NO CLEAN SINGING

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 26): TOD HUETET UEBEL, MORGON, VANHA, GRAFVITNIR,

Oct 182017

(Our ally Gorger from Norway has again reached down beneath our radar screen and pulled up another group of underground gems, four of them this time. To find more of his discoveries, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

Here’s four new (although that’s certainly not the right word) releases for you to hopefully find some enjoyment in. Due to coincidences, two of them are actually a year old. They’re all quite new to No Clean Singing, though, and as we all know, good music never grows stale. Continue reading »

PLANET EATER: “BLACKNESS FROM THE STARS”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Oct 182017

(Last summer we premiered a song from the new album by Planet Eater from Regina in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, and now we present Andy Synn’s review of the album.)

As much as we enjoy a lot of fancy progressive, forward-thinking, paradigm-evolving bands here at NCS… sometimes we all just want something that rips.

Enter Western Canada’s (fantastically named) Planet Eater and their debut album, Blackness from the Stars. Continue reading »

FOREVER PLAYING CATCH-UP (PART 4): ANTHESIS, TRAUN, DIRT

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Oct 172017

(We resume the rollout of Austin Weber’s ongoing series devoted to reviews of 2017 releases we haven’t previously covered. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.)

In spite of what the naysayers will tell you, I’m of the opinion that there’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of good metal releases coming out all the time, many of them coming from new groups or independent groups that we’re just now catching onto for the first time.

This lengthy round-up has been in the works for awhile, but I kept adding more and more to the list of what I wanted to cover. Hopefully you will find something new you enjoy in each installment.

ANTHESIS – THE AGE OF SELF

Anthesis are yet another killer band I was made aware of by my good friend and fellow obscure music junkie, Amir Ostrowsky. I was very impressed with the music here after he sent me The Age Of Self, so it definitely warranted coverage in this article. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GENEVIEVE — “NO FOR AN ANSWER”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Oct 172017

Two years have passed since the debut of Genevieve’s scathing debut album Escapism, and in connection with its release we premiered not only one of the first singles but also the album as a whole, which our Austin Weber described as “an invitation of nightmares and horror into our world”, “pitch-black and haunting”, a display of “immense hatred and chaos”, but also a record laced with surprises and overall “quite striking and brilliant” in its unconventional strategies.

Two years on, and Grimoire Records is gearing up to release the second full-length by this Maryland collective. Entitled Regressionism, it’s set for detonation on Black Friday, November 24, and we again find ourselves in the fortunate position of presenting a first taste of the new music, in the form of a harrowing experimental track named “No For An Answer“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORVIGOR — “NO REPENTANCE”

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Oct 172017

In many instances I have a decent idea what a band’s new song is going to sound like before I hear it, either because I’m familiar with their previous work or because it’s preceded by descriptive verbiage from press agents that ticks off genre boxes in a familiar way. But not so with Morvigor.

When I was given the opportunity to listen to the song you’re about to hear from this Dutch group’s new record, I went in blind, unfamiliar with their 2014 debut album and without benefit of any carefully crafted PR rhetoric. And the band’s own list of influences (ranging from Mayhem to Pink Floyd, and from Morbid Angel to Joy Division) was so diverse that it didn’t really help much — though it was certainly intriguing.

And then I heard “No Repentance“, and it felt like someone had stuck a live power line straight into my brain stem, by which I mean it is an absolutely electrifying surprise — one of the best new discoveries of this rapidly waning year. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: UNDER THE CHURCH — “WRETCHED DISFIGUREMENT”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Oct 172017

I’ve been closely following the murderous machinations of Under the Church since they released their first demo in 2013 (reviewed here), at first because the band included two members of the legendary Swedish death metal band Nirvana 2002 (drummer/guitarist Erik Qvick and bassist Lars Henriksson) and then because the music turned out to be so consistently good.

Since that immediately attention-grabbing demo, the band have stayed busy, releasing a self-titled EP in 2014, an insanely good debut album in 2015 (Rabid Armageddon), a two-track single in 2016, and both a live album and a split with Revel In Flesh earlier this year. And now we’re on the brink of receiving a second album.

Entitled Supernatural Punishment, it will be released by Pulverised Records on November 10. We’ve had the fiendish pleasure of premiering other Under the Church tracks over the years, and now we’re fortunate to again help spread the word about another one — the name of which is “Wretched Disfigurement” — presented through a lyric video that makes good use of the album’s frightful cover art. Continue reading »

A DOOMED DESCENT (PART 3): TEMPLE OF VOID, VÖLUR, SHAPE OF DESPAIR

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Oct 172017

(We present Part 3 of a series of reviews by our Russian connoisseur of all things doom, Comrade Aleks, and today he shares impressions of, and music from, three more 2017 releases. Go here to check out Part 1 and here for Part 2.)

The Doom Cult reveals its brutal nature tonight…

First of all, I’d like to remind you of the well-known ghouls from Temple Of Void. Next is the heathen coven Völur with their latest record Ancestors. And the third stage of this doom descent is Shape Of Despair, in case you missed the reissue of their monumental demo Alone In The Mist. Continue reading »

SKINEATER: “CEREBRAL RELICS”

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Oct 162017

(Norway-based metal writer Karina Noctum returns to NCS with this review of the new EP by the Swedish death metal band Skineater.)

In addition to contributing to NCS, I do like to post music on two fairly big Facebook pages (Death Metal Institute and Viking, Folk, Black Metal and more). We get hundreds of post requests weekly and I keep on opening them because at times I stumble across something as good as Skineater’s Cerebral Relics.

This Death Metal band has members from acts such as Wombbath, In Thy Dreams, Pale King, Geist, Infernaeon, Ninety Minute Reflex, The Absence, Defiatory, Feared, and Wachenfeldt. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: V — “SOULS OF THE NEARLY DEPARTED”

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Oct 162017

An elegantly dressed old man sits at a table in a mansion perched on a craggy cliff above the ocean, writing out his last will and testament. Disease eats his body from the inside out. Black bile froths from this throat. He staggers outside to the cliff edge beneath a storm-wracked night sky. Arms wide, illuminated by the flash of lightning, he launches himself toward the wave-crashed rocks below. But death resists his embrace… or does it?

And that’s all I’ll tell you about the attention-riveting music video you’re about to see, a claymation-styled rendering of a tortured and nightmarish tale in which the border between what seems real and the horror of our worst fears is dissolved.

But I will tell you something more about the staggering, soul-shaking music that the video accompanies — a new song called “Souls of the Nearly Departed” from Pathogenesis, the first music in a decade from the Swedish band V. It will be released on November 8 by Suicide Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: RETORTION TERROR AND INVIDIOSUS

Premieres 1 Response »

Oct 162017

(Austin Weber presents our premiere of a new split release by Retortion Terror and Invidiosus.)

We’ve got a special early stream of the new split release from grinders Retortion Terror and longtime NCS favorites Invidiosus for you today.

While the name Retortion Terror may not ring any bells, knowing that legendary grindcore guitarist Takafumi Matsubara (Gridlink, Mortalized) is the main person behind it should pique your interest.

For those who don’t know the story, in 2014, shortly after the critically lauded release of Gridlink’s Longhena, Takafumi suffered a crippling and tragic brain infection that made it seem like he would never be able to play guitar again. But his tireless spirit fought against all odds to come back, and his material here with Retortion Terror is his first musical creation to come out since his incredible recovery. Continue reading »

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