NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: NETHERBIRD — “THE GRANDER VOYAGE”

Oct 272016

Tomorrow (October 28), Black Lodge Records will release The Grander Voyage, the new fourth album by Sweden’s Netherbird, and on the eve of the release we are pleased to bring you a full stream of this diverse and dynamic new album — prefaced by this statement from frontman Nephente:

“I am very pleased to now finally release The Grander Voyage, our fourth full-length album. It is clearly a new chapter for Netherbird and I think it is easily the best album we have written and recorded. It will be evident that we are taking more risks and also showing more of the broad spectra of influences that we have as a band, though our base is and will always be the Scandinavian black and death metal underground. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: STEEL HOOK PROSTHESES — “CALM MORBIDITY”

Premieres 1 Response »

Oct 272016

Tomorrow — October 28 — is the date set by Malignant Records for the release of Calm Morbidity, the tenth album by the Dallas duo of J. Stillings and L. Kerr known as Steel Hook Prostheses. Although the band have been churning out death industrial music for roughly 15 years, assembling an extensive discography along the way, Calm Morbidity is our site’s first exposure to their music. And so, much as we’d like to provide comparisons and to describe the musical place that Calm Morbidity occupies within the context of the band’s previous releases, all we can do today is take this new album on its own.

It contains nearly an hour of music — although “contains” is a misleading term for sounds that are constantly clawing through cage walls and coming for your throat, and your sanity. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RUDRA — “ANCIENT FOURTH”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Oct 272016

Discerning and adventurous listeners know full well the ground-breaking impact of Singapore’s Rudra over the course of a career that dates back to 1992, and yet, at least in the West, their profile is not as elevated as it should be. We can only hope that the band’s eighth album, Enemy of Duality, will win the widespread attention it deserves. The striking song from the album that we’re bringing you today — “Ancient Fourth” — is certainly compelling evidence of Rudra’s remarkable talents.

Rudra claim for themselves the genre term “Vedic metal”, which is a form of blackened death metal in which the band (who are themselves of Indian lineage) have often incorporated elements of music rooted in Hindu traditions (including the use of Indian classical instruments), with lyrics often drawn from Vedic Sanskrit literature and philosophy. About a month ago, we premiered a fantastic track from the album named “Abating the Firebrand”, but this new one is, if anything, even more striking. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BÖLZER, INSULTERS, PANZERGOD

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Oct 272016

I’ve been racking up the airline miles lately. I got back to Seattle late last night after a whirlwind trip to New York for my day job, one in which I probably spent as much time in airport security lines and on airplanes as I did in New York. Beautiful time of year to be there, though.

You may also have noticed that we’ve had a flood of premieres this week. Four more are coming today. Between traveling and writing all those premieres, I haven’t had time to pull together round-ups, and man, this has been a week when multiple round-ups would have been justified. With so much to choose from, I’ve impulsively picked these three bands. The plan is to put together more round-ups for tomorrow and Saturday in an effort to catch up.

BÖLZER

A few days ago the mighty Swiss juggernaut Bölzer released another song from their new album Hero, which will be released on November 25 through Iron Bonehead Productions. The first song that appeared, “I Am III”, was more than 10 minutes long — a dramatic, majestic, dark, brooding, esoteric, and triumphant piece in which the band moved in some dynamic new directions. The latest track, “Spiritual Athleticism“, is a more compact affair and perhaps more in line with what we were expecting based on Bölzer‘s previous releases. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SLEGEST — “I FORTIDA SITT LYS”

Premieres No Responses »

Oct 272016

Photo by Håvard Nesbø

A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of premiering a highly infectious song called “Wolf” from Vidsyn, the new album by the Norwegian band Slegest, and now we’re bringing you an official video for another track from the same album, “I fortida sitt lys“.

We’re told that the video “was recorded at an old mountain barn abandoned by time in a valley in Leikanger”, and that the concept was the brainchild of Håvard Nesbø:

“Like the song, the theme of the video can be placed in the light of the past — in the intersection of the now and the ever present whiff of olden times. Nesbø also produced the video, on a budget of pure idealism and a case of home brewed lager.”

