AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MRTVI — “AS CONSCIOUSNESS IS HARNESSED TO FLESH PART 2”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 192017
 

 

In the mind-melting song “As Consciousness Is Harnessed To Flesh Part 2“, the Serbian, UK-based solo artist MRTVI tells you “Reality is not to be believed“. And in case you don’t believe him, he also makes a determined effort through this music to fracture reality into a shower of sharp shards and splinters, to plow madly through the constrictive channeling of experience through our perceptions, in search of an inner cosmos.

We premiered this song once before, in advance of the late-July release of Negative Atonal Dissonance, the eye-popping album that barely contains its unpredictable energies. I advised you then, “whatever you do, don’t pass this by”. But some people may not have been paying attention, and so I’m quite happy to provide a reminder. Plus, this time the music is accompanied by a lyric video that’s almost as abrasive, bewildering, and neuron-rearranging as the music. But not quite. Continue reading »

METHCHRIST: “NOMADIC WAR MACHINE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 192017
 

 

(New Zealand-based writer Craig Hayes (Six Noises) joins us again with this review of the debut album by NZ’s Methchrist, which has just been digitally released on Bandcamp.)

Methchrist are a belligerent, hate-driven war metal trio from Dunedin, New Zealand. And the band’s Nomadic War Machine debut is the third album from a New Zealand war metal band that I’ve covered here at No Clean Singing in recent times.

To be honest, it’s not the easiest task coming up with fresh ways to unpack more bestial metal from the southern reaches. But that’s not because Nomadic War Machine is uninspiring. The album’s actually a skull-cracking riot –– it’s as fuelled by pure fucking spite as it is any creative ambitions –– but I inevitably feel like I’m repeating myself talking about war metal, because the subgenre’s somewhat of a stylistic cul-de-sac.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a criticism of war metal’s established characteristics. I mean, I love crust punk and d-beat to death, and they’ve got a limited range of musical hallmarks and potential descriptive options too. It’s simply that war metal’s parameters are so resolutely set in stone. There’s only so much you can say about the subgenre before you’re reiterating the same points or uttering the same phrases. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): IN TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE — “VANITAS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 192017
 

 

Almost exactly two years ago we had the pleasure of premiering the third album by In Twilight’s Embrace. True to its name, The Grim Muse was vicious, but also electrifying, bursting with magnetic guitar melodies that were given room to shine in even the most turbo-charged and barbaric of the songs. It proved to be one of 2015’s highlights, and something of a breakout release for a band who were demonstrating a new level of both songwriting and performance skill.

And here we are two years later, fortunate again to premiere a new full-length by this Polish band. This fourth album is named Vanitas, and it’s set for release on September 22nd by Arachnophobia Records. And to waste no time answering the question that most fans will be asking, it is at least a match for the quality of The Grim Muse, and in this writer’s opinion even better. Continue reading »

PYRRHON: “WHAT PASSES FOR SURVIVAL”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Sep 192017
 

 

(Austin Weber wrote this review of the new album by Pyrrhon, which was released on August 8 by Willowtip Records and Throatruiner Records.)

Pyrrhon occupy a unique place in the death metal landscape. From their inception on, they’ve only gotten stranger, darker, weirder, and more unorthodox, after beginning as an already outside-of-the-norm band but one still recognizable in most ways as a purely death metal group in their early years.

The real turning point was 2014’s The Mother of Virtues, a release that really saw them dive into the deep end of madness and experimentation paired with searing and uncomfortable heaps of dissonance. It was an album that even I struggled to comprehend initially, though countless repeat listens helped, as did seeing them play the material live in 2014, which really helped it click for me even more.

After that, they embarked on a series of EPs, simultaneously pushing the improv. and experimental aspect harder, while also returning to a more “digestible” form of death metal for some of the songs. Given that, I had high hopes and a lot of questions as to what their newly released album, What Passes for Survival, would have to offer. But above all, I went into it knowing not to place expectations on it, since Pyrrhon are an amorphous and ever-shifting beast — and this album holds true to that established maxim. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WAR POSSESSION — “WAR IS THE FATHER AND KING OF ALL”

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Sep 182017
 

 

“War Is the Father and King of All” — so proclaims the Greek death metal band War Possession in the song we’re premiering today. Look around you, look into the sordid past of our species. We might wish it were otherwise, but it’s hard to argue with them. It’s also hard to argue with the visceral appeal of their music.

This new song is one of 10 tracks on Doomed To Chaos, the debut album of this band of slaughtering commandos, whose ranks include current and past members of Embrace of Thorns, Merciless Crucifixion, and Wargoat, among others. The album will be released on October 23 by the Spanish label Memento Mori. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: SATANATH (“VIGTIO”) AND WE HATE YOU TOO (“RELICS OF RESTLESSNESS”)

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Sep 182017
 

 

This is a rarity — a combination of two track premieres from two separate albums, one by Satanath and one by We Hate You Too. There is a connection between them, but only because the same label is involved in the two album releases. But the idea of combining them was my own.

The idea occurred to me because both tracks (and albums) represent a divergence from the kind of extreme metal that’s our usual meat and potatoes around here. But I found both tracks very intriguing, and thought you might enjoy the change of pace that each of them represents.

SATANATH: VIGTIO

Satanath is a Russian solo project devoted to a style of dark “space ambient” music. The creator behind the project is Aleksey Korolyov, who is also the label boss at Satanath Records as well as the man behind Abigorum. The new Satanath album is named Your Personal Copy and consists of 20 tracks and nearly 80 minutes of music. It will be co-released by the Belarusian label Grimm Distribution and Craneo Negro Records (Mexico). The track we’re presenting is “Vigtio“. Continue reading »

DEATH BY FESTIVAL: HURRICANE HARVEY RELIEF EVENT

 Metal News  No Responses »
Sep 182017
 

 

(We welcome Lonegoat, the creator behind the necroclassical project Goatcraft, who is helping spread the word about a forthcoming Texas music and movie event where all of the proceeds will be donated to assist in the relief of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation.)

Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas gulf region which led to at least 71 confirmed deaths, and over 100 billion dollars worth of damage. It’s the first time in twelve years a storm of this magnitude has made landfall in the US. Houston had flooding of biblical proportions which ripped many people away from their lives. Many Texans and companies are donating money to help with the relief efforts, but who knows how long it’ll be until normalcy returns. Some others, like David Vincent, ventured to the affected areas to lend a vital helping hand.

In the wake of Harvey, Austin’s inaugural Death By Festival, which is produced and organized by Nic Brown and Susie Winfield, has decided to donate all of the proceeds from the festival to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. It’s excellent that even the entertainment portion of Texas society comes together for those who stand in need of benefaction. Continue reading »

ARCHSPIRE: “RELENTLESS MUTATION”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Sep 182017
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Vancouver’s Archspire.)

If you’re even vaguely aware of the comings and goings of the modern Tech Death scene, then chances are you’ll have heard the names Archspire and The Lucid Collective (the band’s 2014 album) before now.

Famous (or perhaps infamous) for their shameless dedication to ludicrous speed, as well as their ability to change direction faster than a TRON light-cycle (ask your parents…), the band are (rightly) held up as an example of Technical Death Metal at its most outrageously and enjoyably OTT, with everything (and I do mean everything) turned up well past 11.

There are those, however, who believe that the Canadian quintet’s addiction to excessive velocity is a flagrant example of style over substance, and that the spitfire vocals of motormouth mic-slinger Oli Peters, impressive though they might be, are little more than a gimmick designed to disguise the group’s lack of finesse in the songwriting department.

Well, it appears that the band must have taken some of these criticisms under advisement when putting together their new album, as this is one area in particular where Relentless Mutation improves upon its predecessor in leaps and bounds. Continue reading »

CHELSEA WOLFE: “HISS SPUN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Sep 182017
 

 

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Chelsea Wolfe, which will be released by Sargent House on September 22.)

With a Burzum cover early in her career Chelsea Wolfe gained a solid following in the metal community. Her brand of gloomy folk rock was dark enough to keep them listening. Gradually this darkness grew denser and began to cross over into a more metal-influenced sound on Abyss. Her newest album takes it even a step further into metal.

On her last album the bass was fuzzed enough to give it a doom-like heft. Now the guitar is assuming a more metallic role. Production-wise, this recalls her older work, in the sense that her voice is mixed with ghostly effects against the guitar. Tempo-wise, it is very much in a doom/sludge direction.

“16 Psyche” finds the guitars kicking the door down, then backing off for her to sing, then it comes back around to the verses. “Vex” summons up more intensity in the drive of the song and finds Aaron Turner’s growled vocals coming into the background toward the end of the song. Continue reading »

CONTRASTS: SAND WITCH, OSI AND THE JUPITER, HRVST, EINVIGI, BENEATH THE SOD

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Sep 182017
 

 

I had a busier than usual weekend that left me little time for NCS, and so I wasn’t able to compile a SHADES OF BLACK post yesterday. I did spend some time here and there exploring new music, and it occurred to me that the collection you’re about to hear would make for an interesting playlist to start the week.

I don’t know whether you will find this as interesting as I did, but I chose these songs and the order in which you’ll hear them in order to juxtapose very different sounds, alternating between extremely heavy, harrowing music and music whose emotional effect is more sublime, or more uplifting. (Thanks to Miloš for links that led to most of these discoveries.)

SAND WITCH

I chose to lead off with the Vancouver sludge/funeral-doom band Sand Witch, because the first song from their new demo (“The Cushion of Roosevelt’s Wheelchair“) itself provides a dramatic contrast that kind of encapsulates what I tried to do in arranging everything in this post. It moves from a slow, reverberating, elegiac guitar instrumental that’s beautiful and mesmerizing… to a shockingly heavy and abrasive apocalypse of sound, also slow, but soul-shuddering in its brute intensity. Continue reading »

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