Jul 132021
 


Bonehunter

 

(Our Norwegian friend and long-standing NCS supporter eiterorm steps up today with a round-up of new music, and we’ll let him give his own explanation of it. [And yes, we were trying to trick him, and yes, it worked.])

“Shades of… wait, what? That’s not a thing! And why is this black metal dude sending speed metal all of a sudden?”

That is how I started my latest e-mail to Islander, which contained a few recommendations about new music. I send him such e-mails from time to time, but I haven’t done so in a little while, because lately I’ve had a bit of a music backlog. So by the time I’ve gotten to the news, they have already been posted on the blog, or they’re no longer “news”. And this blog seems to cover most of what I’d recommend even if I don’t send tips as quickly as usual. It’s almost as if I’m not the only person following great labels like World Terror Committee, Iron Bonehead, Ván, etc…

This time, however, Islander wanted to post my message as a guest post on the blog, for some reason. (I think he’s trying to trick me into writing more posts for the blog.) The e-mail I sent him didn’t quite suffice as a blog post, though, so I decided to add a few more words to what was mostly a list of links to recommended music.

Now, to answer that opening question: I’ve been listening to a lot of speed metal lately, which is why this post is all about the speedy stuff. It’s not at all unlike me to listen to that kind of music, but not so much that it outweighs everything else. And coincidentally, some bits of speed metal news surfaced lately, so I thought I’d round them up here. Well, not all of it is news at this point, but none of it has been featured on the blog, so you’re getting it anyway. Let’s go through them in order of newsiness: Continue reading »

Apr 142019
 

 

(Our Norwegian friend eiterorm takes over the SHADES OF BLACK column today while our usual columnist (me) is otherwise preoccupied.)

Islander is overwhelmed with work this weekend and won’t have time to compile the usual Shades of Black. But Shades of Black is the highlight of any casual Sunday, so this time yours truly is compiling the list instead.

DEUS MORTEM

The Polish black metal band Deus Mortem was last featured on No Clean Singing in 2016, with their excellent EP Demons of Matter and the Shells of the Dead. This year, they will be back with their second full-length release, titled Kosmocide. In fact, the release – which will be carried out by Terratur Possessions and Malignant Voices – is only two weeks away (April 28 marks the date), so prepare yourselves for imminent inflammation. Continue reading »

Jan 022019
 

 

(On the 21st of December, the Andkristni 2018 festival took place at the Gaukurinn venue in Reykjavik, Iceland, and our Norwegian friend eiterorm made the trip west for it. He was kind enough to share with us the following report, photos, and music streams.)

A few weeks back I saw an online poster for Andkristni 2018, and took notice of the eminent lineup for this one-day festival, with several bands I had never seen live before. A little later, the event came up in a conversation with a friend, and we were both curious about what it would be like to see these bands live. It was then that I thought: “Hey, I have a day of vacation left. I should go to Reykjavík.” And just like that, the decision was made.

Now, I’ve never written a show report before, and I rarely ever read them myself, because they simply don’t interest me. When I mentioned to Islander that I was going to attend Andkristni 2018, however, he asked me if I wanted to write a report for the blog, preferably with some photos from the night. I declined the idea of doing a publishable report, but offered to make a personal summary for him instead. Then several other friends made similar requests, and now look what happened – I ended up writing a full report anyway. (Unfortunately, the photos in the report are mediocre at best, but I didn’t want to experience the concerts through my phone screen and therefore spent little time taking photos.) Continue reading »

May 162016
 

Dávid Glomba-Cult of Fire cover

 

(One of our friends from Norway, eiterorm, rejoins NCS with a guest “Seen and Heard” post, collecting news and/or recommended new music from a diverse array of 9 bands.)

While Islander is recovering from his Friday night sufferings, alcoholic daemons, and (gasp!) metal shows, I thought I’d step in with an occasional roundup.

AEGRUS

The Finnish black metal band Aegrus recently revealed the details for their upcoming release. The EP, entitled Conjuring the Old Echoes, will be unearthed some time this summer via Hammer of Hate Records. Below is the track list for the release. Continue reading »

Dec 072015
 

Infectious

 

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION:  Our list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs is the only list I personally make for our site each year. As you know, I rely a lot on recommendations from readers in assembling the master list of candidates — which is why I’ve again invited readers to leave their recommendations in the Comments on this post. And because it’s my only list each year, I’ve never posted anyone else’s except to welcome them in that Comment section. But mainly, no one has ever asked to put their own “infectious song” list on the site as a separate post.

