NO CLEAN SINGING

MAINTENANCE!!!

Feb 092013

You may have noticed that over the last couple of months our site has periodically been unavailable. You come here, and you get an error message of one kind or another. Usually the outages haven’t lasted long, maybe 10 or 20 seconds at a time — except for a 2-hour meltdown that happened last weekend. But in that case, our web host (BlueHost) went down across the board, crashing thousands of sites at the same time, allegedly due to some kind of “power surge” that knocked out our host’s servers in Utah.

Even though the downtimes on our site have usually been brief, it has still annoyed the shit out of me. Given the increasing unreliability of the service, I’ve also grown increasingly worried that something really fuckin’ bad will happen, like corruption or loss of data in our database, destroying years of priceless NCS work product. Late this week, I finally decided to bite the bullet and switch web hosts.

This is not a decision to be made lightly, because switching hosting services is a BIG fuckin’ hassle. But hey, guess what! I may not have to make the switcheroo after all! This morning I received this e-mail from BlueHost: Continue reading »

THE SCHOENBERG AUTOMATON: “VELA”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Feb 092013

(Guest contributor Austin Weber reviews the new album by The Schoenberg Automaton, an Australian band we last featured in June 2011.)

The Schoenberg Automaton is a group I’ve followed intensely ever since I first heard rumblings of their bizarre brutality from Australia. The name alone had me hooked, as my love for composer Arnold Schoenberg runs deep. He was a brilliant man who conceived the twelve-tone writing technique still used today, including in metal by people such as Ron Jarzombek. He also made very atonal, dissonant music unlike anything previously heard and was a huge influence on composers from the 19th century to the present.

The band’s 2011 self-titled three-song EP was a powerful notice to the world that something big was coming. Vela delivers in spades and builds upon their unorthodox mix of Ion Dissonance-style mathcore and Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza grooves covered in technical death metal. Vela is overwhelming and full of amazing massively crushing tracks like “Arecibo,” “Pineapple Juice & The Tough Stuffed Olive”, and “All Roads Lead To Rome.”

You have to give them credit for the sly additions and updates when re-recording songs from the EP for the album. This adds some replay to those of us like myself who have already played those songs into infinity. The haunting reprieve of instrumental “Stopping A God Mid-Sentence” emerges from the storm and into the calm. They use sparse meditative bridges to break up the full-throttle intensity that bleeds from the ferocity on tracks like “Ghost Of Mirach,” “The Worm Engine”, and the extraterrestrial overload of “Ultimatewhirringendmachine.” The Schoenberg Automaton eschew the norm with songwriting full of innovative arrangements. Continue reading »

BATILLUS: “CONCRETE SUSTAIN”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Feb 082013

Sometimes musical success is constructed upon the simplest of foundations. Take the new Batillus album, Concrete Sustain, for example. Specifically, take the first two tracks. They start with a simple drum rhythm or bass riff — but not just any rhythm or riff, only Grade-A Prime body-movers.

Then they strap on a standard fuckton of 100% radioactive beef — low-slung, fuzzed-out riffs that provide the demolition counterpart to those foundational rhythms. On top of that they judiciously layer electronic noise and corrosive, fingernails-on-the-chalkboard vocals (though you’ll eventually also come to some horrifically deep vox, too). And voila! Black industrial funk, the dancebeat at the end of the world.

Seriously, try to resist the viral drumbeat that courses through “Concrete” or the compulsive bass line in “Cast”. I dare you.

But don’t be misled into thinking Concrete Sustain is nothing but a vat of sludgy industrial doom. If you do, you’ll get a big skull-crushing surprise when you come to “Beset”. You listen to that one, you’ll feel like you’ve flown too close to a massive goddamn gravity well. After a comparatively subdued intro, it begins a slow, relentless pull into uber-distorted doom oblivion. Simple, but slaughtering, with only an echoing melodic guitar lead to kiss you goodbye. Continue reading »

THE ZYGOMA DISPOSAL: “THE FORGOTTEN”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Feb 082013

(NCS guest contributor Austin Weber returns with a review of the new album by a Belgian band named The Zygoma Disposal.)

The few years after Calculating Infinity were a rich period for bands following in the footsteps of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Even better than the bizarre rhythms was the progressed chaotic nature of the style, which was understood by bands like The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Into The Moat, and Psyopus, who continued this songwriting aesthetic based on non-linear structure. Since the golden era of mathcore, few modern groups have released anything in this style that holds fast to the unpredictable foundation on which it was formed.

The Zygoma Disposal return to the aforementioned aesthetic and of course bring a lot of their own to the table. The music schizophrenically shifts through a variety of sounds and styles, giving The Forgotten an unhinged attitude that could easily be a transmission from the gates of a subterranean hell.

The lounge jazz on opener “The Lost” is a trip through speakeasies of the 1920’s until a rising samba pulse takes hold, amping up the intensity, with the first metal moment culminating in djenty grooves, and raucous trumpet playing slithering into the climax. The real insanity begins on track two, “Minus Infinity,” where you’re slammed in the face with tap-a-thon shrillness meets grind drums and lounge jazz feasting on death metal. Continue reading »

BOOK REVIEW: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? A BLACK WOMAN’S LIFE AND LIBERATION IN HEAVY METAL”

Reviews 3 Responses »

Feb 082013

(In this post BadWolf delivers No Clean Singing’s first book review.)

I think Ian Christe’s Bazillion Points Books is one of the most important forces in metal culture, as well as music publishing in general, today.

Then again I’m biased: I used to work there. The vast majority of my time at Bazillion Points was spent working with Ian on Metallion: The Slayer Mag Diaries, but one day Ian passed me a thick stack of paper held together by an overtaxed paperclip. The byline read: Laina Dawes. It was a brisk, easy read about the struggle of black women in the heavy metal scene. Up until that point, I wasn’t aware that there were any black women in metal—ever. Therefore, I was part of the problem. The rest of the details are fuzzy, though I recall a great deal of discussion about Skunk Anansie, a band I had not yet listened to.

That paper, ‘What Are You Doing Here,’ was the first book pitch I ever edited. Four years later, I hold the final product in my hand. I’m not sure if the edits I made ever found their way into Ms. Dawes’ book—probably not; I did a really shitty job!—but whatever changes she made were for the better.

What Are You Doing Here? is one of the most necessary books on heavy music in circulation. It ignores, for the most part, the evolution of heavy music out of rock and roll, and completely shuns the sub-genre debate. And it is stronger for it. Compared to the struggle of non-whites and non-males in our society, debates over the relative quality of one album to another feel moot. Continue reading »

BAND NAME CENSORSHIP: LIPS THAT TOUCH THESE NAMES SHALL NEVER TOUCH MINE!

IQ Subtraction 19 Responses »

Feb 082013

This little story originally reported on gawker has been making the rounds on the internetz this morning, and it’s just too good not to share.

According to a notice posted on the employee bulletin board at Seton Hall University’s heavy metal radio station WSOU, uttering any band names or playing any songs with the words “devil,” “Satan,” “God,” “Jesus,” or “any other Catholic references that are portrayed in a negative light” will result in suspension.

But to take any guesswork out of which band names aren’t appropriate for the airwaves at “Seton Hall’s Pirate Radio,” the management drafted a list of the 53 dirtiest band names that you can never say on the radio, a la George Carlin’s iconic monologue about TV.

The list includes such metal radio staples as Cradle of Filth, Cannibal Corpse, Anal Cunt, Morbid Angel, and Deicide, but also a bunch of just-fun-to-say-out-loud outfits such as Adolf Satan, Baby Jesus Hitler, Crucifucks, Jesus Chrysler, Smother Theresa, and, of course, Hell-O.

Completely understandable and appropriate. Seton Hall is, after all, a private Roman Catholic university (located in New Jersey), the Archbishop of Newark is the president of its Board of Trustees, and lord knows that the Catholic Church has never tolerated filth, depravity, or degradation . . . except among minor church functionaries known as “priests”, but that doesn’t count. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KOZELJNIK, BLACK TABLE, AND VON

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 4 Responses »

Feb 082013

My head is spinning with new music that I want to spread around and introduce to new listeners. I’m afraid I’ll never have time enough to write about all of it. Correction: I know there’ll never be enough time. I’ll do what I can, but there will necessarily be a degree of randomness in the selections. Still, I look for themes around which to organize the picks.

The theme of this post is the rich diversity of black metal. If you’re one of those people who did an eye roll at reading the last sentence, thinking that it all sounds alike, I can only say that you haven’t listened enough. Try out these three offerings as proof. They consist of new music from Kozeljnik (Serbia), Black Table (NY/NJ), and Von (California).

KOZELJNIK

This band is composed of two members: Kozeljnik, who is the vocalist, guitarist, and bass player, and L.G., the drummer. Both of them are also members of a long-running excellent Serbian band named The Stone, which I featured in a MISCELLANY post back in March 2011. Kozeljnik has released an EP and two albums (Sigil Rust and Deeper the Fall), and they’re on the verge of releasing a second EP named Null: The Acheron of Multiform Negation.

One song from the new EP is now streaming and available for download on Bandcamp (here) — “Time, Neglected in the Wound of a Martyr”. The last album, Deeper the Fall, is also available on Bandcamp (here). Last night I listened to the new song as well as the first track from Deeper the Fall, “Thetruthisdeath”. Both are them are striking, and strikingly different from the norm. Continue reading »

MORE GEMS: CREST OF DARKNESS AND OCTOPUS

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Feb 072013

It’s getting late in our usual posting day, but I thought I’d throw a couple more things your way that I discovered today.

CREST OF DARKNESS

Norway’s Crest of Darkness have a new album (their sixth studio release) scheduled to appear on February 25 via My Kingdom Music. Its name is In the Presence of Death, and the cover art is above. This band trace their origins back to the mid-90s, though I haven’t ever explored their albums with any care. After hearing the first song to be released from In the Presence of Death, that’s about to change.

The track is called “From the Dead”, and it grabbed my interest within the first 10 seconds. And by the time it really began to roll 30 seconds later, I was hooked. There’s no doubt that this is black metal with lots of bite, but not the kind that depends heavily on drum blasting and knife-edged whirlwinds of tremolo guitar. Depending on where you are in the song, it includes rock beats, industrial rhythms, progressive guitar parts, a head-spinning solo, and ominous, pounding riffs. I really like this and want more!

VIDEOGRAPHY: NEW THINGS FROM BLUE STAHLI AND CARACH ANGREN

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Feb 072013

Here are a duo of new videos I spied yesterday and this morning that I thought were worth sharing. They stood out because the visuals enhanced the music and were actually very entertaining to watch, which I honestly can’t say about most metal videos.

BLUE STAHLI

I discovered Blue Stahli thanks to an interview with him that DGR did for us last year. I’ve been following his social media and music releases since then, and it’s obvious that he’s a clever, creative, slightly unhinged dude, and I like his style, even though the kind of music he makes isn’t my usual kind of thing.

This morning, Bloody Disgusting premiered a music video for the song “ULTRAnumb”, which comes from Blue Stahli’s 2011 self-titled album, which you can acquire here. The song is a catchy piece of work with an industrial beat and harsh vox that remind me of Devin Townsend’s, plus clean crooning that doesn’t make me run for the exits. And the video . . . the video is a complete head trip, most of it funny as hell, and ultimately full of gore, too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCENT OF DEATH — “MAN KILLS GOD TOO”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Feb 072013

Spain’s Scent of Death has recently released their second album . . . which followed the first one by approximately eight years. The new one has proved to be a real eye-opener for me. Whatever this band accomplished in the past, their new offering is an atomic-grade kick in the teeth — and in the head, and in the kidneys, and in other vulnerable organs.

Entitled Of Martyrs’s Agony and Hate, it calls to mind the likes of Suffocation, Hate Eternal, Dying Fetus, and Morbid Angel. Hell, I might as well throw in references to Origin and Behemoth, because I thought of them, too, at different points on the album.

The music is a non-stop onslaught from start to finish. It’s brutal, bruising, and bludgeoning, but it’s executed with an impressive degree of technical flourish. The songs are loaded with punishing grooves and fire-breathing guitar solos, with gut-level vocals that summon up images of voracious lions. In short, it’s a nasty piece of work.

Today we’re stoked to bring you the exclusive premiere of the album’s sixth track, “Man Kills God Too”, which we hand-picked from among the album’s 9 songs. The album’s first song premiered earlier this year, and we’re including a stream of that one, too. Continue reading »

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