SEEN AND HEARD ON A BANDCAMP FRIDAY: SAMMATH, ABYSSAL, ELLORSITH, MOURNFUL CONGREGATION, UKAKUJA, AODON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 072023
 


Sammath

If I didn’t already know, I could have guessed this was a Bandcamp Friday from the choking flood of Bandcamp alerts, messages, and press releases that hit our in-box overnight and shows no sign of stopping. Real tough to know what to recommend, even based on the far-from-exhaustive and truly random smattering of listening I’ve done earlier this week and this morning. But below is what I came up with.

In an effort to compile a larger shopping list for you in a short amount of time, I made a rare effort to (mostly) choke off my own words down to brief gurgles.

SAMMATH (Netherlands)

I’ve had the good fortune to hear a few of the tracks on this veteran black metal band’s ferocious new album Grebbeberg. Inspired by the resistance of the Dutch army against Nazi invaders in World War II, and more specifically by the experiences of a relative of mainman Jan Kruitwagen who perished in that conflict, the album is a stunning audio rendition of extreme warfare under the most desperate conditions, and sees Sammath reaching what might be the zenith of their long career. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A BANDCAMP BLACK FRIDAY: HOST, GOATBURNER, ÚZKOST, FORMLESS ARCHITECT, SLEGEST, ONHOU, TCHORNOBOG, ABYSSAL

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 252022
 


Host

When you combine a Black Friday with a Bandcamp Friday the result is a goddamned typhoon of new music and videos, with bands and labels not only launching sales but trying to take further advantage of the situation with new releases, some of them out today and some now up for pre-order.

Correction: As Nic pointed out in a comment on the post following this one, Black Friday was NOT in fact a Bandcamp Friday, and now I’ve forgotten why I thought it was. On the plus side, I get to do something like this again on December 2nd!

I can’t say I’ve waded through all of it to make your shopping experience easier (I’m only one bedraggled human and speed-cloning is a generation or two away), but I did make my way through some of it, and have these recommendations for you.

I also did try to provide some genre scatter in the choices, knowing that not everyone loves everything, and to provide a range of radar elevations among the bands. As vivid proof of that, I’m leading off with… Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: ABYSSAL

 WAXING LYRICAL  6 Responses »
Jul 062019
 

photo by Void Revelations

 

(For this week’s edition of his lyrically-focused series Andy Synn posed the usual questions to the man behind the powerful UK black/death/doom band Abyssal.)

 

In case we haven’t made it clear before, we’re pretty much all HUGE fans of Abyssal here at NCS.

Not only was Antikatastesis one of the finest albums of 2015 (with the recently released follow-up, A Beacon In The Husk, looking likely to repeat this success), but the band’s performance at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest was arguably the best of the entire weekend.

So, in an effort to extend our coverage of the group I recently reached out to vocalist and prime-mover G.D.C. to see if he’d be interested in contributing a few bits and pieces about his lyrical process… and here is his response. Continue reading »

ABYSSAL: “A BEACON IN THE HUSK”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 212019
 

 

(What follows is Andy Synn’s review of the new album by the UK’s Abyssal, which is being released today by Profound Lore Records.)

Over the years only three bands have been deemed worthy of making repeat appearances in my end of the year “Critical Top Ten” list.

Those bands are Alkaloid (The Malkuth Grimoire, Liquid Anatomy), Cattle Decapitation (Monolith of Inhumanity, The Anthropocene Extinction), and Sulphur Aeon (Gateway to the Antisphere, The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos).

But, with the release of A Beacon In The Husk, out today via Profound Lore, there’s a very good chance that Abyssal – whose third album, Antikatastaseis, made an appearance on my 2015 list alongside several of the other records mentioned above – might just be joining them. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2018: A YEAR-END LIST FROM GRANT SKELTON

 LISTMANIA 2018  12 Responses »
Jan 032019
 

 

(We present a 2018 year-end list by NCS contributor Grant Skelton, which consists of 15 miserable, mutilating, and mesmerizing titles, not all of which are metal.)

Salutations fellow metalheads! My choices this year were a bit more of a mixed bag than in previous years. Per our usual MO here at No Clean Singing, I tried to focus on bands whose albums seemed to slip into the proverbial cracks. I hope you find something you like here, and by all means leave me recommendations in the comments. Continue reading »

ABYSSAL: “MISANTHROPE”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 202018
 

 

(Grant Skelton reviews the new album, released on Halloween, by the Mexican funeral doom band Abyssal.)

