NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: JESUSEGG — “JESUSEGG”

Dec 222015

If you have any sense of irony at all, you would have a hard time thinking of a better date than Christmas Day for a band named Jesusegg to release an album named Jesusegg via a label named Seeing Red Records, especially when that album has not one fucking thing to do with peace on earth or good will to men (or women). You’ll see (or rather, hear), because if you scroll down in this post you’ll be able to listen to a full stream of the album.

Jesusegg come from Cleveland, a town I think of as one of America’s premier spawning grounds for extreme music that embodies politically charged rage and does so in ways that have lasting power. While hardcore may be the Cleveland genre that comes to my mind first, Jesusegg are split-personality grindcore militants who take their cues from the likes of Human Remains, Discordance Axis, Nasum, Rotten Sound, and Anal Cunt.

This new album collects recordings that span the band’s history from 2003 – 2007, most of which are previously unreleased. It’s intended as a laying of groundwork for new material that’s projected for discharge by the same label before next year ends. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM PATRICK BRUSS (CRYPTICUS)

LISTMANIA 2015 7 Responses »

Dec 222015

(We invited musician and producer Patrick Bruss (Crypticus) to share with us his list of favorite 2015 releases, and — not surprisingly — it’s heavy as hell.)

This was a bit of a slow year, I felt, but the good albums that were good were good. Or something. Let’s get started:

Black Fast – Terms of Surrender

Vektor, but with fewer carbs. These guys shred right in that savage early Voivod zone that bands like Deceased have made a home in. Amazing playing! Epic riffery! A Thrash Holocaust! For fans of: Vektor, Voivod, Deceased Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: PITCHFORK’S LIST OF THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

LISTMANIA 2015 13 Responses »

Dec 222015

We’re well into our own putrid site’s lists of the year’s best metal, but yesterday we got the last of the “big platform” metal lists I’ve been waiting on, and so I’m interrupting our own roll-out to bring it your way.

This one is a Top 25 list (with honorable mentions as well) prepared by Brandon Stosuy, the chief metal writer for Pitchfork. Pitchfork is a Chicago-based online music magazine, which proclaims that it is “the most trusted voice in music, celebrating and exploring emerging artists and established pioneers across all genres”. The site also claims an audience of more than 7 million unique visitors per month.

In October of this year, Pitchfork was acquired by Condé Nast, which also owns more than 20 other magazines or online brands, including Bon Apetit, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Golf Digest. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CHURCH OF VOID (MAGUS CORVUS)

Interviews 3 Responses »

Dec 212015

(Comrade Aleks introduces us to the Finnish doom band Church of Void through this interview with the group’s vocalist Magus Corvus.)

Last week our patient readers could find an interview with the British doom metal outfit Iron Void on the virtual pages of NCS, and I suppose that it’s right and logical to continue our exploration of doom depths with the Finnish outfit Church of Void.

This band has only one full-length album, Dead Rising, which was released by Svart Records in 2013. It’s a good start for Church – attractive melodies, good riffs and catchy vocal lines… I like it, and I hope that you’ll like it too… But there have been no bells ringing in Church of Void for some time – a split with Lowburn in 2014, a digital single of a Pentagram cover this year… that’s all. So it’s time to find someone who can tell what’s going on there — and that someone is the band’s vocalist Magus Corvus. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECFERUS — “CREATION OF A PLANET”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Dec 212015

I vividly remember the first time, as a child, that I saw Disney’s Fantasia. The whole movie was wondrous, but the segment that made the biggest impact on my barely formed mind was the visual pageant of the earth’s beginnings and the growth of life, from the planet’s formation to the end of the dinosaurs, set to the music of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Those memories came back to me when I first heard the song we’re about to premiere (“Creation of A Planet“) from the new album Pangaea by Ecferus, and not solely because of the music.

As you can see, the album is adorned with brilliant cover art, created by Romanian artist Luciana Nedelea. With striking colors and bold strokes, she captures the sense of a violent, primeval time, with the earth in upheaval. The artwork is a match for the imaginative concept underlying the album as a whole, as described in this statement from I, Voidhanger Records, who will be releasing it on February 6, 2016: Continue reading »

GORGOROTH / KAMPFAR / GEHENNA / DE PROFUNDIS / THE NEGATION – LIVE AT SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER, 12/12/15

Concert Reviews 1 Response »

Dec 212015

(Andy Synn wrote this report on the recent live performances of Gorgoroth, Kampfar, Gehenna, De Profundis, and The Negation in Manchester, UK.)

