NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: ANICON — “EXEGESES”

Jul 062016

It makes some sense that New York’s Anicon have partnered with Gilead Media for the release of their debut album, Exegeses, which happens this coming Friday. The band includes drummer Lev Weinstein of Krallice (and Geryon, among other groups) as well as bassist Alexander DeMaria, who performs live with Yellow Eyes. Apart from the connections between those bands and Gilead Media, Exegeses displays certain qualities that make it a natural fit for the kind of dark and unusually distinctive music in which Gilead tends to traffic.

In addition to the impressive rhythm section identified above, Anicon includes the group’s founding members Nolan Voss and Owen Rundquist, who share both guitar and vocal roles. The interplay and the harmonizing of their guitar performances on Exegeses is a principal source of the album’s great fascination and power — as you’re about to find out for yourselves through our premiere of a full album stream. Continue reading »

WHY DO YOU LISTEN TO THAT STUFF?

Mosh Pit 31 Responses »

Jul 062016

(Andy Synn prepared these meditations on why he listens to metal.)

Like most of you (or so I’m assuming for the purposes of this column) the above question is one that I was, for a long time, quite intimately familiar with. And though I tend to hear it less frequently nowadays than I used to, variants of it still crop up now and again:

“How can you listen to that stuff, it’s just noise?”

“Where’s the melody?”

“It all just sounds the same!”

And, as much as I’m occasionally tempted by the knee-jerk, involuntary reaction (“YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!) I’m not an angst-ridden teenager anymore… I’m an angst-ridden adult, and thus far more willing to engage with these sorts of questions and statements, and try to understand where they’re coming from.

Plus, it’s actually a good question… why DO we listen to Metal? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PHASED (CHRIS SIGDELL)

Interviews No Responses »

Jul 062016

(Today, Comrade Aleks brings us his interview of Chris Sigdell of the Swiss band Phased.)

Phased is a heavy psychedelic doom band from Basel, Switzerland. This project was founded in 1997 as its creators were influenced by achievements of scientists in the sphere of deep space exploration, researchers of parallel universes, and slow doom stuff as well. They never make haste, they always use their time well, and so Aeon (Czar of Bullets, 2015) was released in November 2015, six years after their previous album A Sort Of Spasmic Phlegm Induced By Leaden Fumes Of Pleasure had seen the light of day.

Will we wait for the next album so long? Chris Sigdell, Phased’s mastermind, knows the answer. But will he give this information? Let’s try! Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: SERPENTSPIRE — “THE COSMIC THRONE”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Jul 052016

On Friday of this week — July 8 — Transcending Records will release the official CD edition of The Cosmic Throne by Serpentspire from Spokane, Washington, and we’ve got the premiere of a full stream right here.

Those of you who are already familiar with the band may recognize The Cosmic Throne as the name of a demo that Serpentspire self-released last year (perhaps by happening upon our own DGR’s enthusiastic review of said demo last July). But the EP that’s being released on July 8 is a re-recording of the songs from that demo by a revised Serpentspire line-up that now includes the return of original vocalist Shawn Taylor as well as new guitarist Damon Koenig and new bass-player Nathanial Fennen, in addition to drummer Ian McKinney and guitarist Zach Lavelle. Continue reading »

DGR SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): BE’LAKOR, THE VISION BLEAK, CENTAURUS-A, OBSCURA, THE SHADELESS EMPEROR, WITHERSCAPE, SOILWORK, SOLUTION .45

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Jul 052016

(DGR presents this round-up of new music, which completes a two-part post that he began here.)

I joked in the previous collection that I wrote that the flood of music which hit in June was a little hilarious. There’s been so much that it feels like I’ve become a giant net in which news lands and then I dump the whole thing upon this site for users to romp around in, and guess what? The comedic flood of music continues unabated with Round Two of our roundup.

We posted Round One last week, and the dredging of the internet continues as we dig for more music videos/song streams/full album streams to talk about. This time around the collection is actually pretty Europe-heavy, with our one huge divergence being a trip out to Australia — which happens to be our lead-off as well. The collection of bands this time around also features one newer discovery and also a check-in with a band who haven’t had some stuff out in some time.

Be’lakor – Smoke Of Many Fires and Vessels Album Stream

We’ve reviewed Be’lakor’s Vessels already, and I share Andy’s opinion that Vessels is a really good album, but recent weeks have brought even more news — though I can now keep this a little more truncated. One is that the band premiered a lyric video for the song “Smoke Of Many Fires” over at Horror Society, and two, if you prefer your music streams less lyric-video-heavy, Bloody-Disgusting grabbed a whole album stream here. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 3): HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, ELLENDE, AZZIARD, NIRNAETH, ISGÄRDE, AKATHARTA

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

Jul 052016

This is the third and final Part of a post that I began on Sunday focusing on black metal (and music influenced by it), thinking it would just be a two-parter featuring six bands instead of what it has become. As the days have passed, I’ve continued to come across advance tracks and full releases that I want to support, and the total has now reached 13 bands. Honestly, I could do this every day, but I’m going to make myself stop until next Sunday so I can devote attention to other things. Like eating and sleeping.

I’m going to begin with a couple of videos, one brand new and one not so new (but newly discovered), both of them created for Austrian bands. And then I’ll turn to a new split, a recent album, and a couple of new songs from a band with some famous names attached to it that aren’t really black metal but I want to mention them without further delay.

HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY

The new album by this Austrian band, III: Trauma, is fantastic. We’ve already featured one of the new tracks (here) and premiered a second one (here), and yesterday the band debuted a video for a third one. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DIABOLICAL — “UMBRA”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Jul 052016

Diabolical’s new EP Umbra — which we give you the chance to hear in full today — is a multifaceted obsidian gem. Atmospherically forbidding and possessed of a grim, doomed grandeur for most of its length, Umbra is also savage — and at times wistful and meditative. It’s so well-conceived and expertly performed that it has the capacity to carry listeners away and hold them in thrall, while also triggering fierce surges of adrenaline.

Umbra also reflects changes in style since the band’s last release, the 2013 concept album Neogenesis. Gone are the symphonic arrangements and massed choral voices, yet even in the absence of these elements the music is still often shrouded in an aura of forbidding majesty — as well as implacable menace. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): KAMPFAR, AXIOMA, TODESSUCHT, HELLBRINGER

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 11 Responses »

Jul 042016

Yesterday I posted the first half of what was supposed to be a two-part post collecting recent advance tracks and full releases in a blackened vein that I wanted to recommend to you. When I finished Part 1, I had music from three more bands collected for Part 2. Sure enough, between then and now I found a lot more stuff that got me excited. And since we’re celebrating Independence Day here in the States, I might as well go big.

So, I’ve expanded this edition of Shades of Black into a three-part post, with the final segment coming tomorow. Please enjoy this jumbo fireworks display as we all strive for our own independence.

KAMPFAR

Kampfar previously released a fantastic video for one of the tracks (“Daimon”) from last year’s excellent Profan album (reviewed here), and today they premiered another one. This video is for “Tornekratt“, and to quote from the site that handled the premiere, it’s “a nightmare vision of the end of the world featuring a vast demon wielding a fiery whip over the last remnants of humanity, a grotesque take on the last supper, monolithic hooded deities serving judgement and all manner of cinematic suffering.” Continue reading »

BRAIN DRILL: “BOUNDLESS OBSCENITY”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Jul 042016

(To celebrate Independence Day, we would like to drill your heads, and Austin Weber would like to review this new Brain Drill album — and we are both getting our wishes!)

While not the first of their ilk, preceded by Origin and to degrees Cryptopsy and several others, California natives Brain Drill ushered in a new dimension of hyper-frenetic technical death metal upon their unholy birth in 2006, bearing instant fruit with an initial EP that year entitled The Parasites. From there the group linked up with Metal Blade Records for two over-the-top-yet-face-melting albums, 2008’s Apocalyptic Feasting and 2010’s Quantum Catastrophe.

After Quantum Catastrophe the band seemed to drift away, but founding member and main composer Dylan Ruskin announced about a year ago that a new album was in the works — and it has now arrived. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): CAÏNA, OLD GRAVES, LARVAE

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 3 Responses »

Jul 032016

For this Sunday round-up of recommended music in a blackened vein, I compiled advance tracks and two full-album streams from a total of six bands. Because I’m a little pressed for time today, I decided to split the collection into two parts and finish writing the second half for tomorrow, so as to char the shit out of The Glorious Fourth. Between now and then I might add to the collection, too.

I’m starting with music from two bands whose past work I’m familiar with, and then turning to groups who are new to me, concluding tomorrow with one whose music is only slightly “blackened” but has some famous names attached to it.

CAÏNA

With a few relatively brief pauses, Caïna has been prolific and inventive, releasing six albums and more than a dozen shorter releases since the first demo in 2005 — and transforming the shapes of the sound along the way. Caïna’s new seventh album is named Christ Clad in White Phosphorus, and it’s coming out on July 15 through Apocalyptic Witchcraft Records.

For this new album, Caïna’s core creator Andy Curtis-Brignell is joined by vocalist Laurence Taylor (Cold Fell) and bassist Paul Röbertson, along with contributions by members of the British experimental/noise group Warren Schoenbright and Integrity’s Dwid Hellion in his guise as Vermapyre. Continue reading »

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