NO CLEAN SINGING

A WEDNESDAY ROUND-UP: DYSRHYTHMIA, INDRICOTHERE, BLOOD INCANTATION, PESTIFERE

Jun 222016

photo by Johnny DeBlase

We’ve posted so many “Seen and Heard” collections this week that I decided to give that heading a break, though that’s what this post really is: another collection of somewhat randomly observed news and new music that I thought was worth spreading around. And because we’ve posted so many of these collections recently, I decided to cut back the volume of this particular one, too — though I do think the selections I’ve made here make nice complements to each other.

DYSRHYTHMIA

Guitarist Kevin Hufnagel and bassist Colin Marston could be resting on their laurels after their standout work on the new Gorguts EP, Pleiades’ Dust (not to mention Marston’s performances on the new releases by Withered, Krallice, and his own Indricothere project) , but instead they and drummer Jeff Eber are bringing out a new Dysrhythmia album. Entitled The Veil of Control, it’s the band’s seventh studio full-length and their first since 2012’s Test of Submission. According to today’s announcement by Profound Lore, it will be released on September 23. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF 2016 SO FAR: AN INVITATION FOR READERS’ LISTS

LISTMANIA 2016 119 Responses »

Jun 222016

We’re almost at the halfway point of 2016, measured according to the Gregorian calendar. If you want to be precise, we will reach the halfway point at midnight on July 1; because 2016 is a leap year, there are 366 days in the year. and the 183rd day is July 1. It’s a completely arbitrary point for taking stock of what the year has delivered so far, and because I’ve already started seeing other music sites spreading around lists of the best releases for the first half of the year (such as this one at Metal Injection by our collaborator Austin Weber), I decided to just go with today.

So with the halfway point of 2016 fast approaching, let’s talk about the best releases of the year so far. As long-time readers of the site are well aware, I’m terrible at making “best of” lists. I overthink it, I agonize over it, I have great difficulty comparing metal across different genres, and I have great difficulty choosing among albums I like even within a specific genre. When I contemplate making a “best of the year” list, or even a “best of the half-year” list, my brain tends to just lock up like an engine that’s had a hole punched in the oil pan.

Therefore, as usual, I’m not providing a list of my own — and my fellow regular writers Andy Synn and DGR haven’t sent me lists of their own. So I’m afraid it’s up to you. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BRANDON MARCEY (COUGH / SINISTER HAZE)

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Jun 222016

(Comrade Aleks interviews Brandon Marcey, who holds down positions in two very good bands.)

Brandon Marcey is the hairy man from Richmond, Virginia, who successfully combines work in two cool bands at the same time. He has played guitars in misanthropic sludge stoner doom cult Cough since 2010; and the band just released their new long-awaited record Still They Pray on Relapse Records. And besides that, he plays guitars and sings in wicked psychedelic doom outfit Sinister Haze, who finished their first full-length album just a month ago; you can find it on CD due to STB Records’ efforts.

It was difficult, but I believe that we managed to balance Cough and Sinister Haze stories here in one interview. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): NOX FORMULAE, PANZERBASTARD, KARCAVUL, NARTHRAAL, FREITOD

Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Jun 212016

This is another day in which we have felt compelled to throw more new music at your head than any normal person has time to hear. Many abnormal people (other than us) won’t have time to listen to all of it either. I tell myself this is why I should continue writing some words about the streams we recommend, as a way of helping listeners choose what to play and what not to play, given their own tastes. Obviously, I’m choosing to ignore the likelihood that no normal person has time to read all the words either.

Between Part 1 and Part 2 of today’s round-up, we’ve furnished new or newly discovered music by 10 bands. Five more are featured below.

NOX FORMULAE

On the distant future day of September 16, 2016, Dark Descent Records will release the debut album of a Greek black metal collective known as Nox Formulae. The album’s title is The Hidden Paths to Black Ecstasy. Yesterday I received a Bandcamp e-mail alert that one song from the album had been set up for streaming, a two-part piece named “Hidden Clan NXN – Pt a. Eleven Rays of Sorat, Pt b. Black Magic Assault”, and that’s the first item in this round-up. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): MINDKULT, FRIGORIS, BAALSEBUB, ASHAENA, BOHEMIAN GROVE

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Jun 212016

I had an amazing listening experience last night. I compiled a list of new music I thought might be worth hearing, drawing upon messages that had arrived at the NCS compound via our intrepid pigeon aeronauts and links I had spotted in my Facebook news feed. And then I plowed through them — and found one gem after another, with nary a single meh reaction from start to finish. Perhaps equally remarkable, I had never heard of any of the bands before (I was interested in a journey of exploration, which is why I assembled the list as I did).

Not wishing to leave behind any of the songs I heard, I’ve divided these recommendations into two parts, which have become Parts 2 and 3 of today’s Seen and Heard feature, following DGR’s post earlier today.

MINDKULT

This first song is an exception to our Rule — there are no harsh vocals in it at all, and I thought the clean vocals were quite appealing. They remind me of someone I’ve heard before, but I’ve had trouble placing the resemblance. Yet what really hooked me about the song is the guitar performance; it’s essentially one long, terrifically good guitar solo anchored by a couple of compelling central riffs. Continue reading »

VEKTOR: TERMINAL REDUX

Reviews 7 Responses »

Jun 212016

(Austin Weber turns in this review of the new album by Vektor.)

Formerly Arizona-based, now Philly-based prog thrash unit Vektor are an interesting sonic experiment, akin to fellow modern thrashers Revocation as far as taking thrash roots mixed with some progressive death metal influences (and beyond) and creating something new and breathtaking. Their first two releases, Black Future and Outer Isolation, showed a group hungry to prove their mettle in an already crowded re-thrash oriented scene and movement. From those initial sparks of brilliance, Vektor have truly become something even greater this time around with Terminal Redux. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): HANNES GROSSMANN, SKELETONWITCH, GHOUL, COUNTLESS SKIES, MALEVOLENT

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Jun 212016

(DGR had so much fun stepping up for round-up duty last week that he’s already back with more new songs to recommend. And later today you’re humble editor will throw in Parts 2 and 3 of today’s round-up.)

Just as we managed to post our last series of huge collections of music, even more delicious goodies came to our attention span over the past week whilst we lay on rocks under the sun attempting to capture flies. This time around, music that leaked out within the past few weeks is what we’re hoping to cover — with one notable exception that is a bit more of an anthropology act waiting at the bottom.

Last week saw a handful of huge premieres — including one day at our very site that saw seven pretty huge ones — and we’re hoping to help spread the news. This installment is, again, pretty death-metal-heavy but moreso stuff that has been on the fringes of the genre than stuff that is straightforward blasts and sewage growls. We’re going to cover the tech realm, the thrashier side, the melodic side, and then into one band who covered a vast amount of ground before they went into hibernation. There should also be some pretty hefty names for you all to recognize as well, which made last week fairly exciting to say the least. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY — “FUNERAL DREAMS”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Jun 202016

Harakiri For the Sky’s last album Aokigahara, released in 2014, was a revelation — a powerful amalgamation of black metal and atmospheric post-metal that was both blisteringly cathartic and achingly beautiful. To borrow the words of my comrade Andy Synn, “With an undeniable ear for bleak, evocative melody, an impressive array of gleaming lead guitar refrains, and a keen grasp of stellar songcraft, on record the group are a truly immersive experience.” No wonder that this Austrian duo’s new album III: Trauma has been one of our most highly anticipated 2016 releases.

The first advance track from the new album, “Calling the Rain”, was a sign that, if anything, the band may have exceeded the heights reached on Aokigahara. The song is an intense experience, a memoriam to the suicide of an old friend. It’s also intensely memorable, earning all of its 11+ minutes and somehow still ending too soon. And today we bring you the premiere of a lyric video for another song — “Funeral Dreams” — which is further proof that, as fine as Aokigahara was, III: Trauma is even better. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WICKED INQUISITION (NATE TOWLE)

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Jun 202016

(Comrade Aleks presents what appears to be one of the last interviews of Minnesota’s Wicked Inquisition.)

This cool band from Minnesota is going to split up, and their last gig will be held next week. It’s s sad fact ‘cause I liked their self-titled album released just one year ago – this doom metal in the vein of Pentagram and Witchfinder General has a lot of hooks and pleasant tunes, though it’s traditional to the core.

The fate of Wicked Inquisition’s members is blurred except for the band’s founder Nate Towle; it’s already known that he took the place of the second guitarist in the anarchic band Satan’s Satyrs. So I had a brief conversation with Nate, and we need to hurry while Wicked Inquisition is still here. Continue reading »

BE’LAKOR: “VESSELS”

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

Jun 202016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Australia’s Be’lakor.)

With so much of its musical territory cannibalised in the boom and bust of the Metalcore bubble, and with so many of its originators/innovators either breaking up or shifting their sound (for better or for worse) into pastures new, it’s been a rough decade or so for the style known as “Melodeath”, particularly since most of its adherents seem to have long since settled into a comfortable rut of rehashing and reusing the same old riffs and the same old melodies, ad infintum, ad nauseum.

Heck, there’s practically a cottage-industry these days dedicated to churning out a stream of generic-brand Insomnium clones, as if the masses of faceless At The Gates rip-offs and soulless In Flames copycats weren’t already diluting the genre enough as it is.

So perhaps you can understand that, as much as I was looking forward to hearing the latest Be’lakor album, my expectations were tempered somewhat by my general dissatisfaction with the state of the modern Melodeath scene, and my still somewhat lukewarm feelings towards 2012’s solid, but unspectacular, Of Breath and Bone.

But blow me down and call me Shirley if the Aussie quintet haven’t stepped up their game on this one. Continue reading »

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