SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN, A MYSTERY, ARNAUT PAVLE, SOVEREIGN, GRAVATUS

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Aug 042019
 

 

Writing today’s column was tougher than usual. While listening to my long list of music candidates last night and planning what I would write about, the news about the massacre in El Paso broke. And when I woke up this morning, planning to inhale coffee and begin writing, I was greeted with the reports of what happened in Dayton, Ohio overnight, when 9 more people were executed and more than two dozen were injured. Those tragedies brought the number of mass shootings in the U.S. this year to more than 250 (defined as 4 or more people shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter), and the number of deaths in mass shootings to 51.

I guess depression and rage are among the chief emotions channeled through black metal, but these events still didn’t put me in the best frame of mind for this project, despite being wracked by that same mixture of feelings over the last 24 hours. I do have plans for a second installment of new music in this series, but the best I can hope for is to finish it in time for posting on Monday.

UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN

For many of us, Unaussprechlichen Kulten have become one of those bands whose every release is mandatory listening. And so it will be with respect to the fifth album from this Chilean cult, Teufelsbücher, which will be released by Iron Bonehead Productions on October 18th. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN — “KEZIAH LILITH MEDEA”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 022017
 

 

On this day Iron Bonehead Production releases Keziah Lilith Medea (Chapter X), the fourth album by the Chilean death cult Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and with dread and trembling we bring you a full stream of all 8 songs.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the album is being released on the anniversary of the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, which resulted in the imprisonment of more than 200 accused people, the execution of 19, and the perishing of still others during imprisonment. As developed not only through the music but also in the 12 pages of the album’s booklet, this new album had a specific conceptual underpinning. As the band has explained: Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN, CASKET HUFFER, MARTHYRIUM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 012017
 

 

My day job, which usually takes me to places I’m not anxious to visit, took me to my old hometown in central Texas on Thursday, where I’ve had time to commune with family and old friends and inflict severe punishment on my liver. More communing and punishment are on tap for this afternoon and tonight. I’m unable to foresee whether I’ll be able to curate a SHADES OF BLACK collection tomorrow; I’m hopeful, but also realistic.

I could have included all three of the following new tracks in tomorrow’s collection, as all of them do display varying degrees of “blackening”, but the power of death (metal) is also manifested. And I’m so overwhelmed with enthusiasm for all of them that I decided not to delay, given that my mind may be a void on Sunday morning.

UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN

Unaussprechlichen Kulten’s new album is one I’ve been eagerly awaiting, given the excellence of this Chilean band’s previous releases, and especially their last album Baphomet Pan Shub-Niggurath. Yesterday Iron Bonehead Productions announced details about the new full-length (including the creepy-as-shit cover art) and also launched the track stream that leads off this collection. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE RADAR (PART 3)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 122015
 

cover-collage

 

(Norwegian guest contributor Gorger has provided us with Part 3 of  a multi-part feature on bands we seem to have overlooked at NCS. Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here.  And be sure to check out Gorger’s Metal.)

Whilst Islander is busy polluting Alaska (Yeah, I’ve figured you out. Just wait until I tell Steven Segal), I thought I’d continue polluting No Clean Singing!

DENIAL – 11∞22.4’N 142∞35.5’E

If you recognized the band name Denial, that’s not necessarily surprising. There are at least 12 bands with that name around. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SERPENTS ATHIRST, KNIFE OF MELQART, UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 132014
 

This is a small collection of new songs I discovered yesterday that explore the dark in very different ways. Two of the bands are newcomers, while the last is on the verge of releasing its third album.

SERPENTS ATHIRST

Serpents Athirst are a Sri Lankan black metal band whose discography consists of a 2011 split and a 2012 demo named Prevail. They have a new three-song EP coming out later this year entitled Heralding Ceremonial Mass Obliteration, and one of the new songs is now up on YouTube. I’m assuming that the image on the YouTube clip (above) will appear on the cover of the EP, because I really like it. I really like the song, too.

It’s appropriately named “Ritual Vomitting”, and I’ve listened to it a half dozen times since finding it yesterday afternoon via a link from a Facebook friend. The sound is utterly filthy, with a thoroughly grit-caked and grime-coated production, and for most of its putrid length the riffs and drums just roll forward in a repeating rampage of hammer blows, accented by the tick and shimmer of cymbals — but it’s electrifying. And the echoing vocals are fantastically horrific, ranging from rancid roars to something that sounds like the vocalist is being forcibly turned inside out. I’ll probably listen to it another half dozen times today. Continue reading »