Austin Weber Archives - Page 6 of 19

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 4)

Oct 282016

(This is the fourth part of a multi-part post prepared by Austin Weber putting the spotlight on recent releases, and today he focuses on music from these three bands: Mammoth, Nostril Caverns, and Vermine. To check out Part 1, go here; Part 2 is at this location; and Part 3 can be found here.)

MAMMOTH – DEVIATION

We’ll start today on a lighter note with the newly released instrumental progressive metal album from the Los Angeles-based group known as Mammoth. While the group has been active for several years now, and with several releases behind them already, I only recently became aware of them when their guitarist Wes pitched Deviation to me and I instantly fell in love. Similar to Mastodon, the band’s name fits so well, because their music really is a massive force similar in size and heft to a damn mammoth. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: THOREN — “BRENNENBURG”

Premieres 1 Response »

Oct 262016

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of the new album by Michigan’s Thoren.)

A number of different factors explain the rising popularity of instrumental metal of all stripes. Some say it’s because not everyone likes “extreme vocals”, others say it’s because groups like Animals As Leaders and Chon (among many others) have helped prove that you can be popular in the metal scene without having vocals. Whatever the reason, I support it as a long-time fan of instrumental metal dating back to the early days of Spastic Ink and other groups.

With that in mind, we’ve got an early stream for you today from the Sterling Heights, Michigan, group Thoren, an instrumental metal act that falls less on the bright and melodic side, and more on the dissonant and chaotic side. Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 3)

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Oct 172016

(This is the third part of a multi-part post prepared by Austin Weber putting the spotlight on recent releases, and today he focuses on music from these three bands: Ehnahre, Absvrdist, and Körbl. To check out Part 1, go here, and Part 2 is at this location.)

EHNAHRE – NOTHING AND NOTHINGNESS

Back in January of 2016, I helped the Boston-based avant-garde doom group Ehnahre stream their fascinating new full-length called Douve here at NCS. It seems 2016 is a particularly productive year for Ehnahre, as the band is already back with a freshly released EP called Nothing and Nothingness. Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 2)

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Oct 142016

(This is the second part of a multi-part post prepared by Austin Weber putting the spotlight on recent releases, and today he focuses on music from these three bands: VIII, Shioya, and Cyprus. To check out Part 1, go here.)

VIII – DECATHEXIS  

For all the things in modern society we blame on social media, the flip side is how much good comes from using it as a tool to spread and share new music and other art forms. Without it, I would never have heard of VIII, a strangely named Italian black metal group whose new album Decathexis continues to blow my fucking mind. Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 1)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Oct 122016

(Austin Weber prepared this multi-part unearthing of new music, and today he focused on releases from three bands — Buckshot Facelift, Omnea, and The Conjuration — while also urging you to go spend your time at another site!)

While I’m not quite egotistical enough to think anyone who reads this site has missed my multi-part underground music articles, I can at least speak for myself and say that I’ve missed doing them! With that in mind, there will be at least three or four more editions of this article to come. So prepare thyself for both weirdness and madness, because a heaping shitload of both will be covered by the time this article wraps up.

For the sake of brevity, I’m going to refrain from covering any obscure stuff I’ve covered or helped stream early through my other gig at Metal-Injection. But in spite of that, I urge you to peruse what I’ve covered there in 2016 so far through the following link here. You might be surprised at the stuff you uncover that hasn’t been covered here at NCS to date! Now onto the first installment of some new gems you absolutely must give a listen to. Continue reading »

A NCS PREMIERE: BURIAL IN THE SKY — “GALAXY OF GHOSTS”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Sep 282016

(Austin Weber brings us this premiere of a new song by the Pennsylvania band Burial In the Sky.)

In the least few years, the technical death metal scene has undergone some very interesting mutations that have helped push the genre forward. Within this field of growth there seem to be two camps, one moving toward more atonal, skronky tech-death inspired by groups like Gorguts, Ulcerate, and Deathspell Omega, and another propagating a more atmospheric and proggy sound inspired by groups like Fallujah and Rivers Of Nihil. While I’m a fan of both takes on the sound, the group I’m covering today falls into the latter category.