However, this weekend I received an e-mail of infectious songs from eiterorm, a long-time NCS reader, commenter, source of musical recommendations, and occasional guest writer, who lives in Norway. He didn’t ask that his list be posted as an article, but he put so much effort into it and it was so well-written (and the list is so good) that I thought I should share it — even though there’s a significant risk that a number of his own selections will appear on my own list when I start to roll it out within the next week. Anyway, here are eiterorm’s selections and explanations: Continue reading »

Mar 272015
 

 

(Responding to my constricted blog time, our Norwegian friend eiterorm has graciously compiled a round-up of new music and news for your entertainment and edification.)

The winds whispered in my ear that Islander has a lot of news to dig through (and a wife to persuade) before he can resume his passionate blog work. Here’s a guest entry to keep you slightly occupied in the meantime.

ABBATH

Because I decided to do this in alphabetical order, the news about Abbath is first out. Some of you may already know that the members of Immortal have been involved in a legal dispute over the band’s name. Due to musical disagreements, the long-running black metallers and weather forecasters have decided to go separate ways. Apparently, Abbath wanted to continue his career under the old monicker, something the rest of the band wouldn’t allow. Continue reading »

Mar 152015
 

 

(Our Norwegian friend eiterorm has stepped up to assist with a round-up of recommended new music.)

While Islander is away on duties, I promised to do a quick round-up of some of the news I find. Due to my music-to-words converter running at low capacity at the moment, I’ll leave it to you to find descriptive words for the music. So if you find that adjectives and metaphors are lacking, feel free to add your own in the comment field below. Despite the scarcity of words in this post, however, all the music below is highly recommended. Don’t just take my word for it; stream it all and hear for yourself.

Macabre Omen

Macabre Omen was founded in 1994 on the island of Rhodes in Greece. For the next decade, they recorded a variety of demos and splits until their debut album, entitled The Ancient Returns, was released in 2005. Now, another decade later, the Hellenes have unleashed their sophomore album upon us. The new opus, entitled Gods of War – At War, is an hour-long collection of epic hymns to Hellenic warfare, in the musical vein of Bathory. The entire album can be streamed below for your auditory pleasure. Continue reading »

Dec 262014
 

(Mortifera. Image borrowed from this location.)

(We present today the second part of a year-end list prepared by one of our Norwegian readers, whose pseudonym is eiterorm,  and who has been a valuable source of musical recommendations to our site. His list focuses on releases we’ve not written about on this site before.)

This is a continuation of the list of previously unfeatured releases of 2014 that began with Part I (here).

Grand Magus – Triumph and Power

This is another exception to the rule of “no clean singing”, and among the milder types of metal that’s been mentioned on NCS, so I won’t say too much about it. Grand Magus released a new album in 2014, entitled Triumph and Power. It’s a good heavy metal album, and a big step up from their previous one, which, at least to me, was a big disappointment. If you enjoy heavy metal and can appreciate clean vocals (did someone shout “blasphemy”?), you should check out the following couple of songs from the album. And if you don’t know the band from before, make sure you don’t miss their first two albums. Continue reading »

Dec 252014
 

(Orange Goblin. Image borrowed from this location.)

(We present today the first part of a year-end list prepared by one of our Norwegian readers, who will introduce himself, and who has been a valuable source of musical recommendations to our site. Part two will follow tomorrow.)

I guess this is the part where I introduce myself, seeing as this is the first post I’m writing for No Clean Singing. My name (pseudonym) is eiterorm, and I’ve been following NCS for about two years. At first I only visited the blog occasionally, but about a year ago I subscribed via RSS, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t missed a single blog post since then. NCS has introduced me to a lot of great music, and to offer what little I can in return, I’ve been e-mailing news tips to Islander every now and then. For this blog post I wanted to write some words about a few releases of 2014 which haven’t been featured on NCS, and Islander kindly allowed this. Here is the first part of that list.
Orange Goblin – Back from the Abyss

The first item on my list is Orange Goblin’s latest album, entitled Back from the Abyss, which was released in October. This excellent album hasn’t been featured on NCS, but seeing as it is on my personal top-three-list of albums of 2014, I decided to do something about that. Orange Goblin is, of course, an exception to the rule of “no clean singing”, but considering how infectious the entire album is, I’d say it fits NCS perfectly nonetheless. Continue reading »