NO CLEAN SINGING

HAMMERHEART OSTARABLOT 2016: A REMINDER AND AN UPDATE

Mar 172016

Festival poster by Nate Burns

If you’re within walking, driving, hang-gliding, or teleportation distance from Minneapolis this weekend, you really ought to be at the Triple Rock Social Club — because that’s where the second edition of HammerHeart Brewing Company’s Ostarablot music festival will be taking place.

I wrote about this fest back in January, but figured it was time for a reminder and a little update. It’s worth a strong reminder because of the tremendous line-up of bands that will be participating. It’s also being sponsored by HammerHeart, which is the brewery and tap house located in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, that’s co-owned by Austin Lunn of Panopticon. In case you’ve overlooked the event, here’s that eye-popping line-up I mentioned: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHILD BITE — “VIDEO BLOOD”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Mar 172016

Man, I still can’t get enough of that album cover up there. So colorful… so hallucinatory… something like a womb with a skull at the business end and claws cradling the fetus. How can you not want to gird your loins and dive into the music to see what strange sensations lie in wait? I sure wanted to. And I’m sure glad I did.

The artwork was created by Shawn Knight, who also contributes his vocal talents to Child Bite, the veteran Detroit-area band whose line-up also includes Sean Clancy (bass), Brandon Sczomak (guitar), and Jeff Kraus (drums). The name of the album is Negative Noise, and yes indeed, it’s a strange and thoroughly invigorating trip — from which we have the pleasure of delivering the premiere of a song called “Video Blood“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LAKE OF VIOLET — “CAPTIVE/FUGITIVE”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Mar 172016

It was already a given that Lake of Violet’s new album would be worth hearing because of the label that’s bringing it out — Gilead Media — and the alluring cover art and intriguing album title (The Startling Testimony of Plumb Lines) sealed the deal. But when I learned who is in the band, I became not merely interested in the music but intensely curious.

The line-up consists of guitarist André Foisy (Locrian, Kwaidan), drummer Anthony Michael Cori (Cedars of Lebanon, ex-Minsk), bassist Jacob Essak (Sun Splitter), and vocalist Neil Jendon (Kwaidan, Catherine). I thought, what in the world might people such as these have concocted? As it turns out, the music is more out of this world than in it.

We have the pleasure of premiering one of these remarkable songs today: “Captive/Fugitive“. Continue reading »

DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT / HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY / THE GREAT OLD ONES – LIVE AT THE BLACK HEART, LONDON, MAR 12, 2016

Concert Reviews 4 Responses »

Mar 172016

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the performances in London on March 12 by Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Harakiri For the Sky, and The Great Old Ones — with videos recorded by Mr. Synn himself.)

Look at that line-up. Just look at it. That is one hell of a triple-header, if I do say so myself.

As a matter of fact, two of those bands, Der Weg Einer Freiheit and The Great Old Ones, were (separately) responsible for two of the best gigs I went to last year, whilst Harakiri For The Sky are one of those bands I’ve been itching to see live for years now, though the timing has just never quite worked out. So to say I was a little excited when this show was announced would be something of an understatement. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DRUDKH — “FIERY SERPENT”

Premieres 7 Responses »

Mar 172016

In the wake of their excellent 2015 album A Furrow Cut Short, Ukraine’s Drudkh have decided to release their next recorded output through a series of split EPs, the first of which will see the band join forces with Norway’s Hades Almighty under the name One Who Walks With the Fog / Pyre Era, Black!. Drudkh‘s contributions to the split consist of two songs — “Golden Horse” and “Fiery Serpent” — and today we bring you a stream of the latter track.

We are told that Drudkh‘s principal creative force Roman Sayenko drew his lyrical inspiration for the songs from the poetry of Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Svidzins’kyi (1885-1941), “who was murdered by the Soviets after years of censorship and repression”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZHRINE — “UTOPIAN WARFARE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Mar 172016

The new album Unortheta by the Icelandic band Zhrine has made me very happy, for at least three reasons. First, now I know what happened to Gone Postal. Second, now I have another way to launch my mind into the frigid void of space without using intoxicants that will leave me retching in the morning. Third, they have spread across that mystical void an array of spectral terrors and brilliant spectacles that are as mesmerizing as they are harrowing.

When I first encountered Gone Postal back in 2012, via a 2011 demo that followed their 2008 debut album (In the Depths of Despair), I wondered whether the name they had chosen for themselves really suited the music — which was shot through with ripping/roaring tremolo guitars, vicious rhythms, and an air of bleak dissonance. The vocal style flexed between harsh growls and eviscerating shrieks. The production was as raw as a fresh wound. Yet as cacophonous as the music often was, strange melodies rang out through the tidal wash of bile, lending the music a kind of sick fascination. The name “Gone Postal” captured the derangement of the sound, yet even by then the name had a kind of archaic ring to it. Continue reading »

GRAVES AT SEA: “THE CURSE THAT IS”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Mar 172016

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Graves At Sea from Portland, Oregon.)

After a few splits and an EP, these guys are pulling the trigger on the full-length I have been dying to sink my doom-hungry jaws into. The nastiness they teased us with on previous releases has been filtered through a bigger production value for their debut full-length. The band still thunders into your ears, with some of the evil abrasion that coated their work now snarling at you like crystal-meth-infused stoner rock. Sometimes this even borders on the post- apocalyptic sludge of Through Silver and Blood-era Neurosis.

The vocals are the band’s meanest quality, packing ample grit into each scream. The guitar has warmed up a bit. Perhaps it is the time they took in the studio to perfect their tone versus the raw, angrier sound of previous releases. With each listen I began to appreciate the expanded musical qualities invested into the songs here; it just takes a little getting used-to. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): PLEBEIAN GRANDSTAND, OCCULTUM, FIN, HOLYARROW

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK 13 Responses »

Mar 162016

Greetings and welcome to Part 2 of a three-part post in which I’ve collected recent songs, EPs, and albums in a blackened vein that I’ve been enjoying and think you might enjoy, too. For the music in Part 1, go here. I’ll post Part 3 later today or tomorrow, depending on how life goes.

PLEBEIAN GRANDSTAND

We last paid attention to the French band Plebeian Grandstand when Austin Weber reviewed their second album Lowgazers in 2014. They now have a new one named False Highs, True Lows (great name), which will be released on April 29 by Throatruiner Records (LP and CD) and Basement Apes (CD).

I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that you forget the conceptions you may have formed if you heard Lowgazers, but this new album is really something else, to be approached with fresh ears. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BOG OF THE INFIDEL — “COILS OF THE NOOSE”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Mar 162016

Black metal has morphed into so many different manifestations that you can’t make general statements about the genre any more (and maybe you never could). But there’s a certain long-lasting strain of the black plague that appeals to me because it’s both hot and cold at the same time — searing in its speed and intensity, yet cold in the bleak, doomed, misanthropic aura generated by the melodies. That’s the character of “Coils of the Noose“, the new song by Rhode Island’s Bog of the Infidel that we’re premiering in this post.

The song appears on the band’s second album, Asleep In the Arms of Suicide, which will be released by Eternal Death Records on April 8. I think you’ll hear what I mean quite clearly, but I’ll also share these comments from the band about the song: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: STONED JESUS (IGOR SIDORENKO)

Interviews 1 Response »

Mar 162016

(We present Comrade Aleks’ interview with Igor Sidorenko of the Ukrainian band Stoned Jesus, with photos by Oscar Szramka.)

Here come the robots! The outfit Stoned Jesus (Kiev, Ukraine) was revealed by the Solitude Productions label in the year 2010, with the label then releasing their first (after two demos) full-length release – First Communion. Stoner doom from Stoned Jesus acquired new features and developed over the years and became more artistic, energetic, and alive, so the number of the Stoned Jesus congregation has grown steadily.

In February 2015 they released their third album – The Harvest — and the idea of doing an interview with them began to take shape gradually, but their busy concert schedule became a serious obstacle on the way to transfer this plan into life. Anyway, Igor Sidorenko (guitar, vocals) took the time to answer the quiz directly from the epicenter of another tour. And one more thing – it’s not just another doped stoner band, check the “Here Come the Robots” song… you know.

******

Salute Igor! How are you? What’s going on in Stoned Jesus’ life?

Hey! We’re currently on tour with Mars Red Sky and Belzebong, so I’m writing this to you from a nightliner, with Goat’s 2012 album playing in my headphones. Continue reading »

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