REVISITING THE CLASSICS: “KILLING ON ADRENALINE”

 Album Reviews, Revisiting the Classics  2 Responses »
Aug 292011
 

(TheMadIsraeli delivers another installment of Revisiting the Classics, focusing on a personal favorite of mine.)

Shit is on now.

If you don’t know who this band is, you shouldn’t even be reading a site called No Clean Singing. Dying Fetus are the kind of elite, prestige-incarnate band whose achievements you wish you were capable of achieving with your sorry lives. [EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m sure TheMadIsraeli wasn’t really talking about you — just some other poor schmucks who, unlike you, and your close friends, are incapable of grand achievements.]

This is one of those bands whose every album I possess. Love every album, every song, every riff, every breakdown, you name it. Dying Fetus, Suffocation, and Vader are my elite of death metal, and so far no one else has earned admission to their company.  Killing On Adrenaline (1998) is the album when the band (or maybe, in the end, more specifically, guitar-brutalizer and guttural-barker John Gallagher) found their sound. After a couple of VERY prototype-sounding releases, the formula found on Killing On Adrenaline became the solidified sound that would continue to mark the music of the band and its various incarnations up to this very minute.

I know that most people, when talking about the classic Dying Fetus album, would go to the band’s release after this one, Destroy The Opposition. While that album is great, there is a rawness and energy on Killing that it doesn’t have, most likely a product of the band’s excitement in discovering who they were. This album also features most of the so-called classic Dying Fetus lineup — vocalist/bassist Jason Netherton, guitarist and mastermind John Gallagher, rhythm guitarist Brian Latta, and drummer Kevin Talley. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER HIGHLIGHTS (YEAH, IT’S ALL ABOUT FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE)

 Concert Reviews  28 Responses »
Jul 282011
 

On Tuesday of this week, my two NCS co-founders and I, plus other friends, attended the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour stop in Seattle at a venue called The King Kat Theater. The doors opened at around 2:30 and the show went on until something like 11:30. I’d seen many of the bands before, the exceptions being Within the Ruins, Oceano, Powerglove, Six Feet Under — and the band I wanted to see most of all, Fleshgod Apocalypse.

When something is blatantly obvious, it’s best just to admit it. So yes, I admit, I’m a Fleshgod Apocalypse pimp. I’m talkin’ about the kind of BIG PIMPIN‘ that Jay-Z had in mind. I pimp FA at every fuckin’ opportunity I get here at NCS. So, it will come as no surprise that although I found something to like about most of the performances I saw, the highlight of the tour for me was FA’s set (followed closely by a skull-collapsing performance from Dying Fetus). I even got to meet three of the guys in FA and bore them with conversation after they played!

I also took a shitload of amateurish photos of FA’s performance, including the one up above and about two dozen more (the best of a sorry lot) that I’ve posted after the jump. But before getting to that, I have a few awards to hand out (also after the jump). And at the end, I’ve got a link to an audio stream that just appeared today for a new song from FA’s forthcoming album (it’s called “The Egoism”). Continue reading »

DYING FETUS COVERS NAPALM DEATH, AND THE RE-ISSUE OF DEATH’S “HUMAN” IS STREAMING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jul 062011
 

Many death metal and grindcore bands have got great names, the kind of names that are fun to trot out when a non-metalhead asks you what kind of music you listen to, just to see the resulting facial expressions. Dying Fetus and Napalm Death are among the names I like to use. Of course, it helps that I actually really like both bands.

Death metal and grindcore song names are good for this purpose, too — like “Unchallenged Hate”. Now, if a non-metalhead asks you what you’ve been listening to today, you can tell them: Dying Fetus’s cover of Napalm Death’s “Unchallenged Hate” — because that’s what we’ve got for you in this post. It was just put up for streaming by Metal Hammer, via Muzu.tv, and because the player is embeddable, we’ve got it for you after the jump.

This is the second Dying Fetus cover we’ve featured, the first one being their cover of “Unleashed Upon Mankind” by Bolt Thrower (here). Both songs are from Dying Fetus’ cover album, History Repeats…, which will be released by Relapse on July 19 in NorthAm and internationally on July 25.

And in other news, the re-issue of Death’s Human album (which we covered here) is now streaming in full — all 49 tracks. The link for that is also after the jump. Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 7)

 Forthcoming Albums, Interviews  19 Responses »
Jul 012011
 


June is behind us, July lies ahead. Here in the U.S., we’re about to start the long weekend leading up to Independence Day, when Americans celebrate the birth of the nation by buying explosive ordinance wherever fine explosive ordinance is sold and lighting up the night sky (in addition to blowing the shit out of objects and sometimes themselves). People will also be exposing unsightly parts of their bodies wherever sun can be found and eating large quantities of health food prepared on outdoor grills. Our Founding Fathers would be proud of what they wrought!

