NO CLEAN SINGING

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 4)

Oct 282016

(This is the fourth part of a multi-part post prepared by Austin Weber putting the spotlight on recent releases, and today he focuses on music from these three bands: Mammoth, Nostril Caverns, and Vermine. To check out Part 1, go here; Part 2 is at this location; and Part 3 can be found here.)

MAMMOTH – DEVIATION

We’ll start today on a lighter note with the newly released instrumental progressive metal album from the Los Angeles-based group known as Mammoth. While the group has been active for several years now, and with several releases behind them already, I only recently became aware of them when their guitarist Wes pitched Deviation to me and I instantly fell in love. Similar to Mastodon, the band’s name fits so well, because their music really is a massive force similar in size and heft to a damn mammoth. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 78: HIEROPHANT

Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT 1 Response »

Oct 282016

(In this October edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy reviews the discography of Italy’s Hierophant — including their brand new album Mass Grave.)

Recommended for fans of: Trap Them, Rotten Sound, Black Breath

There are times in your life when only the nastiest, gnarliest, most pissed-off and punishing form of auditory abuse will do. Which is the perfect time to crank up any one of the four albums by Italian iconoclasts Hierophant.

Each of the band’s releases is a short, sharp, 600-volt shock to the system, a nose-splintering headbutt from out of nowhere, a stiff, straight shot right to the kidneys, a swift and sudden punch to the throat that leaves you gasping and choking… what I’m trying to say is that these boys don’t play nice, they fight dirty.

Straddling the line between Hardcore and Grindcore, with a hefty helping of blackened venom and sludge and doomy nihilism to boot, the band’s sound is definitely one of the most singularly aggressive and gleefully ugly that I’ve had the (dis)pleasure to encounter in recent years.

And so, with a new album on the horizon, I felt it was high time that the rest of you were made to share my pain! Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOULEMISSION — “TALES OF INEVITABLE DEATH”

Album Reviews, Premieres 1 Response »

Oct 282016

On October 31st, Samhain, Black Lion Records will release Tales of Inevitable Death, the debut album of the Dutch band Soulemission — and we have a full stream of the record for your ears in advance of its release.

With a line-up that includes former members of Prostitute Disfigurement and Cirith Gorgor, and with session drums on the album provided by Menthor (from such groups as Enthroned, Lvcifyre, and Nightbringer), the performers bring significant experience to the table, as well as interests in a broad range of extreme metal styles that have influenced their particular approach to black metal under the banner of Soulemission. In addition, the fourth track on the album (“Seas of Emptiness”) includes guest vocals by the notorious Niklas Kvarforth of Sweden’s Shining. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEATH FETISHIST — “CLANDESTINE SACRAMENT”

Album Reviews, Premieres 5 Responses »

Oct 282016

We’ve been following Death Fetishist since we premiered the band’s first single in December of last year (which became part of their debut EP Whorifice) and continuing through the release of a single-song EP named Lucifer Descending last February and our premiere of the first advance song from the debut album Clandestine Sacrament. And now, today, Debemur Morti Productions is officially releasing Clandestine Sacrament, and we have for you the first public streaming of the album.

For those who are just discovering Death Fetishist, the principal creator behind the project is the prolific Matron Thorn, who is also the main driving force in Ævangelist as well as the protagonist in a large number of solo projects, including Benighted In Sodom. He is the vocalist in Death Fetishist and performs all the instruments other than drums and percussion, which are handled by G. Nefarious (a member of Portland’s Panzergod, whose new EP we reviewed here yesterday, as well as Daemoniis Ad Noctum).

For this album Thorn also enlisted an array of notable international guests to help realize Death Fetishist’s musical vision, including guest vocalists Julia Black, D.G. from Iceland’s Misþyrming, and Doug Moore of NY’s Pyrrhon, with synth orchestration created by Jürgen Bartsch (Bethlehem) and Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: NETHERBIRD — “THE GRANDER VOYAGE”

Premieres 8 Responses »

Oct 272016

Tomorrow (October 28), Black Lodge Records will release The Grander Voyage, the new fourth album by Sweden’s Netherbird, and on the eve of the release we are pleased to bring you a full stream of this diverse and dynamic new album — prefaced by this statement from frontman Nephente:

“I am very pleased to now finally release The Grander Voyage, our fourth full-length album. It is clearly a new chapter for Netherbird and I think it is easily the best album we have written and recorded. It will be evident that we are taking more risks and also showing more of the broad spectra of influences that we have as a band, though our base is and will always be the Scandinavian black and death metal underground. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: STEEL HOOK PROSTHESES — “CALM MORBIDITY”

Premieres 1 Response »

Oct 272016

Tomorrow — October 28 — is the date set by Malignant Records for the release of Calm Morbidity, the tenth album by the Dallas duo of J. Stillings and L. Kerr known as Steel Hook Prostheses. Although the band have been churning out death industrial music for roughly 15 years, assembling an extensive discography along the way, Calm Morbidity is our site’s first exposure to their music. And so, much as we’d like to provide comparisons and to describe the musical place that Calm Morbidity occupies within the context of the band’s previous releases, all we can do today is take this new album on its own.

It contains nearly an hour of music — although “contains” is a misleading term for sounds that are constantly clawing through cage walls and coming for your throat, and your sanity. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RUDRA — “ANCIENT FOURTH”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Oct 272016

Discerning and adventurous listeners know full well the ground-breaking impact of Singapore’s Rudra over the course of a career that dates back to 1992, and yet, at least in the West, their profile is not as elevated as it should be. We can only hope that the band’s eighth album, Enemy of Duality, will win the widespread attention it deserves. The striking song from the album that we’re bringing you today — “Ancient Fourth” — is certainly compelling evidence of Rudra’s remarkable talents.

Rudra claim for themselves the genre term “Vedic metal”, which is a form of blackened death metal in which the band (who are themselves of Indian lineage) have often incorporated elements of music rooted in Hindu traditions (including the use of Indian classical instruments), with lyrics often drawn from Vedic Sanskrit literature and philosophy. About a month ago, we premiered a fantastic track from the album named “Abating the Firebrand”, but this new one is, if anything, even more striking. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BÖLZER, INSULTERS, PANZERGOD

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Oct 272016

I’ve been racking up the airline miles lately. I got back to Seattle late last night after a whirlwind trip to New York for my day job, one in which I probably spent as much time in airport security lines and on airplanes as I did in New York. Beautiful time of year to be there, though.

You may also have noticed that we’ve had a flood of premieres this week. Four more are coming today. Between traveling and writing all those premieres, I haven’t had time to pull together round-ups, and man, this has been a week when multiple round-ups would have been justified. With so much to choose from, I’ve impulsively picked these three bands. The plan is to put together more round-ups for tomorrow and Saturday in an effort to catch up.

BÖLZER

A few days ago the mighty Swiss juggernaut Bölzer released another song from their new album Hero, which will be released on November 25 through Iron Bonehead Productions. The first song that appeared, “I Am III”, was more than 10 minutes long — a dramatic, majestic, dark, brooding, esoteric, and triumphant piece in which the band moved in some dynamic new directions. The latest track, “Spiritual Athleticism“, is a more compact affair and perhaps more in line with what we were expecting based on Bölzer‘s previous releases. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SLEGEST — “I FORTIDA SITT LYS”

Premieres No Responses »

Oct 272016

Photo by Håvard Nesbø

A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of premiering a highly infectious song called “Wolf” from Vidsyn, the new album by the Norwegian band Slegest, and now we’re bringing you an official video for another track from the same album, “I fortida sitt lys“.

We’re told that the video “was recorded at an old mountain barn abandoned by time in a valley in Leikanger”, and that the concept was the brainchild of Håvard Nesbø:

“Like the song, the theme of the video can be placed in the light of the past — in the intersection of the now and the ever present whiff of olden times. Nesbø also produced the video, on a budget of pure idealism and a case of home brewed lager.”

OBSCURA / REVOCATION / BEYOND CREATION / RIVERS OF NIHIL – LIVE AT THE CORPORATION, SHEFFIELD 24/10/16

Concert Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 272016

(Andy Synn turns in this review of the live performances by Obscura, Revocation, Beyond Creation, and Rivers of Nihil in Sheffield, England, on October 24, 2016 — along with videos of the performances.)

Our readers in the UK who play guitar or bass will probably have noticed something rather peculiar over the last couple of days. Riffs that they used to be able to play turning into a mangled, lumpen soup of glitches and errors… Fluid solos that they used to rip out with ease skittering away from stumbling fingers… even, in the most extreme cases, a complete inability to even lift their instrument anymore, as if they were no longer “worthy” to wield its power.

And I know why.

You see on Monday night I was there when Obscura, Revocation, Beyond Creation, and Rivers of Nihil selfishly used-up the entire country’s supply of notes and riffs, leading to a crisis of near biblical proportions amongst the string-slinging section of the UK metal community.

Thankfully, however, I’ve been informed that a fresh shipment is being piped in from the mainland, and so normal proceedings should be resumed by the weekend or thereabouts. Continue reading »

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