SHORT BUT SWEET: THE LONE MADMAN — “DREARY TASK”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 242016
 

The Lone Madman logo

 

(In this post Grant Skelton reviews the new EP by Finland’s The Lone Madman — an exception to our “rule”.)

“…Finland has perhaps the most heavy metal bands in the world, per capita…” If President Obama himself is aware of Finland’s contributions to heavy metal, then it would certainly behoove us at No Clean Singing to follow suit (and obviously not for the first time). Children Of Bodom, Ensiferum, Shape Of Despair, Amorphis, Omnium Gatherum, Swallow The Sun, Skepticism, Insomnium. And those are only a scant few!

I must give credit to the stellar blog The Shrieks From Below for my discovery of Helsinki’s The Lone Madman. In recent years, I’ve become quite a doom hoarder. You know what they say. “Listening to doom all day keeps the reaper at bay.” If you’ve enjoyed the recent resurgence in heavy, traditional, and/or epic doom from Crypt Sermon, Below, and Pilgrim, then The Lone Madman are the cushion for your proverbial casket. Continue reading »

DOOM SONGS: A “SEEN AND HEARD” FEATURING CANDLEMASS, WO FAT, TEMPLE OF ABANDONMENT, FUNERAL MOTH, MERCHANT, AND COME TO GRIEF

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 052016
 

 

(Grant Skelton returns to NCS after a bit of a hiatus with a round-up of new doom songs.)

I’ve been a bit MIA from our beloved NCS for the last couple of months, as my educational pursuits had taken priority over my creative ones. But now I have returned to the fold, bringing with me a harvest of disinterred dredgings of doomy delight. Continue reading »

HIGH PRIEST OF SATURN: “SON OF EARTH AND SKY”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 092016
 

High Priest of Saturn-Son of Earth and Sky

 

(Grant Skelton reviews the new album by High Priest of Saturn.)

I frequently come across new doom or sludge bands who only seem interested in replicating Matt Pike’s Dopesmoker guitar tone and failing miserably at said replication. Nothing wrong with worshipping your idols, and imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery. But sometimes we don’t want (or need) a replica. Sometimes we want a diamond in the proverbial rough. Even if that diamond might be a sugar cube served with a hallucinogenic dollop of some kind of esoteric elixir.

Trondheim, Norway’s High Priest Of Saturn are a band I randomly stumbled upon. I hadn’t even heard their name, let alone their music. Perhaps it was their monicker, or the interstellar artwork for their new album Son Of Earth And Sky that initially drew me in. But one drop from their vial was all my palate needed before I yearned for another dose. Continue reading »

BRUTALITY: “SEA OF IGNORANCE”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jan 262016
 

Brutality-Sea of Ignorance

 

(Grant Skelton reviews the new album by the resurrected Brutality.)

Is it just me, or do you ever feel like you enjoy your metal in absentia? The best tours never pass through your city (and perhaps not even your state). Or you discover a new band only to find out they play just 30 shows a year and you’d have to cross an ocean to catch them live. Indeed, the worst possibility is hearing an album, buying said album, then heading over to Encyclopaedia Metallum to get more information on the band. Then, your eyes widen. Your mouth is agape with terror as you behold the 2 most foreboding words in all of metaldom…”split up.”

This was me when I discovered Brutality in recent years. Along with my zeal for the Bay Area thrash scene of the early ’80s, I’ve made no attempt to hide my similar interest in ’90s Florida death. The digital age affords us the capability to hear music from previous aeons of metal history. We can watch interviews and concerts (in all their archaic VHS glory). For some obscene amount of money, we might even find a so-rare-it’s-still-throbbing copy of a band’s demo cassette on eBay. But none of that can replace being part of a scene. Buying CDs and tapes, handing out show flyers. Actually witnessing local bands play for dirt cheap (or nothing at all) just so that they can get their music heard. Continue reading »

MORE NEW MUSIC: ROTTING CHRIST, HIGH PRIEST OF SATURN, KOZELJNIK, HANDS OF DESPAIR

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jan 262016
 

Rotting Christ-Rituals

 

Sometimes I worry that we bombard you so heavily with new music that it might become exhausting, or just unrealistic to follow what we’re throwing at you. I’m kind of feeling that way today, which is why I changed the title of this post from the usual “Seen and Heard” headline — since this would be the fourth of those in four days. But despite the different title, that’s still what this is — a round-up of recently released music we want to recommend.

ROTTING CHRIST

It seems like only a week ago that Season of Mist released the last advance track from Rotting Christ’s new album (featured here). Actually, it was only one week ago. But yesterday another track premiered. And of course I’m writing about it because I think it’s just as strong as the ones that have preceded it. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM GRANT SKELTON

 LISTMANIA 2015  12 Responses »
Jan 062016
 

NCS Best of 2015 graphic

 

(Here’s NCS contributor Grant Skelton’s year-end list of 2015 favorites. It includes still more releases that haven’t appeared on our many previous lists.)

