Amber Tears Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

It was only yesterday that I wrote about a song from the new album by the Russian pagan doom band Amber Tears [Янтарные Слезы]. I knew then that we would be premiering the entire album today, and I had planned to recommend the track much earlier than I did, but I couldn’t resist. “Sing the Wind, Sing the Raven” [Спой Ветер, Спой Воронis] such a powerfully captivating song, its mood so wintry and haunting, so steeped in sorrow down to the marrow, so deeply moving, yet so glorious.

What I knew then, and can prove to you now, is that the entire album is just as captivating as that opening track. Entitled When No Trails [Когда Нет Троп], it will be released by BadMood Man Records on March 29th — tomorrow! Continue reading »

I wasn’t sure I would have a time for a round-up this week, given the continuing press of my day job, but I did manage to pull this one together based on some late-night listening over the last couple of evenings. If I stay up late enough and wake up early enough, I find that I’m still able to squeeze in something like this, despite having a lot fewer daylight hours to call my own. Here we go:

DEVOID OF THOUGHT

In October 2017 we premiered a demo named Astral Necrosis by the Italian band Devoid of Thought, whose name I thought would also describe the mental state of listeners exposed to the demo’s three tracks. The music was a whipsawing amalgam of death metal and thrash, with the kind of fireball instrumental performances and brain-spinning intricacy that might lead one to slap a “progressive” label on the ingredients as well — except the music seemed too maniacal and vicious for that word. It was insanely good, and also just insane. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AMBER TEARS — “WHEN NO TRAILS”

SEEN AND HEARD: DEVOID OF THOUGHT, SLAVES BC, EXCRUCIATION, AMBER TEARS