SEEN AND HEARD: BEYOND GRACE, MISERY INDEX, ARTIFICIAL BRAIN, OPHIS

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 232026
 

(written by Islander)

What are the odds? For the second week in a row one of our Friday premieres fell through at the 11th hour, leaving a hole in our schedule and free time I didn’t expect to have.

As usual when these things happen, I have pivoted to pull together a roundup of new songs and videos, getting a bit of a head start on the usual Saturday column. All four of the following choices are from bands who are proven favorites around here (and elsewhere). Tomorrow I’ll focus more on new discoveries. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BEYOND GRACE, ENTHEOS, HÄMND, SEV LEZU, BOÖTES VOID, HAIL CONJURER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 182026
 

(written by Islander)

I did enough listening over the last couple of days to make the usual difficult choices for this Saturday roundup, but other activities prevented me from getting a head-start on the writing. Those same activities last night caused me to oversleep this morning, so this is arriving much later in the day than is ideal. And because I’m late, that’s the end of this introduction. Continue reading »

“RAGE, RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE CHILDREN”: FOUR COMPILATIONS IN AID OF THE PALESTINE CHILDREN’S RELIEF FUND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 102026
 

(written by Islander)

Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Hungry is a UK-based charitable organization that has been releasing music to raise funds for various causes. On February 6th they released four massive compilations of music with the pledge that all proceeds will be contributed to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Each compilation has its own title and artwork, and they organize tracks contributed by bands into these four genre categories:

Death Metal & Grindcore (33)
Black Metal & Noise (35)
Heavy & Atmospheric (35)
Punk, Hardcore, Thrash & Madness (34)

Altogether, the compilations include music from 137 bands, and many of them will be familiar to our visitors. The number of songs included on each comp is in parentheses above. Each compilation is very modestly priced — £3.50 per comp — but purchasers can pay more if they wish, and of course the charitable purpose of this endeavor provides a good reason to do so. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEYOND GRACE – WELCOME TO THE NEW DARK AGES, PART 2

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Nov 202024
 

(Andy Synn presents an exclusive track-by-track premiere of his band’s new EP)

Despite current appearances, I largely try and keep my work with Beyond Grace and my work here at NoCleanSinging separate.

But with everything that’s happened recently (just under two weeks ago my mum was rushed to hospital, and then into emergency surgery, where she came very close to dying… although, thankfully, she pulled through and is now recovering) I didn’t have the time (or the energy) to set up a preview stream for our new EP (out this Friday).

Our gracious leader Islander, however, was kind enough to step up and – entirely unprompted – offer to host an exclusive premiere for us (an offer which, of course, I immediately accepted), which I thought would also be a great opportunity to provide some background info on each track as well.

So, without further ado, I am proud to present our new EP, Welcome to the New Dark Ages, Part 2.

Continue reading »

BEYOND GRACE – FRAGILE

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Oct 212024
 

(Andy Synn presents a brand new single… by his own band)

As it turns out, Islander, DGR, and I were all so busy this weekend that none of us had any time to prepare anything for NCS today.

So when the boss man asked if I wanted to take the opportunity to promote something of my own – which I generally feel a little weird doing here – I decided, for once, to take him up on the offer.

Because today we released a brand new single, a cover of Sting‘s 1987 anti-war anthem “Fragile“, and I’d love for you all to check it out!

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MORNE, BEYOND GRACE, AUTARKH, PYROLATROUS, NÁSVELGR, CONVOCATION, BLUT AUS NORD

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 052023
 

September 16th was the last time I was able to assemble one of these roundups of new music and videos, partly due to my missing four days at the site while attending a recent wedding in California. Needless to say, the backlog of new music that interests me swelled to enormous proportions in the interim.

In deciding what to recommend today I defaulted to the most recent releases. Prowling back through everything of interest that emerged over the last three weeks was just too daunting a task, which tends to be Sisyphean even when I’m not missing in action. Hope you get a kick (in the ass or head) from what I chose.

MORNE (U.S.)

Morne’s 40-minute new album plays out across only four songs, which tells you that they’re all substantial in length. One of those premiered this week, along with a very good video, and when I heard it the first time I felt both emotionally and physically crushed. Of course, therefore, I liked it immediately. Here’s what Morne‘s Polish-born guitarist/vocalist Miłosz Gassan said about it: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PANOPTICON, BEYOND GRACE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 072023
 

My stack of links to new songs and videos is so high it would fall over and crash if they were dominoes. Here are just two, by good friends, that I’ve enjoyed which came out during the week that’s about to end. Barring unforeseen disasters, I’ll pick many more to share tomorrow and the next day.

PANOPTICON (U.S.)

Austin Lunn encouraged Panopticon fans to send messages to the county commissioners with permitting authority over Wyoming’s Fire in the Mountains festival by promising to release a new song if 100 or more such messages were sent. That goal was more than met, and so true to his word, Austin released “Cedar Skeletons“, which will appear on Panopticon‘s new album The Rime of Memory. As Austin has explained, the song includes some very talented guest performers:

“It features guest vocals by my friend Victor Sanchez and a choir comprised of many of my collaborators (Andrea from Exulansis, William from Dalla Nebia, and Andy, whom yall know as the bass player from our live band.) Patrick Urban (Dämmerfarben) wrote and performed Cello, Charlie Anderson returned to collaborate on this album on fiddle, and we had a great time recording and arranging together.”

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BEYOND GRACE — “OUR KINGDOM UNDONE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 122022
 

At the beginning of the month the UK death metal band Beyond Grace celebrated the first anniversary of the release of their second album, Our Kingdom Undone.

To commemorate the occasion, various members of the band have recorded a series of playthrough videos for some of their favorite tracks from the record, and we’re premiering the first of those today – a one take, no cuts, vocal rendition of the album’s 12 minute title-track as performed by our very own Andy Synn. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 25): ATRA HAERESIS, BEYOND GRACE, CALLUS, CRYSTAL COFFIN, CULT OF LUNA, FUNERAL CHANT, MAN MUST DIE, MARIANAS REST, NORNA, STORMKEEP, THE LION’S DAUGHTER, WITCHDEN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  4 Responses »
Feb 042022
 

 

Today I must bring this list to an end. It’s not because I’m really finished — I have dozens more songs I’d like to add and write about. It’s because we’re now a week into February and I really ought to spend more time focusing on the songs of this year instead of yesteryear.

So, please do me a favor and hold your fire. I know I didn’t include some of the songs you’ve been waiting to see, and please don’t question how the hell I chose the ones I did include, at the cost of your own favorites, because it was anything but an organized, scientific, and well-thought-out process. I’m happy with what I chose, but easily could have chosen others.

That statement is as true of today’s final songs as all the ones that came before. I picked a few — okay, more than a few (though accompanied by fewer words and no artwork) — but in coming down to the wire I yielded even more to random impulse than probably ever before.

On Monday I’ll add a “wrap up” post that compiles everything on the list from eager beginning to anguished end, all in one place. And with that, here are the final choices, this time arranged alphabetically. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 042021
 

 

Can’t you read plain English? It says “Labor Day”. It doesn’t say “Holi-Day”. So I’m just following the prescribed agenda, and laboring.

Because I unexpectedly agreed to write a whopping four premieres yesterday, I had no time to begin rounding up a selection of songs and videos that surfaced this past week. Leaving that until today has resulted in another massive collection, again featuring too many bands to name in the post title.

As it happens, the majority of the new music you’ll find below is accompanied by videos. It also happens that almost all of the new songs are high-speed devastators. This isn’t entirely by accident, because many of them were recommended in our NCS group by DGR, who tends to prefer musical riots over other forms of audio entertainment. And once I’d gotten into that kind of groove, I tended to stick with it in choosing from among other possibilities I checked out.

ARCHSPIRE (Canada)

We’ll start with a new lyric video for a frantic new song by Archspire, in which vocalist Oliver Rae Aleron goes faster than a cattle auctioneer and the rest of the band spits a variety of bullets even faster — but then abruptly the song gets dreamy. Continue reading »

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