Way back in April, I reviewed a compilation album by the Mexican funeral room band Abyssal. Fernando Ruiz, the band’s vocalist, gave me the privilege of teasing Abyssal’s next release. At the time, the band provided the title Misanthrope, with a tentative release date of late summer. Although delayed until Halloween, Misanthrope has (thankfully) arrived. Continue reading »

ABYSSAL: “MMVIII – MMXIV”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 042018
 

 

(In this post Grant Skelton reviews a new anthology release collecting the music of the Mexican funeral doom band Abyssal, and shares news about Abyssal’s next album.)

 

“What are we? We live in the dark, everything we see it’s not what it appears to be. We are blind to this world, we are blind amongst ourselves, we live afraid. It is out feat that brings us to commit horrendous acts towards everything that surrounds us, fighting anger with anger, blood for blood. It’s our fear of finding out we are fragile and weak. Human figures on beautiful landscapes that is all we see, for we live in the abyssal plains… Music to be the companion on those long struggles for a better world, doesn’t matter the sound, when melody and meaning come together we feel we are not alone, there’s someone beside us fighting the same fights.”
(From the MMVIII – MMXIV liner notes)

 

 

Tijuana, Mexico is the home of Abyssal, a funeral doom band whose upcoming 2018 album (more info on that later) should be on our radar. Although active for a decade, word about Abyssal seems scarce even in dedicated doom circles. Their first 2 albums (Blindness and Landscapes) had only been available on CD-R prior to this year. Thanks to Concreto Records, fans may now enjoy a proper physical release of those two albums as part of an anthology called MMVIII – MMXIV. Rounding out the anthology is Abyssal’s 2014 track “Ad Noctum”. Continue reading »

ORATION FEST MMXVIII (SECOND NIGHT)

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 092018
 


Reykjavik wall art

 

The second night of the third and final installment of Oration Festival took place at the Húrra bar in Reykjavik, Iceland on the night of March 8, 2018. It proved to be just as thoroughly enjoyable as the first night (reviewed here), although the music took more deathly turns, and ultimately concluded in a marvelously bewildering and beguiling way.

Last night the bands who performed, in the following order, were these: Mannveira (Iceland), Devouring Star (Finland), Abominor (Iceland), Abyssal (UK), Slidhr (Ireland/Iceland), Sortilegia (Canada), and Virus (Norway).

As before, the group of friends from Seattle and elsewhere who’ve been sharing this experience with me convened for food and drink about two hours before the first band was scheduled to begin the night. Yes, two hours, because our group has a proven tendency over the course of many previous festivals to talk like there’s no tomorrow, lose track of time, and arrive late if we’re not careful. Which of course is what happened last night even with the two-hour head start. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CARCINOMA AND ABYSSAL — “APANTHROPINIZATION

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Mar 022018
 

 

For those with a strong taste for the soul-shuddering power of atmospheric black/death/doom metal, one of the best albums of the year so far comes in the form of the split that it’s our privilege to premiere today. Joining forces in Apanthropinization are two striking UK bands, each providing their own distinctive and terrifying musical explorations of the void that lurks within us and that looms from without: Carcinoma and Abyssal.

This album-length split will be released on CD and as a digital download on March 30th by Goatprayer Records, and it is a record that absolutely should not be missed. Still caught up in the throes of what each band has done here, I’ve chosen to spill many words about this split, but of course no one would blame you for skipping to the bottom (where you’ll also find a pre-oirder link) and pressing Play without delay. Continue reading »

ESSENTIAL ENTRIES: JUNE 2015

 Listmania, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Jul 202015
 

Abyssal-Antikatastaseis

 

(In this post Dan Barkasi continues his monthly series recommending music from the previous month.)

June is long gone, but alas, there’s music that needs some light shed upon it!

Apologies for the delay on this one. Life finds a way – to get in the way of my getting this done faster. Thanks, Dr. Malcolm, for the line!

How good was June? It was loaded like a politician’s rhetoric, but not vomit-inducing. In other words, lots of audible goodies! A lot of styles represented, too, possibly being the month with the most diversity thus far.

Let it begin!

Abyssal – Antikatastaseis

Chaotic as they are potent, Abyssal’s third album displays a band who continue to hone their craft to devastating effect. This sublime combination of black, death, and doom metal is so crushing that it gives a dinosaur a run for its money. There’s also a little bit more melody than the previous two discs, which is used to great effect. Continue reading »

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