FUCKING GOOD PANCAKE – Part 1

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Aug 032011
 

I usually try to put some thought into the headlines for NCS posts (usually about 30 seconds of thought), instead of just writing, “HEY MUTHAFUCKAZ, THIS NEW SONG RULEZ!” For this post, the title just typed itself. As for what it means, those who know, know. Those who don’t need to bone up on their Finnish idioms.

This morning, I have three new songs that qualify as fucking good pancake. The first one, which is the subject of this post, comes from Dutch progressive tech-metallers Textures. They’ve released the first taste of new music from their forthcoming album Dualism. The track is called “Singularity,” and you can hear it on the band’s Facebook page by pressing the “Like” box (I don’t yet have an embeddable copy of the track — when I do, I’ll update this post to add it here for those who aren’t FB nerds).

The song is fucking good pancake. I am liking the dominant riff very much. It is a slightly off-kilter series of hammer blows. I am liking the harsh vocals and tolerating the clean ones. I am liking the rhythmic changes and instrumental progressions in the song’s mid-section. I am liking the propulsive drum fills. I am liking the floating melodies (though not liking them as much as on “Awake”). But mainly, I am liking that dominant Meshuggah-style riff. Fucking good pancake. Go listen to it, won’t you?

Nuclear Blast will be releasing the album’s first official single, “Reaching Home,” on August 19. Dualism will come out on September 23 in Europe, South America, Australia and Asia, and on September 27 in North America. (a bit more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE BURNING

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Aug 032011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders shines our spotlight on the discography of The Burning.)

Since plans have not gone as smoothly as expected (still don’t have Vader and Aliases for review yet), I had a special article in the bag that seemed good to do now.  I’m going to introduce you to a band called The Burning from Denmark.  I will do mini-reviews of all three of their albums and, with the band’s permission, provide you with a download of their discography.  THIS WILL ONLY BE UP FOR A WEEK, SO GRAB THIS WHILE IT’S HOT!  I really want to thank and give a shout out to the guys in the band for allowing me to do this — it’s a huge honor.

The Burning started their foray into the metal world with this debut, titled Storm The Walls.  Let’s establish what sets The Burning apart here, or what’s noteworthy:  This is a heavily groove-oriented band, this is a band who have prided themselves on their consistency in having only one guitarist, and this is a band who honors the craft of straight-forward, pummeling songwriting. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 8)

 Forthcoming Albums  10 Responses »
Aug 032011
 


July is behind us, and the last month of the summer has begun. Drifting along even more stupidly than usual, I let the first day of the month come and go without posting our usual monthly  installment of METAL IN THE FORGE. So, we’re late with this, but I have a feeling no one was holding their breath waiting for it anyway.

You know the drill:  In these posts, we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — this isn’t a cumulative list. If we found out about a new album before July, we wrote about it in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. And feel free to tell us about how we fucked up by omitting releases that you’re stoked about. Continue reading »

BOW DOWN BEFORE THE SOUTHERN LORD AND THE POWER OF THE RIFF

 Metal News  22 Responses »
Aug 022011
 

NCS just received a press release that was an attention-grabber, so we’re wasting no time trying to grab your attention, too. The Southern Lord record label is promoting a series of five West Coast shows later this month involving the label’s artists, and to help promote those events Southern Lord has made a mixtape available for free download.  This is an interesting collection of music that includes bands we know and like and others we’ve been interested in checking out for the first time. Here’s what’s included in the comp:

THE POWER OF THE RIFF 2011 Mix Tape:

