Grift Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

SHADES OF BLACK: LIGHTLORN, DEATH SHROUD, GLYPH, GRIFT

Aug 272023

I have a vague memory that when “blogging” began in the late ’90s most of them were personal diaries, presumptuously based on the notion that other people cared what you ate for breakfast or what you read while falling asleep or the great laxative you just discovered. Or what you thought about some music you’d listened to.

It’s obvious that on the weekends I regress to those early days, because no one can stop me. Like yesterday, when I complained about how early I woke up, or today, when I’m revealing that I made up for that by sleeping really late. I’m still writing thoughts about music I just listened to, just not as much today because… I slept really late.

LIGHTLORN (Sweden)

I’m happy to have been an “early adopter” of the “cosmic black metal” of Lightlorn, which is another way of saying that I raved repeatedly about the songs on their independently released 2022 debut EP These Nameless Worlds, which was then picked up for a physical release earlier this year by Black Lion Records.

I’m also very happy to see that Lightlorn will now be releasing a debut album, especially because the first two advance tracks from it are so damned good. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NIDARE, COLLIER D’OMBRE, GRIFT, ATGEIR, VOIDMÏLKER

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Jul 232023

Nidare

Why would any sane person wake up at 4:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, which is what I did today? Was it too hot to sleep in our un-air-conditioned bedroom? Not at all — it was a delicious 55°F (12.7°C) outside (eat your hearts out all you hell-dwellers in the rest of the sun-broiled world). It may have been that I limited my Saturday-night intoxicants to one ice-cold martini. Possibly I was subconsciously anxious because I had made no start on the writing of this column yesterday.

I don’t recommend this kind of behavior. I see no evidence that the early bird gets the worm. Instead, it turns the brain wormy… or at least very foggy. I went in search of music to function as a pesticide (the more forever chemicals, the better) and a bitter wind to blow away the fog. Here’s what I found:

NIDARE (Germany)

Late last year we premiered a song from Von Wegen, the then-forthcoming debut album by this German post-black metal band, and it pulled me headlong all the way into that album. It’s a very good thing, then, that we haven’t had to wait long for a follow-up, which hit the streets on July 12th in the form of a stunning EP named Naehe und Flackern (via Through Love Records). Continue reading »

A DIRTY DOZEN

Album Reviews 10 Responses »

Sep 162017

(Andy Synn is playing catch-up in a furious torrent, with brief reviews and streams of music from 12 striking 2017 albums. Open wide… dine like queens and kings.)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (and again)… the vast array of music now available at the touch of a button is both a blessing and a curse, depending on how you look at it.

And while I generally celebrate the fact that I’m now able to search out and discover music from all around the world with an ease that’s quite mind-boggling when you think about it, the sheer plethora of albums clamouring for my attention means there’s simply not enough hours in the day to give them all the attention they deserve.

As a consequence of this, my “to do” list has swollen to a frankly rather distressing size over the last 4-5 months, so I’ve made an executive decision to clear my slate a little bit by pulling together twelve albums, which we’ve thus far failed to cover properly here at NCS, into one collective round-up.

So, without further ado, let’s get to it, shall we? Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: GRIFT, RUNESPELL, BIESY, GRAVE CIRCLES, SORGOTH

SHADES OF BLACK 2 Responses »

Jul 302017

I picked advance tracks from three forthcoming albums and two recent EPs for this edition of SHADES OF BLACK and arranged the streams in a way that made sense to me. I had to cut out a few other streams due to the inconvenient encroachment of the rest of my life, so you’ll probably see another one of these collections tomorrow.

GRIFT

In 2015 Grift released a video for a song from the Syner album named “Svältorna“, a song that I included in our list of that year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. It was made by Daniel Blomberg and Grift’s Erik Gärdefors near a small mountain named Kinnekulle in the southwestern Swedish province of Västergötland, and it featured Gärdefors‘ father Dag Gärdefors, whose face alone tells a thousand stories.

Now the same trio have collaborated again (along with Simon Blomberg) on a video for a new Grift song — “Den stora tystnaden” (“The Great Silence”) — which “follows the red thread” from the video for “Svältorna”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: TOO MANY THINGS TO PUT IN THE TITLE OF THIS POST

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 16 Responses »

Jul 022016

For those of us here in the U.S., today is the beginning of a long weekend in which we celebrate the nation’s independence from another country, which recently declared its own “independence” from Europe and now can’t seem to figure out what to do next. But since we have a couple of presidential candidates here in this country that most people don’t like, I guess we’re having some trouble figuring out what to do next, too.

