AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE MORNINGSIDE — “ECLECTICISM CRAWLED INTO ITS HOLE”

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

 

(In this post we present an interview of The Morningside from Moscow, Russia, conducted by A. Strunitzkij and introduced by our contributor Comrade Aleks. All photos are by Olga Goleva.)

We could discuss for a damned long time how much of Katatonia and Agalloch has left the works of The Morningside since they released their first album The Wind, The Trees And The Shadows of the Past in 2007. But the new album by this band from far Moscow, Letters From The Empty Towns, only pours oil onto the flames of this controversy. Highly energetic, fierce, and ghostly cold, this album returns us to the dark and melancholic world of The Morningside.

The whole band is here today. Let me introduce you to The Morningside with its most constant (and I hope – eternal) line-up. They are Igor Nikitin (vocals, guitars), Ilya Egorychev (bass), Sergey Chelyadinov (guitars), and Boris Sergeev (drums). I would like to thank my comrade-at-metal A.Strunitzkij for this interview. Continue reading »

AN INTERLUDE: SOEN — “THE WORDS” (A NEW VIDEO)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

 

I was going to save this new video for a round-up of new things that I hope to write for tomorrow, since time is short at the moment. But then I thought, why wait?

The band is Soen and the song is “The Words”, from their new album Tellurian, released earlier this month by Spinefarm Records. If you’re unfamiliar with Soen, the members are drummer Martin Lopez (ex-OPETH, AMON AMARTH), bassist Stefan Stenberg, vocalist Joel Ekelöf, and guitarist Kim Platbarzdis.

“The Words” is a beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking song, and so is the black and white video that was made for the music. It’s light years away from what we usually feature at this site, a true exception to our “rule”, but very much worth hearing and seeing — which you can do next. Continue reading »

GOATWHORE: “CONSTRICTING RAGE OF THE MERCILESS”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

 

(DGR provides this review of the latest album by NOLA’s Goatwhore.)

Stupid late, and we know it, but as the end of the year approaches one of our worst habits is to panic  — or more correctly, I panic, because most of the guys on the site are pretty relaxed — about the massive number of albums that came out during the year that we didn’t get around to reviewing. Not only that, but there’s always two or three un-reviewed albums where it feels right to provide a forum for our users to discuss the disc alongside our own feelings on the album. Goatwhore’s Constricting Rage Of The Merciless is one such disc.

It was an album that, as far as I know, was suddenly just “Out”, and the only review we were able to stammer out for it at the time was one of Andy’s haiku reviews. While those are great and a fun exercise, and I do recognize the difficulty in trying to hammer a disc down to just three lines where I prefer to go the opposite route and provide massive walls of text, sometimes there’s an album in there that I generally regret not being able to give the full “review tome” treatment. Continue reading »

FESTIVAL UPDATES: EISTNAFLUG, TRONDHEIM METAL FEST

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

We have a couple of festival updates to share with you:

EISTNAFLUG

I’ve been gleefully following the line-up announcements for next year’s edition of the Eistnaflug festival in Iceland. With each new announcement I’ve wondered to myself, “How can they top this?!?” — and then they do.

Before last week the festival was already going to be headlined by Behemoth, Enslaved, and Godflesh, and then last week the organizers added Carcass to the top of the bill. In addition, they announced that Norway’s Kvelertak will be appearing — as well as eight additional Icelandic bands. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: VYRJU — “BLACK”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Nov 232014
 

 

Vyrju began as the one-man project of Norwegian musician Jan F. Lindsø, but Vyrju’s debut EP Black also features session drums and clean vocals by Tim Yatras (Germ, Austere, ex-Nazxul, ex-Woods of Desolation). I’m a fan of Tim Yatras, and it was his participation in the recording that originally attracted me to it — well, that and the three big skulls on the EP’s cover, of course.

