Jul 272011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders reviews Invasion of the Depraved, the debut EP from Montreal’s Bookakee, and for a limited time, has arranged to give you a free download of the EP.)

Bookakee is a Canadian progressive tech-death band who’ve got quite an eccentric direction in their sound.  Throwing combinations of ideas into songs that just should not work, it amazes me that they pull it off.

The beginning song “A.A” opens up with a clean intro that sounds straight out of — dare I say — a Mastodon album. After it ushers you in, you’re hit by a blistering onslaught of technical melodic riffing. The production on this EP, as you’ll pick up right away, is INSANELY clean, with a superb degree of clarity.  This is so very much needed, as Bookakee’s music, especially their guitar work, is off the wall.  The song progresses into a VERY Death-like section before continuing on with its melodic onslaught.  There is a bit of a hit of Necrophagist in this song, but not so much that it feels at all like a ripoff.  I also love the clean section that emerges later in the song, adding a Spanish flavor.

“Bookakee Blast” opens up with an insanely fast sweep, moving into a bit more intense and less melodic onslaught compared to the previous song.  This one is full speed ahead and musically just all over the place. “Carcass Coffin” has a VERY nice, eerie clean opening that reminds me quite a bit of Whoracle-era In Flames; same goes for the distorted version that follows soon thereafter.  UNLEASH BRUTAL PLODDING RIFFAGE FOLLOWED BY TECH RAPE.  This song pretty much hits you like a sledge-hammer until the clean section, which gradually picks up speed and delivers a big climax. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

Jul 272011
 

(Andy Synn reviews a very impressive new album from the UK’s Talanas.)

Progressive is as progressive does. Arguably many of the more “progressive” bands, those who would consider themselves “prog” first and foremost, stopped actually progressing a long time ago, substituting length and embellishment for actual growth. Yet the true ideals of progressive music have long since bled into other genres, allowing them much more room to expand.

This leads us to the progressive form of death metal performed by the UK’s Talanas. Their immutable fusion of raging death-metal ferocity and moody, gothic melancholy – sprinkled with moments of blackened despair – echoes the eclectic, experimental sounds of Septic Flesh, the unerring power and passion of Novembers Doom and the gothic grandeur of My Dying Bride, yet breaks free of these restrictive comparisons with practiced ease. Their sound covers a wide spectrum of themes and emotions, confident and self-assured enough to explore deep layers of nuance and subtlety without ever losing sight of its ultimate goal or a sense of its own individual identity.

After a teasing intro, opener “Ananta (The Portrait)” leads with a scathing series of up-tempo guitars and aggressive growls, matching discordant splendour with haunting ambience. The vocals of Hal Sinden provide a variety of tones and styles, mid-range, broken-glass screams transforming effortlessly into smooth, mellifluous cleans, before delving into the depths of rumbling, guttural fury. Prominent keyboards and enigmatic clean guitars divert the song down unexpected paths, relying on the propulsive drums to maintain momentum as the song proceeds in a tormented, convoluted manner. (more after the jump, including some music . . .) Continue reading »

Jul 262011
 

Not long ago, Stereogum premiered the first song to be released from Heritage, the next album from Opeth. It’s the album’s second track, following a piano-led intro. I haven’t tried to embed it, because I’m hurrying off to SUMMER SLAUGHTER, but HERE IS THE LINK to Stereogum, where you can listen. In fact, I’m in so much of a hurry that I haven’t heard this song either. Let me know what you think.

Jul 262011
 

A tip like this could only have come from our buddy Phro, and so it did. I believe it has made my day, even if SUMMER SLAUGHTER turns out to suck, which it won’t.

In a previous life, I used to work on a ranch. I have attended cattle auctions. I found them fascinating, not because I like to look at cows and bulls, which gets old pretty fast, but because of the auctioneers. If you’ve never heard an auctioneer going full-blast, you’re about to get your first exposure. If you’ve never heard an auctioneer going full-blast with demented speed metal for musical accompaniment, well, you’re about to hear that, too.

Who would think of such a thing? Why, none other than Hank3, a/k/a Hank Williams III. He has a new album scheduled for release on September 6 called 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin. Actually, he has three albums scheduled for release that day, including Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown, a double disc of country tunes, and an album of doom metal by the name of Attention Deficient Domination. But it’s two tracks from 3 Bar Cattle Callin that have made my day.

