NO CLEAN SINGING

TOURISM: NEW TOURS HEADLINED BY NACHTMYSTIUM, REVOCATION, AND DYING FETUS

Sep 142012

One last post for this Friday, with a focus on recently announced U.S./Canada tours.

First, it was announced today that Nachtmystium will be headlining the Dawn Over the Ruins of America tour, which also includes Jarboe (featuring Baleyyg) and Canada’s Weapon. All of the dates have not yet been released, but the ones that have are after the jump. Also, although I know Jarboe used to be in Swans, that’s about the extent of my knowledge about her work, and I know zip about Baleyyg. So if anyone has any insights, leave a comment. Nachtmystium and Weapon, of course, are must-see bands for yours truly. (Thanks to Utmu and Vonlughlio for the tip about this one.)

Second, Boston’s mighty Revocation will be headlining a tour, and A Life Once Lost and KEN Mode will be along for that ride. I’ve almost lost count of how many times I’ve seen Revocation, because they tour like there’s no tomorrow, and every damned show has been killer. And if you saw tomorrow’s earlier post about ALOL, well, you know how I feel about them. KEN Mode is another band I am very interested in seeing. Those dates are also after the jump.

Third, Lambgoat is reporting that Dying Fetus will be touring late this year with Cattle Decapitation and Cerebral Bore in tow. There’s been no official announcement, but Lambgoat has ferreted out three venues where this line-up has been announced so far. I’ll just sum up my thoughts about this tour as follows: HELLS FUCKING YEAH! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PATHOLOGY, DORDEDUH, ODYSSEY

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Sep 142012

Here’s Part 2 of the morning round-up of things I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth passing on. The first part is HERE.

PATHOLOGY

I saw that Pathology have released their first digital single, “Tyrannical Decay”, from their forthcoming album The Time Of Great Purification, scheduled for release on September 25 by Victory Records. It’s available on iTunes and Amazon mp3. There’s a music video for the song that’s supposed to see daylight on September 17. You get two guesses about who did the artwork for the single.

As for “Tyrannical Decay”, it’s a brutalizing, pummelizing, meat-tenderizing, bludgeonizing, gutturalizing, demolitionizing slab of merciless death metal. If you’re into brutal death, check this out:

Pathology – “Tyrannical Decay”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/01-Tyrannical-Decay.mp3|titles=Pathology – Tyrannical Decay]

FREE SHIT: SOCIOPATHIC SOUND’S MASSIVE NEW MIXTAPE

Free Shit 4 Responses »

Sep 142012

Sociopathic Sound is a project that apparently has been 10 years in the making, with the objective of launching a metal-focused web site. The launch hasn’t happened yet, though the under-construction site can be viewed here. As part of their effort to build an audience base for the planned web site, the folks behind Sociopathic Sound have been compiling metal mixtapes for free distribution. I just discovered the project this morning, after seeing news about the release of a brand new mixtape — which turns out to be the third of these things.

Sociopathic Mixtape Vol. III is kind of mind-blowing. First, it includes songs from 81 bands (actually, there are 9 more “hidden” tracks that are included in the file for those who download the entire mixtape — which brings the total to 90!!!). It adds up to more than four hours of music.

Second, I recognize a lot of the bands on the 81-song track list, and the ones whose names I recognize are killer; we’ve featured many of them at NO CLEAN SINGING. Here are just a few: Hypno5e, Gaza, Ad Patres, Analdiktion, Vimana, Severed Crotch, haarp, Maruta, Plague Widow, Trepalium, Withered, Hivesmasher, Tiger Flowers, Co-Exist.

As even this very small listing of names indicates, the music on the mixtape spans a really diverse array of metal.

And to repeat: It’s FREE.

To stream the music and get the download if you so choose, use this link:

http://sociopathicsound.bandcamp.com/

THE DREADED E-WORD

Album Reviews, Revisiting the Classics 29 Responses »

Sep 142012

(NCS guest contributor Mike Yost provides this look back at an album that defeats all resistance to use of a dreaded e-word. These musings also appear on Mike’s own blog, Remnants of Words.)

As many of you already know, the word epic is used far too often. And not just in metal reviews. Some examples you might hear are as follows:

TV Commercial: “If you’re thirsty, try (insert shitty sugary sports drink here) to quench that epic thirst!”

Movie Review: “Bruce Willis stood in front of the White House in a torn, bloody t-shirt while firing machine guns and bazookas in slow motion with explosions raining down all around him as terrorists were being blown away by the dozens. It was fucking epic!”

A Friend: “So then, we go to (his or her) place and start having sex on the kitchen counter, and (he or she) pulls out this epic glass dildo from the cupboard!”

