NO CLEAN SINGING

DISCOVERIES: SARKE AND HAIL SPIRIT NOIR

Feb 082014

As you may have noticed, we were pretty light on the content yesterday. I even failed to get another installment of our 2013 Most Infectious Song list up on the site. I blame my fucking day job, which has taken me on the road again, with about 36 hours still to go before I can get back to Seattle. I did do some catching up early this morning, and have prepared this round-up of new and notable things, plus that delayed installment for the song list.

I’ve paired these two bands together on purpose, because musically they seem like kindred spirits. Perhaps you’ll soon understand why I think that.

SARKE

Last September I wrote about a forthcoming album by a Norwegian band named Sarke (who will also be playing at Maryland Deathfest this May). All I knew at the time was who was in the band, but that was enough to inspire intrigue about the music:

SARKE (Khold, Tulus), bass.
NOCTURNO CULTO (Darkthrone, Gift of Gods), vocals.
ASGEIR MICKELSON (Spiral Architect, God Of Atheists), drums.
ANDERS HUNSTAD (El Caco, Autopulver, Morten Abel), keyboard.
STEINAR GUNDERSEN (Satyricon, Spiral Architect, System: Obscure), guitar. Continue reading »

SHOW REPORT: KVELERTAK, SPIDERS, HÅLL DET ÄKTA — LIVE IN UMEÅ, SWEDEN (FEB 1, 2014)

Concert Reviews 5 Responses »

Feb 072014

(Last December, guest writer Johan Paulin compiled for us a wonderful feature on metal bands based in the relatively small town of Umeå in northern Sweden. Today he rejoins us with a lively show report from Umeå, along with photos he took at the event.)

While the rest of Umeå celebrated its inauguration as the 2014 European capital of culture (if you don’t know what that means, don’t worry, neither do we), I headed out to the old slaughterhouse outside of town where Kvelertak, Spiders, and Håll det äkta were preparing to fuck shit up in a most royal of ways.

Truth be told, I was never really sold on Kvelertak’s eclectic mix of punk, metal, and Norwegian insanity. But their second album Meir had slowly warmed me over, and besides, given Umeå’s shitty geographical location, you’re pretty much required to attend whenever a foreign band shows up or have your metal license revoked.

Local band Håll det äkta started off the night with their nimble one-two bursts of hardcore smackdown, channeling both Refused’s first album as well as Gorilla Biscuits and Earth Crisis. With slightly silly lyrics in Swedish and a nasal singer, the band might seem like an acquired taste, but what they lack in vocal brutality they more than make up for with intense tremolo guitars, authoritative drum beats, and instantly mosh-worthy breakdowns that sent the crowd into a pit-frenzy. The band has a strong local following, and their dedication carried the band whenever they happened to lose the plot. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TRIPTYKON AND MORDBRAND

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 12 Responses »

Feb 072014

Due to the demands of your humble editor’s fucking day job, we will be a little light on the content at NCS today. We will have this little round-up, a show report from Umeå, Sweden, and (I hope) one more installment in our list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs — and that will probably be it. So, to start, here are two items of interest that I commend to your attention.

TRIPTYKON

This morning, Century Media announced that it and Prowling Death Records Ltd. will release the second album by Triptykon on April 14 in Europe and April 15 in North America. The title is Melana Chasmata, which according to Century Media means (roughly) “black, deep depressions/valleys”. It will feature nine songs and a playing time of around 67 minutes. The cover art is above, and yes, we have yet another pairing of HR Giger and Triptykon.

For me, Triptykon’s first album Eparistera Daimones (2010) was a grower rather than an immediate love interest. But come on, how could you not get a bit tingly with anticipation over new music from Tom G Warrior and V. Santura? Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 22

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013 7 Responses »

Feb 062014

I decided to add two trios of songs to the list today, this being the second installment. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three songs I’m announcing today, click here.

For this current threesome of songs I’m going back to the rough and the raw, to the kind of music that hungers for your flesh and wants your teeth as souvenirs. And man, the grooves on these babies…

SORCERY

I almost overlooked Sorcery’s Arrival At Six as a source of candidates for this list. My faulty memory was telling me this veteran Swedish band’s comeback album was released in 2012, but after double-checking Metal Archives, I saw that it was a January 2013 discharge. What a pleasant discovery — because there’s a song on that album that has become one of my go-to head-wreckers — “Warbringer”. Continue reading »

DISCOVERIES: PYRRHON AND GRAVEYARD

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Feb 062014

This is just another one of those “Seen and Heard” posts, collecting new and noteworthy things I came upon over the last 24 hours. I was just getting tired of that title.

PYRRHON

Last September we reported that New York’s Pyrrhon had signed a deal with Relapse Records for the release of their second album, The Mother of Virtues, which was tracked and mixed by Ryan Jones (Today is the Day, Mutilation Rites) and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Krallice). Yesterday the band disclosed the cover art for the new album, created by Caroline Harrison, and it hooked my eyes hard — really excellent.

In addition, the band premiered one of the album tracks, “Balkanized”. It’s a substantially re-worked version of a song that originally appeared on Pyrrhon’s 2012 demo. It will scramble heads, with horror-blasting roars over the top of squalling, shrieking, fret-burning guitars and a bounding rhythm section that justifies a listen all by themselves. It’s both technically impressive and thoroughly unhinged, both complex and carnivorous. And voracious, violently voracious. Continue reading »

BLOODGUARD ARE NOW BEYOND GRACE (AND THEY HAVE A NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO)

Metal News, Premieres, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 11 Responses »

Feb 062014

As many of you know, NCS writer Andy Synn is the frontman for a UK band named Bloodguard — or rather they used to be named Bloodguard. As of today, the Bloodguard name has been laid to rest. Henceforth, the band shall be known as Beyond Grace. And in addition to spreading the word about that change, we’re delighted to bring you the intergalactic premiere of the band’s new video for the song “Panopticon”, which is also being released via Bandcamp as a single.

But before premiering the video I’m going to turn this post over to Mr Synn, who explains the name change, future plans for the band, and other news. — Islander

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So… where to start? The decision to change our name was not an easy one to make. We realise it comes with potential costs, but it also has a host of benefits we just couldn’t overlook.

Why the new name? A lot of reasons really. The old one doesn’t really suit us anymore, it fits awkwardly in some ways, and is surprisingly hard to get people to remember. Whereas the new name suits the lyrical direction – more socio-political, more transhumanist – and the new sound of the band – heavier, more technical, more death metal – much better.

Plus it sounds way cooler when you growl it onstage.

Bloodguard is no more… Beyond Grace is born. Continue reading »

CARNIFEX: “DIE WITHOUT HOPE”

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

Feb 062014

(Andy Synn reviews the forthcoming album by California’s Carnifex, with sample songs at the end.)

Deathcore is still a dirty word to a lot of folks. Despite the major strides made in proving it as a “legitimate” form of Death Metal, it’s still associated by some with nothing more than frat-boy misogyny, painfully blunt lyricisms, and a preference for dumbed-down-tuning and artificial bass drops.

Many of these big strides in salvaging the scene’s image can be attributed to three of its biggest and brightest stars. After the release of their first, more ‘core-inclined EP, Job For A Cowboy shifted almost immediately toward an increasingly devastating (and increasingly technical) Death Metal sound – dragging the genre’s expectations and potential along with them. The boys in Whitechapel have steadily worked to perfect the genre’s specific brand of murderous, misanthropic groove, while Carnifex – a prime specimen of Deathcore’s fundamental components and an example of its expanding boundaries – simultaneously worked to bring in new strains of influence from the outside.

After a year of self-imposed exile, the band have returned with their fifth album Die Without Hope, a merciless slab of Death Metal aggression and ‘core-ish misanthropy which, at its very best, brims with terrible potential and predatory promise. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 21

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013 4 Responses »

Feb 062014

Welcome to Part 20 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three songs I’m announcing today, click here.

I guess it’s about time we thrashed the bejesus out of da place. I’ll hold the verbiage to a minimum.

REVOCATION

The album: Revocation The song: “Invidious”

Dat banjo. Doze solos. Dat bass drop. More words here and here. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 20

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013 16 Responses »

Feb 052014

In an effort to complete this list in your lifetime, I’ve decided to start tripling up, but hopefully not tripping up. From now until I finish, there will be three songs in each installment. As usual, I’m trying to group the songs together in ways that make some kind of sense. Perhaps you’ll decide that today’s songs are collected together because they really don’t fit anywhere else. I think they actually make a pretty cool little 3-part playlist.

AUTHOR & PUNISHER

For those not in the know, Author & Punisher is the part-band-part-art-project of Tristan Shone, who uses his skills as a mechanical engineer to create unique electronic instruments, out of which he wrings emotionally suffocating industrial doom, with heavy elements of dub and drone music. We have written about A&P frequently, and DGR reviewed the 2013 album, Women & Children here. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FANGS OF THE MOLOSSUS – “THE DOOM HOUNDS WITH DRACULA FANGS”

Interviews No Responses »

Feb 052014

(Our Russian guest writer Comrade Aleks returns with a wide-ranging interview of the very articulate guitarist for an Italian doom band named Fangs of the Molossus.)

Fangs Of The Molossus are a psych-doom metal band from the Florence area. This bunch of doom-occultists have been doing their sinister deals since 2011, yet the band’s debut self-titled work was released only in July of 2013. Fangs Of The Molossus’ album represents some of most recognizable features of the Italian doom scene – the stuff sounds mystic, slow, and progressive, with that good well-known horror-vibe of the local scene. Ancient Roman and Etruscan history and mythology, early 70’s horror movies, escapism conception, science fiction literature, a Beksinski painting, and a comic book by Hideshi Hin are all reflected in Fangs Of The Molossus songs. Count J. Vendetta (guitars) reveals some secrets of muscial occultism from Florence.

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Hello Count Vendetta! Fangs Of The Molossus released a self-titled album in July of 2013. What has happened in the band’s life since that moment? Do you already concentrate on the writing of new stuff or still watch listeners’ reaction to the debut LP?

Hi, and thanks for contacting us: it’s always nice to get in touch with people from different places and with different cultural backgrounds. Since the self-produced album came out we have spent some time writing new material (three or four new songs, depending on how satisfied we will be in the end), we’ve played a few gigs with other Italian bands, like Caronte and Shinin’ Shade, and opened for Mondo Generator at Castellina Musica W, last August. Then the “I Drink Your Blood” single was released. The rest is recent history: trying to understand how to move for the second full-length release and considering some offers from small independent Italian labels. Continue reading »

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