NO CLEAN SINGING

SHADES OF BLACK: VOID MEDITATION CULT, HOLYARROW, АMEЗAPAK, PESTILENTIA, SOLITVDO, VINDLAND, INTHYFLESH, ANAL BLASPHEMY

Sep 182016

Welcome to our usual Sunday feature on metal in a blackened vein. I had already pulled together most of these songs last Sunday, hoping to prepare a Part 2 of the Shades of Black installment that I posted then. But I got carried away by the usual flurry of activity that begins on Mondays, and failed. Since then, of course, I’ve come across more black metal that I’d like to recommend. The result is this gargantuan collection. I hope you can find time to at least sample everything.

The songs I originally chose for this post a week ago were mostly on the melancholy, depressive end of the black spectrum, sometimes with a folk influence. I’ve now interspersed some different moods and energies in the collection. (I want to thank my friend Miloš for originally recommending a number of the releases that I chose for this collection.)

VOID MEDITATION CULT

To begin this playlist I have a song from the debut album of the hooded Ohio band Void Meditation Cult — Utter the Tongues of the Dead — which will be released on October 31 by Hells Headbangers. It follows a 2011 demo named Sulfurous Prayers (and those songs were also included in a 2013 split with Sperm of Antichrist, which seems to have been another project of the main man behind Void Meditation Cult, who goes under the name of Desolate Defiler). Continue reading »

SUNDAY SLAUGHTERING: MAN MUST DIE, INSISION, DAHACA, RUINOUS, SOMNUS AETERNUS

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Sep 182016

Man Must Die

I decided to dispense with the usual Sunday installment of The Rearview Mirror in order to spend the time writing this thing. I spent several hours yesterday listening to new metal (when I wasn’t talking calls from world leaders anxious for help in solving their many problems), and these five songs and videos pounced on me like the vicious head-wrecking predators they are. I found a lot of other things to like in my listening excursions, but it just made sense to my addled mind to package these together so as to inflict maximum trauma on you, our beloved readers.

I’m afraid these won’t be the only audio assaults I intend to facilitate today, since I also have a Shades of Black post in progress. Between that post and this one, it will add up to a lot of listening. Just ignore your friends and/or your families and/or food, water, and bathroom breaks, and you’ll be able to take it all in.

MAN MUST DIE

We have been writing about Scotland’s Man Must Die for many years (beginning in December 2009 when we were only one month old)… but years have passed since MMD released an album (the last one being 2013’s Peace Was Never An Option). Two years ago they did release a single called “Slave To the Animal” (which we dutifully covered here), and last year they released a video for a cover of the song “Milk” by S.O.D. (featured here). And now, finally, they seem close to releasing a new EP named Gagging Order. Continue reading »

BLAKE JUDD (NACHTMYSTIUM) GIVES AN INTERVIEW

Metal News 7 Responses »

Sep 182016

Last night when I was just about to go to sleep I checked the NCS e-mail, and the most recent message sitting there was from an Argentinian magazine named Jedbangers telling me about a 3-hour interview of Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd they had conducted by phone in June, with a link to an excerpt of the interview they’ve recently uploaded to YouTube. Figuring that I would regret the decision, I chose to put off sleep long enough to start listening to it.

Having read so many despicable stories about the guy (including some from his former friends that weren’t intended for public consumption), I wondered why I would be bothering with it — but anyway, I started the YouTube clip, expecting to hear some self-serving bullshit. But before the interview started, these words appeared on the screen: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GOST, EARTHSIDE, SLEEP TOKEN, VOLA, UNISON THEORY, ETHS

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Sep 172016

The rule stated in explicit terms in the title of this site has been riddled with exceptions beginning even in the early years, and it has become more riddled over time. But on a percentage basis, it’s still mainly THE RULE. Why then does this post exist?

I suppose even I need a short break from the generally bestial and infernal ferocity that’s my daily metal bread and butter. And these songs happen to have struck a chord, despite the fact that the singing is mostly clean and most of the music relies more on syncopated rhythms and a particularly recognizable guitar sound than what I usually listen to.

Perhaps something here will also prove appealing to you. And if not, there will be a Shades of Black Post on Sunday, and you know what that means.
Continue reading »

VIRVUM: “ILLUMINANCE”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Sep 162016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the Swiss band Virvum.)

There’s been a lot of great Tech Death albums released in the last couple of years (and a lot of widdly, weedly, directionless dross too), so much so that it’s become far too easy to accidentally overlook or underplay something that later turns out to be a real gem in the constant rush of the new and the intoxicating pleasure of discovery.

As a matter of fact, I frequently find myself (re)discovering artists and releases whom I remember initially appreciating but ultimately never quite had the time or the impetus to really dig into the way I should.

Simply put, there’s just not enough time in the day/week/month/year to give everything the attention it deserves, and some things are always going to slip through the cracks.

And that’s not what I want to happen to Virvum, because their debut album Illuminance is one damn fine slab of scintillating progressive extremity. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SWINE OVERLORD — “A DELUSION’S PARADISE”

Premieres 1 Response »

Sep 162016

Once upon a time we had a semi-regular feature at this site called “Eye Catchers” in which we chose new music to explore based solely on the album art, testing the hypothesis that cool artwork usually means cool music. This new album, Entheogenesis, by the beautifully named Swine Overlord would have easily qualified for that series. Seriously, gaze for a moment more at the cover art by Chinese artist Yang Guang (Equilibrium, Putridity, Inanimate Existence), who we’ve featured repeatedly in the daily art posts on our Facebook page.

Having been drawn to this album by the artwork and the band’s name, I began to explore the music… and it definitely tends to support the hypothesis of “Eye Catchers”. But judge for yourselves, because we have a sample of Entheogenesis to share with you — the 9th of fourteen tracks on the album: “A Delusion’s Paradise“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CONSTRUCT OF LETHE — “ASCENDIT EX INFEROS”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 162016

There is a lot to like about the new EP by Construct of Lethe. The cover art alone is enough to seize attention. And the concept of the EP is equally intriguing: It’s a reimagining of one of Mark Twain’s lesser known and most controversial works, published after his death, named Letters From Earth, in which Twain expressed his disdain for Christianity through essays and a short story consisting of 11 letters written by Satan to the archangels Gabriel and Michael (you can read them here).

And then there is the music itself… which hits like a 10-ton hammer.

The name of the EP is The Grand Machination, and it will be released by the band on October 7. What we have for you today is a stream of the second of six tracks on the EP, a song called “Ascendit Ex Inferos (Ascent from Hell)“. It tells the story of Lucifer’s discovery of Christ’s birth, and his decision to walk among people in human form. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: JUST BEFORE DAWN — “A TRIBUTE (WE WILL REMEMBER THEM)”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Sep 162016

This has been a great week for the debut of new metal (and the track you’re about to hear continues the trend), but it has also been a particularly sad one, because on September 14 — the one-year anniversary of the death of Martin ‘Kiddie’ Kearns — Bolt Thrower announced that the band would be interred with him.

Bolt Thrower’s music will never die, even though the band will not move forward without Kiddie. BT’s influence on heavy metal, and death metal in particular, has been vast, and it will be timeless. As one sign of this, we bring you a very special premiere. For 24 hours only, we will stream a medley of Bolt Thrower songs recorded by the Swedish death metal band Just Before Dawn, who will be very familiar to readers of this site. The medley is an amazing track and a most fitting tribute to an irreplaceable group. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: IN THE WOODS… — “PURE”

Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres No Responses »

Sep 162016

In recent months we’ve had the pleasure of bringing you two songs from one of the most remarkable “comeback” albums in recent years, and one of the most distinctive and accomplished of this year by any band. The album is Pure, and the band is Norway’s In the Woods…, and today the album is being released by Debemur Morti Productions. To help spread the word, we are bringing you the full stream of the album for the first time.

We have already spilled many words about Pure over the course of our previous song premieres and our full review of the album, and especially because you can now hear it for yourselves, extensive repetition probably isn’t the wisest use of our space. But I do think these excerpts from Andy Synn’s review are worth repeating: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INANIMATE EXISTENCE — “CALLING FROM A DREAM”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Sep 152016

The new album by Inanimate Existence is a true musical kaleidoscope, composed of shifting pieces of brilliance that fall into place in unexpected and exciting ways. This won’t come as a shock to people familiar with the band’s first two albums, yet this album is likely to be surprising even to die-hard fans of this Bay Area band.

We have a full stream of the new album at the end of this post. Its title is Calling From A Dream, and it will be released by Unique Leader Records on September 16 — tomorrow. As you’re about to find out, there is truth in this statement from the band about the new album: Continue reading »

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