NO CLEAN SINGING

SEEN AND HEARD (SORT OF): BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH, COLD BLUE MOUNTAIN, CVLT NATION DOOM, ERYN NON DAE., MISÞYRMING, NEOLITH, ONTOGENY, TEKSTI-TV 666

Jan 072015

Every now and then I feel the need to elevate myself to about 40,000 feet above the Earth so as to more clearly receive extraterrestrial emanations and special guidance from the cosmos itself. I happen to be doing that right now. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology I can snoop the web for news and new music and post what I find, even as I receive mysterious communications from entities far beyond our own sphere.

Actually, to be brutally honest, which is the only kind of honest we know how to be at this site, I’m cooped up on an airplane flying across the country for my fucking day job, and the only emanations I’m getting are from the whine of the jet engines outside my window; I can’t make sense of them.

Although there’s an internet connection on board, it’s not good enough for me to hear music streams or watch videos. So, I’ve picked all but one of the music streams in this round-up based on educated guesses that they will be good. Maybe you’ll leave a comment and let me know if I guessed right. Presented in alphabetical order: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SAMI RAUTIO (MY SHAMEFUL)

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Jan 072015

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks returns with another interview. This time he talks with Sami Rautio of the band My Shameful, whose sixth album Hollow was released last fall by Moscow Funeral League Records.)

My Shameful is a pretty extreme death doom / funeral product of bitter and hateful inspirations from the daily life of its mastermind Sami Rautio. Its line-up has changed through the time, but mostly My Shameful works as a trio with Sami (vocals, guitars, keyboards) at the helm, Jürgen Frohling on drums, and Twist as the bass-guitarist.

The band’s followers got a full-length album Penance in 2013 after five years of silence; but Sami and the crew didn’t want to waste their time and they returned with the next record Hollow in 2014, and soon after that My Shameful took part in the split-album The Symmetry of Grief with Russian band Who Dies In Siberian Slush. Is it too much? That’s a good question, and I needed to ask Sami himself to know the answer. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KEVIN QUILLIGAN (APOPHYS)

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Jan 072015

I first discovered the Dutch band Apophys last June through a video about a visit by the band’s vocalist Kevin Quilligan to phoniatrician Enrico Di Lorenzo (who also happens to be the frontman of Rome’s Hideous Divinity) for a vocal assessment. That very interesting video (a short version of which is here) led me to search out music, and I found the band’s blast-furnace four-song 2013 promo (and frothed at the mouth over it in this post).

At the time I wrote that post in June, the band were working on a debut album — and then last month brought the surprising news that Metal Blade Records had signed Apophys and would be releasing that debut full-length to the masses. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 13

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014 3 Responses »

Jan 072015

Welcome to the lucky Part 13 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

I missed a day in the rollout yesterday because of my fucking day job. To make up for that, we’ll have an extra-strong, double-dose of ass-kicking to begin the day.

ABORTED

We posted not one but two reviews of Aborted’s 2014 album, The Necrotic Manifesto, one by BadWolf (here) that accompanied our premiere of a full-album stream and one (here) by TheMadIsraeli. We could have posted five reviews, because everyone among the longest tenured staffers around here (including me) agreed — and its rare for all of us to agree on anything — that the album was fantastic. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: STEVE SHERWOOD (OF WOLVES)

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Jan 062015

In the summer of 2013 I came across an album named Evolve by a Chicago band named Of Wolves, and it spun my head clean around. I had more “what the fuck?” moments than I had experienced with any other album during the year up to that point. There was something unexpected lying in wait around every corner, and the album had more corners than a roller-coaster ride. As I wrote in my review:

These three working men in Chicago are fed up, frustrated, and pissed off. They vent their fury at everything from churches to governments to pervasive greed to the treatment of Native Americans to the mass of their fellow citizens (aka “sheep”) who allow themselves to be brainwashed, duped, and distracted from protecting their own self-interests — and they don’t mince words about it. As they say, “Life has been rough, the music is therapy.”

Apparently, the therapy consisted of taking a whole kitchen sink’s worth of musical influences and interests — from punk to crust to metal to garage rock to backwoods mandolin melodies — and letting them spill out in a flood of exuberant creativity.

After I wrote the review, I talked with the band’s vocalist/guitarist Steve Sherwood about doing an interview. Almost eighteen months later, it happened, via e-mail. There’s a reason why the slow loris is the mascot of this site. All live photos accompanying this interview were taken by John Mourlas.

LOOKING AHEAD: GRANT SKELTON’S LIST OF EAGERLY ANTICIPATED 2015 RELEASES

Metal News 35 Responses »

Jan 062015

(We’re not quite finished with our 2014 LISTMANIA series, but NCS contributor Grand Skelton is looking ahead to what the new year will bring, and writes about some releases he’s particularly eager to hear. In the comments, let us know what you’re anticipating.)

Some of the biggest names in metal have albums in production for next year. Black Sabbath are reportedly recording their final album and then disbanding. Faith No More recently released the first single from their upcoming album. Slayer will be releasing their first album following the passing of Jeff Hanneman and the resignation of Dave Lombardo. Since the Prague incident, Lamb of God have been laying low, but it seems they are finally working on new material. Megadeth look to be entering the studio at the beginning of the year, despite being down to only 2 members. Rumors of Pepper Keenan returning to Corrosion of Conformity for a new album have begun to circulate.

Perhaps Metallica will get around to finally releasing their follow up to Death Magnetic as well. I may be in the minority on this site, but I’m a fan of “Lords Of Summer,” the new song they debuted this year. Even though not one album has gone platinum in 2014, a new Metallica album would no doubt sell very well… unless of course they do something asinine… like Lulu 2. As much as I love Metallica, I would rather listen to tone-deaf American Idol rejects than that revolting heap of musical excrement. Continue reading »

A YEAR-END LIST FROM GRONK! (A BAND OF ORCS)

LISTMANIA 2014 12 Responses »

Jan 062015

(Yes, we did already post a year-end list from one of the members of A Band of Orcs [Cretos Filthgrinder], but we asked Gronk! if he would again give us one, too, because when it comes to being spared, we take no chances. HAIL GZOROTH!)

Unseasoned Greetings humies,

Once upon a time more Islander asks Gronk! for him’s Suncycle-end list of 2014. Hail Islander, Gronk! guess me do nother such list for favorite metal bleeorg. Gronk! not go in partorcular order like go last Suncycle. Insteads me let Chaos Reign and go EXtream of subconsciousness for see what metal-philoso-theological thought-forms bubble up to surface from depths of darklake mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANCIENT WIND — “WITH HATE IN THEIR EYES”

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Jan 052015

Ancient Wind are from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, but you wouldn’t guess that from their music. The Chosen Slain is their debut album, but you wouldn’t guess that either — because it sounds like something produced by a band with multiple albums already under their belts. But judge for yourselves — because you’re about to hear the album’s first single, “With Hate In Their Eyes”.

Glenwood Springs may be nestled in the Rockies at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Roaring Fork River, a town where Doc Holliday spent the final months of his life and was buried, but there’s a lot of Northern Europe in Ancient Wind’s sound. They identify such bands as Amon Amarth and Immortal among their influences — along with the likes of David Alan Coe, Poison, and Anal Cunt. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 12

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014 3 Responses »

Jan 052015

Today we present Part 12 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Today’s songs come from two outstanding albums by death metal bands who are quite skilled at putting a vigorous bludgeoning on your ass — and doing it in the context of actual songs that prove to be quite memorable.

ABYSMAL DAWN

Abysmal Dawn’s Obsolescence came loaded with highly infectious material, and so morbid that it might have been hand-delivered by the grim reaper. I think “Inanimate” is the most infectious track on the album, but only by a hair. It had lots of competition all around it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: “MELENA’S MASK” BY SEWER GODDESS

Premieres 1 Response »

Jan 052015

You can’t find the word “painlust” in any standard dictionary, but it should be a word. If you think about it, it sums up a material part of the human condition. It’s also the name given by Boston-based Sewer Goddess to their new album. Today we give you an introduction to the musical concept of painlust through our premiere of the album’s first advance track, “Melena’s Mask”.

Sewer Goddess made their full-length debut through 2010’s With Dirt You Are One. That was followed by a variety of tape, compilation, and live recordings, but this new song reveals a further evolution of the band’s sound.

Following an introductory fog of static-saturated noise, the band bring down slow hammer blows of fuzz-drenched chords and industrialized percussive pounding. Dissonant guitar excretions writhe through the tumult, and machine-manipulator Kristen Rose howls and shrieks like a banshee tortured to the point of derangement. The song is like a death march, with ranks of the wretched being fed into the teeth of a soul destroyer. Both harrowing and hypnotic, it seems to function as a statement of intent for the album, and as a convincing embodiment of the lust for pain. Continue reading »

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