RITES OF DARKNESS 3: THE FIVE BANDS YOU CAN’T MISS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Jul 102011
 

(Surgical Brute — NCS reader, commenter, and reliable source of skull-cleaving musical recommendations — returns with the second part of his preview of the Rites of Darkness 3 festival.)

Okay, after my original post, it quickly came to my attention that some of you reading No Clean Singing were probably unaware of the best festival to happen in the U.S. this year. The organizers of Rites of Darkness 3 have been quietly assembling one of the best line-ups of underground metal that I’ve ever seen. This one is going to be a marathon, with very little opportunity for rest stops.

In my last post I mentioned 5 lesser-known bands I thought people needed to check out. As we slowly get closer to the day of the festival (December 9-11th in San Antonio), I think it’s time to check out a few more bands scheduled to appear at this monster. So here are 5 bands that you absolutely cannot miss.

FUNEBRARUM

One of my personal favorites, and probably one of the heaviest bands out there right now.

These guys were playing dirty, old school death metal long before it caught on again in the underground. I got the chance to catch their live set at MDF 2011, and I can vouch for them. Only getting an incredibly short 30 minutes, this band pummeled me harder than anyone else that day. For fans of Incantation and Disma.

(There’s lots more after the jump, including Surgical Brute’s hand-picked sample tracks from each band featured in this preview, beginning with Funebrarum . . .) Continue reading »

I CHAOS: “THE HUMAN REPELLENT”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jul 092011
 

(Israel Flanders returns with his second review in as many days . . .)

Here we are again reviewing a death metal album. This is the debut album of Dutch death metallers I Chaos called The Human Repellent, and it is a solid slab of speedy technical mayhem. I’d wager to sugg- wait a fucking second. Why am I talking like some pompous suit-and-tie wearing asshole? This is a metal review.

Alright, so if your face wasn’t already sufficiently raped by the serpentine riffng, the technical, syncopated drum assaults, the abysmal hoarse howls of death, and some kick-ass groove as an underlying foundation, just remember, there are 9 more servings of this on the album. NINE MORE SONGS OF BEING SKULL-FUCKED BY BRUTAL INHUMAN PRECISION!  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

NOW, IF HE HAD LOST HIS MIDDLE FINGER, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  13 Responses »
Jul 082011
 

I just took my usual mid-day break at work to check up on doings in the world of metal, just to see if something earth-shaking had happened while I was droning away, something that would be of such vital interest to NCS readers that I’d need to post about it. No such luck. But I did find this (thank you Blabbermouth):

Guitarist Tim Carley of U.K. punk-infused death metallers THE ROTTED severed the top of his finger yesterday (Wednesday, July 6) when a 60-kilogram flight case fell on it from a van. Tim received treatment in hospital to remove the damaged parts of the finger, including the nail and the torn flesh. The doctors then sewed the remaining parts back together. The incident has left the top of Tim‘s bone unattached to the rest of his finger, which the doctors have said in time will heal.

In a statement, Tim said, “The doctors have told me it will take at least 10 weeks to heal. When I asked her if I could still play the guitar, she replied ‘I’ve heard your records, and to be honest, I can’t see this making much difference.’

Laughed my fucken ass off when I got to that last sentence. But wait! There’s more, including video!  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

LOCK UP

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jul 082011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders goes crazy over the new album from Lock Up . . .)

Today is just a get-devastated-by-death-metal/grindcore-that-destroys-my-soul-and-makes-the-remains-consume-themselves-so-I-turn-into-nothing-but-a-lifeless-meat-puppet-of-abysmal-darkness day. Alright, so . . .

Lock Up. Super group that plays blackened deathgrind with thrash metal tinges, but ultimately it’s overall label would be grindcore. Contains members of Napalm Death, At The Gates, Pentagram, and a drummer who’s done his time in MANY bands. What’s my point? This album, Necropolis Transparent, is the phrase “Get Fucked” in audio form. This is an explosive cacophony of pure anger, rage, hate, misanthropy, I don’t even know if enough words exist in the dictionary to describe the pure, utterly unrestrained vitriol blasting at you on this album. Do not underestimate this band, do not fuck with them, for you shall be destroyed in their wake.

The album opens up with the grinding fury that is “Brethren Of The Pentagram”. The music is fast, makes you want to break shit, induces feelings of homicidal rage even Dahmer and Hitler would be terrified of. What’s that you say? Super groups always suck and are for nazi-loving liberal facist pinko’s who are taking our jobs? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome this album is. There is no mercy once the first song starts. (more after the jump, including a bunch of Lock Up tracks . . .) Continue reading »

PHRO, PLEASE EXPLAIN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jul 082011
 

I’ve never been a fan of Dir En Grey, even after seeing them live in Seattle, but I forced myself to watch their new video for a song called “Different Sense” when I peeped it at TheNumberOfTheBlog yesterday. The song is a schizophrenic mix of death-grind, proggy instrumentalism, and overly dramatic clean singing. I almost found myself getting into it at the beginning — but failed by the time it ended. Just not my thing.

So, I’m not adding this post because of the music. It’s the video. And all the tentacles. What is the fucking attraction that Japanese pop culture (or is it underground culture?) has for tentacles? Gore + tentacles! Sex + tentacles! Food + tentacles! Tentacles + tentacles! All the time tentacles!

I first discovered this Japanese tentacle fetish courtesy of NCS reader/commenter/occasional-blogger Phro, who is imprisoned in Japan for undisclosed past sins. So Phro, buddy, how ’bout some cultural analysis here? What da fuck is up wit dis?

CHTHONIC: “TAKASAGO ARMY”

 Album Reviews  18 Responses »
Jul 082011
 

(The prolific Andy Synn is back with his third post this week. This time he’s reviewing the new album by Chthonic — Takasago Army.)

I love Chthonic. This is not something I am ashamed to admit. I have everything they have ever released with the exception of Where The Ancestor’s Souls Are Gathered. I did, however, find their last record, Mirror Of Retribution, a somewhat lacklustre affair – at least when compared with the two records that preceded it, 2002’s Relentless Recurrence and 2005’s Seediq Bale. The crisp, somewhat dry production robbed their sound of some of its individuality and subtlety, so that although the band performed with a new level of aggression and revitalised extremity, the songs overall were delivered with arguably less flair than on previous albums. That’s not to say there weren’t some great songs on the record. It’s still one I enjoy listening to, but I felt that the focus on more extreme, typically “metal” sounds was a mis-step (albeit a minor one) in the development of their unique sound.

So what does Takasago Army bring to the Chthonic sound? Does it successfully redress the balance of their culturally diverse, ethnic influences and vibrant extreme metallic fervour? Can it rejuvenate their passion for the embrace of their cultural heritage without limiting the totemic metal power they have spent so long building? Read on for the answer… Continue reading »

MASTODON UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Jul 072011
 

Can you guess what the update is? Go ahead, make a guess! I’ll even give you a hint. It involves three mouths, four sets of ears, scales, and horns.

Yes! It’s the just-revealed cover art for Mastodon’s next album, The Hunter. It’s not your typical metal-album style of artwork, and it’s not the work of Paul Romano, who was the artist behind all of Mastodon’s previous cover art. Instead, it was created by AJ Fosik, a wood carver who’s also responsible for the backdrop the band uses in their live shows. 

I think it’s damned cool, not only in the composition, but also in the use of vivid colors. You can see some of AJ Fosik’s other work at this location. It’s damned cool, too.

Mastodon is currently in Europe for a summer-long tour that includes all the dates on this year’s Sonisphere festival as well as the Rock Im Park, Rock Am Ring, and Roskilde festivals, among others. The band is also scheduled to play a one-off show at The Gorge near Seattle on July 30, with Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, and the venerable Meat Puppets.

Speaking of the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, after the jump we’ve got some quality fan-filmed video of Mastodon’s July 1, 2011 performance there. Continue reading »

SMASH WITH FLASH: NEW SONGS FROM HALO OF GUNFIRE AND I CHAOS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 072011
 

While feverishly trying to finish a few reviews and features I’m way late on, I still can’t help but listen to new songs as they pop up on the NCS radar screen, and I heard two head-smashers over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth sharing — from Halo of Gunfire (U.S.) and I Chaos (The Netherlands).

Actually, we don’t have radar at NCS, though we do have a foil-lined room designed to pick up alien transmissions from space. I think that’s where I received the subliminal instructions to listen to these songs, along with the instruction to paint my face green before going to work today. I always follow the instructions I hear in that room. I don’t wanna risk more rectal probing in the mothership that periodically hovers over the NCS Island. I couldn’t sit down for a week after the last session.

Actually, I haven’t been feverish either. If I worked feverishly, I might make more headway in completing the various writings I’ve started. I think a more accurate adjective for my work-pace would be fitful. Or maybe somnolent.

Where was I? Oh yeah, new head-smashing songs. Both of them deliver a technically exuberant form of modern death metal that I’m starting to classify in my own mind as “smash with flash” — music that melds technically demanding performance with untrammeled aggression, yet not as atonally brutal as the music of bands like Necrophagist or Hate Eternal; music that’s not part of the increasingly saturated (and often soulless) technical genre of “djent”; music that has progressive and even jazz tendencies but doesn’t feel compelled to wimp out with frequent injections of clean singing. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THAUMATURGIC THURSDAY: ANDY SYNN’S ABRIDGED GUIDE TO POST-MILLENNIAL BLACK METAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  28 Responses »
Jul 072011
 

OK, time to court some (albeit minor) controversy. To compare and contrast with the “Wintermoon Wednesday” piece on post-millennial black metal by Tr00 Nate (unseen at the time of this writing) over at TheNumberOfTheBlog, I’ve decided to list my own picks for the prize.

I’ve left out the obvious choices, so no Satyricon or 1349 – even though the former have transformed themselves post-2000 very successfully, courting both success and controversy in equal measure, while the latter have pushed their hyper-blast style beyond the breaking point, only to discover a new lease on life through their exploration of gnarled, twisted atmospherics.

No Rotting Christ? Or Samael? Nope. I love both of them, but they both had long pre-millennial careers and spent much of the post-2000 stage of their careers exploring less focussed, less black metal sounds — although both have recently released masterful examples of their own focussed and distinctive brands of black metal.

I have left out records which are perhaps less “purely” black metal — records for which a strong case can be put forward that they belong more as “blackened” examples of another genre — so there’s no place for Altar Of Plagues or Withered, both great bands in their own right. No Akercocke either, the sheer weight of their crushing death metal heft disqualifying them for this list.

I have also by choice left out artists/albums I have covered recently. Therefore, no Iskald (though The Sun I Carried Alone IS one of the best black metal albums of the last ten years), or Elite (see HERE for my thoughts) or The Axis Of Perdition (HERE), even though I’d argue that each of them has at least one example under their belt of near perfect post-millennial black metal.

So who have I chosen? Well look upon my choices dear reader, and despair… Continue reading »

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