As Islander has lamented in previous posts, the word epic has proliferated in metal blogs to the point that its overuse has the opposite effect. Epic now equals insipid. Superficial. Commonplace. I become very skeptical about an album when I see it in a review. I can’t help but think it’s being used to compensate for music that’s just plain bad. Or maybe the author of the review was just too tired after a long day at work and passed out at the desk looking for a thesaurus. (I’ve been there.)

This is unfortunate. Because there are a few bands out there who are epic. There are a few albums that are epic. Even a few songs. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: A LIFE ONCE LOST, SEDATIVE, TSAR BOMB, THROW THE GOAT

Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Sep 142012

Because I was too busy yesterday doing things I actually get paid to do and writing about vaginas, I didn’t get around to hunting the web for new shit to recommend until last night, by which point some of what I found had already spread around metal blogville like herpes at a swingers’ convention. But some people only seem to read this humble blog for their metal injections, so I’m including that stuff anyway. Also, because of my delay, I found way too many nuggets to cram into a single post, so there will be two this morning, this being the first. Here we go:

A LIFE ONCE LOST

This is one of the items that spread rapidly around blogville. And here’s a back story about our connection to Philly’s ALOL:

Back in the day, I was massively hooked by their debut, A Great Artist. The intricate polyrhythmic interplay between the drums and the bass, the mid-range moaning of the guitar leads and assorted other guitar noise, and the high-end howling vocals made for a sweet combination.

I liked the next album, Hunter, even better — more deeply-carved Meshuggah-esque grooves, and even more incurably infectious riffs. I probably listened to that album as many times as I’ve listened to anything. The last album, 2007′s Iron Gag, was good, too, though I’d gotten so hooked on the band’s style that the musical course changes on it were personally disappointing — less Meshuggah and more Pantera, and a throatier vocal style from Bob Meadows.

Then, it appeared the band had broken up, and that was a huge bummer. But I discovered at the end of 2009 that ALOL wasn’t really history after all. At the end of that year, I read that the band was reviving and planned a new album in 2010 — and on the strength of that news, I put them on our January 1, 2010, list of the 21 albums I most wanted to hear in 2010.

Well, it took a bit longer than that. Continue reading »

VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA PENIS PENIS PENIS

Mosh Pit 48 Responses »

Sep 132012

Naomi Wolf

For 2012 to date, the continental United States has turned into a giant microwave oven, experiencing the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1895. And the summer? Third-hottest on record, with 80 million Americans suffering 100-degree temperatures at some point. In other words, most of the country has been like the inside of a boar hog’s hot, sweaty anus since June.

I’ve been privy to a private memo from Dave Mustaine that makes clear this is not the result of “global warming” (lol) but instead a vicious well-concealed plan by the Obama Administration to pave the way for nationalizing all carbon-generating businesses in the U.S. and turning them into abortion factories. Dave nails the truth again. Do the research. I have.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, however, following a near record-tying stretch of consecutive glorious days without rain (49), the weather is starting to turn cooler, and the summer was nothing remotely like what the rest of the country has been experiencing. This is also an Obama plot — geared toward driving hordes of hot, sweaty, anus-like people from hot, sweaty, anus-like Red States into our region, where they will be outnumbered and neutered by latte-slurping socialists, leaving their former home lands vulnerable to takeover by Obama-loving people without birth certificates, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

And yeah, the birds I’m talking about are the freedom-loving American eagles, those magnificent scavengers of decaying flesh, preying on weaker creatures and fornicating in the air, one male and one female, as God intended.

And if it weren’t enough already that the country is under siege from within, we’ve once again become the butt of jokes by supercilious people looking down their noses at us from across the Atlantic. Where am I going with all this? I’ll tell you where I’m going. I’m going straight to the v****a, that’s where. Continue reading »

ENSLAVED: “RIITIIR”

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

Sep 132012

(Our man Andy Synn wasted no time consuming the forthcoming album from Norway’s legendary Enslaved once we received it, and he turns in this typically detailed review.)

Hands up anyone who was at least a little concerned by the prospect of the new Enslaved album? I know I was. First, the band have their own stellar reputation to maintain, as well as a hefty task following up the near perfect Axioma Ethica Odini. Then there were the rumblings that this would be a more “experimental” and “progressive” effort – not bad words in themselves, but the last time a band went to such lengths to over-emphasise these words we were left with Heritage – a rather lifeless tribute to progressive rock, rather than a progressive (or particularly interesting) album in itself.

On top of this, the last time Enslaved put so much emphasis (at least in the press) on their “progressive” inclinations, they came out with Vertebrae, perhaps my least favourite album in their entire discography. So maybe you can see why I was worried?

Thankfully RIITIIR gets pretty much everything right from the start. This is the record Vertebrae should have been – epic and expansive, drawing colour from a wide sonic palette, but with an energy and vibrancy that was often missing before. It is in many ways a companion piece to Axioma Ethica Odini, albeit with a very different focus, serving as the other side of the same coin. Continue reading »

LIVE IN SEATTLE: KORPIKLAANI, MOONSORROW, TYR, AND METSATÖLL

Concert Reviews 11 Responses »

Sep 132012

On September 8, 2012, the current North American tour featuring Korpiklaani (Finland), Moonsorrow (Finland), Týr (Faroe Islands), and Metsatöll (Estonia) hit Seattle’s Studio Seven, with local support from Funeral Age and Blood and Thunder, and yours truly was there to bear witness. I again brought my camera, which both thinks for me and defeats my thinking because it speaks a language I don’t understand. I took pics, did the best I could to pretty them up on iPhoto, and have included the most tolerable ones in this post.

We got to the venue in broad daylight, at door-opening time because the guys from Blood and Thunder were starting off the night and we didn’t want to miss them. We headed for the venue’s balcony bar, hoping to grab a couple of the stools up against the balcony’s front railing so I could get an unobstructed view of the stage for pics and so I would have a place to park my lazy ass instead of standing for the next 5-6 hours.

No problem getting to the rail . . . but the stools were nowhere to be seen! I could already feel my ancient back beginning to stiffen up. But I put the anticipation of pain out of my head as soon as Blood and Thunder started to crank it up.

This was the first time I’d seen these dudes since a line-up change that brought on board a new bass player (not sure who he is) and new second guitarist and backing vocalist (Vance Bratcher). I had some question marks about what would happen, particularly because the band’s blackened form of melodic death metal gets intricate and relies in part on dual guitar solo’s and leads. But all was well. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VALDUR, ENSHADOWED, CONVERGE (and BLADE RUNNER), AND THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Sep 132012

Yeah, I decided to go back to the “Seen and Heard” title for these morning round-ups. I know Phro will be disappointed that I didn’t go with his latest suggestion — “A Nice, Hot Cup of Morning Cum” — but I worried that not everyone would find that as appetizing as he does. Though maybe a dash of nutmeg on top would help. Regardless of the title, the idea is the same: things I saw and heard yesterday that I thought were worth passing on.

VALDUR

Valdur are a three-man band from Mammoth Lakes, California, who I first came across (and wrote about) more than two years ago following release of their excellent second album, Raven God Amongst Us. Yesterday I learned that Valdur have finished writing their new album and will begin recording it on November 12. I also learned that earlier this summer they self-released a limited two-song EP entitled The Hammer Pit, which consists of “rough version” of two new songs.

I was curious to hear The Hammer Pit, since I know that this past spring a new vocalist/guitarist (“Samuel”) joined the band, and his work is reflected on the new EP. I was able to find a Bandcamp page where Valdur are streaming one of the EP’s tracks — “Conjuring the Fire Plagues” — and it’s available for a “name your price” download. It’s a damned killer of a song. Continue reading »

DGR’S NU-METAL NOSTALGIAFEST 2012

Concert Reviews 15 Responses »

Sep 122012

(Armed with free tickets, DGR took a trip down memory lane, attending two Sacramento shows headlined by Powerman 5000 and Static-X, and here’s his write-up about the experiences.)

In all seriousness, I never would’ve thought that I’d ever see Powerman 5000, or Static-X. I loved them back in the beginnings of my music listening days but as I got older my tastes changed. They were constantly touring when I was about thirteen, yet I couldn’t afford to go to any of the shows, much less try to convince my parents to take me out to some fucking club in Oakland or San Jose because some band with goofy hair happened to be there, which would’ve taken more effort than I could fathom.

After I could afford to go to such shows I began to play with the idea of seeing both bands, but never seriously. That was until about three o’clock on Wednesday of last week when the lovely people from Ace Of Spades in Sacramento emailed me a message that basically said, “Hey, you’ve been to a lot of shows here, do you want to go to these two for free?”

My response initially was, “Well that’s bullshit”. I checked the email more closely though, and all they asked for was my name and the number of tickets I wanted, and I figured, well shit, it’s a drive downtown, which is fifteen minutes tops. All I have to do is hit the door, have them tell me that I’m a fucking idiot, and then go home and sleep. Yet 6:30 hit on Wednesday and there I was, standing inside the venue, ready to watch four local bands and then Powerman 5000 take the stage, with two tickets to a Static-X show on Friday as well.

So you know what? Why not talk about some of the bands I saw over those two days, at the very least providing a link to their Facebook page so other people can look into them, whether I liked them or not. As always, I’ll be including the Facebook links in their band names, and if any video from that specific show pops up I’ll be sure to add it.

If you’re looking for the usual heavy stuff you may want to move along, I’ve got more of that in the works but this won’t be it. Continue reading »

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