NO CLEAN SINGING

BLAKE JUDD (NACHTMYSTIUM) GIVES AN INTERVIEW

Sep 182016

Last night when I was just about to go to sleep I checked the NCS e-mail, and the most recent message sitting there was from an Argentinian magazine named Jedbangers telling me about a 3-hour interview of Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd they had conducted by phone in June, with a link to an excerpt of the interview they’ve recently uploaded to YouTube. Figuring that I would regret the decision, I chose to put off sleep long enough to start listening to it.

Having read so many despicable stories about the guy (including some from his former friends that weren’t intended for public consumption), I wondered why I would be bothering with it — but anyway, I started the YouTube clip, expecting to hear some self-serving bullshit. But before the interview started, these words appeared on the screen: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GOST, EARTHSIDE, SLEEP TOKEN, VOLA, UNISON THEORY, ETHS

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Sep 172016

The rule stated in explicit terms in the title of this site has been riddled with exceptions beginning even in the early years, and it has become more riddled over time. But on a percentage basis, it’s still mainly THE RULE. Why then does this post exist?

I suppose even I need a short break from the generally bestial and infernal ferocity that’s my daily metal bread and butter. And these songs happen to have struck a chord, despite the fact that the singing is mostly clean and most of the music relies more on syncopated rhythms and a particularly recognizable guitar sound than what I usually listen to.

Perhaps something here will also prove appealing to you. And if not, there will be a Shades of Black Post on Sunday, and you know what that means.
Continue reading »

VIRVUM: “ILLUMINANCE”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Sep 162016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the Swiss band Virvum.)

There’s been a lot of great Tech Death albums released in the last couple of years (and a lot of widdly, weedly, directionless dross too), so much so that it’s become far too easy to accidentally overlook or underplay something that later turns out to be a real gem in the constant rush of the new and the intoxicating pleasure of discovery.

As a matter of fact, I frequently find myself (re)discovering artists and releases whom I remember initially appreciating but ultimately never quite had the time or the impetus to really dig into the way I should.

Simply put, there’s just not enough time in the day/week/month/year to give everything the attention it deserves, and some things are always going to slip through the cracks.

And that’s not what I want to happen to Virvum, because their debut album Illuminance is one damn fine slab of scintillating progressive extremity. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SWINE OVERLORD — “A DELUSION’S PARADISE”

Premieres 1 Response »

Sep 162016

Once upon a time we had a semi-regular feature at this site called “Eye Catchers” in which we chose new music to explore based solely on the album art, testing the hypothesis that cool artwork usually means cool music. This new album, Entheogenesis, by the beautifully named Swine Overlord would have easily qualified for that series. Seriously, gaze for a moment more at the cover art by Chinese artist Yang Guang (Equilibrium, Putridity, Inanimate Existence), who we’ve featured repeatedly in the daily art posts on our Facebook page.

Having been drawn to this album by the artwork and the band’s name, I began to explore the music… and it definitely tends to support the hypothesis of “Eye Catchers”. But judge for yourselves, because we have a sample of Entheogenesis to share with you — the 9th of fourteen tracks on the album: “A Delusion’s Paradise“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CONSTRUCT OF LETHE — “ASCENDIT EX INFEROS”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 162016

There is a lot to like about the new EP by Construct of Lethe. The cover art alone is enough to seize attention. And the concept of the EP is equally intriguing: It’s a reimagining of one of Mark Twain’s lesser known and most controversial works, published after his death, named Letters From Earth, in which Twain expressed his disdain for Christianity through essays and a short story consisting of 11 letters written by Satan to the archangels Gabriel and Michael (you can read them here).

And then there is the music itself… which hits like a 10-ton hammer.

The name of the EP is The Grand Machination, and it will be released by the band on October 7. What we have for you today is a stream of the second of six tracks on the EP, a song called “Ascendit Ex Inferos (Ascent from Hell)“. It tells the story of Lucifer’s discovery of Christ’s birth, and his decision to walk among people in human form. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: JUST BEFORE DAWN — “A TRIBUTE (WE WILL REMEMBER THEM)”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Sep 162016

This has been a great week for the debut of new metal (and the track you’re about to hear continues the trend), but it has also been a particularly sad one, because on September 14 — the one-year anniversary of the death of Martin ‘Kiddie’ Kearns — Bolt Thrower announced that the band would be interred with him.

Bolt Thrower’s music will never die, even though the band will not move forward without Kiddie. BT’s influence on heavy metal, and death metal in particular, has been vast, and it will be timeless. As one sign of this, we bring you a very special premiere. For 24 hours only, we will stream a medley of Bolt Thrower songs recorded by the Swedish death metal band Just Before Dawn, who will be very familiar to readers of this site. The medley is an amazing track and a most fitting tribute to an irreplaceable group. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: IN THE WOODS… — “PURE”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres No Responses »

Sep 162016

In recent months we’ve had the pleasure of bringing you two songs from one of the most remarkable “comeback” albums in recent years, and one of the most distinctive and accomplished of this year by any band. The album is Pure, and the band is Norway’s In the Woods…, and today the album is being released by Debemur Morti Productions. To help spread the word, we are bringing you the full stream of the album for the first time.

We have already spilled many words about Pure over the course of our previous song premieres and our full review of the album, and especially because you can now hear it for yourselves, extensive repetition probably isn’t the wisest use of our space. But I do think these excerpts from Andy Synn’s review are worth repeating: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INANIMATE EXISTENCE — “CALLING FROM A DREAM”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Sep 152016

The new album by Inanimate Existence is a true musical kaleidoscope, composed of shifting pieces of brilliance that fall into place in unexpected and exciting ways. This won’t come as a shock to people familiar with the band’s first two albums, yet this album is likely to be surprising even to die-hard fans of this Bay Area band.

We have a full stream of the new album at the end of this post. Its title is Calling From A Dream, and it will be released by Unique Leader Records on September 16 — tomorrow. As you’re about to find out, there is truth in this statement from the band about the new album: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A SPLIT BY LITHOTOME AND MOROS

Premieres No Responses »

Sep 152016

When this new split becomes available in physical form, you’ll be able to hold it comfortably in the palm of your hand. Just a little plastic case with spools of tape inside, more fragile than your phone and weighing just a couple of ounces. Such an unassuming little thing… even with that nasty visage gazing back at you from the cover with bleeding eyes. It seems so incongruous compared to the weight and power of the monstrous sound lurking within, waiting patiently for the chance to get at your mind, like the horde of evils in Pandora’s box.

The two Philadelphia-area bands participating in this split are Lithotome and Moros. Both are somewhat secretive; neither has a long history of releases; both are stacked with talent of a particular kind, which is on full display in this split. Both also happen to be bands I’ve been ardently wishing would give us new music, and now they finally have — and you shall hear it right here, in advance of its release by Dullest Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HOBBS’ ANGEL OF DEATH — “WALK MY PATH”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Sep 152016

For this listener, the new album by Hobbs’ Angel of Death has been an enormous surprise. From song to song, my smile grew wider and wider when I first heard it, my eyes popping bigger and bigger until I began to fear they’d rocket out of my head and explode against the wall in smears of jelly. The thing is a pure rush of molten metal guitar gold.

I’m sure one reason why the album came as such a huge surprise was that, unlike many of you out there, I was unfamiliar with Peter Hobbs’ history during metal’s glory years in the ’80s, perhaps because bands from Australia in those days labored mainly in the deep underground as compared to their European and North American counterparts.

I’ve learned that his band released two demos in 1987 (Angel of Death and Virgin Metal Invasion From Down Under) and then a self-titled debut album in 1988 on the Steamhammer label. Seven years passed before a second album would emerge (1995’s Inheritance), and then the band broke up.

Hobbs re-formed the band seven more years later, and there have been sporadic festival and tour appearances since then, but only now has Hobbs’ Angel of Death produced an album of brand new music, more than 20 years after the last one. The album’s name is Heaven Bled, and it will be released by Hells Headbangers on October 14. Continue reading »

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