A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT RYAN BEGLEY’S COVER ART FOR HOWL

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 132013
 

If you’re a regular NCS stalker, you’ve seen this cover before. Twice before, actually, because I keep looking for new excuses to stick it on the site. It’s the hellaciously eye-catching gatefold artwork for Bloodlines, the new Relapse Records album by Rhode Island’s Howl — which is also hellaciously good, by the way. To see an even larger image of the artwork, click the pic above.

The artist who created the cover is Ryan Begley, and this is his third record cover for Howl (the other two are also killer). Today we have the pleasure of giving you a behind-the-scenes look at how the Bloodlines artwork came into existence, including the rough and final pencil sketches that evolved into the finished inked-and-colored piece you’re looking at. As Ryan explains:

All the visuals were inspired by lyrical content and both the band and I wanted to have an image with a lot of elements that would take time for the viewer to soak in. I tried to have all the characters and elements interacting and overlapping as much as possible.  The blood was one of the more difficult but fun elements to draw for the cover. Figuring out how it would flow and move throughout the frame and around the characters took a while to sketch out.

The band wanted a bright and vibrant cover and I thought it would translate best if we kept the colors in the same family. Once I settled on a specific red for the blood the rest of the palette was pulled from that.

Continue reading »

THE FUROR: “SERMON OF SLAUGHTER”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 132013
 

I’m usually racing so fast to keep up with the continual advent of new music that it’s rare to take a breath long enough to explore music from a previous year. But I did that yesterday, and I’m sure glad I did.

The Furor is a band from Western Australia that released three full-length albums between 2004 and 2011, after which the membership dwindled to a single individual, Disaster (Louis Rando). Undeterred by going it alone, he put out an EP in 2012 under The Furor name entitled Sermon of Slaughter, and it is indeed a sermon of slaughter. The exceptional quality of the EP is perhaps surprising, because Disaster’s forte is drumming.

He is a ridiculously good drummer and a true metal veteran, as witnessed by his current participation in bands such as Singapore’s Impiety and Australia’s Mhorgl, as well as his past membership in the likes of Dybbuk, Pagan, Pathogen, and Psychonaut. But it turns out that his talents are manifold, and he shows them off to good effect on Sermon of Slaughter.

The music reminds me of a cross between Marduk and Satyricon. It is unquestionably warlike. The songs generally move at a furious pace, with hell-ripping guitars, booming bass notes, and the kind of murderous percussion that makes full-auto machine-gun fire seem slothful by comparison. Disaster’s scalding, clawing vocals also remind me of Mortuus and Satyr — full of fire and venom. Continue reading »

CARCASS AND VADER IN THE NEWS

 Metal News  1 Response »
May 132013
 

If you’ve been following us for very long, then you know we’re not a “news aggregator” site, by which I mean sites that simply copy and paste the daily flood of metal press releases and other newsy blurbs. That’s a useful service, but there are tons of other places out there which do that. In the category of “breaking news”, we usually focus on new music or videos, and we’re selective about what what we recommend. But mainly it’s because we have a small staff of unpaid slaves who spend most of their time sleeping or fending off creditors.

But I’m making an exception for the two items in this post, because they involve Carcass and Vader. Honestly, there’s not much meaningful news in this post, but . . . to repeat . . . the news involves CARCASS AND VADER!!

The news about Carcass is two-fold: First, we now have the first official photo (above) of the new Carcass lineup, courtesy of Adrian Erlandsson of Murder Mile Studios: bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker, guitarist Bill Steer, new guitarist Ben Ash (Pig Iron, Desolation, Liquefied Skeleton) and new drummer Dan Wilding (Aborted, Trigger the Bloodshed). And second, Carcass signed a deal last Thursday (May 9) with an as-yet-undisclosed label for the release of their new album, Surgical Steel. Why have Carcass not disclosed the label? Fuck if I know. Continue reading »

CHILDREN OF BODOM PREMIERE THE “TRANSFERENCE” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 132013
 

Nuclear Blast is set to release the eighth album from Finland’s Children of Bodom on June 11 in North America. This morning COB premiered an official video for one of the new songs, “Transference”, which has already debuted and which is also being made available as an immediate download for fans who pre-order the CD. And these are a few things that guitarist/vocalist Alexi Laiho said about the song and the album:

‘Transference’ is a straight-up CHILDREN OF BODOM to-the-core-type song and therefore was a good pick for a video and obviously is one of our favorite tracks. It always had an evil vibe to it, which I wish I knew how to explain because it still gives me chills… Enjoy!

Halo Of Blood is the eighth studio album from CHILDREN OF BODOM, and believe it or not, but we still managed to keep it fresh and new while still maintaining the elements that make COB sound recognizable. It’s got the fastest and the slowest song we ever made and lyrics wise there are themes we had never had before. It’s 10 new songs of pure Nordic metal and whether you enjoy it with a beer or a glass of water, I’m sure you will have a good time.

Continue reading »

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: “ONE OF US IS THE KILLER”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 132013
 

(BadWolf reviews the new album from The Dillinger Escape Plan.) 

Originality is The Dillinger Escape Plan’s stock-and-trade. Their blend of atonal mathcore and pop hooks still stands out a decade after they first perfected it, despite the run of knockoff bands. However unique their style remains, they’ve done fairly little to change the formula since their sophomore record, 2004’s Miss Machine. The two albums since more-or-less re-tread that amazing album’s ground, albeit with a few different experiments here and there. And every record since has been incrementally less brilliant. Until now.

2013’s One of Us Is the Killer is another stab at that classic album’s formula, but it comes closest to catching that record’s spark. While Dillinger always produce excellent records, they progress more like books of Bukowski poems than novels—by that I mean they’re often best digested a few random songs at a time. (I wonder how much time DEP spend on track-listing their albums.) And of course, as is often the case with experimental music, some songs work better as stand-alone pieces, and some don’t work at all.

Each song works on One of Us Is the Killer. It dials down the bullshit: only one laptop interlude a la Ire Works, and no six-plus-minute trudges—I expected the album to tack toward radio play after DEP signed to Sumerian Records, who seem more interested in pimping Asking Alexandria than making good metal these days, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. The record sounds more savage than Miss Machine by a hair’s breadth. Continue reading »

INDRICOTHERE: “II”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
May 122013
 

Indricotheriinae are an extinct subfamily of giant, long-limbed, hornless rhinoceroses. They are the largest land mammals that have ever lived. Indricothere is also the name that Colin Marston gave a solo project that he used to record some songs he wrote before forming Behold… the Arctopus.

Indricothere’s first album (self-titled) came out in 2007. This morning I discovered to my surprise that Marston has just today released a second Indricothere album entitled II, which is available for purchase on Bandcamp.

I’ve been listening to the album, which is entirely instrumental, and it’s blowing my fuckin’ mind. There is no pithy way of describing it. Stylistically, its principal kinship is with technical death metal, but it’s part black metal, part prog, part post-metal, and part avant-garde, too. The music is dense, intricate, constantly changing, intensely interesting. Of course, it’s also a high-wire acrobatic performance that will drop jaws. Also, heads will bang. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 74)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  9 Responses »
May 122013
 

In the six weeks since I last compiled one of these posts I’ve received lots of suggestions from NCS supporters, so many that I really didn’t need to look for any items myself. When other people start doing all your work for you, I’ll tell you friends, you’re on the path of righteousness.

Today I have eight items for you, all of which I think are metal, even though they’re not music. The supporters who tipped me to these items, either by messages or by sticking them on their FB pages, are credited within or after each one.

ITEM ONE

As usual, the first item is the photo you see above. I’m virtually certain this is the first time a photo from Field and Stream has appeared at NO CLEAN SINGING. It was taken by forester Jason Good while he was surveying timber in Meigs County, Ohio, on November 12, 2010. In the words of Field and Stream’s writer:

“[H]e stumbled upon a bizarre sight that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up: In a waist-deep pool of Leading Creek, nose-to-nose like fish on a stringer, floated three whitetail deer. The experienced woodsman needed a few minutes to puzzle out exactly what he was seeing—a trio of mature bucks that had locked horns in a battle to the death, illustrating, in the starkest terms, the potential ferocity and brutality of the whitetail rut.” Continue reading »

A BIT OF WEEKEND READING AND A NEW KILLING JOKE VIDEO

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 112013
 

Here are three things I read yesterday that I thought were worth recommending. And because we always have to have music in our posts, I’m ending this one with a couple of videos by UK post-punk legends Killing Joke, one old one and one that just premiered yesterday.

“THE TEN MOST METAL DEATHS OF METAL MUSICIANS”

Yeah, that headline caught my eye, too. It appeared on the online music blog of The Riverfront Times, a St. Louis alternative newsweekly that’s been around since 1977. As the headline suggests, the writer (Rick Giordano) compiled stories about 10 metal musicians who died in metal ways. Here’s Rick’s introduction and disclaimer:

Death has always been one of the most dominant themes in heavy-metal music, taking a back seat maybe only to Satanism. Death, disease, murder and chaos have accompanied heavy riffs since Sabbath first began playing them back in ’68. This dark subject matter is part of what has always made metal controversial — revolting to some, but appealing to those musicians interested in facing the things we all fear. But there’s often a strange irony that comes into play when we have to realize that these musicians are also human beings, capable of falling victim to the very horrors they seem to embrace. Continue reading »

BISPORA, DAGOBA, CVS BANGERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 112013
 

(DGR brings us this little round-up for your Saturday.)

This right here is probably going to be the most throwback to my old writing assignments post that I have written here at NCS because just about every single band in this post will be one that I used to champion about two years back. You might already recognize it from the headline, but yes, I will in fact be resurrecting the spectres of Bispora and Dagoba, groups whom I haven’t really been presented much of an opportunity to chat about here simply because there hasn’t been much to show in terms of activity (outside of the occasional concert review in the case of Bispora).

However, within about three days of each other each group released new material – stuff they had been hinting at for a long time but finally got out there for people to hear. Both have huge plans for 2013, too, with Bispora changing up their live setlist quite a bit and hoping to put out a full release some time this year and Dagoba nearing the release date for their new disc Post Mortem Nihil Est – which translates to something from Latin….I think, although to be fair it sounds like Post Mortem Nihilest and that is something completely….ooooooooooh, I get it.


Continue reading »

ONE HELL OF A WEEK TO BE A METALHEAD

 Mosh Pit  17 Responses »
May 102013
 

(NCS writer BadWolf, who is based in Toledo, Ohio, shares some thoughts about a week that brought us horrors from Cleveland and a rude surprise in San Diego.)

Phew.

It’s been quite the week, hasn’t it? I’m not a higher-power sort of man, but if I were I would call this week a ‘test.’ In particular, it’s been a rough week to be a man with any interest in the well-being of women, in general. As a metalhead, and as an Ohioan.

Let’s recap:

Earlier this week, three women in Cleveland escaped from, according to estimates, a decade of private captivity. These three young women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, were kidnapped and held against their will in what any reasonable person can assume was a private hell, set up for the sexual satisfactions of their captor. A six-year-old girl was found at the house, and is thought to be Berry’s daughter, born in captivity and conceived through rape. According to some reports, an unnamed victim said she was impregnated and forced to miscarry through blunt force trauma.

Fuck. Continue reading »

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