NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECHELON — “PLAGUE OF THE ALTRUISTIC”

Oct 032016

I’m trying very hard to tone down the giddiness I feel as I’m writing this. If the words just peter out before I finish, you’ll know I had an aneurism from the effort. I’ve already wet myself, but the less said about that the better. And the cause of this overflow of excitement? First of all, two of my own personal metal gods — Dave Ingram and Rogga Johansson — have teamed up in a band named Echelon. And furthermore, we get to bring you a premiere of the first single from Echelon’s second album The Brimstone Aggrandizement. And furthermore, it’s as good as I imagined it would be.

Yes, you read that correctly. Dave Ingram, the former Bolt Thrower and Benediction vocalist and current vocalist for Hail of Bullets, has joined forces with guitarist Rogga Johansson, whose resume is nearly long enough to bridge the chasm between Earth and Moon and includes Paganizer, Demiurg, Putrevore, and Megascavenger. And that’s not all — check out the rest of Echelon’s savage line-up for this new album: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): SORDIDE, ENDLESS LOSS, CULTO NEGRO, 9 BEDS

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Oct 022016

This is Part 2 of a collection of metal in a black vein that I began earlier today. In this second half of the round-up I’ve chosen a couple of advance tracks from forthcoming albums and two recent EPs. I’ve again made these choices in part to provide variety and in part (of course) because the music is all very good.

SORDIDE

Sordide are from Rouen, France, with one album to their credit so far (2014’s La France a peur) and a 2015 single (Crève salope, a Renaud cover song). Their second album, Fuir la lumière (escape the light), is now set for release through Avantgarde Music on October 5th. A double-LP version will follow from Avantgarde Music, Immortal Frost Productions, Lost Pilgrims Records, and Saka Cost, and the tape version will be released by Breathe Plastic Records.

As best I can recall, I haven’t encountered Sordide’s music before, but I sure as hell am loving the first advance track from their new album. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): EASTERN FRONT, FLUISTERAARS, INSONUS, SURTR

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 15 Responses »

Oct 022016

We didn’t have an actual music post yesterday, so I’ve doubled up on this Sunday’s Shades of Black installment. In Part 1 I’ve selected three new songs, the first of which comes with a video, plus a full stream of a new demo. I’ll post Part 2 later today after I’ve finished writing it, barring a meteor strike on my house or an armed insurrection in the loris compound.

EASTERN FRONT

The British black metal band Eastern Front released their third album Empire (via Cacophonous Records) two days ago. Since their last album, 2014’s Descent Into Genocide, they’ve had a change of vocalists, with frontwoman Marder replacing frontman Nagant. On the official release date, the band also debuted a video for the third track on Empire, “The Fire Consumes“. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (CRYPTOPHOBISM)

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET, THE REARVIEW MIRROR 7 Responses »

Oct 022016

Yesterday I provided a teaser about the subject of today’s look back into metal’s past. I discovered this band and their two demos from the ’90s through a YouTube link to the song I streamed in yesterday’s post, which popped up in a Facebook conversation between a well-known underground label owner and an even more well-known musician, both of whom have enough gray hair that they may actually have heard these demos around the time of their release.

The band in question is Cryptophobism, and they were from Varna, Bulgaria. Their two demos were released in 1993 and 1998; the first one was a recording of a rehearsal. The one I’m focusing on here is the 1998 demo, which contains four tracks totaling about 15 minutes, one of which also appeared on the rehearsal demo. Continue reading »

BLOG BREAk

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Oct 012016

I’m going to spend today catching up on some personal shit, doing some shit for my day job, and trying to finish a couple of reviews that have been languishing all week and that I hope won’t be shit when I’m finished with them.

I tried to negotiate with the loris horde to see if they would team up and write about some music for today. That didn’t work out so well. But on the upside, I’ve nearly got the bleeding stopped, though I don’t have as much ass as I used to have. One of these days I’ll learn not to turn my back on those vicious fuckers.

Anyway, I’m taking a break. But just in case you’re all caught up on the ton of music we wrote about over the last week, I’ll leave you with this magnificent little monster. If you can’t guess what it is (and I’ll be really impressed if you do), I’ll explain in tomorrow’s Rearview Mirror post: Continue reading »

IN NOVEMBER, DEATHSPELL OMEGA WILL RELEASE “THE SYNARCHY OF MOLTEN BONES”

Metal News 5 Responses »

Sep 302016

Gaze upon the image above. It is the cover of a new release by Deathspell Omega. The name of that release is The Synarchy of Molten Bones. It will become available on November 8, 2016. It consists of these four tracks:

1. The Synarchy of Molten Bones
2. Famished for Breath
3. Onward where Most with Ravin I may meet
4. Internecine Iatrogenesis

It is now available for pre-order on CD, vinyl, and digitally — here: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: VANHELGA — “ODE & ELEGY”

Premieres No Responses »

Sep 302016

I discovered Sweden’s Vanhelga three years ago through the release of their wonderful EP, Sommar (reviewed here). For that EP, Vanhelga’s creator Jacob Ottosson (aka “145188”) was joined for the first time by Johan Gabrielson (“1853”), a former member of the late, lamented Lifelover, as a vocalist and lyricist. To be honest, that Lifelover connection was what first drew me into Vanhelga’s music, although the band had previously released two full-length albums and five shorter works. Sommar made such a deep and lasting impression that I included one of its tracks on our list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

Vanhelga’s third album in 2014, Längtan, was yet another wondrous revelation, and by then Jacob Ottosson was joined not only by Gabrielson but also by guitarists J. Ejnarsson (Taketh) and Wadström (ex-Skogstron) and drummer D. Franzén.

And now we find ourselves on the verge of yet another Vanhelga album, this one entitled Ode & Elegy. It will be released on October 1, and today it’s our pleasure to bring you a stream of the album in its entirety. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES FINAL ROUND OF BANDS FOR 2017

Metal News 8 Responses »

Sep 302016

I’m a few hours late spreading this announcement, but better late than never. The news is that Maryland Deathfest has announced the final round of confirmed bands for the 2017 edition of America’s best metal fest, set to take place in Baltimore on May 25-28. Here they be, cut and pasted from the MDF Facebook:

Candlemass (Sweden) – Nightfall set
Tiamat (Sweden) – Exclusive U.S. appearance
Grave (Sweden) – Exclusive U.S. appearance
Root (Czech Republic) – Exclusive U.S. appearance
Oranssi Pazuzu (Finland)
Acheron
GosT
Samothrace
Occultist
Mother Brain
Fucking Invincible
Organ Dealer
Junior Bruce
Myxoma
Flash Out
Night Raids
Disparo (Australia) Continue reading »

A GUEST REVIEW OF “GREEN METAL / DETERMINISTIC CHAOS” — THE NEW SPLIT BY BOTANIST AND OSKOREIEN

Reviews No Responses »

Sep 302016

EDITOR’S INTRO: Thanks to rendezvous points such as Maryland Deathfest and Migration Fest, we’ve learned that our allies at Metal Bandcamp are not only great writers with dependably good taste in music, they are also very fine human beings. And so it’s with great pleasure that we’re able to bring you this guest review of a fantastic new split by the California one-man projects Botanist and Oskoreien written by Metal Bandcamp’s Justin Collins. We ardently hope this will not be the last time he graces our pages with his words.

******

A few days ago, Islander gave us a preview of an Oskoreien song from an upcoming split with Botanist. I’ve made no secret of my enthusiasm for Botanist (see here and here and here ad nauseum), so I’m going to delve into Botanist’s side first, with no disrespect meant to Oskoreien.

BOTANIST – GREEN METAL

Most people probably know about Botanist by now, but I always feel compelled to give a beginner’s course when I talk about new Botanist music, because there’s no easy summing up of this project. (If you know this spiel and want to go all “Choose Your Own Adventure,” skip ahead to paragraph 5 now.) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): KHONSU, SCORCHED, KOSMOKRATOR, TOTTEN KORPS, IMPURE ZIGGURAT, SATANIC MIGHT, LETHAL SHÖCK

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Sep 302016

Well, as I warned in Part 1 of this round-up yesterday, my fucking day job did indeed screw up my plan to post Part 2 later that same day. As I also warned, the music in this one is more obscure and arguably more ferocious than the first collection. But believe me, it’s damned good stuff.

And because of the delay since yesterday, of course I’ve discovered one more new thing to tack on to what I originally planned, and it’s the first item in this collection.

KHONSU

We’ve been very eager and excited about the new album coming our way from Norway’s Khonsu, the name of which is The Xun Protectorate, and this morning the first single was released. Continue reading »

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