NO CLEAN SINGING

SEEN AND HEARD: KALL, SOLOTHUS, TARNKAPPE, KNIVES, DEVATION, VOD, EXUVIUM

Oct 262015

Although we featured quite a lot of music, both new and old, this weekend, we’re far from exhausting our new discoveries. And so we begin the new week with a large collection of recently discovered songs. Most of these are ones that caught my eyes (and ears), and Austin Weber contributes one as well. Coincidentally, every band has a one-word name, which I find pleasing for reasons that make no sense at all.

KALL

I’ve been following Sweden’s Kall since mid-2013, initially because I learned that their line-up included members of the late lamented Lifelover, and later because I discovered how good their music is. I was a big fan of last year’s self-titled debut album (reviewed at length here), and I learned this weekend that the band are now working on their second full-length, projected for release before the end of this year via Catatonic State. There’s also a new song from the album available on Bandcamp — and it’s really good. Continue reading »

GOATPSALM: “DOWNSTREAM”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Oct 252015

I am late in writing this review. I’ve had this album since mid-August and have enjoyed it over multiple listening sessions since then. It deserved more prompt attention, and it deserves even more words than I’m devoting to it now. On the other hand, the album isn’t projected for release until early next year, so I suppose I’m not too late.

The name of the album is Downstream, and it was created by a part-Russian, part-Ukrainian group named Goatpsalm, whose ranks include members of another very good, but very different, band — Sickrites. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (THE AMENTA)

Album Reviews, THE REARVIEW MIRROR 6 Responses »

Oct 252015

(This Sunday, DGR steps forward with our weekly look back at metal from yesteryear.)

I’ve been waffling a bit with the idea of contributing more often to the series of Rearview Mirror posts that we’ve been doing here at NCS. I genuinely love the idea of being able to deep-dive on a song at random, but I’ve also wanted to let other folks share their hidden gems out there without me vomiting my taste all over the site, especially as my own archive of ideas consists pretty much of bands I’ve already taken a healthy opportunity to write about on this lovely page.

However, there is one group that has been haunting me, that I’ve been thinking about a lot as of late, and that is Australia’s The Amenta. If you’ve been following NCS for a while, you’ll know that I’m a pretty unabashed fan of the band. Tim Pope gave me one of my favorite interviews ever, and the group’s 2013 release Flesh Is Heir ranks among my favorite discs — it is a noisy, harsh, and abrasive listen that seemed just slightly ahead of its time, especially as now it seems like more groups from Australia are breaking out into the limelight. Continue reading »

SATURDAY SONIC SLAUGHTERING: TONGUES, REPTILE MASTER, BLASPHEMOUS NOISE TORMENT, IMMENSITY, KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 11 Responses »

Oct 242015

This would normally be titled as a “Seen and Heard” post, but I was in an alliterative mood this morning. This is a selection of new songs (and a pair of older ones) that I discovered over the last 24 hours and want to commend to your ears. As usual, I’ve tried to include a variety of sounds, but they’re all deliciously devastating in their own ways.

TONGUES

Tongues are a duo from Aarhus, Denmark. Their debut EP Thelésis Ignis was released last year by I, Voidhanger Records, and they’re now at work on their first full-length album, which I, Voidhanger hopes to release in 2016. In the meantime, Tongues have posted a new song named “Golden Crown of Death” to their Bandcamp page as a “name your price” download. It will appear on a vinyl compilation entitled Roam The Streets II: Fuck You – We’re From Aarhus, to be released in December by VoxHall. Continue reading »

KOUROS: “CAUSA”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 5 Responses »

Oct 232015

I haven’t felt very well today, having managed to poison myself with alcohol at a job-related function last night. I doubted I would be able to write anything of my own for the site today. So fragile is my head and so unsettled is my stomach that I even doubted I would be able to stand listening to any metal. But for reasons I can’t really explain, I randomly decided to explore an EP named causa that a New Delhi band named Kouros had invited us to hear, via an e-mail that arrived yesterday. It proved to be a wise, if impulsive, decision.

causa was just released a week ago via Bandcamp, and it appears to be Kouros’ second release overall (though I could certainly be wrong about that). Further, it appears that Kouros is a solo project, the musical vision of a man who calls himself Nium, and it’s a multi-faceted vision that draws from multiple wellsprings of metal and rock. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KINGS DESTROY, MISTY MORNING, PLÖW, POHJOINEN

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Oct 232015

(Comrade Aleks stepped forward for round-up duty today, bringing us videos and interview excerpts from four excellent bands.)

