NO CLEAN SINGING

ACOUSTIC ACCOUTREMENTS

Jul 102015

(Grant Skelton compiled this unusual collection of music — a rare focus on acoustic music for our site.)

I love live acoustic performances and acoustic renditions of “heavy” songs. Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the ’90s. I remember MTV’s Unplugged show. Alice In Chains’ Unplugged is my absolute favorite of their discography. Days Of The New may never again release new material, but their first self-titled album is a timeless musical triumph.

There’s something almost fragile about acoustic performances. You hear the vocalist inhale before he utters a note. The squeal of the guitar strings. The hum of the bass and the click of the drumsticks as the drummer counts into the next song. While some bands may not perform acoustic sets of their studio material, they may record an occasional acoustic interlude or ballad. How many thrash and death metal albums have you heard that have an acoustic introduction on the first track? Continue reading »

A FIRST GLIMPSE OF PANOPTICON’S NEW ALBUM: “AUTUMN ETERNAL”

Metal News 7 Responses »

Jul 102015

About an hour ago, one of our favorite bands made an announcement that we’ve been waiting for: On October 16, 2015, Panopticon’s new album Autumn Eternal will be released on CD by Bindrune Recordings in the U.S. and by Nordvis in Europe, with a gatefold LP version to follow. In addition, the band revealed the cover art (above) and debuted a 13-minute teaser of excerpts from the new album.

We will have a full review of Autumn Eternal to share with you on Monday morning. For now, I’ll say only that Austin Lunn has created another masterpiece. Listen to the teaser next… Continue reading »

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: HOWLS OF EBB — “THE MARROW VEIL”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jul 092015

(Wil Cifer offers some first impressions of the new album by San Francisco’s Howls of Ebb.)

After reviewing the metal released thus far in 2015, I’ve come to the conclusion that today’s metal seems all too often to play it too safe, sticking to the safe confines of the genre, after blackening it up a bit. So a band like Howls of Ebb is welcomed relief, as they are not afraid to refrain from sounding like every other band who wants to be Incantation.

With only three songs, it’s hard to call this an album and not an EP, but my rule of thumb is anything longer than Reign In Blood is an album. Continue reading »

BARGHEST: “INTO WEEPING FIRMAMENT” — A REVIEW (AND BARGHEST TOUR NEWS)

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 5 Responses »

Jul 082015

Into Weeping Firmament, the new EP by Barghest from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is simply overpowering. From the obliterating drum assault in the opening seconds of the first song it seizes the listener’s throat in an iron grip and never lets go. All sorts of other metaphors come to mind — and I’ll probably use all of them — but what they have in common is the sense of being caught up by some force of nature that you’re far too small and frail to withstand — or to resist. But even though the music strikes with the force of a hurricane, there’s more to it than simply shock and awe — as I’ll explain after a digression.

We live in an age when black metal has become a diffuse genre of music. There are certainly fans and musicians who believe that black metal must be defined by the specific spiritual beliefs that inspire it and by the communion (or chaos) that it must help bring about: If it is not a genuine means of practicing Luciferian and Promethean ideals, then it does not merit the name — it is instead some kind of fraudulent posturing.

But many more people don’t embrace (or perhaps don’t understand) such rigid criteria. Instead, they define black metal by the presence of certain specific musical elements and/or by a certain emotional resonance that those ingredients produce. So many bands have borrowed those aspects of the sound (or some of them) and joined them together with other musical styles that “black metal” (or “blackened metal”), as I think most people understand the terms, has evolved into perhaps the most diverse and multi-faceted of all the genres of extreme metal. What accounts for this phenomenon? Continue reading »

SOILWORK PREMIERES THE TITLE TRACK TO “THE RIDE MAJESTIC”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Jul 082015

Sweden’s Soilwork have a new album entitled The Ride Majestic coming out via Nuclear Blast on August 28. Not long ago, the label posted an official lyric video for the title track on YouTube, which enables us to stream it for you in this post.

When you name a song “The Ride Majestic”, you had better make it a ride — and Soilwork have accomplished that. It’s a blood-pumping rush, loaded with galloping riffs, a swirling guitar solo, soaring melody, and the expected mix of harsh and clean vocal dynamics from Speed Strid. And yeah, it’s a damned catchy ride, too. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ORPHANS OF DUSK

Interviews 2 Responses »

Jul 082015

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with multi-instrumentalist James Quested and vocalist Chris G of Orphans of Dusk from New Zealand and Australia.)

Orphans of Dusk is a gothic doom metal project from the part of the world where all is upside down! So if you are scarred by the term “gothic” itself, maybe this time you will find something more attractive in this genre.

There are no female tears and violins on the first Orphans of Dusk EP Revenant, which was released by Hypnotic Dirge Records and Solitude Productions on the 4th of May. Revenant is a brief but highly replete album: Monolithic riffs, growls, and deep clean vocal lines along with airy keyboards help to support an intense, somber, and solemn atmosphere all along these four songs.

Welcome our friends from Australia and adopt the sorrow and grief they’ve composed for Revenant. James Quested (guitars, synths, bass) and Chris G (vocals) clarify some aspects of Orphans of Dusk’s life in this interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RIVERS OF NIHIL — “MONARCHY”

Premieres 14 Responses »

Jul 082015

(Andy Synn introduces our premiere of the title track to the new album by Rivers of Nihil.)

I absolutely loved Rivers of Nihil’s debut album, The Conscious Seed of Light. Though it’s not a perfect release, it is very, very good (particularly for a debut full-length), and absolutely packed to the gills with nascent potential.

Potential which they’ve fully realised on their new album, Monarchy.

From start to finish it’s an intensely heavy, stunningly technical (though always in service to the greater themes of the song), and viscerally passionate album, that sees the Reading, Pennsylvania quintet capitalising on the momentum gathered by their debut in order to really expand the scope and breadth of their sound. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: WILD HUNT — “SCROLL AND URN”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Jul 082015

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Wild Hunt from the Bay Area of California.)

So I’ve really been enjoying discovering all these EPs lately. It’s not exactly been a conscious thing though, it just seems we’ve been enjoying a fantastic run of short, perfectly proportioned releases during the first half of this year.

Scroll and Urn is another one to add to the list, although we’re actually coming to it pretty late in the day, as it’s been available since the 17th of April from the band’s Bandcamp page.

If you visit the esteemed site known as Metal-Archives and search for the name Wild Hunt (and then click on the correct entry… handy tip: it’s the one without a “The” in front of it) you’ll see that the band are listed as Progressive Doom Metal/Post-Black Metal. However, this seems something of a misnomer to me.

While there’s certainly a strong progressive, and enviably creative, undercurrent to the music (as well as a gloaming shade of ominous, oppressive Doom) this is Black Metal to the core, with none of this “Post” nonsense to muddy the waters. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): HELLSODOMY, BLOODRED HOURGLASS, TURBOCHARGED, DEADPAN

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

Jul 072015

This is Part 2 of a collection of new music I’ve come across in recent days that I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I have. And if you don’t enjoy these songs, please just keep that to yourselves because I’m sensitive and bruise easily.

HELLSODOMY

That’s right, the band’s name is Hellsodomy, and you get two guesses about what the music will sound like. If you guessed “ambient drone”, please ram your head into the wall and try again.

Hellsodomy hail from Kadiköy in the metroplex of Istanbul, Turkey. They have an EP named Sodomy Is Nigh, which will be released on CD later this month by Barbarian Wrath. It consists of four new songs plus the four tracks that appeared on the band’s 2014 demo, Masochistic Molestation. Two of the new songs are streaming on Bandcamp along with one of those demo tracks, and I’ve found the other three demo tracks on YouTube. Continue reading »

WRVTH: “WRVTH”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Jul 072015

(DGR reviews the new album by WRVTH [formerly known as Wrath of Vesuvius].)

It hasn’t been lost on me that over the years I’ve been lucky when it comes to seeing bands. While not in a preferred situation, my living in Sacramento has allowed me to see some really good shows, groups just starting out who have gone on to do some awesome things. By virtue of proximity to a couple of rather large cities and a populous region, I’ve been lucky enough to see some hyper-creative people roll through town multiple times. Even though I have often joked that Sacramento is some backwater cow-town pretending to be a city (you’d be forgiven, judging by all the highway billboards and signs in our airport for thinking that the most exciting thing to do in Sacramento is go elsewhere), there have been perks — such as being able to see WRVTH over the years as they’ve came visiting from their hometown of San Jose, California, on tour.

At the time, the band was going by the name Wrath Of Vesuvius and they were dealing in the sort of hyper-technical metalcore-and-deathcore hybrid that was gaining steam in the mid-to-late 2000’s. It had its moments for sure, as many talented musicians continually added different elements into a -core sound. In the case of Wrath Of Vesuivius the band neared a tech-death sphere multiple times. If you were to view a particular chunk of California in those days through a sort of prism, focused in on three corners — one being the Bay Area, one being Sacramento, and one being San Jose — you would’ve found quite the scene for that sort of hybrid, and eventually quite a few of those bands went full-blown technical death metal. Continue reading »

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