NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: SREFA — “A DREAM, NEVER ENDING”

Apr 012024

What we have for you today is the premiere of a song that carries us into an unnerving dreamscape, a venture into a hostile void that’s cold enough to chill the blood, venomous enough to create fear, and mentally afflicting in the way of an alien encounter — no fooling.

The song is “A Dream, Never Ending“, and it comes from the debut album Solstice by the Israeli black metal band Srefa, which will be co-released by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Australis Records (Chile) on April 26th. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 169): VERBERIS

THE SYNN REPORT No Responses »

Apr 012024

Recommended for fans of: Svartidauði, Panzerfaust, Rites of Thy Degringolade

New Zealand’s Verberis have been one of those “if you know, you know” bands ever since the release of their debut album, Vexamen, back in 2016.

It was the addition of Ulcerate drummer Jamie Saint Merat during the writing and recording of their Vorant Gnosis EP in 2018, however, that really helped put the band on the map, and there’s no denying that his impressive abilities behind the kit certainly helped elevate them to a whole new level.

But to focus too much on JSM’s contributions would be to do a huge disservice to the rest of the band (who, while no longer totally anonymous, prefer to go by the initials NH, DA, and MP) as it’s their collective contributions – combining the face-melting fury of the Antipodean Disso-Death scene with the bone-chilling bleakness of Icelandic Black Metal – which gives Verberis their monstrous, multi-headed sound.

And with the group having just surprise-released their new album, The Apophatic Wilderness, last week now seemed like the perfect time to give these particular devils their due.

SHADES OF BLACK: ROTTING CHRIST, CHARUN, SATANIC NORTH, DODENKROCHT, FRAGMENTUM, CANTIQUE LÉPREUX, BEDRÄNGNIS

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Mar 312024

It is a good thing to be tolerant of people who are different from you, including people who believe things you think are ridiculous. But tolerance is sorely tested by people who are hypocrites and con-men, whose professions of faith are a cover for corruption, hatefulness, and abuse of others.

Having those people in mind today, and all the people who have fought back against them (with a kind thought also for the sweet people who humbly try to follow the precepts of such passages as Matthew 7:12 and 25:35-40), I picked the following five songs from forthcoming records and two complete releases to recommend to you on this Easter Sunday.

ROTTING CHRIST (Greece)

Rotting Christ, but of course I’m starting with them today. Their new album ΠΡΟ ΧΡΙΣΤΟU (Pro Xristou) — “Before Christ” — “serves as a fervent tribute to the last Pagan kings who resisted the onslaught of Christianity, guarding their ancient values and knowledge”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ADVERSARIAL, ARROGANZ, BLACK TOTEM, CULT LEADER, DEAD FLESH, HENRY KANE, LILJEVARS BRANN, OU, SIG:AR:TYR, TÝR, ULTIO, VULGARIS

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Mar 302024

It’s the 30th day of March, and 30 is about the number of new songs and videos I checked out in anticipation of this roundup, all of them having surfaced during the past week. I settled on an even dozen to share with you, and you probably won’t like all of them, even if you’re tenacious enough to go through all 12.

Why? Because your range of heavy metallic interests is probably narrower than mine (most people’s are), and the big herd below ranges pretty far and wide. On the other hand, the breadth of the range means you’ll probably find something to like.

Because there’s so much to get through, I dispensed with uploading and re-sizing all the cover art and tried to limit myself (with varying degrees of success) to more pithy expressions than usual. I also alphabetized the selections by band name.

P.S. There will be more recommendations tomorrow, Easter Sunday notwithstanding. In fact, the Easter observance just makes me more eager to char the day black. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTAGONYZE — “HIDDEN WISDOM”

Premieres 1 Response »

Mar 292024

The Chilean death metal band Antagonyze first began coalescing in 2019, on the unknowing eve of a global pandemic. Despite the ensuing hardships of the plague, the band released a demo cassette in May 2020 (Echoes From Soul), but that year and the next year brought line-up changes even as the band continued to work on new songs.

Eventually they began to play new shows, and by the end of 2022 they decided to re-record the best songs of Echoes From Soul and added new songs to create a full-length work titled Interpretations of the Unknown Wilderness, which drew the attention of the great Mexican label Chaos Records.

That label will release the band’s debut album on April 19th, and as a sign of its marvels, today we present the album track “Hidden Wisdom“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VATICINAL RITES — “CORPOREAL AFFLICTION”

Premieres No Responses »

Mar 292024

The UK band Vaticinal Rites made an extremely impressive debut with their self-titled EP in 2021, a definite silver lining to the black cloud of our pandemic existence, which was itself the awful spawning ground for the band.

As they explained then, they played “a visceral form of death metal inspired by the classic Floridian bands of the early – mid ’90s, with a special homage also paid to the European underground sound” and with lyrical and visual themes that “explore spirituality, loss, the occult and escapism”.

Those four songs (as we wrote at the time) were technically impressive and often lightning-fast, but also ferocious, heavy-grooved, and capable of generating supernatural auras.

It is thus very good news indeed that these London-based extremists are now returning with a debut album, Cascading Memories Of Immortality, which will be released on May 10th by Everlasting Spew Records — and very good news for us when we got the chance to premiere a song from the new album today. Its name is “Corporeal Affliction“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MONASTERY DEAD — “EGO SUM DOLOR”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Mar 292024

Today we premiere a full stream of Ego Sum Dolor, the fourth album to emerge, after four years of work, from the Saint Petersburg death metal band Monastery Dead. It will be co-released on March 31st by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Australis Records (Chile).

If your Latin is rusty, the album’s title translate to “I am pain”, or perhaps “I am in pain”. Consistent with that title, the concept of the album is described as follows:

This is a story about a man doomed to experience all the suffering and torment destined for him in his life, here and now. He bears the burden of merciless retribution, which, like stigmata, he acquired by birthright, experiences pain and inflicts pain, is obsessed with destruction and destroys himself. His own wounds and those of his victims will never heal and will bleed forever.

Or to put it more succinctly: “The basis of the concept of the release is the idea that the real hell is our current existence on Earth.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MOUNTAIN SHADOW — “MOUNTAIN SHADOW”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Mar 282024

As you can see, we’re premiering a full stream of the self-titled debut album by Mountain Shadow. In advance of the music stream we have delectable teasers to offer, beginning with this preview from Fiadh Productions, which will officially release the album tomorrow:

Mountain Shadow… is Pennsylvanian Folk Death Metal, existing between Archaic Death Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Funeral Doom & Bluegrass, exalting Appalachian Horror and the melancholic ruins of nostalgic America.

More teasers: The listing of instruments in the credits for the performances on the album, beginning with the two childhood friends who are the band’s members: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VERBERIS, ALLEGAEON, PARTY CANNON, MORTAL WOUND, VRYKOLAKAS, VERITERAS, OLD IRON, FRAIL BODY, ATARAXIA

Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Mar 282024

Lately I’ve been organizing these roundups of recommended new songs and videos in alphabetical order by band name, because that means I don’t have to spend any time thinking like a DJ, trying to figure out what makes sense in the flow of the music. Sometimes that has coincidentally led to interesting juxtapositions.

Today, however, I’ve chosen a different organizational scheme, because some of the songs naturally paired up with each other. So this collection includes a block of goofy stuff, a “hulking and hideous death metal” block, a Seattle block, and some curveballs at the end, although the very end is more like a sequence of eephus pitches that sail in high and slow (look it up).

But to begin, you’ll find something that doesn’t fit anywhere else but left me wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Continue reading »

BRODEQUIN – HARBINGER OF WOE

Album Reviews No Responses »

Mar 282024

(Andy Synn embraces his inner masochist with the torturous new album from Brodequin)

Let’s be clear about something… if they hadn’t disappeared for almost twenty years it’s highly likely that the name Brodequin would be talked about just as often, and held in as just as high regard, as the “Big Ds” (Dying Fetus, Deeds of Flesh, Defeated Sanity, Disgorge… the list goes on) of Brutal Death Metal.

Hell, some people already put them up on that same level, and with damn good reason, especially since their third (and, for a while at least, final) album, Methods of Execution, was one of the most definitively brutal, and brutally definitive, statements of the early 2000s.

But now they’re back, and the big question on everyone‘s lips is – has time dulled their blades, or are the terrible trio still just as sharp, and as sick, as ever?

Older Entries Newer Entries