Precisely one week ago today (or just over one week ago, depending on when this get published) I was lucky enough to see the legendary Gorgoroth, Kampfar, and Gehenna play as part of a triple-header of True Norwegian Black Metal, supported by rising progressive extremists De Profundis, and up-and-coming French nihilists The Negation (whose new album, Memento Mori, I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about).

To say this was a stacked line-up would be an understatement, particularly considering that both Kampfar and Gorgoroth are riding high on the back of a pair of killer new albums. The only downside to the evening was the early door time (5pm?!) to allow for sufficient time for all five bands to strut their metallic stuff.

But ultimately that was a small price to pay for an evening filled with such a smorgasbord of diabolical thrills! Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM KEN SORCERON (ABIGAIL WILLIAMS)

LISTMANIA 2015 7 Responses »

Dec 212015

photo by Levan TK

(Abigail Williams released one of our favorite albums of 2015 — to read our review of it and check out the music if you haven’t already, go HERE — and today we bring you a year-end list by AW’s Ken Sorceron.)

In no particular order:

Akhlys – The Dreaming I

<a href="http://dmp666.bandcamp.com/album/the-dreaming-i">The Dreaming I by AKHLYS</a>
Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (SURGICALBRUTE’S FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2015)

LISTMANIA 2015 24 Responses »

Dec 212015

(For yet another year, our old friend SurgicalBrute has delivered into our greedy hands another year-end list of favorite releases, and one of the most extreme underground collections we will post this year.)

I listen to too much damn music, that’s all there is to it. All year long I feel this constant desire to dig through as much metal as possible because there’s always something new and enjoyable to discover and I want to hear it all. It’s one of the reasons I’ll never understand people who say things like “it was a bad year for metal”, because as far as Im concerned, its never a bad year for metal (hell, as I type this out, there are less than 30 days left in the year and I’m still finding great new bands).

Of course, everything has a downside… December has rolled around once again and now I have to figure out how to narrow this massive list down to something far more reasonable. Fortunately, using my scientific method of cheap Scotch and a dart board, I came up with twenty albums (as well as five EP’s) that should be on any metal fan’s year-end list (and just in case you don’t notice, these are in alphabetical order). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: DENDRITIC ARBOR — “SENTIENT VILLAGE / OBSOLESCENT GARDEN”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Dec 212015

(Austin Weber presents our full streaming premiere of the new EP by Dendritic Arbor.)

As strong a year as 2015 was for both established and new metal groups, I don’t think anyone had as impressive a year as Pittsburgh-based black metal noisey grinders Dendritic Arbor.

While I’d been tipped off to their existence prior to this year, for most people they came out of nowhere and shot right up to a fairly high amount of name recognition and warranted praise. In today’s crowded climate, that’s especially impressive. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: TEITANFYRE, INVIDUS, INVULTATION, NIÐAFJÖLL, SHIBALBA

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 5 Responses »

Dec 202015

Although rolling out our year-end LISTMANIA extravaganza has been a nearly all-consuming endeavor, I’ve stolen fragments of time here and there over the last week to explore new music. Especially because time has been short, I’ve resorted (with some guilt feelings) to the harried person’s old stand-by: Listen to the first track of an album stream; if it grabs you, listen to more; if it doesn’t, move along. The first tracks of the albums and EPs featured here all grabbed me. The first and last songs in this collection are single advance tracks from albums that aren’t out yet. They grabbed me, too.

As the post title signifies, all of the music is connected in some way to black metal (though perhaps more tenuously than is usually the case in these posts). Despite that loose connection, no two bands sound alike.

TEITANFYRE

The first song in this collection is by a Russian band named Teitanfyre and it comes from an EP labeled Anno MMXV that’s projected for release by Inferna Profundus Records in February or March of next year. Metal Archives lists five Teitanfyre releases since 2008, including a 2011 debut album (Morbid Death’s Scepter), but this song has been my first exposure to their music. Continue reading »

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