Singularity Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

SHORT BUT SWEET: SINGULARITY — “VOID WALKER”

Sep 062016

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Arizona’s Singularity.)

By now you should be at least peripherally aware of Singularity, Arizona’s leading purveyors of Blackened Tech-Death, as we (and by “we”, I am mainly referring to regular contributor Austin Weber) have covered them several times before, most recently when premiering the band’s lyric video for “The Refusal”, the second track on their just-released new EP Void Walker.

Now I’ll admit up front that I was never quite as taken by the group’s debut (self-titled) album as some of our other writers and readers. It definitely had its fair share of stand-out moments, that’s for sure, but the band’s slightly scatterbrained, “kitchen-sink” approach to songwriting often left a fair bit to be desired in my opinion. And the less said about the perplexingly flat and affectless clean vocals the better…

Still, although the quartet didn’t quite manage to sustain the highest level of quality (in my opinion anyway) for the entire 51:30 run-time of their debut, the more restrictive confines of the EP format seem to have put the spurs to their creative juices, as (mixed metaphors aside) Void Walker is by some margin the best thing they’ve put their name to. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SINGULARITY — “THE REFUSAL”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 092016

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Arizona’s Singularity.)

One of my favorite things about what we do here at NCS is our devotion to showing you new and lesser known acts, and then continuing to cover their careers over the years. While there are many bands I’ve been excited to continue covering over the years, Arizona-based black-metal-infused tech-death band Singularity are one of my absolute favorites.

We first started covering them here in 2013 when I stumbled onto some early tracks by the band, and then later helped them premiere “Throne Of Thorns” off their forthcoming 2014 full-length (and then latered review the full album). Now they’re back at it again with the upcoming Friday, September 2^nd, release of a brand new EP entitled Void Walker. And we’ve got the first premiere from it with today’s launch of a stunning new song that doubles as a spacey lyric video journey for “The Refusal”. Continue reading »

SINGULARITY: “SINGULARITY”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Sep 222014

(Austin Weber reviews the forthcoming debut album by Singularity.)

By now, you’ve probably heard of Singularity here at No Clean Singing, either through the recent “Throne Of Thorns” song premiere we did recently, or my post regarding them last year. But if you haven’t heard them, now is your chance for redemption, because this band is incredible and worthy of your attention.

They are a self-described technical black metal act from Tempe, Arizona, and that genre tag certainly holds true, though within there blackened madness is a boatload of technical and melodically infused death metal.

Singularity are experts at fusing a malleable, shifting mixture of black metal and technical death metal together, to arrive at a new, previously unexplored horizon of majestic grimness. They are aided in their goal by a grandiose veneer of powerful orchestral key work, a characteristic present on all tracks, in a way somewhat akin to Fleshgod Apocalypse. Yet musically, they are a completely different group whose music is worlds apart; the orchestral sound just happens to be integrated and fuels the fervor of the tracks in a similar way. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SINGULARITY — “THRONE OF THORNS”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Sep 012014

(Austin Weber wrote the following introduction to our premiere of a new song.)

Singularity are an unsigned, mega-talented act from Tempe, Arizona, I have covered here before at No Clean Singing. Recently they were able make their upcoming self-titled debut album a reality through a successful Indigegogo campaign. The album will be out September 23rd, and trust me, you’re going to want a copy. Today we give you the first glimpse of their upcoming rise with “Throne Of Thorns”.

Singularity have been perfecting a musical merger they dub “technical black metal”, and it’s hard to argue with that description. In a way reminiscent of Fleshgod Apocalypse, the band use a type of classical and orchestral approach in their often technical death metal sounding music, and the end result is catchy without being cheesy. The symphonic rush and pomp is strong on “Throne Of Thorns”, interacting expertly with the twin inferno of tremolo-picked vortexes and onslaughts of precise, galloping drums, which display a fine battering-ram quality. As its militaristic peaks and pauses meet warp-zone level shredding amidst squalid, throaty screams, the cohesion of styles move from headbanging heights to scarring stampedes. Continue reading »

REMNANTS OF 2012: LATE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Album Reviews, Free Shit 3 Responses »

Jul 292013

(NCS contributor Austin Weber looks back again at 2012 albums he first discovered in 2013, putting the spotlight on three U.S. bands — Systems, Epistasis, and Singularity.)

I know I already did one of these posts but here’s one more with the three bands I found after my first Remnants article. Each band is completely different but worthy of your attention. All of them have new music or tours in the works that makes them relevant in the present as well. Unfortunately, this post was delayed by a few months since I’ve been too busy to work on writing much. Without further ado, on to the bands and enclosed music!

SYSTEMS – TERRASOMNIUM

A lot of bands are djenting it up these days, and understandably patience grows thin due to the gluttony of mimicry. Most djent bores me because a lot of bands are not bringing anything of their own to the table. One of the best djent bands I’ve heard recently has to be Systems. Sky-high on their own supply and clearly off on their own insidious, shred-heavy, groove-structured tangent.

Systems is technical, lead-heavy djent with a death-metal flavor and spacey jazz interludes and more solos then you can shake several sticks at. Their uniquely mechanical, overflowing guitar leads further set them apart from your average djent and are often what propel the songs forward, though their groove-centered backbone is earth-shakingly heavy as well. Continue reading »