I guaran-damn-tee you that you have never heard anything like this before. It takes metal craziness to a whole ‘nuther level. To quote from Jeanne Fury’s write-up on the DECIBEL web site, “it’s so deliriously nuts, it’ll singe your utters and have you reaching for the Bag Balm.” And to top it off, both songs are available for free download. Podna, you really owe it to yourself to stay with us past the jump and expose your delicate ears to this unique form of mayhem. Seriously, Phro and I can’t be the only NCS denizens screwy enough to find this appealing. Can we? Continue reading »

Jul 262011
 

While continuing with my increasingly pathetic attempt to catch up on reviews and other NCS projects that fell by the wayside while I was away from home over the last two weeks — and relying in the meantime on people like Israel, Andy, and Phro to do the heavy lifting around here — I continue to be distracted by the lure of new music. And “lure” is exactly the right word, because I often feel like a stupid fish that can’t resist impaling myself on a barbed hook because there’s something tasty-looking attached to it, instead of doing something productive like . . . uh . . . eating or procreating.

This morning, the lures dangling in front of my wondering, gap-mouthed face came attached with the names Mourning Caress and Godsic. These were new names to me, but I took the bait anyway, and am now trying to get the fucking hooks out of my gills. Why, I asked myself, should I be the only fish in the NCS sea to greedily chomp down on these razored morsels of distraction? Unable to think of any good reason, I’m serving them up to you, too.

Both bands have new albums on the way, of course, which is why they’ve lowered these new songs into the water . . . hoping to hook some fan-fish and lift them, flopping and gasping, into their skiffs for later consumption. Mourning Caress is from Germany, and their third album, Deep Wounds, Bright Scars (a title that aptly suits my now-overdone metaphor for this post) is tentatively scheduled for release in November on MDD Records. The new song I heard is called “Panic”.

Godsic is a new band from Sweden composed of former members of Construcdead and current members of Carnal Forge. They’ve created a debut album called As the Heavens Burn, with the objective of releasing it this fall once they’ve lured a label into signing them. To date, they’ve released two songs for streaming — “Scars Inside” and “Premeditation” (which features yet another Carnal Forge member, Petri Kuusisto, as a guest on lead guitar). I like the alluring cover art, so I stuck it at the top of this post.

Of course, I like what I’m hearing from both bands, or I wouldn’t be bothering with this post. Can I lure you into nibbling around these hooks after the jump? And at the end, you can see the just-released cover art for the next album by one of our favorite bands — Landmine Marathon. Continue reading »

Jul 262011
 

(Phro claims he lives in Japan, but I’m beginning to suspect that he’s beaming these posts in from another planet. I don’t even know why I bother with an introduction any more. If you don’t recognize this prose by now, you need to be beaten with a tentacle flail.)

Let me start this with a confession.  It’s difficult to say or even admit to myself, but like a cocaine mule with a colon full of ruptured condom coke I must admit it or I’ll never get the help I clearly need.

My name is Phro, and I like Blink 182.

Alright, alright, quiet down and put that fucking garrote away.  I know you sick fuckers have your problems, too.  (Like snorting dried octopus mucus out of a crackwhore`s bloody anus.)  Granted, that’s not nearly as serious of an offense, but come on, cut a guy some slack.

Now, you’re probably wondering why in the name of swollen donkey dick I’m telling you this.  Well, in addition to wanting to get the weight off my chest, I have gotten the most ultimate of scoops.  This was something that I couldn’t tell anyone I was doing until it was done–not even I.S. Lander, the super secret spy deep in the confines of enemy territory. (He does Brittany Spears impersonations to maintain his cover.)  BUT!  Against all odds, I managed to break into the Blink 182 top secret compound and steal the master tracks for their new album.  Not only that, but I was able to kidnap one of them and use truth serum and a completely inappropriate amount of sexual blackmail to get some answers from him.  Therefore what follows is a completely accurate review of their newest album, as well as some choice commentary on the recording process.

I realize you`re probably about to click the back button and go read something with more tits (like pig porn…sows have like 12 nipples!!  fucking awesome!) or at least more metal (like watching the T1000 manually masturbate a tank).  BUT DON`T DO IT!!! Continue reading »

Jul 262011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders delivers a review of the latest release from Bloodsoaked, beginning with this…)

Yeah.  Bow down.  It’s time for the new Bloodsoaked album The Death Of Hope.

Bloodsoaked is a one-man death metal project who’s put out two albums before this one.  If you are at all familiar with Peter Hassalbrack, then you know what to expect: Crushing, old school, grimy death metal that maintains a FINE balance of trudge and speed.  The first thing you will notice right away, however, is that the man has changed his vocal style from his forceful gutturals of the past to a more old-school rasp that really suits what’s going on here.

