NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MONOLITHE

Nov 292022

(On November 25th the French band Monolithe released Kosmodrom, their latest album in a 20-year career, and in this new interview we present Comrade Aleks‘ discussion with Monolithe multi-instrumentalist Sylvain Bégot.)

Monolithe went their long way from sci-fi influenced funeral doom metal with a unique approach and to their own original melodic death-doom from outer space. Their reputation at first was built around the Monolithe triptych (The Great Clockmaker concept) where each of this series of albums consisted of one huge epic track. The band developed their ideas further and made a step out of funeral doom territories with the next albums.

The lineup is remarkably large, as their masterplan demands a careful and individual approach where each of the band’s members plays his role: Sylvain Bégot (guitars), Benoît Blin (guitars), Olivier Defives (bass), Thibault Faucher (drums), Matthieu Marchand (keyboards), and Rémi Brochard (vocals, guitars).

The new Monolithe album Kosmodrom is a 67-minute-long journey to the brave past of the Soviet Space Program, the times of healthy competitions and high hopes which seem to be lost for us nowadays. This story was told with the universal tongue of death-doom, but some of its parts demand explanations, and Monolithe’s keeper Sylvain Bégot is the one who knows all the secrets behind it. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MORS VERUM — “PURGING WATERLOO” (LIVE SET)

Premieres No Responses »

Nov 282022

Almost exactly one year ago we had the pleasure of premiering a song from a then-forthcoming EP (The Living) by the Canadian death metal band Mors Verum. In commenting on that ever-changing EP, we made reference to the music’s volcanic viciousness, its firestorms of mind-mauling dissonance and bursts of head-twisting technicality, and its capacity to induce feelings of madness, violent chaos, pestilential peril, and shattering emotional downfall.

Now we’re returning to Mors Verum, and hopefully introducing even more people to what they’re all about, through our premiere of “Purging Waterloo“, a video of the band’s full 35-minute set performed in Waterloo, Canada, in July of this year. Continue reading »

IMHA TARIKAT: HEARTS UNCHAINED – AT WAR WITH A PASSIONLESS WORLD

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Nov 282022

(Andy Synn goes to war once more with the music of Imha Tarikat)

While you’re reading this there’s a good chance I’ll be attending a funeral for one of my oldest, dearest friends.

As you might imagine, feelings have been running high ever since his death, and each of us who knew and loved him have had to find our own way to deal with his loss.

Perhaps unsurprisingly I have been turning to music, even more so than usual, as a conduit for my emotions, and Hearts Unchained – At War With a Passionless World has been one of the albums I have returned to most frequently over the past several weeks.

Of course, I’d like to think that I’d have listened to this record just as much even without this tragedy occurring (after all, I was a huge fan of the group’s previous work and have been looking forward to this one ever since), but sometimes an album hits you at just the right moment, in just the right way, to resonate even more deeply.

And this is one of those times.

LISTMANIA 2022: REVOLVER’S LIST OF THE 25 BEST ALBUMS OF 2022

LISTMANIA 2022 14 Responses »

Nov 282022

“In case we’re wondering how things are going in surface level rock and metal world. Fun for curiosities sake.” That’s the message I saw from DGR providing a link to Revolver magazine’s list of the 25 Best Albums of 2022, and the message kind of sums up why you’re seeing the list here now.

As part of our annual LISTMANIA series we re-publish “best album” lists from some of the the few surviving print publications that cover metal, and from a handful of “big platform” sites that include metal in their on-line coverage, along with a range of other music genres and other aspects of popular culture.

We don’t re-publish those “big platform” lists because we think it’s likely to be a source of useful discovery for most of the people who come to NCS, though of course that’s possible. It’s really more a matter of peering at the surface world as a form of modest entertainment. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: VIDMERSHIY SHMAT, OBRIJ, FROSTNATT, ENGE STORE, FUNEBRE, ULVIK, VESPERWYND, NARRENWIND, GROHOT

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Nov 272022

Vidmershiy Shmat

My NCS time can be captured by this formula: NCS = 24 – [FDJ + FAF + SBBS + MAE], where 24 is the number of hours in the day (a constant I haven’t figured out how to extend), FDJ is Fucking Day Job, FAF is Family and Friends, SBBS is Sleep, Bathroom Breaks, and Smoking, and MAE is Meteors and Earthquakes.

EAD (Eating and Drinking) doesn’t enter into it because I can do those things at the computer. So far, the value of MAE has been Zero. I might have made a place for DDD (Disease, Dismemberment, and Death), which would leave the calculated NCS time at Zero, but hope springs eternal!

The most consequential variable (so far) is FDJ. Unfortunately, I can’t ignore it, as I sometimes do with FAF, and it’s difficult to minimize the time required, as I sometimes do with SBBS. But during this long Thanksgiving holiday it has left me alone, and that’s why I finished two big roundups on Friday and Saturday, and now a third one here. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SKARNTYDE, SARKASM, BEAST MODE, Заводь, FOREVER AUTUMN, BENEATH MY FEET, DIE OBERHERREN, YUNCLAS

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Nov 262022

Skarntyde

Since yesterday was a Bandcamp Friday [actually, it wasn’t, as Nic pointed out in a comment below] I wish I could have spent more time recommending more music than I did, but at least I got a full handful of choices out there. Now my hands are full again, and when I open them these things will fly like moths to your flame, or I hope they will.

This new collection was the result of lots of surfing the effluent that continually floods the interhole, searching for nuggets that aren’t the kind you’d find in a septic tank. I found them, an octet of them (including three complete EPs), but I must confess that in the course of the sifting I fell into a strange trip. Dark moods descended, and occasionally lifted, but not entirely. I encountered nostalgia too, and found a pair of curveballs to throw at you for the finale, which is always fun, especially for those of you who have no idea about baseball.

But of course, although these trips are mainly about what pleases me, I always hope (fervently) that some or all of it will please you too. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A BANDCAMP BLACK FRIDAY: HOST, GOATBURNER, ÚZKOST, FORMLESS ARCHITECT, SLEGEST, ONHOU, TCHORNOBOG, ABYSSAL

Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Nov 252022

Host

When you combine a Black Friday with a Bandcamp Friday the result is a goddamned typhoon of new music and videos, with bands and labels not only launching sales but trying to take further advantage of the situation with new releases, some of them out today and some now up for pre-order.

Correction: As Nic pointed out in a comment on the post following this one, Black Friday was NOT in fact a Bandcamp Friday, and now I’ve forgotten why I thought it was. On the plus side, I get to do something like this again on December 2nd!

I can’t say I’ve waded through all of it to make your shopping experience easier (I’m only one bedraggled human and speed-cloning is a generation or two away), but I did make my way through some of it, and have these recommendations for you.

I also did try to provide some genre scatter in the choices, knowing that not everyone loves everything, and to provide a range of radar elevations among the bands. As vivid proof of that, I’m leading off with… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KRUSHHAMMER — “BLOOD, VIOLENCE & BLASPHEMY”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Nov 252022

How could we possibly begin this write-up other than by contemplating all the messages signaled by the name KRUSHHAMMER (and yes, it must be written in ALL CAPS).

There’s no pretension in that name. It functions as a blunt instrument, and doubles down on the concept — not just a hammer, but a hammer that KRUSHES (rather than “crushes”, because “K” is unmistakably harder than “C”). It signals not tenderness or refinement but mania and destruction. And lest there be any doubt, these Brazilians from Belo Horizonte named their forthcoming debut album Blood, Violence & Blasphemy — which follows a debut EP named Speed Blacking Hell.

“So it’s fair to expect from it, to say the least, a seminal shredding metallic speed force possessed by hell, darkness and thrashing holocaust.” So says the Portuguese label Heldprod Records, which will be releasing the new album on November 28th.

How accurate are all these signals? We shall find out together now. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JADE — “THE PACIFICATION OF DEATH”

Album Reviews, Premieres 1 Response »

Nov 242022

Here in the U.S. today is Thanksgiving Day. For 13 years our site has made a point of observing no holidays, but instead continuing to focus without pause on the heavy music that inspires us. But on this holiday we can kill two birds with one stone — presenting music that kills, and being thankful, for the gem that is Jade.

To be clear, we are talking about a gem of a band, not the gemstone, though both share certain qualities, with a capacity to seize attention as the facets turn. And undeniably, the debut album of this part-German, part-Catalonian band provides music of many elaborate facets that’s altogether stunning. Entitled The Pacification of Death, it will be released tomorrow by Pulverised Records, but we’re providing a chance for everyone to hear it now. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MACERATION — “IT NEVER ENDS…”

Album Reviews, Premieres 1 Response »

Nov 232022

It is with considerable pride and pleasure that we present a complete stream of It Never Ends…, a new album by the Danish band Maceration — pride, because this marks the return of a group who made a heavy mark in the old annals of death metal with their 1992 debut A Serenade of Agony, and pleasure, because the new second album is really fucking good.

In a time when metal re-births seem increasingly common, the resurrection of Maceration after three decades still seems worth an extra measure of attention, in part because for their new album Dan Swanö has again stepped in to fill the session vocal role, as he did under the name Day Disyraa for that 1992 debut. He hasn’t done growled vocals since the halcyon days of Edge of Sanity, but you couldn’t guess that from his performance here. His monstrous growls, ravenous howls, and wretched gagging emissions are frighteningly powerful throughout.

But as vital as those vocals are to the success of It Never Ends…, it is of course the quality of the songwriting and musicianship that weighs most heavily in the balance between success and failure, and there the credit goes to original guitarists Jakob Schultz and Lars Bangsholt, bassist Robert Tengs, and drummer Rasmus Schmidt (Illdisposed, ex-Myrkur). Continue reading »

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