NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HIGH PRIEST OF SATURN (MERETHE HEGGSET)

Jan 132016

(Comrade Aleks presents his interview with Merethe Heggset, vocalist and bassist in the Norwegian band High Priest of Saturn, whose second album will be released next month.)

High Priest of Saturn is from our planet; actually this band was born in Norway about five years ago. Well, they’re from Norway and they don’t play black metal. They did a demo-record in 2011 and stole the heart of Svart Records’ boss, who helped the band with the release of the High Priest of Saturn album in 2013.

The core of the band are Merethe Heggset who sings and plays bass; Andreas Hagen who can easily deal both with guitars and drums; Martin Sivertsen (also Andreas‘ mate in the Resonaut band), also a guitarist; and Ole Kristian, organ player.

I already gave you a hint, but let’s clarify it: High Priest of Saturn perform a bit raw, a bit dirty, but overall psychedelic doom metal with hypnotic female vocals. If you like Acid King, then you need to check it. We had already started this interview with Merethe when suddenly I found a promo version of the band’s new album Son of Earth and Sky in my mail box and it took a bit more time to finish our discussion. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: BADWOLF’S TOP NON-METAL ALBUMS OF 2015

LISTMANIA 2015 11 Responses »

Jan 132016

(In what has become an annual tradition as we near the finish line for our LISTMANIA series, our good friend and long-time NCS comrade BadWolf (aka Joseph Schafer) takes a break from his responsibilities at Invisible Oranges and brings us his year-end list of top non-metal albums from 2015.)

My duties as editor of Invisible Oranges keep me from writing on No Clean Singing as much as I’d like (that being, pretty much at all) but this site still feels like home. I think, for the first time, this is the only article I wrote for Islander in the past twelve months. That said, it’s still my favorite piece to write.

If you’re interested in my metal top 10, it lives here at Invisible Oranges. Look at the comment section for a little snark from our beloved Andy Synn. It’s ok, buddy, I don’t like most of the bands on your list, either.

Maybe Synn and I will have more in common outside the realms of metal. That said, some of these records are quite heavy — a couple made it into the metal top 10 lists at Invisible Oranges. I excluded them for the sake of having a more cohesive metal list of my own. Continue reading »

FESTIVITIES: HAMMERHEART OSTARABLOT

Metal News 9 Responses »

Jan 132016

Festival poster by Nate Burns

For the second year in a row, HammerHeart Brewing Company is putting on a metal festival. Bearing the name Ostarablot, it will be hosted at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday, March 18 and 19, 2016. And man, it’s a hell of a line-up.

As many of you know, HammerHeart is a brewery and tap house located in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, that’s co-owned by Austin Lunn of Panopticon. He and his comrades have assembled an truly impressive array of bands for Ostarablot. Feast your eyes on this:

Day 1:
Wyrding
Wilt
Waldgefluster
Obsequiae
Falls of Rauros Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKUGGSJÁ — “VITKISPÁ”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres 8 Responses »

Jan 132016

cover art by Costin Chioreanu

On May 17, 1814, the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll signed the Constitution of Norway, which remains one of the oldest in the world. Inspired by the 200th anniversary of that event, Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved and Einar Selvik of Wardruna joined forces to compose and perform a concert piece called Skuggsjá, which means “mirror” or “reflection” in the Norse language. Skuggsjá was first performed at the Eidsivablot festival in Eidsvoll on September 13, 2014, to commemorate the anniversary. But Bjørnson and Selvik decided that the Skuggsjá project should live on and be expanded.

Last fall the duo signed with Season of Mist, taking Skuggsjá as the project’s name. On March 11, 2016, Season of Mist will release their debut album, entitled A Piece For Mind and Mirror. Today we bring you the premiere of a song from the album named “Vitkispá“. Continue reading »

BURN THE MANKIND: “TO BEYOND”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jan 132016

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album of Brazil’s Burn the Mankind.)

This is a standout death metal release of 2015 that’s going to go largely unnoticed due to its appearance close to the end of the year. That neglect is rather depressing because Burn the Mankind put out what is easily one of 2015’s best death metal records, with a convincing blend of sounds, recognizable yet distinct in what that blend produces.

