THE JASSER ARAFATS: CONDEMNATION

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 212010
 

Suomalaista Metallia! About a week ago we stumbled headlong over a band from Finland oddly called The Jasser Arafats, and learned they were sharing the stage with the awesome Kalmah last week in Finland. Apart from the strange band name, the album art by V. Nyström from their forthcoming full-length debut was also arresting, and they had a widget that allowed us to listen to four tracks from the album. So we thought, what the hell, let’s listen to what they’re doing. And we liked what we heard and we wrote a short post about it.

That led to contact with the band, and although we couldn’t worm out of them the story behind the band name (more on that later), they did give us an advance listen to the whole album (Condemnation), which is due for an April 14 release on Violent Journey Records.

Listening to all 12 of the album’s tracks confirmed our reaction to the four teasers, and what we wrote a week ago still holds true:  “Press play and it’s like opening the door to a blast furnace of scorching headbangery. There’s a real talent for riffage here, with grooves galore, ridiculously hard rhythms, and top-notch, full-throated, howling vocals.”

The music on Condemnation isn’t what you might expect from a Finnish extreme metal band. It’s a modern, American-style blend of thrash, death metal, and power grooves. Almost all the songs leap out of the box in a thrash-paced assault, with fast, percussive, down-tuned riffing and aggressive drumming. But there are rhythmic variations within each song, and a few (like “Price”) feature pronounced breakdowns.The guitars have got a thick, fuzzed-out quality, and the band has a talent for producing some relentlessly infectious riffs.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ERYN NON DAE: “BLISTERING HATE” LIVE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 202010
 

One of our favorite French metal bands, Eryn Non Dae, has just uploaded a video of their live performance in February at the Bikini in Toulouse. The track is “Blistering Hate” off the band’s awesome 2009 album Hydra Lernaïa. You can check out our review of that album here and our interview of END here. And you can watch the video by just pushing the play button below.

Man, I wish I could have been at that show. The tech geeks of the world need to speed up their work on teleporter technology.

“Blistering Hate” Live:

BANDCAMP

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 202010
 

Twice in the last two weeks we wrote about unsigned bands (Flaming Tusk and From Exile) that have chosen to distribute their music through a service called Bandcamp. We hadn’t seen or heard of Bandcamp before then. Granted, we’re pretty fucking ignorant about a lot of things, and maybe this Bandcamp service is known far and wide throughout the metal world. But what the hell, we’re gonna write about it anyway — because it seems pretty damned amazing.

The main service Bandcamp provides is a channel through which artists can distribute their music at no cost to themselves. It gives the artist a dedicated web page and the ability to upload songs for streaming by fans, or for fan download at any price the band sets, or at no price. And that’s just for starters. There are a jillion other rad features — and we’ll hit all the high points after the jump.

And in case you’re wondering — since this whole post is gonna read like one big fucking advertisement — we’ve never contacted Bandcamp and they didn’t give us any consideration for this attention. We’re doing this for only one reason: Because there are too many good metal bands out there that don’t have label support, and maybe this post will give some of them an idea they hadn’t stumbled on yet. (read on after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE BROWN BOOK

 Album Reviews, Interviews  4 Responses »
Mar 192010
 

NO CLEAN SINGING is the name of this site, but no singing at all can work just fine, too. Especially when the music slams us in the head like an intricately carved club. Case in point: The Brown Book.

It’s a daunting task for extreme metal bands to find a reward for their efforts, even when they’ve got talent and drive. The challenge of getting noticed and signed to a label is even more daunting for bands that dwell in the smaller crevices of that already small niche. But as The Brown Book proves, there’s some really interesting shit going on down there where not much light shines on the toilers.

The basic facts: Three dudes, two who live in Quincy, Mass (Jay O’Malley on guitar and Ryan Lavery on drums), and one who lives in Brooklyn (guitarist Mike Kvidera). No vocalist. One self-released album last year called Thirty-Nothing, which was written in a room by that name, pictured on the right — basically a utility hallway in the basement of an old shipping mill in New Bedford, Mass. With any luck, maybe a new album later this year.

So, you get the picture — a poster child for DIY metal. But with a twist: Instead of launching themselves into one of the more recognizable subgenres of extreme music, The Brown Book have been impelled into what some lazy commentators might call “experimental” or “noise” metal.

We know what those labels are meant to signify, and laziness is one of our favorite states of existence — but what The Brown Book are doing isn’t so easily classifiable. The music is heavy, it’s pummeling, it’s hypnotic, it’s discordant, it’s melodic, it’s unpredictable, it’s organized mayhem. It’s all of those things, plus some, and it sure as fuck hits our sweet spot. (more after the jump, including a short interview and a sample track to hear . . .) Continue reading »

SOILWORK ANNOUNCES ASTONISHINGLY ASS-KICKING TOUR

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 182010
 

Hot off the presses — and we do mean hot! Soilwork has just announced a headlining North American tour this summer with some truly mind-blowing support from Bay-area thrash legends Death Angel and tech-death destroyers Augury. Also on the tour: Mutiny Within and Swashbuckle.

Not too fucking shabby, huh? Particularly because they’re coming to Seattle. For a list of dates and venues for the other perfectly decent cities where they’re going, read on after the jump. Continue reading »

TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION!

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 182010
 

No secret that we’re big fans of grind legends Brutal Truth and we’ve also really been getting into spazzed-out, jazz-infused metal too (see. e.g., our write-ups on Shining and Psychofagist). So, our eyes lit up when we saw a press release today from Brutal Truth drummer extraordinaire Rich Hoak announcing the release of an unusual 3-way split by Reproductive Records.

The split includes one song each from three bands:  27 from Cambridge, MA (the song features Dana Colley of Morphine fame on the electric baritone sax); Gardenbox from Athens, Greece (whose music is described as “intense post-post-rock”); and the band that Hoak started after Brutal Truth originally dissolved — Total Fucking Destruction.

You can get a limited edition white vinyl 7″ here, which comes with an intricately folded cover that features the art of Dan McCarthy (see above). Or you can download the split for the meager sum of $2.97 at iTunes. And Rich says that all the proceeds will be donated to Best Friends Animal Society.

So, why are we shilling for this? Well, mainly because it’s got a new track from Total Fucking Destruction — which just destroys. “Welcome to the Fascist Corporate Wastelands of America, Part 2” is exactly what Rich tells us it is — a “jazz noise grind freakout” — a chaotic instrumental swirl of discordant howling, freaked-out guitar and bass riffs, and out-of-control drumming.

The other two songs aren’t quite as much our style, but we certainly aren’t gonna toss em away. The Gardenbox track is a melodic selection of proggery that starts dreamily and ends with a big rush. “Wood Veins” by 27 is what we think of in our uneducated heads as cool jazz, with cool, jazzy, clean female singing courtesy of Maria Christopher.

Putting all three of these very different sounds together makes for an interesting listening experience. See for yourself, and help out doggies and kitties at the same time.

A WHITER SHADE OF PALE

 Off Topic  No Responses »
Mar 182010
 

Guess this is turning into an “off topic” day. First we had to rant about Axl Rose, and now we feel like writing about Procul Harum. We’ll get back to extreme metal tomorrow, with a little something about yet another unsigned band that’s kidnapped our heads.

For those of you who don’t live in the U.S. or who just don’t bother with anything on TV, House is an off-beat, black-humored medical drama about a borderline sociopathic doctor (Gregory House) who heads a crack diagnostic team at a hospital in New Jersey. We like it because it’s off-beat, black-humored, and borderline sociopathic.

At the end of this week’s episode, House’s colleague and sometimes roommate (Wilson) buys an organ for the house where they live. House’s face lights up like a Christmas tree as he sits down and starts noodling on the keyboard. What he begins to play is a song called “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and as the scene fades to black, the music segues from House’s noodling to the actual song, which then fades out way too soon. (more after the jump, including that song . . .) Continue reading »

GUNS N’ ARSES

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 182010
 

Recently, a friend of ours who regularly visits this site gently criticized us for almost never posting a negative album review. He wondered if we’d ever heard an extreme metal album we didn’t like.

The answer to that question is “Fuck, yes!” We just (usually) choose not to spend our limited time verbally peeing all over hard-working bands because their music doesn’t favorably impress us or because their dreams exceed their talent. We get more satisfaction from supporting bands we think are deserving and from suggesting music we think our readers might find worth their time.

Maybe that’s a bad decision. Maybe we should spend more time warning people off craptastic metal. After all, that is what music critics generally do — they praise the good and they criticize the bad.

Except we’re not really music critics. We’re just a bunch of goof-offs who happen to really love extreme metal. We write about it because we dig it, and so it just comes naturally to talk about what rules instead of what sucks. Besides, you can find lots of sites whose writers just can’t wait to tell you what sucks.

There have been times when we’ve had misgivings about this, when we think our credibility could be enhanced by mixing in more scathing commentary along with the panting adulation.

We’re certainly capable of it, but so far we’ve chosen to reserve our invective for select company — not for the struggling bands who are doing their best to create new music because they love it (even if it’s bad), but for the the self-important, the self-indulgent, the overly dramatic. In a word, for the Axl Rose‘s of the metal music world. (more after the jump, if you’ve got the stomach for it . . .) Continue reading »

I DECLARE WAR — UNSIGNED NO MORE!

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 172010
 

We’ve had a weakness for our local boys in I Declare War ever since we first saw em play live a couple years ago. They work their butts off and they churn out some brutal death metal. Plus, one of our favorite band shirts is theirs, with the following in big letters on the back: “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, BLAST BEAT THE FUCK OUT OF IT.”

We put up a post last November about IDW entering the studio to begin recording a new album. What we didn’t know then but have just learned today is that they had a deal in the works with The Artery Foundation. Now the news is public. Excerpts from a press release issued by the band and Artery:

“Seattle, Washington-based death metallers I DECLARE WAR have inked a deal with Artery Recordings, the new joint venture between The Artery Foundation and Razor & Tie. The band’s self-produced new album,“Malevolence”, will be released on June 1. . . .

“During I DECLARE WAR‘s first tour in 2007, the band happened to cross paths with well-known death metal band WHITECHAPEL, and played what [guitarist] Evan [Hughes] calls ‘one of the worst shows both of us ever played.’ The unfortunate concert turned into a lasting friendship and one of the best things to happen to the band. When Alex Wade from WHITECHAPEL was approached by Artery in regards to possible bands to sign, he suggested I DECLARE WAR, and so the relationship began.”

(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WHISKEY IN THE JAR (REPRISE)

 Off Topic  No Responses »
Mar 172010
 

Did you think we would forget what day it is? For shame! Of course we know. It’s the day when everyone is entitled to be Irish from sun-up until blackout.

We thought about what we might do to celebrate the day (besides getting shit-faced as soon as possible). And then it dawned on us that we had already prepared the perfect St. Patrick’s Day commemoration.We just ran it on this site about two months too soon.

So we decided to just run the fucking thing again, because it is indeed perfect. And because even if you’ve been reading our blather for the last two months, you’ve probably already forgotten the earlier post. You are, after all, metalheads.

And so, to start again. My favorite Metallica song isn’t one that would come to mind for most people. It’s an Irish folk song that’s been around for about 400 years called “Whiskey in the Jar.” It tells the story of a highwayman who robs a military or government official and is then betrayed by his wife (or lover — not clear which) and goes to prison for his trouble. And ain’t that the luck o’ the fuckin’ Irish for ye?

Metallica’s version of the song retains the traditional lyrics and the basic melody, but puts Metallica’s heavy, hard-driving force behind it — and James Hetfield‘s vocals are outstanding.

The song is so catchy and has been around for so long that lots of people have recorded it. A couple years ago I tracked down different versions of the song as kind of a musical experiment, to trace the evolution of music over time, and more specifically to see how different musical genres have made this old song their own. It was a very cool experience, and one worth sharing on this drunken day.

So, after the jump, you can see the lyrics; they vary a bit, and we’re giving you the version Metallica used. And then, moving forward in time, you can stream performances of “Whiskey in the Jar” by this group of legendary bands: Irish folk band The Dubliners (circa 1967), Irish rockers Thin Lizzy (1973), Irish punk band The Pogues (playing with the Dubliners) (1990), and finally Metallica (1998). Hope you’ll get really wasted and give it a try.

And to repeat our appeal from the earlier post: It’s time for a fucking death metal band to record this song!

Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries