NO CLEAN SINGING

CONCERT REVIEW: VOLA, BENT KNEE, AND WHEEL – Denver CO, Sept. 15, 2023

Sep 282023

VOLA – photo by Heli Andrea

(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo had himself a hell of a good time at a show about two weeks ago, and made time to show his appreciation in the following review.)

Denmark’s VOLA has always been a fascinating band to me. On one hand, their sound is an angular, merciless assortment of riffs that pay homage to the likes of Meshuggah, while on the other hand, one could be forgiven for comparing their vocals to that of Radiohead.

It sounds like a confusing juxtaposition on paper. But the way these Danes (and one Swede) in VOLA have cultivated their sound into its final form is no less remarkable. Their 2022 album Witness was a favorite of mine from that year and continues to get much of my attention now.

When they announced their biggest North American run yet, I circled the date on my calendar and let the excitement build. My hopes were already high, but the addition of Finland’s Wheel and Boston’s Bent Knee as supporting acts only bolstered the anticipation levels.

The result, as it turned out, would be a night I would not soon forget. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SINNERY — “BELOW THE SUMMIT”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Sep 282023

Last year we opened the floodgates on a great volume of words when we premiered and reviewed a new album named Black Bile by the Israeli band Sinnery. We were delivering a full stream of the album, so what was the point of all those words?

The point was to try to wake people up and get them to look past the simple genre descriptions of “thrash” or “death/thrash” that seemed to follow the band around like lost dogs. The point was that Sinnery‘s music is much more multi-faceted and thus much more interesting than the labels might suggest — and also even more riotously exhilarating.

Black Bile was so damned good that we’re very damned fortunate Sinnery have quickly followed it up, releasing three singles this year and now a new EP named Below the Summit that includes those, plus two more tracks. Once again, we’ve got a full stream for you, and once again a torrent of words. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CHURCH OF MISERY

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Sep 282023

(In June of this year the Japanese doom band Church of Misery released their latest album through Rise Above Records in a career that began almost 30 years ago. What you’ll find below is Comrade Aleks‘ extensive interview of the band’s founder and still the Church maestro, Tatsu Mikami.)

Being formed back in 1995 Church of Misery remains one of most important Japanese doom metal bands. Twenty-one musicians have passed through the band, and only its founder and ideologist Tatsu Mikami stays in his position of music and lyrics writer as well as bass player.

Church of Misery is known for its tendency to hard rocking and damn heavy doom metal as well as its reputation as a band with songs dedicated to serial killers and maniacs. Their new album Born Under a Mad Sign isn’t an exception, as its songs tell stories of such sick bastards as John Allen Muhammed, Fritz Harmann, Randy Kraft, and so on. It’s the integral part of Church of Misery‘s image, and we were lucky to learn more about Tatsu’s motivation and the new material.

(This interview was originally published in the September issue of the Spanish magazine This Is Metal.) Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHROME WAVES — “FATHER, I WAIT”

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Sep 272023

Chrome Waves released their latest album Earth Will Shed Its Skin in April of this year. In his review our own Andy Synn noted that we have been writing about their music at this site since 2011, following their career “with both fascination and appreciation aplenty over the years.”

What Andy found particularly fascinating about their latest album was “the way in which it attempts to weave the two most distinctive aspects of the band’s sound – the cathartic ‘Post-Black Metal’ side that appeals to fans of Tombs, Deafheaven, and the like, and the shoegaze-y Alt-Rock side that recalls the best of acts like Hum and Catherine Wheel – into a single, coherent whole.”

But even last April the band’s leader Jeff Wilson was already hinting that we shouldn’t expect a future continuation of that interweaving. He said this in an interview around the time of the album’s release: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KALT VINDUR — “ŻYWIOŁY”

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Sep 272023

Kalt Vindur are a Polich black metal band, though the name they chose for themselves are Icelandic words that mean “cold wind” in English. They come from the southeast of their country, from a region called Podkarpacie, and they have labeled their music “Podkarpacki Black Metal” (“Subcarpathian Black Metal”).

That label signifies the significance of the region’s geography, history, and culture in the band’s musical inspirations. Those inspirations are at the forefront of their forthcoming new album Magna Mater, their first release on the Greek label The Circle Music. That’s evident in the song we’re premiering today through a lyric video.

The name of the song is “Żywioły“, which in English means “Elements”. Kalt Vindur vocalist Celsus describes it this way: Continue reading »

MERCENARY – SOUNDTRACK FOR THE END TIMES

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Sep 272023

(Andy Synn catches up with a band who we haven’t checked in with in quite a while)

Change, as they say, is the one universal constant. But that doesn’t mean that change is always good. Or, at least, it’s not always perceived (or received) that way.

Case in point, following the departure of the Sandagger brothers in 2009 Mercenary were – rightly or wrongly – criticised for, ahem, metamorphosing from the distinctive Prog/Power/Death Metal hybrid they used to be into a more groove-focussed, Metalcore-ish “Nu-Melodeath” act in the vein of bands like Caliban, Deadlock, etc.

Much of the blame was placed, unfairly, on bassist (and now primary vocalist) René Pedersen – mostly, it seemed, because his singing style was supposedly less “epic” and more “emo” than his predecessor – even though the core guitar duo of Jakob Mølbjerg and Martin Buus (who have, at the time of writing this, now been playing together for over twenty years!) remained unchanged.

But the truth of the matter is that there was no one person responsible for the band’s downturn in fortunes, it’s simply that, for a while, they didn’t seem to know quite who they were, or who they wanted to be, any more.

But on their new album Mercenary sound more like… well, Mercenary… than they have in years!

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NEBELKRÄHE — “NIELANDSMANN”

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Sep 262023

On October 27th Crawling Chaos Records will release a new album named ephemer by the Munich-based black metal band Nebelkrähe — their first full-length in a decade. It’s a most unusual album, extraordinarily varied in its sounds and moods, and in its vocals, instrumentation, and melodies, the kind of album in which conventions of black metal are disregarded as often as they are honored.

The band point toward those variations mentioned above in their epigram for the album: “Memories – rainbow bubbles for adults.” (A. Engel) They explain its significance this way:

What sounds kitschy at first can also be read soberly and unromantically: Like soap bubbles that burst to the horror of the naïve child if he or she gets too close to them, even the most dazzling memories are fleeting and ephemeral – or, in German, ephemer.

They also share that the German-language lyrics “tell of blurred boundaries, youth gone by, and shattered dreams of life – as a tribute to the allure and horrors of transience.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: RORCAL – SILENCE

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 262023

(We’re honoured to be hosting the premiere of Rorcal‘s new album in advance of its September 29 release by Hummus Records, with words by our own Andy Synn)

Success, or so they say, can be a double-edged sword.

What, for example, do you do after releasing an album which – in my opinion, at least – is both the very definition of a true cult classic and one of the best records of the year? How do you follow something like that?

Some bands double down on what already worked. Others switch things up and try a different approach.

But Rorcal… they just reached even deeper down into that aching, infinitely empty pit of gnawing hunger and nameless horror that exists within their collective soul and tore loose another spiteful slab of auditory darkness that they chose to call Silence.

PRIMORDIAL: “HOW IT ENDS”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Sep 262023

(Below we present a review of the new album by the Irish band Primordial written by NCS contributor Didrik Mešiček.)

I’ve always found it a bit surprising that Ireland, given its significant influence on the rock scene, hasn’t really provided us with many well-known and successful metal bands. But there’s no denying Primordial have been one of the fiercest forces in the black metal spheres, and when you have a band like that not much else is needed.

The Irishmen will be releasing their 10th album, How It Ends, on September 29th on Metal Blade Records, five years after their previous album, Exile Amongst the Ruins. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TORN THE FUCK APART — “CORROSIVE FORM”

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Sep 252023

Torn the Fuck Apart is one of the most unpretentious band names in extreme metal, and it’s also an example of “truth in advertising”: their music delivers what the name promises. Much the same could be said for this Kansas City’s band’s new album that’s due for release next month: Kill. Bury. Repeat.

But here’s the thing: as brazenly and unpretentiously violent as these names are, TTFA operate more like mad surgeons than crazed slashers or thuggish butchers. Their technical talents and precision are damned impressive, their songwriting is often head-spinning in its intricacy, and the music — while indeed bludgeoning and berserk — is catchy as hell.

A lot of people already know that, because Kill. Bury. Repeat. is TTFA‘s fifth album, and they’ve backed those with a lot of live performances over the years. But even people who are already ardent fans will likely have their eyes popped open by the new record, and newcomers (especially those who have a taste for death metal in the vein of such groups as Suffocation and Cryptopsy) will have something to look forward to eagerly when Gore House Productions releases the record.

As a sign of what’s coming, today we premiere a hellaciously exhilarating album track named “Corrosive Form“. Continue reading »

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