NO CLEAN SINGING

THEORY IN PRACTICE: “EVOLVING TRANSHUMANISM”

Aug 142015

(Austin Weber reviews the comeback EP by Sweden’s Theory In Practice.)

Theory In Practice are in many people’s estimations one of the finest progressive-minded technical death metal acts ever to exist. Between the late ’90s and 2002 they put out three highly influential, ahead-of-their-time records. Then the band sort of went poof sometime shortly after releasing 2002’s Colonizing The Sun and have been listed as “on hold” ever since.

Only a mere two days ago a friend and I were dorking out about our desire for Theory In Practice to return and grace us with something new. Well, the wait is finally fucking over, as yesterday the band dropped a new two-song, nine-minute EP called Evolving Transhumanism. I was lucky enough to see a band I follow post about it, otherwise I wouldn’t even have known myself! Continue reading »

CLARET ASH: “THE CLEANSING”

Album Reviews 12 Responses »

Aug 142015

(Andy Synn reviews the new second album by Australia’s Claret Ash.)

Oh, Australia, how/why you’re currently experiencing this upsurge in attention and exposure for your contribution to the world of the Metallic arts I don’t know… but I do know that it’s thoroughly deserved.

I mean, seriously, I don’t even have to think all that hard to come up with a frankly staggering array of all the great things that have come from Down Under in recent years… Be’Lakor, Ne Obliviscaris, Drowning the Light, Orpheus Omega, Whoretopsy, the highly underappreciated Okera, Dawn of Azazel, Stargazer, Innsmouth, my current personal favourites Sanzu, Rise of Avernus, Advent Sorrow, Watchtower, Hope Drone, Spire, Wardaemonic, The Schoenberg Automaton, Caligula’s Horse, Mad Max… the list goes on!

Well, not to be forgotten or outdone, the boys in Claret Ash have just unleashed their sophomore effort, and what a nasty little piece of high-quality sonic darkness it is! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ABBOT

Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews 2 Responses »

Aug 142015

(In this post, Latvian music journalist Evita Hofmane presents her interview with vocalist JP Jakonen of the Finnish band Abbot, whose debut album Between Our Past and Future Lives was released in October 2014 by the Italian label Bloodrock Records and can be heard at the end of this interview.)

Abbot? What is Abbot?

Abbot is classic heavy rock n’ roll band from Pori, Finland.

We had a pretty long and nice virtual interview with their vocalist JP Jakonen.

And btw, Abbot have a US West Coast Tour in the works for the summer of 2016.

Wanna know more? Go ahead! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SERIAL BUTCHER — “SADISTIC SPARE PARTS SURGERY”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 132015

Even if you’re not already familiar with Serial Butcher, the cover art by Tony Koehl for their forthcoming second album should tell you almost all you need to know about the music you’re about to hear. And if you’re a little slow to catch on, then take a second look at the title of the song we’re premiering and reflect upon the fact that it comes from an album named Brute Force Lobotomy.

Still not getting it? Well, consider the additional fact that Serial Butcher’s current line-up consists of current and formers members of Aborted, Emeth, Moker, and Ectopia, and that the album will be released by Unique Leader Records.

Still not enough information? Man, some of you must still be half-asleep. Well, here’s a statement from the band: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEAVYDEATH — “DEAD TREES”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Aug 132015

Heavydeath is a trio of experienced Swedish musicians (guitarist/vocalist Nicklas Rudolfsson, bassist Johan Bäckman, and drummer Daniel Moilanen) who have been involved in many other projects (including Necrocurse and Runemagick). With session drummer Oldfor Suns standing in for Danel Moilanen, who has been performing with Katatonia as their live drummer, Heavydeath have recorded a new EP entitled Dark Phoenix Rising that will be released by Caligari Records on August 25, 2015, and today we’ve got for you the premiere of the EP’s opening track, “Dead Trees“.

I’ve had this song running through my head virtually non-stop since first hearing it. When other music tries to enter the picture, “Dead Trees” just bulldozes it out of the way and stomps it to smithereens for good measure. The song’s central riff is massive — and massively catchy. It hammers and vibrates and occasionally spirals up into the sky from the dank pit where it spends most of its time. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ROTTING CHRIST, HATE ETERNAL, CRYPTIC HYMN

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Aug 132015

I’ve been distracted over the last couple of days by a combination of demands by my fucking day job and time spent with some old friends who decided to escape the furnace that is a Texas summer by visiting Seattle. On top of that, Facebook eliminated my personal profile because it wasn’t under my real legal name, which deep-sixed my friend connections to hundreds of musicians and record labels, whose FB statuses were a constant source of new-music discoveries for me. Put all that together, and the result is that I’m way behind in discovering and writing about new music streams. I’m hoping to re-group in the next day or two, but for now, here are some quick items (the last of which comes to us courtesy of Grant Skelton).

ROTTING CHRIST

As we previously reported, Season of Mist is releasing a double-live album by the almighty Rotting Christ on August 21. Entitled Lucifer Over Athens, it was recorded in Athens in December 2013, and it’s the band’s first-ever live album.

Yesterday, SoM premiered a full stream of the new album, which you can check out below. It’s available for pre-order at this location. Continue reading »

HOPE DRONE: “CLOAK OF ASH”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Aug 132015

(DGR wrote this review of the new album by Australia’s Hope Drone.)

It’s not often that I am able to pontificate on the future here at NCS and actually be correct — I’m more likely in the running to be one of the kings of talking out of my ass about what may be coming to us soon (I hear tell that the batting average amongst our other writers is just as good, though, with the exception of our lovely esteemed editor whom I have been informed is correct 100% of the time and never, ever wrong), but overall I’ve found that this is work best left to the TV pundits and people who can actually make a play at knowing what they’re talking about.

I’m admittedly enthusiastic about the style of music that I love and review, but truthfully, and in my case especially, I’m a bit on the dumb side. However, that isn’t to say that I don’t have the occasional blink of brilliance. Sometimes, there will be a band and a moment for that band where you hear them and you immediately get the sense that,”Yeah, that is going to get them signed”. These times seem so obvious that it is like being hit by a fish thrown at you in an open field; you saw it coming, but you still got gills in the face.

In the case of Brisbane’s Hope Drone, it wasn’t just one moment, it was actually a series of moments. Eleven of them, to be exact. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NACHTTERROR

Interviews 1 Response »

Aug 122015

(Comrade Aleks interviews Erik from the Canadian band Nachtterror, for whom we had the pleasure of recently premiering a song from their new split with Altars of Grief.)

So we’ve reached the second part of the split-album Of Ash And Dying Light as I get in touch with the mastermind of Nachtterror, another band from Regina, Canada, who took part in this record alongside Altars of Grief.

Both bands show their best, creating a dark, mournful, and harsh atmosphere, but if Altars of Grief (with whom we did an interview a few weeks ago) are good in the doom/black genre, Nachtterror prefer symphonic black stuff. Let’s go further into the reign of ash and dying light with Erik.

******

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE RITUAL AURA — “ERASED IN THE PURGE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Aug 122015

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new video and song from a forthcoming debut album by The Ritual Aura.)

We’ve covered The Ritual Aura before at NCS (here), and this Australian death squad are in impeccable form once again on the song/lyric video that we are premiering today called “Erased In The Purge”. In the time since we last wrote about them, they’ve signed to Lacerated Enemy Records and are nearing the release of their debut album, Laniakea, on August 27th.

If you think you know what you are in store for, “Erased In The Purge” has a few tricks up its sleeve beyond its primary mission of whipping you into a psychotic frothing frenzy. It’s so hellbent on destruction that it’s possible it was conceived specifically to be a sonic call to arms. If any nation around the globe with warmongering tendencies were smart, they’d make this their national fucking anthem. It’s that lethal. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FUNERAL THRONE — “HYPNOTIC COILS”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 122015

Last year, the British black metal band Funeral Throne released their second album, Threshold, through Exitium Productions in a very limited cassette edition. Now, Germany’s Blut & Eisen Productions will give the album a wider distribution on CD (and eventually vinyl), with an international release date of September 15, 2015. Today we bring you the premiere of Threshold’s fourth track, “Hypnotic Coils”.

Funeral Throne devoted five years of effort to the creation of Threshold and have explained that the songs commemorate specific times and experiences along a path of spiritual and musical growth. They also sought to avoid technical tricks of the trade such as drum triggering and re-amping of guitars in an effort to produce an authentic sound that would complement their effort to capture the “rebellion and truth” at the heart of “all true heavy metal”. Continue reading »

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