NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: STENCH PRICE — “LIVING FUMES”

Nov 212016

When Austin Weber introduced our early-September premiere of a song and video from the new album by Stench Price, he referred to them as a “supergroup on an obscene scale” with a “highly adventurous” approach to grindcore that has enabled them “to rise above the majority of garden-variety grind in the modern era”. As further proof of the truths in those statements, we have another new Stench Price song and video for you today. The name of this track is “Living Fumes“, and it features Dan Lilker of the legendary Brutal Truth.

Stench Price is the brainchild of Siberian composer and bassist Peter Shallmin (Escapethecult, Kamlath), and in aid of his nefarious cause he enlisted not only Danny Lilker but also these other notable names from around the world: Continue reading »

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT… BLACK METAL

Mosh Pit 51 Responses »

Nov 212016

(Here we have an opinion piece by Andy Synn, and as always we welcome your comments.)

As most of you should know by now, I generally love Black Metal. Of course I don’t love every band or every particular sub-species of the style, but overall there’s just something about the music and the ethos of the genre – an intensity, an atmosphere, a sense of stubborn individuality — that really speaks to me.

I also particularly love the fact that Black Metal, although denigrated by many for being too insular and restrictive (and, in fact, also celebrated by many for the former), is actually one of the most musically open and creative genres in Metal when you really dig into it.

From the most Avant-Garde to the most Punk, from the most Melodic to the most harshly Industrial, from the Post/Progressive/Atmospheric side of things, to the punishing panzer-style of pure blasting blasphemy… and more… to my mind the core essence of Black Metal is a refusal to be restricted or defined by the expectations of others. It’s about freedom and the ability to “do what thou wilt…”

But, of course, that itself raises some problems. Continue reading »

HAPPY SEVENTH BIRTHDAY TO US

Birthday Posts, Metal News 31 Responses »

Nov 212016

We have survived another year. And when you get right down to it, sheer survival is the reason any of us celebrate birthdays. We are seven years old today — we made our first post on November 21, 2009.

As I wrote at the time of our last birthday (and it remains true), seven years isn’t very long when compared to the lifespan of your average Galápagos tortoise, but measured by the lifespan of your average metal blog, we’re almost ready for a nursing home.

I continue to be amazed and thankful that we’re still here, that so many good friends are still devoting themselves to writing for NCS on a purely volunteer basis, and that so many readers haven’t yet gotten fed up and purged us from their lives.
Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARCADE MESSIAH: “LIFE CLOCK”

Premieres 1 Response »

Nov 212016

Six days ago we wrote about a recently released video for a song called “Revolver” from a new album by the UK band Arcade Messiah. A few days later Arcade Messiah released a massive second track (“Deliverance”) through the alternative music site Arctic Drones. And now we have the pleasure of announcing the premiere of a third song: “Life Clock“. Like “Revolver”, it comes with an engrossing video made by darwinfish105.

The album that includes these three songs (and three others) is the third Arcade Messiah full-length, and it will be released through Bandcamp on November 25. Arcade Messiah is the solo project of UK musician John Bassett, who is also the singer, songwriter, and producer of UK progressive metal band KingBathMat.

Attempting to capture the music on the new album in genre terms is difficult, but one could say that it combines progressive metal with post-rock, sludge, doom, and stoner rock. It’s a fascinating interweaving of sounds and styles that should appeal to fans of bands ranging from Cloudkicker to Mastodon to Russian Circles, and beyond. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): L’HOMME ABSURDE, GRAVECOVEN, FORLET SIRES, NYRST, VERMINLORD

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 5 Responses »

Nov 202016

As you can see, this is the second part of a two-part post that I began earlier today (here). Both parts were combined in a single post as I originally wrote it. But even though I throttled back my usual wordiness in order to get it finished and make it more digestible, I eventually concluded that a 10-band post was still too much for a single serving.

Part 1 of this post focused mainly on advance tracks from forthcoming albums. Now I’m moving away from individual songs and into full album and EP streams — which means I’m really giving short shrift in my words to music that’s deserving of more fulsome praise. I do wish I had time to say more, because although the band names may be obscure, these releases are really very good. I hope you’ll make time to give each of them a fair listen.

L’HOMME ABSURDE

Album: Monsters
Release date: October 25
Country: Russia
Order link: https://lhommeabsurdebm.bandcamp.com/album/monsters Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): MURG, WITCHERY, BLACK ANVIL, CHRIST AGONY, INVERTIA

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 5 Responses »

Nov 202016

As I originally wrote this post, it included music from 10 bands. As I explained yesterday, I’m feverishly trying to spread the word about late-breaking new releases before being swallowed up by our year-end LISTMANIA orgy. In order to do that, I throttled my usual wordiness in what I wrote, atypically allowing the music to speak (mainly) for itself. But I still thought that 10 bands might be too much for a single post, so I’ve divided it into two parts. I’ll let Part 2 simmer in the pot for an hour or two and then spring that one on you today as well.

As usual for this series, all the music is charred black to differing degrees. I’m starting with some arguably better-known names and then, especially in Part 2, diving a bit deeper into the well of obscurity.

MURG

Song: “Mästarens resa i mörkret”
Album: Gudatall
Release date: December 16
Country: Sweden
Order link: https://murg.bandcamp.com/album/gudatall Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (MAIMED)

THE REARVIEW MIRROR 18 Responses »

Nov 202016

Welcome to another Sunday edition of our look back at metal from years past — in this particular case, 25 years in the past.

This is one of those one-and-done little gems that I’ve been drawn to in other episodes of this series, a demo that came out in 1991 by an Illinois band named Maimed, who then disappeared without ever recording anything else. And as far as I can tell, none of the band’s four members went on to record anything with any other metal bands either. (Correction: guitarist Eric Ondo is a member of the Chicago sludge band Pale Horseman and was also in a Chicago band called Couldron.)

Of course there’s a story to be told about why a band capable of recording something this good — and this far ahead of its time — did nothing further. But as curious as I am, I haven’t found any explanation in my google searches. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SORDIDE, INCONSTANI DEI, POWER TRIP, TROLLWAR, CROSTA, TEMPLE OF DEMIGOD

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Nov 192016

When you confront a truly daunting task, sometimes the result is paralysis; the magnitude of the effort discourages effort. Experience teaches that sometimes the only way to overcome that paralysis is simply to make a start, no matter how small the step may seem. Usually easier said than done, but that’s what I’m doing today.

I’m sitting on a ton of recent music and videos I want to write about in the time I have left before our year-end LISTMANIA extravaganza inevitably begins monopolizing my time. I haven’t figured out how I will get everything out and before you that I think you should check out. But this is a start, selected in fairly random fashion, but with an effort to cover a range of styles.

SORDIDE

Early last month we enthusiastically premiered a stream of the new album by the French black metal band Sordide. Entitled Fuir la lumière, it is now available through Avantgarde Music and from the band. And as a further reminder about how good Sordide’s music, they’ve now released a live performance video. It was recorded on October 23 at White Noise Studio. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KREATOR, BETHLEHEM, DEUS OTIOSUS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Nov 182016

I have quite a lot of new music I’d like to recommend, but am short on time in what’s left of my blogging day, so I’ll just throw the following three items your way and save the rest for this weekend. Enjoy….

KREATOR

I learned about this first video through a Facebook post by a Scandinavian musician friend, who introduced it this way: “This is how you thrash… not the sorry excuse of music Metallica just released.” Well, I must confess that made me smile. Putting to one side whether the slap at Metallica is warranted, Kreator’s new song is definitely a scorcher, with a made-to-shout-along chorus and a solo that ought to get lots of clawed fingers thrust toward the sky. Continue reading »

A ZHRINE TOUR DIARY (aka “THE EVERYTHING IS FINE TOUR DIARY”): EPISODE III

Metal News 5 Responses »

Nov 182016

On November 2, the Shrines of Paralysis North American Tour launched in Los Angeles, headlined by New Zealand’s Ulcerate and also including the Icelandic band Zhrine, and Phobocosm from Montreal.

Zhrine was one of the biggest and brightest surprises at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest (as we discussed here and here, with photos), and now large numbers of other metal fans are getting the chance to discover what makes Zhrine so special. And so we count ourselves very fortunate to bring you a series of tour reports from the road, beautifully written by Zhrine’s manager Bogi Bjarnason (accompanied by his photos). For the earlier episodes, go here and here.

This outlander’s perspective on the crossing of our vast continent pulls no punches; flag wavers and Bible-thumpers would be outraged. But for the rest of us, these occasionally caustic and always amusing diary entries are fascinating. I wonder if we could convince Zhrine to turn West again after they reach New York and do it all again? Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries