NO CLEAN SINGING

MDF 2016: HAZY HIGHLIGHTS AND FUZZY RECOLLECTIONS (BY ANDY SYNN)

Jun 022016

(photo above by Levan Tk; all other photos by Islander)

(Andy Synn journeyed from England to the former proprietary colony of Lord Baltimore to take in his first ever Maryland Deathfest and now provides these reminiscences.)

MDF 2016… what can I say? Five days of drinking, yelling, headbanging, drinking, meeting old friends, making new friends, drinking (starting to see a theme here?), public intoxication, semi-public urination and, above all else, more Metal than you could shake a severed spinal column at.

Here’s the thing though, when I go to festivals it’s usually based on a calculation of if there’s enough bands I really want to see in order to make it worth my while. I go for the music, not to socialise.

But this year was different. This year it truly was the camaraderie and the friendships which made the weekend such a blast. And you can’t teach that…

So, instead of writing up some long-winded review of the whole affair, I thought I’d just pick out and categorise a few of the highlights (and lowlights) for you all. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SARABANTE — “A DAY WITH NO SUN TO RISE”

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Jun 012016

Following their 2011 debut album Remnants and a 2013 EP, Έρμαια Των Καιρών / Under The Shadows, the Greek hardcore band Sarabante have returned with a new full-length named Poisonous Legacy, which is due for release on June 10 by Southern Lord. What we have for you today is the premiere of a new song called “A Day With No Sun To Rise“.

The album’s striking cover art provides a telling visual clue to the emotional resonance of the music, which reflects the ongoing economic crisis and political turmoil in Greece. “A Day With No Sun To Rise”, in particular, is a bleak and bludgeoning affair that hits hard on multiple levels despite its sub-three-minute length. Continue reading »

WINTERHORDE: “MAESTRO”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jun 012016

(DGR reviews the new album by the Israeli band Winterhorde.)

In what has become a calling card, Winterhorde are a band for whom significant time has passed between the last two releases. Three years plus tends to be the point at which questions start arising about the band’s status, and when you start coming up on the front-end of six years as in the case of Winterhorde, you start to worry whether the band even still exist. The gap between the releases prior to the six-year breather was closer to four, so even by their standards the length of time between discs was reaching an extreme.

Maestro, the group’s most recent release, follows the group’s 2010 album Underwatermoon — a densely packed album that, while it had some faults in terms of running a little long in the tooth, had its fair share of interesting ideas and regional melodies that gave the whole album an air of maddening ritual. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MERLIN

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Jun 012016

(Comrade Aleks interviews the frontman of Merlin from Kansas City, Missouri.)

Merlin is alive despite all efforts of that shameless woman to get rid of him… He travels in time and is tightly hooked to the psychedelic era of the ‘70s. Now he has taken the form of a heavy psych-doom band and just manipulates four talented gents, inspiring them with hallucinogenic visions of madness and sin.

Merlin has existed in the form of a quartet since 2012 and works well – their third album Electric Children was released about two months ago and it shows a new verge of their skills. Who are they? What are they? The man who introduced himself as Merlin’s vocalist Jordan appeared in coils of smoke and gave a séance of psycho doom witchery. Jordan, show thyself! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): KOMMANDO — “DISTROYER / IRON GOAT TRIUMPH”

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Jun 012016

I imagine that when I discovered the existence of this album it was like being a wolf with an intriguing scent in his nostrils. I saw this new band name, and then I saw the pedigree of its members. It made my ears go up, figuratively speaking (if only humans could actually raise their ears like spikes to the sky!). And then the music made me feel like a wolf on the hunt, too.

This band, Kommando, includes members of the German black metal juggernauts Dysangelium and Endstille, but spinning their talents in a very different direction — one that makes you lope after them in a rabid gallop, tongue out and eyes wide and red.

I’m not sure I can name all the buttons this album pushes in my head, but I can damned well try. It’s the least I can do, because it’s one of the best things I’ve heard this year. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELLEBORUS — “HELLEBORUS BLACK”

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May 312016

On June 17, Satanath Records (Russia) and Black Plague Records (USA) will jointly release The Carnal Sabbath, which is the debut album by Colorado’s Helleborus. The album has been a long time coming — we debuted a song from it (“Coils”) in March of last year, and other songs from the album have surfaced periodically since then. But now the full album release is nearly upon us, and we’re very happy to bring you the premiere of another new song — “Helleborus Black” — in the form of a drum cam video.

Helleborus — which is the scientific name for a genus of beautiful but poisonous flowers that bloom in winter — was created by the brothers Jerred and Wyatt Houseman. Last June, KevinP interviewed Wyatt for us and asked about the album that was then taking shape, drawing this response:

“The Carnal Sabbath is the title of the album and there will be 9 featured tracks…. My lyrics reflect aspects of sexual mysticism, death worship, and The Qabalah. With each track I have reached into the dark corners of my mind to reproduce some of my deepest introspection. My desire is to cast a shadow of my own on a lot of these areas. Each track harnesses a very potent and romantic force of energy. We do not demand contact from the other side but romanticize our own connections with it.”

AN NCS PREMIERE: DENOUNCEMENT PYRE — “WORLD ENCIRCLER”

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May 312016

Black Sun Unbound is the third album by Australia’s Denouncement Pyre, due for release by Hells Headbangers on the 22nd of July. It is truly a well-chosen name, one that captures the album’s dark, searing, unearthly energies; its poisonously radioactive atmospherics; and the inspirations of a band who have themselves gone beyond the boundaries of their past work. Earlier this month we praised the album’s first advance track (“Scars Adorn the Whore In Red”), and today we have the pleasure of bringing you a second one — also well-titled: “World Encircler“.

Denouncement Pyre have described the new album, which follows their last full-length Almighty Arcanum by three years, in this way: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RIKET — “AVARTER”

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May 312016

Riket (a Swedish word for “The Kingdom”) is the name of a new band, but its three members are metal veterans. The band was founded by vocalist Johan Nephente Fridell and guitarist/bassist Tobias Jakobsson, both of whom are members of the band Netherbird (whose last album we reviewed here), and they were joined in this enterprise by drummer Adrian Erlandsson (At the Gates, The Haunted), who was himself also a member of Netherbird at one time. Riket’s debut EP, Avarter, is being released today in digital form, and we bring you a first listen for all four songs.

There is a story behind the EP, as told by Nephente, that’s worth reading if you want to understand what inspired this project and how the songs were recorded, and so I’m including it here before spilling a few words of my own about the music. Of course, no one would blame you if you decided to start listening to the songs while you read — because they’re damned good. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CLOAK — “THE HUNGER”

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May 312016

(Grant Skelton introduces our premiere of a song from the new EP by Cloak.)

The self-titled debut EP from Atlanta, Georgia’s Cloak will be released June 20 on Boris Records. No Clean Singing is proud to present you, our diabolical denizens, with an exclusive stream of the second track from the EP.

“The Hunger” is a brooding, blackened track that’s full of ire and venom. But whereas most black metal likes to go right for your throat with a cleaver, Cloak prefer to nick slowly away. Less like an impalement and more like the Chinese “death by a thousand cuts.” The track has a bitter, foaming motif further expounded by the ghostly piano and acoustic guitar accompaniment just prior to the three-minute mark. Spooky melodic leads from guitarist Max Brigham and guitarist/vocalist Scott Taysom work in tandem with the latter’s blistered, grainy vocals. Continue reading »

A MARYLAND DEATHFEST RECAP (PART 1)

Concert Reviews 45 Responses »

May 312016

photo by Alexis

When I left Seattle early last Wednesday morning bound for Baltimore and the 14th edition of Maryland Deathfest, I was thinking I might not take any photos or write anything about the event and simply soak it up. But the whole thing was so damned exciting and so much fun that I couldn’t resist trying to document the experience.

I took more than 800 photos with my new iPhone 6S (what? you didn’t think I was a real photographer, did you?) and I made lots of mental notes (what? you didn’t think I’d actually bother typing, did you?). And as people who know me on Facebook are painfully aware, I discharged some contemporaneous impressions about most of the bands I saw. As you can now see, I couldn’t resist writing even more about the experience.

But unlike past years, I’m not going to attempt a day-by-day recap. This year, I’m going to preserve my memories in a different way. And who knows, maybe some of my NCS comrades will throw in some thoughts of their own. Because the NCS crew turned out in force this year. Continue reading »

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