NO CLEAN SINGING

SHORT BUT SWEET: NOISEM — “CONSUMED”

Sep 032014

(NCS contributor Leperkahn recently winged his way to France for a period of study abroad — and on the way he penned a couple of reviews, including this one.)

I was just about to get really productive, and start catching up on the backlog of reviews I’ve been meaning to do. I was so ready to get that fulfilling feeling of being back on track, at least in a small part. It was really gonna happen this time – for the first time in a bit of a while, I had the motivation to write, and the emptiness of a couple of long flights en route to Paris to do them. I had it so nicely planned and organized.

Then Noisem released a new 7”, and all of that went to absolute shite.

As I write this (on said plane), I’ve had a digital copy of it for maybe a day at most. I’ve now listened to it probably ten times, if not fifteen. This is a roundabout way of saying HOLY MOTHERHUGGING SHITE THIS THING ABSOLUTELY BLOODY SLAYS. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ALEXANDER AWN (TEMPLE OF VOID)

Interviews No Responses »

Sep 032014

photo by alloyheart

(NCS contributor KevinP interviews guitarist Alexander Awn of Detroit’s Temple of Void, whose new album (Of Terror and the Supernatural will be released later this month.)

K: Alexander, thanks for taking the time with me today. I will admit, I was only recently aware of you chaps when I saw the song “Savage Howl” posted (somewhere). Now after spinning your debut album quite a few times, I’m kinda taken aback at how “new” a band you are.

A: Kevin, thanks for getting in touch with us and taking the time to check our shit out. We’re a new band…but we’re not new to this scene or making music by any stretch of the imagination. Our demo came out in May 2013 and the album is coming out Sept 2014. We’ve only played about 10 shows. We’re all in our 30’s and 40’s. So doing something on this level is natural at this point.

K: Where would people know you from before this?

A: Probably our most notorious face would our vocalist Mike Erdody aka Mike Tuff. He’s currently kicking ass in a variety of bands like Acid Witch, Failed, Nuke, Harbinger, and probably some more that I’ve forgotten off the top of my head.

I play in Hellmouth. But I’ve been doing bands and touring the country since I was a teenager. Brent (bassist) is in the same category. We’ve probably done 4 bands together. Jason (drums) was in a well known Detroit punk band called The Feisty Cadavers. And he rips it up in the Motrorcity Troubadours.

Eric (guitars) was most recently in Knife. But he’s been doing music since he was a teenager, too. One of his early bands was a death metal band called Kathode (that also had Andrew W.K.). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GORMATHON, VHOLDGHAST, CULT OF FIRE, MIDNIGHT, DARKSPACE

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Sep 032014

This is a second round-up for the day, collecting some of the news and new music I discovered yesterday that I thought were worth sharing around. In no particular order:

GORMATHON

I first wrote about Sweden’s Gormathon this past July upon setting eyes on Eliran Kantor’s wonderful cover art for their new album, Following the Beast, which will be released by Napalm Records during September in Europe and on October 17 in North America. Back then I didn’t have any music to share, but thanks to a tip from TheMadIsraeli I discovered that a few days ago they released an official music video for one of the new album tracks — “Absence of Trust”.

The best comment on the YouTube clip was this one: “New video from Saruman and his band directly from Isengard!” Visual resemblances aside, there’s something about the music that inspires such thoughts as well. It’s catchy-as-hell melodic death metal that bears resemblances to Amon Amarth, but with flavors of folk and power metal in the mix. Here’s the video: Continue reading »

RESURRECTIONS: NEW MUSIC FROM ROB THE BARON (AMEBIX), FAITH NO MORE, KALL

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Sep 032014

Amebix, once upon a time…

Yesterday was one of those days. One of those days, which seems to happen about every once every two days in the world of metal, where a big old dump truck of metal backed up to my door and caved it in with a big load of new metal things of varying shapes and sizes, all of which then began to gnaw on my fleshy parts. I won’t try to cover all of it in this one post, but I’ll make a start… with three items that have something in common.

AMEBIX? (NOT AMEBIX)

[The following is a revised version of what originally appeared here.)

A (black) rose by any other name…

No, there isn’t an Amebix any more, more’s the pity. Rob “The Baron” Miller announced the dissolution of Amebix in late 2012 following the release of the excellent Sonic Mass, and although he did say at the time that he and Roy Mayorga intended to work on new music “with a view to a new incarnation of the Amebix legacy, flying under a different banner”, it was clear that after the parting of ways by The Baron and his brother Stig, Amebix would not continue.

Although it appears that work between The Baron and Roy has not yet come to fruition, there is something else on the way that’s very exciting, albeit mysterious: A few days ago the following clip appeared on YouTube and I saw it last night thanks to a friend (thank you KK).

And here it is: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TOMAS LINDBERG (AT THE GATES, LOCK UP, DISFEAR)

Interviews 6 Responses »

Sep 022014

(In this post we present BadWolf’s interview with Tomas Lindberg of Lock Up, Disfear, and of course At the Gates, whose comeback album At War With Reality is headed our way in October)

“We still have a sense of urgency.”

That’s what Thomas “Tompa” Lindberg, vocalist of Swedish death metal legends At The Gates told me in between vocal takes as he called No Clean Singing from the studio. Now that At The Gates have finally released the cover art for their upcoming album At War With Reality, their first in 19 years, Lindberg is ready to talk—about finding his screaming voice, his political views, and the magical realist literature that has informed his new work.

So, you’re in the studio right now?

Yeah.

How’s it going?

Very well. All the drum tracks are totally done, and guitar tone is set and Anders has done the long song. We’re going to do guitars on one song, then I’m going to do vocals, because we do the whole setup so I can alternate so I don’t burn out the voice. You know, we’re going to have the first song written, really, finished today.

It’s good that you’re taking care of your voice, because I saw you at MDF and I have no idea how you can do what you do for an entire hour.

Me neither. Sometimes, life is a bit of a struggle, but it’s intense live because then no one can really . . . you can’t rewind and listen to it again. Well, you can on YouTube. In the studio, you need to be perfect 100%, all the time. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TORRID HUSK — “CRAWLING MOUNTAIN APOGEE”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres 3 Responses »

Sep 022014

Next month Grimoire Records will release a split entitled Crawling Mountain Apogee, with new songs from two talented bands — Myopic from Maryland and Torrid Husk from West Virginia. Invisible Oranges recently premiered the Myopic tracks, and today we’re bringing you the two long songs by Torrid Husk that appear on the split.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had the pleasure of premiering a Torrid Husk creation. Last May we premiered an excellent music video for “Cut With Rain”, a song from the band’s last EP, Caesious. Caesious was my first exposure to the band’s music, and as impressive as it was, these two new songs prove that it was no fluke. They mark a further step ahead for a band who are proving themselves to be an emerging bright star in the firmament of melodic black metal from the U.S.

The music is dramatic and dynamic. It storms in a torrent of cascading riffs and blasting drums. It rings with shining guitar melodies and howls in its discordance. It drifts moodily and crashes like a river in flood. The instrumental work is tremendously impressive at every station, and the songs are filled with great vocal variety as well, from clawing shrieks to deep roars to impassioned yells to soaring clean vocals. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: OUTER HEAVEN, DRONES FOR QUEENS, OCCULT 45

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Sep 022014

It’s rare for us to look back over our shoulders at releases from past years (or even past months). We have too damned much trouble trying to stay abreast of current releases. But I’ve recently discovered some short releases by three bands from Pennsylvania that I felt I had to write about, despite the fact that most of the music is from 2013 — if for no other reason than to introduce you to some names I suspect you’ll be hearing more about in the future.

The first one is a 2013 demo by a band named Outer Heaven, and the second is a 7″ split by Drones For Queens and Occult 45.

OUTER HEAVEN

I discovered the existence of Philadelphia’s Outer Heaven as a result of some glowing Facebook remarks by Krieg’s Imperial about their performance at last weekend’s Detest Fest Vol. 1 in the band’s home town. I hadn’t heard the name before, but after some poking around I learned that they include guitarist Jon Kunz from Rivers of Nihil and that they released a 7-track demo last year. But having said that, I suggest you now put Rivers of Nihil right out of your head, because Outer Heaven is a very different beast.

On that 2013 demo they drop ropey sludge riffs down from the rafters, knot them around your neck, and then push an anvil-heavy counterweight over the edge — and up you go, while the band beat you like a piñata with crowbars. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ILENKUS, VEKTOR, A DARK DESCENT SAMPLER

Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Sep 022014

Here are a trio of randomly chosen new things I discovered over the weekend.

ILENKUS

Ilenkus are five men from Galway, Ireland, whose second album The Crossing will be released on vinyl on September 15. The album is available for pre-order on Bandcamp along with a stream of one song, which can be downloaded now if you make the pre-order. I wrote about that song — “Over the Fire, Under the Smoke” — back in July. It hits hard right from the beginning, with big Mastodonian riffs, attention-grabbing drum rhythms, and clawing vocals. The high-voltage music flashes with jolting, progressive-minded lead-guitar flurries — and then takes a sharp left turn into something dreamlike and drifting before building again, with a rising sense of urgency, into a high burn and then a cooling-off period. Impressive guitar work and an equally impressive rhythm section make this song stand out.

Late last week Ilenkus released a music video for the song, which has racked up over 22,000 views in short order. In a nutshell, it shows one of the band’s three rotating vocalists, Chris Brennan, walking along a Galway pedestrian thoroughfare on a busy day. The camera stays focused on him, and he stays focused on the camera as the crowd flows around him. He’s singing the song as he walks — and from the looks he gets, I’m pretty sure he was actually shrieking and growling the words at full volume rather than lip-syncing (though we’re hearing the studio track in the video). Continue reading »

HORNED ALMIGHTY: “WORLD OF TOMBS”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 022014

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Denmark’s Horned Almighty.)

Horned Almighty know what they want, and they know how to make it happen. From the shit-kicking swagger of the album’s title track — replete with pumping, jackhammer riffage, brutish, bellowing vocals, and rib-cracking drum work – through to the ominous grind and blackened groove of closer “Blessed By Foulness”, the Danish deviants unleash a sickening torrent of rabid hostility and ugly misanthropy over a chaotic cacophony of pustulent riffs, choking bass-lines, and neck-snapping drums.

The band’s sound, a thrashed-up and scathingly savage form of Black Metal, delivered with a perverse, punkish energy and a rumbling, clanking Death Metal backbone, is instantly recognizable and instantly gratifying, and picks up pretty much right where their previous album, the damningly aggressive Necro Spirituals, left off.

If anything, World of Tombs might even be a little darker and a little more depraved than its predecessor, immediately grabbing the listener by the throat and proceeding to drown their screams and struggles beneath a torrent of blackened bile and metallic filth. It’s undoubtedly ferocious and pestilentially infectious, and utterly, unrepentantly, nihilistic to the core.

It’s the sort of album that just wants to watch the world burn… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FROM THE VASTLAND — “WRATH OF AESHMA”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 012014

From the Vastland began life as the one-man project of an Iranian multi-instrumentalist known as Sina, following the end of his involvement in the prolific Iranian black metal band Sorg Innkallelse. From the Vastland’s debut album, Darkness vs Light, The Perpetual Battle, was released in 2011. That was followed by Kamarikan in 2013 (which we reviewed here), and then by a striking live performance that same year at Oslo’s Inferno Festival (reviewed here), where Sina was joined onstage by a such luminaries as Thor Anders “Destruchtor” Myhren (Myrkskog, Zyklon, Morbid Angel) on second guitar, André “Tjalve” Kvebek (Pantheon I, Den Saakaldte, Horizon Ablaze) on bass, and Vegard “Vyl” Larsen (Keep Of Kalessin) on drums.

From the Vastland has now recorded a third album that we’ve been eagerly awaiting. Its title is Temple of Daevas and it’s scheduled for release by Non Serviam Records on October 6, 2014. For the new album Sina again composed all the songs, performed lead vocals, and laid down the guitar tracks. He was joined in the recording by Vyl on drums, Tjalve on bass, and by Terje Olsen (Chton, Khonsu) as a guest vocalist for backing vocals.

Today we have the pleasure of premiering a stream of one of the new album tracks: “Wrath of Aeshma”. Continue reading »

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