NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VINTERBRIS — “GAZING AT A FALLEN SKY”

Aug 242016

In 2014 we wrote repeatedly about a superb album called Solace by Norway’s Vinterbris. What first drew our attention to the album even before hearing the music was the artwork created for Solace by an artist we greatly admire, Kim Holm. In addition to a cover piece, Holm created separate illustrations for each song on the album (which we collected in one place here). Having been lured into the album by this artwork, we found the music to be a treasure as well. We even included a song from Solace on our list of 2014’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

We now have a fine occasion to revisit Solace because Triton’s Orbit will be reissuing the album next month in a slipcase edition featuring Kim Holm’s artwork, and in advance of that release Vinterbris have also made available their first lyric video, for a song on Solace called “Gazing At A Fallen Sky” — which we are happily premiering below. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ULTAR — “AZATHOTH”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Aug 242016

It’s so nice when the sights and sounds of a music video come together in a well-crafted partnership, when what you hear and what you see each proves to be engrossing and when, together, they complement each other. That’s the kind of success achieved in the new song and video we’re bringing you from the Siberian band Ultar. The song’s name is “Azathoth” and it appears on the band’s new album Kadath, which will be released on October 21 by Temple of Torturous.

Ultar is a new name for the band, who previously were known as Deafknife. They make their home in the town of Krasnoyarsk, nestled among howling Siberian woods and red mountains. Their album is described in concept as “a journey of a young man to the Kadath -– Lovecraftian divine City of Gods, hidden in the Land of Dreams”, but also as the great lifelong journey that we each make in “search of ourselves and our inner freedom that will light the way”. Continue reading »

HEAVEN SHALL BURN: “WANDERER”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Aug 242016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn.)

Recipe for success: one part Bolt Thrower, one part Earth Crisis, one part Swedish Death Metal (of the more melodic variety), and a heavy helping of Germanic thrash. Garnish with relevant philosophical and socio-political themes and roast for 15-20 years in a blaze of righteous fury.

It’s a recipe which has served Heaven Shall Burn extremely well over the years, and, though there have certainly been some valid criticisms of the band for sticking too closely to their own formula at times, it’s one that’s been responsible for keeping the German firebrands right at the forefront of the European Metalcore scene (which, with its slightly more raw and Death Metal influenced sound, I’ve often considered to be subtly distinct from its eventually more commercialised American cousin).

So I don’t think it would have surprised anyone if, on their eighth full-length album, the band had simply elected to continue with the same sound which made Iconoclast, Invictus, and Veto so successful. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all?

But… unexpectedly… that’s not exactly what happened… Continue reading »

OVARYROT — “SUICIDE IDEATION”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Aug 242016

(DGR prepared this review of the new album by the Swedish/U.S. band Ovaryrot.)

This disc sounds like a goddamned nightmare.

Every once in a while we’ll come across a release that makes the hair fly back from minute one and then leaves us glued to the wall for the entirety of its run. Not that it is usually a mark of quality, but sometimes from the first moment an album will start out sounding like someone taking a saw to sheet metal and somebody else hammering on a trash can behind it. Sometimes the music is so abrasive that you kind of can’t help but be entranced by it; judgments of quality usually come after the second or third listen, which is just about the time when you parse out exactly whatever the fuck that previous forty-some-odd minutes of whirlwind was.

Ovaryrot’s Suicide Ideation — which came out on August 14th — is one of those albums. Not that we would ever expect a band who go by the moniker of Ovaryrot to play nice; we’ve learned our lessons there before. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BOB MALMSTRÖM — “MANCHURIETS SLAVAR”

Premieres 1 Response »

Aug 242016

It won’t be too much longer now. On September 9, Bob Malmström will be back with a new album. The name of this one is Vi kommer i krig (We Come In War). If you know anything about the band’s previous releases, you have to be curious not only about what kind of new musical mayhem they’ve chosen to stir up, but also about what will happen in the band’s next video — because Bob Malmström’s videos are always a kick in the head to watch.

We can satisfy some of that curiosity today, because we have for you not only a song from the new album but also a new video to go along with it. The song is “Manchuriets slavar” (Slaves of Manchuria), which reflects some of the band’s thoughts about “China as a nation and a spiritual entity”, based on two extensive tours of the country that the band undertook in 2014 and 2015. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: NOX — “ANCESTRAL ARTE NEGRO”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 232016

The cover of Ancestral Arte Negro, the new EP by the Colombian black metal band Nox, features a member of the band spitting a ball of fire. It’s a cover that suits the music contained within, which is a great surging torrent of scorching fury. As you’re about to discover, however, there are more dimensions to the music of Nox than their ability to incinerate listeners.

Ancestral Arte Negro will be released internationally on August 26 by Forever Plagued Records, and it’s our pleasure to give you the chance to hear all four tracks in advance of its release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ASATTA — “3 DIALS”

Premieres No Responses »

Aug 232016

Asatta come our way from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To date, they’ve released two EPs — 2013’s self-titled Asatta and last year’s Songs For A Blood Moon — but they’re now on the verge of releasing their debut album, aptly titled Spiraling Into Oblivion. It will descend upon us on September 2 via Burnout Planet Records. Two songs from the album have previously premiered, and today we bring you a third one, “3 Dials”.

Asatta’s bass player Joe Arenas shared with us these thoughts about the song you will soon hear:

“Lyrically, ‘3 Dials’ is intentionally more cryptic/nonlinear than the other songs on the album. It’s the apocalyptic futuristic visions received by an Oracle. The guitar really sets an ominous tone and we really wanted the lyrics and vocals to reflect that same feeling of impending doom.”

And to that we say, “mission accomplished”. Continue reading »

A LETTER OF GRATITUDE FROM PANOPTICON (AND NEWS ABOUT THE NEXT ALBUM AND FUTURE PERFORMANCES)

Metal News 3 Responses »

Aug 232016

EDITOR’S NOTE: The recently completed Migration Fest in Olympia, Washington, jointly organized by 20 Buck Spin and Gilead Media, was filled with memorable highlights, but perhaps the greatest of all was the first live performance by Panopticon, which closed the fest’s second night.

In a 90-minute set that cut across a broad swath of Panopticon’s albums, Austin Lunn was joined on-stage by drummer Ray Capizzo (Falls of Rauros), bassist Andy Klokow (who also performed live with Obsequiae), and guitarist Jake Quittschreiber (Circadian Ritual). The time seemed to fly by, and left an enthusiastic audience roaring their appreciation and their thanks. (We have five videos from that set, along with a more extensive review, here.)

And now we want to share another expression of gratitude, this time a thank-you letter from Austin Lunn himself to everyone who became a part of Migration Fest — and in this letter he discloses plans for the next Panopticon album as well as future live performances: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EYE OF SOLITUDE — “THIS GOODBYE. THE GOODBYE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Aug 232016

(Grant Skelton introduces our premiere of a video for a new song by the British band Eye of Solitude from their forthcoming album, Cenotaph.)

Eye Of Solitude will release their new album Cenotaph next week (September 1). This Friday (August 26), No Clean Singing will bring you an exclusive full-album stream of that release along with my review. Cenotaph is an album meant for solitary enjoyment. It will disengage you from all externalities and invite you to retreat inward — to places inside your soul you aren’t even aware of.

In the meantime, No Clean Singing is proud to present another exclusive from Cenotaph. Below, you will find the official music video for the track “This Goodbye. The Goodbye.” The video, directed by Razvan Alexandru, is deliberately slow and contemplative. Just like the track itself. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEITHÍOCH — “THE HUNTER’S INVOCATION”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Aug 232016

Regular readers of my verbiage may have concluded that I live in a state of perpetual enthusiasm about metal. That isn’t true, but because all of us here only devote our scribblings to music that does make us enthusiastic, I could understand why people may think that. How then can I adequately explain how really, really, ultra-enthusiastic I am about the new Beithíoch song I’m about to deliver unto your ears?

There is something about this track, the name of which is “The Hunter’s Invocation“, that has made it leap like a beast from the shadows and seize my imagination, as I hope it will yours — something that makes it not merely a satisfying union of black, death, and doom metal but also unusually distinctive. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries