DGR Archives - Page 56 of 62 - NO CLEAN SINGING

SPAWNING ABHORRENCE: “THE SLEEPLESS ONE”

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 »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR

THE REARVIEW MIRROR 1 Response »

Feb 142016

(DGR takes over this Sunday’s weekly feature on the metal of yesteryear.)

I’ve decided to hijack the Rearview Mirror column this Sunday because there’s been an idea playing on my mind for the past few days, as I’ve been going over my music collection trying to dig up more obscure stuff that we’ve never taken the time to talk about on NCS — in some cases, because the site wasn’t around yet.

It’s the idea of abums that I’m not quite sure why I have, but when I give them a listen I find that they were generally good discs that I’ve forgotten about. Most of the time, I would argue that it’s because they were half-good albums, discs that to me were enjoyable but for whatever reason just did not stick.

There are a handful of albums out there that I would describe as half-good — hinting at greatness but instead dragged down back into the “good” realm for a variety of reasons. Whether because of odd song choices, too much time devoted to uninspired mid-tempo tracks, or strange production, they tend to weigh on me more than I’m willing to admit, mostly as I find myself saying, “You know, they were on to something with a handful of these songs”. More often than not, I find that my “half-good” discs tend to be from local bands, but in this case we’ll be going on an international trip to Germany. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST: “RITUALS”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Feb 112016

(In typically detailed fashion, DGR reviews the great new album by the Greek titan, Rotting Christ.)

Rotting Christ have been an interesting entity over their epic-length career. As a band who have existed since the late ’80s, they have changed form multiple times, firmly held in foundation by the two members who began the group, and as other members have entered and exited the band, the sounds have changed as well.

A career this long will often lead to maybe one golden period and then a slow, steady income for a band, but Rotting Christ are one of the few that have had a couple of huge highlights while at the same time continually grinding it out on the road as well as consistently cranking out disc after disc. Most recently — since the release of 2010’s Aealo — Rotting Christ have been on an absolute tear, planting themselves firmly in the metal scene as one of the best guitar-riff-writing bands out there to date.

It’s an interesting situation, as recommending Rotting Christ to people can sometimes lead (still to this day, even, in a culture of viral shock and awe) to the occasional upturned nose and jaw dropped. Yet I would argue that the band, even limited to the group’s previous three albums (not counting today’s subject), have written some insanely catchy music, working in complete tandem with the part of the band that gives itself so completely over to its chosen subject matter, which 96% of the time is Satan. Continue reading »

MECHINA: “PROGENITOR”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule 5 Responses »

Feb 022016

(DGR weighs in on the new album by Chicago’s Mechina, as you knew he would.)

The January 1st album release has become a comedic undertone to my writing as of late. It’s never one that I have advanced warning for, nor is it one that I am ever truly adequately prepared for. Instead, it just serves as a reminder of the relentless march of time and the constant – and reassuring – pressures of being a writer for this site. It’s strange, but I have found comfort in this sense, the idea that I am already late and that I have fucked up.

Without that pressure, life seems aimless, and so, as it has been for the past handful of years, I have Mechina to thank for the fact that I am once again dragging ass on a review. The sun has risen in the east and set in the west, the sky is still blue, and all is right with the world – because as I take longer and longer to write out this review out, each moment means that I am later than I was before. Always the hare in Alice In Wonderland, and in that way continuing exactly how I felt last year and the year before.

It’s that consistency that one needs as a reminder that while the year has ticked up one notch, things haven’t really changed and the world is a mess. God forbid any actual events happen. This ladies and gentlemen, is how I start my year. Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “KING”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Jan 182016

(DGR reviews the new album by Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse.)

It starts with classical music. It always does.

Any time someone tries to trace the roots of heavy metal, we inevitably wind up at the same branching paths. We hit the ’70s and the Black Sabbath era, and that leads us to the blues and from there things get far more nebulous, but through some sort of inherited wisdom over the years we always come back to classical music. Composers like Bach and Wagner are name-dropped left and right, and we always point to the huge, bombastic symphonies and the low, bass-heavy instruments, because these are the deepest roots of our heavy metal lineage.

The tendency to make things ‘heavier’ isn’t a new one, its just the one that musicians have often seen fit to push beyond the most extreme boundaries imaginable. So, the idea of Symphonics being a part of heavy metal was an almost foregone conclusion. It’s slowly worked its way even into death metal – itself a container of the hidden flair for the dramatic – and the two have produced multiple pairings and fantastic bands.

Fleshgod Apocalypse are the natural evolution of that tendency, a group who over the course of four main releases (counting our current subject as well) and an EP have become completely intertwined with symphonic music, writing a pyrotechnic and operatic style of death metal that can’t really be matched. Continue reading »

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