NO CLEAN SINGING

ABJVRATION: “THE UNQUENCHABLE PYRE”

Apr 292015

KevinP sort of stole my thunder yesterday on our site when he named Abjvration’s debut one of the Top 5 releases of April. But I’ll go him one better: The Unquenchable Pyre is one of the best releases I’ve heard all year.

The EP comes our way from Caligari Records. Originally, it was to be released exclusively on tape, but yesterday the label decided to begin making some of its offerings — including this one — available for digital download on Bandcamp. In the format in which I’ve listened to the EP, and as you can hear it on Bandcamp, the five tracks are in a single audio file. With just a couple of exceptions, it’s not entirely clear when one song ends and the next one begins; they flow from one to another, for the most part without discernible breaks. And they work supremely well that way. It’s like a single concerto of horror and pain. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ASCENDED DEAD — “THE ADVENT”

Apr 292015

Imagine you’re behind the wheel of a steroid-fueled muscle car going too fast through a hairpin curve on a mountain highway — and your brakes suffer catastrophic failure. You blast through the guard rail, briefly experience the thrill of flight, and then proceed to barrel down the mountain listening to your ride violently shake itself apart, bolt by bolt, while some inhuman horror in the back seat roars at you to stop fucking with the brakes and give it more gas.

You got that vision in your head? Okay, good. That’s kind of like what Ascended Dead’s new EP sounds like. If you don’t find the metaphor helpful, just picture your own brain: same thing will happen to it. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FANGTOOTH

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Apr 292015

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with Sfack, vocalist/guitarist of the Italian doom band Fangtooth.)

It’s time to heed the call of the restless sea and dive into the dark, hungry depths under hypnotic songs of heavy waves and howling winds. The Italian doom band Fangtooth have returned to their listeners with a second full-length record after three years of praying to Neptune and other ancient deities of sea.

The band’s mates are true to the traditions of their land, and therefore they somehow avoid Lovecraft-inspired lyrics, but how long can they resist the voice of madness? How long can they hold the path of traditional doom metal? Fangtooth navigator Sfack is ready to clarify this. Continue reading »

CHELSEA WOLFE: “IRON MOON”

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Apr 282015

Oh what the hell, even though it’s well past the time when we usually stop posting, I think you should listen to this new Chelsea Wolfe song, the name of which is “Iron Moon“.

My NCS comrade BadWolf told me about the song; there was a lot of heat coming off him when he did. He has talked my ear off (actually, both of them) about Chelsea Wolfe over the last year or two. He lusts after her music (and I think her as well) with the fervor of a true zealot.

I do understand the attraction(s), but I have a pretty simple, one-track mind when it comes to music. In general, if it’s not incinerating (and “Iron Moon” isn’t that), it needs to be very heavy or very terrifying. “Iron Moon” gets pretty close to both of those comfort zones. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEDLAM OF CACOPHONY — “IN FRANTIC SEARCH OF AN ANSWER”

Premieres 1 Response »

Apr 282015

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Bedlam of Cacophony from Orange County, California.)

Sometimes it’s an even shittier day than usual, or maybe just an exercise in going through the motions sort of day — whatever the case, for many of us metal is a cathartic way to process these feelings and views in a positive way. So to give you a daily dose of high-voltage metallic vitamins, we bring you the premiere of a new track by Bedlam Of Cacophony, a California-based group who play a particularly nasty and frenetic form of death metal-meets-grind, executed in a highly technical way with choppy, chaotic songwriting that hints at a Dillinger Escape Plan math-y influence. Continue reading »

KEVINP’S ALBUMS OF THE MONTH — APRIL 2015

Listmania, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 12 Responses »

Apr 282015

(We’re nearing the end of the month, and that means it’s time for KevinP to name the releases this month that most impressed him.)

We’re a quarter of the way through 2015 already. This month was stacked to the gills with quality releases, the best yet. Even though they didn’t make my Top 5, I feel obliged to mention Infernal War, Macabre Omen, Tribulation, Haar, and Kommandant, which are all worthy of your time. But now, on to the creme de la creme.

5. Abjvration – The Unquenchable Pyre

This was a last-minute entry and pushed one of the bands mentioned above off this list. Think Portal, if they transformed into a Finnish doomy death metal band. Sure, that makes no sense. But does this band being absolutely terrifying and hailing from France make sense? They are so kvlt, they’re not even listed on Metal Archives and have only a few hundred Facebook likes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: FEARED, BLAZE OF PERDITION, SHRAPNEL STORM, KILLING ADDICTION

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Apr 282015

Here are a few excellent new songs (and one superb video) that I spotted yesterday in my ramblings through the interhole, presented in the order in which I found them, plus one feature contributed by our guest Grant Skelton.

FEARED

Synder is the name of the new album by Sweden’s Feared and it’s due for release on May 25. I previously wrote about the excellent first single from the album, “My Grief, My Sorrow”, but I think the second one that premiered yesterday may be even better. Continue reading »

SIGH: “GRAVEWARD”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Apr 282015

(Wil Cifer offers some thoughts about Graveward, the new album by Sigh.)

Once upon a time one of my favorite black metal bands put out an album called Scenes From Hell and they transformed from one of my favorite black metal bands into one of my favorite prog metal bands. Their new album finds them getting some of the aggression back as they study the various aspects of death.

One thing that is interesting about Sigh is even though they are based in Tokyo, the band do not employ the Oriental dodecaphonic scale, but pull from a variety of western music ranging from Deep Purple to klezmer. This album opens in a fairly straight-forward metal manner for this band, with a slight leaning toward Emperor as the clean vocals sweep in amidst the twists and turns normally narrated by the more scathing snarls. The clean vocals have a more typical progressive metal vibrato, like something Therion might throw in.

Sigh continue to use a chaotic mix of varied elements, which are sometimes stirred together more smoothly than at others. There are some good metallic moments in the title track, which settled in with me more quickly than the opening song (“Kaedit Nos Pestis”); that one took a few listens to sink in. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TOTAL NEGATION — “FLEUCHTLING”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Apr 272015

Next month Sweden’s Temple of Torturous will release the third album of Germany’s Total Negation, and to give you a hint of what lies within it, we bring you today the premiere of “Fleuchtling”.

There is no easy way to sum up this long song. It is both a lyrical and a musical narrative, one that unfolds (as the album does) very much like a story — a dark and disturbing story full of changing moods reflected in changes of pace and intensity. A mid-paced rocker at the start, it becomes brooding and eerie, with a spacious interlude pierced with twisted feedback, flickering noises, and the strumming of an acoustic guitar. As the song continues to unfold, bursts of double-bass and blast-beats join with whipping tremolo chords, rhythmic bass lines bound along beneath the reverberation of discordant guitars, and hand drums make an appearance as the song reaches its hallucinatory finale. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BRETUS

Interviews 1 Response »

Apr 272015

(Comrade Aleks presents this interview with members of Italy’s Bretus.)

The shadow falls on Innsmouth once again! This time the Italian doom band Bretus comes to us to perform their own vision of nightmares which took place (and we know that’s true!) in a godforsaken town somewhere in Massachusetts. Bretus released The Shadow Over Innsmouth album just two weeks ago with the help of Dagon and BloodRock Records.

So if you like good old doom tunes, fish, and seafood delicacies, then this interview with seigniors Ghenes (guitars) and Zagarus (vocals) is for you.

Salute Ghenes! Bretus returns after three years of working in secrecy with a new conceptual album The Shadow Over Innsmouth. How did you spend this period since the previous record In Onirica was released?

Ghenes: Cheers man! We are not hyperactive guys for sure, but we recorded the single “The Haunter of the Dark” for the out-soon 7” split with Black Capricorn (for the label The Arcane Tapes), then we put together the first Doom fest (The Doom Diaries) in our city Catanzaro, and played some live concerts, including the Navajo Calling Fest in Parma, The Malta Doom Fest, and Doom Over Vienna IX. After that we concentrated on writing the new album, which between rehearsals and pre-production has taken us about a year. Continue reading »

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