NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: TUMBLEWEED DEALER — “SALOON FIGHT”

Nov 162016

Those of our readers who visit our site every day (i.e., the truly wise among you) will immediately recognize the artwork at the top of this post — because it appeared here only yesterday, when I included a new song by Tumbleweed Dealer in a collection of music that I urged people to hear. And as I promised in that post yesterday, we have yet another song by this very talented band to put before your ears. Its name is “Saloon Fight“, and it comes from Tumbleweed Dealer’s new third album Tokes, Hatred & Caffeine, which will be released on November 21.

For those who didn’t stop by here yesterday and who may be newcomers to this Montréal band, they are a formidable duo consisting of guitarist/bassist Seb Painchaud and drummer Jean-Francois Richard. There are weed references aplenty in everything surrounding the band, from their name to many of their song and album titles, but you need not be a toker or a deeply devoted fan of stoner rock and metal to appreciate Tumbleweed Dealer’s approach to music. They, too, have different interests… including imagining how the Old West might have looked if seen through the prism of a horror movie (and a lot of drugs). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BUENSUCESO — “THE TULIP CURSE CAME WITH THE ARRIVAL OF FALL”

Premieres No Responses »

Nov 162016

As you can see, the title of the song we’re about to premiere is an unusual and intriguing one. Other equally out-of-the-ordinary song titles are to be found within the six-song album from which it comes, an album that itself bears a mysterious name: ANALOGY: The Sun | Divided Line. This is the second release by Buensuceso from the town of Mancha Real in Spanish Andalusia, set for release by Third I Rex and The Braves Records in January of the new year.

The selection of music titles isn’t this band’s only sign of distinctiveness. For example, some of the songs include the contributions of such instruments as saxophone, double-bass, e-bow, and synthesizer, in addition to the usual tools of metal. And conceptually, the new album takes inspiration from Platonic philosophy and “The Allegory of the Cave“: “It observes the existence of an unreal world, focused on the blindness of an oblivious society, which is forced to accept the insipid, conformist and inhuman reality that lies behind human beings.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KARMACIPHER — “NECRORACLE”

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Nov 162016

(Austin Weber brings us this premiere of the title track to a new album by Karmacipher from Hong Kong.)

As of late, it seems the growing influence of groups such as Gorguts and Ulcerate is bringing about a new wave of death metal fixated on twisted ugliness and immersive sorrow. This year alone, many groups have proven how much room there is to explore beyond (or without) solely copying their influences. Today’s premiere from the Hong Kong-based group Karmacipher is yet another fine new addition to this terrifying modern take on death metal.

From what I can tell, the band’s upcoming full-length, Necroracle, will be their first release. But given the quality of the music on today’s single of the title track, these guys aren’t amateurs by any means. Punishing drumming and super-heavy and nasty riffing immediately kick off the song, though it continues to shift into a more off-kilter rhythmic place as the track progresses. Ultimately, it leaves the listener feeling like a helpless subject within a massive, world-destroying, meat-grinder apparatus. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISINTEGRATION — “KEHANCURAN”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Nov 162016

As I think most observers of the global metal scene are well aware, the population of Indonesia includes a large and intensely devoted horde of metalheads, as well as a horde of metal bands whose main hallmark seems to be savagery. Breaking out of the pack and becoming visible beyond the borders of this vast conglomeration of islands is no doubt an enormous challenge, but today we introduce you to a new Indonesian band who have at least caught our blood-shot eyes. The band is a two-man group named Disintegration, and they are already showing great promise.

The members of Disintegration are guitarist/vocalist Budi and drummer Dani. They’re from Kediri, in East Java, and they’ve recorded a debut demo that consist of two tracks — “Kehancuran” and “Tahta Berhala“. What we have for you is not only a premiere stream of the first track, but also the opportunity to download the song for free directly from our Soundcloud player. Continue reading »

ANTAEUS: “CONDEMNATION”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Nov 162016

(Andy Synn reviews the eagerly anticipated new album by the French black metal band Antaeus.)

With so much being written recently about the molten new release (is it an EP? is it an album?) by a certain bunch of radical French firebrands, it would be easy, all too easy, to overlook what some of their countrymen are doing.