In a word, Black is captivating. The melodies in each of the four songs, with the exception of the short instrumental piece “Gone”, have a sombre and even depressive air, but they’re memorable and often beautiful in their own grim, ravaged way.  Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GRAFVITNIR, ELDVÅG, ARMAGEDDON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 222014
 

 

Happy Saturday to one and all. It’s not exactly a happy Saturday for me because I’m away from home for the old fucking day job and won’t get back to Seattle until December 6 or 7. While toiling away in distant environs I do hope to continue posting at least one new thing of my own each day, in addition to contributions from others.

This morning I had the chance to check out some new songs, from which I sifted the following three that I recommend to your earholes.

GRAFVITNIR

Grafvitnir are a three-man occult black metal band from Sweden who describe themselves as “the faceless emanations of primordial chaos”, and based on the new song I heard this morning, I can believe that. Continue reading »

KUNSTZONE: “ESCHATON DISCIPLINE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 212014
 

 

(DGR reviews the debut EP by Kunstzone.)

There are a couple of names that I expect to see whenever an industrial metal project slides across ye old NCS promo desk. If it comes from one of those names, then I immediately start looking for the other batch — because if the name Alex Rise seems familiar to you and you’ve been following NCS then you know of his Tyrant Of Death project, and there’s a circle of musicians around him that seem determined to crossbreed into as many different projects as there are available combinations, most of which tend to be heavy on the electronic noise and programmed drums.

One of the more commonly observed names is an enigmatic entity named Candy — who has gone to tremendous lengths to hide its identity — responsible partly for President Streetwalker (which to this day remains the earliest I have ever gotten in on the ground floor for a band), the noisy as all hell Khaozone, and a myriad of other works including contributions to T.o.D vocalist Lucem Fero (Omar)’s own solo releases. Continue reading »

PREY FOR NOTHING: “THE REASONING”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 212014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new third album by the Israeli band Prey For Nothing.)

First, you should go check out my previous article on this band where I gave an overview of their music, as well as band-authorized downloads of their first two albums. I’d like to not waste time on the typical introductory shit today.

Melodic death metal nowadays really does need to be two things if it wants to be relevant and interesting. It needs depth, and it needs songwriting. While we’ve definitely seen this in the doom-driven aspect of the scene, every other approach to it has been more often than not done rather halfheartedly, much to my disappointment. Prey For Nothing definitely have the depth and the songwriting, taking their brand of Schuldiner-drenched melodic death-dealing proficiency to a new level of intricacy. Continue reading »

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

 Birthday Posts, Metal News  88 Responses »
Nov 212014
 

 

Well, here we are. The blessed day has arrived. NO CLEAN SINGING is five years old today. We made our first post on November 21, 2009.

As a five year-old, we still poop our pants, scream at the top of our lungs for no good reason, have a growing fascination with what’s between our legs, and throw our food against the wall because, fuck, you only have a brief time when you can get away with shit like that.

Last year at this time I wrote that there’s a word for metal blogs who are still around as long as we’ve been: They’re called “survivors”. “Stubborn” and “too dumb to quit” are still good alternative labels. I can’t promise you we’ll be here this time next year — because no one can count on being around for another year. So we rejoice in the fact that we’re still here, as you should, too — you have also survived another year. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MONTENEGRO — “COSMIC JOURNEY OF ROCK GAUCHOS”

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 202014
 

 

(Comrade Aleks returns to NCS with an interview of Luciano Marchisio, bass player for the Argentinian band Montenegro.)

Montenegro is a psychedelic stoner band from Argentina who mix a bunch of unusual musical and conceptual elements in their songs. Their first full-length album Confusos Recuerdos Después Del Coma has shown the band’s best as of 2013, but a few months ago Montenegro took part in split-album with Russian psychedelic band The Grand Astoria that reaches new heights in their explorations.

Their new epic track “El Matadero” (“Slaughterhouse”) perfectly holds the main motive of this split-release, complementing the musical conception of their Russian mates and evolving their own ideas in new ways. Luciano Marchisio (bass) represents Montenegro today for our readers and tells us the story of four gauchos from Argentina.

********  Continue reading »

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