(Andy Synn offered the following thoughts about his conception of our mission here, plus recommendations of three new albums.)
Why are we here? That’s the big question which has been playing on my mind for a while now.
Not in the philosophical or religious sense though, more the very concrete, very real question of why are WE, the people who make up NoCleanSinging, actually here? What is our purpose? What are we trying to achieve? Continue reading »
Lago
You know the drill: From the frothing torrents of new music that continuously rush through the stinking catacombs of the metal underground I sift out a handful of nuggets that appeal to me, and present them in these posts in the hope that they will appeal to you as well.
Today I’m beginning with a couple of bands in whom I have perhaps a more personal interest than most because the front-men are such good dudes… though I’ll quickly add that I was a big fan of their music before I got to know them.
LAGO
I go back a ways with the music of the Arizona death metal band Lago, back to the discovery of their very impressive Tyranny demo in January 2013. They released an even more impressive debut album of the same name in 2014, from which we had the pleasure of premiering the first advance track. They followed that at the end of 2016 with a tremendously good split release with Poland’s Calm Hatchery, from which we also premiered a secret bonus track by Lago.
Since then Lago have completed work on a new album named Sea of Duress and signed with Unique Leader Records for its release, which will happen on June 8. And yesterday Metal Sucks premiered a video for one of the new album tracks, “Soiled Is the Crown“, which was directed by Matti Way (From the North Films). Continue reading »
I mentioned in a post earlier this week that I’ve been distracted during nights this week by a televised political convention (because I am a political junkie with low willpower), and I also had to make a quick out-of-town trip. Metal didn’t wait for me while I was diverted, and so I have an immense list of new things from the last few days that I want to recommend. I’ve cut the list down to a mere 10 items, which I’ve collected here. Seriously, I’m aware that 10 is a lot, so I’ve choked back my usual desire to spill a lot of words.
I’m starting with two news items and then following those with 8 new songs or videos, presented in alphabetical order by the name of the artist.
MESHUGGAH
I no longer subscribe to Revolver magazine. If I still had the subscription, I might have seen the full-page ad at the top of this post, which so far seems to be the only disclosure that Meshuggah’s new album The Violent Sleep of Reason will be released by Nuclear Blast on October 7. Here’s another fan pic of the ad: Continue reading »
It makes some sense that New York’s Anicon have partnered with Gilead Media for the release of their debut album, Exegeses, which happens this coming Friday. The band includes drummer Lev Weinstein of Krallice (and Geryon, among other groups) as well as bassist Alexander DeMaria, who performs live with Yellow Eyes. Apart from the connections between those bands and Gilead Media, Exegeses displays certain qualities that make it a natural fit for the kind of dark and unusually distinctive music in which Gilead tends to traffic.
In addition to the impressive rhythm section identified above, Anicon includes the group’s founding members Nolan Voss and Owen Rundquist, who share both guitar and vocal roles. The interplay and the harmonizing of their guitar performances on Exegeses is a principal source of the album’s great fascination and power — as you’re about to find out for yourselves through our premiere of a full album stream. Continue reading »
Anicon and Belus are two New York bands whose names I’ve been hearing for a while, but whose music I’ve begun exploring only recently. Together they produced a split this past June, which was co-released on 12″ vinyl by Fragile Branch (U.S.) and Dead Section Records (Denmark), with each band contributing two tracks. The songs of each band are also now available on their respective Bandcamp pages, with one bonus track (linked below) — and they’re all really impressive.
ANICON
Anicon’s ranks include members of Trenchgrinder (vocalist/guitarist Owen Rundquist) and Krallice (drummer Lev Weinstein), as well as guitarist/vocalist Nolan Voss and bass player Alexander DeMaria (ex-Alrunes). They have two long songs on the vinyl split, “A Crown On Every Head” and “Blood and Stone”, and a third song (“Current of Ash and White”) comes as a bonus on the digital download. Continue reading »