RAP DJENT IS BECOMING A THING — DEVASTATOR

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Apr 292014
 

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this.)

Time to revisit this shit again at my own peril.

So, I, and we, have written multiple times about Hacktivist.  For those unfamiliar with them, Hacktivst play rap-djent.   They WERE the only band doing what they do, but now it looks like we may be seeing rap-djent become a solidified “thing”.

Australia’s Devastator are the second band I’ve heard doing this kind of shit, and while the temptation is to compare them to Hacktivist solely on the fact they’re playing djent with rapping as the main vocal drive, Devastator are quite a bit different.  Their music has a more driving edge to it, far more aggressive both musically and in the tone of the vocals of Matthew “AntiMatter” Youkhana. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VILLE FRIMAN (INSOMNIUM)

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Apr 282014
 

 

(NCS writer DGR recently had the chance to pose some questions by e-mail to Ville Friman, guitarist, song-writer, and co-vocalist for Finland’s Insomnium, whose new album Shadows of the Dying Sun was reviewed by the same DGR here.)

 

Thank you so much for sitting down for this interview. How are you feeling as the official release dates of Shadows Of The Dying Sun move closer?

Ville Friman: No worries Dave, our pleasure really. It’s exciting times. Album seems to be doing well in the press, and we just found out that it made album of the month in German Metal Hammer, which is pretty big. Just hoping that people will like it and enjoy it as much as we do.

 

Shadows Of The Dying Sun is still recognizably Insomnium but there are a couple of shifts in sound. For example, I noticed a pretty big increase in tempo on a lot of the songs and the inclusion of some serious blastbeat work on the part of Markus. Insomnium have done fast tunes and more “traditionally” (if you could forgive a reductive phrase) melo-death songs before, but this album really sees the speed increase on multiple songs. Were you guys feeling in a faster mood than usual?

Ville Friman: Yes, I guess the blastbeats are bit of a new thing with us. We have fast songs on the album, but also a couple of slower pieces. So it’s a mix of things. We weren’t trying to be fast intentionally. I guess we just brought the tempo up a notch in general. And we were thinking about finding the best tempo for each song, and when we wanted to sound fast, we went pretty much as fast as we could. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LISTEN TO A FULL STREAM OF ABORTED’S “NECROTIC MANIFESTO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Apr 282014
 

(In this post BadWolf reviews the new album by Aborted — The Necrotic Manifesto — and we bring you for the first time anywhere a full stream of the album in its entirety.)

When you have a staff as wild as the NCS crew, it’s pretty difficult to arrive at anything approaching consensus. Between Islander, myself, Izzy and Andy, not to mention our various contributing writers, we like pretty much every style of metal (Note: that sentence, to anyone just casually reading this site, probably sounds completely absurd. You’re right. It’s totally absurd, but follow me). Concordantly, whenever there’s a record that every single one of us feels strongly about, it’s worth getting up and taking notice. One such record was Aborted’s 2012 rager, Global Flatline, which somehow wound up on every single one of our year-end lists. Maybe that’s why we have the privilege of streaming its successor, The Necrotic Manifesto, in its entirety for you below!

Aborted haven’t messed with their formula much in the last two years, which is good; why mess with perfection? The Belgian five-piece combines gory death metal with hardcore and grindcore influences as well as anybody else. If you wanted, you could call them a deathcore band, but why would you want to? Their approach doesn’t rely on big, meaty breakdowns to carry otherwise limp songs. Sure, there’s a massive bruiser at the end of “The Davidian Deceit,” but the three minutes leading up are chock full of squealing guitar runs and lock-step grooves as well. Continue reading »

THERE IS A NEW JUDAS PRIEST SONG (“REDEEMER OF SOULS”)

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 282014
 

When I picked “NO CLEAN SINGING” as the name for this site, it was a reaction to the pollution of good metal with crappy clean vocals — a reaction produced by some specific events at a specific period of time. But it wasn’t a reaction to the likes of Judas Priest. They’re an exception to our Rule (one of many). And Priest are back with a new album and a new song, and they’re both named “Redeemer of Souls”.

Now don’t get me wrong: I still have a low tolerance for clean singing in metal, and I’m not one of those people who worship at the altar of seminal heavy metal bands like Priest, nor do I care very much for the waves of power metal bands that Priest inspired (it’s my least favorite genre of metal). But there are certain Priest classics that still fire me up (possibly for nostalgic reasons as much as anything else), and I do like the title song of the new album, even though Halford doesn’t hit those astonishing high notes he used to reach. It maketh me to hold the invisible oranges.

Redeemer of Souls is due for release in the US on July 15 and in the UK on July 14. Other release dates can be found here. Here’s the title track: Continue reading »

HOUR OF PENANCE: “REGICIDE”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Apr 282014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Italy’s Hour of Penance.)

Allow me get this out of the way right now: Regicide is about as definitively an Hour Of Penance album as you could ask for. Everything’s present and correct  and firing on all cylinders – the uber-intense death riffs, the overwhelming, over-produced drum work, the raging vocal dissent – it’s all there and all utterly destructive. Whether that appeals to you will depend entirely on how much you’ve loved the band’s previous works, particularly Paradogma and Sedition.

Because let’s face it, the Italian extremists definitely subscribe to the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Their sixth album packs in the same wealth of punishing riffage, bloody hooks, and concentrated venom that’s been their stock in trade for years now, rejecting any pressure to change or develop beyond their obsession with sheer sonic evisceration. Continue reading »

GROSS, GUTTURAL, DISGUSTING, SLAMMING

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 272014
 

Hey there motherfuckers, happy Sunday. I’ll be traveling all day today, which means the odds of me posting anything more than this one thing are slim. There’s a theme to this “playlist”. Can you guess what it is?

All of the songs I’m including here came my way via a message from my NCS comrade DGR. And he announced them this way: “Gross, guttural, disgusting, slamming…. All of these are upcoming 2014 releases except for the last one, which is already out and more brutal death feeling.”

CEREBRAL EFFUSION

This is the first track off the upcoming Idolatry Of The Unethical album that will be out in Spring 2014 through New Standard Elite (delicious cover art by Marco Hasmann). The band are from The Basque Country that straddles France and Spain. They’ve been around a long time. They’re still here because apparently a few mountain ranges are still standing and a handful of cities haven’t yet been leveled into dust. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: POLE DANCING TO VALE OF PNATH, LANTLÔS, ARKAN

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 262014
 

Here are a few things I spied over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth passing along. The last two items aren’t nearly as vicious as what normally tends to attract me, but they’re suiting my mood today.

ARORA LEIGH AND VALE OF PNATH

I’m guilty of inconsistent impulses about metal, in the same way as many other fans of underground music. On the one hand, I get cynical and even pissed off when I see metal being spread around in the mainstream, a feeling that it’s being polluted by rubbing shoulders with the uninitiated. On the other hand, I also get a little thrill when I see metal being used in a way that exposes the music to new listeners in new settings. I can’t explain it.

But anyway, I got that little thrill when I saw the following video this morning. It’s a performance by a woman named Arora Leigh at the 2014 Atlantic Pole Championship competition on April 12 in Washington, DC. As musical accompaniment for her routine, she chose an edited version of the song “Poisoned By Prosperity” by Denver’s Vale of Pnath — a band we’ve repeatedly featured and praised at this site. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARCTURUS — “RAUDT OG SVART”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Apr 262014
 

Norway has been home to a very long list of groundbreaking metal bands, many of whom are sadly no longer with us. Arcturus are one of the survivors. Their roots go back to approximately 1990, and although their demise has been rumored more than once, they continue to forge ahead. As they have moved forward, they have evolved, transforming themselves through a persistent desire to experiment with the boundaries of metal, and with black metal in particular.

Their last release at this writing was a critically acclaimed 2006 DVD entitled Shipwrecked In Oslo, which captured the band’s 2005 live performance at the Sonic Solstice Fest in Oslo, Norway. The line-up for the performance consisted of Steinar “Sverd” Johnsen (keyboards), Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg (drums), Knut Magne Valle (guitar), Hugh “Skoll” Mingay (bass), Simen “ICS Vortex” Hestnæs (vocals), and Tore Moren (guitar).

Now, the Finnish label Blood Music has taken the soundboard recording of the concert and professionally re-edited and remastered the audio for release on CD and vinyl. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SEPREVATION, WOODS OF YPRES, SUMMER SLAUGHTER 2014, HORSEBACK

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Apr 252014
 

Happy goddamned Friday to one and all. I have a few randomly selected items to share with you, as a way of greasing the skids for your slide into the weekend. Because I wouldn’t want anyone to get ass burn before the fun starts.

SEPREVATION

Let’s begin with a jet-fueled death/thrash romp.

Late last month I included some release info about the debut album (Consumed) by the UK’s Seprevation in one of these round-ups, despite the fact that I had no music from the album to share with you at that point. I mainly just liked the album cover. But today the band released an official video for a song named “Slave To the Grave”, and guess what? The music is as good as that album cover. Continue reading »

INFESTUS: “THE REFLECTING VOID” (A FULL ALBUM STREAM)

 Premieres  13 Responses »
Apr 252014
 

Earlier this month Andy Synn reviewed the stunning new album by Germany’s Infestus for us (here). In his concluding paragraph, he wrote:

“The beautiful, unforgettable cover art embodies the album so well – this is music from the darkest depths of the human mind, a black, malignant tumour of pain and anguish which spreads its tendrils widely to encompass a host of dark emotions and warped musical influences, creating a truly immersive, unforgettable experience.”

Today we’re pleased to bring you a full album stream of The Reflecting Void, which has just become available via Debemur Morti for both listening and download on Bandcamp. In addition, the album can also now be ordered on CD at this location or on 12″ gatefold vinyl at this one. Continue reading »

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