NO CLEAN SINGING

SHADES OF BLACK: POLDERHAAT, BONJOUR TRISTESSE, SERPENT, ÜBERCHRIIST

Sep 202026

(written by Islander)

This collection of recommended music will be much shorter than yesterday’s. We’ve got a visitor coming to the house any minute now, and after that I’ll be heading across Puget Sound to join friends in watching our beloved Seahawks play another team named for a bird, one that wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell if an actual osprey decided to mess with it in the avian world, but this being a football game in which a star player might get butt-hurt right away, as one of ours literally did in the first series of the Hawks’ opening game, you never know.

Now that I’ve made my excuses, on we go…. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ARCHITECT OF SETH, CLØUDY SKIES, DUMAL, DUNGEON SERPENT, IMMORTAL DISSOLVER, MESSE DE MINUIT, OUTER HEAVEN, TEMPLE OF VOID, VELNIAS, WITCH RIPPER

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Sep 192026

(written by Islander)

It has been quite a while since I’ve done this, 92 days to be precise — “this” being to use the OVERFLOWING STREAMS banner for one of these Saturday roundups instead of the usual SEEN AND HEARD. I don’t have a precise dividing line between them, it’s more of a gut feel, but my gut tells me that 10 selections is an overflow.

Beyond using the different banner name for collections of this size, I also dispense with the time required to download, upload, and re-size album art, and I put the release info in lists instead of sentences. I also had delusions of trying to be a bit more concise in my comments about the songs and videos, too, but for the most part I didn’t succeed.

I also didn’t spend time trying to figure out a flow for the music, a sequencing that would generate either companionability or stark contrasts among the songs (or both), but instead put everything in alphabetical order by band name.

The objective of all this was to be more efficient with the time I’ve got this morning so I can include more instead of less. In some settings less can be more, but not today. Continue reading »

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2027: FIRST LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT AND TICKETS ON SALE

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Sep 182026

(written by Islander)

As you know by now (or damned well should!), No Clean Singing is the chief sponsor of Seattle-based Northwest Terror Fest. Since the first year of the fest in 2017 we’ve been supporting the event in a variety of ways, including our core cadre of writers lending their brains and brawn (but mainly brawn) to the three days of music before and after doors open. We are very proud to be NWTF’s main sponsor again for the next edition of the fest on May 6-8, 2027.

Today NWTF has officially announced the first wave of bands confirmed to perform next year, and you can see those 19 names on the poster above. It’s a hell of a roster, and more great names are yet to come. In addition, NWTF launched Early Bird sales of full-festival passes yesterday at a discounted price. Those passes were first offered only to people who had subscribed to the NWTF e-mail newsletter, and they sold out quickly even though we hadn’t announced any of the bands.

Another round of full-price festival passes goes on sale today at 10 a.m. Pacific Time at this location:

http://tinyurl.com/nwtf2027

This round of 3-Day passes is being offered at the lowest price you’ll see for the full weekend (aside from the already-gone Early Bird round). Quantities are limited, and once this allotment evaporates the fest will release a second round of 3-Day passes at a higher price.

Now, for a few more details: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HAINTGROVE — “KINGDOMS IN THE THICKET”

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Sep 182026

(written by Islander)

Once again, and for the third time since mid-June, we’re connecting you to the powerful music and words of the Texas-based black metal band Haintgrove.

The first occasion concerned the project’s debut single, “Starless Passage“, which served as the opening chapter to a larger concept centered on the experiences of enslaved Africans in the colonial South, a concept that approaches the subject “through atmosphere, landscape, memory, and emotional perspective”.

The second occasion, in August, was our premiere of Haintgrove’s second single, “I Dream in a Tongue I Cannot Speak“, along with a beautiful yet desolate video that Haintgrove filmed along the coast of the South Carolina Lowcountry.

And now we’re premiering a third song, “Kingdoms in the Thicket“, which sheds more light on Haintgrove’s inspirations, and specifically the role that the Lowcountry plays in those inspirations. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ADVERSOR — “SHATTERED VISIONS”

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Sep 182026

(written by Islander)

“[M]erging the ferocious thrash attack of prime Kreator with the soaring melodies of Nevermore and Vektor.” That’s a very quick introduction to the sound of the Italian band Adversor and their forthcoming fourth album This Mortal Coil, which is set for release on November 6th by Selvajaria Records.

But we have a more direct representation of Adversor’s new music for you today through our premiere of a song off the new album called “Shattered Visions“, and a pulse-racing video to go along with it. Continue reading »

PLÈVRE – CITÉ MOUROIR

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 172026

(Andy Synn takes a journey through a dying city with France’s Plèvre)

This… is not the review I was supposed to be posting today.

