DEVOLVED

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 232010
 

NCS likes math metal. In fact, we likes it a lot. Which is why we were stoked to learn that Devolved was planning a new album for 2010 and that, to build some buzz, the band’s new label would be releasing a re-mixed version of their last full-length, 2004’s Calculated. And guess what? The new version of Calculated arrived in our mailbox earlier this week. And guess what? We like it!

The Background: Devolved started in Australia in 1996 and the band released a demo in 1998, and then a full-length in 2001 called Technologies. The Roadrunner Records-affiliated mag Outsider named Technologies Austrialia’s metal abum of the year.

Numerous line-up changes ensued, and eventually Devolved released Calculated in September 2004, with vocals supplied by Nik Carpenter. In early 2005, the band left Australia and moved to Los Angeles. More lineup changes followed, including the addition of vocalist Kyle Zemanek (ex-Five Finger Death Punch and Deathsett).

Then last May, the band signed with Unique Leader Records, and word is out that a new album is projected for release late this year. And as noted above, Unique Leader has now re-released Calculated. Except, the re-issue has been re-mixed and re-mastered and this time includes Zemanek’s vocals instead of Carpenter’s. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DETRIMENTUM UPDATE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jan 232010
 

Earlier this week we added a second installment of our irregular feature on UK Death Metal in Review, and one of the brutal bands we raved about was Detrimentum and their 2008 debut album, Embracing This Deformity. In response to that piece, we got the following message from one of the band’s founding members, guitarist Jon Butlin:

“Hey – thanks a lot for the great write-up! We really appreciate it! Since the album, we’ve undergone a few lineup changes, it’s only [guitarist] Paul [Wilkinson] and myself left from the ‘Embracing‘ lineup – the stresses and strains of the UK underground have taken their toll! Anyway – once we get the lineup sorted out we’re hellbent on recording a new album, hopefully this one won’t take 5 years like the previous one!

The new tracks are more diverse than previous efforts, we’ve thrown more of everything in the mix – hopefully it will be clearer-sounding than the last album, but just as heavy. Our current drummer is Steve [Powell] from Anaal Nathrakh, a man more than capable of insane dynamics, ear-shredding blasts and crushing double-bass – so watch this space! Thanks again for the support – I’ll get round to updating all the friend requests this evening hopefully!

cheers
Jon Butlin
DETRIMENTUM”
There’s no doubt that Steve Powell is one more-than-capable drummer — in addition to playing with the awesome Anaal Nathrakh, he also handled the drum duties on another fantastic UK death metal album produced in 2008 by the band Theoktony (which we wrote about here). Butlin and Wilkinson are also extremely talented, and that threesome forms an essential foundation for what we hope will be a bright future for Detrimentum. We’re definitely looking forward to new music — with any luck, sooner rather than later!

SOREPTION UPDATE NO. 2

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jan 222010
 

These dudes have really let me down.

In one of our previous Math Metal Monday features, we wrote about Swedish tech-death band Soreption and their awesome June 2008 EP Illuminate the Excessive. Illuminate included only four tracks, creatively entitled 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then we saw (and wrote about) a report that the band would be releasing their debut album, Deterioration Of Minds, on March 3 via Ninetone Records — and that the tracks would be entitled 5 – 12. How perfect!

We were crushed to discover this morning that the band has sold out: They’ve decided to use actual song names for the tracks on Deterioration Of Minds, instead of numbers. And they didn’t even use any of our shark cartilage song names. I bet the label made ’em do it. According to the band’s blog, the tracks will now be called:

01. Suppressing The Mute
02. The Hypocrite, Undying
03. Breeding Exile
04. …To Dim The Aching
05. A Wolf Among Men
06. Deterioration Of Minds
07. By Venom Entitled
08. March Of The Tyrants

I already miss the old song titles. Plus, I think this is really confusing. I mean, they’ve previously released four songs on the EP, but this full-length begins with Track No. 1 instead of No. 5. What’s up with that?!

On the bright side, Soreption has posted a brief portion of one new song, “March of the Tyrants,” for streaming on their MySpace page. And short as the clip is, it’s definitely Soreption — which means it’s definitely awesome.

Maybe they’ll decide to tell the label to fuck off and change the album title from Deterioration Of Minds to 2.

“THAT’S METAL” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (No. 2)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  4 Responses »
Jan 222010
 

Good morning class! My, you’re all looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today! Today’s lesson is about woodpeckers.

Billy, I see your hand is up. Do you need to use the restroom or do you have a question?

Well, yes Billy, I can explain why we’re talking about “fucking woodpeckers” today instead of extreme metal — but I’ll ask you please not to use that kind of language with teacher in the future.  The reason we’re talking about woodpeckers is because I’m feeling like a real lazy-ass and was not up to preparing anything worthwhile today we sometimes take a break from discussing the wonders of extreme metal and instead discuss things that are “metal,” but aren’t music. And woodpeckers are definitely metal.

No, Billy you little shit, woodpeckers are not metal because their name includes the words “wood” and “pecker.” And I really don’t appreciate your giving me the finger. If you’ll bear with me, I’m going to explain exactly why woodpeckers are metal, and in fact I’m going to show the class a video that will surprise and astound you.

But before showing the video, I want to give you some background. And Billy, to put it in words that even you will understand, this information might actually be something you could use to impress your friends with your erudition — unless of course they’re already convinced you’re a useless fucktard and nothing you can say will make any difference. Or maybe your friends are mainly useless fucktards who aren’t interested in, or capable of comprehending, anything that doesn’t relate pretty directly to beer, weed, pizza, or sex/masturbation. (more of the lesson after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BEHEMOTH IN SEATTLE

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Jan 212010
 

Tuesday, January 19, 2010. This is how the day began over Puget Sound (honest to God — I really saw this and really took this photo):

And this is how it ended at El Corazon in Seattle:

After starting off the New Year of live music last week with an ass-kicking show by DevilDriver, Suffocation, Goatwhore, and Thy Will Be Done (see our review here), your three NCS Authors took in the Evangelia Amerika tour two nights ago in Seattle — and the ass-kicking continued as Behemoth, Septicflesh, Lightning Swords of Death, and Those Who Lie Beneath took the stage at El Corazon.  For our report, and a lot more of our amateurish concert photos like the one above, continue reading after the jump. Continue reading »

UK DEATH METAL IN REVIEW (Part 2)

 Album Reviews, Metal News  3 Responses »
Jan 202010
 

While we wait for 2010 to really get up to fucking speed, we’re still periodically looking back at 2009. A couple weeks ago, we wrote about some UK extreme metal bands that we listened to a lot in the Old Year. But one post doesn’t do justice to the subject. The fact is that the UK death metal scene hasn’t been so bursting with putrescent life in years.

So, we’re going to continue our look back today, dip our toes into the acidic pool of brutal death metal, and express our fond regard for three more UK death-dealers: Ingested, Detrimentum, and Infected Disarray.

In our first feature on “UK Death Metal in Review,” we had to push the “death metal” envelope a little to include some extreme bands that hooked us in 2009. No need to push the envelope today. In fact, you wouldn’t want to touch this nasty envelope — it’s radioactive, with razor-sharp edges and some big fucking spikes. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SONG NAME FODDER

 Band Name Fodder  2 Responses »
Jan 192010
 

Every now and then we’ve told you about a word or phrase we’ve stumbled upon that has nothing to do with metal, but sounds exactly like it oughta be the name of an extreme metal band. We’ve stuck those posts under the category of “Band Name Fodder.” Now we’ve stumbled across something new: words and phrases that have nothing to do with metal but sound like they could be the names of brutal songs.

You know the kind of song titles we’re talking about — the kind that at first blush (and sometimes second and third blushes) make no sense, but just sound really evil, uncompromising, and vicious.  Songs like:

“Carrion Sculpted Entity” (Cannibal Corpse), “Megacosm of the Aquaphobics” (Cephalic Carnage), “Postmortal Coprophagia” (Devourment), “Prosthetic Erection” (Annotations of An Autopsy), “Diaboloical Submergence of Rebirth” (Goatwhore), “Intestinal Putrefaction” (Abominable Putridity), “Pestiferous Subterfuge” (Aborted), “Gestation of Malevolence” (Abysmal Torment), “Cyclopian Scape” (High On Fire), “Ceremonian Disembowelment” (Impetuous Ritual), “Gestated Human Slurry” (Infected Disarray), “Damnation Pentastrike” (Lightning Swords of Death), “Into the Qliphot of Golachab” (Malfeitor), “Fermented Offal Discharge” (Necrophagist), “Postmortem Dissection” (The Pathology), “Cataclysmic Purification” (Suffocation), “Contemporary Perception Narcotics” (Trigger the Bloodshed), “Cranial Media Parasite” (Magrudergrind). And so on.

Well, just in case the well runs dry for bands like these (or they lose their thesaurus), we’ve found a gold mine of source material. (see what we’ve discovered after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST UPDATE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jan 192010
 

There are some bands we dig so much that just about anything they do becomes newsworthy on NCS. Rotting Christ is one of those bands. Their last album, 2007’s Theogonia, has become an old friend that we visit on a monthly basis, and we’ve been salivating over the prospect of their new release scheduled for February. It will be called Aealo, and we’ve now learned that audio samples of all the tracks are currently available for streaming on Amazon.fr.  You can also find samples from Aealo mixed in with Rotting Christ tracks from older albums at Amazon.com.

Even though all you can hear is about 30 random seconds per track, it’s enough to increase the salivation to embarrassing proportions. And the samples are really intriguing at the same time — they make clear that Aealo isn’t just a Theogonia clone (though that would have been just fine with me). The most startingly difference is in the appearance of guest vocalist, Greek-American Diamanda Galas, an avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist, and composer. Rotting Christ hasn’t been a pure black metal band for a while, and it sounds like Aealo is going to carry it even further away.

Due on February 15 in Europe and February 23 in the U.S. via Season of the Mist, the CD will also feature a guest appearance by Alan Nemtheanga from Irish black metal band Primordial. It’s going to be interesting to see what influence he has on the album. (Note to self: One of these days we have to write about Primordial!)

According to a press release, Aealo will delve deeper into Rotting Christ’s Greek roots (and that’s really evident in the samples that include Galas’s vocals). The band’s guitarist and vocalist Sakis Tolis explains: “Aealo is the transcription of an ancient Greek word into the Latin alphabet. It means thrashing, catastrophe or destruction and reflects the musical and lyrical content of the album.”

Regarding the musical direction of the new album, Nemtheanga said, “It sounds classic Rotting Christ although it sees them continue where they left off with Theogonia, further away from the older ‘satanic’ feel and more into the realm of the ancient Greek gods, mythology and folklore.”

If you’re not familiar with Rotting Christ, here’s a sample from Theogonia:

Rotting Christ: Nemecic


OLD MEN

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Jan 182010
 

Henry Rollins has led an interesting life. In the early 80s, he was the uber-intense frontman of legendary hardcore punk band Black Flag. After Black Flag broke up, he formed the Rollins Band and continued to record and tour, while also releasing a series of spoken-word albums (and won a Grammy for one of them). He’s published multiple books of diaries, essays, and stories, he’s appeared in more than 20 films, and last year he became a running character in the TV biker drama Sons of Anarchy. And he continues to tour the world as a one-man show.

Whenever he opens his mouth, which is basically always open, something interesting usually comes out. A few days ago he touched down in Dublin and gave an interview to TimesOnline (UK), which you can find here. The whole interview is worth reading, but this passage in particular caught our eye:

A couple of years ago Rollins went to see Van Halen on their reunion tour. “And they were good,” he says. “I know all the lyrics. I like those records. But to watch men in their fifties play music they wrote in their twenties, there’s something distinctly sad about that.” A famous friend of his, he says, “sells a gajillion records. But he has to go out and play the same 20 songs each night. He says, ‘Well, that’s what the people want’. That’s one school of thought. I’m more from the Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane school: What they want? Who gives a fuck what they want? The art says we move on. So as I hurtle toward 50 I’m trying to be brave. I want to do stuff that looks like I am. I’ve got grey hair, a leg that kind of thunks around. I’m still mad as hell. I’m just trying to rouse rabble in a different way.”

Seems to us that Mr. Rollins has hit the fucking nail on the fucking head. His words resonated in our addled brains as we browsed the latest metal news on Blabbermouth this morning. There we saw the following reports about the following bands/performers — all on the very first page of Blabbermouth reports. My mood?  Bored shitless. Continue reading »

SUNDAY STREAMING

 Album Reviews, Metal News  No Responses »
Jan 172010
 

It’s Sunday. A perfect day to jack your headphones or earbuds into a computer somewhere and let the music stream into your synapses. Why would you want to do that instead of listen on your personal music player so you can move around and take care of other shit at the same time? Because we’ve got some recommendations that, for the moment, you can only stream.

LIVING SACRIFICE

Living Sacrifice has slowly been releasing new songs from its forthcoming album The Infinite Order for streaming on its MySpace page.  The band has now made the entire album available for streaming here. The album will be available for purchase on January 26. We’ll provide our review of the album in the near future, but for now we’ll just say that this mutha is a headbanging jewel. Here’s the track listing:

01. Overkill Exposure
02. Rules Of Engagement
03. Nietzche’s Madman
04. Unfit To Live
05. The Training
06. Organized Lie
07. The Reckoning
08. Love Forgives
09. They Were One
10. God Is My Home
11. Apostasy

We’ve got two more recommendations after the jump, so don’t stop here! Continue reading »

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