AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): STYGIAN — “DREADLANDS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 012025
 

(written by Islander)

Dreadlands is the debut album of the Italian band Stygian, which will be released on July 4th by Time To Kill Records. In its thematic conception and its lyrical expression, it reflects serious thought, scorching insight, and honest rage. Here is part of Stygian‘s preview of what the album is about:

Dreadlands explores the contrast between two spiritual worlds: the harmony-centered pagan traditions and the legacy of Abrahamic religions, which often channel humanity’s most violent instincts. While pagan rites served to express and contain primal forces, maintaining balance between humankind and nature, monotheistic dogmas have frequently justified war and destruction in the name of faith. This work stands as a tribute to life, to the sacred bond between people and the natural world — a bond shattered by centuries of religious conflict.

At the end of this article we’ll share more comments from Stygian about the album, including their statements about the meaning of each of the record’s 10 songs. In between here and there we’re also sharing a full stream of Dreadlands, which musically is itself an intersection or fusion of two worlds, a hybrid of crust punk and black metal. The music proves to be as fierce, as wounded, and as defiantly resilient as the album’s thematic insights. Continue reading »

ANTIHÆLIX: A SONG PREMIERE AND AN INTERVIEW

 Interviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 012025
 

(Our friend Neill Jameson (Krieg) introduces our premiere of music from the debut album by the Philadelphia black metal band Antihælix, and also shares his fascinating interview with the band’s two members.)

Black metal in the United States has become, much like the global scene I suppose, infinitely shapeless, changing form, moving forwards and backwards. Genre blurring has become less of a unicorn and more of a regular horse you see by the road when you’ve driving through farm country. Those who consciously try to be unique are just as obtuse as the folks trying to live like the 1980s never ended.

I’m trying to say that there’s a lot of boring shit made by boring people, but in the nicest way possible. Continue reading »

ONIRIK: “CURLING SERPENTS UNDER STONE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jul 012025
 

(Today we present a review by our Norway-based contributor Chile of a new album by the Portuguese black metal band Onirik, out now on I, Voidhanger Records.)

Imagination is a wonderful thing. As far as mind goes, it’s faster than the speed of light, stronger than a gravitational pull of a black hole, and can jump over mountains and oceans with a single leap. Without it, the world would be a completely different place and our lives much poorer, or as the great American author Henry David Thoreau put it: “This world is but a canvas to our imagination”.

With that said, we can all agree (well, we would) that out of all the music genres in existence today, metal is the one relying the most on imagination and the endless possibilities it brings. Merging influences, crossing the boundaries of genres, or just applying new formulas to old experiments are just but a taste of the wonders that metal can unleash on to the world.

So, finally coming to the point, let our imagination take us to that faraway land known as Portugal and to one of its premier black metal bands, Onirik. Forging the dark matter with vision and dedication, the band (or more precisely, Gonius Rex, the mastermind behind it) has been a purveyor of ritualistic celebrations for over twenty years now, with no sign of stopping soon. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: IMPERISHABLE — “OATH OF DISGUST”

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Jun 302025
 

(written by Islander)

The covid pandemic cast a dark and deadly cloud across the world, but it did have some silver linings in the musical world. With shows canceled and in-person rehearsal and recording sessions suspended, restless creative types began thinking in different directions, and that led to some collaborations that otherwise probably wouldn’t have happened.

One of those silver linings was the formation of the U.S. death metal band Imperishable (to be distinguished from the Swedish band of the same name, who released an album of their own last April). The U.S. band started in 2020 as the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Brian Kingsland (from Nile and Enthean) and bassist Alex Rush (Olkoth, Enthean). They wrote material during covid, but then put that on the back burner as they got busy again with more normal life and activities with their main bands.

But they brought their ideas to the front burner again after completing their lineup with the addition of famed drummer Derek Roddy (of Hate Eternal, Malevolent Creation, and too many other bands to name), and now Imperishable‘s debut album Revelation In Purity is set for an August 29 release by none other than Everlasting Spew Records — and we’ve got a lyric video for the album’s astounding first single today. Its name is “Oath of Disgust“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEXROT — “CONSECRATING LUMINOUS CONFLAGRATION”

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Jun 302025
 

(written by Islander)

Haxes and hexes…

Transcending Obscurity Records has established a global reputation for good taste, and quite varied taste. Their roster of bands run a broad gamut of metal sub-genres, and their releases over many years now have been consistently excellent. At this very site, we’ve had a vivid demonstration of this over just the past week.

Five days ago we premiered an astonishing epic-length song by the Floridian progressive death metal band Haxprocess, and today we’re following that with a song from the Massachusetts duo Hexrot, a much shorter song by comparison but thoroughly head-spinning nonetheless. Its evocative name is “Consecrating Luminous Conflagration.” Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 184): IMHA TARIKAT

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Jun 302025
 

Recommended for fans of: Dödsrit, Watain, Spectral Wound

We are no strangers to the works of existential extremists Imha Tarikat here at NoCleanSinging.

As a matter of fact, I was personally responsible for reviewing the group’s 2nd and 3rd albums, Sternenberster and Hearts Unchained…, and the only reason I haven’t yet written about their recently-released 4th record, Confessing Darkness, is because I wanted to save it for this month’s edition of The Synn Report.

With a firm foundation in (if you hadn’t already guessed) Black Metal – one which showcases a deep and abiding appreciation for the classics without sounding self-consciously (or self-indulgently) “retro” – the band’s distinctive formula also incorporates hefty helpings of gnarly, tooth-gnashing Crust and Punk influences, as well as lashings of heroic Heavy Metal melody, resulting in a sound rich in potential for possible cross-over success while still staying true (or “trve”) to the genre’s roots.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CAGED BASTARD, OBŠAR, SANGUISUGABOGG, IGORRR

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 292025
 

(written by Islander)

Between signing off on yesterday’s roundup and starting this one, various events conspired to prevent me from making this one as substantial as yesterday’s. One of them involved a surfeit of gin, another a forgetfulness about something I agreed to do today with my spouse; possibly the two are connected.

A rash of new musical discoveries over the last 24 hours was also a contributing factor. They complicated the making of choices at a time when time has become short.

Well, enough about all that, I’d better get started or this collection will turn out to be even briefer than brief. Be forewarned: Nothing in here today resembles conventional black metal, or even black metal at all in some cases. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CRYPT SERMON, CULT BURIAL, AMIENSUS, DEFACEMENT, TETRAGRAMMACIDE, BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS, BRUXIST

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 282025
 

(written by Islander)

As usual I had a lot to choose from for this Saturday’s roundup. I gravitated to six bands whose music I and/or others at NCS have showered with past praise, but chose to end it with one band’s first release.

Geographically you’ll bounce back and forth across the Atlantic, take a trip to the Indian subcontinent, and then go further west and south to Australia for the final two records. Your head will probably bounce around a lot as you go through the music too. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, JUNE 2025

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 272025
 

(In the following piece, NCS writer Gonzo reviews five recent albums he caught up to in June.)

It’s been way too fucking long since I’ve been able to crank one of these out.

Without going into too much detail, life has most decisively gotten in the way of me being able to post much. It’s been long enough, and I’ve done a great job of giving myself a pretty serious case of FOMO since the last time I posted a column that wasn’t a gigantic write-up of a festival. I live for that shit, but it’s also an exhausting endeavor.

Besides, there’s simply been too many good releases in the past few months for them not to be mentioned within these pages. Here’s five of them you should check out. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BIOLENCE — “EXTERMINATION THROUGH MUTATION”

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Jun 272025
 

(written by Islander)

Formed in 1998 in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto, Portugal), Biolence have more than 25 years of death/thrashing carnage under their belts and no shortage of the will or skill needed to continue delivering what is rightly claimed as “no-frills, old-school intensity”. That becomes vividly apparent when listening to their forthcoming fifth album, the aptly named Violent Obliteration. Its appeal is primal, its punishment ruthless, its effects exhilarating, the kind of music that gets heads hammering and blood rushing.

You sort of have to take our word for it at this point, because the album won’t be released until the first of September this year by a trio of labels — Doomed Records, Raging Planet, and Selvajaria Records. But you don’t have to entirely take out word for it because today we’re bringing you an official video for a mad and monstrous song off the album named “Extermination Through Mutation“. Continue reading »

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