Yes, I already covered the mighty Kings Destroy and Pohjoinen in interviews with the bands’ members (here and here) at NCS, but these two bands are still in my player, so I want to say just a few more words about them, because amongst other things they have new official videos. As for Misty Morning and Plöw – it’s two very good bands with catchy tunes, proper riffs, paranoid atmosphere… and cool videos! Yes, it’s about videos and it’s about doom with balls.

KINGS DESTROY

Kings Destroy arose in Bronx, New York, on 2010. Being urban and graffiti fans, these five men decided to name their band after a local graffiti crew. Some of the band’s members gained experience in hardcore bands Breakdown and Killing Time, and both bands are still active despite the fact that Kings Destroy have three strong full-length albums for this period and a lot of shows and big tours. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: LOST SOUL — “ATLANTIS: THE NEW BEGINNING”

Premieres 9 Responses »

Oct 232015

(KevinP provides the following introduction to our premiere of the new album by Poland’s Lost Soul.)

Poland’s death metal masters, Lost Soul, return with their fifth full-length album, Atlantis: The New Beginning, via Apostasy Records on October 30, 2015. Today we proudly present to you the exclusive North American stream of this new opus.

Mainman/founding member Jacek Grecki (vocals/guitar) and Damian Czajkowski (bass) return with the band’s first new material since 2009’s Immerse in Infinity. Making their recording debut with Lost Soul are Asmodeus Draco Dux (drums) and Marek Golas (guitars), who both joined in 2012.

If you like what you hear (and who are we kidding, YOU WILL), stay tuned — as on Monday, October 26, we will GET TO THE POINT in an interview with Jacek Grecki. See the links below to grab digital and physical copies of the album (vinyl will be released in February 2016). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: VEHEMENCE — “FORWARD WITHOUT MOTION”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Oct 222015

Forward Without Motion is the fourth album by Arizona’s Vehemence — and the first since the band split up in 2005 following the 2004 Metal Blade release of Helping the World To See. They are obviously back — and as you’re about to hear from our premiere of a full stream of the new album, they are back with overpowering force.

We knew this album was on the way. In September our writer Andy Synn helped pave the way for its arrival by compiling reviews of all three of the band’s previous full-lengths for the 62nd installment of The Synn Report (here). What we didn’t know then was that we would be invited to bring you a full listen to the new album — but we’re damned glad the opportunity has come our way.

The wait has been a long one — and no one knows that better than the band. They provided us this statement to accompany the album stream: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INVOKER — “ENGULFED FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Oct 222015

We’ve previously premiered two tracks from the new album by Germany’s Invoker — “Secrets of Seed” and the title track “Aeon”. Two is not enough. We have more, beginning today with the album’s seventh track, “Engulfed For Millions of Years”.

If you’ve been following the songs from Aeon that have appeared to date, you already know about Invoker’s talent for weaving dark melodic hooks into the majestic and multifaceted tapestry of their sound, and “Engulfed…” is another grant example of that skill at work. The song races and rips from the beginning, seizing the listener’s attention without delay, and then begins to move along a changing course that includes hard-jabbing riffs, a swirling melodic guitar melody that shimmers like streamers of light, and big, booming hammer blows of pile-driving power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LUNG MOLDE — “LUNG MOLDE”

Premieres, Reviews 5 Responses »

Oct 222015

Lung Molde is an evocative name for a band. Knowing nothing about the music, it begins to shape your impressions of what you will hear. You begin to imagine your air supply choked off by a toxic growth of slime breeding in the hothouse of your own body, of a once pink vitality turned into a gasping black ruin, of your eyes clouded by the fog of your own impending asphyxiation. Or maybe that’s just me, contemplating the start of lung molde season here in the Pacific Northwest.

This Portland trio (which includes members of Triumvir Foul) chose their name well, because, as you’re about to learn through our premiere of their debut self-titled album, the music is indeed calamitous. Their brand of staggering sludge and doom generates an oppressive atmosphere, creating a soundscape that’s blighted, bulldozed, and burned. Continue reading »

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