NO CLEAN SINGING

DEVIN TOWNSEND: “TRANSCENDENCE”

Sep 092016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Devin Townsend.)

The man, the myth, the legend, known as Devin Townsend is certainly a creature of many contradictions. And, over the years, his various attempts to integrate and incorporate the many different facets of his nature have certainly produced some of the most compelling, creative, weird, and wacky wonders of Metal’s modern age.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t deny that he’s one of the genre’s most distinct and idiosyncratic personalities.

He’s also never been one to rest on his laurels, or try and go backwards. He’s said as much in interviews himself. And though there are doubtless going to be those who feel like he’s been playing it a little too safe recently (an accusation I wouldn’t necessarily refute, since the majority of Sky Blue felt like a poppier reworking of similar themes and ideas from Epicloud… which itself had its fair share of generic filler), he’s never consciously tried to resurrect or repeat his previous work. Each album is a unique statement reflecting a specific place and time, and a specific state of mind.

Which is why you might be surprised to learn that Transcendence is the closest thing to the Accelerated Evolution days that Devin’s produced since… well, since Accelerated Evolution! Continue reading »

COGNIZANT: “COGNIZANT”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Sep 092016

(Austin Weber reviews the new self-titled release by Cognizant from Dallas, Texas)

The rise and growth of skronky death metal and über-dissonant black metal, influenced equally by the likes of groups such as Gorguts, Deathspell Omega, and legions more, has led to the emergence of some very interesting new groups. And of those influenced by these antecedents, the most under-appreciated seem to me to be the new wave of tech-grind groups who draw elements from both schools of thought and then bring it down into a tight and concise grind format.

Some of you may be aware of my rampant obsession with tech-grind of the skronky and dissonant kind, as reflected in my coverage of groups such as Dendritic Arbor, Blurring, Okazaki Fragments, Cave Moth, Crisis Actor, and Amygdala last year — who now have been re-named as Cognizant. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SAOR AND NATTRAVNEN

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Sep 082016

As usual, I’ve accumulated a long list of new songs and videos that emerged over the last 48 hours, hoping to throw many of them your way in this Thursday round-up. Alas, I’ve been scrambling to leave on a trip this morning for my day job that will take me away until Sunday night. I figured that I had time (barely) to spew praise on maybe two songs, and I picked these two, because they’ve spiked my brain like none of the others.

SAOR

Andy Marshall ought to be declared a Scottish national treasure. Under the name Saor, he has crafted two wonderful albums in 2013’s Roots and 2014’s Aura. And on November 11, a third one will be released, with the title of Guardians. Continue reading »

THE ISOLATION PROCESS: “THE ISOLATION PROCESS”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Sep 082016

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the self-titled album by The Isolation Process from Stockholm, Sweden.)

Wow, my current slate of potential reviews for NCS is pretty packed. Alcest, Obscure Sphinx, Mesarthim, Départe… a triumvirate of awesome British bands you guys might not have heard yet… the new album by the prolific An Autumn For Crippled Children… another edition of The Synn Report on a band who not only just released their fourth album, but who ONLY sing clean… the last quarter of 2016 is looking pretty packed already, and that’s not even taking into account all the other releases – big and small – set to hit the (digital) streets in the next few months.

So why the hell am I pushing all that aside to cover an album that’s now over two and a half years old?

Because I’ve fallen head over heels for it, and just can’t stop listening to it. That’s why. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: TARDIVE DYSKINESIA — “HARMONIC CONFUSION”

Premieres No Responses »

Sep 082016

We have some history with this band from Greece, Tardive Dyskinesia, whose name sent me off googling its meaning after the first song I heard from the band turned me goggle-eyed. That was in December 2009, only one month after we launched this site. I had just discovered the band’s second album, The Sea of See Through Skins, based on a review in DECIBEL magazine which proclaimed, “There hasn’t been a group of this caliber from Hellas since Septicflesh reemerged in 2008 with the ruling Communion album.”

That first post I wrote about the band (here), which included what I found from my google searches about the origin of their name, has been followed by many others. The years have passed, and the fortunes of Tardive Dyskinesia have risen, with appearances at such festivals as Euroblast and the UK Tech-Metal Fest and praise from the likes of George Kollias (Nile), Jocham Jacobs (ex-Textures), and Kelly Shaefer (Atheist). Along the way, they’ve released a third album (2012’s Static Apathy in Fast Forward), and now they’re on the verge of releasing a fourth — Harmonic Confusion — which we’re giving you the chance to hear in its entirety in advance of its official September 9 release by Playfalse Records. Continue reading »

LIZARD PROFESSOR: “ECCENTRICITY” (REVIEW AND STREAM)

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Sep 082016

(In this post Austin Weber shares with us a full stream of the new album by Lizard Professor from Fort Worth, Texas, and excerpts from his review.)