01 ALL PIGS MUST DIE “Pulverization”
02 BAPTISTS “Good Parenting”
03 EYEHATEGOD “Jack Ass in the Will of God”
04 MASAKARI “Trapped In The Mold”
05 ALPINIST “Hak Nam”
06 SKIN LIKE IRON “Consequences”
07 EARLY GRAVES “Wraiths”
08 SEVEN SISTERS OF SLEEP “Sundown”
09 PENTAGRAM “Call The Man”
10 BLACK BREATH “Children Of The Horn”
11 PLAGUES “Breathing”
12 HARASSOR “Glory Raped”
13 ACEPHALIX “Interminable Night”
14 BLACK COBRA “Negative Reversal”
15 ÆGES “Roaches”
16 SLAVE “Rise Of Shame”
17 TRAP THEM “Carnage Incarnate”
18 NOOTHGRUSH “Oil Removed”
19 PELICAN “Strung Up From The Sky”
20 WINTER “Eternal Frost”

After the jump, we’ll pass along the download link, plus the current schedule of those Power of the Riff west coast shows. Continue reading »

NEW SONGS AND ART FROM SKELETONWITCH AND ACHREN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 022011
 

Is that a fucking awesome album cover or what? It’s by Andrei Bouzikov (Municipal Waste, Holy Grail, Cannabis Corpse) and it appears on the forthcoming release by Ohio’s Skeletonwitch, who are themselves awesome. Mr. Bouzikov also contributed the cover art for the band’s 2009 release, Breathing The Fire.

The new Witch album, Forever Abomination, won’t be out until October, but the teasing and the tempting have already begun with the unveiling of a song from the album called “The Infernal Resurrection”, which you can hear after the jump. As for how long you have to wait, here’s the release schedule for the album:

Mainland Europe: October 7
United Kingdom: October 10
North America: October 11
Japan: October 19

Pre-orders for the album are being accepted now, and there are some mighty sweet bundles being offered, which apparently will be limited to the pre-orders and will cease being available once the official release has occurred. More about that after the jump . . . plus we also have a killer new song and album art from a Scottish band we’ve featured at NCS before — Achren. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 31: SHADES OF BLACK (PROGENIE TERRESTRE PURA, AOSOTH, FALLOCH, AND TOWERING FILTH)

 MISCELLANY, SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Aug 022011
 

More than six weeks have passed since my last MISCELLANY post, and I’ve been kicking myself black-and-blue for not writing them more regularly. In case you’ve forgotten, I use this MISCELLANY series as a vehicle for checking out bands whose music I’ve not heard before. We keep a list of MISCELLANY candidates, based on messages we get from bands or things we’ve read, and then when I’ve got the time, I pick a few bands from the list, listen to one or two songs, not knowing whether I’ll like the music or not, and then write about what I’ve heard. I also stream for you the same tracks so you can decide for yourselves whether it’s your kind of thing.

This installment of MISCELLANY diverges from the usual form in a couple of respects.  First, the selection process wasn’t quite as random as usual — this time, I decided to pick bands who I knew were all within the genre of black metal. Second, I already knew and liked the previous releases from one of the bands I picked — Aosoth — though I hadn’t yet heard anything from their newest release, so that’s a bit of a cheat on the usual rules.

So, with that preamble, here we go. The music I sampled for this post came my way from Progenie Terrestre Pura (Italy), Aosoth (France), Falloch (Scotland), and Towering Filth (U.S.). It’s all black metal, but the styles of music turn out to be quite different. Black may be the absence of light, but these bands prove (and prove well) that there are shades of black after all. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 42): FUCK THE WORD FUCK, I’LL REPLACE IT WITH A CHAINSAW. AND MY DOG HAS A TUMOR. I WAS BORN THIS WAY.

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  14 Responses »
Aug 012011
 

July 29, 2011. That was four days ago, right? This video was posted on that day. As of the time I scheduled this post for publication, it had already garnered 1.025,448 hits on YouTube. And no wonder.

Some people would say this is music, and therefore wouldn’t qualify for this series of things that are metal but AREN’T music. But I beg to differ. This is NOT music. But it is metal. It is also fucking hysterical.

I have only one more thing to say: Thank you ElvisShotJFK for the tip to this bit of awesomeness. It may be the pinnacle of 2,000 years of Western civilization. Or it may be a sign of the Apocalypse. If this puppy doesn’t generate comments, then I don’t fucking know what will.

And by the way, fuck toasters, just fuck them. And chairs, fuck them, too. Just FUCK. EVERYTHING.

A SECRET RIDE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 012011
 

I’ve been immersing myself in black metal today in preparation for writing the latest in our increasingly infrequent MISCELLANY posts, which will see the light of day tomorrow. I decided to give that post a black-metal theme, and so when I saw a press release an hour ago about Parisian black-metal band Glorior Belli, I stopped what I was doing and explored further — just to stay wholly within the blackened realm for a bit longer.

Glorior Belli could well have been included in the MISCELLANY post, because they’re a band whose music I can’t remember hearing before, though I’m certainly familiar with the name. They have a new album called The Great Southern Darkness scheduled for release via Metal Blade on September 27, and today they began streaming the first single from the album, “Secret Ride to Rebellion”.

The press release also gave me my first look at the cover art for the album, which as you can see, is a real eye-catcher. It’s by a Canadian artist named Alexandra Snelgrove. I like it very much. I like the new single very much, too. It charges from the launch with a blizzard of tremolo intensity, attacking drums, and raw, predatory vocals, but it’s got a grooving, swampy, rock style-beat, a catchy melody, and a very sweet bass track — which means (you guessed it), the production on this song is clean and sharp as knives. Have a listen after the jump. Continue reading »

KHOMA: “A FINAL STORM”

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Aug 012011
 

(Andy Synn persists in stretching the limits of NO CLEAN SINGING with his review of the latest album by Sweden’s Khoma. Actually, to be brutally honest, he’s ignoring our limits.)

In the words of my forefathers… and now for something completely different!

Melding the post-metal sensibilities of Cult Of Luna (with whom they share several members) with a Radiohead-like panache for gloomy introversion, Khoma are a very different entity from those you may be accustomed to encountering here at NoCleanSinging. Their shining, progressive post-rock has etched out 3 albums and one EP to date, each one a taut, compressed explosion of scintillating atmosphere and shimmering melody that echoes the sweeping sonic vistas of Sigur Ros whilst dancing on the edge of oblivion, seemingly always just one step away from collapsing into its own subdued despair.

Over three years passed between the release of Khoma’s impressive sophomore album The Second Wave and the recording of their latest release, 2010’s  A Final Storm — long enough that many believed Khoma had quietly disbanded, a hazy dissolution into obscurity and oblivion, leaving behind perhaps only the vaguest of musical legacies. Thankfully, the rumours of their demise were greatly exaggerated, the band having instead simply turned their backs on the world for a time in order to cultivate the fruits of their labours into full and vibrant bloom. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

IN SECT INFESTATION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  46 Responses »
Jul 312011
 

Raw In Sect is a Greek band formed in 2005 and now consisting of Kostas Diamandis (vocals, guitars), Jim Alexiou (drums), Bill Kranos (guitars) and George Vasilopoulos (bass, backing vocals). The more I think about the band’s name, the more I like it. It uses the word “raw”, which is a good sign if you have my kind of taste in metal, and then it has that play on words, “in sect”, which makes me think of both hooded, human-sacrificing, blood-worshippers and creeping, crawling, cannibalistic things with feelers and pincers and multi-faceted eyes. I suppose it’s possible that I have an over-active imagination.

Anyway, Raw In Sect produced a three-song demo in 2007 and have now signed to a label called Aural Music, Wormholedeath for the release of their debut album, Red Flows. More good names: Wormholedeath and Red Flows. Plus, the band is scheduled to play three shows in Ireland with Suidakra in September. That’s keeping some good company.

But a good band name and a flowing (red) album name will only carry you so far, i.e., right up to the brink of the music itself, and then you either fall off a cliff, crashing and burning, or you get into a good . . . flow . . . with something red and raw (and insectile) along for the ride. Which is it for this band? (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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