In essence, Burn the Mankind is Behemoth run through a Brazilian tribal metal filter. There aren’t ethnic elements, but the mood, production, and style of riffs, when mixed with the Polish trademark blitzkrieg of nonstop blast-beats and huge chords carries itself impressively. You can hear all eras of Sepultura represented here, so I guess we could also just say, “think Sepultura meets Behemoth in the most literal sense you can, with a Napalm Death garnish.” Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 13)

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015 5 Responses »

Jan 122016

I had planned to resume my rollout of this list yesterday, but somehow the blogging part of my day ended before I could finish it. In my defense, we’ve had quite a lot of things to post yesterday and today. In my further defense, I’m forgetful, scatterbrained, and easily distracted.

Most of the installments of this series have had some kind of thematic connection between the songs in each post. I don’t really have one to suggest this time. These are kind of odds and ends that I was ready to add to the list, and I didn’t want to kill even more time trying to think of good pairings for each of them. To see the rest of the songs on the list that preceded these two, go here.

JØTNAAR

I wrote about this first song last August soon after discovering it — and I was waiting for it eagerly based on the band’s previous two-song EP, 2014’s Divide the Growth and Stone. This three-man group from Colchester, England, is now two-for-two. In addition to that excellent previous EP, their 2015 collection, Burn and Bury, is also excellent. Here’s what I wrote about the new EP last year: Continue reading »

TOURISM: BLASFEMIA AMERIKA 2016

Metal News 5 Responses »

Jan 122016

This should be interesting — a North American tour headlined by Behemoth with support from Myrkur, and a traveling exhibition featuring the creations of Sharon Toxic. Behemoth has never failed to disappoint in the 3 (or 4?) times I’ve seen them. It’s always powerful entertainment. And I confess I’m curious to see Myrkur live. It’s a moot point for me, however, since the tour won’t reach the Pacific Northwest, but maybe it will land in your vicinity.

Because I’m in a bit of a hurry, I’m going to excerpt a few passages from the press release we received, followed by a list of all the dates: Continue reading »

ABBATH: “ABBATH”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Jan 122016

(Wil Cifer reviews the new debut album by Abbath — which premiered today as a full-album stream at this location.)

The war was waged on the battle planet of the blizzard beasts and Abbath Doom Occulta walked away from Immortal with his solo project Abbath. It is rumored that the songs on his eponymous solo debut were written for the follow up to All Shall Fall. So if the other guys walked away with the name while Lord Occulta came out of the fray with these songs, then he might just be the winner.

Having enlisted Creature (aka Kevin Foley, who also drums for Benighted) and Gorgoroth bassist King ov Hell, the latter’s influence can be felt in the intensity of the first song. It bites like the artic winds, and it’s not until the second song “Winterbane” that you are able to notice more of the nuances and hear the ice-coated black metal Immortal once made. Half-way into the song, you will already find it hard not to headbang along. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ODYSSEY — “BEFORE THERE WERE EYES TO SEE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Jan 122016

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Odyssey from Spokane, Washington.)

It’s no secret that people here at NCS have had a mega musical boner for Spokane, Washington-based instrumental prog trio Odyssey. Islander has covered every one of their releases since 2010 when they dropped their second release, Schematics. I’m right there with him as far as a love affair for Odyssey goes, and from the looks of their Facebook fans, I see our esteemed colleague TheMadIsraeli is a fan as well.

I believe I first heard about Odyssey back in 2011 when their full-length An Abstract Existence dropped and drew me in due to the press it received at the time. As the years since then have gone, Odyssey have kept up their penchant for quality, and quantity — this year’s release of Voids will be their third full-length, and sixth release overall since forming in 2007. Which is damn impressive in my book.

We’ve got a proggy barnburner of a tune from Voids called “Before There Were Eyes To See” to show you today. So hit play and keep reading. Or don’t keep reading — but at least jam this madness. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: GOD ROOT — “GOD ROOT”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Jan 122016

This just-released debut EP by a new band from Philadelphia really is one that must be heard all the way through, from start to finish. Yes, you can randomly pick any one of the four tracks and still find yourself rooted in place, taking it in and finding your emotional state altered by what you hear. But the cumulative impact of the four in sequence is pulverizing.

God Root is organized with an introduction (“Spirits Rise”) coming first, followed by a long song called “Of Habit”, a comparatively brief interlude (“Bog Ascending”), and another long song named “Of Control” to finish the sequence.

“Spirits Rise” sets the stage for this dismal pageant with the reverberation of ritual drumbeats, a solemn tribal rhythm backed by the shimmer of unsettling ambient tones and shamanistic wailing. Continue reading »

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