NO CLEAN SINGING

THY KINGDOM WILL BURN: “THE LOSS AND REDEMPTION”

Mar 272025

(As of late our writer DGR has been leaning into melodic death metal, and that tilted him into the new album by Finland’s Thy Kingdom Will Burn, released in January by Scarlet Records.)

Any long-standing musical genre will develop its own regional flavorings over time. Many of them are echoes of the first handful of groups to break through in that particular style, later to become ingrained in the blood of any following acts. The tower of influences effectively comes crashing down to be compacted into a simple statement ‘this is recognizable as having come from…’ and so on.

This is how people end up specializing in styles from certain countries, and with a practiced ear and enough familiarity, you can conjure the basic tenets of a certain region simply by seeing it referenced in front of a genre listing. Some are way more prominent than others and those that fly under the metal detection sphere instead feel like an undercurrent and noticeable pattern.

Finland has been a fun country in this respect because the one genre they truly seem to dominate is the folk-metal and folk-song-inspired genre-sphere. There’s a plethora of groups all specializing in music that sways with the rhythm of drinking songs and veers hard on the edge of feeling like an extreme take on power-metal’s sugar-laden hooks. Were Finland to wear crowns, that would be one of a scant handful teetering precariously upon its head.

No shock then, that many of those melodic sensibilities – and even particular recognizable motifs – seem to have bled through into the country’s other musical aspirations, including what seems to be a recent revitilization of its melodeath sphere. Continue reading »

EUPHROSYNE – MORUS

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Mar 262025

(Andy Synn explores the depths of grief with the debut album from Greece’s Euphrosyne)

As someone who was a big fan of Euphrosyne‘s debut EP, Keres, back in 2022 – so much that it took a spot in my “Top Ten EPs of 2022” (and arguably would have climbed even higher had it been released a little earlier) – it was a given that I was going to be the one to write about their much anticipated first full-length, Morus.

Unfortunately, time and tide (and other things beginning with “t”) worked against me a little bit last week, so I wasn’t able to cover the record prior to release.

But, hopefully the band will forgive me for the delay once they read what I’m about to write.

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VISCERAL — “LOATHE”

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Mar 262025

(written by Islander)

Time has flown, two years and almost five months since we last premiered music from the Portuguese death metal band Visceral. Back then the occasion was the impending release of Visceral‘s debut album The Tree of Venomous Fruit. Back then, the band’s veteran mastermind Bruno Joel Correia was accompanied by members of such bands as Enthroned, Lucifyre, Grog, Earth Electric, Gaerea, and Oak.

And now, at last, Visceral return with their second album, Eyes, Teeth and Bones, which has been set for release on April 4th by Raging Planet Records. The label accurately describes the music as a “blistering, high-speed death metal onslaught”, but it is also more than that, and we have an eye-opening, jaw-dropping example of how much more it brings through our premiere of a frightening lyric video for the song “Loathe“. Continue reading »

clipping. — “DEAD CHANNEL SKY”

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Mar 262025

(This is our friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth‘s review of the latest album by the clipping. trio from L.A. and their guests, which has been out on the Sub Pop label since March 14th. And it’s actually the second mention of them in our pages; the first time, almost six years ago, was here.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. There’s a very good chance that you’re not familiar with the noise hip-hop trio clipping., or if you are you may be wondering why they’re being discussed here on No Clean Singing. The answer to that question is because Islander said I could review their new album, mostly, but also because their music is uncompromising and esoteric and has plenty to offer to metal fans who are a little more open-minded.

The trio, comprised of multi-hyphenate rapper-actor-Broadway star Daveed Diggs (best known for filling the roles of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette in the original stage production of Hamilton and the Snowpiercer TV series) and producers William Hutson (Rale) and Jonathan Snipes (Captain Ahab), recently released their fifth full-length album Dead Channel Sky, the album I am here to discuss. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CONAN

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Mar 262025

(Lured by the impending release of a new Conan album on Heavy Psych Sounds, our Comrade Aleks got in touch with band leader Jon Davis, and below you’ll find their discussion — and the three singles released so far from Violence Dimension.)

The UK’s heaviest band strikes back with all the power of the gargantuan barbarian sword. The name itself fit well for the music that Jon Davis and his companions played from the start – dirty, ugly, and damn heavy sludge-doom with a hypnotizing stoner vibe. Conan honed their skills with each new album and made a huge leap onward from the point where they started to their current firm position in the global extreme metal scene.

Conan built the legend on their own, but moreover they somehow managed to develop their sound further with the new album Violence Dimension, a masterpiece of heaviness and brutality. Somehow we caught Jon for a while during the band’s current tour and here’s what we were able to learn from him:

ALLEGAEON – THE OSSUARY LENS

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Mar 252025

(Andy Synn takes a look at the new album from Allegaeon, where everything old is new again)

To misquote Oscar Wilde:

“…to lose one singer may be regarded as misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.“

Now, of course, I’m not blaming Allegaeon or saying they’ve done anything wrong, as the departures of both vocalists – with original screamer Ezra Haynes submitting his resignation in 2015 and his replacement, Riley McShane, handing in his marching papers in 2022 – seemed to be pretty amicable, all things considered.

But it’s certainly true that their vocal issues have a tendency to come at inconvenient times, just as the band are really hitting their stride (both creatively and commercially)… which is precisely why it’s understandable that the band would choose to bring Haynes back into the fold for another ride, as his instantly-recognisable voice and distinctive delivery definitely played a big part in putting the band on the map in their early years.

Of course, as we all know, trying to rekindle any sort of relationship after time spent separated is always a risk – what if you’ve simply grown too far apart to ever reconnect? – so the biggest question which The Ossuary Lens (out next week) has to answer is… is the chemistry still there, or is this rekindled romance doomed to fizzle out?

AN NCS PREMIERE: OPUS EST SANARE — “AXIS OF REGENERATION”

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Mar 252025

(written by Islander)

Searching through our site’s vast archive, I confirmed what I knew, which is that I’ve been following and writing about the musical activities of the cellist Kakophonix (Christopher Edward Brown) for a long time — since the fall of 2017, to be precise.

Over these last 7+ years, most of the attention has been paid to the Kakophonix solo project Hvile I Kaos (articles collected here), most recently in the context of premiering and reviewing the album Lower Order Manifestations, released last summer by Eisenwald and House of Inkantation. However, I and others here at NCS have also covered songs and records by other bands and performers in which Kakophonix performed as a guest musician (and there have been many of those).

As I explained in that album premiere last summer, Kakophonix has decided to lay Hvile I Kaos to rest; Lower Order Manifestations was the final work of that project, whose music Kakophonix labeled as “Cellistic Black Metal” or “Black Ritual Chamber Musick.” Although closing that book, however, Kakophonix has begun a new chapter under a new name — Opus Est Sanare — and has shared with us this “Mission Statement” for the new endeavor: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VETUS SANGUIS — “TROMBETAS DIABÓLICAS”

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Mar 252025

(written by Islander)

Helldprod Records has marked April 16th as the release date for the debut album of the Portuguese black metal band Vetus Sanguis, which is the solo work of the creator known as Perversus. The album’s name is Dimensão Horrenda, and it builds upon the music presented in the band’s 2022 demo, Sangue Velho.

As a sign (or rather a warning) of what lies within the new album, today we’re premiering the fascinating track “Trombetas Diabólicas“. Continue reading »

NATTVERD: “TIDLOES NAADESLOES”

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Mar 252025

(Our Norway-based contributor Chile returns to NCS with the following review of a just-released album by the Norwegian black metal band Nattverd.)

The change of seasons is upon us, that much is true. Mind’s undying love of wintry landscapes and frozen vistas will be put on hold for the next seven or eight months, while the physical form will be thankful for not needing the concentration and dexterity of an Olympic ice-skater just to get to the local shop so it could diverge resources on other needful things in the body. Also affected by this change are numerous black metal bands across Scandinavia famous for preferring to take their promo pictures in frozen, snowy environments. Soon enough, winter is, well, coming.

Until then, we work with what we have. And what we have is plenty of new metal from Scandinavia coming to these shores in their longboats wielding sharp riffs in our general direction. One such example is the outstanding Norwegian black metal band Nattverd whose releases so far may have passed under the radar of a wider audience, but their new album Tidloes naadesloes should be the one to take them further up the ladder of chaos. Continue reading »

AREIS – THE CALLING

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Mar 242025

(Andy Synn kicks off a brand new week with a review of fearsome French foursome Areis)

Last week featured an absolute bonanza of new album releases, at least some of which we’ll hopefully be able to catch you up on over the next couple of weeks.

But one name which jumped out at me – although I couldn’t at first put my finger on why – was Areis.

It didn’t take me too long, however, to remember that back in 2021 (which simultaneously feels like just yesterday and a thousand years ago) I stumbled across the band’s self-titled debut album and instantly took a liking to it, despite not knowing much about the band themselves.

And although I didn’t have a chance to give the group a full write up at the time, that’s something I’d like to correct with their second full-length, The Calling.

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