NO CLEAN SINGING

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM SPECTRAL LORE

LISTMANIA 2015 5 Responses »

Jan 072016

We again invited Ayloss, the man behind the Greek band Spectral Lore, to share with us his list of favorite 2015 releases. As expected, it’s a wide-ranging and distinctive collection of music, much like the music of Spectral Lore itself.

Speaking of the music of Spectral Lore, 2015 saw the release of two experimental EPs (the covers of which are above) — Gnosis and Voyager — and the third of those planned releases is expected later this month. And now, here is the list and the comments of Ayloss about the music:

A Forest of Stars – Beware the Sword You Cannot See

This band has gone far. I admit that while I was intrigued by their first two albums (actually even before, anyone remember their old first website?), Ι found something missing in them, maybe a bit more solid song-writing to hold together the long compositions and high lyrical concepts. Well, enter “Drawing Down the Rain”, possibly the best song I’ve heard in this year, a song which seems to contain everything I like the most in music. When you kick-start your album like that, you just can’t fail and Beware… holds many other shining gems as well. A vast, ambitious, multi-faceted album, the surface of which after numerous listens I feel I’ve only scraped. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VIRULENCY — “MYRIAPOD CONSTRUCTOLOGY I”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Jan 062016

On February 28 of this new year New Standard Elite will release the debut album of Virulency from the Basque Country of Spain. Entitled The Anthropodermic Manuscript of Retribution, it delivers eight tracks of eviscerating monstrosity and will include guest vocal appearances by Paolo Chiti (Devangelic, ex – Putridity) and Konstantin Lühring (Despondency, Revulsed, ex-Defeated Sanity), with eye-catching cover art by Russian illustrator Andrew Tkalenko (Cephalotripsy, 7 H.Target, Epicardiectomy, etc).

We’ve got the premiere of a song from the album for you today. You’ll need to take a deep breath before you say the name out loud. The song will also knock the wind out of you. “Myriapod Constructology I” is the name of the track. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 10)

Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015 5 Responses »

Jan 062016

This is the Hungarian installment of our Most Infectious Song list (to see the songs that have preceded these three, go here). If you’re unfamiliar with the albums from which they come, you’ll discover that two of them include mainly clean singing and are thus Exceptions to our Rule. But the vocals are a significant element in the songs’ appeal. Not only is the singing very good, the singing is in Hungarian.

I suppose there are other ways in which some of us hear music in a way that differs from what others hear, but linguistic differences certainly seem to be an inarguable example. And in my case, as a native English speaker, there is something about the texture of the Hungarian language when used in a song that really resonates with me. But even apart from that aspect of the music, all three of these songs are highly infectious.

THY CATAFALQUE

I lavished attention on Sgùrr, the latest album by Thy Catafalque, with a premiere, a review, an interview, and other features leading up to its release. I did this because I love the album (I’m not the only one around here who feels that way — Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, who first introduced me to the band, put it at No. 3 on his year-end list earlier today). Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST BY PROFESSOR D. GROVER THE XIIITH

LISTMANIA 2015 9 Responses »

Jan 062016

(For yet another year, our old friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth brings us his year-end list of favorite releases, both metal and not — plus some things that aren’t even music.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. I return from the endless void of adult living once more to unleash upon you all my list of my favorite albums from the past year. The list is, mayhap, not quite so extensive as it was in years past, and this is due in no small part to the ever-decreasing amount of listening time that I have. Couple this with the expanding number of albums that draw my interest, and the end result is many albums that I only heard once or twice and then moved on to something that better captured my attention.

Before we move on to the list, here are a few other things from the past year that I greatly enjoyed. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MANIPULATE — “MANIPULATE”

Premieres 1 Response »

Jan 062016

February 12, 2016, is the date set for release of a new EP by NYC’s Manipulate. Entitled Becoming Madness, it’s a six-track beatdown coming from Flatspot Records, and today we’re bringing you a track that shares the band’s name and closes the EP.

Manipulate’s members have paid their dues in a lot of other bands, and what they’ve brought to this EP is a knack for blending grim and heavy metal riffs and bone-crunching, skin-flaying hardcore intensity. “Manipulate” is a good example — it’s full of fire and fury, and it will leave you black and blue. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALL — “EVER HOLLOW”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Jan 062016

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of a song from the new album by Texas-based Fall.)

So Fall is a band that should definitely have your attention. It’s progressive melodic death metal that’s compelling, technical, intensely brutal and jarring, yet also emotive. We’ll be streaming the band’s debut album The Insatiable Weakness come the 19th, a week before the record’s release, but I couldn’t go until then without some kind of a tease, in addition to the band’s other two other singles, which speak for themselves. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM GRANT SKELTON

LISTMANIA 2015 12 Responses »

Jan 062016

(Here’s NCS contributor Grant Skelton’s year-end list of 2015 favorites. It includes still more releases that haven’t appeared on our many previous lists.)

Since I’m likely the most verbose writer on this site, I’ve decided to keep my descriptions of my favorites of 2015 brief. In the interest of fairness, I also chose to omit any albums I previously reviewed. I don’t review albums I don’t love. But in the interest of not repeating myself, I left reviewed albums out.

For my money, doom consistently delivered the best albums of 2015. Certainly my tastes seem to be changing as I get older. Thrash and death will always be pet genres for me. But this year was (mostly) about 3 things: Slow. Loud. Heavy.

Without further delay, here are my favorite albums of 2015. My standard for what makes an album a contender for “best” is simple — I want to listen to the entire album in its entirety without skipping a single track. The albums in this list did just that. Continue reading »

BORKNAGAR: “WINTER THRICE”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule 21 Responses »

Jan 062016

(Andy Synn reviews the new tenth studio album by Borknagar.)

Show of hands, how many of you have heard of Theseus’ paradox? A few of you? Good to know.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it refers to questions of identity and continuity, and whether an object can be considered to be the same entity even after all its component parts have been steadily replaced over time, piece by piece.

Now, obviously, there are some parallels here with how bands work. I can tick off a number of names in my head of some of my favourite bands who no longer have any original members left and yet are still, in some ephemeral fashion, the same band.

Prog-Metal overlords Borknagar, of course, have something of an advantage in this area in that their existence has always been anchored (to stretch the nautical metaphor a little further) by the presence of mastermind Øystein G. Brun, but it only takes a quick glance at the Membership Timeline on the band’s Wikipedia page to see how many different members and line-ups the group have gone through over the years, while somehow still retaining the same creative drive and overarching musical identity that first brought the band together.

So perhaps it’s fitting that the line-up featured on Winter Thrice represents perhaps more distinct incarnations of the band at one time than ever before… reaching right back to their earliest days, while still forging boldly, progressively forward. Continue reading »

A FEAST BEYOND ART 2015 (A YEAR-END LIST BY SEMJAZA OF THY DARKENED SHADE)

LISTMANIA 2015 9 Responses »

Jan 052016

(Once again we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade, to share with us his lists of favorite releases from 2015, and we thank him for doing so.)

No need for a truly lengthy introduction since this is my second list at No Clean Singing, but here is the music that I enjoyed most during 2015.

There is much great music and too little time, therefore, lock yourselves in your home, listen, buy, and play music (read and meditate as well). Then, go outside in the wilderness for more inspiration, away from the vermin and towards the black earth.

I will hereby present my eleven most important albums of 2015, along with some other ones that I cherished this year. Apart from my ultimate best album, which is “The Book of Souls” by Iron Maiden, there is no particular order in the following list. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9)

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015 7 Responses »

Jan 052016

Welcome to the 9th Part of our evolving list of 2015’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. To listen to the other songs that have preceded the two I’m adding today, go here.

ABIGAIL WILLIAMS

As we forge brazenly ahead into the first month of the new year, we still have two year-end 2015 series in progress. Earlier today I posted one of our year-end lists, actually a combination of lists, prepared by the members of Amiensus.

I’ve been posting those lists in the order received, and it happens that today, in that order, was the day for the ones from Amiensus. And in that list, the band’s vocalist James Benson named “Will Wish and Desire” as his top metal song of the year. Continue reading »

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