While I can honestly say that Burial In The Sky are doing their own thing, influences from both Rivers Of Nihil and Fallujah can be heard at times, though the music is less imitative per se than in the way it’s been done recently by a few other groups. Having heard all of their new album early, I can also state with certainty that their form of atmospheric tech-death often encompasses a near-ambient psychedelic feeling that is uniquely their own. Continue reading »

TOURISM: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT’S ABYSSAL COMMUNION TOUR

Metal News 4 Responses »

Sep 222016

(Austin Weber reports on an impending tour by Imperial Triumphant.)

While the US black metal scene is far from a dry and empty wasteland with nothing worth talking about, there’s always one group I’ll continue to champion above almost all else. And that would be Imperial Triumphant, a New York City-based group that our site’s architect Islander has been covering since 2011, before I even began writing for No Clean Singing. If memory serves correctly, my initial post about the band was in December of 2012, when I placed their initial 2012 full-length, Abominamentvm, on my very first NCS year-end list after first covering them for the local magazine gig I was a part of prior to NCS.

In the years since, the band have flourished in a way that almost defies even the earliest expectations. They’ve continued to up the ante with each release, and continue to prove their worth with a rare and evil brilliance you’re hard-pressed to find much of in a scene often obsessed with repeating the same sounds in the same ways as their forbearers, ad nauseam. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE RITUAL AURA — “TE – NO – ME”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Sep 192016

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by The Ritual Aura from Australia.)

It’s been an amazing experience to be a small part of what NCS has to offer. I feel like this site is frequently well ahead of many others when it comes to highlighting and exposing talented new bands. It’s a good feeling when this happens, and it seems to been the case for The Ritual Aura, an Australian act I started covering here at NCS in February of last year when we premiered their debut single “Time-Lost Utopia”. We then went on to premiere a second song, “Erased In The Purge”, before their 2015 debut, Laniakea, dropped. While it wasn’t at NCS, earlier this year I also helped the band premiere two new songs from their upcoming album Tæther over at Metal-Injection.

But it’s nice for things to come full circle, so here we are at NCS with another song premiere for the band, this time for a sweet new jam called “Te-no-me”. Continue reading »

COGNIZANT: “COGNIZANT”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Sep 092016

(Austin Weber reviews the new self-titled release by Cognizant from Dallas, Texas)

The rise and growth of skronky death metal and über-dissonant black metal, influenced equally by the likes of groups such as Gorguts, Deathspell Omega, and legions more, has led to the emergence of some very interesting new groups. And of those influenced by these antecedents, the most under-appreciated seem to me to be the new wave of tech-grind groups who draw elements from both schools of thought and then bring it down into a tight and concise grind format.

Some of you may be aware of my rampant obsession with tech-grind of the skronky and dissonant kind, as reflected in my coverage of groups such as Dendritic Arbor, Blurring, Okazaki Fragments, Cave Moth, Crisis Actor, and Amygdala last year — who now have been re-named as Cognizant. Continue reading »

LIZARD PROFESSOR: “ECCENTRICITY” (REVIEW AND STREAM)

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Sep 082016

(In this post Austin Weber shares with us a full stream of the new album by Lizard Professor from Fort Worth, Texas, and excerpts from his review.)

In the world of writing about music, sometimes we have to work on a rush, and sometimes unconventional methods of delivering on time are needed. Point in case, our beloved overlord Islander is fleeing town again for reasons unknown. And in order to be able to get this post to him in time to get it ready to be posted before he leaves this Thursday morning, I figured I’d do something different to make it happen.

I say all this because today (this Tuesday, which is now the past!) I spoke with Islander about seeing if I could do a blurb and post at NCS about the Lizard Professor early full album stream I have going up at my other gig at Metal-Injection. I was asking because Lizard Professor are a fairly unknown quantity, one I felt might benefit from being cross-posted for our audience of fine readers here at NoCleanSinging. Continue reading »

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