AN NCS INTERVIEW: NECROFIER

 Interviews  1 Response »
Feb 122026
 


photos by Brian Sheehan

(On February 27th Metal Blade Records will release a new album by the Houston-based black metal band Necrofier, and the quality of the music convinced our friend Ben Manzella to reach out for the following interview with the band’s vocalist and guitarist Bakka.)

As I’m sure other writers here at No Clean Singing would agree, most record announcements or press releases eventually become like white noise. You feel like you can predict the claims and wording of it being the “best album we’ve made yet”; or, especially in metal, depending on the genre, the claim that the music is “the most brutal thing you will hear all year.” However, when I read about the upcoming release of Transcend Into Oblivion, none of these traps were set, and I knew I’d be eager for this conversation.

During a succinct and relaxed time of conversation with Bakka, vocalist and guitarist of Necrofier, I aimed to hear a bit more about the creative process involved in the detailed song structure that is Transcend Into Oblivion, as well as the recent move to Metal Blade Records. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: NECROFIER, CONSUMPTION, EXIMPERITUS, DER ROTE MILAN, SMEARING, MARTIRIO

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 062025
 

(written by Islander)

For you music lovers out there who just crawled out from under a rock, yesterday was a Bandcamp Friday, the last one of 2025. During those 24 hours we received more than 300 e-mails in the NCS in-box, at least half of them Bandcamp alerts, and that’s not counting the flood of digital traffic that rolled in the day before. Many of the messages were about music that had just been released.

I figure I have about a 50/50 success rate in getting new-music roundups posted on Bandcamp Fridays, which for obvious reasons would be an ideal time for them. Yesterday goes in the failure column. Just couldn’t get it done yesterday, what with other distractions getting in the way and the desirability of allowing Andy Synn’s list-week pre-launch to be our last post of the work-week.

I do feel guilty, but would have felt guilty anyway: Even rounding up a handful of new songs yesterday wouldn’t have made a very big dent in the wall of new tracks that slammed down this past week. Today’s roundup is just a modest dent too, but hopefully sufficient to start your weekend off with a dented skull. As usual, I’ll attempt to do additional cranial denting (of a more consistently blackened variety) tomorrow. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2 OF 3): ÆRA, NECROFIER, STARLESS DOMAIN

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Jan 202019
 

 

I didn’t divide the music in today’s column evenly between the two Parts that I’d originally planned. There was significantly more in the second Part than in the first one, not only because there were two more bands there but also because many of the items were full releases rather than advance tracks from forthcoming records.

I’m using the past tense, because, as you can see, I’ve decided to divide Part 2 into two parts as well, which means there will be a Part 3 of this Sunday’s column. I hope the total magnitude of what I’m spreading before you today won’t deter you from checking out everything, because everything here is well worth the time.

ÆRA

“At speed, the songs embody cold yet chaotic ferocity. In their slower movements, they reach for haunting grandeur and wintry melancholy. Emotionally evocative and immersive music in an icy Norwegian style that’s well-suited by the drifting mists and ancient forests depicted on the cover.” That was my summing up of this pagan black metal duo’s 2017 debut EP, Of Forsaken Vows. It was a very good beginning, and inclined me to pay attention to their new full-length, The Craving Within. Continue reading »