NO CLEAN SINGING

VADER: “IRON TIMES”

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)”

Premieres 4 Responses »

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 »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SINGULARITY — “VOID WALKER”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Sep 062016

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Arizona’s Singularity.)

By now you should be at least peripherally aware of Singularity, Arizona’s leading purveyors of Blackened Tech-Death, as we (and by “we”, I am mainly referring to regular contributor Austin Weber) have covered them several times before, most recently when premiering the band’s lyric video for “The Refusal”, the second track on their just-released new EP Void Walker.

Now I’ll admit up front that I was never quite as taken by the group’s debut (self-titled) album as some of our other writers and readers. It definitely had its fair share of stand-out moments, that’s for sure, but the band’s slightly scatterbrained, “kitchen-sink” approach to songwriting often left a fair bit to be desired in my opinion. And the less said about the perplexingly flat and affectless clean vocals the better…

Still, although the quartet didn’t quite manage to sustain the highest level of quality (in my opinion anyway) for the entire 51:30 run-time of their debut, the more restrictive confines of the EP format seem to have put the spurs to their creative juices, as (mixed metaphors aside) Void Walker is by some margin the best thing they’ve put their name to. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: öOoOoOoOoOo (CHENILLE) — “NO GUTS = NO MASTERS”

Premieres 12 Responses »

Sep 062016

It’s fair to say that most of the music we feature at this site could be imprisoned for sonic assault and battery, arson, premeditated murder, and/or practicing brain surgery without a license. This next song is off those well-beaten paths (pun intended). Though just as deranged in its own way, it operates on the senses with different twisted techniques.

The name of the band is öOoOoOoOoOo. The name could be pronounced as it is spelled, I suppose, sort of like the sound of an extended orgasm. But it isn’t meant to be pronounced. At least I don’t think it’s meant to be pronounced; I’m not really sure. My guess is that it’s more like a pictogram, an arrangement of letters that resembles the creature from which the band takes its actual name — which is Chenille in French, Caterpillar in English, कमला in Nepali, and so on.

The debut album of öOoOoOoOoOo is called Samen, and it will be released on October 21 by Apathia Records. öOoOoOoOoOo is a collaboration between Asphodel (the former singer of the avant-garde metal band Pin-Up Went Down) and multi-instrumentalist Baptiste Bertrand; they were joined on this album by Aymeric Thomas of Pryapisme as session drummer. The song we have for you is “No Guts = No Masters“. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: OV SHADOWS AND SHRINE OF INSANABILIS

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Sep 052016

In this post I’m combining reviews of two short releases that were recommended by friends whose names may be familiar to long-time readers of our site — the first by .jh (Obitus) and the second by eiterorm. I owe them thanks, because both of these releases are excellent, and they also complement each other very well.

OV SHADOWS

Between 2008 and 2014 the Swedish band Waning released two albums and four shorter works, including a contribution to the Elemental Nightmares series of splits in 2014 that we wrote about incessantly. The song on that 2014 split turns out to be the last of Waning’s output, because at the start of this month they announced that the band had ended. However, members of Waning (one of whom is also in the aforementioned Obitus) and Black Drop Effect have formed a new group named Ov Shadows, and they have recently released a three-track EP called Monologues. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRYSTALMOORS — “MEMORIES”

Premieres No Responses »

Sep 052016

It was on the Ides of March this year when I discovered a video for a song called “Over the Same Lands” by the band CrystalMoors from the lush Cantabrian region of Spain, nestled between between the Bay of Biscay and the Cantabrian Mountains. I was carried away by the music. The beating heart of this high-energy song is a gripping riff that seizes attention right from the start, and there’s a lot more to like about the track — from the galloping, warlike charge that comes later, to the pagan/folk chorus melody, to the mix of deep roars, high shrieks, and clean vocals. The physical setting of the video is also quite beautiful.

That song is part of a double-album CrystalMoors release coming our way from Casus Belli Musica on the 9th of September. The first of the two CDs is separately titled The Sap That Feeds Us, and the second one, La Montaña, consists of unplugged versions of both old and new songs played with folk instruments. Today we’re very happy to bring you the premiere of another song from this new release, the track that opens The Sap That Feeds Us: “Memories“. Continue reading »

LABOR DAY DELAY

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Sep 052016

I checked the store of data about our putrid site at Google Analytics today and learned that over the last year 41.32% of our visitors were located in the United States, which means that 58.68% came to us from other lands. Which means that on average, most of you reading this won’t be observing a holiday today. It is, however, a holiday here in the U.S. Which means that I’m just lying around in two-day-old underwear enjoying the pleasures of doing not a goddamned thing. This is how we celebrate Labor Day — by not laboring.

The Labor Day holiday was created by an act of Congress on June 28, 1894. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (of course), the holiday “is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LLUVIA, JASSA, ENDE, VOMIT OF DOOM, JORDABLOD, HIRSI

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Sep 042016

I’ve been messing with this site for almost 7 years and I continue to be astonished by how much good metal from all over the world appears on a weekly basis. And so a lot of new music awaits you in this round-up of metal in a blackened vein, but there could have been more. In fact, I forced myself to separate new music from five other bands and assemble those tracks in another one of these posts, though I can’t be sure I’ll finish it before being diverted by other things.

I’m starting off with tracks from two new releases that are headed our way from the Fallen Empire label, and then branching off into other directions.

LLUVIA

We haven’t given enough attention to Lluvia (a one-man project from León, Mexico), even though the band’s last album Eternidad Solemne was celebrated in our friend Ben Smasher’s list of 2015’s best albums (and he’s not the only writer around the web who embraced the album last year). We have another opportunity to do better, because Lluvia has already completed a new album, the name of which is Enigma. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (THORNS)

THE REARVIEW MIRROR 5 Responses »

Sep 042016

For this Sunday’s backward look into metal’s past, the subject is the Norwegian band Thorns, whose line-up over time has included many of black metal’s true luminaries and whose story has been intertwined with some of the most notorious chapter’s in the genre’s history. The band produced only one album (though hopes have never died for a second one), but it is extraordinary.

The band’s roots can be traced to a two-man outfit called Stigma Diabolicum which came to life in 1989, the two men being Snorre W. Ruch (guitar, bass, and piano/synth) and Marius Vold (vocals, programmed drums). They were eventually joined by a live drummer (none other than Bård Eithun, who adopted the name Faust when he became a member of Emperor) as well as bassist Harald Eilertsen. They anointed themselves with the name Thorns around 1990.

The following two years they released demos entitled Grymyrk and Trøndertun (which are widely regarded as significantly influencing the development of the Norwegian black metal sound), and then in 1993 Ruch was convicted as an accomplice to the murder of Euronymous by Varg Vikernes, while Bård Eithun was also convicted of church arsons and for stabbing a stranger to death — and those events brought Thorns to a halt until Snorre Ruch was released from prison. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries