NO CLEAN SINGING

UN: “THE TOMB OF ALL THINGS”

Dec 102015

(We present Grant Skelton’s review of the debut album by Seattle-based Un.)

“All is vanity. What does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun…All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it…”

Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, 8

Do you remember the last time you listened to an album, metal or otherwise, that you connected with? I don’t mean an album of good, or even great, music. Not something you put on as background noise. I mean music that sounds like it was written expressly for you. Have you ever heard a metal song, perhaps even without knowing the lyrics, and felt like the music was telling the story of your own life? Something so personal that you’d swear the songwriters were watching your very life and innermost thoughts? For me, Un’s debut The Tomb Of All Things is one such album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATLANTIS CHRONICLES — “BACK TO HADATOPIA”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Dec 102015

Atlantis Chronicles may come from France, or they may come from deep beneath the waves, where they learned the stories of a lost civilization and now communicate them to us through the medium of their music. I grant you that it’s most likely they come from France, but it’s nice to imagine that the question is still an open one.

This band’s second album, Barton’s Odyssey, is still deep in the depths, surfacing slowly, projected for emergence on March 25, 2016, via Apathia Records. But we do have a glimmer of the album for you today, a song called “Back To Hadatopia” presented in the form of a lyric video. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MAMMOTH STORM (DANIEL ARVIDSSON)

Interviews 2 Responses »

Dec 092015

Mammoth Storm

(Comrade Aleks brings us another interview, this time with Daniel Arvidsson of Sweden’s Mammoth Storm.)

Mammoth Storm is a sharp description in itself of the music this Swedish band perform. This bloody power trio from Sweden has a tight, massive sound and a solid strong line-up. Daniel Arvidsson (bass, vocals) of Draconian rides this beast with his comrades at arms Emil Ahlman (drums, organ) and Christer Ström (guitars).

The bulky creature of Mammoth Storm released its first big work Fornjot through Napalm Records one month ago and just returned from a pilgrimage they did with Ahab and High Fighter, spreading thunderous riffs and primordial rumble in chosen cities of Europe. Welcome to the antediluvian era of earthquakes, giant beasts, immense glaciers, and fires falling from the skies performed in heavy doom music. Daniel will be our guide. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLADE OF HORUS — “DESCENT INTO THE COSMIC REALM OF EVERLASTING MADNESS”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Dec 092015

Blade of Horus have emerged from Australia with a debut album entitled Monumental Massacre that’s scheduled for release on January 29 by Lacerated Enemy Records. They enlisted the masterful Kevin Talley to record drums for the album, and as you can see, it’s also introduced by some eye-catching cover art. Today we’re helping premiere the album’s first advance track, “Descent Into the Cosmic Realm of Everlasting Madness”.

With Talley’s able assistance, Blade of Horus inflict plenty of head trauma in this new song, both the physically bludgeoning kind inflicted by pile-driving riffs and booming bass work and the kind that disrupts neural connections with deranged lead guitar excretions. And speaking of excretions, the vocal tag-team deliver an amalgam of deep growls, incinerating shrieks, and vomitous gurgles — all the better to complete the job of dismantling whatever was working normally inside your skull. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CANNIBAL CORPSE, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, DESTRÖYER 666, EXCOMMUNION, MAGRUDERGRIND, POMEGRANATE TIGER

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 11 Responses »

Dec 092015

Here’s a round-up of news, new album artwork, and a couple of new songs I spotted over the last 24 hours.

CANNIBAL CORPSE

We’ll start with some tourism news: Yesterday it was announced that Cannibal Corpse will be headlining a big North American tour that begins on February 12 and runs through March 20. And the direct support for the tour is pretty eye-popping: Obituary, Cryptopsy, and Abysmal Dawn will be along for the ride.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 11, at local and national ticket outlets. Here’s the schedule, which I copied and pasted from Blabbermouth: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: ABOUT.COM AND LA WEEKLY

LISTMANIA 2015 49 Responses »

Dec 092015

Since we first began our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, I’ve limited the year-end lists we re-post from other web sites to those with cross-genre coverage and very large audiences, mainly to see what people who may only dabble in metal are being told they should listen to. Flagging those year-end lists also provides a place where NCS readers can go if they’re interested in recommendations for music outside of extreme metal. I, of course, have no such interest, but I’m trying to be broad-minded at this time of year.

Today I’m re-posting lists that appeared yesterday on About.com and LA Weekly. The first qualifies as a “big platform” site. The second is something of an exception, but honestly, I was getting tired of re-posting lists from big sites that only included one or two metal albums.

ABOUT.COM

About.com is a huge web portal that covers a broad range of subjects, including home care, interior decorating, parenting, travel, money management, health care, food, careers, sports, and technology. They also have an entertainment channel, and if you burrow down into the large array of entertainment coverage you will find About.com Heavy Metal, with a staff of metal writers led by Chad Bowar. Yesterday, they published their list of 2015’s “Best Heavy Metal Albums“. It’s a ranked list of 20, preceded by a list (in alphabetical order) of 20 “Honorable Mentions”. And here are those lists: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): BLOT, DENIGRATA, LUSTRATION, NOCTURNAL DEGRADE

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 7 Responses »

Dec 082015

Here’s the second part of a post I began earlier today reviewing and recommending a selection of albums, EPs, and individual songs I’ve been enjoying recently that are (mostly) in the vein of black metal. Once again, no two bands sound alike, though their music is fueled in part by elements of black metal.

BLOT

Long-time NCS reader and musician CarlSk sent me a very strong recommendation for this next band — so strong that I bought their new album before listening to it. The band is Blot, they come from southern Norway, and in mid-October they released their debut full-length Ilddyrking, which follows a self-titled EP from 2009. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): BATUSHKA, THE LION’S DAUGHTER, TOSKA

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 13 Responses »

Dec 082015

This is the first part of a two-part collection of recent discoveries I’ve made in the vein of black metal, plus one that isn’t black metal but is still spiritually as black as a corpse charred in a napalm attack. As will become obvious, I’ve chosen this particular group of bands in part because no two of them sound alike.

BATUSHKA

Batushka are a Polish band whose members have not been disclosed, but they are reputed to be from well-known bands. Their debut album Litourgiya was released on December 5 by the Polish label Witching Hour Productions. It makes an astonishing impact from the very first song, and all the way to the end.

The music is dark, heaving, and very heavy — with bombastic outbreaks of wildfire and thunder — and the bleak, majestic melodies are effective at getting under the skin. But what sets the music apart and makes the album especially memorable are the vocals. In addition to the incinerating shrieks that you might expect in a black metal album, you’ll hear reverberating liturgical chants in what I’m told is Church Slavonic — the language used in the Orthodox Church in such places as Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as nations in the Balkan Peninsula. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: METAL NAMES ON NPR MUSIC’S LIST OF 50 FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2015

LISTMANIA 2015 9 Responses »

Dec 072015

I’ll repeat what I’ve written in years past, because it remains true: NPR (formerly National Public Radio) is an American national treasure, one that has somehow survived as a non-profit national radio and on-line broadcaster (with 900 public radio station members) despite largely weaning itself from governmental support and being the target of repeated political attacks by the American right wing. According to Alexa, its online site is the 148th most popular of all U.S.-based web sites and the 568th most popular in the world.

Today NPR Music posted a list of its 50 favorite albums of 2015. It’s a cross-genre list, reflecting the broad demographic of NPR Music listeners. I’ve siphoned off the metal albums from the overall list and am presenting them after the jump.

In years past, NPR has also separately posted a list prepared by writer Lars Gotrich of the best metal albums. I’ve always looked forward to that list, but I understand (sadly) that it won’t be happening this year. So, we must make do with this: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ORGAN (ALESSANDRO BRUN)

Interviews 1 Response »

Dec 072015

(Comrade Aleks has interviewed Alessandro Brun of the Italian band Organ, who have recently released a debut album, and here is what he learned.)

The name of this band could be interpreted in many ways, but as I have a compilation of Johann Sebastian Bach compositions under the name “Popular Organ” it’s not such a difficult task indeed.

So this particular Organ was formed in Italian Belluno by four friends — Alessandro De Pellegrin (bass), Giulio Fabbro (drums), Luca Rizzardi (guitars, vocals), and Alessandro Brun (guitars, vocals). It’s said that Organ plays doom, but it’s only a half truth as their music has wider influences and a disturbing atmosphere, as if it’s the soundtrack for a Dario Argento movie. The band’s first album Tetro (“dark” or “gloomy” in Italian) was released two months ago and soon attracted my attention.

After listening to it few times, I made the decision to put a few questions to the band and clarify some things. Alessandro Brun was the one who answered my questions. Continue reading »

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