NO CLEAN SINGING

DARK HARDCORE: RECOMMENDATIONS FROM NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

Apr 202016

(In this post we bring you the first of what we hope will be many recommendations of music at NCS by Neill Jameson (Krieg).)

Over the weekend I saw Nails at Choosing Death in Philadelphia. Much like the previous times I’ve seen them it was the audial equivalent of a bulldozer; aggressive, violent, and most importantly, ugly. It made me remember that their Unsilent Death record was a very important moment in my life, creating and feeding my interest in hardcore as a genre beyond either what seemed to me to be loaded with guys lifting weights and shopping for baseball hats on one side of the fence and old bands like Black Flag and Poison Idea who made some of my favorite punk records on the other. I learned that there was hardcore out there that was negative, dark, and expressed something beyond what seemed like a frat house aesthetic.

In the few years since then I’ve been digging into the genre and finding a lot of really, to me, interesting records that fed the need for the dark and heavy sounds of metal while expressing the sort of negative emotions that are fairly constant in my life. Labels like A389, Organized Crime, Melotov, and Magic Bullet are just some that work within this area and are good spots to check out if you have further interest.

I approached NCS with the idea to occasionally pop in and write about music that’s important to me that other folks into metal might not be familiar with but could appreciate. I figured dark hardcore would be a good place to start. So without giving you more back story you don’t care about, here’s a few bands & records to check out. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVE DESECRATOR — “TEMPLE OF ABOMINATIONS”

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Apr 202016

The Brazilian hellraisers in Grave Desecrator had their beginning in 1998 and since then have released two albums, a couple of EPs, and splits with the likes of Archgoat and Black Witchery. Last fall they signed a pact with Season of Mist for the release of their new third album, Dust To Lust, which has now been scheduled for detonation on July 1.

Even those of you who have been brutalized by the band’s music in the past may be curious about what Grave Desecrator have wrought in the five and a half years since their last album, and today we bring you a sign as we premiere a track named “Temple of Abominations“.

The band have previewed the music themselves in these words about the song from bassist Élson “El” Necrogoat: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEHEXEN — “CHALICE OF THE ABYSSAL WATER”

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Apr 202016

If you’re wondering about that thundering black mass of a storm on the horizon, the one with the boiling fires of Hades at its center and crackling tendrils of lightning that spear the earth in a fury, it’s not a natural phenomenon. It’s the approach of a new album by Behexen.

The fifth full-length by these infamous Finnish demons fittingly bears the name The Poisonous Path, and it will descend upon us on May 27 via Debemur Morti Productions. In this post we bring the premiere of its first advance track, “Chalice of the Abyssal Water“.

Four years after Nightside Emanations and almost 20 years after their first demo, Behexen show no signs of repentance or fatigue, but instead a dedication to further perfecting their hellish black art. Continue reading »

GREY HEAVEN FALL: “BLACK WISDOM”

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Apr 192016

I’m sure no one’s counting (including me), but I don’t manage to write many stand-alone album reviews in a given year. In the time I have available to devote to this site, I spend most of it doing other things. I listen to many forthcoming albums that I like a great deal, and yet never manage to say anything about (many more I never manage to hear at all). And once an album is released, if I haven’t already written about it, I tend to ruefully shake my head at myself and move on down the road to new things looming on the horizon ahead.

This is a very rare occasion when I’m not doing that. Grey Heaven Fall’s Black Wisdom was released last October by the small Russian label Aesthetics of Devastation. I received an advance digital copy, and then in December the label sent me a CD. I thought the album was an amazing accomplishment, one of the best I heard in 2015, yet I still didn’t manage to write about it. And that would have been that, except this label is persistent, and they contacted me again recently. Sometimes that kind of persistence can be aggravating. In this case, it made me think again about what a tremendously creative and powerful album Black Wisdom is, and I convinced myself that even now, almost six months after the release, I owed it to the band to say so.

Trying to describe the multifaceted music or explain its unusual appeal is difficult, especially for someone like me who’s still a rank amateur when it comes to writing about music. But I’m going to try, comforted by the knowledge that at the end of this effort I can embed a full stream of the music and let it speak for itself. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 72: INCOMING CEREBRAL OVERDRIVE

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Apr 192016

(We present the April edition of THE SYNN REPORT, in which Andy discourses about all three albums in the discography of Italy’s Incoming Cerebral Overdrive.)

Recommended for fans of: The Dillinger Escape Plan, (early) Mastodon, Nero di Marte

Somehow this Italian quintet have completely passed me by up until now, despite releasing three extremely well-received albums within the past 8 years. Thankfully this edition of The Synn Report allows me an opportunity to rectify my mistake, and really dive into the band’s eclectic, eccentric, electrifying Prog/Tech/Math Metal stew.

Now, to be clear, when I use the term “Progressive” in this column, it’s to refer to the more chaotic, out-there-adventurousness of bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, and early Mastodon – so don’t go expecting some sort of Dream Theatre-esque instrumental extravaganza or gleaming, harmony-laden Post-Metal odyssey – as Incoming Cerebral Overdrive (or I.C.O. as they shall hereto forth be referred to) have a much rawer, more experimental vibe to their music, and aren’t afraid to take a few risks whilst also keeping things nice and heavy.

That being said, their most recent album (2012’s Le Stelle: A Voyage Adrift) definitely saw them reining in the chaotic Hardcore influences of their earlier works in favour of a more refined — though no less challenging — sound, so it’s clear that the Italian band aren’t done experimenting and progressing (in the most literal sense of the word) their sound just yet! Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 11)

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 16 Responses »

Apr 192016

(Our contributor from Norway, Gorger, returns with the 11th edition of his series recommending releases that we’ve managed to overlook. To find more of his discoveries, visit Gorger’s Metal.)

