THE REARVIEW MIRROR (WHEN BITTER SPRING SLEEPS, NARGAROTH, NYCHTS)

 THE REARVIEW MIRROR  4 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

About a week ago we premiered a stream of Turm Am Hang, the  new album by the German band Horn. The brilliant last track on that album is a cover of “The Sky Has Not Always Been This Way” from the 2013 album Coven of the Wolves by Iowa-based When Bitter Spring Sleeps, with a guest appearance by the latter band’s vocalist Lord Sardonyx.

It’s a great cover, and it also caused me to revisit the original song. The lyrics are wonderful, and the song is too. So that’s the first track I’m including below in this Sunday’s look back at metal from past years. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MORTA SKULD, LANTERN, DÉMONOS, REBEL SOULS, DESTROYERS OF ALL, ASOFY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 282017
 


Morta Skuld

It seems that some lessons can’t be learned no matter how many times they’re taught. A case in point: Once again, I’m now recovering from alcohol poisoning, probably not severe enough to require hospitalization but debilitating enough that even typing hurts and coherent thought is a goal that’s out of reach.

Fortunately, I picked the following songs and videos yesterday, before severely damaging my coherence with an end-of-the-work-week blowout last night. If you find more mistakes than usual in what I’ve written today, you’ll know why.

MORTA SKULD

The first item in this collection blind-sided me without warning yesterday, though I probably just wasn’t paying attention as carefully as I should have. The news is that Milwaukee-based Morta Skuld have returned with a new album. Entitled Wounds Deeper Than Time, it will be released by Peaceville Records on February 17 and it follows the band’s comeback EP Serving Two Masters (2014). Like the EP, it includes cover art by Patrick Kachellek: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 18): KHONSU, TERRA TENEBROSA, HOWLS OF EBB, BLACK HOLE GENERATOR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  2 Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

Here we are at the 18th Part of this list. Once again, I ran out of time yesterday before I could post a further installment of this series, so I’ve included more songs than usual in this one. To browse through the other songs that have appeared on the list previously, click HERE.

I grouped these four songs together for a couple of reasons. First, they all include elements of black metal to varying degrees, but you probably wouldn’t call any of them “black metal” in any conventional sense. Which leads me to my second point: in addition to being genre-benders, all these artists have blended and bent conventional genres in ways that lead to some very strange and even unsettling results — and the fact that all of these tracks also manage to be addictive is a further testament to their creativity

KHONSU

I assume it comes as no shock that I’m adding a song from The Xun Protectorate to the list. We published not one but two laudatory reviews of the album, along with an interview of Khonsu’s mastermind S. Gronbech. Everyone at our site loved the record. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MARCHE FUNÈBRE — “LULLABY OF INSANITY”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

(Today we present the premiere of a video and song from the Belgian band Marche Funebre, and Grant Skelton provides the following introduction.)

Belgian death/doom band Marche Funèbre (a name presumably derived from the Chopin composition of the same name) will release their new album Into The Arms Of Darkness on February 20, 2017 via Moscow Funeral League. Into The Arms Of Darkness was produced by Markus ‘Schwadorf’ Stock. The creepy, nightmarish cover art was created by Brooke Shaden Photography.

No Clean Singing is proud to present an exclusive premiere of a video for the album’s first advance track, entitled “Lullaby Of Insanity.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OMINOUS ECLIPSE — “THE HORDE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 272017
 

 

The Ottawa death metal band Ominous Eclipse are working toward the release their second album Sinister later this year, but today they’re releasing a single aptly named “The Horde“, and it’s our poisonous pleasure to bring you a stream of the song.

As the evolution of Ominous Eclipse has progressed, the band have hybridized a seething core of death metal sound with elements of thrash, black metal, and melodic death metal. But if “The Horde” is a sign of what’s to come next, they’re reaching for new levels of monstrous and electrifying destructiveness. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 81: NIDINGR

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

(In this month’s edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy Synn reviews the discography of Nidingr, including their new album slated for release on February 10.)

Recommended for fans of: Mayhem, Pantheon I, Dødheimsgard

 

Somehow, despite all the love we’ve shown for this band, despite all the drunken ramblings we’ve had about their awesomeness, and despite stating numerous times that Greatest of Deceivers is one of the best Black Metal albums of the last ten to fifteen years (at least), it appears that the amount of actual coverage we’ve given to Nidingr has been woefully lacking.

Thankfully, the impending release of the group’s fourth album, The High Heat Licks Against Heaven, is all the justification I need to wax lyrical about the band, making them the perfect choice for this edition of The Synn Report.

Masterminded by wandering guitarist Teloch (who cut his teeth playing with some of the Black Metal scene’s biggest names, including both Gorgoroth and 1349, and who has since gone on to serve as chief guitarist/songwriter for both NCS favourites The Konsortium and the legendary Mayhem), Nidingr originally came into being around 1996, but didn’t release their debut until 2005.

Since then they’ve cycled through numerous members (including both Tjalve and Seidemann of Pantheon I, percussive mercenary Tony Laureano, and the infamous Hellhammer himself), with Teloch and glass-chewing vocalist Cpt. Estrella Grasa serving as the band’s key linchpins, while releasing two, soon to be three, further albums of hyper-aggressive, sadistically melodic, Death- and Thrash- tinged Black Metal. Continue reading »

LATE DECEMBER AND EARLY JANUARY GEMS (PART 5): SIMULACRE AND BALANCE INTERRUPTION

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

(This is Part 4 of a 5-part series by Austin Weber about noteworthy January releases and a few from the end of last year.)

 

Simulacre – La Jaiba

Simulacre is a brand spanking new offshoot of the legendary (in underground circles) French “technical/progressive black metal” band Asmodée. While it’s a pain in the ass, I’m quite thankful as usual that Facebook allows you to “follow” a band’s every post, since I would have never heard about the birth of Simulacre otherwise. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AU CHAMP DES MORTS — “DANS LA JOIE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

Today is the day when Debemur Morti Productions releases Dans La Joie, the debut album by the French band Au Champ Des Morts, and we’re helping people to discover it.

That’s a worthy mission, because the album is an emotionally intense experience of rare quality. Over the course of helping to premiere two tracks from the album, I’ve already spilled a lot of words about it. So in a rare attempt at brevity, I’m going to introduce the album stream in a summing up that focuses more on the music’s emotional resonance, as I feel it, than on any kind of intricate dissection of its many facets and ingredients. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (IN THE FORM OF A VERY METAL MUSICAL SANDWICH): MANETHEREN, MISERIST, CRESCENT, QUASARBORN, MAHAKALA, LETHE, VERMIN LORD, WRATH FROM ABOVE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 262017
 

 

As I made my way through the enormous list of new songs and videos that I’ve been compiling since last weekend, a certain shape began to suggest itself to me — the shape of a tasty metal sandwich. And with that shape in mind (and a gnawing hunger in my guts), I selected and organized the following 8 songs.

For this playlist of mostly brand new things we begin harsh and heavy, then segue into a block of Exceptions To Our Rule (the one about singing), and then move into the other side of the sandwich where total war on the senses lies in wait again. You’ll also find some very eye-catching videos in here, along with a broad assortment of music that struck my fancy — with only truncated commentary from yours truly.

MANETHEREN

According to a press release, “The End is a concept album about a human being travelling across the lands as the world begins to end…. Each song represents different events during the ending process, and as they unfold the being feels as himself is becoming god, or death itself. By the end of the album this being by all means becomes god and rules over the wasteland left behind.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BEHEADED — “BEAST INCARNATE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jan 262017
 

 

This is Malta, and its sister island Gozo. As you can see, they sit sort of dead center in the Mediterranean Sea. Because of its strategically important location, Malta has an incredibly rich and eventful recorded history stretching back for millennia, bearing the influences of a multitude of cultures. From photographs scattered around the web, Malta also appears to be an extravagantly beautiful place.

And it’s also home to a lethally explosive death metal band who have managed to survive and flourish for more than a quarter-century, just as their homeland has survived centuries of occupation and conquest. I’m talking, of course, about Beheaded.

Beast Incarnate is the band’s fifth album, set for release tomorrow (January 27) by Unique Leader Records, and we are very happy to host the premiere of a full album stream today. Continue reading »

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