NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EVER-FROST — “THE HIVE MIND”

Mar 242016

Ever-Frost are a five-man band who make their home in Modena, Italy. Their debut album Departing of Time appeared in 2013, and in January of this year they released a new EP entitled Undefined Colors. To help spread the word about this new creation, we previously premiered the EP’s final song, “Phoenix Rising”, and today we’re helping spread the word about a brand new video for a song called “The Have Mind”.

Ever-Frost have drawn inspiration for their music from bands that range from Dark Tranquillity to Soilwork to The Faceless. “The Hive Mind” is a galloping, jabbing, tension-ratcheting, high-energy slice of melodic death metal that makes space for a scintillating guitar solo (and a booming breakdown, too). Continue reading »

HELGAMITE: “HYPNAGOGIA”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Mar 242016

Here we are, nearing the end of 2016’s first quarter, and an unheralded album by a Virginia band I previously knew nothing about turns out to be one of my favorite releases of the new year. The band is Helgamite, the album is Hypnagogia, and it’s brilliant.

Sometimes a short genre description tells you all you need to know about a band, but not here. Helgamite call their music “Dark psychedelic Appalachian stoner doom”, and I guess that’s fair enough as far as it goes, but it really doesn’t go nearly far enough.

That phrase might make you think you’re in for not much more than a dose of primitive fuzzy riffs shrouded in Sabbathian gloom and a scattering of trippy guitar solos — you know, the kind of thing that’s been done to death but never seems to die. And… you would be dead wrong.
Continue reading »

POWER ELECTRONICS AND NOISE-LIKE OBJECTS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Mar 232016

(Early last month Allen Griffin brought us a round-up of three power electronics releases, and that provoked enough interest that he returns with another collection.)

It is time once again to go trawling around the abyssal outside of the Extreme Music scene to find the harsh and unknowable. But what is somewhat surprising this time around is how much some of these releases are popping up in more conventional circles.

THE BODY AND FULL OF HELL

Case in point is the new collaboration between The Body and Full of Hell titled One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache, out on March 25th via Neurot. Despite being classified as a Grindcore/D-Beat band, Full of Hell are no strangers to harsh sonic abstraction and worked with Merzbow on their previous album. The Body are also no strangers to collaboration, bringing in guests on almost all their releases. What we have here is an intermingling of The Body’s punishing Industrial aesthetics with Full of Hell’s more experimental noise-based side. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NO VALE NADA — “DEMAIN”

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Mar 232016

Demain (the French word for “tomorrow”) is the name of the new album by the French post-hardcore trio No Vale Nada, and it’s set for release on March 31. Today we bring you the premiere of the album’s title track.

“Demain” hits like a lead pipe on the back of the neck and rumbles like an avalanche, with unnerving, dissonant guitar melodies coated with a haze of distortion creeping through the pounding, while the blood-spraying vocals add an ingredient of fury and catharsis to this tension-building song. The song and the album may be named for tomorrow, but if the tenor of the music represents a premonition, it’s not a future worth anticipating with a smile. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IN MOURNING, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, SINISTROUS DIABOLUS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

Mar 232016

Here are a trio of selected songs that caught our eyes and ears over the last 24 hours.

IN MOURNING

As previously reported, Sweden’s In Mourning have a new album on the way named Afterglow, which features wonderful cover art by Kristian “Necrolord” Wåhlin and also marks the first appearance of the band’s new drummer, Daniel Liljekvist (ex-Katatonia). This morning the band debuted a lyric video for the first advance track from the album, a song named “Below Rise To the Above”. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: REMEMBER THAT YOU WILL DIE — S/T

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Mar 232016

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Remember That You Will Die, whose members come from Australia and The Netherlands.)

When a band decides to call itself Remember That You Will Die, it’s a pretty safe bet that things aren’t going to be all sunshine and roses, and right from the sombre opening bars of “Despoilation” it becomes eminently clear that this intercontinental collective of nihilists and ne’er-do-wells view life only in shades of the darkest, dourest grey.

The band’s intriguing brand of Black Metal dwells somewhere on the more atmospheric end of the spectrum, marrying stinging blasts of venomous fury with distinct elements of “Post”-ish misery and some subtle experimental/progressive touches, drawing parallels with the dearly-departed and much-missed Altar of Plagues, albeit with a rhyme and rhythm all their own. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE BENDAL INTERLUDE — “THE BLOCK”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Mar 232016

We are about to bring you the premiere of a music video for a song called “The Block” by The Bendal Interlude from Liverpool, England. Like all music videos, there are sights and there are sounds. In this one, I think the sounds are very good. As for the sights, IT’S SO DISGUSTING THAT IT’S ALMOST UNWATCHABLE.

I put that warning in ALL CAPS in an effort to ensure that you pay attention. I would add that I’m not a prude, and instead pride myself on having a sick sense of humor that leans heavily on bodily functions for comedic value. But this video made even me want to heave (though in fairness, some people say I have a weak stomach). The band provided this comment about it: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WITHERED, NECROMANTIC WORSHIP, WASTEWALKER, NORNAHETTA, CHELSEA WOLFE

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Mar 222016

This is a collection of new songs and videos, most of which I intended to share yesterday before I discovered a torrent of other hot-off-the-presses debuts that appeared the same day. And of course, as a result of the delay I spotted more new things that appeared since then — including the first and last items in this round-up.

WITHERED

As previously reported a couple of weeks ago, Atlanta’s Withered are primed to release their first new album in more than five years. This one is entitled Grief Relic and it’s coming out on May 27 via Season of Mist. One song named “Husk” got its debut at DECIBEL on March 7, and today Revolver brought us another one named “Feeble Gasp”. Here’s a statement about the song from guitarist/vocalist Mike Thompson: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: RAGEHAMMER — “THE HAMMER DOCTRINE”

Premieres 9 Responses »

Mar 222016

I’m going to give you fair warning: Before you listen to The Hammer Doctrine, you need seat belts on and a shoulder harness strapped down. A crash helmet and an oxygen mask would also be good ideas. And if you’ve got access to a defibrillator and a friend who knows how to use it, you may be glad to have them close by, too. Because this album is as vicious as a rabid dog and flies somewhere between the speed of a jet fighter and the pace of a ballistic missile reaching escape velocity.

The Hammer Doctrine is the debut album from Poland’s Ragehammer, and in advance of its April 8 release by Pagan Records we’re giving you the chance to have your face seared off by it (I forgot to mention that you’ll also want to be wearing an asbestos mask before you press play).

Seriously, Ragehammer are really fast — the technical skill and dexterity of all the musicians is close to jaw-dropping, and the vocalist spits words (in venomous snarls and blistering shrieks) as fast as his bandmates assault their instruments. And their taste in music, which gives them free reign to blaze away like a furnace, favors blackened thrash and speed metal. You really don’t get any chance to catch your breath as this album careens ahead until you reach a breakdown on the fourth track (“Warlord’s Fall”) — but when you hit that point you may be headbanging too hard to gulp air anyway. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PALACE OF WORMS — “FROM THE ASH”

Premieres 5 Responses »

Mar 222016

More than five years have passed since the last full-length by the Bay Area’s Palace of Worms. This one-man project hasn’t been entirely silent in the interim, contributing to splits with Mastery, Botanist, and earlier this year Thoabath, but next month we will see a new full-length. Not surprisingly, given the elapse of so many years, it reflects some changes in the interests of Balan, the man who inhabits this palace (and also dwells within the ranks of Ordo Obsidium and Botanist). In his words:

“The Ladder is the culmination of nearly three years of work creating a diverse record that properly reflects its creator’s life during the period. Drawing influence from not only black metal, but from death, doom, goth and dark ambient. Each song brings the listener further up (or down) the ladder and at the top is the beginning and the end, the end and the beginning. Acknowledge existence with its limitless horrors and your pain will set you free.” Continue reading »

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