I nearly decided to take the day off from blogging, not because I’m feeling very “patriotic” but because I’m feeling really lazy. I decided instead to make a feeble compromise with myself: I have a ton of new music I think is worth hearing, but I’m just going to spread a lot of it out for your perusal without any commentary. I feel kind of shitty for doing that, not because you really need my commentary but because I think I owe it to the bands to explain why I think the music is worth hearing. But I guess this is better than doing nothing at all.

Tomorrow we’ll be bringing you an EP premiere and something else, probably another Shades of Black post and/or the first “That’s Metal!” post in months. Unless I continue to indulge my feelings of laziness. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9)

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015 7 Responses »

Jan 052016

Welcome to the 9th Part of our evolving list of 2015’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. To listen to the other songs that have preceded the two I’m adding today, go here.

ABIGAIL WILLIAMS

As we forge brazenly ahead into the first month of the new year, we still have two year-end 2015 series in progress. Earlier today I posted one of our year-end lists, actually a combination of lists, prepared by the members of Amiensus.

I’ve been posting those lists in the order received, and it happens that today, in that order, was the day for the ones from Amiensus. And in that list, the band’s vocalist James Benson named “Will Wish and Desire” as his top metal song of the year. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ATTAN, CHRONOLYTH, DEUS OTIOSUS, GRIFT, HOAXBANE, LOST SOUL, PANOPTICON, POWER FROM HELL

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 11 Responses »

Sep 142015

I’ve accumulated quite a large number of interesting news items and new songs from my excursions through the interhole and the NCS in-box this weekend. In order to present more of them than I’m usually able to do, I’m going to do something that causes me great personal pain and undoubtedly will bring tears to the eyes of our faithful readers: I’m going to hold my own beautiful prose to a minimum and allow the music to speak for itself, largely without benefit of me as its interpretive intermediary.

Presented in alphabetical order:

ATTAN

Attan are a Norwegian band whose debut EP From Nothing will be released through Shelsmusic in limited-edition vinyl and digitally on November 30. The opening track, “Nocebo (I Shall Harm)” is now available for streaming on Soundcloud.

An avalanche of unhinged destructiveness; skull-fracturing drumbeats; spleen-rupturing riffs; aorta-rupturing vocals. Discordant and demented. Continue reading »

GRIFT, KALMEN, VASTATION, WAR/PLAGUE

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Aug 012015

I’m spending the weekend at a 2-day picnic for the people I work with at my fucking day job. It’s going to be fun, because the weather’s going to be great, there will be mountains of food and rivers of drink, and the people know how to have a good time. I’m so obsessive about not letting a day go by without new music on this site that I’ll probably still figure out some way to put up a post tomorrow. But I at least have highly recommended new songs from four bands to share with you on this Saturday.

GRIFT

The last time I covered Grift was more than two years ago, when I wrote (here) about their debut EP Fyra elegier. I was very excited to learn recently that this now-one-man Swedish band has recorded a full album named Syner that Nordvis plans to release on September 18. Yesterday, Nordvis debuted a video for one of the new songs, “Svältorna”, and it’s captivating in both sight and sound. Continue reading »

GRIFT: “DÖDENS DÅD”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

Apr 032013

On most days at this site I try to pull together a round-up of new music, album art, and/or news that most interested me over the preceding 24 hours. It’s usually in the range of 3-5 items, packaged together in one long post. Today, just for the hell of it, I’m spreading what interested me over the course of the whole day, one item at a time.

Grift are a two-man Swedish band formed in 2011 (consisting of Perditor on vocals and strings and J. Hallbäck on drums) whose music I just discovered yesterday. They’ve recorded a four-song debut EP, Fyra elegier, that’s scheduled for release on April 15 by the Nordvis label. And what I heard yesterday is a song from the EP named “Dödens dåd”.

The song begins with a mournful, folk-inspired violin solo set against the sound of falling rain . . . or maybe the hiss and crackle of an old platter of vinyl on the turntable . . . and then it rapidly transitions to a different kind of bleak atmosphere, one that unfolds to the muffled rumble of drums, the winding chords of tremolo guitar, and the anguished, scarring cries of Grift’s vocalist. Both stately and intense, the song reminds me of mid-stage Burzum, and its melancholy sounds have infected my head.

The EP can be pre-ordered here. Listen below. Continue reading »