NO CLEAN SINGING

NEW MUSIC FROM REVOCATION: “COMMUNION”

May 242016

I had intended to prepare a “Seen and Heard” round-up for today, and may still accomplish that, but I just listened to a new song from Revocation and decided to toss it at you without waiting until later — because it’s loads of fun.

The name of the song is “Communion”, and it comes from the band’s new album Great Is Our Sin, which will be released on July 22 by Metal Blade. Here’s a quote about the song from guitar whiz David Davidson:

“‘Communion‘ is the fastest song we’ve recorded to date and while it’s blistering in terms of speed there are also some proggy elements present to add contrast to the aggression.”

And he’s right. There’s even some funky bass work in this song along with lots of exuberant, head-spinning, technically impressive guitar work mixed into this invigorating thrash romp. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EVNAR — “BLASPHEMIA MANIFESTA”

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May 242016

EvnaR was born through the collaboration between two brothers who were members of a Spanish black metal band named Between the Frost, a band whose roots were planted in the early ’90s — guitarist J.M. and vocalist R.M. They began work on EvnaR’s debut album roughly six years ago, eventually enlisting the aid of Slovenian drummer Robert Kovačič, who has performed with such bands as Scaffold, Belphegor, and Nothnegal. Their debut album E.V.N.A.R has now been prepared for joint release by Winter Demons and The Vinyl Division, and today we bring you the album’s opening track, “Blasphemia Manifesta“.

The sounds of a mounting storm begin this track, and then the music unleashes that storm in a torrent of flashing riffs and thundering drums. The music is blazing fast and intense, spurred on by a head-spinning lead-guitar performance and by feral, ferocious vocals. It’s the sound of barely contained chaos, a melding of black and death metal that gets the blood pumping immediately. Continue reading »

IN MOURNING: “AFTERGLOW”

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May 242016

(DGR reviews the new album by Sweden’s In Mourning, with a full album stream at the end.)

On May 20th, In Mourning released the fourth album of their career with Afterglow. To lay all of our cards on the table up front, Afterglow is a great disc — but to really understand how and why Afterglow is great, you need to take a deep dive into In Mourning’s history so you can see what led the band to this point, because the album feels like the most natural evolution of their sound yet.

In Mourning are one of those bands for whom each album has sounded different from the others. A few genres have combined over the years to define their sound, and one of those key tenets has been a large swath of Euro-doom. The album that sowed the seeds of that was their first release, 2008’s Shrouded Divine. Shrouded Divine is also the disc where the group’s reputation as something of a critical darling was launched, drawing comparisons to bands such as Opeth — likely due to the occasional clean-sung break the group snuck in and the prevelant melo-death sound that wormed its way throughout Shrouded Divine’s run. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEVENTH XUL — “QLIPHOTHIC RITES OF DEATH”

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May 232016

Qliphothic Rites of Death has been seething in the underground for many years, like a vein of radioactive ore covered in deep black earth, waiting to be unearthed so that its arcane energies and spectral light could spread and be experienced. This week that will happen, as Iron Bonehead Productions releases this rarity on 7″ vinyl, and today we premiere both of its songs.

Qliphothic Rites of Death, originally recorded in 2010 and circulated then in small quantities, is the lone release of Seventh Xul, a unique collaboration between two luminaries of the Greek black metal scene — vocalist Acherontas V.Priest of Acherontas (and many other projects) and guitarist/bassist N.E.C.R.O of Burial Hordes, Enshadowed, and other groups — with session drumming by Fotis Benardo (Necromantia, ex-Septicflesh).

In the band’s own words, “The Ayin of Creation and Destruction Forces crowned this effort, and the necromantical vision took form in 2010 only for this release.The band split up immediately, as we felt that this was our only goal from the beginning. A unique release serving that period of wondering & isolation….” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CORBEAUX — “KIND WORDS”

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May 232016

In December 2014 we had the pleasure of premiering a full stream of Hit the Head, the fascinating debut album by the French noisemongers Corbeaux, and today we’re fortunate to deliver a full stream of their full-length follow-up, Kind Words.

But there’s very little about this new album that’s kind. If anything, it’s more bleak, more unsettling, and more cataclysmic than its predecessor. It’s also even more accomplished and self-assured, even if you’ll find almost no solid ground on which to plant your feet or comfort for your addled mind. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HISSING — S/T

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May 232016

(Allen Griffin reviews the new self-titled 7″ EP by Hissing.)

Seattle trio Hissing is one of the latest additions to Southern Lord’s formidable roster and they are poised to release their self-titled 7″ in early June. Consisting of two crushing tracks, a little over eleven minutes of music, their sound can be described as an amalgamation of abyss-trawling blast beats, thick gutter sludge, and oppressive, mysterious atmosphere.

While drawing from a range of influences, Deathspell Omega, Portal, and Autopsy are the most obvious touchstones, and while these are not uncommon influences in the current scene, Hissing succeed where others often fail. There is a certain x-factor bands of this ilk rarely possess, but Hissing seem to have in spades. The material here, inspired by the human psyche trying to survive in hostile urban environments, is utterly convincing in both composition and execution. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 73: DYING SUN

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May 232016

(In this 73rd edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy reviews the discography to date of Maryland’s Dying Sun.)

Recommended for fans of: Altars of Plagues, Cult of Luna, Massive Attack

Every so often a band comes out of nowhere and blindsides you with how utterly fantastic they are, making you wonder how in the world you ever managed to get along without them.

Dying Sun are one such band.

The Maryland three-piece deal in a brand of intensely metallic, immensely atmospheric Post-Metal not quite like anyone else I’ve heard (although general comparisons to both Cult of Luna and Altars of Plagues are certainly valid, to an extent), packed full of titanic, weighty riffs, anguished vocals, and cosmological waves of pulsating programming.

Ever since discovering them I’ve had all three of their releases (arguments can be made as to which of them counts as an EP or as an album) practically glued to my playlist, and I’ve just been waiting for the right time to share their moody magnificence with you all.

Well, that time has come. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NUISIBLE — “OUT COME THE WOLVES”

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May 222016

Formed in 2014 by two former members of the French hardcore band As We Bleed, Nuisible is a new enterprise whose debut EP Inter Feces et Urinam Nascimur will be released by Deadlight Entertainment on June 23. It’s a seven-track affair, and today we introduce you to this onslaught with the premiere of a track appropriately called “Out Come the Wolves”.

Someone or something very much like a wolf is behind the mic, howling in a red fury on this stunner of a song, which moves from a bounding crust melee to a thrashing, pulsing broadside of electrifying punishment to a brutal meltdown that’s hard and heavy enough to split concrete. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (Pt. 2): SXUPERION, COSCRADH, CAVEMAN CULT, BLACK CEREMONIAL KULT, SOLAR MASS, SORROW PLAGUES, VIOLET COLD

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May 222016

I continue my efforts to char your weekend to a crisp with this second part of a two-part post I started yesterday, collecting music in a blackened vein that I’d like to recommend. This collection is heavy on blackened death metal rather than unadulterated black metal, with a couple of other twists and turns thrown in. Yesterday’s offerings were mostly on the melodic side of the extremity scale. We’ll eventually get to something like that today, but not until the end. In the meantime, prepare for some monstrous, apocalyptic experiences.

SXUPERION

I discovered Sxuperion only this past January through the band’s split release with a Nebraska black metal band named Verräter (discussed here), although Sxuperion had preceded that split with two full-length albums and an array of shorter releases. For those who might not be familiar with Sxuperion, it’s the solo project of the drummer (Matthew) for two other excellent bands, Valdur and Weverin. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (MORTICIAN)

THE REARVIEW MIRROR 3 Responses »

May 222016

Despite the fact that it’s a Sunday, we’re going to have at least three new posts on the site today, beginning with another installment of this series in which we reflect upon metal from yesteryear. Our focus for this edition of The Rearview Mirror is the NY death metal band Mortician.

While many of the bands we’ve remembered in this series are long gone, Mortician aren’t officially dead yet, though more than a decade has passed since their last album. For most of their career they existed as a duo, originally formed by Will Rahmer and Roger Beaujard in 1989 under the name Casket but soon re-named Mortician in honor of the late Angus Scrimm’s character in the 1979 horror movie Phantasm and its sequels.

This isn’t going to be a retrospective on Mortician’s discography. I simply want to play for you the band’s 1996 debut album Hacked Up For Barbeque, which was discharged following a hand-full of short releases. I hadn’t thought about the album in eons, but a conversation on Facebook yesterday reminded me of it, and I impulsively dived back into it. Continue reading »

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