AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEROCS — “AND SO IT BEGINS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new video from Serocs.)

Multi-national technical brutal death metal act Serocs have remained an ongoing favorite of mine ever since I first stumbled upon their 2013 album, The Next, and reviewed it at the time here at NCS. Even then the band was onto something special, but they truly took themselves to a higher level on their 2015 album, And When The Sky Was Opened, from which NCS helped launch a single called “Itami”.

Since that time, the band’s founder, guitarist Antonio Freyre, has been busy starting other projects, including last year’s side-project Punished, for which Islander was nice enough to premiere a song called “The Absent” (since I guested on it briefly and it wouldn’t have been right for me to cover it).

But I digress. Seeing as it’s now 2017 and Serocs is ramping back up again, that provides the impetus for us helping to launch this new video today. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): THORMESIS, MAHTOWA DEATH MARCH, DUSKTONE, MANIACAL VIOLATOR, HOLOCAUSTO, ALTARS OF ASH AND BONE

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

This is the second part of a Shades of Black post I began yesterday. At the risk of drowning you with such a large torrent of music (but when has that ever stopped us?), I have another compilation, plus three full recent releases, plus advance tracks from two more that are slated for release next month. All of them are recommended, of course.

THORMESIS

Trümmerfarben is the fifth album from Germany’s Thormesis since 2008, but I don’t think I’ve heard anything from the previous ones. The new album has a release date of February 10 via MDD Records, and what you’ll find below is a lyric video (in German) for a song called “Waheelas Fährte”. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 19): FALLUJAH, VEILBURNER, DAHACA, COLDWORLD

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  3 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

Welcome to the 19th installment of my list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. I’m beginning to feel stressed about this list, because I swore to myself (and may have promised you) that I would bring this to an end on January 31, and yet I still have dozens of worthy candidates. That means there’s going to be an arbitrary cut-off, with a lot of worthy tracks being neglected. But I figured that would happen when I started this list… I’ve never been very good at list-making.

Anyway, here are four more songs. You’ll never guess why I chose to group these four songs together. It will just have to be my little secret.

FALLUJAH

In his NCS review, my colleague Andy Synn called Dreamless the finest of Fallujah’s three albums so far — a creation that “could very well be a game-changing, life-altering release for these Tech-Death titans-in-waiting.” He praised the songwriting, which gave each track its own distinctive personality despite the presence of common ingredients — “nuanced, technical drums, strobing, rapid-fire riffs, dreamy synth waves, and soaring, extravagant lead guitar work” — and the positive direction of the band’s continuing evolution. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): MISÞYRMING, SINMARA, ORATION MMXVI, WELL OF NIGHT, GROK, DIAMANDA GALÁS

 SHADES OF BLACK  8 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

I have a large collection of recent releases or advance tracks to recommend, all of them within the ever-widening spectrum of black metal or reflecting to varying degrees the influence of black metal. I’ve divided the collection into two parts. I haven’t written the second one yet, so I’m not sure if I’ll be posting it today or on Monday.

MISÞYRMING

Formed in Reykjavík back in 2013, Misþyrming (Icelandic for “abuse” or “mistreatment“) was originally the solo project of multi-instrumentalist D.G., but eventually expanded into a full band as a result of D.G.’s desire to perform Misþyrming’s music in a live setting. The band shares members with Naðra and Carpe Noctem, and D.G. is also a member of Martröð and Skáphe. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIMPHAION — “THE CONQUEROR WORM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

The Russian band Nimphaion are working on their third album, a conceptual creation named Quoth the Raven that’s projected for release in the coming spring. As a sign of what lies ahead, the band are releasing a single from the album, “The Conqueror Worm“, and today we’re sharing with you a stream of the title song in a lyric video.

Those of you familiar with the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe will have already realized where Nimphaion drew inspiration for this music. In fact, they’ve described the music in genre terms as “Poe-tic Black Metal”. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (WHEN BITTER SPRING SLEEPS, NARGAROTH, NYCHTS)

 THE REARVIEW MIRROR  4 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

About a week ago we premiered a stream of Turm Am Hang, the  new album by the German band Horn. The brilliant last track on that album is a cover of “The Sky Has Not Always Been This Way” from the 2013 album Coven of the Wolves by Iowa-based When Bitter Spring Sleeps, with a guest appearance by the latter band’s vocalist Lord Sardonyx.

It’s a great cover, and it also caused me to revisit the original song. The lyrics are wonderful, and the song is too. So that’s the first track I’m including below in this Sunday’s look back at metal from past years. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MORTA SKULD, LANTERN, DÉMONOS, REBEL SOULS, DESTROYERS OF ALL, ASOFY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 282017
 


Morta Skuld

It seems that some lessons can’t be learned no matter how many times they’re taught. A case in point: Once again, I’m now recovering from alcohol poisoning, probably not severe enough to require hospitalization but debilitating enough that even typing hurts and coherent thought is a goal that’s out of reach.

Fortunately, I picked the following songs and videos yesterday, before severely damaging my coherence with an end-of-the-work-week blowout last night. If you find more mistakes than usual in what I’ve written today, you’ll know why.

MORTA SKULD

The first item in this collection blind-sided me without warning yesterday, though I probably just wasn’t paying attention as carefully as I should have. The news is that Milwaukee-based Morta Skuld have returned with a new album. Entitled Wounds Deeper Than Time, it will be released by Peaceville Records on February 17 and it follows the band’s comeback EP Serving Two Masters (2014). Like the EP, it includes cover art by Patrick Kachellek: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 18): KHONSU, TERRA TENEBROSA, HOWLS OF EBB, BLACK HOLE GENERATOR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  2 Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

Here we are at the 18th Part of this list. Once again, I ran out of time yesterday before I could post a further installment of this series, so I’ve included more songs than usual in this one. To browse through the other songs that have appeared on the list previously, click HERE.

I grouped these four songs together for a couple of reasons. First, they all include elements of black metal to varying degrees, but you probably wouldn’t call any of them “black metal” in any conventional sense. Which leads me to my second point: in addition to being genre-benders, all these artists have blended and bent conventional genres in ways that lead to some very strange and even unsettling results — and the fact that all of these tracks also manage to be addictive is a further testament to their creativity

KHONSU

I assume it comes as no shock that I’m adding a song from The Xun Protectorate to the list. We published not one but two laudatory reviews of the album, along with an interview of Khonsu’s mastermind S. Gronbech. Everyone at our site loved the record. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MARCHE FUNÈBRE — “LULLABY OF INSANITY”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

(Today we present the premiere of a video and song from the Belgian band Marche Funebre, and Grant Skelton provides the following introduction.)

Belgian death/doom band Marche Funèbre (a name presumably derived from the Chopin composition of the same name) will release their new album Into The Arms Of Darkness on February 20, 2017 via Moscow Funeral League. Into The Arms Of Darkness was produced by Markus ‘Schwadorf’ Stock. The creepy, nightmarish cover art was created by Brooke Shaden Photography.

No Clean Singing is proud to present an exclusive premiere of a video for the album’s first advance track, entitled “Lullaby Of Insanity.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OMINOUS ECLIPSE — “THE HORDE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 272017
 

 

The Ottawa death metal band Ominous Eclipse are working toward the release their second album Sinister later this year, but today they’re releasing a single aptly named “The Horde“, and it’s our poisonous pleasure to bring you a stream of the song.

As the evolution of Ominous Eclipse has progressed, the band have hybridized a seething core of death metal sound with elements of thrash, black metal, and melodic death metal. But if “The Horde” is a sign of what’s to come next, they’re reaching for new levels of monstrous and electrifying destructiveness. Continue reading »

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