NO CLEAN SINGING

A METAL GENDER STUDY

Oct 162015

Jo Bench (Bolt Thrower)

(In March of this year we gave cultural anthropologist and dedicated metalhead David Mollica a platform for recruiting people willing to be interviewed for a research project about gender in the metal community and what it means to be a metalhead. And now we’ve got a report on his interview results and conclusions.)

I know I’m all kinds of slow with getting to writing this, but you know… excuses and stuff. Anyway I’d like to share what I found from the interviews some of you lovely readers were kind enough to sit through with me months ago. Thanks to your help I ended up interviewing 6 women and 5 men, making this the first study of its kind that I know of to have equal gender representation. Most other studies looking at gender and metal have ended up talking to a pile of dudes and next to no women.

Without getting into the fine and horrendously boring details, I do inductive research. Basically, I like to ask questions and see what I find. I’m not a mathematician and I don’t like to treat people like laboratory subjects. Instead I look for patterns and common themes that emerge from the interviews I conduct. I then take those themes and patterns and put them into categories that can be used to build a model of what I am researching. This time around, I found four common categories that help to explain why women are sometimes under-represented at metal gatherings. Some of these things are going to be obvious to you, so keep in mind that the research was intended for an audience in the social sciences who generally can’t tell Fenriz from Gaahl. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABHORRENT — “A LIGHTNESS OF MIND”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Oct 162015

Abhorrent are a death metal band whose members include bassist Erlend Caspersen from Spawn of Possession, drummer Lyle Cooper (Absurdist, ex-The Faceless), guitarist Marlon Friday (Absurdist), and vocalist Nick Brown. Their debut album Intransigence will be released by Willowtip Records on November 20th. We’ve already praised an advance track from the album named “Ifrit”, and now we bring you another: “A Lightness of Mind“.

This new song features guest vocals by Mephistopheles’ Matthew “Chalky” Chalk (ex-Psycroptic), and he’s not the only notable guest who contributes to the album: It also includes performances by Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder), Malcolm Pugh (Inferi, A Loathing Requiem), and Antonio Ascencio (Serocs). And as you can see, it’s adorned by cover art from one of our favorite metal artists, Timo Ketola. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GENEVIEVE — “ESCAPISM”

Premieres 1 Response »

Oct 162015

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of the scathing new album by Maryland’s Genevieve.)

By definition, escapism denotes an activity or fantasy used to distract us from our daily pain and boredom. So when Maryland-based black/death act Genevieve decided to call their record Escapism, it seems to have been used here more like the opposite of what the word means — as if its use here instead actually represents an invitation of nightmares and horror into their world as opposed to hiding in positive forms of escapism. I get the sense that with music as pitch-black and haunting as Genevieve’s, this reversal of the term’s meaning was done purposefully.

For all the immense hatred and chaos on display in their music, Genevieve do take time to offer reprieves from the chaotic storm bearing down upon listeners, in the form of sparse instrumentals called “Paradise I” and “Paradise II”, which open and close the record. Both are built upon Middle Eastern-sounding melodies and played with a slow, restrained feel, although “Parasite II” reveals a more drone-influenced soundscape overall, one that that creates a sense of mystery as it closes the intense journey that Escapism has taken you on. Continue reading »

ULCERATE / BELL WITCH / AGELESS OBLIVION -– LIVE AT THE CHAMELEON, NOTTINGHAM OCT 11, 2015

Concert Reviews 4 Responses »

Oct 162015

(Andy Synn attended the performances of Ulcerate, Bell Witch, and Ageless Oblivion in Nottingham, England, on October 11 and turns in this report, with his own videos of the show.)

Though my erstwhile compatriots may have been attending the sun and shenanigans of California Deathfest without me last weekend (seriously, where was my invite? I thought we were friends!?!) that doesn’t mean that yours truly was without suitably metallic diversions of my own, as I was lucky enough to bear witness to the titanic Death Metal maelstrom known as Ulcerate rolling through my town, leaving a trail of shattered lives and lacerated ear-drums in its wake.

The story gets even better though, as the New Zealend three-piece were accompanied on their pilgrimage of pain by gloom-heavy doomsters (and perennial NCS darlings) Bell Witch and uber-riff-mongers Ageless Oblivion (whose album Penthos I picked as one of my absolute favourite releases of last year).

Not only that but the venue they played, The Chameleon, is the sort of intimate, DIY place that packs a lot of character, and a frankly massive soundsystem, into a very small space, meaning there’s nowhere to hide from the overwhelming onslaught of sonic punishment unleashed by the bands.

You know how an explosion that occurs in an enclosed space is ten times more devastating than one that occurs out in the open? Well that sums up the night quite nicely. Continue reading »

ON THE WAY: ROTTING CHRIST, CONAN, KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS, UR DRAUGR

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Oct 162015

As a result of finally finding a few hours yesterday to use in exploring music (for the first time this week), I’m again deluged in new things I’d like to tell you about. To avoid overburdening your patience, I’ve split my discoveries into two posts for today. The focus of this one is announcements of new albums that don’t yet have any music streaming. But because I hate to post anything on the site without some sounds, the last item is a fantastic new song.

ROTTING CHRIST

We’re very big fans of Rotting Christ around here, and so this announcement from two days ago was especially exciting. I’m just going to quote the statement from Sakis Tolis:

After more than a year and a half of deep soul searching, and 4 grueling months in the studio, I can proudly announce that we have finished recording the new Rotting Christ album. It’s eleven new songs, with eleven different and unique stories influenced by rituals and myths from all around the globe. All of these new creations are mystical journeys into hidden knowledge under the name Rituals that will release on the 12th of February, 2016.

Rituals is the darkest and most personal-sounding Rotting Christ album that we’ve ever made, and you’ll be able to hear it very shortly. Stay tuned brothers & sisters!

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: MORTAL TORMENT — “CLEAVER REDEMPTION”

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Oct 152015

The Greek death metal band Mortal Torment are celebrating their tenth anniversary of tormented existence by releasing their second album tomorrow via Gore House Production. And I think an opening round of applause is in order for the band’s choice of album title: Cleaver Redemption. And let’s have a second round of applause for the completely fitting cover art created by Athens-based Remedy Art Design (Keep of Kalessin, The Crown, Uncleansed).

Of course, the key question is whether applause is in order for the album itself. You can decide for yourselves, because we’re giving you the opportunity to hear all of it. With song titles such as “Epileptic Defecation”, “A Million Skulls To Bludgeon”, and “Fucked In the Eye Socket”, you will find some clues about what awaits you. A few more clues may be found in some of the names identified by the band as influences — Dying Fetus, Aborted, Benighted. Continue reading »

NAUGHT: “NAUGHT”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Oct 152015

The members of the Phoenix band Naught have not disclosed their identities. The odds are high that they are human, but the music leaves room for doubt, for it is terror made manifest, doom made palpable — frigid, desolate, and harrowingly inhuman.

We bring you an exclusive stream of Naught’s self-titled debut, to be released in limited quantities by Battleground Records beginning tomorrow. Especially for a first full-length, it’s a remarkably accomplished and remarkably pitiless offering that all true fans of apocalyptic doom and sludge should embrace.

The self-titled album consists of three long tracks (“I, The Wraith”, “Firmament, Alight”, and “Oblation”) and one brief, unsettling ambient interlude (“A Looming Impermanence”). The music is spare and primitive, yet so well-produced and ingeniously conceived that it irresistibly opens the mind’s eye to vast barren vistas populated by the shades of the dead. Continue reading »

(ALMOST) FREE SHIT: A MASSIVE NEW DIGITAL COMP FROM APOSTASY RECORDS

Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Oct 152015

I just took a pause from scribbling some stream-of-consciousness reactions to two premieres we’ll be bringing you later today and while scanning my Facebook feed discovered this: Germany’s Apostasy Records has recently released a digital compilation that includes 24 songs from 19 bands spanning the label’s releases over the years 2012 – 2015. Check out these names:

Alkaloid, Black Abyss, Burial Vault, Corpse Molester Cult, Craving, Crisix, Deadborn, Disparaged, Lay Down Rotten, Lost Soul, Maladie, Nailed to Obscurity, Obscenity, Overtorture, Punish, Sonic Reign, Spheron, The Duskfall, and Von Branden. Continue reading »

SHADOW WOODS METAL FESTIVAL 2015: A REVIEW

Concert Reviews 7 Responses »

Oct 152015

(A long time has passed — two years and 11 months to be exact — since we last featured the writing of Kaptain Carbon at our site, but he has returned with this review of the first Shadow Woods Metal Festival, which took place on September 25-27, 2015, in White Hall, Maryland. All photographs in this post, most of which appear at the end of the review, were taken by Kaptain Carbon as well. Kaptain Carbon writes for Tape Wyrm (http://tapewyrmmetal.com/) and Hollywood Metal (http://hollywoodmetal.com/author/kaptaincarbon/) and also moderates Reddit’s metal subreddit r/metal.)

There were many things to be excited about at Shadow Woods Festival. First and foremost, it was a metal festival in a remote campground outside of Baltimore. While not the only outdoor metal festival, Shadow Woods offered an opportunity for America to mimic an event that Europe has done for decades. This was the inaugural event for a team of promoters and record labels who had little experience in hosting someting of this size and interest level. Second, the weather was supposed to be gorgeous and, for the cooling months of early autumn, in the low ’60s in temperature, a perfect time to feel the chill of heavy metal.

Upon arriving, the entrance to the camp was signaled by a printed flyer duct-taped to a cone, obscured by a bush. Another sign pointing in the direction of the festival was propped against a decorative bench in front of a remote house with a manicured lawn. Camp Hidden Valley usually plays host to numerous day camps for children, with its scariest events being schlocky haunted trails during Halloween. Other than that, Camp Hidden Valley offers educational programs for the Boys and Girls Club serving the greater Baltimore area. For the last weekend in September, however, more than 200 metal fans and adventurous spirits were sprawled throughout its 180 acres to celebrate darkness and fair weather chaos. Continue reading »

CALIFORNIA DEATHFEST MMXV (DAY TWO)

Concert Reviews 10 Responses »

Oct 142015

From last Friday through Sunday, October 9-11, 2015, I and two of my NCS comrades (DGR and BadWolf) attended the inaugural edition of California Deathfest in Oakland, CA, brought to us by the same good people responsible for the long-running Maryland Deathfest.

On Saturday morning I managed to scribble some notes and pull together a few photos from the first day of the festival (here). Though delayed for various reasons, this post will now focus on Saturday’s show, and before this week runs out I hope to prepare a feature on Sunday’s third and final day of the event. Continue reading »

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