NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: GALVANIZER — “MOOD FOR THE BLADE”

Jan 112018

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool metalhead, you gotta love the title of this song. The band’s name is definitely well-chosen, too; it’s a completely fitting description of what their music does to your nervous system. And that album art (which is a bit Demilich-esque, and for good reason) is going to catch some eyes as well. In other words, this is an enticing package for sure.

But even better, the song itself is a killer.

What we have for you is the premiere of “Mood For the Blade“, the first single to be released from Sanguine Vigil, which is the debut album of the Finnish death/grind band Galvanizer. It’s set for a February 28 CD release by Everlasting Spew Records, with a vinyl edition coming later this year via Me Saco Un Ojo. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PALE HORSEMAN — “PHANTASMAL VOICE”

Premieres 1 Response »

Jan 102018

Some very strange and horrible things are going on in the video we’re presenting today… things involving mysterious coins made of mysterious (and ghastly) substances by a devilish creature with the aid of a bride under his sway, coins that seem to have their own sinister and seductive appeal as they circulate…

There’s a band in the video, too, a quartet of sludge/doom crushers from the Chicago area who call themselves Pale Horseman, and their song “Phantasmal Voice” is the neck-wrecking track that provides the soundtrack to this strange short film. It’s the closing track from the band’s latest album, The Fourth Seal, which is out now via Black Bow Records. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: BRUTALITÖPIA’S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2017

LISTMANIA 2017 8 Responses »

Jan 102018

(Our annual LISTMANIA series includes re-posts of lists from “big platform” music sites and selected print zines, but we usually don’t re-post lists from other metal blogs because that truly would make this long series virtually endless. But we’ve again made an exception for Brutalitopia, because through a variety of MDF hijinks over the years, the NCS crew has become fast friends with the miscreants behind Brutalitopia — Tom, Mick, and Durf. The following is a Top 10 synthesis they compiled of their individual lists originally published at their site.)

Hello No Clean Singing! Brutalitöpia is back again to bombard you with more lists; assuming you can take any more since Andy Synn, DGR, and many others have scorched your eyeballs with enough of them recently. All that petty nonsense aside, we think we have some different opinions about different albums than you probably do, because you know that’s, well… different!

We again did our own lists here, here and here but if you want an aggregate of 3 dudes that benefit from the 2 best cities in the country (Chicago and NYC for those not from THIS country), then you are in luck because we’ll do the work because this is the USA in 2017 after all and research (read: clicking) is for the weak. Facts don’t matter, only opinions. Read on for some takes hotter than Tomi Lahren’s on snowflakes! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GATECREEPER, IRON REAGAN, RITES OF THY DEGRINGOLADE, KNELT ROTE, IRON FLESH, EEVIOMORFIA, HIGH COMMAND, SCORN OF CREATION, MINORS, SCHIERMANN

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Jan 102018

There’s a megaton of explosive stuff in this mid-week round-up of recommended new sounds, so I’ll dispense with an introduction and just move right to the music.

GATECREEPER AND IRON REAGAN

Gatecreeper’s debut album Sonoran Depravaton was so damned good, a true highlight of 2016 and the source of a song (“Craving Flesh”) that I put on our list of that year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Their EP from last November, Sweltering Madness, was also damned good, a meshing together of dismal, stomping brutality and maniacal, earth-shaking obliteration. And so when I saw that Gatecreeper had released a new song yesterday I nearly soiled myself in my haste to listen to it. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (THY DARKENED SHADE, ACRIMONIOUS) — PART IV

LISTMANIA 2017 3 Responses »

Jan 102018

Artwork by V.I

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the fourth and final. Part I, in which Semjaza listed his 10 most-listened-to albums, is here; Part II, which included additional inspirational releases, is here; Part III, which listed favorite EPs, demos, and splits, is here.)

Non-metal most-listened releases

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SHADOWMASTER

Interviews 1 Response »

Jan 092018

(Here’s Comrade Aleks’ interview with guitarist Micke of the Swedish sludge/doom band Shadowmaster, whose debut album was released last year.)

Shadowmaster is a Swedish power-trio: Cedermark (bass, vocals), Jumbo (drums), and Micke (guitars). All three played under the title Desert Crone since 2014, but a year ago they changed the name and soon released a self-titled full-length. The dudes perform cogent, forceful, and damned fierce and gloomy sludge-doom.

The material has a really strong delivery, and it’s absolutely heavy and well-produced. Heavy as hell, if you wish! Seeing Red Records gave the album the shape of a CD on December 22nd, 2017, so we had a talk about Shadowmaster and its stuff with Micke. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEER — “A PRIMORDIAL ENTITY OBSERVES FROM ACROSS THE COSMIC EXPANSE”

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Jan 092018

Last fall we had the pleasure of premiering a new EP by the Vancouver band Seer. Entitled Vol. 5, it reflected the continuation of both the lyrical narrative that has run through Seer’s releases to date and the evolution of the band’s sound — which has become increasingly difficult to pin down. Vol. 5 encompasses varied strands of doom, sludge, black metal, and more — and no two of the tracks on the EP are quite alike.

Of the two middle tracks on the EP, which together form the bulk of the run-time, “The Face of the Earth Was Darkened and a Black Rain Began to Fall” is, in the band’s words, “an apocalyptic funeral dirge featuring more twists, turns, and layers than one might expect from sprawling, ‘big riff’ songs of this nature”. “A Primordial Entity Observes from Across the Cosmic Expanse”, on the other hand, “is a more straight-forward rock and roll tune with heavy emphasis on occult-rock guitar leads”, and it features interplay between harsh and clean vocals.

What we have for you today is the debut of an official video for that latter song, one that interweaves scenes of Seer performing live on November 3, 2017, at the Astoria in Vancouver and movie excerpts that suit the music’s occult aura — and are NSFW. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JACOBO CÓRDOVA (MAJESTIC DOWNFALL)

LISTMANIA 2017 4 Responses »

Jan 092018

(It’s been a few years since we got a year-end list from our friend Jacobo Córdova — the man behind the magnificent Majestic Downfall from Mexico — but we’re pleased to share his with you this year. And those of us eager for new Majestic Downfall might add this to the other hints and rumors that perhaps we will see some new music from him this year!)

2017: Another year full of great Metal with some truly killer releases. Having said this, I somehow feel I expected a bit more this time. I don´t know why, but while the last 5 years had always delivered 100%, I somehow felt this one fell a bit short. Maybe I am becoming a grumpy old man or viagra is starting to be on my radar, but that is what I felt.

With that observation out of the way, these killer albums made it to my year-end list and they somehow lit a flame in the right spot. Hail Heavy Metal, Hail Death! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: THE PREDECESSORS — “ROT”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Jan 092018

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the debut EP by The Predecessors from the UK.)

It’s a simple fact that not every band knocks it out of the park on their first try. And, in today’s high-speed, high-attrition digital world – where a thousand new releases are just a few keystrokes away, and new bands have to crawl and scrabble and claw for even the merest scrap of attention – it’s all too easy for an otherwise talented young band to slip between the cracks simply because they don’t quite have all their pieces in the right place yet.

Which is very nearly what happened with Nottingham quintet The Predecessors and their debut EP, Rot. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: MMXVII LIST BY SEMJAZA (THY DARKENED SHADE, ACRIMONIOUS) — PART III

LISTMANIA 2017 7 Responses »

Jan 092018

Artwork by V.I

(For the fourth year in a row we invited Semjaza, the main man behind the superb Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade and also a member of the formidable Acrimonious, to share with us his lists of favorite releases, and he again agreed. This year, his year-end thoughts will again be presented in multiple parts, of which this is the third. Part I, in which Semjaza listed his 10 most-listened-to albums, is here, and Part II, which included additional inspirational releases, is here.)

Most-listened EPs, Demos, and Splits

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