The album opens with the imperial trudging might of “Lies”, with a slam that’s got the heft of a mammoth.  Peter here works THE EXACT SAME MELODY for two minutes, spinning variations of the riff and managing to keep it interesting the entire time.  Really badass stuff.

Next is “Forever Damned”, which is an under-2-minute onslaught of blast beats and sharp tremolo riffing that hits with flesh-ripping ferocity.  “Infestation” strikes with a furious blasting assault until it transitions into an ABSOLUTLEY DEVASTATING groove that should make you bust your head on the nearest hard surface.  The verse of this song reminds me a lot of Human-era Death.  A welcome influence to be heard.  I like how the song switches between the mid-paced verse riff and the behemoth-sized slamming groove established at the beginning.  Gives it a nice jarring feel, and LOTS of that technical blast-beat action cuts through your skull like a buzz-saw from hell itself. (more after the jump, including a full album stream . . .) Continue reading »

Jul 252011
 

Let’s see, this makes today’s fifth post, so it will be brief. You can now go to iTunes (at least in the U.S.) and hear 1:30 previews of each song on the new album (Agony) from Fleshgod Apocalypse. Yes, a minute and a half from each track, including the iTunes bonus track called “Heartwork”.

For the world at large, less than two weeks remain before the arrival of the official August 9 album release date. I, on the other hand, am now less than 24 hours away from getting my very own physical copy, because FA is selling these little jewels at their SUMMER SLAUGHTER merch table, and SUMMER SLAUGHTER will be in Seattle tomorrow, and I will be there.

It’s a good thing I am being brief, because brevity prevents me from becoming even more obnoxious.

P.S. For those of you who have been wading through all my many posts today from the beginning, you might be interested to see this comment left by a fan of Blastanus on the band’s Facebook page about our review of the new album: “naulan kantaan, vitun hyvä lätty :)”  Not understanding Finnish, I used Google Translate, which provided this rendition of the comment in English: “nail on the head, fucking good pancake :)”

P.P.S. The chance to write a headline like this doesn’t come around very often, but some lucky bastard at Blabbermouth penned this one a few minutes ago: “MEGADETH’S ELLEFSON: ‘I Miss Physically Being Able To Hold A 12-Inch In My Hand'”. And no, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the accompanying video interview to find out what he was talking about. Laughing too hard.

Jul 252011
 

Two new works of album art caught my eye today, and I thought I’d pass them around. Also, a bit earlier  this afternoon a song began streaming from a band about which I’ve been very curious, because it includes ex-In Flames guitarist and band co-founder Jesper Strömblad, plus veterans of many other bands. So we’ll finish off this post by listening to that song from The Resistance. Evil corporate overlords have forced the removal of that Mastodon song we posted earlier today, so we have to replace it with something, right?

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM

The first piece of album art disclosed today is the cover for Celestial Lineage, the fourth album from Washington’s own Wolves in the Throne Room. The album by these American black metal heavyweights will be released on September 13 by Southern Lord Records. The artwork was created by photographic artist Alison Scarpulla. In concept, it joins the album with its two predecessors, Two Hunters and Black Cascade.

Don’t let the natural setting of the cover image fool you, though. Although WITTR’s music is inspired by mystical thought and by the unique natural setting of the Pacific Northwest, I think it’s safe to assume this won’t be the kind of music embraced by your average plaid-shirted tree-hugger. Expect a flood-tide of eviscerating power.

After the jump, we’ve got the track listing as well as tour dates for WITTR, plus a striking Travis Smith album cover for the latest offering from a band called Redemption — plus that song. Continue reading »

Jul 252011
 

I BURNED OUT MY EYES / I CUT OFF MY TONGUE
I SEALED THEM WITH ALL OF THE SILVER
AND NOW I HAVE NONE /YOU KILLED THE LIFE
YOU TOOK THE DIAMOND / YOU KILLED THE VINE
DEATH OF THE…
YOU OWN THE DARKNESS / AND TAKEN MY SIGHT
YOU BURIED THE STARS UNDERGROUND
YOU’VE STOLEN THE NIGHT
YOU CAN RUN TO THE SEA / YOU CAN RUN TO THE FOREST
YOU CAN HIDE / BUT YOU’LL NEVER ESCAPE

Up above? Those are the lyrics to “Black Tongue”, a song from Mastodon‘s new album, The Hunter. And just below is the song itself, which was copied earlier today from a radio stream and spread like wildfire around the web. According to Mastodon’s Facebook page, more about the album (including more music?) was to be revealed at www.mastodonrocks.com at about 9:00 PST tonight. And sho’ nuff — now we have an actual official Mastodon video for “Black Tongue”: