NO CLEAN SINGING

HOWLING, BLACK CAP MINER, ENTOMBED

Jul 252013

Just a few new things in between reviews to help kick-start this Thursday.

HOWLING

Let’s see, where shall we start? How about some death metal? Yes, death metal is always a good place to start, especially death metal inspired by John Carpenter’s 1981 classic, The Thing. And that’s what Howling gave us last night when they released “Shape-Shifting Enemy” on Bandcamp.

Howling, for those who need to catch up, is the horror-themed project of vocalist Vanessa Nocera (Skeletal Spectre, Scaremaker, Wooden Stake), guitarist/bassist Tony Proffer (Beyond Hell), and drummer Elektrokutioner (Encoffination, Father Befouled, many others). This new single comes from the band’s next album, Tear the Screams from Your Throat, which is due out in October 2013. I have high hopes for that album, because the band’s debut, A Beast Conceived, was so fuckin’ good (I explained why I think so at this location).

“Shape-Shifting Enemy” provides even more reason to anticipate the new album with relish. If you’re expecting old-school gore/death, you’ll be surprised. The mainly slow-paced song contrasts Proffer’s melodic guitar leads (and a writhing solo) with Nocera’s carnivorous growls, book-ended by unexpected guitar instrumentals. And for variety’s sake, you’ll encounter a couple of thrashing romps along the way. Continue reading »

LITTLEDIDWEKNOW – “LUCID HAPPENINGS”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Jul 252013

(NCS contributor Austin Weber is back with us, putting the spotlight on a Kentucky band named littledidweknow.)

As any fan of music should know, personal taste is the biggest indicator of what we enjoy. The merits of good and bad are debatable, and so it’s always amused me to see the hordes come out of the woodwork to wield the word “masturbatory” with an unrighteous vengeance. Unfortunately, that subset of metal fans simply don’t understand that music can be technical with a purpose and not just for show.

More then anything, it comes down to songwriting skill, but it’s also a matter of personal preference — how each of us individually perceives the aesthetics (a particular genre/style) of music in relation to why we consider music to be good or bad. For people like me, it’s a matter of enjoying how these bands come up with interesting yet unconventional rhythms and the way in which they often revolve around complex, unique song structures.

Enter littledidweknow, a top-tier local act from my hometown of Louisville, KY. This is nowhere near run-of-the-mill, trying to play a style of local metal. littledidweknow is a band intent on a unique sound not constrained by one genre. Lucid Happenings is the result of a band who have been writing, playing live, and developing over several years, leading to an eclectic, intricate album with nary a moment of filler in its 48-minute run time. The experience of listening is disturbing on so many levels, and only grows better with repeated listens as you take everything in. From start to finish, littledidweknow deliver a sickening, ever-shifting ferocity, bound in technical, non-linear songwriting. Continue reading »

SMILE AT THE NEW FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE TRAILER FOR “LABYRINTH

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 14 Responses »

Jul 242013

The mighty Fleshgod Apocalypse have uploaded a not very mighty but pleasantly amusing new trailer for their forthcoming album Labyrinth, which we can tell you (in more detail soon) is a killer.

You will see quotes from unexpected sources, 100% not made up of course, plus some acoustic strumming, plus studio karaoke (or could it be a cover?), plus a few words from the band, plus a bit of ass-ripping Labyrinth music.

That’s really all I have to say about this. Watch and listen after the jump. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DEVIN TOWNSEND, ZATOKREV, AUTOLATRY, AND SEEDS OF IBLIS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 10 Responses »

Jul 242013

I’m still in catch-up mode on new things I haven’t been able to write about over the last few days. So, despite the fact that I already posted one round-up today, here’s another one, collecting three recommended new videos and one new song. As usual, the music is quite diverse.

THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT

On October 27 of last year Devin Townsend put on a tour-de-force live musical retrospective at The Roundhouse in London, which he called “The Retinal Circus”. Our own Andy Synn was there and wrote an evocative review, which we illustrated with photos and video clips. The performance was recorded for later release on both DVD and Blu-ray (via InsideOut Music).

Almost one week ago, DT released a clip from the DVD, the performance of “Grace” that closed the show (but for the encore), but I missed it until this morning. If you’ve seen any of the video clips of the show that previously surfaced, then you know this was a visual extravaganza. But the DVD excerpt of “Grace” is a taste of the pro-shot, multi-cam rendition that the DVD will deliver, and it’s awesome.

I’ve loved this song from the first time I heard it, and I got chills all over again when it transitioned from Anneke Van Giersbergen’s opening vocals into the hevy. I got more chills later. Is it too emo for me to say that? Well fuck it, I’m just being honest. The video is next.

SEEN AND HEARD: CHIMAIRA, SEPTEKH, HARM’S WAY, AND AUTUMNBLAZE

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Jul 242013

Here are a few things I’ve seen and heard recently that I think are worth recommending. I’m in catch-up mode on these round-ups, so there will be a second one a bit later today.

CHIMAIRA

Chimaira have a new album, Crown of Phantoms, coming on July 30 via eOne Music. Yesterday my comrade Andy Synn alerted me to the fact that Chimaira had released a re-make of “The Dehumanizing Process” from their second album, The Impossibility of Reason (2003). It’s sub-titled the “Slow and Low Mix”, and man, it caught me off guard. It’s like Chimaira-meets-Gojira.

I approve. If you’re going to re-do one of your own songs, you might as well really re-do it, especially if you’ve now got guitarists Emil Werstler and Matt Szlachta to put their spin on the original. This is a heavy-bottomed, heavy-grooved, vicious little monster. I’d like to keep it as a pet.

I don’t see this song on the new album’s track list. According to Chimaira’s mainman Mark Hunter, “No, we’re not remaking the record. This was just for fun to celebrate 10 years of Impossibility.” Well, mission accomplished: this is fun. Listen next. Continue reading »

DEVILDRIVER: “WINTER KILLS” (AND A NEW TOUR)

Album Reviews 13 Responses »

Jul 242013

(DGR has been a reviewing machine lately, and here’s another one. At the end of the review we’ll also give you details about a just-announced North American DevilDriver tour with Trivium, After the Burial, and Sylosis.)

Before we begin: A career retrospective and my own personal feelings on each disc to help explain why you’re seeing DevilDriver on this site.

I was one of the people who got into Devildriver with their debut release. I had been aware that they were the new project of the lead singer of Coal Chamber, but I wasn’t the type to begrudge him for having been in a band I didn’t quite enjoy. I was late to the party, one of the people who saw “I Could Care Less” pop up on Headbanger’s Ball. I thought their first disc was a pretty heavy release, trapped somewhere between a three-way pull of nu-, groove-, and -core metal.

2005’s The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand saw the band making a conscious effort to change things up and play with their sound, though it seemed to come by way of a million different guitar pedals and not much else.

Like clockwork, the group returned two years later with an album that I think they fucking nailed it on, with The Last Kind Words. The album went straight into groove territory, with flashes of death and speed for good measure. Many of the songs were highlighted by punishing drum performances, and they really stepped up the guitar game. This is also about the time when all the videos of massive circle pits at their shows found their way to YouTube. I guess we really do reward good stuff. Continue reading »

UPDATES: BLODSGARD AND OBLIVION

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Jul 232013

The last few days I’ve fallen down on the job of watching for, and writing about, new music and news, because the old fucking day job has had me in one of those armlocks the cops use (used to use?) to choke out unruly citizens. But I’m at least going to make time to report on exciting new developments from two “old friends”.

BLODSGARD

Thanks to sharp-eyed NCS supporter Austin S-K, I found out that Blodsgard have posted to YouTube a “teaser reel” of song excerpts from their forthcoming album, Monument.

Back in mid-June I provided some updates about that forthcoming full-length debut (including the killer album cover by Mark Cooper of Mindrape Art), and that post is a good place to go if you want to find out more about the band and their previous demo releases. At that time, the band had posted on their website separate excerpts from each of the tracks on Monument, but as of today they’ve now packed them into a single “medley” clip that you can hear straight through. Continue reading »

GOJIRALTERNATIVES REVISITED, BECAUSE DOUBLE PANDA

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, Reviews 6 Responses »

Jul 232013

(Guest contributor Old Man Windbreaker finds a perhaps not-so-obvious connection among the latest albums by Gojira and a group of other bands, and includes some bonus items at the end.)

A little more than a year ago, we read a piece by Andy Synn titled ‘Gojiralternatives‘, describing music by half a dozen bands as an alternative of sorts for those who are not that into Gojira’s music. Old Man Windbreaker decided to catch up to the bands featured in that list, since most of them have released a new album since the date of that article. But, Old Man Windbreaker is lazy. Hence, you have a review of the albums a full 2 months after the release of the latest album on this playlist. By the way, here are the albums on this playlist, in chronological order:

L’Enfant Sauvage by Gojira
Meliora by Eryn Non Dae.
Vertikal by Cult of Luna
Possession by Benea Reach
Back to Where You’ve Never Been by Hacride

You might notice that Burst and Oceans of Sadness are not in this playlist. That is because they both split up; before the publishing of the original ‘Gojiralternatives‘ article, I might add. So, they will not be revisited, despite having produced amazing music. You might also notice that Eryn Non Dae. is here on this list. That is because of Double Panda. One happened to be playing Double Panda while listening to the album the first time, and One thought they sounded somewhat like Gojira at the time. This eventually led to One revisiting the other Gojiralternatives as well. Continue reading »

RETURNING WE HEAR THE LARKS: “FAR STEPPER / WIDE SEA”

Album Reviews 10 Responses »

Jul 232013

(DGR reviews the swansong album by England’s Returning We Hear the Larks.)

Returning We Hear the Larks was one of the many guitar projects that really gained steam in late 09/early 2010. The brainchild of one young guitarist Jak Noble, it first came to my attention as one of the many solo guitar projects that were then being released for free. Come to find out, I was ridiculously late, as this specific train had long since left the station and kicked a whole slate of material out from the then still-new concept of a bedroom guitar prodigy’s studio.

Yet, there I was, checking in with the disc Ypres, which dealt with a famed World War I battleground. The music was decidedly djent, but something about it really caught my attention. Maybe it was that Jak had already developed an amazing sense of ambience and was using it to build pictures with sound – managing a very difficult feat of making the music actually evoke something.

Maybe it was partially the note he attached to the disc about how he had lost it at said battleground and felt he had to do something with the rush of emotion that hit him. I always felt that specifically suggested that Returning was something far deeper and more mature than simply another multi-string dick-waving affair.

When he turned around and added vocals to the next release, an EP known as Proud England, I found myself initially skeptical, but surprisingly it worked out. Jak proved to have quite the set of lungs on him, for a good, harsh high scream and a decent low. Little bit of an awkward singing voice, but nothing so offensive as to subtract from the excellent music underneath.

Another thing that differentiated Returning from other groups of similar ambition was that Jak never made it as prolific as other projects. Some serious time passed between his previous Returning release (the single Line-Trap) and this one, 2013’s late-June release, Far Stepper/Of Wide Sea. Given my childish gushing about this project in the opening you’d better believe that I was excited about this one. Continue reading »

WE’RE GOING TO BE BIG

IQ Subtraction 40 Responses »

Jul 232013

We don’t run this site like a business. There’s no reason to, since we don’t take any money for anything. But we still try hard to make NCS good, and we want more and more people to come here. Your humble editor obsessively watches our traffic statistics, and all of us do what we can to spread the word far and wide. We want to be BIG. I’m really not sure why. I think it’s probably the testosterone.

Since this isn’t a money-making enterprise, I ignore the e-mails we get every day from people who want to sell us on what they can do to make us BIGGER. As fast as it takes to see what the e-mails are about, I delete them. Except for yesterday. Yesterday, for no good reason at all, I read one from “Senior SEO Advisor Amanda Moss” (SEO standing for Search Engine Optimization). Ms. Moss had some very interesting things to say, so I drafted a reply, in line with her message to me:

“Hi Nocleansinging.com Team,

Hope you are doing fine.

Yeah, I suppose. What’s it to you?

I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting enough organic traffic & most often you stick to Ad words to get more traffic which is quite expensive and the chances is high of getting a spam traffic as well.

Huh. You mean spam traffic like your e-mail to me Amanda? That kind of spam traffic? Please, tell me this isn’t just some piece of cookie-cutter spam you send to an electronic mailing list of millions. Please tell me this is a highly personalized message you wrote because you genuinely care about NO CLEAN SINGING and our sacred mission. Go ahead: tell me. Continue reading »

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