NO CLEAN SINGING

CHILD BITE: “NEGATIVE NOISE”

Mar 142016

(Allen Griffin reviews the new album by Detroit’s Child Bite.)

While the infamous D-Beat has become nearly ubiquitous in some corners of the Extreme Metal world, Punk’s influence doesn’t seem to extend much beyond that these days. Rarely does a Punk band emerge now who harkens back to the genre’s early pioneers and the sense of sonic experimentalism that drove them to create such fascinating music. Detroit’s Child Bite are doing their best to fix that with their new album Negative Noise, due out on Housecore Records on April 1st.

The most immediate comparison one might pick up on as Child Bite does their thing is Dead Kennedys, albeit with the kind of sonic abrasiveness suitable for modern times. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 8)

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Mar 142016

(Our Norwegian friend Gorger returns to our pages with another installment in his series recommending releases that we’ve managed to overlook. And be sure to check out Gorger’s Metal.)

Cheers one and all.

When someone decides to read a book for the very first time, they typically check out the number of pages, before exchanging the 500-page monolith for a seemingly easier 200-page thing.

Likewise, when I do my daily surf, I might occasionally bypass long write-ups, simply because of my busy schedual, laziness, lack of concentration, or whatever.

It’s been far too long since my last post here, so I’ll shorten down my rambling a little bit in favour of both my and your lethargy. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: FROM ARTILLERY TO ZEALOTRY

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 18 Responses »

Mar 132016

Sorry it took so long for this page to load. You’ll soon find out why.

For the last 10 days I’ve been bemoaning the fact that I haven’t had time to prepare round-ups of new metal with enough frequency to keep pace with the daily flood of music. It’s impossible to catch up, because every day other good new things appear. So, I’ve made a painful compromise with myself. As a way of (somewhat) clearing the slate, I’ve collected in this post many of the new songs and videos that I would have written about over the last 10 days if I’d had the time. But the only way I have time to do this is to strip out almost everything I normally do when we feature new music. All you’ll find below are embeds of the music, or in one case a link to a site where the song is exclusively streaming.

Almost everything collected here premiered over the last two weeks; in most cases, these are just individual songs, but in some cases complete EPs or albums. I like all of it. There’s so much of it that I don’t know whether this was worth doing; not many people will make the time to even sample everything that follows. But what’s done is done. I hope you find a few things that ring your bell. And if you think this was a terrible idea, please say so. Either way, I don’t plan to do this frequently. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOLOTHUS — “NO KING REIGNS ETERNAL”

Album Reviews, Premieres 8 Responses »

Mar 132016

Finland’s Solothus made a powerful full-length debut with their 2013 album Summoned From the Void reviewed here) — so powerful that one might not have expected them to climb much higher with their next album. But they have. The new work is named No King Reigns Eternal, and you can listen to it here in its entirety.

The new album blends many of the same ingredients that were present in Summoned From the Void, yet the songwriting is even stronger, the wrenching melodies even more memorable, the guitar performances even more exceptional and varied, and the overall emotional impact of the album even more potent. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ARKHĒ, MITOCHONDRION, AUROCH, VANHELGD, ABNORMALITY

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 13 Responses »

Mar 122016

It has been a crazy week for new metal. Even if I had posted round-ups every day, I still would have fallen behind — or to be more accurate, more behind. Yet for various reasons, I couldn’t do that. So here I am, sitting on an enormous number of new songs and announcements that I want to throw out there. What I’ve decided to do is collect just four of the most recent ones in this post, and then tomorrow I’m going to surrender and do a link dump for a lot of the rest.

ARKHĒ

When KevinP linked me to this next video, he described the song as “Spacey prog Rock/metal from the bassist/vocalist of Sear Bliss“. The mention of Hungary’s Sear Bliss was more than enough inducement, and now that I’ve heard the song I’d probably add “goth”, “doom”, and “electronica” to Kevin‘s string of adjectives. And lest some of you think the song is too close to pop at the beginning, András Nagy does break out the growls and snarls before the song ends, in addition to his vaulting clean vocal melodies. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SATURNDUST (FELIPE DALAM)

Interviews No Responses »

Mar 112016

(Comrade Aleks rejoins us with this interview of Felipe Dalam of the Brazilian doom band Saturndust.)

Saturndust from São Paulo is one of the Brazilian doom metal scene’s discoveries. The outfit was formed in 2010, and after few lineup changes (bass and drums seemed to be a weak side of the band), one EP (2012’s Sons of Water) and two singles released in the same year, Saturndust have prepared a self-titled album. Six doom tracks performed in a nearly traditional doom manner with psychedelic and space decoration, they complete an inspiring 45-minute-long journey to the dark corners of the solar system. The band’s lyrics are influenced by classic sci-fi writers and believe in the power of the human mind.

Felipe Dalam is Saturndust’s founder and mastermind, and he has sung and played guitars and synths since the band’s first years. Here’s his message to the human race from Saturndust‘s high orbit. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUMS OF 2016 (BY ANDY SYNN)

Metal News 11 Responses »

Mar 112016

(From time to time Andy Synn posts lists of things that come in five’s… and today he writes about five forthcoming albums that have peaked his interest.)

We’re only just over two months into 2016 now, and yet already we’ve seen the release of a host of stellar albums from across the metallic spectrum, including several (Wildernessking and Borknagar, to name but two) which easily ranked amongst my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year.

So now seems like as good a time as any to pick out five other albums which I’ve been waiting on with (not literally) baited breath.

Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list. In fact I’ve specifically left out any upcoming albums I’ve already heard (Cult of Luna, for example) or which we’ve covered here at NCS recently (Mithras, Schammasch, etc), in favour of five selections a little more personal to me. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: UNIVERSE 217 — “CHANGE”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres 6 Responses »

Mar 112016

(KevinP introduces our premiere of the new album by Universe 217 from Greece — a well-earned exception to the “rule” in our site’s name.)

Today we have the honor and privilege to present to you the fourth full-length album from Greek doom masters, Universe217. Change is due on March 18, 2016 via Ván Records and is simply the best material of their career.

While I never subscribed to the theory that vocalist Tanya carried the band, I could understand the sentiment. She is in a class all her own, like a more dynamic and powerful metal version of Janis Joplin. But Change shows a band that is on equal ground; no longer does the music take a back seat to Tanya’s soaring, emotionally driven vocals. There’s a sonic immediacy to it, with a richer and fuller sound and with more textures — the instrumental music could easily stand on its own. Continue reading »

JONESTOWN: “AOKIGAHARA”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Mar 112016

(Heres Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Jonestown, a UK band from Brighton, England.)

One of my resolutions for this year, if you can call it that, was to make more time for bands who I’ve previously checked out but who, for whatever reason, never really clicked with me. As a matter of fact I’ve got a half-written column on his very subject that I really need to get finished sometime soon…

Anyway, Brighton-based nihilists Jonestown are one such band, whose previous release, The Erebus and The Terror, definitely showed a lot of potential, but just didn’t seem to have the right x-factor to make its way into my regular rotation.

It did, however, make enough of an impression on me that when the promo for the band’s full-length debut made itself known in the NCS inbox I jumped at the chance to see if the quartet had managed to fully capitalise on the promise of their debut.

And, oh boy, did they ever. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VLK — “WITH BANNERS RAISED”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Mar 102016

In June 2015 I came across a rough mix of song by a Chicago band named Vlk that made quite an impression, despite the fact that little information was available about the band. As I wrote then, it come across as a stripped-down fusion of punk and black metal, with a raw edge and damned catchy melodies to go along with the ugly, clawing vocals and the music’s feral energy and dynamic pacing. It rocked hard but also included segments that one might even call atmospheric, and the drumming was also interesting (and definitely not “standard” black metal blasting).

It turns out that, with a slight wording change, that track became the title song to Vlk’s forthcoming debut album, Of Wolves’ Blood, which is now due for digital and cassette release on March 21 (with the tape edition coming out via Tour de Garde). Today we happily bring you the premiere of another song from the album, a track named “With Banners Raised“. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries