SHADES OF BLACK: ORDER OF THE EBON HAND, THY LEGION, TIME LURKER, ZWIESPALT

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 272024
 

(written by Islander)

I guess it’s obvious from the size of this weekend’s two-part Saturday roundup that I had more than the usual amount of NCS time yesterday and this morning, and therefore kind of lost my mind.

I have only a small amount of mind and time left at this point, so today’s SHADES OF BLACK is so brief it could be labeled a token effort. But I didn’t want to skip it altogether, especially because, although the recommendations are few in number, they still loom large in the remnants of my head. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY, PART II: H-W

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Oct 272024
 

(written by Islander)

Moving on from yesterday’s Part I of the usual weekend roundup, I’m starting with the next letter of the band-name alphabet and continuing through W (no X, Y, or Z bands in this collection).

I mentioned yesterday that I had a few complete releases in this collection, in addition to all the singles, but I realized that one I thought had come out on Friday isn’t actually out yet, so I’ll push that one to a subsequent weekend.

But the first band today does have a complete release to their name, and it’s an interesting one. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY, PART I: A-G

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 262024
 

(written by Islander)

We’re creeping toward the end of 2024, not too far away from the time when the denizens of our miserable site and the visitors who come slumming here will begin focusing on year-end lists. But there’s still more than two months to go before we ring in 2025, and a lot of new music is still coming out, and will come out.

I was brutally reminded of that fact when trying to sort out what to recommend today, especially because a short vacation prevented me from making as big a compilation last week as I usually do. By the time I had sorted out what I thought would be worth exploring with you today, I had 16 picks, far too many to cram into a single column.

So, I divided this giant collection into two parts. Rather than try to figure out what kind of musical flow might make sense, I took the easy road and alphabetized everything. This post is roughly the first half. Roughly the second half will arrive tomorrow, barring some personal catastrophe. And I have ambitions to bring forth another SHADES OF BLACK collection tomorrow as well, but we’ll see. Might be a case of biting off more than I can chew.

In the meantime, chew on these choices. Most of them in this two-parter are singles, but with a few complete releases in the mix. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NIGRUM — “INEFFABLE EMPIRE”

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Oct 252024
 

(written by Islander)

The black metal band Nigrum was born in 2015 in Cuernavaca, the lush capital of the Mexican state of Morelos, but eventually found its way to a new home in the south of Sweden. The years that followed ultimately culminated in Nigrum‘s 2022 debut album Elevenfold Tail, and now they’re following that with a second full-length, appropriately titled Blood Worship Extremism, which will be released next month by Iron Bonehead Productions.

Nigrum‘s music, as it now stands represented through the new album, is as viscerally electrifying as anything you’re likely to find this year. The songs often provide tremendous surging power, barbarically unhinged vocals, and fleet-fingered, fire-bright fretwork that’s devilishly elaborate and ecstatic. But they also spin listeners through changes that strengthen the music’s iron-clawed grip.

You’ll see what we’re trying to get at when you hear the relentlessly dazzling song we’re premiering today — “Ineffable Empire“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FOR CENTURIES

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 252024
 

(Here we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Ivan Bloodhunter, founder and vocalist of the Mexican Epic Doom band For Centuries.)

Epic doom metal from Mexico is a really rare thing, and it’s good to have such an opportunity and to talk with For Centuries from Guadalajara about their first full-length album Before the Eyes of Doom (Per Sæcula Sæculorum). This band was founded in 2017, so their underground career is relatively short, yet the material which fills Before the Eyes of Doom is absolutely worthy of listening for fans of traditional and, yes, quite epic doom metal.

For Centuries rely on the classical sound of good old doom metal with lyrics based on medieval prejudices and stories of the deviltry. As you see, the vibe is already very old school, so you know what to expect from them. However, I’ve always preferred interviews over reviews, because this way it is easier to discover what the authors put into their music, much better than trying to interpret it yourself.

Today I invite you to make a trip to the Mexican underground with Ivan Bloodhunter, the band’s vocalist and founder. Continue reading »

THY CATAFALQUE: “XII: A GYÖNYÖRÜ ÁLMOK EZUTÁN JÖNNEK”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 252024
 

(Professor D. Grover the XIIIth rejoins us today with his review of Thy Catafalque‘s latest album, which will be released on November 15th by Season of Mist.)

Greetings and salutations, friends, and a happy impending Thy Catafalquemas to all who observe. It is at this point all but an official position of mine here at No Clean Singing as Guy Who Reviews The New Thy Catafalque album, a duty I relish. It is established canon at this point that Thy Catafalque are one of my favorite bands of the last two decades, an opinion bolstered by their consistently excellent output and clockworkesque album release cycle. Impressively, even with bandleader Tamás Kátai solidifying Thy Catafalque as a live entity, this new release (XII: A gyönyörü álmok ezután jönnek, or “The Beautiful Dreams Are Yet to Come”) comes only a year after its predecessor, Alföld. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NEBELKRÄHE — “ALS MEINE AUGEN ICH AUFSCHLUG…”

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Oct 242024
 

Fifteen years ago the German black metal band Nebelkrähe self-released their debut album entfremdet. Regarding the production of that album, the band have told us, “we were motivated as hell – but we were also completely inexperienced in almost every aspect of producing an album.” And so, although that album definitely found its fans, it left regrets among the band and a yearning to make it better, feelings that persisted even after Nebelkrähe went on to release two more albums in 2013 (Lebensweisen) and 2023 (ephemer).

And so, in a process that lasted 15 months, Nebelkrähe re-worked and professionally re-recorded entfremdet, making the songs true to what the band imagined they should have been. As they explain:

It may seem backward-looking and not very pragmatic to re-record the same old songs instead of new music after a decade and a half – because this much is clear: nobody was waiting for this new recording. But it was a project close to the hearts of the band members involved at the time, and when it comes to music, you should always follow your heart.

We have more info to share about this new version of entfremdet, which will be released on November 29th by the Crawling Chaos label, but our primary mission today is to share with you a video (made by Kevin Opitz) for the re-imagined and re-worked version of the second single from the new album, “Als meine Augen ich aufschlug…“ Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SAVAGE: DISENTOMB / EMASCULATOR / PERSECUTORY

 SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 242024
 

(Andy Synn presents three short but savage releases to terrify your eardums)

Look, a while back I promised I’d be better at covering more EPs this year.

And, let’s face it, I have failed in that task pretty abjectly.

But I’m trying… which is why today I want to draw your attention to three recently-released (or upcoming) bite-sized portions of brutality courtesy of Disentomb, Emasculator and Persecutory.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MACERATION — “SERPENT DEVOURMENT”

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Oct 242024
 

Almost exactly two years ago we had the privilege and great pleasure to premiere a fantastic new album by one of the earliest death metal bands to come out of Denmark — Maceration. That album, It Never Ends…, was the first Maceration full-length since their pioneering debut album A Serenade of Agony in 1992.

The comeback album drew a lot of quick attention because, like the Maceration debut, it featured guest vocals by Dan Swanö, but the record proved to be a mad and monstrous success for many reasons beyond Swanö‘s vocals (though the vocals were indeed extremely good).

It is thus excellent news that Maceration‘s  will continue their return with another new album on the Emanzipation Productions label to follow up It Never Ends…. To help spread the word, and to give you a strong taste of what’s coming, we’re now hosting the premiere of the album’s title track, “Serpent Devourment“, which will be released as a digital single on October 25th. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACKEVIL — “PRAISE THE COMMUNION FIRE FOR THE UNHALLOWED SACRAMENT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 232024
 

(written by Islander)

Every one of us follows a personal collection of bands who by our lights just never stumble. They may be ground-breakers or they may not. They may make bold steps from one record to the next or they may only iterate subtly. But over and over again, long enough to build our confidence, they create music that gets its hooks in our heads, rings our chimes (pick your own metaphor), reinforces the conviction that whatever they do next, the odds are high it will be well worth the time (and the money).

In my case the Bavarian band Blackevil are one of those groups. To borrow some words I’ve written before, their past music has been a black-thrashing devil-rush, high-grade adrenaline fuel but laced with an atmosphere of magic and menace. While drawing from well-springs of primal Teutonic thrash and the greats of speed metal, they also bring into play the epic fireworks of classic heavy metal and add mystic instrumental nuances, creating anthems of devilish glory and blood-rushing ecstasy.

They’ve been doing this long enough now, and getting better and better at it with each release, that people like me become greedily excited when seeing the news that they’ve got something new on the horizon. And the horizon is very near now, because on October 25th Dying Victims Productions will release the band’s spectacular third album, Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament, which you’ll be able to hear in full today. Continue reading »

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