In the world of writing about music, sometimes we have to work on a rush, and sometimes unconventional methods of delivering on time are needed. Point in case, our beloved overlord Islander is fleeing town again for reasons unknown. And in order to be able to get this post to him in time to get it ready to be posted before he leaves this Thursday morning, I figured I’d do something different to make it happen.

I say all this because today (this Tuesday, which is now the past!) I spoke with Islander about seeing if I could do a blurb and post at NCS about the Lizard Professor early full album stream I have going up at my other gig at Metal-Injection. I was asking because Lizard Professor are a fairly unknown quantity, one I felt might benefit from being cross-posted for our audience of fine readers here at NoCleanSinging. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DECOMPOSED — “DRENCHED IN WOUNDS”

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Sep 072016

The cover art above, which was created by Misanthropic-Art, is what first drew our attention in April to Wither, the third album by Sweden’s Decomposed, which will be released by Chaos Records on October 3. And having been seduced by the artwork, we were then ravaged by the grisly, bone-grinding, pavement-splitting, head-hammering death metal delivered by the album’s first advance track, “By Nothingness Crowned”. Later on, a second song called “Submerged” continued the demolition job, and today we get to bring you one more chapter in this Wither-ing onslaught through our premiere of “Drenched In Wounds”.

Decomposed began as the solo project of Jesper Ekstål, and although it grew into a full band by 2010, for this album Decomposed has returned to where it began, with only Jesper Ekstål remaining. Wither, which is Decomposed’s third album, was composed and performed by him, along with drummer Emil Leijon. Continue reading »

VADER: “IRON TIMES”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Sep 072016

(In this post DGR reviews the new EP by the Polish legends, Vader.)

It’s not too often that we review an EP ahead of a full disc, but Vader’s Iron Times is one that I’ve been privately intending to get around to, especially since I would hazard to say that for metal fans, Iron Times really is a “fun” listen — and I’ll explain what I mean by that.

Iron Times came out in Mid-August, which is about the time I got in my first listen, and with four tracks, two of which are covers, Iron Times is an unassuming release, one that is quietly understated with its album art — but the moment you press “play”, Iron Times tells a much faster, heavier story. However, it was Vader themselves revealing the album art to their new album The Empire, which is due out in early November, that triggered this review, especially since the two songs on Iron Times that are not the cover track or a brief Panzer X resurrection will be present on the full album. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TAIGA — “Похоть (LUST)”

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Sep 072016

Earlier this month we learned about a black metal band from Siberian Russia named Taiga and their third album Sky, which will be co-released on September 16 by Satanath Records’ sub-label Symbol Of Domination (Belarus) and United By Chaos (Finland). When we first wrote about the album, two songs had been released for listening — “Вверх” and “Небо ещё не погибло” — and today it’s our pleasure to bring you a third. This new song is called “Похоть” — which in English means “Lust”..

For those who aren’t familiar with Taiga, the band was founded in the city of Tomsk by Nikolai Seredov from the thrash band Стахановцы (Stakhanovtsi) and the funeral doom band Funeral Tears and by Andrey Chernov, guitarist of the military/martial industrial metal band Panzertank (although he was not involved in the recording of Sky). Since then they’ve released a handful of EPs and singles as well as two previous albums, Ashen Light (2014) and Gaia (2015). This year the band also added keyboardist and creator of ambient sounds Aleksey “Satanath” Korolyov, and he also participated in the recording of Sky. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (BY DGR): KHONSU, DÉPARTE, FROM THE VASTLAND, WASTEWALKER, EVERGREY, HEAVEN SHALL BURN, HANNES GROSSMANN

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Sep 062016

(DGR prepared this large roundup of new music streams, with one item added by the editor.)

I’ve been slowly gathering up this veritable feast of heavy metal for this roundup, basically doing my usual duty of being the last line of defense for metal news that often pops up and we didn’t catch right away for a variety of reasons. This time around, I’ve got a huge collection of six [now seven] different items, some of which I’m sure you’ve likely crossed paths with but we didn’t dedicate words to and others because they may not be in the usual NCS coverage wheelhouse. I even managed to include some serious lighter fare this time, to help brighten up the mood musically after the first two full onslaughts [now three] hit your musical listening systems.

So let’s kick this thing off with a real quick one that happened as I was writing this intro, and then dive into the meat of it and romp around in its innards for a while.

KHONSU – ARTWORK TRAILER / “A DREAM OF EARTH” SNIPPET

This one is going to be quick, mostly because there isn’t a huge block of heavy metal music proper — but it just happened, and I’ll be goddamned if I don’t say that I am immensely excited for this disc. Continue reading »

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