Sometimes, my mouth has diarrhea. Other times, I’ve got less crap to share. Oh, wait, I’ve got one thing. One of these scrawlings is longer than the others, and so I find three to be an adequate number of presentations this time. I hope it’s not too long, and that you will at least take the time to listen to the music. And so, without further ado, I present three albums that I for one feel deserve your attention. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EPIDEMIA — “RETRIBUCIÓN HOMICIDA”

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Apr 182016

Although South America has been home to some of the world’s best death metal and thrash bands going back to the 1980s, the high country of Ecuador is less well-known as a spawning ground for metal extremity than some of the other nations on the continent. Yet Ecuador is home to Epidemia, a band who proudly carry on the tradition of adrenaline-fueled savagery launched by such groups as Sarcófago, Sepultura, and Sadism. Their forthcoming second album, Leprocomio, follows the first one by a decade, but this is certainly a case of better-late-than-never — as you’ll discover through our stream of the album’s second track, “Retribución Homicida“.

Every now and then, as a public service, I warn people to sit down before listening to some of the music we stream on this site — unless you actually feel like getting knocked on your ass. This is one of those times. You do get a bit of warning from the song itself: The opening snare fusillades and that meat-grinding riff that goes along with it send up the red flag, but it still probably won’t prepare you for the absolute decimation to come. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: STANGALA

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Apr 182016

(Comrade Aleks brings us another very entertaining and informative interview with the two core members of the unusual Breton band Stangala.)

That extravagant outfit from Brittany returns after three years of searches with a new refreshed sound and new avant-garde melodies which were formed under the name Klañv… Oh, well, let me introduce you to the Stangala band.

They started in far 2006 as a trio – Steven Le Moan (guitars, vocals), Thomas Coïc (drums), and Alexandre Miossec (bass). This lineup recorded the Boued Tousek Hag Traou Mat All debut in 2011, “drug-fueled” psychedelic doom rock with some Breton tunes and Breton lyrics. About two years later the band (without Alexandre this time) took part in split-record with the Stonebirds group; this work was named Kreizh Breizh Sessions – Vol.1. This time Stangala performed a highly eclectic mix of doom stoner with black metal, with some Breton colors as well.

And now? Their second full-length Klañv, released by Finisterian Dead End on the 24th of March, shows avant-garde Celtic doom black rock as it probably could be. It’s an imprecise term, but you can easily check it – there are a few necessary links down the text. Oh, and the text… It’s our interview with Steven and Thomas. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORDBRAND (“COLD WOMB”) AND GRAVEHILL (“UPON THE 6TH CHIME”)

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Apr 182016

It feels like June is going to be the start of murder season this year. I’m not sure of the exact date, so just circle the whole month in red on your calendar, preferably with someone else’s blood. Sometime that month, as best we can tell, Doomentia Records will release a split LP by Mordbrand from Sweden and Gravehill from Hellheim, California (aka Los Angeles).

The LP will combine two new EPs, one by each band with separate artwork, and they deliver two different but equally lethal forms of death metal slaughtering. Mordbrand’s half is entitled In Nighted Waters, and Gravehill have branded their offering with the name Skullbearer. Today we have for you the premiere of one of Mordbrand’s five tracks on the split, “Cold Womb”, as well as a stream of a Gravehill song called “Upon the 6th Chime”.

MORDBRAND: “COLD WOMB”

I’ve been following Mordbrand since their debut release in a 2010 split with Evoke and have spilled words about virtually everything they’ve released since then. They were very good at the start and have only gotten better. Two of the band’s three members, guitarist-bassist Bjørn Larsson and vocalist Per Boder, were involved in the recent revival of the legendary God Macabre, and maybe that experience has added an extra dose of morbid energy, because In Nighted Waters is sounding like Mordbrand’s strongest work yet. Continue reading »

REVIEWS: THE ZENITH PASSAGE (“SOLIPSIST”) AND OMOPHAGIA (“IN THE NAME OF CHAOS”)

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Apr 182016

(DGR delivers a two-fer… reviewing the new albums by California’s The Zenith Passage and Omophagia from Zurich.)

If you’re a fan of the modern tech-death scene — the one in which tech-death has evolved into its own shorthand moniker to represent an entire genre as opposed to just a way to describe complicated death metal — then last week should have proved to be pretty big for you, as Unique Leader had two releases hitting right in the same window.

The label, which has specialized in a brand of tech-death that is equal parts technical and groove-focused, has spread out quite a bit in the past few years and has become increasingly prolific, to the point where they’ve actually developed something of their own sound. You could say, “Unique Leader tech-death” to some people, and they would have a pretty good starting point as to whatever bands you’d be describing at that moment. While the label has always delved heavily into the California scene (at one point seeming like they were sweeping through the Bay-Area-to-Sacramento run especially), recent years have also seen the label adding quite a few international acts to the mix — which brings us to this point.

Last week brought two fairly big Unique Leader releases, one of which is the first full-length release for So-Cal-based The Zenith Passage and the other the second album (after a five-year wait) for Swiss death metal proprietors Omophagia. As such, I felt it might be interesting to slam the two albums into one big review package, because both of them by their nature feel like two takes on the same subject — two differing styles of death metal but with one very solid throughline between them. Continue reading »

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