NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MGŁA

Mar 152016

(Last September I sent interview questions to Poland’s Mgła, the creators of one of the best albums of 2015 — Exercises In Futility. Mgła have been very busy since then, and I had given up hope that the questions would be answered, but yesterday we received them. Some of the topics have been overtaken by time, but others remain relevant, and I hope you’ll find the answers as interesting as I do. I thank M. for answering the questions when it would have been easy to forget about them altogether.)

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Forgive me, but I would like to ask you a few questions about the lyrics to the songs on the new album before getting to the music. I read them before listening and thought they were eloquent and powerful (as usual), though quite bleak and even nihilistic. They changed my mood and state of mind before hearing a note, as if preparing the way. What inspired you in your writing this time?

Life itself, as obvious as it may sound. That’s what the album title refers to. The lyrics are a condensed form of our commentary to the world. Continue reading »

DRAUGNIM — “VULTURINE”

Album Reviews 8 Responses »

Mar 152016

With their new album Vulturine, Finland’s Draugnim have created the kind of music which takes that jaded, sour, petulant roommate in the tenement of your mind, kicks it to the street, and rouses that part of you (maybe long dormant but not quite dead) that yearns to go out and fight for something glorious — to defy the odds and cast caution to the wind, even if blood and death loom ahead. But the music is also as heart-breaking as it is heart-swelling, as tragic as it is vengeful and warlike.

It’s the kind of particularly Northern European blending of black metal, melodic death metal, and folk metal (aka “pagan metal”) that brings to mind, and fully merits, that much-used word “epic” — but it’s so full of fiery passion and genuine conviction that it never becomes theatrical or calculatingly bombastic. It’s an intense, intensely moving, and deeply memorable experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IDOLATRY — “TIAMATIC WINDS”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Mar 142016

Last April we had the pleasure of premiering a striking video for a powerful song by Idolatry from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The song was “Clefs Au Chambre de Tristêsse (A Key To the Room of Sadness)“, and it appeared on a split named Infection Born of Ending with the Ohio black metal band Unrest. Since then, Idolatry have completed work on their debut album, which bears the name Visions From the Throne of Eyes, and today we again bring you another Idolatry premiere, this time for a scorching assault from the new album named “Tiamatic Winds“.

According to the band: “The track is about wildfires ripping through western Canada during the writing of the lyrics. Imagining Tiamat, the Satanic entity, encouraging and blowing the flames hungrily across the mountains.” Continue reading »

FLESHGORE: “DENIAL OF THE SCRIPTURES”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Mar 142016

(DGR reviews the new album by the Ukrainian band Fleshgore.)

In the annals of death metal history, few names will likely be considered as “on the nose” as FLESHGORE (which is the type of name that screams that it must be typed in bold letters, all caps, at all times). There will be scant few people who will see the name, hit play, go through the opening few minutes of Denial Of The Scriptures, and then stand there slack-jawed and wide-eyed and declare, “I have no idea what I was expecting”. If not by name alone, then certainly the tentacle-filled artwork should at least tip you off that the music contained within is heavy.

But rather than turn this into a lecture on the effectiveness of death metal group naming conventions, we really need to drill down into the core of this music. FLESHGORE are a three-piece brutal death metal band hailing from Ukraine consisting of a bassist/vocalist combo, a guitarist, and a drummer. Their new album, the aforementioned Denial Of The Scriptures, came out at the end of February. Continue reading »

CHILD BITE: “NEGATIVE NOISE”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Mar 142016

(Allen Griffin reviews the new album by Detroit’s Child Bite.)

While the infamous D-Beat has become nearly ubiquitous in some corners of the Extreme Metal world, Punk’s influence doesn’t seem to extend much beyond that these days. Rarely does a Punk band emerge now who harkens back to the genre’s early pioneers and the sense of sonic experimentalism that drove them to create such fascinating music. Detroit’s Child Bite are doing their best to fix that with their new album Negative Noise, due out on Housecore Records on April 1st.

The most immediate comparison one might pick up on as Child Bite does their thing is Dead Kennedys, albeit with the kind of sonic abrasiveness suitable for modern times. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 8)

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Mar 142016

(Our Norwegian friend Gorger returns to our pages with another installment in his series recommending releases that we’ve managed to overlook. And be sure to check out Gorger’s Metal.)

Cheers one and all.

When someone decides to read a book for the very first time, they typically check out the number of pages, before exchanging the 500-page monolith for a seemingly easier 200-page thing.

Likewise, when I do my daily surf, I might occasionally bypass long write-ups, simply because of my busy schedual, laziness, lack of concentration, or whatever.

It’s been far too long since my last post here, so I’ll shorten down my rambling a little bit in favour of both my and your lethargy. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: FROM ARTILLERY TO ZEALOTRY

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 18 Responses »

Mar 132016

Sorry it took so long for this page to load. You’ll soon find out why.

For the last 10 days I’ve been bemoaning the fact that I haven’t had time to prepare round-ups of new metal with enough frequency to keep pace with the daily flood of music. It’s impossible to catch up, because every day other good new things appear. So, I’ve made a painful compromise with myself. As a way of (somewhat) clearing the slate, I’ve collected in this post many of the new songs and videos that I would have written about over the last 10 days if I’d had the time. But the only way I have time to do this is to strip out almost everything I normally do when we feature new music. All you’ll find below are embeds of the music, or in one case a link to a site where the song is exclusively streaming.

Almost everything collected here premiered over the last two weeks; in most cases, these are just individual songs, but in some cases complete EPs or albums. I like all of it. There’s so much of it that I don’t know whether this was worth doing; not many people will make the time to even sample everything that follows. But what’s done is done. I hope you find a few things that ring your bell. And if you think this was a terrible idea, please say so. Either way, I don’t plan to do this frequently. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOLOTHUS — “NO KING REIGNS ETERNAL”

Album Reviews, Premieres 8 Responses »

Mar 132016

Finland’s Solothus made a powerful full-length debut with their 2013 album Summoned From the Void reviewed here) — so powerful that one might not have expected them to climb much higher with their next album. But they have. The new work is named No King Reigns Eternal, and you can listen to it here in its entirety.

The new album blends many of the same ingredients that were present in Summoned From the Void, yet the songwriting is even stronger, the wrenching melodies even more memorable, the guitar performances even more exceptional and varied, and the overall emotional impact of the album even more potent. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ARKHĒ, MITOCHONDRION, AUROCH, VANHELGD, ABNORMALITY

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 13 Responses »

Mar 122016

It has been a crazy week for new metal. Even if I had posted round-ups every day, I still would have fallen behind — or to be more accurate, more behind. Yet for various reasons, I couldn’t do that. So here I am, sitting on an enormous number of new songs and announcements that I want to throw out there. What I’ve decided to do is collect just four of the most recent ones in this post, and then tomorrow I’m going to surrender and do a link dump for a lot of the rest.

ARKHĒ

When KevinP linked me to this next video, he described the song as “Spacey prog Rock/metal from the bassist/vocalist of Sear Bliss“. The mention of Hungary’s Sear Bliss was more than enough inducement, and now that I’ve heard the song I’d probably add “goth”, “doom”, and “electronica” to Kevin‘s string of adjectives. And lest some of you think the song is too close to pop at the beginning, András Nagy does break out the growls and snarls before the song ends, in addition to his vaulting clean vocal melodies. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SATURNDUST (FELIPE DALAM)

Interviews No Responses »

Mar 112016

(Comrade Aleks rejoins us with this interview of Felipe Dalam of the Brazilian doom band Saturndust.)

Saturndust from São Paulo is one of the Brazilian doom metal scene’s discoveries. The outfit was formed in 2010, and after few lineup changes (bass and drums seemed to be a weak side of the band), one EP (2012’s Sons of Water) and two singles released in the same year, Saturndust have prepared a self-titled album. Six doom tracks performed in a nearly traditional doom manner with psychedelic and space decoration, they complete an inspiring 45-minute-long journey to the dark corners of the solar system. The band’s lyrics are influenced by classic sci-fi writers and believe in the power of the human mind.

Felipe Dalam is Saturndust’s founder and mastermind, and he has sung and played guitars and synths since the band’s first years. Here’s his message to the human race from Saturndust‘s high orbit. Continue reading »

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