NO CLEAN SINGING

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

Apr 222016

We have for you today a full stream of the self-titled debut album by the German band Trautonist. When I heard the first single from the album back in January — “Distance” — I described it then as flowing like a slow, sinuous stream under cloudy skies, with you the listener floating along with it, a soft breeze on your neck, falling into a meditative trance but still mindful of a knife edge that lingers under your throat.

I was captivated by the song’s drifting atmosphere of regret and longing, and enjoyed the vocal tandem of the band’s two members (Dennis and Katharina), one harsh and shrieking, the other ghostly and pure.

But it turns out that “Distance” (relatively speaking) is the softest and most self-reflective track on an album that, as a whole, is both emotionally intense and more extreme than I might have guessed. On the other hand, the song also turned out to be a reliable sign of the band’s ability to craft bereft but moving melodies. Continue reading »

A NEW GOJIRA SONG: “STRANDED”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 14 Responses »

Apr 212016

In late March, when I read Rolling Stone’s interview/listening-session (here) with the Duplantier brothers about Gojira’s new album Magma, I became increasingly uneasy. Reading Kory Grow’s descriptions of some of the songs that he heard while talking with the brothers in their New York City studio made me fear that Gojira had morphed into a French variant of Mastodon, making a big sweeping turn into radio-friendly rock.

He wrote that “the band has taken a different route with the album compared to past riff-fests”, and referred to “almost-industrial rhythm[s]”, “brittle guitar line[s]”, “almost gothier riff[s]”, “Joe singing a monk-like chant”, “sorrowful, gothy vocals”, flutes and cowbells, and lots of four-minute songs because “people’s attentions are shorter now” (Joe’s words). In the final paragraph, Grow wrote, “they’re eager to show a different side of themselves on the new record and see how their fans react to it”.

Well, now we have some actual music, because within the last two hours, the band debuted a music video for the new album’s first advance track, “Stranded”. Continue reading »

ANOTHER DEATH OF ANOTHER GIANT: R.I.P. PRINCE

Off Topic 9 Responses »

Apr 212016

Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958, was found dead today at his home and recording studio, Paisley Park, in Chanhassen, Minnesota. This is according to numerous reports, including one by the Associated Press, which seem to be true.

I’m posting this because it is hitting me just as hard, and maybe harder, than the deaths of Lemmy and Bowie. I’d be giving away more about my age than I want to give away if I went into too much detail, but let’s just say that I was an ardent fan of his music in the early years and it was a point of connection between me and my then wife-to-be.

I’m not capable of trying to explain what it was like when he burst upon the music scene, and there will be obituaries and retrospectives galore in the coming days written by people much more eloquent than me. But although I won’t try to write it, I can show you. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FALSE GODS — “WASTELAND”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Apr 212016

Wasteland is the name of the debut EP by New York’s False Gods, and it’s a well-chosen title because this massively heavy, staggeringly bleak, and frequently hallucinatory EP seems like a musical survey of life’s wreckage.

The five songs on the EP aren’t all in the same vein musically. You may think you know where they’re going after the first very catchy song (or even two), but as you move ahead you eventually realize you’re on your way into a descent, and there’s a soul-destroying pit of despair at the end of the fall. Continue reading »

CARDINALS FOLLY: “HOLOCAUST OF ECSTASY AND FREEDOM”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Apr 212016

(Comrade Aleks has interviewed Finland’s Cardinals Folly for us before (here), and now he provides some history of the band’s music along with comments about their forthcoming new album.)

This blasphemous cult was started in Helsinki in around 2004 under name The Coven. That title fits the band’s music, but there were just too many bands with the same name, so The Coven was dissolved and renamed Cardinals Folly after a place in a Dennis Wheatley black magic novel.

The head of this sect is Mikko Kääriäinen and he’s the only constant member of Cardinals Folly, as other musicians have come and gone after some number of occult sessions. Probably only drummer Sebastian Lindberg demonstrated perseverance as he accompanied Mikko from the first EP Heretic’s Hangover (2008) ’til the second full-length Our Cult Continues! (2014), but even he left the band a year later after the album was released… or probably Mikko just sacrificed him in a forest — who knows? Continue reading »

ALARIC: “END OF MIRRORS”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Apr 212016

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Oakland-based Alaric.)

In my assessment of what makes a band heavy, darkness is an integral component of the equation. Dialing in the gain and tuning lower are easy first steps toward this woeful abyss, but it really takes the ability to convey life experience stained by addiction, mental illness, and deep loss to capture convincing sonic shades.

This band from Oakland is more than convincing when it comes to diving into the shadows. They caught my ear when the whole hipster death rock revival came into my consciousness, though these guys are much rougher around their serrated edges than other bands that rode in on that wagon. Now five years later they have made a very welcome return with End of Mirrors thanks to Neurot Recordings.

All the things that have worked for these guys in the past are in place as they plow into the post-apocalyptic wasteland their music conjures. Their bassist provides varied levels of gloom-ridden melodies that are trod upon by the guitarist, a member of the sludge band Noothgrush. Some of the hypnotizing grooves here take multiple listens to fully sink in. Continue reading »

SINISTROUS DIABOLUS: “II”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Apr 212016

(New Zealand music writer and broadcaster Craig Hayes rejoins us with this review of the new album II by Sinistrous Diabolus, which was self-released on March 31, 2016, and is available on Bandcamp.)

Many of metal’s most interesting bands are intensely dramatic without ever indulging in any overt theatrics. Often those bands are fronted by singular musicians whose creations reflect the pitch-black depths of their own trials and tribulations. Those musicians aren’t playing ‘make believe’, and their music frequently burrows into the darkest recesses of our own minds.

Cult New Zealand death/doom band Sinistrous Diabolus definitely fits into that category. And the band’s new full-length, II, is a monstrous, spine-chilling album that delivers an altogether soul-crushing experience. Fans of Australian death/doom band Inverloch’s excellent Distance | Collapsed album from earlier this year will find comparable levels of heaviness awaiting on Sinistrous Diabolus’ II. But if the name Sinistrous Diabolus doesn’t leap to mind when you’re contemplating the gloomiest metal around, that’s perfectly understandable.

Sinistrous Diabolus is a markedly underground entity from the far-flung reaches, and has been on hiatus a number of times since forming in the early ’90s. The band isn’t actually operating right now, even though there’s a new album out. But even if you’ve never heard of Sinistrous Diabolus before, you might well have heard the band’s influence echoing in Australiasian extreme metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GORGOSAUR — “IN DARKNESS THEY COME CRAWLING”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Apr 202016

Rising from the festering graveyards of Sweden comes the two-person death machine Gorgosaur and their debut album Lurking Among Corpses, which will be released by Memento Mori Records on April 25, 2016. Emblazoned with the distinctively ghoulish artwork of Mark Riddick, this album will please fans of Gorgosaur’s undead forebears — such bands as Nihilist, Carnage, Dismember, Entombed, and Nirvana 2002. For a taste of the putridity to come, we bring you a track called “In Darkness The Come Crawling”.

I’ve made no secret that I have something like a Pavlovian response to the massive, grinding, smoke-belching tone of the guitars on this kind of music, and Gorgosaur have got it dialed in perfectly. Which means I’ve started slobbering and salivating. My keyboard is getting kind of slimy, but before it shorts out, here are a few more words about this lethal new song: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVESLAVE — “STRANGE DAYS”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Apr 202016

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song and video from Graveslave.)

Ever since Todd Farnham from Invidiosus (and Amiensus!) first got in touch with me about helping premiere music for his sick band several years ago, he has consistently kept me in the loop with a ton of awesome new metal bands close to his neck of the woods. Earlier this year he showed me Sunless, which Islander himself made mention of at NCS, and I myself covered at Metal Injection. Recently he tipped me off to another band I was new to called Graveslave, whose members are split between Minneapolis and Denver.

Liking what I heard by them at the time, I agreed to help them launch a new video that doubles as a song premiere for a new single by the band called “Strange Days”. While not everyone out in the world is celebrating today, Graveslave is, since it’s 4/20! As such, the video is a weed-themed ode to the horrific perils that Reefer Madness warned us about all those years ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FORMLESS — “PRISM”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Apr 202016

(Austin Weber brings us the premiere of a new song by Formless, with this introduction:)

It seems like just yesterday that I first became familiar with Connecticut-based technical death metal unit Formless when they dropped their sick three-song demo EP back in 2010. Over the years, their name continued to spread and be mentioned among the tech-death faithful, all the while we waited for the band to release something new. Well, the long wait is finally over, as the band’s debut full-length, Eon, is finally dropping on Tuesday, May 10th! And we’ve got the exclusive premiere of a brand new song off it called “Prism”.

Much like the band’s music in the past, “Prism” culls influences and ideas from all over the larger tech-death and death metal styles around to form a multi-faceted synthesis all their own. So it shreds, it stomps, it soars, and even offers up sparse moments of beautiful clean singing from guitarist Annie Grunwald amidst the myriad of ideas that “Prism” is composed of. As a song title, “Prism” perfectly describes this kind of layered technical death metal composition, full of many shades and colors. Continue reading »

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