Anti Ritual Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

SHORT BUT SWEET – ANTI RITUAL / BACKSTABBED / HARROWIST

Aug 262025

(Andy Synn highlights three more short-but-sweet releases for you to sink your teeth into)

Between work, band, and my personal life I’m not going to have much time to write this week, hence this is likely to be one of only two articles you’ll be seeing from me.

Which means I’m going to have to do my best to make them both count… and what better way than by trying to stick to my ongoing (and continually failing) promise to try and cover more EPs?

So, without further ado, here’s three “short but sweet” bursts of Hardcore-inspired venom and vigour from Anti Ritual (Denmark), Backstabbed (Germany), and Harrowist (Austria).

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CORONER, PARADISE LOST, WODE, KANONENFIEBER, SILENT TOMBS, ANTI RITUAL, DEFIGUREMENT, IN SHAME

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Aug 162025

(written by Islander)

Before we launch into this Saturday’s roundup all of us here want to express the great sadness we felt after seeing the tragic statements yesterday from Tomas Lindberg and At the Gates, reporting on Lindberg‘s affliction with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (a cancer in the mouth and pallet) and the failure of invasive surgery to eliminate it. Based on the statements, it appears that chemo treatment has become the last hope for arresting the disease. According to the band, he “has been receiving dedicated care in a specialized ward where he is being closely monitored around the clock.”

Those same statements reported that Lindberg had recorded the vocals for a new At the Gates album on the day before the surgery last spring. Of course, he has left an indelible mark on the history of metal already, but it will be great to hear him again when the album is finished.

We wish him strength and convey our heartfelt hopes for ultimate success in the hard battle he has been waging. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ANTI-RITUAL / KEZIAH / OCULAR TRAUMA

Album Reviews No Responses »

May 102023

(Andy Synn has had a busy year so far, and has largely taken this week off to recharge, but couldn’t resist the urge to write about these three EPs while he recovers)

To my great shame I haven’t written about many short-form releases so far this year.

Why? Well, long story short… which is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling… I just haven’t had time.

Ironically, however, it’s this very lack of time which leads me to write about these three EPs today!

OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 21): THE LURKING FEAR, ANTI RITUAL, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, HUSQWARNAH, ΣΧΕΔΟΝ ΝΕΚΡΟΣ, GATECREEPER

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021 No Responses »

Jan 312022

The Lurking Fear

We’ve had an unusually high volume of content at NCS on this last day of January, but our flood of posts on this Monday now comes to an end with this one, though not in the way I originally expected.

I had vowed to myself and to you to close the rollout of this Most Infectious Song list today. But over the weekend I realized just how much I had overlooked, even after 20 installments and 65 songs (all of which you can find here). In part this was a result of consulting with my long-time NCS comrades Andy Synn and DGR (this is, after all, called “Our List”, even though the song choices are always my own decision). And so I’ve decided, after all, not to end the list today.

How much longer I’ll continue isn’t something I’ve figured out yet, but at least for a few more days and possibly to the end of the week, but not past that.

With all that said, here are five more songs for the list. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Nov 042021

(Andy Synn returns with another round-up of albums from last month which he feels didn’t get the attention they deserve)

Well… damn.

October was so busy that I’m probably going to end up doing a second “Things You May Have Missed” column next week, simply because there’s so many albums I wanted to write about (and hopefully introduce you to) that I didn’t get chance to.

And that’s not even taking into account the fact that in the last week of the month alone saw a bunch of “big name” bands – from Mastodon (bloated but brilliant) and Be’lakor (a gloomy grower) to Ghost Bath (still searching for an identity that hasn’t been done better by other bands) and Whitechapel (continuing their “evolution” into a mid-tier mid-2000s Metalcore act), and more – releasing their eagerly anticipated new albums.

So, with all that in mind, I probably shouldn’t waste any more time with this intro and would be better off just getting stuck right in to the nitty gritty of these four, highly recommend (by me, at least) records.

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: PHRENELITH, MÆRE, 夢遊病者 (SLEEPWALKER), DRUNE, ANTI RITUAL, LHAÄD, PSILOCYBE LARVAE, SINIESTRO, LÄHDÖN AIKA, IMPENDING DOOM, VELCH, BURNING TONGUE, TEETHGRYNDER

Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Oct 162021

I experienced NCS anxiety again this morning. That’s what comes from having 84 open tabs on my computer for new songs and videos, all of which I opened just since last Saturday. Not lying — 84 of them! To increase the anxiety level, I hadn’t listened to any of them until this morning.

Of course, I didn’t listen to 84 music streams, some of which are complete albums and EPs that were released over the last week, nor to all the other songs on the long list of candidates that I’d made over previous weeks. I did add all 84 to that pre-existing list, so I could stare at the band names and try to figure out what to spend time on. I stared… made choices… and from those choices here’s what I decided to share:

PHRENELITH (Denmark)

Nice to have these Danish death metal heavyweights back, with a jaw-dropping song named “Awakening Titans“. That’s what the music sounds like too, mystical and ringing at first, and then furiously slaughtering, packed with electrifying drumwork, unhinged, venomous riffing, jolting grooves, gargantuan growls, and maddened howls. Continue reading »