Since I’m likely the most verbose writer on this site, I’ve decided to keep my descriptions of my favorites of 2015 brief. In the interest of fairness, I also chose to omit any albums I previously reviewed. I don’t review albums I don’t love. But in the interest of not repeating myself, I left reviewed albums out.

For my money, doom consistently delivered the best albums of 2015. Certainly my tastes seem to be changing as I get older. Thrash and death will always be pet genres for me. But this year was (mostly) about 3 things: Slow. Loud. Heavy.

Without further delay, here are my favorite albums of 2015. My standard for what makes an album a contender for “best” is simple — I want to listen to the entire album in its entirety without skipping a single track. The albums in this list did just that. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: THE FIVE HUNDRED — “WINTERS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Dec 302015
 

The Five Hundred-Winters

 

(Grant Skelton reviews the new EP by The Five Hundred from Nottingham, England.)

I initially caught wind of Nottingham, England’s The Five Hundred after hearing a demo of  the song“Winters.” That track introduced me to the band’s particular brand of aggressive, but melodic metal. It also serves as the title track to The Five Hundred’s new self-released EP. “Winters” was produced by Justin Hill, vocalist of the recently reactivated Sikth.

I don’t consider myself a connoisseur of djent by any means. While I recognize the influence of the djent sound attributed to bands like Sikth and Meshuggah, I am not as familiar with it as I am with other genres. Notwithstanding, here at NCS we don’t like to pigeonhole ourselves by treating genres as immutable. Music is fluid, as are our personal proclivities for what music we do and don’t enjoy. That being said, if you are one who has drawn a proverbial line in the sand regarding anything djent-influenced, I submit The Five Hundred’s Winters EP for your consideration. Continue reading »

“METALHEAD”: AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA CULTURE CLASH

 Mosh Pit  8 Responses »
Dec 152015
 

Metalhead movie

 

(This post is by Grant Skelton, and he will explain what it’s about.)

After several years, I’m finally back in school finishing out a Bachelor’s. This was an essay I wrote for a journalism class called “Mass Media & Cultures.” In a nutshell, the course covered communication of news messages between (or about) different cultures and how those messages are framed.

My assignment for this essay was to “select a commercial movie that deals with either a culture clash or attempts to depict another culture and discuss the effect this film and its message might have on an average adult viewer.”

I chose the 2013 Icelandic film Metalhead, directed by Ragnar Bragason. One of the class textbooks I refer to is Jaap van Ginnekin’s Understanding Global News: A Critical Introduction. I include these details just to provide some context for the assignment. I really enjoyed writing this paper, because metal culture is still largely misunderstood by the public at large. Most of that misunderstanding has been informed by media platforms that frame heavy metal culture as something that is an antagonistic, subversive art form that directly contributes to acts of violence. But that’s a topic for another day.

A fair warning, this essay does contain some spoilers about Metalhead. It isn’t my intention to ruin the film for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but the paper would have been impossible to write without revealing some of the elements of the film’s plot. You can rent “Metalhead” on Amazon  for $3.99. The DVD looks to be about $13. I haven’t seen it on Netflix or Hulu.

And now for the essay. Continue reading »

UN: “THE TOMB OF ALL THINGS”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Dec 102015
 

 

Un-The Tomb Of all Things

 

(We present Grant Skelton’s review of the debut album by Seattle-based Un.)

“All is vanity. What does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun…All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it…”

  • Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, 8

Do you remember the last time you listened to an album, metal or otherwise, that you connected with? I don’t mean an album of good, or even great, music. Not something you put on as background noise. I mean music that sounds like it was written expressly for you. Have you ever heard a metal song, perhaps even without knowing the lyrics, and felt like the music was telling the story of your own life? Something so personal that you’d swear the songwriters were watching your very life and innermost thoughts? For me, Un’s debut The Tomb Of All Things is one such album. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MAMMOTH STORM, ENNUI, EYE OF SOLITUDE, MOONBOW, WEEDPECKER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Nov 192015
 

MammothStormFornjot

 

(Grant Skelton steps forward for round-up duty with this collection of mostly new music from five bands.)

MAMMOTH STORM

Mammoth Storm are a three-piece from Saffle, Sweden. They released a demo in 2013. Less than a year later, Mammoth Storm followed that demo with a self-released EP called Rite Of Ascension. Their debut album Fornjot (named for an ancient Norse giant) was released earlier this month on Napalm Records.

Mammoths and Norse giants are fitting imagery for the kind of riffs this band writes. Enormous, loud, and destructive. They recently completed a tour with their labelmates Ahab and High Fighter. If you’re into either of those bands, then Mammoth Storm definitely have something for you. Below are the lyric video to the title track “Fornjot,” as well as a Soundcloud stream of “Augurs Echo.” Find Fornjot on Amazon and iTunes. The album also includes “Ancient Apocalypse,” a bonus track re-recorded from their 2013 demo. Continue reading »

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