NO CLEAN SINGING

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE GOOD

LISTMANIA 2024 14 Responses »

Dec 102024

(Today we have Andy Synn‘s mammoth second article rounding up the year that was 2024)

Ok, so this is where “List Week” really gets going.

Before we get stuck in, however, a quick explanation for those of you who are new to the site at this time of year.

The following article is not a normal “Best Of…” list, nor is it intended to be treated like one – instead, think of it as a resource which rounds up all the albums I’ve heard this year (well, almost all of them, there’s a few that got cut simply because I didn’t feel strongly enough about them to include them at all) which didn’t make it onto my “Great” list (which will be published tomorrow).

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check them out, however, as there’s a lot of good stuff here (including some of my personal favourites), and the list itself runs the gamut from “it’s pretty good, you might like this” to “this is really fucking good, bordering on great, and needs to be heard”.

It’s not, of course, in any way definitive, because:

I’ll obviously have forgotten to include some things
there’s a few big names I just didn’t have time to get around to
some of what isn’t here will appear on tomorrow’s “Great” list
some bands we purposefully don’t feature/cover (for a variety of reasons)

And, obviously, there’s going to be more albums than I can count that I won’t even have been aware of… but it’s still a pretty big collection of records and releases, split up by style and sub-genre, which I hope you’ll find useful as a way of catching up on stuff you might have missed.

Feel free to drop any questions about anything you’re interested in via the comments… and, yes, I’ve provided links for every single album featured here.

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BECERUS

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Dec 092024

(On December 20th Everlasting Spew will release the second album by the Italian death metal band Becerus, and in anticipation of that event our contributor Zoltar conducted the following highly entertaining interview with Becerus guitarist Giorgio Trombino.)

Granted, death metal can be smart. But you can add as many lengthy lyrics and concepts about quantum physics or ancient philosophy as you want, and at the end of the day, nothing beats good ol’ in-your-face and fuck-good-taste death freakin’ metal, innit?

To those willing to go back to the stone age, Becerus would be more than happy to provide the soundtrack to your journey while banging two stones together. Three years ago, their debut Homo Homini Brutus proved to be one of those guilty pleasures for anybody looking for that kind of US thrash-infused early ’90s inspired death metal à la Broken Hope, full of palm-muting riffs and sudden blasts which don’t even pretend to be looking for an excuse to practice what they preach.

Although ‘preach’ might not be the most fitting word here as their first album bore a massive ‘no fucking lyrics’ stamped all over its inside booklet, with Balatonizer vocalist Mario Musumeci using his larynx as an actual instrument to convey strange, menacing sounds instead of delivering a so-called message.

Unsurprisingly, due on December 20th in the ever-reliable Everlasting Spew imprint, their new album Troglodyte – whose title song premiered on NCS last October – is as ruthless and savage, yet not short of rhythmic left turns and groove either. Proof that those Sicilians may not be as caveman-like as they want you to believe, even if guitarist Giorgio Trombino, former Haemophagus and Morbo and now steering both Assumption and Bottomless, enjoys covering his tracks and fucking around… Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LYSERGIC — “OF RAGE AND POWER”

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Dec 092024

Lysergic is a relatively new band, but its members aren’t newcomers. It’s the long-gestating brainchild of Portuguese guitarist João Corceiro, whose experience includes bands like W.A.K.O., Okkultist, Allamedah, and more. In Lysergic he’s joined by other talented and experienced performers whose names we’ll give you below.

The band’s debut album is named Black and Blue, and it’s set for release on January 27, 2025. We’re told that it “was written, recorded and mixed entirely alone by João Corceiro silently over the last decade, and can be considered an autobiography in the form of music and poetry.”

One song from the album, which shares the name of the band, was released with an excellent video a couple of months ago, and today we’re happy to premiere another excellent video for another compelling album track, this one called “Of Rage and Power.” Continue reading »

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE DISAPPOINTING

LISTMANIA 2024 11 Responses »

Dec 092024

Well, here we are again – it’s the beginning of “List Week” again, where I take over the site (barring the occasional interview or premiere) for five days of features rounding up all the albums I’ve managed to listen to over the course of this year.

Now, to clarify, this isn’t about showing off how many albums I’ve heard – I am well aware I am in an unusually lucky position wherein I have access to, and time to listen to, more albums than most (the exception being those people who apparently have time to listen to thousands of albums a year, which… well, let’s say I have my doubts) – it’s about providing a resource for our readers to use to check out stuff they may have missed.

Obviously, there’s also an element of looking back and analysing the year – what was “great”, what was “good”, and (in this particular article) what was most “disappointing” – but there’s no real “ranking” system beyond these three tiers (the exception being my “Critical” and “Personal” top tens at the end of the week, which I’ll say more about at the time).

SHADES OF BLACK: BØNES, FUMES, KRIEG, WITHDRAWAL, LYCOPOLIS, NECRODEATH, PILLAR AMONGST WILLOWS, PLAGUEWIELDER, TER ZIELE

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Dec 082024

I had time to pull together a large collection of music for this usual Sunday post, but not enough time to pull together the usual long-winded introduction. So we’ll just have to get right to it (please, stop applauding).

As I did in yesterday’s roundup, I organized the choices in alphabetical order by band name. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ABDUCTION, ANCIENT TOME, FANE, MONASTR, MONTE PENUMBRA, PHRENELITH, RELICS OF HUMANITY, VIOLET COLD

Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Dec 072024

Abduction – photo by Jack Armstrong

(written by Islander)

Bandcamp Friday would have been a better time for this roundup, but I couldn’t get it done in time. Yesterday was the last one of those for 2024, and it’s not clear if Bandcamp will keep it going next year. They announced the 2024 schedule on March 11th of this year, so it’s really too early to say. Obviously, a big horde of us hope Bandcamp continues the tradition.

Well, near misses only count in horseshoes and hand grenades, so my near miss with this roundup probably doesn’t count. Still, even with Friday gone, picking up the releases collected below won’t cost you anything more, even though less of the purchase money will go to the labels and artists.

Once again I resorted to arranging the music in alphabetical order by band name. To the extent there’s any musical through-line here, anything that explains why I picked these songs instead of the many others I considered, it might be that they all made me… uncomfortable… in different ways. And it turns out that the arrangement will throw you back and forth, tempo-wise. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HARKANE — “ARGO”

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Dec 062024

(written by Islander)

According to The Font of All Human Knowledge: “The Argonautica is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from remote Colchis.”

We begin this way because the Argonautica is the basis for an ambitious concept album named Argo by the Italian band Harkane, which will be released by the Dusktone label on December 13th. As you can see, it’s heralded by a striking cover painting by Paolo Girardi.

But before we get to our premiere of the new album’s title track, we should share something else about the Argonautica, because that something else is part of the reason why Harkane drew upon it for their inspiration. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NOCTAMBULIST — “LICHTETER”

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Dec 062024

(written by Islander)

“Noctambulist stand for contrasts. Serotonin summits and strung-out canyons. The empty and the grandiose. The beautiful and the appalling.”

That’s how this Dutch band represent their own music, and when you listen, it makes a lot of sense. In more prosaic terms, they could be considered a “melancholic” black metal band, albeit one that draws inspiration from other genres such as post-rock, shoegaze, new wave, and post-punk.

They released their full-length debut Noctambulist I: Elegieën via Northern Silence Productions in 2021, and now they’re following that with a new album named Noctambulist II: De Droom that will come out in February on These Hands Melt.

So far, two singles from the album have appeared. The second one, “Lichteter,” surfaced in mid-November, and today we’re premiering a beautifully made video that evokes key features of the song’s themes. Continue reading »

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): SHORT BUT SWEET

LISTMANIA 2024 8 Responses »

Dec 062024

(Andy Synn kicks off “List Week” a little early with a round-up of all the EPs he’s checked out this year)

As is tradition here at NCS we’re going to tee up “List Week” – where I essentially take over the site in order to round-up the “Great”, “Good”, and “Disappointing” albums of the year, concluding with my picks for the “Critical” (i.e. semi-objective) Top Ten and my completely and unapologetically subjective “Personal” Top Ten – with my round-up of all the EPs, splits, and short-form releases from 2024 (including links) which I think are worthy of your time and attention.

Of course, this isn’t a definitive list by any means – anyone who claims any of their lists represent some sort of “definitive” ranking should be treated with rank (pun intended) suspicion, as it’s a literal impossibility for any writer/reviewer to have heard all the great releases from a given year – but it’ll hopefully serve as a useful resource for you to bookmark and come back to whenever you have the time, or inclination, to listen to something more on the “short but sweet” end of the scale.

And, as always, I’m closing the piece with a slightly more in-depth look at my ten favourite – note that I said “favourite”, not “best”, as I’m not trying to make any sort of authoritative claim here – EPs of the year, if only to give you a glimpse into what I’ve liked and listened to the most since January.

(Obviously, this doesn’t include my own band’s EP, which I’d never be so arrogant as to include on my own list, but… maybe you’ll want to give it a listen and include it on yours?)

OSLO DEATHFEST: DAY 2

Concert Reviews No Responses »

Dec 052024

(This is our Oslo-based contributor Chile‘s report on the second day of the second edition of Oslo Deathfest, which took place on November 29-30 this year, accompanied by his photos.)

Saturday morning came too early, the sweet aching of the body’s night excursions seemingly still present. A couple of cups of coffee later, all is well again, the mysteries of the organism. A perfectly choreographed self-hypnosis ritual. The ice has retreated from the streets and given way to the rain in a move surprising absolutely nobody here. We are ready to go.

Second day of Oslo Deathfest keeps the format of the previous day, but goes even harder with eight bands in total and starting at four in the afternoon to accommodate them all. We are once again greeted by the organisers and the good people at Vaterland for the first two bands. Continue reading »

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