NO CLEAN SINGING

DAMNATION FESTIVAL 2015

Nov 132015

(Andy Synn provides this report on the 2015 edition of Damnation Festival in the UK.)

It’s been a few years now since I last attended Damnation Festival, the annual celebration of all things dark and metallic hosted (as always) at Leeds University Student’s Union. But this year I knew I simply couldn’t miss it, as not only were a number of my favourite bands playing (hello Sólstafir, hi there Primordial) but also two bands I’ve been a fan of since their very first albums, but whom I’d never actually managed to see live before (The Ocean, Altar of Plagues).

Oh, and some band named At The Gates. Who are apparently pretty famous or something. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE RADAR (PART 3)

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Nov 122015

(Norwegian guest contributor Gorger has provided us with Part 3 of a multi-part feature on bands we seem to have overlooked at NCS. Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here. And be sure to check out Gorger’s Metal.)

Whilst Islander is busy polluting Alaska (Yeah, I’ve figured you out. Just wait until I tell Steven Segal), I thought I’d continue polluting No Clean Singing!

DENIAL – 11∞22.4’N 142∞35.5’E

If you recognized the band name Denial, that’s not necessarily surprising. There are at least 12 bands with that name around. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: AWE

Interviews 7 Responses »

Nov 122015

(Last Friday we had the pleasure of premiering a full stream of Providentia, the superb debut album by a mysterious Greek entity named AWE. Now, KevinP brings us a new installment in his short-interview series, in which he quizzes an anonymous member of the band.)

K: So you don’t disclose who is in the band or what roles they play. Why is that? And what can you tell us?

It is really irrelevant who is in the band or what the contribution is of each member. You have to perceive AWE as an autonomous entity or as a vessel through which we can manifest our artistic desires. It is for the above reason that we didn’t create fake personas with fancy nick-names in order to please our egos. So, the important thing for us is for the listener to be patient, dive into our music, and grasp what we want to communicate through AWE. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CHÂTEAU, GRAFVITNIR, HAMMER OF WAR, HERON, HORROCIOUS, INFESTUM, STANDVAST, UNHOLY ORDER

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Nov 122015

I’m in an unfortunate position. Before I began my trip to Alaska about a week ago for my day job, I had collected a lot of music that I intended to compile for an installment of our Shades of Black series. And since arriving in Alaska I’ve found a few more songs (in the little time I’ve had to myself) that I wanted to add to the post.

The problem is that I haven’t had time to write my impressions of the music in detail — and I don’t think I will find the time in the near future. So, with apologies to the bands, I’ve grudgingly decided to just share the music streams with you, even though I can’t share all my words of praise about them. I do hope you’ll check out everything in this post, despite the large volume of music — I think it’s all very good.

CHÂTEAU

Amissus is the name of the debut EP by a band named Château from Raleigh, North Carolina (the first of two bands from Raleigh featured in this post). It’s available for order on CD or download at Bandcamp. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ABBATH, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, OBSCURA, VEKTOR

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 13 Responses »

Nov 112015

Greetings again from Anchorage, Alaska, where it’s colder than a well-digger’s ass in the Klondike and where I’ve come down with a raging cold myself. On the plus side, I’ve once again had a few hours to myself this morning before having to dive back into my day-job labors. On the minus side, it’s looking like I may not be able to get back home until Monday, which blows.

In my free time this morning I made a quick scan through the NCS e-mail. Despite the fact that it’s overflowing with stuff that I don’t have time to read, a few things did leap out at me, and I’ve collected those here — presented in alphabetical order by band name.

ABBATH

We’ve previously featured a trio of live videos by Abbath that the band released in the ramp-up to their self-titled debut album (coming from Season of Mist on January 22) and a 7″ single that’s due for release on December 11. Yesterday Abbath debuted the album’s cover art (above) and the first studio recording from the new album, a track called “Winter’s Bane”. Continue reading »

WOLFPACK 44: “IRON DREAM”

Premieres 10 Responses »

Nov 112015

In mid-September I was fortunate to premiere a song called “Dark Mountain” from The Scourge, which is the forthcoming debut album by Wolfpack 44, a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Ricktor Ravensbrück from The Electric Hellfire Club and vocalist/guitarist Julian Xes from Kult ov Azazel. Today, we get the chance to share with you a second track from the album — a beast named “Iron Dream” — along with info about pre-ordering the album.

When I premiered “Dark Mountain” in September, I also included a review of the entire album — which is due for release by Deadlight Entertainment on January 20. It defies easy genre classification, in part because there’s so much variety among the different songs, as well as lots of multi-layered textures within most of them. Wolfpack 44 have described the music as “Satanic, industrial/black/death/psychotic/evil-as-fuck metal with a sardonic edge”, and that’s actually a pretty accurate description. Continue reading »

WRITE PRIVILEGE

Uncategorized 23 Responses »

Nov 112015

(Here are some musings written by Andy Synn.)

Despite what you might have seen and read elsewhere, I still think there’s a certain art to writing reviews. Not Picasso-level art, certainly, or Muhammed Ali-level art… but art all the same.

Of course this proposition isn’t helped by the umpteen badly written, badly researched, and grammatically suspect publications you can find out there in the wilds of the interweb, nor by the plethora of click-bait, troll-magnet reviews seemingly designed just to stoke controversy and discontent… sorry, I’ll get off my soap-box and get back to the point…

Anyway, I for one count myself very lucky to have a voice, however small, in the Metal community at large, that people actually listen to and respect. And it’s not something I take lightly. I don’t think of myself as particularly special or important as a result of it, but I do acknowledge that – as a wise, two-dimensional man once sort-of-said – “with a modicum of power comes a modicum of responsibility”.

Or something along those lines. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 2)

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Nov 102015

(Norwegian guest contributor Gorger has provided us with Part 2 of a multi-part feature on bands we seem to have overlooked at NCS. Part 1 is here. And be sure to check out Gorger’s Metal.)

Welcome to part two of (hopefully) four, where I aim to help Islander avoid days with few posts whilst also spreading the disease. Let’s get to it.

MOONREICH – PILLARS OF DETEST

Those who revel in filthy French blasphemy should be no stranger to Moonreich. Those who followed Islander’s tip about the delightful free compilation Sampler MMXV from Les Acteurs de L’Ombre Productions, might have heard at least one of these detesting pillars. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MATRICIDE — “MORNING STAR”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 5 Responses »

Nov 102015

As I write this I’m still in Anchorage, Alaska, toiling away night and day for my fucking day job. Today I don’t have to start work hours before the sun comes up, as I have been doing since late last week, so I had a little time (not much) to explore new music. I’m already so far behind that I had no good idea where to start, so I made an impulsive choice — and it turned out to be a fantastic one.

What I picked was a new two-song release on Bandcamp from the Daemon Worship label, and I picked it mainly because that’s a label that has never let me down. The name of the release is Morning Star, and it comes from a now-disbanded Swedish group named Matricide. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KULT MOGIŁ — “SERENE PONDS”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Nov 102015

December 24 is the date Pagan Records has set for the release of Anxiety Never Descending, the debut album by the Polish death metal band Kult Mogił. In advance of the album’s release, today we bring a sample of what lies within it through our premiere of the third track, “Serene Ponds”.

The band have explained that their name does not translate to “sepulchral cult”, but is instead better understood as “cult of graves” — and as you will discover, it’s a fitting name. Because there is nothing serene about “Serene Ponds”. Continue reading »

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