THE SYNN REPORT: AN UPDATE

 THE SYNN REPORT  3 Responses »
Jan 142014
 

(Andy Synn provides this update on three bands who have been the subject of previous editions of THE SYNN REPORT.)

While I’m busy putting together the first “proper” Synn Report of 2014 (it’s coming together and I guarantee you’re going to love it) I suppose I should take the opportunity to check back in on some of our previous alumni and update you all as to what’s been going on!

To make it easy for you this one’s in alphabetical order, A, B, and C, because I know you people have trouble with anything more complex than that!

ASTARTE

First, and most importantly, it was revealed just before the new year that Astarte mastermind Tristessa was gravely ill in hospital with a form of leukaemia. This was of course terrible for her and her family, and the outpouring of support from her fans did little to assuage the dark cloud hanging over the whole situation.

Thankfully a few days ago the following post appeared on the band’s Facebook page which, while not a complete about-turn, certainly gives us all more cause for hope: Continue reading »

HELP A MADISRAELI OUT

 Uncategorized  12 Responses »
Jan 142014
 

(NCS writer TheMadIsraeli would like your assistance in helping him decide what to write about.)

So I’ve been thinking about who to do for the next Higher Criticism series and it’s been rather difficult.  I’ve decided to poll all of you for your opinions, based on the bands I’m considering, since the series seems to be rather well-liked and I’m curious to see what results I get.

The bands in the running for consideration are…

Old Man’s Child

Pain of Salvation

Death

Kreator

Of course, I also want other suggestions if you can think of any.  If you’re interested in doing that, there are specific criteria I have in mind to make this legitimately interesting.  The requirements for a Higher Criticism series are as follows… Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 4

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013  17 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

Here’s Part 4 of my list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. I promised that new installments of this list would appear each day (more or less) until it’s finished, but four days have passed since the last one. I’ll make no excuses, but simply make a new promise that from here on I’ll do better.

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 two I’m announcing today, click here.

CNOC AN TURSA

Cnoc An Tursa’s magnificent 2013 album The Giants of Auld made many of the year-end lists we’ve posted at NCS, including this one by Panopticon’s Austin Lunn. He wrote this about the album: “EPIC Scottish metal. This is the album I have been waiting for…” Speaking as someone with only the most remote Scottish ancestry but a strong affinity for almost all things Scottish, it’s the album I’ve been waiting for as well.

I first wrote about this band in October 2012 after seeing the news that they’d been signed by Candlelight Records. In that first post I included all of the music from them that I could then find, including a portion of a song called “The Lion of Scotland”. In all its full glory, it later became the first advance track to appear from the album.  Continue reading »

BRUTALITY REIGNS: BENIGHTED, VIRULENCY, INFERI, HALAHKUH, TRIVERSE MASSACRE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

Since the weekend began I caught up with a flood of hair-raising new songs and found so many worth recommending that I’ve collected them in two posts, this one being the second of the day (the first is here). I probably should have divided them into 4 or 5 posts, but since the unofficial motto of this site seems to be “long-winded”, why bother? New music from six bands is gathered here. The common theme of the music is… high-speed brutality!

BENIGHTED

This French death metal band will be releasing their seventh album, Carnivore Sublime, in North America on February 18 via Season of Mist. Last week they debuted one of the new songs in music video form. Its name is “Experience Your Flesh”. It depicts the kind of classroom daydream where the roles of tormentor and tormented are reversed — but it’s a gore-splattered kind of fantasy, one that befits the song itself.

And the song itself is a blast furnace of brutal death metal, with bone-cracking/gut-slicing riffs, high-velocity percussion, and a high-low tandem of guttural roars and hair-on-fire shrieks. The phrase “takes no prisoners” comes to mind. Continue reading »

AEONS CONFER: “SYMPHONIES OF SATURNUS”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the 2013 debut album by Germany’s Aeons Confer.)

This was one of the best albums of 2013 and somehow it completely flew under my radar.

Fuck.

No seriously.  Aeons Confer bring the fucking business.  This shit is like being in the blast radius of a grenade that opens a black hole upon explosion.  Their debut Symphonies of Saturnus is frigid scorn-borne fury and death incarnate.  It’s rare you hear a melodic death metal record this apocalyptically explosive and dimension-devouring.

To be more exact, Aeons Confer play a clusterfuck style of symphonic industrial blackened death metal.  Not only is the core sound in itself vicious, the way the band play with their sound results in an album that’s quite diverse while also being monstrous in its crushing impact. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KAMPFAR, GRAVEBORNE, NECROSADIST, WILDERNESSKING, LVCIFYRE, VAKSLEN, KALL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

Since the weekend began I caught up with a flood of hair-raising new songs and found so many worth recommending that I’ve collected them in two posts, this one being the first. I probably should have divided them into 4 or 5 posts, but since the unofficial motto of this site seems to be “long-winded”, why bother? New music from seven bands is gathered here. Shades and phases of black metal diversity… dig in!

KAMPFAR

This Norwegian band has been an NCS favorite for years. As previously reported, their new album Djevelmakt is due for release on January 21 via Indie Recordings. We previously featured (here) the first advance track from the album — “Mylder” — and now we have a second one, by the name of “Swarm Norvegicus”.

It begins with strings and piano and moves into a slow, massive, glorious, stomping behemoth of a song that builds in intensity. Both malignant and memorably melodic, it’s another very promising signpost on the road to one of our most highly anticipated 2014 albums. Listen next… Continue reading »

TOURISM: METAL ALLIANCE 2014 WILL BRING BEHEMOTH, GOATWHORE, 1349, INQUISITION, AND BLACK CROWN INITIATE TO NORTH AMERICA

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the announcement that’s the subject of this post. And as I wobbled in a sudden affliction of vertigo, the words “holy shit” repeatedly escaped my slack-jawed mouth. About all I’m capable of doing at the moment is re-printing the official press release. Grab hold of something solid in case you feel faint, and read on…

The Metal Alliance Tour is back for their fourth ferocious year of wrecking heads. Festival organizers Dan Rozenblum and Steve Seabury of High River Entertainment are proud to welcome to American soil the mighty Behemoth as their 2014 headliner. This will be the first time in over a decade that Behemoth will tour North America in support of their new record The Satanist released on April 2nd through Metal Blade Records. The tour will be rounded out by New Orleans natives Goatwhore, 1349, Inquisition and the buzz worthy unsigned act Black Crown Initiate.

“This tour is no exception for our love of all things heavy.” states Rozenblum. “This tour is for metal fans by metal fans.” adds Seabury. “this bill explores our appreciation for the dark and black side of metal. Behemoth have been a favorite of ours and we are stoked to have them headline the fourth edition of the Metal Alliance Tour!”  Continue reading »

BADWOLF’S TOP 10 NOT-METAL ALBUMS OF 2013

 LISTMANIA 2013, That's Music -- But It's Not Metal  7 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

(We are not, I repeat NOT, finished with 2013 LISTMANIA.  How could we finish without BadWolf’s reprise of this list that he has done in years past?)

They said we were crazy.

They said it couldn’t be done.

Well ladies and gentlemen, they were right. We are crazy—but we’ve done it anyway.

Listmania is even bigger than last year (60+ lists as I write this), and lasting into January. What on earth is wrong with us?

NoCleanSinging will resume its normal functioning soon enough, but first we need to get these fucking lists off our desks.

Long-time readers, you know what that means; my favorite article of the year; my top 10 most metal not-metal albums of the year. I’ve rustled up an eclectic mix, featuring anarchic emcees, satanic songstresses, and even a few ex-metalheads exercising the weirder bones in their musical bodies. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 85)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  12 Responses »
Jan 122014
 

I’m embarrassed to say that almost two months have passed since the last THAT’S METAL! post. Between our seemingly endless (and still not ended) year-end LISTMANIA series, holiday diversions, and other excuses that I know must exist but can’t be remembered, I’ve brutally neglected this long-running series. The continuing list of items I keep for potential use has grown ridiculously long, and I hope I can get my ass in gear to plow through them on a more regular basis now that the new year has begun.

For newcomers, what I assemble in these posts are images, videos, and occasionally news items that I think are metal even though they’re not music. Today’s larger-than-usual collection is mainly winter-themed, with a few exceptions, beginning with this one:

ITEM ONE

The first item is at the top of this post. It’s a gold forehead ornament made during the fourth or fifth century A.D. in the Mochica civilization of what is now Peru. A feline head is in the center, and spiraling out from it are octopus tentacles ending in catfish heads. Its dimensions are 11 1/4 x 16 5/16 x 1 3/4 inches. It normally resides in the Museo de la Nación in Lima, but was recently on display as part of a unique exhibit of Peruvian art and archaeological artifacts named “Kingdoms of the Sun and Moon” at the Seattle Art Museum, which is where I saw it about a week ago. The museum’s web page describes the object’s history as follows: Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: “ABYSS CATHEDRAL” BY GOD DISEASE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Jan 122014
 

(TheMadIsraeli provides a brief introduction to a murderous new EP by God Disease.)

“Soul crushing old school death metal” are the words Finland’s God Disease use to describe the music contained on their debut EP Abyss Cathedral.  The band’s forte is of the doom-influenced variety, channeling Autopsy, Penetrelia-era Hypocrisy, Winter, and Immolation.  I’m pretty impressed.

I’d recommend checking this out if you want something to satisfy that “shit production, terrific music” itch.  It’s unapologetically old school and brazenly soaked in its influences and is downright killer, back to front.  Definitely a cool early 2014 release to have stumbled upon.

Enjoy the sickness and pestilence next. (The EP is now available for download via the Bandcamp link below.) Continue reading »

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