NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: TERRA TENEBROSA — “GHOST AT THE END OF THE ROPE”

Jun 052016

After the first two albums by Terra Tenebrosa — 2011’s The Tunnels and 2013’s The Purging — the arrival of a new album is like the mysterious appearance of an intricately carved box in a puff of indigo vapor. The strange sigils and runes seem to shimmer of their own accord in the gnarled, leaden wood. What lies within becomes a matter of intrigue. You can be fairly sure that the contents will be dark, disturbing, and otherwise dismissive of genre boundaries, but beyond that it’s difficult to foresee what the alchemical processes of The Cuckoo’s art have rendered.

The new album is named The Reverses and it will be released on June 17 (June 22 in North America) by Debemur Morti. The significance of the title and its connection to the albums that preceded it have yet to be revealed. What has been revealed so far is a lyric video for a song called “The End Is Mine To Ride”, and today we’re helping to share a stream of a second track, “Ghost At the End of The Rope”. Continue reading »

A MARYLAND DEATHFEST RECAP (PART 5)

Concert Reviews 11 Responses »

Jun 052016

It’s time for me to bring this five-part reminiscence about Maryland Deathfest 2016 to a close and try to get back to more typical NCS activities this week.

I said when I started this recap that I wanted to give a round of applause to the best bands I saw at MDF, organizing them into four categories. The first three categories I nicknamed Swedish (and Dutch) Death Metal Supremacy, Shades of Black, and The Black Death. However, there’s no common denominator among the five bands grouped together today, so I’m calling this collection Divergent Delights.

I was thinking about Mixed Martial Arts, but much of the music here isn’t martial. Assorted Ass-Kicking was appealing, but I don’t think “ass-kicking” really fits everything either. Maybe Variegated Victories would have worked. Continue reading »

A MARYLAND DEATHFEST RECAP (PART 4)

Concert Reviews 9 Responses »

Jun 042016

Friday beer/brunch at Alewife with friends.

For those of you just now joining this series about Maryland Deathfest XIV, I’m in the process of highlighting the bands whose performances were the best of the ones I saw and heard in Baltimore beginning on Wednesday of last week.

Rather than doing a day-by-day recap, I’ve organized the bands into four somewhat loosely defined categories. Yesterday’s feature was a “Shades of Black” collection of black metal bands, and before that was one under the heading “Swedish (and Dutch) Death Metal Supremacy”. I’m calling today’s celebration “The Black Death“, not only because that describes the general style of music performed by the following six bands, but also because they all spread a lethal kind of auditory plague.

Presented in the order in which I witnessed the performances over 5 nights and 4 days, and I’ve again included my photos of each band (most of which are gathered at the end of this post). Continue reading »

A MARYLAND DEATHFEST RECAP (PART 3)

Concert Reviews 13 Responses »

Jun 032016

MDF merch

For those just now joining this series about Maryland Deathfest XIV, I’m in the process of highlighting the bands whose performances were the best of the ones I saw and heard in Baltimore beginning on Wednesday of last week.

I’ve organized those bands into four categories (not rigidly defined, mind you). Yesterday’s feature was about “Swedish (and Dutch) Death Metal Supremacy”, and for today’s collection I’m borrowing the title of one of our long-running series about new music — Shades of Black — because I’m spotlighting six black metal bands of varying styles whose sets I really enjoyed. I’ve again included photos of each band (most of which are gathered at the end of this post). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CANDLEMASS

Interviews 2 Responses »

Jun 032016

(Comrade Aleks brings us this e-mail interview with Mats Levén, the new vocalist of the legendary Candlemass.)

Everyone knows Candlemass and I bet that all of you know that the band is returning with a new EP, Death Thy Lover. The date of this release is already set – it’s today, the 3rd of June. With Mats Levén on vocals, the band is active, now awakening from slumber and returning on the road. Well, I’d like to surprise you with the astonishing live interview which we planned to do with Mats, but he didn’t find the time for it in his tight schedule, so with all my respect this foreword is as brief as his blitz answers I received by email. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INERT — “OBLITERATION OF THE SELF”

Premieres No Responses »

Jun 032016

Inert is the name of a two-man band whose debut EP Obliteration of the Self will be released on June 17. Both members (guitarist Xavier Aguilar and vocalist/drummer Gustavo Garcia) knew each other for many years from the metal scene in Barcelona, Spain, but didn’t join forces in Inert until Xavi moved to Stockholm, Sweden. These days, distance isn’t the impediment to creative collaboration that it used to be — and in the case of Inert that’s a very good thing.

We’re happy to bring you the premiere of the title track to this new EP. It accomplishes an impressive feat: It pulls heavily from some distinct death metal bloodlines, most of them venerable and some more modern, and integrates the stylistic influences in a way that sounds natural and also completely killer. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DECEPTIONIST — “FINAL INNOVATION / AUTOMATIC TIME”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Jun 022016

Two weeks ago we celebrated the discovery of an advance track named “Quest For Identity” from the new album by the Roman band Deceptionist. It left me questing for my own identity after the alien, hyper-speed assault of that song had scrambled my brain over high heat and left it in a smoking ruin. Two weeks later and I had just begin thinking somewhat clearly again, when I encountered the Deceptionist song we’re now about to share with you, and now I’ve again forgotten my own name. Luckily, I’m a touch-typist because my eyes also rolled back in my head and they haven’t descended yet.

The new track is named “Final Innovation / Automatic Time”, and like “Quest For identity” it appears on Deceptionist’s new album Initializing Irreversible Process, which is set for release on June 17 by Unique Leader. This new track also comes our way wrapped in the packaging of a lyric video. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATHAME — “FIVE FOLD KISS”

Uncategorized 3 Responses »

Jun 022016

Baltimore-based Grimoire Records has been a consistent source of releases that we’ve gluttonously consumed around here like the metal pigs we are, and today we’re very happy to help Grimoire announce their most recent discharge — a 42-minute monolith of apocalyptic black metal and doom aptly entitled With Cunning Fire and Adversarial Resolve by a three-piece band from the hills of Appalachia named Athame.

But spreading the word about the announcement is not all we’re doing. We also have for you the premiere of the album’s first advance track, a song called “Five Fold Kiss“.

Athame may be a new name for most people, but the band includes members from Fortress and the now-departed Wolfnuke. To help locate the band on the map of your metal tastes, Grimoire makes references to names such as Craft, Aosoth, and Gorgoroth. But at this point the best way to get a sense of what they’ve created is to check out this new song. Continue reading »

A MARYLAND DEATHFEST RECAP (PART 2)

Concert Reviews 18 Responses »

Jun 022016

Wombbath at MDF – photo by Bryan Zakala

When I started this recap of Maryland Deathfest XIV a couple of days ago (here), I explained that I didn’t intend to report on the festival day-by-day, as I’ve done in previous years, but instead decided to focus on the best performances I saw, grouped into four loosely defined categories. In that introductory post, I only wrote about one band (Dragged Into Sunlight), because their set was the best one I saw at this year’s edition of MDF.

DIS happens to be in one of those four categories, but I’m going to leave that one for another day. Today I want to focus on one of the others, which I’m labeling Swedish (and Dutch) Death Metal Supremacy.

But first I want to publicly thank these four dudes: Continue reading »

DARK HARDCORE (PART 2) BY NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Jun 022016

(In this post we bring you another collection of musical recommendations by Neill Jameson (Krieg). To check out the previous post, go here.)

While the rest of you were off at MDF this past weekend and I was stuck working unpaid overtime at a job I hate I had some time to think about the next batch of shit I’d hoist on you for your listening displeasure. Considering I’m both old and opinionated I doubt I’m going to run out of ideas for this column anytime soon, but I did think it would be appropriate to wrap up hardcore as a genre with a few more choices before moving on to whatever batch of shit you’ll probably bookmark but not listen to next. Sound good? No? Great, here we go. Continue reading »

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