Which would be a mistake of practically biblical proportions, because this week sees the long-awaited release of Condemnation, the fourth album from Satanic savages Antaeus. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: WĘDRUJĄCY WIATR, TARDIGRADA, FURIA, RASPAIL, AZOOMA, CÓNDOR, BESTIAL RAIDS, VIRCOLAC, AGGRESSION

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 11 Responses »

Nov 152016

As I mentioned earlier this morning, we’re rapidly approaching the brink of our year-end LISTMANIA orgy. In fact, on Friday I’ll be soliciting reader suggestions for our annual Most Infectious Song list, and about a week after that I’ll be asking our readers to give us their lists of the year’s best releases — so please start thinking about both of those subjects. Of course, we’ll once again be re-posting year-end lists from select print zines and “big platform” music sites as they appear, as well as publishing “best of” lists by our staff and invited guests, both band members and fans.

In the meantime, we’ll also continue trying to recommend new releases, and there are still some big ones due for arrival before January 1. There have also been some notable ones released quite recently that I fear we’ll never get around to reviewing, and so I’m forced to resort to posts like this one in which I’ll just share the music and sacrifice the words of praise (though in many cases we’ve already written about individual songs). However, we do welcome your own thoughts about these releases in the Comments. Here we go — I hope you’ll give each of these albums at least a sample test.

WĘDRUJĄCY WIATR

Album: O turniach, jeziorach i nocnych szlakach
Released: October 31
Approximate Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Country: Poland Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: ZMEY GORYNICH — “MALAFYA”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Nov 152016

To borrow from Monty Python, “And Now For Something Completely Different“.

The album we’re about to premiere is perhaps the most unclassifiable record I’ve heard this year. It’s a wild, boisterous, constantly shifting collage of sounds and styles that, when described in mere words, sounds like it shouldn’t work at all — but trust me, this is as much fun as dancing with a drunk Russian bear (and only somewhat less likely to put you in the trauma ward).

And now for my attempt to sum up what you’re about to hear on Malafya, the debut album by Moscow’s Zmey Gorynich: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BALFOR — “CRIMSON STRONGHOLD”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Nov 152016

In this post we present the premiere of a lyric video for a song called “Crimson Stronghold” by the Ukrainian band Balfor, whose ranks include current or former members of Khors, Raventale, and Hate Forest. It comes from their first new album in six years, Black Serpent Rising, which is projected for release by Drakkar Productions on January 15, 2017.

“Crimson Stronghold” is immense in its sound, produced in a way that causes it to shiver the spine and crack the skull. And it’s powerful in other ways as well, apart from the sheer, almost-physical impact of the riffs and rhythms. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TUMBLEWEED DEALER, UNDERGANG, ARCADE MESSIAH, TRISTE TERRE, SUFFER YOURSELF, CADAVERIC INCUBATOR

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Nov 152016

We’re entering the time of year when year-end lists will quickly start popping up, and that means our own annual LISTMANIA frenzy will soon begin. As usual, the earliest of the forthcoming lists (those that will soon appear in print zines), will necessarily neglect albums that are set for release between now and January 1, and even some that were released in the first half of November. We will continue trying to spotlight those, despite succumbing to listmania.

The impending LISTMANIA orgy also means that our own output of reviews and new-music features will likely diminish. In what’s left of our period of normalcy, I have plans to throw as much new quality music your way as I can, including two features today, beginning here. The organizing principle of this collection is simply this: Diversity.

TUMBLEWEED DEALER

To begin today’s round-up I’m stepping off our typical beaten paths of blood-lusting savagery with music from a band I’ve only discovered recently — Tumbleweed Dealer from Montréal. Their third album, Tokes, Hatred & Caffeine, the cover of which is visible above, will be released on November 21, 2016. Continue reading »

SERPENTINE DOMINION: “SERPENTINE DOMINION”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Nov 152016

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this brief recommendation of the self-titled debut album by Serpentine Dominion.)

Serpentine Dominion is a curious side project for Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage fame to be engaging in. This debut release is a great album, a shattering hammer blow to the back of the skull of caustic death metal, combined with metalcore’s melody and energy in only the way Adam D knows how to do best. With the weight of drummer Shannon Lucas and vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher alongside him, the album should certainly raise eyebrows and magnetize people toward this self-titled debut with a great deal of force — and as far as I can tell, it has.

While the music is excellent, and this is an adrenaline-rush-inducing gut-punch of a record that everyone who likes metal in general should pick up, I also can’t shake the feeling that it should’ve been just a KSE album. It would’ve worked just as well. Continue reading »

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