NO CLEAN SINGING

THY CATAFALQUE: “XII: A GYÖNYÖRÜ ÁLMOK EZUTÁN JÖNNEK”

Oct 252024

(Professor D. Grover the XIIIth rejoins us today with his review of Thy Catafalque‘s latest album, which will be released on November 15th by Season of Mist.)

Greetings and salutations, friends, and a happy impending Thy Catafalquemas to all who observe. It is at this point all but an official position of mine here at No Clean Singing as Guy Who Reviews The New Thy Catafalque album, a duty I relish. It is established canon at this point that Thy Catafalque are one of my favorite bands of the last two decades, an opinion bolstered by their consistently excellent output and clockworkesque album release cycle. Impressively, even with bandleader Tamás Kátai solidifying Thy Catafalque as a live entity, this new release (XII: A gyönyörü álmok ezután jönnek, or “The Beautiful Dreams Are Yet to Come”) comes only a year after its predecessor, Alföld. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NEBELKRÄHE — “ALS MEINE AUGEN ICH AUFSCHLUG…”

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Oct 242024

Fifteen years ago the German black metal band Nebelkrähe self-released their debut album entfremdet. Regarding the production of that album, the band have told us, “we were motivated as hell – but we were also completely inexperienced in almost every aspect of producing an album.” And so, although that album definitely found its fans, it left regrets among the band and a yearning to make it better, feelings that persisted even after Nebelkrähe went on to release two more albums in 2013 (Lebensweisen) and 2023 (ephemer).

And so, in a process that lasted 15 months, Nebelkrähe re-worked and professionally re-recorded entfremdet, making the songs true to what the band imagined they should have been. As they explain:

It may seem backward-looking and not very pragmatic to re-record the same old songs instead of new music after a decade and a half – because this much is clear: nobody was waiting for this new recording. But it was a project close to the hearts of the band members involved at the time, and when it comes to music, you should always follow your heart.

We have more info to share about this new version of entfremdet, which will be released on November 29th by the Crawling Chaos label, but our primary mission today is to share with you a video (made by Kevin Opitz) for the re-imagined and re-worked version of the second single from the new album, “Als meine Augen ich aufschlug…“ Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SAVAGE: DISENTOMB / EMASCULATOR / PERSECUTORY

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Oct 242024

(Andy Synn presents three short but savage releases to terrify your eardums)

Look, a while back I promised I’d be better at covering more EPs this year.

And, let’s face it, I have failed in that task pretty abjectly.

But I’m trying… which is why today I want to draw your attention to three recently-released (or upcoming) bite-sized portions of brutality courtesy of Disentomb, Emasculator and Persecutory.

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MACERATION — “SERPENT DEVOURMENT”

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Oct 242024

Almost exactly two years ago we had the privilege and great pleasure to premiere a fantastic new album by one of the earliest death metal bands to come out of Denmark — Maceration. That album, It Never Ends…, was the first Maceration full-length since their pioneering debut album A Serenade of Agony in 1992.

The comeback album drew a lot of quick attention because, like the Maceration debut, it featured guest vocals by Dan Swanö, but the record proved to be a mad and monstrous success for many reasons beyond Swanö‘s vocals (though the vocals were indeed extremely good).

It is thus excellent news that Maceration‘s will continue their return with another new album on the Emanzipation Productions label to follow up It Never Ends…. To help spread the word, and to give you a strong taste of what’s coming, we’re now hosting the premiere of the album’s title track, “Serpent Devourment“, which will be released as a digital single on October 25th. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACKEVIL — “PRAISE THE COMMUNION FIRE FOR THE UNHALLOWED SACRAMENT”

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Oct 232024

(written by Islander)

Every one of us follows a personal collection of bands who by our lights just never stumble. They may be ground-breakers or they may not. They may make bold steps from one record to the next or they may only iterate subtly. But over and over again, long enough to build our confidence, they create music that gets its hooks in our heads, rings our chimes (pick your own metaphor), reinforces the conviction that whatever they do next, the odds are high it will be well worth the time (and the money).

In my case the Bavarian band Blackevil are one of those groups. To borrow some words I’ve written before, their past music has been a black-thrashing devil-rush, high-grade adrenaline fuel but laced with an atmosphere of magic and menace. While drawing from well-springs of primal Teutonic thrash and the greats of speed metal, they also bring into play the epic fireworks of classic heavy metal and add mystic instrumental nuances, creating anthems of devilish glory and blood-rushing ecstasy.

They’ve been doing this long enough now, and getting better and better at it with each release, that people like me become greedily excited when seeing the news that they’ve got something new on the horizon. And the horizon is very near now, because on October 25th Dying Victims Productions will release the band’s spectacular third album, Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament, which you’ll be able to hear in full today. Continue reading »

HIGH PARASITE: “FOREVER WE BURN”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule No Responses »

Oct 232024

(This is DGR‘s review of the debut album of “Death Pop” by High Parasite, fronted by Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride, produced by Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, and released by Candlelight on September 27th.)

There’s an acceptance that comes with the idea that people aren’t required to listen to music the same way you do. You can bang the drum forever about how to experience something but in reality sometimes people just want to be able to throw something on and let it whip past them without a second thought.

The reality of which is perfectly fine. Not everyone needs to be able to fantasy-draft a death metal band together like Nader Sadek does with his releases. Not everyone needs to be able to fold an album over again, and again, and again, such that it eventually resembles a musical and intellectual rolled omelette. This of course being the long walk toward a simple question:

That being, have you ever listened to a release that has caused you to think about it way more than you could possibly justify any reason for? Thinking about it far more than the album might reasonably deserve? Because that may be what’s happening here with High Parasite’s debut album Forever We Burn. An album that has somehow caused the gears to turn here far more than one could intellectually justify. Continue reading »

ODIOUS: “EQUILIBRIUM TOOL”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Oct 232024

(We present NCS contributor Didrik Mešiček‘s review of the first album in nine years from the Egyptian metal band Odious, which was released earlier this month.)

Have you ever thought about how much of the metal you listen to actually comes from about five, or at most ten, countries? And while those countries are great at producing some quality bands, it’s a shame massive parts of the world have a poorly developed metal scene, and a lot of those nations have unique takes on music as well as cool instruments that could fit wonderfully within metal.

This is why I’m often very excited when there are bands popping up in various Asian or African countries and why I’m talking about the new album, Equilibrium Tool, from the Egyptian band Odious today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ATARAXIE — “LE DÉCLIN”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Oct 222024

(written by Islander)

Today we premiere a full stream of Le Déclin, a new album by the veteran French band Ataraxie that will be released this coming Friday, October 25th, by Ardua Music and Weird Truth Productions.

To make it was an enormous undertaking. The results speak to that: Four songs, each of which is in the range of 16-22 minutes, and a total running time for the album of more than 80 minutes. You could think of it as four EPs released simultaneously, and you could choose to listen to them that way, but thematically they are all connected.

Before you reach the end of this article you’ll find extensive comments about the album from Ataraxie bassist/vocalist Jonathan Théry. As he describes them, the lyrics of the songs are about the negativity and sickness of the modern world — the descent of humanity into ignorance, absurdity, the rejection of science, the glorification of malignant fantasy, the rise of depression and disease, and an unwillingness to confront what could be done (or must be done) to prevent humankind from extinguishing itself.

Given the way that most metal bands make music, it’s unlikely that the lyrics (in French) were written first, and the music written to follow the lyrics. But there is still an undeniable unity between the themes and the sounds. The music itself channels anger, disgust, agony, isolation, and ruin on a global scale, as well as moments that seem to capture the value of what is being destroyed. Continue reading »

UNEXPECTED SURPRISES: SERPENT COLUMN / UNDERNEATH

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Oct 222024

(Andy Synn highlights two surprise releases from last week)

Don’t you just love surprises?

Well, the good kind anyway… you know, like the unexpected return of a musical project you thought was gone for good, or another new album from a band who already produced one of your favourites of the year?

Because that’s exactly what we’re looking at (and listening to) today.

BEYOND GRACE – FRAGILE

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Oct 212024

(Andy Synn presents a brand new single… by his own band)

As it turns out, Islander, DGR, and I were all so busy this weekend that none of us had any time to prepare anything for NCS today.

So when the boss man asked if I wanted to take the opportunity to promote something of my own – which I generally feel a little weird doing here – I decided, for once, to take him up on the offer.

Because today we released a brand new single, a cover of Sting‘s 1987 anti-war anthem “Fragile“, and I’d love for you all to check it out!

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