AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JUST ONE FIX — “SUBMIT OR DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 062024
 

The phraseology of “diving into” a record is intended to capture the idea of an auditory experience in which your mind is quickly surrounded by the music.

Sometimes you want to get out of the stream and towel off as quickly as possible, left cold or, worse yet, finding the waters skin-temperature and drab. Or you might get pulled deep by heavy undercurrents, making it difficult to get even your head to the surface.

Or you might experience the thrill of discovering that the waters are shark-infested, and a leg that was once attached to you has just been chewed off, leaving the waters red and frothing as the horde of other predators begin joining the feast.

That’s the kind of dive you should prepare for in Submit Or Death, the EP from New Zealand’s Just One Fix that we’re premiering today in advance of its May 10 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HEMOTOXIN

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May 062024
 

(What you’ll find below is Comrade Aleks‘ in-depth and wide-ranging interview of Michael Chavez, the mastermind behind the California death/thrash band Hemotoxin, whose new album When Time Becomes Loss is set for release on May 17th via Pulverised Records.)

Fresh and savage death metal from Hemotoxin is rooted in thrash and shaped in twisted progressive forms. The band itself was started in 2010 by Michael Chavez (vocals, guitars, bass), and after three full-length albums and global lineup changes it reaches its new top with the fourth album When Time Becomes Loss.

Or, as the official press-release states, “discordant in euphonious harmony yet ruminative in essence, riff-mogul Michael Chavez inflicts a gaping wound that perfectly intersects forward-thinking thrash and prog metal”.

So many people, so many opinions… However, let’s now devote our own time, as Hemotoxin’s mastermind Michael Chavez provided us the in-depth story of When Time Becomes Loss and far more. Continue reading »

WHEEL: “CHARISMATIC LEADERS”

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May 062024
 

(We start a new week at our site with DGR‘s enthusiastic review of the new album by the Anglo-Finnish prog metal band Wheel, released late last week by InsideOut Music.)

Normally we try to keep the veil up when we cover a group, to keep the author’s personality out of the writing but in this case I feel that I have to place my neck on the chopping block in order to justify this one. If you’ll indulge more of my wanderings out of the metal world for a bit, let’s take a journey with the band Wheel.

Our history with this progressive rock/metal group is a long one. The Finnish/English combination have been hanging around the rafters of the NoCleanSinging halls for a bit now, largely due to my own fandom for their album Moving Backwards. Since then, I’ve tried to get a post or two up about them whenever they have something new to offer and in that time we’ve covered their album Resident Human – one of two albums to reference Heinlein’s writings that year – and their recent-ish EP Rumination, which was released upon them signing to major progressive rock label InsideOut.

The group’s combination of heavier metallic sounds, progressive rock, and yes, even some heftier guitar bending of the djent variety at times, is one that has allowed the band to create both short songs verging on radio rock with plenty of hooks and longer progressive numbers that have many times pulled back the curtain on shared similarities with the band Tool. Even with this in place there has always been room for Wheel to surprise, and that is still the case when it comes to the group’s newest album Charismatic Leaders. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DØDSFERD, DARKEND, LIMINAL SHROUD

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  9 Responses »
May 052024
 

I don’t have as many different things to share with you in this week’s edition of SHADES OF BLACK as I usually do, mainly because I’ve devoted most of my time to expressing detailed thoughts about a forthcoming record which I’ve found to be one of the most gripping black metal albums I’ve encountered so far this year.

After that, I’ve included a couple of recent singles that I also hope you’ll enjoy, both of which are fore-runners to eagerly anticipated albums that I haven’t yet heard in full.

DØDSFERD (Greece)

We’ll begin with the first two songs you can now hear from Wrath, the forthcoming 12th album by Dødsferd. The album’s title shares the name of the band’s founder and also describes the emotional energy that fuels much of the music. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: WORMED, 1349, WRACH, WOUND COLLECTOR, CEREMONY OF SILENCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 042024
 


Wormed

I think I’ll begin by previewing some likely disruptions in our usual roll-out of posts during next week.

As you may know, our site is a principle sponsor of Seattle’s Northwest Terror Fest, which will have its latest incarnation on May 8-10. Andy Synn, DGR, and I (islander) will all be working the fest, beginning with a lot of heavy lifting on the day before it begins, culminating in a pre-fest show that night.

Speaking for myself, I haven’t agreed to any premieres from May 8-10 and it’s unlikely I’ll manage any of the usual weekend posts on May 11-12. Rumor has it that Andy and DGR may write some things in advance to keep us from going dark during those days, and maybe some of our other writers will send things in.

Though I expect to be bleary-eyed every morning, I also hope to at least publish more of Comrade Aleks‘ interviews, many of which I have in hand, as well as an interview from Vietnam by Vizzah Harri.

With that notification out of the way, I’ll turn to a few picks for this Saturday’s roundup of new songs and videos. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORGUE MEAT — “CONQUEROR’S WRATH”

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May 032024
 

Eight years after the release of their debut album Mutilation in the Chapel, and seven years after their EP Realm of Eternal Suffering, the bestial Dallas death metal horde Morgue Meat are returning at last with their second full-length, Apocalyptic Visions, which is now set for co-release on May 23rd by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Pest Records (Romania), emblazoned with stunning cover art by Mark Cooper.

To help pave the way toward the new album’s release, today we’re premiering a thoroughly evil song from the record named “Conqueror’s Wrath“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VORGA

 Interviews  1 Response »
May 032024
 

(Today we present an excellent interview conducted by Daniel Barkasi with guitarist and composer Atlas from the German black metal band Vorga, whose new album is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.)

The cosmic side of black metal is a fascinating one, boasting a wide range of approaches and sounds – from the horrifying and disturbing to the eclectic and bombastic. Emerging purveyors from deep, dark reaches of space, Vorga has metastasized an energy-laden, yet cuttingly furious approach. If a soundtrack to being sucked violently into a black hole has any appeal, their latest Beyond the Palest Star should be on your list.

Said new full-length is an advancement on the acclaimed Striving Toward Oblivion, which was a sonic boom of pacey, vivacious black metal that was always traveling at Warp speed. Beyond the Palest Star achieves a balanced output; plenty of speed to burn, while also allowing a wider array of influences to take hold, forming a deeper and more complex offering.

We managed to track down guitarist Atlas to speak in-depth about the new record, a film-quality video the band released, the sci-fi and the black metal scene, as well as the impacts of AI and streaming on the artist and the world at large. Prepare to traverse into the void with us. After all – “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Yeah, we went there. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARALLU — “EMPIRE OF SALT”

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May 032024
 

Two years ago the long-running Israeli black metal band Arallu, whose roots go back to the late ’90s, released their latest album under the imposing title Death Covenant. And the music is also imposing — ferocious, heavy, often vast and towering — but it’s also complex, dynamic, and exotic (for want of a better word) in its seamless incorporation of Middle Eastern folk melody and instrumentation.

It’s a striking example of how a style of extreme music born in the cold regions of northern Europe can be reconfigured and reborn to suit the terrain and traditions of a dramatically different world. And its changing musical manifestations and elaborate songcraft make it an album that rewards careful and extended listening in addition to firing up the blood and casting spells on a first spin, the kind of record that reveals new discoveries with each journey through its 10 songs.

One of this writer’s favorite songs on Death Covenant is the penultimate track, “Empire of Salt“, and so it’s a real pleasure to host the premiere of Arallu‘s transfixing video for that song today — especially since we’re doing it on a Bandcamp Friday, a good day to pick up records like Death Covenant. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GAEREA, FUMING MOUTH, AKLASH, HYPERDONTIA, OMNIVORTEX, DYSRHYTHMIA, ÖXXÖ XÖÖX, PRIMAEVUS, PERCHTA, DEMERSAL, DOWNCROSS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 022024
 

Tomorrow is another Bandcamp Friday, and I had enough time to get ahead of the game today with a few selections that might help drain your bank account tomorrow. Actually, it’s more than a few — new singles and videos from 11 bands, spanning a very broad spectrum of music.

GAEREA (Portugal)

We begin with an intense new stand-alone single from Gaerea. As the band explain, “‘World Ablaze‘ tells the story of a man who has lived all his life inside a cage. He knows that one day he will be set free and experience the world with its true colors. Unfortunately, he also knows that day will be his last hours alive. It’s a song about desire, hope and freedom. A dance between life and death, hope and despair”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CADAVEROUS CONDITION — “THEY CAME FROM THE HILLS”

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May 022024
 

The Austrian extreme metal band Cadaverous Condition started in the early ’90s (their first demos were released in 1990-’92), and since then their discography has swelled significantly, though more than a dozen years have passed since their last album (Burn Brightly Alone), if one doesn’t count an album-length collaboration they did with Herr Lounge Corps in 2018.

Despite their significant number of releases, this seems to be our site’s first encounter with them. The musical histories we’ve been provided are intriguing, to say the least. We’re told that their path has taken “many twists and weird turns, incorporating neofolk (‘death folk’) and collaborating with a wide range of artists creating a weird yet coherent body of work”.

It’s a crooked path that reportedly made them the first death metal band to cover The Sisters Of Mercy and Death In June and included their own interpretations of songs by The Decemberists and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and collaborations with such acts as Nurse With Wound, Thighpaulsandra, Tobias Nathaniel (The Black Heart Procession), and the afore-mentioned Herr Lounge Corps.

They also did an art project with Bill Drummond (The KLF) involving a specially made CD and sending a message in a bottle from the shores of Iceland.

Having read all that, we really had almost no idea what to expect from their new album Never Arrive, Never Return, which is set for a June 14 release via The Circle Music. What we found is something fascinating, something clearly rooted in death metal but with tendrils that taste of other terrains. As a sign of what we found, today we’re premiering a lyric video for the new album’s chilling but powerfully captivating opening song, “They Came From the Hills“. Continue reading »

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