Because the last month has ended, that means it’s time for another installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, in which we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — this isn’t a cumulative list. If we found out about a new album during May or preceding months, we wrote about them in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. And feel free to tell us about how we fucked up by omitting releases that we overlooked. Continue reading »

DYING FETUS COVERS BOLT THROWER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jun 072011
 

Yes, this is our fifth post for the day, which is way higher than our normal output at NCS. But unexpected things continue to happen to us, and it’s not even 1 p.m., Pacific Time.

This post is explained by the fact that Dying Fetus has just posted their cover of Bolt Thrower‘s “Unleashed Upon Mankind” from their forthcoming limited edition, mini-LP History Repeats… . You can listen to it at this location., or go past the jump and listen here. To us, that’s newsworthy, because it’s motherfucking Dying Fetus covering a classic motherfucking Bolt Thrower song.

The song is a sweet piece of nasty, technical, death metal. Military metaphors leap to mind — lumbering tanks slowly pulverising rocks and remains beneath the treads. High-caliber machine guns spitting death, mowing down ranks of mere humanity. Flamethrowers jetting superheated fuel. There’s definitely a “kill ’em all, let god sort ’em out” attitude about this music. Go past the jump and see for yourself. Continue reading »

A HISTORY LESSON FROM DYING FETUS

 Metal News  3 Responses »
May 062011
 

It pays to check your e-mail, especially when you get e-mails like the press release I just saw. Here’s the news: Dying Fetus will release a limited edition “mini-LP” this summer to mark the band’s 20th anniversary. Entitled History Repeats…, it will include cover tracks from bands who have influenced Dying Fetus, including Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, Cannibal Corpse, and Pestilence, plus a new Dying Fetus track exclusive to this release.

The mini-LP will be limited to 5,000 copies worldwide and it’s scheduled for a July 19 North American release through FYE stores and Relapse Mailorder exclusively. Additional information and pre-orders are available here.

Now this is my kind of history lesson. Maybe school-boards nationwide can be convinced to put this on high school curriculums so the youth of our nation can be educated properly. It would sure beat the hell out of lots of crap courses I had to sit through. Stay with us past the jump to see the awesome track-list for this baby. Continue reading »

2011: MORE SICKNESS AHEAD

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania  7 Responses »
Jan 012011
 


HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Did you see what we did?  We had to change the logo for this edition of SICKNESS.  Because 2010 is behind us, and the new year lies ahead.

We spent the last 30 days, as we’ve been doing for the last year, collecting news blurbs and press releases about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like, or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we’ve cut and pasted the announcements and compiled them in alphabetical order.

All of our previous monthly updates can be found via the “Forthcoming Albums” category link on the right side of our pages, and because we’re not keeping a cumulative list, you might want to check the last couple months of these posts if you want to get a full picture of what’s coming. The list that follows, in alphabetical order, are albums we didn’t know about at the time of our last installment when November ended, or updated info about albums we’d previously heard were on the way. And be forewarned: This is a really long list. There’s a massive slag of new metal coming our way, and man, does it look hot.

So, without further ado, let’s get started. See if there’s anything on the list that makes you moist, or tumescent, or just generally slobbery.

ABORTED: “Good news is that we are starting pre-productions for our upcoming record on January 4th. This means we will demo all the songs for the record, make sure everything sounds good and make the necessary adjustments to make sure they are all more lethal than a chainsaw in Mr. Leatherface’s hands. We’re all very excited about the material thus far and can’t wait to get this over with and proceed to the actual recordings later this year. Expect a fall 2011 release through our culprates in mayhem Century Media.”

AGNOSTIC FRONT: “The Godfathers of New York Hardcore, Agnostic Front, have just finished recording their highly anticipated follow up to their 2007 release, Warriors. The yet to be titled album features 13 new powerful and anthemic songs laid down by Erik Rutan (Madball, Goatwhore, Cannibal Corpse) at his Mana Recording Studio in Tampa, FL under the watchful guide of producer Freddy Cricien of Madball. The record was mastered by Alan Douches (Nile, Mastodon) and will be released in Europe of March 4, 2011 and in North America on March 22, 2011.”

(the list continues after the jump . . .)

Continue reading »

ARKAIK

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 282010
 

What have we here? It’s another Par Olofsson album cover! And just a few days after we showcased some other album covers by this prolific Swedish artist (here).

Wonder what’s inside? Hey, whaddaya know!  It’s a CD!  Wonder what it sounds like? (putting CD in music player . . . and listening)

Fuck yeah! (pumping fist in air) This is some sick shit!

(Strike that. This is supposed to be a high-brow extreme metal site, rendering sophisticated musical analysis in literate journalistic prose. Start over.)

The band is called Arkaik. They’re from beautiful Riverside County, California. They’ve shared the stage with the likes of Suffocation, Necrophagist, Dying Fetus, and Decrepit Birth. Their just-released debut album on Unique Leader Records is called Reflections Within Dissonance. And what’s the music like? Fuck yeah! This is some sick shit!

Damn. We gotta do better than that. Let’s use some adjectives besides “sick.” How about: insanely fast, technical, pummeling, rhythmically dynamic. How about some metaphors? Like standing right next to a jet turbine already spooled up to a full roar while an assault squad is blasting at your head with M4s on full auto — in a hurricane. (read more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

VOMIT THE SOUL

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jan 272010
 

Late last year we wrote about the storm surge of new metal over the last few years. Even if you confine yourselves to bands with labels, it’s enough to swamp the average listener. And if you also consider extreme metal being churned out by unsigned bands, it’s impossible to hear everything that might actually appeal to you, even if you’re devoted to only one or two sub-genres and don’t care about the rest.

Given this state of affairs, one of the most useful things a site like this one can do is help you sift through the floodwaters and try to point out the hidden treasures that might actually change your life (or at least your week). And here at NCS, we try to give equal coverage to extreme metal from other lands.

This week we’ve been on sort of a mini world tour of metal. On Monday, we visited Greece and wrote about Gus Drax. The next day we hopped the Atlantic to visit Costa Rica and Sight of Emptiness. And today we’re jumping back across the ocean to Italy and Vomit the Soul.

The first two bands we visited this week produce metal that’s infused with melody. But if melody is what you’re after, you should continue your web-surfing right now, because you won’t find even a whisper of it in what Vomit the Soul blasts out. But if every now and then you like to have your brains scrambled by a visceral sonic assault that completely removes you from what’s going on around and within you, this is a band you should definitely check out.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WHY IS GERMANY SO FUCKING BRUTAL? (postscript)

 IQ Subtraction, Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 192009
 

wacken10smallVans WarpedYesterday, NCS Co-Author IntoTheDarkness posted a piece on the brutality of German extreme metal bands. In an episode of synchronicity, this morning I saw three news updates about festivals scheduled for 2010 — one in the U.S. and two in Germany. And the comparison speaks volumes. On the one hand, we have the 2010 Vans Warped Tour spreading across the US next summer like a brain-sucking plague. On that tour, you’ll have the opportunity to see such stupifyingly awful bands as Attack! Attack!, Breathe Carolina, and Eyes Set to Kill. There are a few saving graces on the tour — Parkway Drive, Suicide Silence, and Whitechapel. But suffering through the rest of the 67-band lineup for the opportunity to see those dudes would be worse than a garden-hose colonoscopy without anesthesia.

SUMMER_BREEZE_2010On the other hand, next year in Germany we’ll have the latest installments of (a) the Summer Breeze festival scheduled for August 19-21 in Dinkelsbühl; and (b) the Wacken Open Air festival scheduled for August 5-7 in (where else) Wacken, Germany. At Summer Breeze, you could see the likes of Asphyx, Barren Earth, Behemoth, Dark Tranquillity, Despised Icon, Dying Fetus, Hypocrisy, Necrophagist, Obituary, Sepultura, Swallow the Sun, The Crown, and Maroon. And Wacken Open Air will feature bands such as Amorphis, Arch Enemy, Caliban, Immortal, Iron Maiden, and Slayer.

What’s really mind-blowing about the contrast is that those German festivals, each spread over just a few days in a single location, will draw tens of thousands (e.g., 70,000 tickets were sold for the 2009 edition of Wacken Open Air more than 200 days in advance). To get that kind of attendance in the U.S. for metal, you apparently need to have a line-up of largely craptastic bands and a schedule of about 40 dates in 40 cities.

To be fair, the German festivals draw crowds from all over Europe, and the U.S. does have some legitimately extreme festivals that are drawing headbangers in increasing numbers (the Maryland Deathfest, now in its 8th year, comes to mind most prominently). But still, so far, it’s no contest.

For full lists of the bands scheduled to date for these 3 tours, continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading »

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