DGR Archives - Page 53 of 59 - NO CLEAN SINGING

REVIEWS: THE ZENITH PASSAGE (“SOLIPSIST”) AND OMOPHAGIA (“IN THE NAME OF CHAOS”)

Apr 182016

(DGR delivers a two-fer… reviewing the new albums by California’s The Zenith Passage and Omophagia from Zurich.)

If you’re a fan of the modern tech-death scene — the one in which tech-death has evolved into its own shorthand moniker to represent an entire genre as opposed to just a way to describe complicated death metal — then last week should have proved to be pretty big for you, as Unique Leader had two releases hitting right in the same window.

The label, which has specialized in a brand of tech-death that is equal parts technical and groove-focused, has spread out quite a bit in the past few years and has become increasingly prolific, to the point where they’ve actually developed something of their own sound. You could say, “Unique Leader tech-death” to some people, and they would have a pretty good starting point as to whatever bands you’d be describing at that moment. While the label has always delved heavily into the California scene (at one point seeming like they were sweeping through the Bay-Area-to-Sacramento run especially), recent years have also seen the label adding quite a few international acts to the mix — which brings us to this point.

Last week brought two fairly big Unique Leader releases, one of which is the first full-length release for So-Cal-based The Zenith Passage and the other the second album (after a five-year wait) for Swiss death metal proprietors Omophagia. As such, I felt it might be interesting to slam the two albums into one big review package, because both of them by their nature feel like two takes on the same subject — two differing styles of death metal but with one very solid throughline between them. Continue reading »

GLORIA MORTI: “KUEBIKO”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Apr 062016

(DGR reviews the new fifth album by Finland’s Gloria Morti.)

There’s something to be said for setting extremely high expectations for a disc based off of the opening minute of your new album. Opening your new disc with a minute of Col. Kurtz’s (portrayed by Marlon Brando) monologue on the word “horror” from the film Apocalypse Now is certainly one way to do so. Gloria Morti’s mid-March new-album release Kuebiko does exactly that. I have to give it to the band, because in one aspect I actually haven’t heard that monologue used much in music before — though the band later use a sample in one song that I absolutely have heard before — and Kurtz’s ruminations on “what is….necessary” is one hell of a way to set a high bar for yourself when beginning a new album.

If you’ve been following NCS in the past few months, Gloria Morti’s name and cover art should actually be ringing a bit of a familiar bell with you, as we covered their release of the song “Foul Stench Of Vomiting Blood” and the video for the song “Execution” — as well as resident NCS guest bitter-person KevinP placing Kuebiko as one of his albums of the month for March. This review had been in the works before that, and there was a brief moment where I wondered if I should can it, as Kuebiko was by then well-represented on the site — but this is the sort of album that needs to be discussed, and what text we have dedicated to the disc doesn’t quite cut it. Because Kuebiko is one of few albums released this year that is relentlessly straightforward in its approach to death metal, the type that is so relentlessly singular in its gaze on its goal that you can’t help but enjoy it. Continue reading »

SOME CHANGES FOR THE SITE

IQ Subtraction, Metal News 45 Responses »

Apr 012016

(DGR, who has recently assumed the brand new title of Press-Entertainer Relations Viceroy (PERV) at the site formerly known as No Clean Singing, has prepared the following important announcement concerning our exciting future, and yours!)

As some of you may have been aware recently, we at No Clean Singing have been experiencing a modicum of success, traffic-wise, and as a result we have caught the eye of a couple of potential investors over the years. Today, you might have seen some news articles going around, but we can officially confirm that we have been purchased by Downfall Trust Co. Inc. for an undisclosed sum, to be added to their roster of “up-and-coming” websites.

We’re excited to be part of this new company, especially given that we have quite a few writers in tech-heavy cities who will likely be huge assets in the days to come. However, as with all purchases, there will likely be some changes going forward and we here at No Clean Singing will be doing our best to make the transition as smooth as possible whilst we continue forging into the future, providing new and exciting content for all of you to read!

We look forward to your continued support during this time of change and are eager to share with you what will likely be multiple fruits of our labor over the coming months! Continue reading »

WORMED: “KRIGHSU”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Mar 292016

(DGR reviews the new album by Spain’s Wormed.)

If there is one overriding theme in a bunch of my reviews here at NCS, it has been a want to describe much of the death metal genre’s method of musical devastation on a cosmic scale. In lieu of the gore-splattered viscera that often seems perfect for describing the various collections of intestines that death metal often romps around in, I’ve found that planetary annihilation, destruction of universes, and universal phenomena have time and time again been perfect for drawing allegories when writing around the differing arsenals of blast beats and guitar-fire trench-runs that many death metal bands get up to.

I have been recently trying to change this up a bit. I know that constantly seeing the same descriptors over and over again can make it seem like authors have copy+paste notebooks next to them when writing reviews. But there is one band for whom I feel I must make an exception, and that is Spain’s sci-fi brutal death metal architects Wormed — because Wormed are death metal on a cosmic scale, and nothing would be more fitting as a descriptor of the gamma rays of a dying star destroying a nearby galaxy than an album by Wormed; that could be what has happened within even one of their songs.

Plus, up until 2013’s Exodromos, it’s not as if we could pretend this was an opportunity that would present itself frequently. But coming in hot three years later is Krighsu, Wormed’s late-March followup to Exodromos, and it promises a return to the maddening sci-fi machinations of a band who occupy their own realm of hammering death metal, with a helping of growls so low they could rumble the Earth. Continue reading »

SPAWNING ABHORRENCE: “THE SLEEPLESS ONE”

Reviews 6 Responses »

Mar 182016

(DGR reviews the new second album by Spawning Abhorrence from Leeds in the UK.)

Spawning Abhorrence initially landed on my radar in two ways. Firstly, we premiered their song “The Writhing Rhethoric” from the band’s then-upcoming disc The Sleepless One way back in the yonder days of 2015, and two, I would later discover that a couple of the members of Spawning Abhorrence are also part of the black metal band Inquinamentum — whose releases Void and Lost/Risen I happen to enjoy tremendously.

The combination of those two factors and Spawning Abhorrence being a death metal project pretty much assured that I would be giving the group a look-see. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: FOUL BODY AUTOPSY — “PERPETUATED BY GREED”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Mar 162016

(DGR reviews the new EP by Foul Body Autopsy.)

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the year 2016 is going to be a heavy year for deathgrind for me. Given the political nature of this year, my acceptance of humanity is going to be lying at an all-time low up until I see that number at the end of the year shift from a six to a seven.

This may be me projecting, but I get the feeling that quite a few of us are going to need a healthy dose of music with a certain amount of disdain in its mix to get through this year’s shit show.

Given that, it is nice to see that quite a few bands have made sure that my music player will at least be stocked. Between W R I T H E, Distaste/Rotten Cold, Gadget, Rotten Sound, and now Foul Body Autopsy, it is good to know that there are at least some kindred spirits who are wishing for total annihilation at this moment and will at least be delivering it in sonic form. If there were ever a time when the world needed something from Misery Index — this year would be it. 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 »

THE DOOM, THE MELANCHOLY, AND PROLIFIC USAGE OF THE WORD “THE”: THE HOWLING VOID, THENIGHTTIMEPROJECT, AND EMBRACE THE DARKNESS

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Mar 082016

(In this post DGR combines reviews of three recently released albums, by The Howling Void, thenighttimeproject, and Embrace the Darkness.)

As of this writing there’s a pretty hot chance that we’ve already run the little collection of grind groups that I’ve been blasting the last few months [yes, we did]. Truth be told, I’ve actually been working on these two collections side by side, but as the best plans are often wrecked at the last minute, this one began as one review, only to be expanded out to three as I kept finding new stuff that needed to be archived.

All three of the acts here are of the slower and melancholy sort, the type that we use as the amplifier of moods for the grey skies that may be outside, and in this case we’ll be committing absolute heresy because two of the three are pretty much entirely clean sung — hell, one is more depressive rock, but that’ll explain itself as soon as you read who is involved, with the third being a more traditional melodoom band who are getting their feet off the ground. The first clean-sung one, I actually didn’t expect to be that way because of the precedent set by the previous releases, and the other one I did, but as a fan of the musicians involved I felt it had to be shared out there.

Let’s begin with one that might have bred some familiarity amongst our readers, as we last touched bases with the project in December of 2013! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ROTTEN COLD / DISTASTE (SPLIT) AND W R I T H E (SELF-TITLED)

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Feb 292016

(DGR brings us two reviews of two new cataclysmic musical assaults.)

The foraging for new sounds with which to ruin your hearing never stops here at NoCleanSinging, it just happens to move a little slower than usual as work hits its busy season for a few weeks. As such, I’ve been in the mood for the sort of music that can wipe away any sense of reality by fire, and I figured I’d share my two most recent listens that have allowed me to do that.

Both of these hit in January and have been sort of waiting in my back pocket, armed and ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice and, almost inevitably, something happens that causes one’s day to go sideways. Both of these releases are short, quick hits of adrenalin to the system and they both appear angry as hell. So if you need a good way to light a match on your day, here goes…

ROTTEN COLD / DISTASTE: A SPLIT

A few years ago I went on something of a grind kick here at NCS. Never really delved too deep into the underground, but had found a list of bands that I thoroughly enjoyed. A lot of them, to no surprise, took a lot of inspiration from bands like Nasum/Rotten Sound (who themselves have a disc hitting really soon) and more, from that specific breed of grind band. They were all lightspeed-heavy, blaster-style bands, and the whole thing that triggered my exploration was curiosity as to what musician had been in what project and what side projects they had been in. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (HEDON CRIES)

THE REARVIEW MIRROR 1 Response »

Feb 212016

(DGR prepared this Sunday’s metal retrospective.)

I figured for this Rearview column that I would take you on a shorter trip through time than we have been prone to. I know that this isn’t the shortest, as once before we made a trip to 2013 with The Amenta, but I figured that was a special-use case since we were zeroing in on such a specific section of that album.

This time, I thought we would travel all the way back to 2011, a time when No Clean Singing was actually a real website — although at the time not one I wrote for. We have a calnder at the office that refers to these years as B-DGR and A-DGR. I have noticed that someone has changed said calender to a picture of a dumpster fire, though, but I’m not sure who yet. Continue reading »

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