NO CLEAN SINGING

TEN OF THE BEST 2011 METAL ALBUMS FROM DOWN UNDER

Jan 052012

(We’re delighted to bring you a special guest post today from New Zealand’s Steff Metal, who among many other activities is the creator of the wonderful STEFF METAL blog. She has a special list for us from down under.)

After reading all the end-of-year lists posted on NCS, and writing my own (Top Ten Metal Albums of 2011), I realised that – despite a few notable exceptions – these lists were once again dominated by the metal powerhouses of the US and Europe. Sure, we don’t exactly have a down-under equivalent to Fleshgod Apocalypse or Origin, but NZ and Australian bands are putting out more and more decent metal albums every year.

I’ve been trying to focus more on reviewing and promoting local metal acts, and what better way to do this than to pick some of the best Kiwi and Aussie releases of 2011?

1. Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All (Willowtip Records, New Zealand)

There’s nothing I can say about The Destroyers of All that hasn’t been said by a zillion other writers who’ve placed this in their top albums for 2011 – simply a stunning piece of experimental death metal. Flawless drumming, dissonant riffs, jarring, doom-laden vocals – the personification of extreme metal perfection. I’ve been going to Ulcerate shows for the better part of 8 years now, and I reckon you’d be thick to miss them on their upcoming tour. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2011’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 10

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Jan 042012

This is Part 10 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

The name of this site confuses occasional visitors who come across something we’ve posted about bands who feature nothing (or nearly nothing) but clean singing. This post will confuse such people. It may also cause some of our regular readers to growl angrily. But to be fair, we’ve said from the inception of NCS that there would be Exceptions to the Rule of no clean singing, and today’s two additions to the MOST INFECTIOUS list qualify. Besides, I’m just being honest — these two songs are among the most infectious I heard this year, even if the genres from which they come aren’t my usual bread and butter.

40 WATT SUN

This band’s 2011 album The Inside Room has dominated year-end lists far and wide, including many that we’ve posted at NCS over the last month, including the No. 1 spot on Snagon’s list. Hell, it even showed up on the year-end list from “T” of Dragged Into Sunlight, in company with the likes of Autopsy, Craft, Leviathan, and Lifelover. “T” described it quite aptly in two words: “Beautiful. Isolated.”

I rarely listen to the style of melodic doom that pervades The Inside Room, and I’m not well-informed about stand-out albums in the genre, either this year or ever. On the other hand, I didn’t jump on the 40 Watt Sun bandwagon late in the day. Acting on impulse, I decided to listen to a promo copy of the album last April, although I had previously heard nothing about the band and had no idea who Patrick Walker (ex-Warning) or his bandmates Christian Leitch and William Spong were. Despite the vast distance between the music I heard and the territory of metal where I usually roam, I was overwhelmed by what I heard. Continue reading »

FETUS GRINDER

Album Reviews 16 Responses »

Jan 042012

(NCS reader Black Shuck provides this guest post about an eviscerating Canadian band.)

DEAD BABIES. On a related note, let’s talk about a band called Fetus Grinder.

Fetus Grinder are a death metal trio from Vancouver, British Columbia, and as the name might imply, they are firmly entrenched in the “let’s be as gory and offensive as possible” school of death metal. This initially made me think of Cannibal Corpse, but between the gore and the music they actually remind me a lot more of Carcass’s third album (Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious, that in-between period they had before they went melodeath, but after they stopped playing pure grindcore). The music is upbeat and groovy, rather than the downtuned blastfest one might expect from their name and song titles (although I’ll discuss their speed in a minute).

Speaking of guitar tuning, I don’t know which one they’re using, but it seems higher than you usually find in death metal, and that combined with their riffing style helps give the music an oddly peppy feel. This is a good thing. I could be wrong about the tuning, I don’t have the best ear for such things. But it sounds good nonetheless.

Also, listening to Fetus Grinder marks the first time I have ever thought, “Damn, microwaving a cat is catchy.” So there’s that. (“Microwaving a Cat” is my favorite song off their new album, and has been officially classified by the Double Secret Congressional Committee of Metal as “catchy as all fuck”)

Fetus Grinder have just released their second album, Rather Unpleasant, which you can download for free at bandcamp (http://fetusgrinder.bandcamp.com/). Their first album, Terror in the Women’s Clinic, is also available on bandcamp for a pay-what-you-want deal (1 CAD minimum). What struck me about Fetus Grinder, and inspired me to write this post, was the incredible amount of musical growth in the two-year period between those two albums. Continue reading »

STREAM THE NEW ALCEST ALBUM

Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News 3 Responses »

Jan 042012

Alcest are from France. Many people I know like their music. In two days, their third album will be officially released by Prophecy Productions. Its title is Les Voyages de L’Âme. It’s now streaming in full on Prophecy Productions’ YouTube channel — which you can find via this link.

I’ve been listening to the album this morning for the first time. It’s beautiful, often hypnotic, one of those albums that pulls you in. You swim in it, it swims in you. Almost all the singing is clean, but Neige has a beautiful voice. Occasionally, he lets rip with black metal shrieking. When that happens, the intensity of the music also increases and the effect is galvanizing.

But mainly, this is just beautiful stuff. Not our usual fare around here, but I’d like to stream one of the new songs for you after the jump anyway. You can get lost . . . Continue reading »

MESHUGGAH – MARCH 27, 2012

Metal News 29 Responses »

Jan 042012

Posted today at http://www.meshuggah.net/:

After a long time of deep
soul searching and intense
wrecking of the psyches, the
new album is finally done.

Soon you will meet this colossus
that will pulverize your being.

Welcome to the other side
on March 27.

The album will be released by Nuclear Blast. This can’t be good news for your garden variety djent band. Why settle for a knock-off when you can have the real thing?

GAIA’S TOP 20 OF 2011

Listmania 15 Responses »

Jan 042012

(We’re blessed with yet another year-end list from one of The Number of the Blog’s writers — Gaia. The previous TNOTB lists have already evidenced the diversity of that site’s musical tastes, but this list makes the case conclusively.)

It’s sad when your favourite old band t-shirt is too tired to wear, the print on the front is cracked and faded, the black now lost it’s hue, for some it’s even ripped from rowdy gigs. But it’s refreshing when you get to buy a new one, the print’s cool, it’s a new recently discovered band, and the logo’s unreadable. Just what you wanted. It doesn’t quite replace that old favourite shirt that you can’t wear anymore, but you look forward to wearing this new one.

I’ll miss you TNOTB, but you’ll always be there. My first favourite.

Of course we’re here to discuss lists and whatnot, not tepid analogies of other things. I wholly enjoyed putting together this list. Previous years have showcased my ineptitude to narrow down my lists and so I hope this year’s at least shows a pretence of being discerning. I could never be so righteous and say these are the ‘best’ records of the year, but they are certainly my favourites.

Before said list, I will now cheekily highlight the honourable mentions and they are Six Organs of Admittance, Turbowolf, Memfis, Elvis Deluxe, At Devil Dirt, and Thorr-Axe, all deserving but had to be omitted from the list then lately annexed here. Oh, Master Musicians of Bukakke was another one. And Moab.

Enough prolixity here, lets ramble on. Continue reading »

BADWOLF’S 10 MOST METAL NON-METAL ALBUMS OF 2011 (plus one song and a split)

Listmania 17 Responses »

Jan 042012

(BadWolf did something like this last year — HERE — and it looks like it’s becoming a tradition.)

You might as well call this list “Bad Wolf’s ongoing love affair with angsty woman-rock.”

Yes, it’s true—I have loves outside of metal. I have lesser-but-significant passions for female-fronted lyrical rock outfits, Trip-hop, underground Hip-hop, Hard Rock, Folk, Pop, and extreme non-metal music like math rock, prog and noise. The best concert I saw all year, except possibly Converge, was Portishead.

2011 was a poor year overall for Hip hop, I think—and there hasn’t been a good year for Trip-Hop in close to a decade. Pop is stuck in an awful electronica-fueled gutter binge, and grungy rock n’ roll has been almost completely devastated by radio friendly emo-metal hybrids. Ugh.

But 2011 brought a bumper crop of amazing femme-rock, much of it drenched in filth and darkness fit for goat-throwers to enjoy (not-included but honorably mentioned would be St. Vincent, Florence + The Machine, Cults, and Zola Jesus). Hell, one of them feels like a black metal wolf in indie sheep’s clothing.

I challenge you all to listen to some of this music, broaden your horizons, and explore those darknesses from foreign shores. Without further ado: Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: ERUPTED

Eye-Catchers 9 Responses »

Jan 032012

There’s a band from Sweden called Erupted. I wrote about their last EP in a MISCELLANY post (here). They’re working on a debut full-length, which will be released by Abyss Records. I’m not sure when it will be out. I’m not sure what it will sound like. But it will have this cover, by an artist named Simon Palmer.

Fuck.

OUR LIST OF 2011’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 9

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011 15 Responses »

Jan 032012

This is Part 9 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

Today’s pairing of songs will seem like an odd decision to some people. Oh fuck, who am I kidding — it will seem like an odd pairing to almost everyone. But have a little faith. Yes, the songs contrast greatly with each other, but I think they sound great together, too, when played back to back. Obviously, I also think they’re both really infectious. Also, the names of both bands begin with the same three letters, so that counts, too. Doesn’t it?

INFESTUS

German’s Infestus began life as a three-man band, but by the time Debemur Morti released the band’s latest album E x | I s t, Infestus had become the solo project of one very talented multi-instrumentalist named Andras. In addition to writing and performing everything on the album, Andras also recorded and mixed the music as well. The sound is clear and sharp; you can hear the contribution of every instrument, though the instruments (particularly the guitars) are often so layered that it takes multiple listens to appreciate how much thought went into the mix in order to produce the overall effect.

To steal from my own review of the album, it’s “complex, sophisticated, brilliantly composed and performed, often beautiful but always powerful, a totally engrossing and immersive listening experience” — one of the best black metal albums I’ve heard this year. Yes, I said it — it’s black metal, but for those of you who’ve already started wrinkling your noses and rolling your eyes at the thought of another one-man BM project, bear with me. Continue reading »

THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 – A LIST FROM FREDRIK HULDTGREN (CANOPY)

Listmania 13 Responses »

Jan 032012

(The musicians I invited to submit year-end lists were people whose music I liked a lot and who I thought would bring interesting perspectives to our look-back on 2011 metal. Here’s the latest offering, from the vocalist of Sweden’s Canopy, Fredrik Huldtgren, with whom I had the pleasure of spending some time in Seattle last month. If you haven’t yet introduced yourself to Canopy’s music (for example, by reading one of the jillions of our posts about them), it can be streamed and purchased on Bandcamp here. Canopy is at work on their fourth album – may it come soon!)

9. Primordial – Redemption at the Puritans Hand

I must admit, I am quite a bit of a Primordial fanboy. That being said, this album actually took me quite some time to get into. It is a rather slow album, and it does not feel as harsh as their previous efforts. The passion is still there though, stronger than ever, but I feel that now more than ever, Primordial is a band to see live, because that is where it all makes sense. Continue reading »

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