I DON’T KNOW WHETHER TO SHIT OR GO BLIND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

I was going to save this for tomorrow, but what the fuck. This day at NCS has shaped up to be more nasty and demented than usual, so I’m just gonna go with the flow.

So, there’s this band from Finland called Medeia. Yes, I know I have a Finnish metal fixation. I’ll eventually let go of that — when my fuckin’ corpse has turned blue and cold. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Anyway, Medeia are from Finland, which means, without knowing anything else, there’s about an 80% chance their music will be awesome.

And so it is — a powerhouse blast of death, thrash, and power-groove metal all rolled up into a nice package with a bit of metalcore sprinkled on top (thanks mainly to keyboardist Laura Dziadulewicz’s clean vocals). What’s that you say? You’re reminding me that I wasn’t going to allow anything clean in the house today. Well, I’m not. Because I don’t hear any cleans on the video I’m gonna show you after the jump.

And the video is just nutzo in so many ways I don’t even no where to begin describing it. It’s been out since May, so I suppose there’s a chance you’ve already seen it. It’s insane enough to have made the rounds. But I didn’t see it until TheMadIsraeli threw me the link last night. You may laugh, you may cry, you may want to bust shit up,  you may experience the full range of human emotions, but you should definitely watch this (after the jump).

By the way, if it helps sell you on the idea, the vocalist for Medeia is Keijo Niinimaa — who fronts both Nasum and Rotten Sound. Continue reading »

NOTHING CLEAN TODAY, GODDAMMIT!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

When you start the day with Maax, move right along to Claws, and then get a lot of F-bombs out of your system texting with a banker in Burkina Faso, there’s just no way you’re going to allow any clean singing in the house before the day is out. Nope, that ain’t happening. NCS is staying nasty today, through and through.

Hemoptysis is certainly nasty enough to qualify. “Hemoptysis” is a medical term for the coughing up of blood or blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs. It’s also the name of a metal band from Arizona who self-released an album called Misanthropic Slaughter in March. This album has stirred up quite a bit of hype since then, with glowing reviews from much of metal blogdom. I didn’t pay attention, because the descriptions used the word “thrash”. I thought to myself, “not another re-thrash band”, and just passed right on by.

But yesterday, the band released a music video for a song called “M.O.D.”, and I finally decided to hear what Hemoptysis was all about. That opened my eyes to something really good, despite my aversion to about 80% of straight thrash. But this isn’t straight thrash. At least based on this one song, there’s a heavy blackened crust on this music, plus there’s some quality instrumental ripping going down. I really liked the 2-minute riff-fest of an intro, the capable solos near the beginning and end, and the subtle melodies that have kept the song ringing in my head since it ended. Very good stuff. Catch that after the jump if you haven’t already seen it at MetalSucks today — and then I’ve got a word about something else over at MS that you may have overlooked. Continue reading »

RICHES FROM BURKINA FASO AWAIT! Again.

 IQ Subtraction  12 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

It’s been a while since the last time I answered one of those bankers/orphans/lawyers in Africa who regularly write me, trying to give me money. I kinda gave up on them, because none of the fuckers has yet sent me any kind of payoff, even after I’ve given them all my personal details. But I could use a little extra cheddah to tide me over ’til the next payday, and $25 million would just about do it. So, I decided to answer this e-mail I got yesterday. First, that e-mail, then my reply:

FROM MR NYEJIOWANAKA GOGO
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER.
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU , BURKINA FASO .

Dear Friend,

CONFIDENTIAL
I am Nyejiowanaka Gogo; I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance Department of BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I would like you to indicate your interest to receive the transfer of US$25M (Twenty five million US Dollars only). I will like you to stand as a next of kin to my late customer, (Mr. andreas schranner from munich ,germany) who died along with His entire family in July 2000 in a plane crash, whose account is presently dormant, for claims. Continue reading »

CLAWS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

Lasse Pyykkö is one busy Finn. According to Metal Archives, he’s a vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and/or keyboardist for the following active bands: Phlegethon, Vacant Coffin, Hooded Menace, Swarming, and Ruinebell, in addition to being involved in the past with Acid Witch, Shrouded, and Sarnath (and many other bands). But what hooked our interest for purposes of this post was his one-man project called Claws, which he started in 2008 in an effort to recapture the style of death metal embodied by old-school bands such as Crematory, Nihilist, and Incantation.

The Claws discography consists of one album (Absorbed in the Nethervoid – 2009), one EP (The Funeral Barge – 2009), and a split released late last month with Grave Wax titled Pestilent Formation. I got turned onto Claws by NCS reader Utmu, who sent me a link to a YouTube clip for the song “Macabre Manifestations”, which appears on the Nethervoid album. I knew I was going to like this after about 5 seconds. It’s raw, ugly, buzzed-to-the-max, and smells like the crypt:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/06-Macabre-Manifestations.mp3|titles=Claws – Macabre Manifestations]

That song was all it took to send me searching for more music. I found the Pestilent Formation split and listened to the two Claws tracks on that release. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MAAX: “UNHOLY ROCK N ROLL”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

I don’t know any actual zombies, reanimated corpses, or other manifestations of the walking dead. Not personally. But I can imagine that when they congregate among themselves to get shit-faced and party like the fucking ghouls they are, they’re crankin’ the new album by Maax.

I’ve been fumbling around trying to decide on a genre label for this music. As I listened to the first track, “Coldest Steel”, I was thinking “death ‘n’ roll”. But as I moved deeper into the grisly vomit-rocket of this album, that didn’t seem to fit. Later, I thought about “thrash ‘n’ roll”, because most of the songs do sound like a breed of thrash, but “thrash ‘n’ roll” really doesn’t capture the gory filth that pervades the music.

“Slut-fucking black thrash ”n’ roll”? I suppose that could work. “Alcoholic heavy metal hellfire”? Yeah, that has possibilities. “Entombed meet Motorhead, get blasted, and then dress up in the freshly flayed skin of the just dead and start jamming”? That’s getting closer. But I finally decided that the band itself nailed the description in the title of the sixth track: “Rot and Roll”. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

EPISODE 13: “ULTIMATE STERILIZATION”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 252011
 

Episode 13 is a Turkish metal band who we’ve featured once before at NCS — though it was in July 2010 when we did that (here). Since then, the band have released their third album called Death Reclaims the Earth. That album was finished at the time of our earlier feature, but hadn’t yet been released because the band was looking for a label outside Turkey to increase exposure to their music. The one they found is a personal favorite of mine — Misantrof AntiRecords, the non-commercial Norwegian label founded and run by Daniel Vrangsinn (Carpathian Forest, Vrangsinn).

Vrangsinn’s philosophy is to let bands retain full creative control and ownership of their work. He provides a platform for distributing the music — free of charge for downloads. I’ve found lots of great shit through Misantrof, and so seeing the partnership between them and Episode 13 was a nice discovery. Death Reclaims the Earth is available for download at Misantrof (here), either as high-quality FLAC files or as mp3’s.

Misantrof released this album last October, but I was diverted with other shit at the time and just overlooked the news. What reminded me of the album was a recent Episode 13 post on FB that featured one of the tracks from the album called “Ultimate Sterilization”. So, I stopped and listened to the song, and I’m really glad I did. I think you’ll be glad you did, too. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: REGENTS

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 252011
 

Short video previews and promos for new albums are rarely memorable. But watch this one. This one is above average. As soon as it ended, I went immediately to listen to the music, and that led to this post. Watch this, and I bet you’ll be curious about the music, too. If I lose the bet, I’ll send you . . . uh . . . a fond wish.

More about Regents and their new EP after the jump. Continue reading »

RUDRA: “NOW THEREFORE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Oct 252011
 

Latecomers to NCS may not know about Singapore’s Rudra. And old-timers may have forgotten. For me, their latest album, Brahmavidya: Immortal I, was one of the highlight discoveries of the current year. It completes a trilogy of albums that began with 2005’s Primordial I and continued with 2009’s Transcendental I. I went on and on (and on) about the new album here, so I’ll keep the comments about it in this post brief: It’s really fucking good.

Standing near the intersection of melodic black metal and death metal, Rudra have taken inspiration from Vedic Sanskrit literature and created something that’s interesting and powerful and quite memorable.

I was reminded of Rudra when I discovered yesterday that they released a music video for a song called “Now Therefore”, which is the opening track on Immortal I. This seems to have been out since August, and I missed it. It’s not nearly as fascinating as the video they did for “Hymns From the Blazing Chariot” (from Transcendental I), but “Now Therefore” is a helluva good song. So, check out some Vedic metal after the jump. Continue reading »

KVELERTAK, SKELETONWITCH, TOMBS, AND PSYCHIC LIMB: LIVE ON A BOAT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Oct 252011
 

At approximately 7 p.m. on October 22, 2011, a small cruise boat called the Jewel left the Skyport Marina in New York City. On board were a gaggle of metalheads and four very good metal bands — Kvelertak, Skeletonwitch, Tombs, and Psychic Limb. Also on board was a dude named (((unartig))), armed with A/V recording equipment. He vividly caught portions of all four performances on film. And by “vivid”, I mean that he caught the look, the feel, and the rampant energy of these performances. You feel like you’re right in the middle of the mayhem. Shit, I can almost smell the sweat and the beer just from watching these clips.

I’ve put all the clips after the jump. These are definitely worth the time. Continue reading »

VALLENFYRE: FULL ALBUM STREAM

 Metal News  25 Responses »
Oct 242011
 

We’ve been fixated on the forthcoming Century Media album by the UK’s Vallenfyre since we first heard excerpts from the band’s two-song Desecration single in August. We’ve followed news about the band and A Fragile King with slavish fervor since then, and have watched as hunger for the release has spread like wildfire — at least among fans with a discriminating taste for old-school European death-doom.

The latest piece of news — and it’s a big fucking piece — is that the entire album is now streaming at the Hails and Horns web site. Even better, there’s a feature accompanying the stream that includes track-by-track comments by the band’s founder/songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost), plus a revealing interview.

I’m going to withhold any detailed comments about the music for now, because we’ll have our own review. I’ll simply say that this is everything I hoped and expected it would be. GO HERE to listen. And make sure you have un-interruptable time on your hands, because once you start, you really won’t won’t to stop before hearing all of it.

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