No, that review will now be coming next week, due to the fact that – just as I was coming to the end of the writing process – I was approached by one of my contacts with an offer for an exclusive premiere for that very same album that I/we simply couldn’t refuse.

Of course, this left me with something of a dilemma… what was I going to write about for today instead?

Thankfully my ever-expanding “to do” list furnished me with numerous options, some of which I’ll hopefully still be able to get to after this (even if only as part of my regular “Things You May Have Missed” round-up at the end of the month), with the fascinatingly dark debut from French Post-Black foursome Plèvre (which comes out tomorrow) ultimately demanding my attention (and, hopefully, yours) the most.

AN NCS PREMIERE: ORB (OCCULT RENEGADE BASTARDS) — “FIRST FROST”

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Sep 172026

(written by Islander)

Today we help spread the word about a new Philadelphia-based band — a new band, but formed by people who aren’t newcomers to heavy music. The name of the band is ORB (which stands for Occult Renegade Bastards), and it’s the joint effort of vocalist Lord Gourd (aka Lord Klauf from Morgul Blade) and Jim Viola (also from Morgul Blade, and a member of Wild Beyond) on guitars, bass and keyboards. On their debut album they were joined by session drummer Miles Ziskind.

That album, Supernatural Season, is a fitting celebration of the time of year we’re about to enter here in the northern hemisphere. As the band describe, it’s “A veneration to all that is autumnal, nocturnal, and supernatural” — a journey into “the Land of Forever Autumn”.

Of course, as you can already tell from the album’s cover art and those references to nocturnal and supernatural happenings, the album is especially suited to a particular night that lies ahead of us in October, and its October 23 release date will make it available in time for that parting of the veils that will occur on October 31st.

As for what ORB’s music sounds like, we have an example in our premiere today of its second single, “First Frost“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ILLWIND

Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews No Responses »

Sep 172026

(This past July Personal Records released a fine debut album [for which we did a premiere] by the Peruvian band Illwind, whose lineup was forged from members of some top South American bands such as Reino Ermitaño, Cobra, Arcada, and Argul. The album provided the impetus for our Comrade Aleks to re-connect with Illwind’s Marcos Koifman, and that produced the following excellent interview with him.)

About 10-15 years ago, the Peruvian band Reino Ermitaño was well-known to doom metal fans. The aesthetics of shamanic rituals, textured riffs, subtle psychedelia, bassist Marcos Koifman’s expressive artwork, and Tanya Duarte’s vocals among other features set the band apart from their contemporaries. Reino Ermitaño was disbanded, and its members joined new outfits, yet Marcos Koifman made his manifest only now with the new doom-act Illwind.

From the ten-minute heroic doom metal anthem “Crimson Skies”, and the down-to-earth “Wanderer” or “Portal,” to the droning stoner-armored “God of Sleep” and the hypnotic “Lucifer’s Mule”, Illwind proves their intention to make something special and refreshing for the underground Doom Cult. It was a proper reason to interview Marcos, as Illwind’s debut album The Unfolding at the End of Light did not go unnoticed for both NCS co-writers and dedicated readers.

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WYRDSTÆF — “PRIMORDIAL BLOODLINES”

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Sep 162026

(written by Islander)

On September 4th of this year the Apocalyptic Witchcraft label released Primordial Bloodlines, the debut album from UK-based Wyrdstæf, a band whose music is described as “atmospheric blackened tribal metal band”, and what we have for you today is the premiere of an evocative lyric video for the album’s title song.

The inspiration for both the band and their first full-length is worth describing at length, because it provides important insights into what you’re about to see and hear. To do that, we’ll excerpt the following eloquent passages from the materials circulated by Apocalyptic Witchcraft: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CUTTERRED FLESH — “THE LETTER U”

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Sep 162026

(written by Islander)

Today we again find ourselves in the favored position of premiering a song from an album by the long-running Czech death metal band Cutterred Flesh.

We have done this twice before, for each of their two most recent albums before this newest one. The last time, three years ago, we praised “the band’s capacity for inflicting bombastic, mind-mauling, and terrifically brutalizing punishment, while also throwing in unexpected changes that keep listeners perched on their toes.” And lo and behold, they are doing that again.

The name of their new album is The Shapes of Hidden Malice, and it will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on November 13th. Each song on the record represents a unique horror story inspired by classic authors. In the band’s words: “They dissect the mechanisms of fear and translate them into sound”.

The song we have for you today (the fourth single to be revealed so far) is “The Letter U“. Continue reading »

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