OBSCURA / REVOCATION / BEYOND CREATION / RIVERS OF NIHIL – LIVE AT THE CORPORATION, SHEFFIELD 24/10/16

Concert Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 272016

(Andy Synn turns in this review of the live performances by Obscura, Revocation, Beyond Creation, and Rivers of Nihil in Sheffield, England, on October 24, 2016 — along with videos of the performances.)

Our readers in the UK who play guitar or bass will probably have noticed something rather peculiar over the last couple of days. Riffs that they used to be able to play turning into a mangled, lumpen soup of glitches and errors… Fluid solos that they used to rip out with ease skittering away from stumbling fingers… even, in the most extreme cases, a complete inability to even lift their instrument anymore, as if they were no longer “worthy” to wield its power.

And I know why.

You see on Monday night I was there when Obscura, Revocation, Beyond Creation, and Rivers of Nihil selfishly used-up the entire country’s supply of notes and riffs, leading to a crisis of near biblical proportions amongst the string-slinging section of the UK metal community.

Thankfully, however, I’ve been informed that a fresh shipment is being piped in from the mainland, and so normal proceedings should be resumed by the weekend or thereabouts. Continue reading »

ANAAL NATHRAKH: “THE WHOLE OF THE LAW”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 272016

(DGR reviews the new album by the UK’s Anaal Nathrakh, which will be released by Metal Blade on October 28.)

Few bands out there these days have weaponized music like Anaal Nathrakh has. The long-running project now has an immense collection of albums in its discography — all of which are some combination of abrasive noise, destructive instrumentation, and annihilation on the lyrical front.

Anaal Nathrakh are a band whose very formation is based around the idea of being as noisy as possible. If heavy metal is to be treated as a form of catharsis, then the aims of Nathrakh are to be the ultimate form of that in rage. For all of this talk of destruction, however, there are the occasional signs of where this anger comes from (considering this is a band that doesn’t provide lyrics to its albums and even then could probably save ink doing so since half of its vocal lines seem to lack consonants), which has been largely driven by a disgust with humanity and where the species is headed. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARRIVER — “LIQUIDATORS”

Premieres No Responses »

Oct 262016

I laughed when I looked up Chicago’s Arriver on Metal-Archives after listening to their new album, curious as to how our esteemed Encyclopaedia Metallum would classify the band in genre terms — and the only word to be found there was: “Various”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before in the site’s genre descriptions, but I can’t say I blame M-A for admitting defeat.

The new album, which is named Emeritus, is indeed stylistically kaleidoscopic and inventive. I doubt that there’s any one song that is truly representative of the album as a whole, but we do have one for you today in advance of the December 2 release date that’s at least a sign of the head-spinning music that lies in wait for you, and its name is “Liquidators“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RAVENCULT — “TORMENTOR OF FLESH”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Oct 262016

Almost exactly one year ago Metal Blade announced the signing of the Greek black metal band Ravencult, and now, roughly five years after their last album, a new one is on the horizon. Bearing the name Force of Profanation, it’s set for release on November 11. We previously praised the album’s first advance track, “Beneath the Relics of Old”, and now we’re fortunate to bring you the premiere of another song from the album, “Tormentor of Flesh“.

“Beneath the Relics of Old” is a truly electrifying riff monster, one ripper after another, heavy on the thrash end of the aggression scale and with an evil aura that grows even more sinister as the song progresses. “Tormentor of Flesh” is, if anything, even more turbocharged and savage. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: HAIL SPIRIT NOIR — “MAYHEM IN BLUE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Oct 262016

We are very fortune to be the bearer of wonderful gifts from Greece today — specifically, a stream of all six songs gathered together on the new album Mayhem In Blue by Hail Spirit Noir.

The band’s first two albums, Pneuma and Oi Magoi, were so good and so distinctive that it’s fair to say fan expectations for the new album are high — and they’re not going to be disappointed, because Mayhem In Blue is the band’s best work yet. Continue reading »

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