NO CLEAN SINGING

A MARYLAND DEATHFEST RECAP (PART 3)

Jun 032016

MDF merch

For those just now joining this series about Maryland Deathfest XIV, I’m in the process of highlighting the bands whose performances were the best of the ones I saw and heard in Baltimore beginning on Wednesday of last week.

I’ve organized those bands into four categories (not rigidly defined, mind you). Yesterday’s feature was about “Swedish (and Dutch) Death Metal Supremacy”, and for today’s collection I’m borrowing the title of one of our long-running series about new music — Shades of Black — because I’m spotlighting six black metal bands of varying styles whose sets I really enjoyed. I’ve again included photos of each band (most of which are gathered at the end of this post). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CANDLEMASS

Interviews 2 Responses »

Jun 032016

(Comrade Aleks brings us this e-mail interview with Mats Levén, the new vocalist of the legendary Candlemass.)

Everyone knows Candlemass and I bet that all of you know that the band is returning with a new EP, Death Thy Lover. The date of this release is already set – it’s today, the 3rd of June. With Mats Levén on vocals, the band is active, now awakening from slumber and returning on the road. Well, I’d like to surprise you with the astonishing live interview which we planned to do with Mats, but he didn’t find the time for it in his tight schedule, so with all my respect this foreword is as brief as his blitz answers I received by email. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INERT — “OBLITERATION OF THE SELF”

Premieres No Responses »

Jun 032016

Inert is the name of a two-man band whose debut EP Obliteration of the Self will be released on June 17. Both members (guitarist Xavier Aguilar and vocalist/drummer Gustavo Garcia) knew each other for many years from the metal scene in Barcelona, Spain, but didn’t join forces in Inert until Xavi moved to Stockholm, Sweden. These days, distance isn’t the impediment to creative collaboration that it used to be — and in the case of Inert that’s a very good thing.

We’re happy to bring you the premiere of the title track to this new EP. It accomplishes an impressive feat: It pulls heavily from some distinct death metal bloodlines, most of them venerable and some more modern, and integrates the stylistic influences in a way that sounds natural and also completely killer. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DECEPTIONIST — “FINAL INNOVATION / AUTOMATIC TIME”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Jun 022016

Two weeks ago we celebrated the discovery of an advance track named “Quest For Identity” from the new album by the Roman band Deceptionist. It left me questing for my own identity after the alien, hyper-speed assault of that song had scrambled my brain over high heat and left it in a smoking ruin. Two weeks later and I had just begin thinking somewhat clearly again, when I encountered the Deceptionist song we’re now about to share with you, and now I’ve again forgotten my own name. Luckily, I’m a touch-typist because my eyes also rolled back in my head and they haven’t descended yet.

The new track is named “Final Innovation / Automatic Time”, and like “Quest For identity” it appears on Deceptionist’s new album Initializing Irreversible Process, which is set for release on June 17 by Unique Leader. This new track also comes our way wrapped in the packaging of a lyric video. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATHAME — “FIVE FOLD KISS”

Uncategorized 3 Responses »

Jun 022016

Baltimore-based Grimoire Records has been a consistent source of releases that we’ve gluttonously consumed around here like the metal pigs we are, and today we’re very happy to help Grimoire announce their most recent discharge — a 42-minute monolith of apocalyptic black metal and doom aptly entitled With Cunning Fire and Adversarial Resolve by a three-piece band from the hills of Appalachia named Athame.

But spreading the word about the announcement is not all we’re doing. We also have for you the premiere of the album’s first advance track, a song called “Five Fold Kiss“.

Athame may be a new name for most people, but the band includes members from Fortress and the now-departed Wolfnuke. To help locate the band on the map of your metal tastes, Grimoire makes references to names such as Craft, Aosoth, and Gorgoroth. But at this point the best way to get a sense of what they’ve created is to check out this new song. Continue reading »

A MARYLAND DEATHFEST RECAP (PART 2)

Concert Reviews 18 Responses »

Jun 022016

Wombbath at MDF – photo by Bryan Zakala

When I started this recap of Maryland Deathfest XIV a couple of days ago (here), I explained that I didn’t intend to report on the festival day-by-day, as I’ve done in previous years, but instead decided to focus on the best performances I saw, grouped into four loosely defined categories. In that introductory post, I only wrote about one band (Dragged Into Sunlight), because their set was the best one I saw at this year’s edition of MDF.

DIS happens to be in one of those four categories, but I’m going to leave that one for another day. Today I want to focus on one of the others, which I’m labeling Swedish (and Dutch) Death Metal Supremacy.

But first I want to publicly thank these four dudes: Continue reading »

DARK HARDCORE (PART 2) BY NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Jun 022016

(In this post we bring you another collection of musical recommendations by Neill Jameson (Krieg). To check out the previous post, go here.)

While the rest of you were off at MDF this past weekend and I was stuck working unpaid overtime at a job I hate I had some time to think about the next batch of shit I’d hoist on you for your listening displeasure. Considering I’m both old and opinionated I doubt I’m going to run out of ideas for this column anytime soon, but I did think it would be appropriate to wrap up hardcore as a genre with a few more choices before moving on to whatever batch of shit you’ll probably bookmark but not listen to next. Sound good? No? Great, here we go. Continue reading »

MDF 2016: HAZY HIGHLIGHTS AND FUZZY RECOLLECTIONS (BY ANDY SYNN)

Concert Reviews 16 Responses »

Jun 022016

(photo above by Levan Tk; all other photos by Islander)

(Andy Synn journeyed from England to the former proprietary colony of Lord Baltimore to take in his first ever Maryland Deathfest and now provides these reminiscences.)

MDF 2016… what can I say? Five days of drinking, yelling, headbanging, drinking, meeting old friends, making new friends, drinking (starting to see a theme here?), public intoxication, semi-public urination and, above all else, more Metal than you could shake a severed spinal column at.

Here’s the thing though, when I go to festivals it’s usually based on a calculation of if there’s enough bands I really want to see in order to make it worth my while. I go for the music, not to socialise.

But this year was different. This year it truly was the camaraderie and the friendships which made the weekend such a blast. And you can’t teach that…

So, instead of writing up some long-winded review of the whole affair, I thought I’d just pick out and categorise a few of the highlights (and lowlights) for you all. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SARABANTE — “A DAY WITH NO SUN TO RISE”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Jun 012016

Following their 2011 debut album Remnants and a 2013 EP, Έρμαια Των Καιρών / Under The Shadows, the Greek hardcore band Sarabante have returned with a new full-length named Poisonous Legacy, which is due for release on June 10 by Southern Lord. What we have for you today is the premiere of a new song called “A Day With No Sun To Rise“.

The album’s striking cover art provides a telling visual clue to the emotional resonance of the music, which reflects the ongoing economic crisis and political turmoil in Greece. “A Day With No Sun To Rise”, in particular, is a bleak and bludgeoning affair that hits hard on multiple levels despite its sub-three-minute length. Continue reading »

WINTERHORDE: “MAESTRO”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jun 012016

(DGR reviews the new album by the Israeli band Winterhorde.)

In what has become a calling card, Winterhorde are a band for whom significant time has passed between the last two releases. Three years plus tends to be the point at which questions start arising about the band’s status, and when you start coming up on the front-end of six years as in the case of Winterhorde, you start to worry whether the band even still exist. The gap between the releases prior to the six-year breather was closer to four, so even by their standards the length of time between discs was reaching an extreme.

Maestro, the group’s most recent release, follows the group’s 2010 album Underwatermoon — a densely packed album that, while it had some faults in terms of running a little long in the tooth, had its fair share of interesting ideas and regional melodies that gave the whole album an air of maddening ritual. Continue reading »

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