NO CLEAN SINGING

ELYSIAN BLAZE: “BLOOD GEOMETRY”

Nov 052012

(Today we begin a series of guest posts that we’ve received in response to THIS INVITATION — an invitation that’s still open for anyone who’s interested. We’ll be running a guest piece every day in the order received, unless the post is especially time-sensitive. We begin with a review by NCS reader (and blogger) BreadGod of the new album by Australia’s Elysian Blaze.)

Written by: BreadGod

This album has quite the history behind it. You know how Valve likes to take its sweet ass time with some of its games (*cough* Episode 3 *cough*)? Yeah, Elysian Blaze is sort of like that. Blood Geometry was completed all the way back in 2007 and was slated for release in 2008, but that was pushed back to 2009. Then 2010. Then 2011. The band’s only member, Mutatiis, is a fussy perfectionist. Just as the album was about to be released, he would see something wrong with it and go change it. He eventually stopped being so fussy and released it in 2012. To quote Gabe Newell, “Hopefully, it will have been worth the wait.”

The first thing that amazed me was the cover art (by Matt R. Martin): An Aztec pyramid sitting atop a frigid mountain under a dark, foreboding sky. Another thing that amazed me was just how massive the album was. It comes on two disks for a combined length of two hours. I start to get bored if an album lasts more than forty minutes. Those two hours better be worth it.

Right from the start, I knew the atmosphere would be top-notch. Elysian Blaze has always been known for creating a thick, dark atmosphere, and I believe it’s better on here than on all the previous albums. Since this album draws a great deal of influence from funeral doom metal, there are long stretches where the music is either played very slowly or is very minimalistic. I’ve never been a fan of funeral doom metal, but I love the solemn, almost completely quiet bits between the black metal. It builds up anticipation for when the hatred begins again. Continue reading »

NICK MILLEVOI: “IN WHITE SKY”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Nov 042012

This review didn’t begin as a review. I only intended to sample a couple of tracks from this album as part of a MISCELLANY excursion that I posted earlier today. But in part because the album was the last stop on that tour, and in part because I got sucked in by the music, I listened to all of it . . . and so here we are.

Nick Millevoi contacted me not long ago through a recommendation from my friend Alex (Grind To Death) Layzell, with whom NCS collaborated on the grind / powerviolence compilation The Only Good Tory (which you should go grab HERE for free if you haven’t already). Nick is is a Philadelphia-based guitarist whose third album In White Sky was released on October 23 by Flenser Records, which is on my short list of labels who release nothing but interesting music.

Since this music came my way via Alex Layzell, I assumed it was going to be something like the sound of napalm being sprayed from a high-pressure fire hose. But it’s not what I was expecting.

I started with the first two songs on In White Sky, planning to stop there per the MISCELLANY rules, and became immediately enthralled (and immediately disoriented) by both of them. I really wanted to see where the music would go next after those first two tracks, and so I let the sounds continue to run. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 48: NIGHTBRINGER, CYANIC, LORELEI, NICK MILLEVOI

Album Reviews, Free Shit, MISCELLANY 14 Responses »

Nov 042012

It’s been so damned long since I made a MISCELLANY excursion that I had to check the date of the last one: No. 47 was on Sept. 23. Pathetic. Way past time to do it again.

A reminder about the MISCELLANY rules: I pick bands whose music I’ve never heard before (and usually, as in this edition, bands whose names I’ve never heard before); I listen to one or two songs, not knowing what the music is going to sound like; I write some impressions here; and I include the music I heard so you can check it out for yourselves.

With a big list of bands stretching back months that I could pick from, what did I do? I chose four bands who I heard about for the first time during the past week. In fact, three of them I heard about only yesterday. I obviously have poor impulse control.

I nearly called this installment the “Friends Helping Friends” edition because each band was recommended by a friend, each of whom will be identified in due course. These are the bands, and for a change, all four are from the U.S.: Nightbringer, Cyanic, Lorelei, and Nick Millevoi. And here’s a hint about the outcomes of this experiment: My friends know how to pick winners.

NIGHTBRINGER

Nightbringer came my way via NCS writer BadWolf — no comments from him, simply a link to this band’s Bandcamp page, where I found a variety of music streaming. The most recent release is an April 2012 singles collection called Fight Like Hell, which includes all the songs from two previous short releases plus a couple of new tracks. It’s available at a “pay what you want” price for a download on Bandcamp, and you can order the CD there as well.

This Nightbringer, by the way, is not the black metal band of the same name from Colorado. This Nightbringer is from fuckin’ Motor City. Continue reading »

A PHROTASTIC LOVE STORY

Album Reviews, Phro's Posts 22 Responses »

Nov 042012

Written by: Phro
NSFW

It’s a dark and rainy night. The kind of dark and rainy night where you stay home and jerk off your cat with one hand while counting the number of people who love you with the other. (It’s zero people. No one loves you.) Then, when your cat won’t cum and you’re at the darkest depths of despair, you hear a knock at the door. It’s demure, yet violent; lusty, yet apprehensive. You pretend to sigh as if annoyed at the interruption, but in the shallow, tepid depths of your heart, you know you’re happy.

