (Monstrosity, Serocs, ex-Trivium live, etc.). Continue reading »

SPAWNING ABHORRENCE: “THE SLEEPLESS ONE”

Reviews 6 Responses »

Mar 182016

(DGR reviews the new second album by Spawning Abhorrence from Leeds in the UK.)

Spawning Abhorrence initially landed on my radar in two ways. Firstly, we premiered their song “The Writhing Rhethoric” from the band’s then-upcoming disc The Sleepless One way back in the yonder days of 2015, and two, I would later discover that a couple of the members of Spawning Abhorrence are also part of the black metal band Inquinamentum — whose releases Void and Lost/Risen I happen to enjoy tremendously.

The combination of those two factors and Spawning Abhorrence being a death metal project pretty much assured that I would be giving the group a look-see. Continue reading »

HAMMERHEART OSTARABLOT 2016: A REMINDER AND AN UPDATE

Metal News 2 Responses »

Mar 172016

Festival poster by Nate Burns

If you’re within walking, driving, hang-gliding, or teleportation distance from Minneapolis this weekend, you really ought to be at the Triple Rock Social Club — because that’s where the second edition of HammerHeart Brewing Company’s Ostarablot music festival will be taking place.

I wrote about this fest back in January, but figured it was time for a reminder and a little update. It’s worth a strong reminder because of the tremendous line-up of bands that will be participating. It’s also being sponsored by HammerHeart, which is the brewery and tap house located in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, that’s co-owned by Austin Lunn of Panopticon. In case you’ve overlooked the event, here’s that eye-popping line-up I mentioned: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHILD BITE — “VIDEO BLOOD”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Mar 172016

Man, I still can’t get enough of that album cover up there. So colorful… so hallucinatory… something like a womb with a skull at the business end and claws cradling the fetus. How can you not want to gird your loins and dive into the music to see what strange sensations lie in wait? I sure wanted to. And I’m sure glad I did.

The artwork was created by Shawn Knight, who also contributes his vocal talents to Child Bite, the veteran Detroit-area band whose line-up also includes Sean Clancy (bass), Brandon Sczomak (guitar), and Jeff Kraus (drums). The name of the album is Negative Noise, and yes indeed, it’s a strange and thoroughly invigorating trip — from which we have the pleasure of delivering the premiere of a song called “Video Blood“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LAKE OF VIOLET — “CAPTIVE/FUGITIVE”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Mar 172016

It was already a given that Lake of Violet’s new album would be worth hearing because of the label that’s bringing it out — Gilead Media — and the alluring cover art and intriguing album title (The Startling Testimony of Plumb Lines) sealed the deal. But when I learned who is in the band, I became not merely interested in the music but intensely curious.

The line-up consists of guitarist André Foisy (Locrian, Kwaidan), drummer Anthony Michael Cori (Cedars of Lebanon, ex-Minsk), bassist Jacob Essak (Sun Splitter), and vocalist Neil Jendon (Kwaidan, Catherine). I thought, what in the world might people such as these have concocted? As it turns out, the music is more out of this world than in it.

We have the pleasure of premiering one of these remarkable songs today: “Captive/Fugitive“. Continue reading »

DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT / HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY / THE GREAT OLD ONES – LIVE AT THE BLACK HEART, LONDON, MAR 12, 2016

Concert Reviews 4 Responses »

Mar 172016

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the performances in London on March 12 by Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Harakiri For the Sky, and The Great Old Ones — with videos recorded by Mr. Synn himself.)

Look at that line-up. Just look at it. That is one hell of a triple-header, if I do say so myself.

As a matter of fact, two of those bands, Der Weg Einer Freiheit and The Great Old Ones, were (separately) responsible for two of the best gigs I went to last year, whilst Harakiri For The Sky are one of those bands I’ve been itching to see live for years now, though the timing has just never quite worked out. So to say I was a little excited when this show was announced would be something of an understatement. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DRUDKH — “FIERY SERPENT”

Premieres 7 Responses »

Mar 172016

In the wake of their excellent 2015 album A Furrow Cut Short, Ukraine’s Drudkh have decided to release their next recorded output through a series of split EPs, the first of which will see the band join forces with Norway’s Hades Almighty under the name One Who Walks With the Fog / Pyre Era, Black!. Drudkh‘s contributions to the split consist of two songs — “Golden Horse” and “Fiery Serpent” — and today we bring you a stream of the latter track.

We are told that Drudkh‘s principal creative force Roman Sayenko drew his lyrical inspiration for the songs from the poetry of Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Svidzins’kyi (1885-1941), “who was murdered by the Soviets after years of censorship and repression”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZHRINE — “UTOPIAN WARFARE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Mar 172016

The new album Unortheta by the Icelandic band Zhrine has made me very happy, for at least three reasons. First, now I know what happened to Gone Postal. Second, now I have another way to launch my mind into the frigid void of space without using intoxicants that will leave me retching in the morning. Third, they have spread across that mystical void an array of spectral terrors and brilliant spectacles that are as mesmerizing as they are harrowing.

When I first encountered Gone Postal back in 2012, via a 2011 demo that followed their 2008 debut album (In the Depths of Despair), I wondered whether the name they had chosen for themselves really suited the music — which was shot through with ripping/roaring tremolo guitars, vicious rhythms, and an air of bleak dissonance. The vocal style flexed between harsh growls and eviscerating shrieks. The production was as raw as a fresh wound. Yet as cacophonous as the music often was, strange melodies rang out through the tidal wash of bile, lending the music a kind of sick fascination. The name “Gone Postal” captured the derangement of the sound, yet even by then the name had a kind of archaic ring to it. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries