NO CLEAN SINGING

SEEN AND HEARD (BY DGR): AFGRUND, ALTERBEAST, SHINING, HELLISH GOD, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, LONG DISTANCE CALLING

Dec 122017

Afgrund

(Like the good cowboy he is, DGR has stepped forward to handle round-up duty today.)

We at NCS are big fans of posts full of genre whiplash, and this roundup of things that caught our eyes and ears last week will likely be one of those. We try to always keep our giant fish net of news-and-music catching open for stuff to fall in and we like to clean it out whenever we get the chance, even though you would’ve figured that last week things should have slowed down just a bit…you would think.

However, just because it’s close to the end of the year and time for everyone to begin writing up summaries of their favorite albums of 2017, and just because our editor managed to escape from the loris horde encircling the NCS compound for a vacation, does not mean heavy metal got the hint and decided to slow down for a bit. We did here in our little comfortable corner of the ‘net, but that doesn’t mean everyone did. And so we go outside to clean off the radar dish and see what landed in the net over the past week. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: METAL ON NOISEY’S LIST OF THE BEST 100 ALBUMS of 2017

LISTMANIA 2017 35 Responses »

Dec 112017

Here’s another entry in the part of our annual LISTMANIA orgy where we re-post lists of metal from “big platform” web sites and print zines — the kind of places that get a lot more eyeballs on them than festering little metal-only hovels like ours.

To justify our selection of Noisey for this part of the series, consider these statistics: Noisey is the on-line music channel of Vice Media, which began as a Montreal-based print magazine in 1994 and has expanded into a global media presence. Noisey was started in 2011 and now has 1,285,404 Facebook followers and (according to this site) receives about 966,500 unique visitors and 1,411,090 page views per day.

About one week ago Noisey published its staff’s list of “The Best 100 Albums of 2017“, but due to my ongoing vacation, I overlooked it until today. By my count, 8 of those albums are metal (down from 10 last year). Six of those appear to have made the list as a result of recommendations by Noisey editor Kim Kelly, whose by-line appears on the mini-reviews that accompany those 6 picks. The other two, by Yellow Eyes and Power Trip, are accompanied by different writers’ by-lines. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MATALOBOS (EDUARDO RAMÍREZ SANTAMARÍA)

Interviews No Responses »

Dec 112017

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview of guitarist Eduardo Ramírez Santamaría of the the Mexican band Matalobos.)

Here comes Matalobos – the melodic death doom band from Mexico. If you have been missing the early days of Katatonia and patiently waiting for a new Daylight Dies since their last LP, A Frail Becoming, then Matalobos can provide you some dark depressive vibes in a picturesque and pretty heavy vein.

Their debut LP, Arte Macabro, saw the light of the day only one year ago, but the men have prepared some new material – three new tracks released under the title Until Time Has Lost All Meaning welcome you to the realm of death and gloom. The band’s guitarist Eduardo Ramírez Santamaría is our guide through the realms of Matalobos. Continue reading »

2017 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE DISAPPOINTING

LISTMANIA 2017 42 Responses »

Dec 112017

(“Conniption” is too weak a word, “kryptonite” is more in the ballpark [especially in the case of an album I reviewed here]. Every year Andy Synn breaches our general etiquette with this list, but after umpteen years, it’s too late to stop him.)

Every year I separate the albums I’ve heard into three separate categories – The Great, The Good, and The Disappointing – and every year Islander has a minor conniption when forced to confront all the caustic criticism and general lack of positivity going on in my Disappointing list.

It’s basically his kryptonite, so if you wanted to attack him while he’s in a weakened state… now would be the time.

That being said, I hope neither he, nor you, feel like I’m being prejudiced or unfair with what you’re about to read. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 29): AD CINEREM, PERISHED, NORTHERN PLAGUE, SAQRA’S CULT, MESMUR, THE SPIRIT

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Dec 112017

(This old year is gasping its last breaths, but before it expires our friend Gorger from Norway brings us one more collection of 2017 releases that we haven’t previously reviewed. To find more of his recommendations, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

As this year is ebbing out fast, I’m presenting another four reviews. Most of them are so long, it’s inhuman to compile them like this. The music won’t provide much compassion either. Deal with it, and let’s cut straight to the chase. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SUNDAY: NECROPHOBIC, VILKACIS, ARCHAIC TOMB, SCREATURE

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Dec 102017

I didn’t expect I would be able to prepare this round-up. I’m still on vacation (through December 15), and have been pretty faithful to the promise I made to She Who Must Be Obeyed that I would not blog (much) during this trip. For example, we had nothing on the site yesterday, which is a rarity.

But, I had a small amount of time to myself this morning, and there didn’t seem to be any harm in checking out some new music. I’ve barely glanced at the NCS e-mail box during the last week, so I decided to start making my way through the mail that arrived over just the last two days (more than that would have devoured my limited blog time this morning). What you will hear in this round-up is the result of that limited and hurried survey.

First, however, I want to share a piece of news that I had missed until Andy Synn indirectly led me to it.

NECROPHOBIC

On Friday I posted Andy’s list of his favorite 2017 EPs. One of his choices was inadvertently omitted from the text he originally sent me for posting, and when he caught the error, he sent me some further text, and the omission happened to be a 7″ EP called Pesta that Necrophobic distributed during a tour. Continue reading »

2017 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE EPs

LISTMANIA 2017 55 Responses »

Dec 082017

(We begin the rollout of our own staff’s year-end lists with Andy Synn’s selection of his favorite EPs from 2017.)

Next week is the big kick-off of my annual End of Year list-orgy, beginning with what I felt were the most Disappointing releases of the year (those albums which, for one reason or another, simply didn’t live up to their potential), followed by the Good, and then the Great, albums of 2017.

Now, unlike most lists, these particular pieces function more as a general round-up of the last twelve months, and aren’t presented in any sort of ranked or graded order.

In essence they’re designed purely to showcase (and pass comment on) the sheer wealth of albums which have crossed my path over the last year and, hopefully, to give you all a chance to catch-up on some unheard gems you may have missed, as well as stimulate some lively conversation and debate.

The end of next week will see the publication of my Critical Top Ten and my Personal Top Ten, wherein I’m going to first attempt the thankless task of whittling down all the Great albums of the year to a representative sample of ten releases which I think represent the true crème de la crème of 2017… after which I’m going to just say “fuck it”, and give you my list of the ten albums which I’ve listened to the most and which struck the strongest chord with me this year.

Sound good?

In the meantime, while you all start sharpening your pitchforks and priming your torches, I’d like to present you with a round-up of (some of) the EPs which have tickled my fancy over the last twelve months. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLASPHEMOUS PUTREFACTION — “ABOMINABLE PREMONITION”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Dec 082017

In what other genre of music besides death metal are adjectives like “noxious”, “rotten”, “pustulent”, and “grotesque” used as compliments? Give that some thought and get back to me; I can’t think of any.

I’m also not sure I could explain to a clueless outlander why the kind of death metal that evokes those descriptions is so appealing to many of us. If your answer is, “Because you’re all deviants,” you’ve probably come to the wrong place for your listening pleasures.

All those adjectives, and more in a similar vein, apply without exaggeration to the demo by Blasphemous Putrefaction we’re premiering today, one day before its release by Dunkelheit Produktionen. This German duo (which includes a member of the black/death band Goatblood) unabashedly traffic in primitive, rotten metal of death, and having chosen to throw themselves into that cesspool of horrifying filth, they go all in — and they’re very damned good at it. Continue reading »

SCOUR: “RED”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Dec 072017

(Here’s DGR’s review of the new EP by the death metal collective known as Scour.)

Last year, Scour released its debut EP Grey, something that I reviewed — though I don’t recall it having a name at the time so much as suddenly appearing – and I had a lot of joking fun with the review, even if folks didn’t quite understand that at the time.

The novelty of Scour was the initial draw for the project, and while I found the release good, I did not expect a second release so soon. Now that Scour are established and have unleashed themselves live upon some folks, it felt like diving in again was the reading of the next chapter of an ongoing story, and so, we find ourselves wondering how this extreme metal collective’s second EP has turned out. Continue reading »

LISTAMNIA 2017: ROLLING STONE’S 20 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2017

LISTMANIA 2017 27 Responses »

Dec 072017

Let’s just get this out of the way right now: THIS IS ROLLING STONE’S LIST. IT IS NOT OUR LIST. THIS IS ROLLING STONE’S LIST. IT IS NOT OUR LIST.

If you thought that was already so obvious that only an idiot would need to be told, well, you obviously don’t remember the famous/infamous Comment No. 7 to our re-post of Rolling Stone’s list in 2013. Though you may have seen how that has been transformed into a running joke every fucking year since then. The only uncertainty now is who will be the first person to do it on this post. Continue reading »

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