Removing your sweaty hand from your pet’s raw genitals, you stand and go to open the door and struggle to control your shock and turgid pleasure at seeing this lovely face:

With the heavy breathing of a pedophile learning he’s gotten a job as Naked Bathtime Mickey Mouse at Tokyo Disneyland, you stammer stupidly.

She giggles, takes you by the hand and leads you to your bedroom, where she tells you to strip and remove your clothes. Without pausing, you comply, as eager as a teacher’s pet diving head first and mouth agape into the naked lap of your obese, hairy, sweaty junior high math teacher. Continue reading »

CRAWLING, WITH NERGAL, INTRONAUT, AND SULPHUR AEON

Eye-Catchers, Interviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Nov 032012

As explained in today’s earlier post, I’ve had a bit of a setback. I can’t walk very well at the moment. But crawling still works. And as I crawled through the interhole and my e-mail this morning while moaning in pain and feeling like a prize dumbass, I found some news about Nergal (Poland) and Intronaut (U.S.) and new music from Sulphur Aeon (Germany) that made me feel better, at least psychologically if not physically.

NERGAL GETS SOME HIGH LEVEL SUPPORT

I saw a note on the Facebook page of Behemoth’s frontman Nergal that looked interesting. You may have seen (either here or elsewhere) that Nergal’s legal troubles in his native Poland have been revived thanks to a ruling by the Polish Supreme Court that he can be criminally prosecuted for offending people’s religious feelings even if he didn’t intend to do that. This whole mess stems from a 2007 Behemoth performance in which Nergal tore up a Bible on stage.

There are plenty of places in the world where governments repress speech, sometimes violently, but I don’t usually think of Poland that way. So I was surprised when the country’s highest court made it easier, not harder, for people in Poland to be prosecuted for expressing “offensive” thoughts about religion.

What Nergal’s note revealed is that the day after this abysmal court ruling, the European Commission — which is the executive body of the European Union, of which Poland is a member — released a statement in support of Nergal. Citing the European Convention of Human Rights, a treaty that Poland signed which protects freedom of expression, the EC stated: “This right protects not only information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also those that offend, shock or disturb.”

The full article cited by Nergal is here. It’s not clear how the EC’s position or Poland’s treaty obligations will affect the progress of the case against Nergal, but it’s definitely an interesting and encouraging development. Continue reading »

LAME

IQ Subtraction 36 Responses »

Nov 032012

I fell off a wall last night. Intoxicants may have had something to do with it, though native idiocy could explain the whole thing, too.

My wife is out of town. I had been out carousing. Turns out I had locked myself out of my house, and had left the house key inside. I had also forgotten to turn on any lights, and where I live, it’s pretty close to pitch black when the lights are off. I also had no flashlight in my car (yeah, I’m that kind of dumbass). I was trying to find my way around to the back of the house to a place where a spare key is hidden. This involved walking along the edge of a low wall above a shallow ravine.

I thought I’d passed the end of the ravine and could safely turn left to walk down a small slope to where the key is hidden, but like I said, I couldn’t see shit. I took a step, unexpectedly went down about four feet, and landed awkwardly. Skinned up my left leg and twisted my ankle pretty good.

I lay there for a few minutes whimpering, with the sounds of the lorises’ mewling laughter ringing in my head. After I made it inside (which took a while), I probably should have tried to do something about the ankle, something like putting ice on it or wrapping it in an Ace bandage, or cutting off my foot right above the sprain. But I was kinda fucked up and I wanted to get off of it fast, so I pounded some Advil and went to bed. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: NAPALM DEATH, MALEVOLENCE, AND WEST OF MEMPHIS

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Nov 022012

When I resort to two posts in one day that do nothing but throw new music videos at you, you can infer that a lot of good videos have come out in a short space of time AND that I’ve been busy at the old fuckin’ day job. Today, both inferences would be correct. And so here I am, following the five-video post from earlier today with a three-video post now. This one includes new ones from Napalm Death (UK), Malevolence (Portugal) — plus a brand new trailer for a feature-length documentary about The West Memphis Three that’s opening in theaters on Christmas Day.

NAPALM DEATH

The new Napalm Death clip is billed as the “Everyday Pox” tour video. It is indeed a tour video of sorts, since it consists of performance footage synced to the recorded music. And it does include the song “Everyday Pox” (including the cool, creepy John Zorn sax solo), which appears on the band’s 2012 monster Utilitarian, but there are actually two songs in the video.

It begins, as the album does, with an instrumental number called “Circumspect”, and I love the combination of these two tracks, the first bleeding into the second. Those two songs are not side-by-side on the album, but maybe they should have been. “Circumspect” is slow, atmospheric, and icy. It’s not the kind of song most people would expect from this band, but it’s not the first time Napalm Death have thrown curve balls into their albums either. “Everyday Pox” also proceeds at a slightly slower pace than the typically explosive Napalm Death grind blast (though there’s certainly plenty of blasting in the song). Pairing them is a match made in hell. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: WEAPON, UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION, ANTROPOFAGUS, KATALEPSY, DORDEDUH

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Nov 022012

I was all set to go with this post, all set to call it “BRUTALITY!”, because that was the unifying theme of the new music videos I found from Weapon (Canada), Unfathomable Ruination (UK), Antropofagus (Italy), and Katalepsy (Russia). And then I saw a new official live video from Dordeduh (Romania) — not really brutal, but it still grabbed me. So I’m including it at the end and dropping the “BRUTALITY!” post title.

There are so many videos I want to share in this post that I’m doing my goddamned best to pare down my own verbiage. Here we go . . .

WEAPON

Weapon’s new album Embers and Revelations is out now on the Relapse label. We haven’t reviewed it yet, but it’s well worth your time — a fusing of first wave black and death metal with melodic touches that recall the Bangladeshi origins of the band’s leader, Vetis Monarch.

Yesterday Relapse premiered a lyric video for a brutal Weapon track named “Crepuscular Swamp”. Here it is: Continue reading »

THE LATEST WORD IN THE COLD HARD TRUTH (FROM CHRIS GRIGG)

Mosh Pit 44 Responses »

Nov 022012

After the nearly three years since I started NO CLEAN SINGING, what I know about the economics of extreme metal has multiplied by orders of magnitude. There are two caveats that go along with this statement:

First, when I started this blog what I knew about the economics of extreme metal wouldn’t fill an ant’s ass, so what I know now is all relative to that barren starting point. Second, since I’m not a musician, a producer, a promoter, or involved in running a label, even what I know now is second-hand, incomplete, and undoubtedly inaccurate in at least some respects. My learning has come from a lot of reading and a fair number of discussions with musicians, but that still ain’t the same as living the life. I watch, while others do.

I’m still curious and I’m still trying to learn. My latest bit of learning comes from a long piece written by Chris Grigg, posted on his personal blog last night. Chris Grigg is the founder, vocalist, and guitarist for Woe, a Philadelphia-based black metal band that also includes members of Rumpelstiltskin Grinder. Their last album, Quietly, Undramatically, was released by Candlelight Records in 2010 and they’re working on a new one now. Chris has also been involved with Krieg and The Green Evening Requiem as well as a grindcore outfit named Unrest.

Chris Grigg also runs a recording studio and holds down a full-time job with an IT services company.

In the article I read — which is entitled “The Music Industry Is A Fucking Pit” — he explains in detail why independent musicians do not make money, and who does. He summarizes his thesis thusly:

The music industry, as it has existed to date, is a fucking pit. It is a dead-end. Anyone who expects to play rock music in 2012, follow all the old rules about touring full time and signing with a label and all that shit, AND live off of it is living in a dreamworld because by the time the purse floats down to the bottom of the river, everyone along the way has reached in and taken their share. There is nothing left for you. Continue reading »

A REMINDER: START SCRIBBLING!!!

Metal News 23 Responses »

Nov 012012

I warned you I would nag, and I don’t lie. Okay, to be more accurate, I wasn’t lying this time.

Beginning on Monday, November 5, we’re going to start running guest posts here at NCS, as we have around this time of year in the past. The tradition started because yours truly usually takes a vacation in November, and guest posts help us keep NCS from going dark while I’m off lolling around like a walrus on some coastline. This year I’m going nowhere, but we’re doing a series of guest posts anyway, because they’re fun — new voices and new subjects spice things up.

We’ve already received a half-dozen submissions since I issued the invitation a week ago, and I know of three more that are in the works, but we want more.

So, to repeat: If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of writing something for publication at NCS or some other metal blog, now’s a good time to give it a shot. Or maybe you’ve been generous enough to submit guest posts here in the past and might be willing to do it again. Or maybe you’re already writing for another blog and you’re willing to upgrade the content quality at NCS.

Regardless of your situation, we’re interested in what’s on your mind. What you submit can be long or short — whatever you have time to create. It can be a show review, a review of an album or EP that we haven’t yet reviewed, a piece designed to bring a relatively unknown band to a broader audience, thoughts about the scene or about recent news blurbs, something in the vein of our “THAT’S METAL!” posts or one of our other regular features — or anything else that’s related to metal that strikes your fancy. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries