This is the third of today’s three single-song posts. I realize that when I started today’s series I said all three songs would be new ones from bands I already knew about, but that’s not the case. I didn’t intend to lie, but I found another song I need to share, and it’s from a band I only discovered today.

The band is Gruesome Glory and they’re from Iceland. Just a few days ago, they added a new song to their SoundCloud page called “Consuming the Anti-Life Equation”, and it’s one hell of a song. The band is relatively young as are its members, but don’t let that fool you. “Consuming the Anti-Life Equation” is technical death metal, but (to quote a recent snarky comment we received about a different band), the music is NOT “mindless wankery”.

True to the band’s name, it’s gruesome, largely thanks to the cadaverous vocals, and yes, it’s full of jabbing riffs, rapidly slithering arpeggios, and other forms of flashy fretwork. But it also has some funk, some groove, and plenty of low-end heft, plus some sweet bass-work. This is making me think of Pestilence.

The band are promising a debut album in 2012, which I think will be worth waiting for. Give this a shot:

“Consuming the Anti-Life Equation”

The band’s Facebook page is here. They also have three other songs streaming at ReverbNation, so I’m including them in the player below.
 

Here’s the second of today’s three posts about new song premieres from bands we like.

Last month, we featured the eye-catching cover art created by Olve J. W. l for an album I’m highly anticipating — the new one from Belgian black metal band Enthroned. They recently signed a two-album deal with Agonia Records. Their new album, Obsidium, will be released on March 20 in Europe and on April 10 in North America.

Yesterday, the band debuted the album’s magisterial title track. It’s a charging, plunging animal with claws out and teeth bared, marked by an insistent, needle-like guitar melody that’s already hooked itself in my head. Nornagest’s scraped-throat, mid-range vocals are passionate and powerful, and the brief moment of clean singing behind them works quite well.

This is a jam that I would put on a repeat loop for the morning if I could. It bodes well for the album as a whole. Have a listen after the jump.
 

Yesterday, I devoted three separate posts to three new songs by three different bands (not counting that track by some djent band named Meshuggah). Though I don’t plan to make a habit of this, I’m doing it again today, because yesterday and today I spotted three more songs worth sharing around. But unlike yesterday, today’s songs come from bands whose music I already know.

First up is Borknagar. We already splashed the eye-catching Marcelo Vasco cover art for their new album Urd (here), and now we have the first song from the album — “Roots”. Here’s what Borknagar mastermind Øystein G. Brun had to say about the song on the band’s official site:

“In regards to the depth, diversity and magnitude of our new album, “Urd”, it almost feels painful to slice off just a tiny bit of the bloody roast for the very first official “starter”. I would argue that each and every song on the new album stands on solid ground, but as usual with our music, the songs empower each other in the context of a full album.

That said, “Roots” is probably the song on the album that gives you the most representative impression of “Urd”. Musically it contains most of the elements that framework the musical universe of BORKNAGAR, and lyrically this song is gnawing on the very spine of our lyrical tradition. Hope you enjoy this song, the first tiny glimpse into our new opus. The beast is about to be unleashed…”

The song debuted yesterday exclusively on DECIBEL magazine’s on-line site and on Metal Hammer’s site. I’d recommend a visit to either place, because the song is worth hearing.

To be honest, I pretty much got hooked from the opening seconds of the tumbling drums and Vintersorg’s first howl. And it stays strong after that. Also, if you’re going to allow clean singing into your life, the vocal combination of Vintersorg and ICS Vortex is a winner.
 

(Today, NCS writer BadWolf inaugurates a new personal series.)

No Clean Singing has made its name in the metal underground by focusing on the undiscovered cutting edge. Bringing relatively unknown, but sweet, bands to prominence is our stock and trade. That said, as our resident grumpy old man, I’ve made a New Year’s resolution: to listen to more old metal albums.

Why? I don’t know, really. There’s no reason to believe that something will be better or worse based on its age—music is not wine. I suppose I just have a renewed interest in retrospective activity, period: I read old books, I watch old movies, listening to old music just feels right. I’m not trying to escape into the past (Obama over Reagan any day of the week, even if I hate them both), but I’m trying to understand what it was like to have a brand new Iron Maiden album in my hand.

It should be noted: I adore Iron Maiden. Their influence on modern extreme metal may be in question to some, but their prowess is never in question. Maiden used to (and on occasion still do) write the best narrative metal songs. They still have the best frontman in guitar music—and the most multitalented! Oh, and they innovated both twin guitar octave harmonies and ‘the gallop.’

Imagine metal without the gallop rhythm. There would never have been a Slayer. I think it’s safe to say that without Slayer there would be no extreme American metal as we know it. There would be no death-chug without Maiden. But that’s a discussion for another time.

Somewhere In Time is one of the Maiden albums I never gave much of a shot for two reasons: One, neither “Wasted Years” nor “Stranger in a Strange Land,” its two most famous songs, ever struck much of a chord with me. Two, Somewhere is known for being the Maiden album covered in synth-guitar. Knowing what synth-guitar did to Judas Priest (the Turbo album), I gave Somewhere In Time pass after pass after pass.

That was a mistake. The lamb’s blood has washed off the door and creeping death is here: Somewhere In Time kills. Iron Maiden used the synth-guitar to great effect here: Most of the songs float ambiguously between power metal and glam ballad—exactly where this lighter, cleaner guitar sound belongs. The melodies, be they vocal or guitar, shine. And, while the synth sound (with a few exceptions) doesn’t create the vague sci-fi aesthetic Maiden shot for, it creates an open midrange for Steve Harris’ dextrous bass work to punch through.

“Wasted Years”

On the second run-through, “Wasted Years” opened up for me. The chorus still tastes saccharine, but the clean plucked guitar hook that opens the song continues to blow my mind. “Stranger in a Strange Land” drags on too long without a rhythmic climax, but it’s still a good song. Truth be told, the only song I cannot stand is the ballad, “Heaven Can Wait,” which strays too far into glam metal without adopting any of the groovy sleaze that makes Cinderella and Motley Crue awesome—the same critique I have of every Ozzy Osbourne ballad ever.

But the end of the record lives up to the quality of its predecessor, Powerslave (my fav Maiden record,  and one of my favorite metal albums ever alongside Master of Puppets, Leviathan, and The Sound of Perseverance). “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” lives up to its title with an extended play-time and a real sense of isolation punctuated with a soaring Bruce Dickenson chorus. “Deja Vu” quite simply rocks, and has one of my new favorite Iron Maiden riffs—equal to “The Trooper,” as far as I am concerned.

“Deja Vu”

Album finale “Alexander the Great” is probably the last time Maiden ever pulled off an extended epic song–such pompous exercises totally dominate their songwriting now. While it lacks the literary cred of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” (closing track on Powerslave) “Alexander” compensates with more impressive solos, and more concise songwriting.

One song excepted, Somewhere In Time knocked me off my feet. I would pay to see it performed live, that’s for sure. Highly recommended.

Next time I promise I’ll review something a bit heavier!

The genre term “Cascadian black metal”, most often used with reference to bands such as Wolves in the Throne Room and Agalloch, seems to be gaining in popularity. Some purists don’t like it because it’s a geographic reference instead of a description of the music and because it’s both over-inclusive and under-inclusive, i.e., there are black metal bands from “Cascadia” who don’t sound like WITTR or Agalloch and don’t share their philosophical perspective, and there are bands outside Cascadia who do.

Personally, I don’t think about this debate too much, despite the fact that I live in “Cascadia”. Consciously or not, I’m starting to think of a certain style of black metal as “Cascadian”, regardless of where the band is located and regardless of whether they have a nature-centric philosophy, just because it’s a convenient shorthand for a certain kind of sound.

To me, it stands for a style of music that incorporates not only traditional black metal instrumentation and vocals but also melodic, “post metal” ambience, prog-metal instrumentals, or even stoner-type shoe-gazing jams. So, for example, I think of San Francisco’s deafheaven as playing Cascadian black metal, even though they’re not from the Pacific Northwest and probably wouldn’t label themselves that way.

The music of Wildernessking reminds me of deafheaven’s music and, to a lesser extent, that of WITTR and Agalloch — and I’d throw in Krallice, Cormorant, and Enslaved for good measure. But Wildernessking isn’t from anywhere remotely near Cascadia. They’re from Cape Town, South Africa, and they’re off to a brilliant start.

The Writing of Gods In the Sand is this band’s first album, but you wouldn’t know it. In its song construction, in its performance, in its musical vision, it’s a surprisingly mature and self-assured work. The fusing of diverse genres that occurs so naturally in each song reflects a sophisticated recognition that these styles of music not only can work together, but that harnessing them together creates a uniquely effective expression of power and emotion, a blending of light and dark, soft and hard, beauty and voraciousness.

Recognizing that these styles of music work together well and turning that conception into reality are, of course, two very different things. You get the sense that Wildernessking do such a good job making their vision into living, breathing music because they love all the styles that they weave together. You get the sense that if they wanted to, they could be a fine post-rock band, a very good expositor of Opeth-style prog, or a take-no-prisoners black metal band who relish hosing down listeners with an engulfing acid blast. But what they want to be, and what they are, is a band who get to expresses their feel for, and their faith in, all of that.

They do wear their hearts on their sleeves. No one would mistake the music for the frigid blasphemies of Nordic black metal. There are too many ringing, chiming guitars, too many rock beats and proggy drum progressions, too many passages where the sonic blast falls away and a subdued, entrancing melody emerges through isolated instruments to haunt the listener’s memory.

The clean, rippling guitar notes and solitary bass tones that begin and end the album’s closer, “Infinity”, would be out of place. So would the dual-guitar harmony that begins “River”. So would the tumbling bass-and-drum break that happens near the middle of “Discovery” or the fleeting keyboard notes near the end of the same song. Those and a dozen other small moments here and there — moments that make the music so affecting — would be persona non grata in the misanthropic wastelands inhabited by infernal bands such as 1349.

Yet the music has one taloned foot in that blasted soil, too, because along with the sweeping post-rock soundscapes you also get bassist Keenan Oakes’ shrieking vocals, which will strip the paint from walls; they’re both wounded and wounding. You get gut-churning double-bass and militaristic blast-beats from drummer Jason Jardim (whose multifaceted performance is one of this album’s real gems), and you get massive walls of distorted guitar noise and tremolo drilling from Dylan Viljoen and Jesse Navarre Vos, whose mastery of both beauty and the beast in their guitar playing is a sweet thing to behold.

Kvlt they may not be, but this foursome are definitely on to something here. Whether they can succeed in seizing imaginations around the world from their relatively remote corner of the world remains to be seen, but what they’re doing deserves attention and respect. So if you like what you hear, spread the word.

As usual, I want to play some music. I picked two songs: “Utopia”, because I’m a sucker for the bass intro and because the rest of the song is fucken cool, too; and “Surrender”, because it may be the most openly emotional piece on the album. Even if it’s possibly the least black-metal inflected, “Surrender” is still a plenty intense song.

“Utopia”

“Surrender”

Wildernessking have a Bandcamp page where both “Utopia” and the riveting opening song “Rubicon” can be downloaded for free, and where you can find links for ordering the album on CD and vinyl from Antithetic Records. Last I checked, the entire album is still streaming at Lurker’s Path.

Antithetic is also running a Kickstarter-style fundraiser to help finance production of a double LP vinyl edition of the album, with a variety of packages as a reward for donations (including digital downloads and CDs). The link for that is here. Wildernessking is building an official site, and in the meantime you can follow them via Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/Wildernessking

Thanks to Black Shuck for the tip on this news item. I’d seen the news about this tour last week before any details were available, but now we’ve got the schedule.

Three-quarters of this line-up get me hot and bothered — the quarters that consist of Death Angel, Krisiun, and Havok. I’ve been lucky enough to see Death Angel before, and I can testify that they are a blast to hear and watch. Krisiun is, well, Krisiun — some death metal heroes of mine that I’ve been hoping to see for years (and who ought to be at the top of this tour instead of a “support” act). And Havok is one of the few new thrash bands whose music doesn’t make me yawn after a while.

And that leaves Krisiun’s countrymen in Sepultura. If this were the Sepultura of the Cavalera brothers at their peak, the band that created albums like Arise, that would be one thing. But it’s not. I was so underwhelmed by A-Lex (2009) that I didn’t even listen to last year’s Kairos. Maybe that was a mistake, because I’ve since heard that it was a big step up (was it?). So, while I may not yet be hot and bothered by the idea of seeing Sepultura, I’m at least interested, and this tour will give me an excuse to see what Kairos is all about before it hits Seattle.

Yes, it’s coming to Seattle, and to 18 more cities in the U.S. and Canada (though it seems to be spurning the entire southern half of the U.S.). The schedule is after the jump.

SEPULTURA, DEATH ANGEL, KRISIUN, HAVOK tour dates:

Apr. 10 – Yost Theater – Santa Ana, CA
Apr. 11 – DNA Lounge – San Francisco, CA (no DEATH ANGEL)
Apr. 12 – Branx – Portland, OR
Apr. 13 – Studio Seven – Seattle, WA
Apr. 14 – In The Venue – Salt Lake City, UT
Apr. 15 – Gothic Theatre – Englewood, CO
Apr. 16 – Manny’s – Billings, MT
Apr. 17 – The Exchange – Regina, SK – Canada
Apr. 18 – Pyramid Cabaret – Winnipeg, MB – Canada
Apr. 20 – Majestic Theater – Madison, WI
Apr. 21 – Mojoe’s – Joliet, IL
Apr. 22 – Water Street Music Hall – Rochester, NY
Apr. 23 – The Opera House – Toronto, ON – Canada
Apr. 24 – Imperial Theater – Quebec City, QC – Canada
Apr. 25 – Club Soda – Montreal, QC – Canada
Apr. 26 – Bogies – Albany, NY
Apr. 27 – Sonar – Baltimore, MD (no DEATH ANGEL)
Apr. 28 – Best Buy Theater – New York, NY (no DEATH ANGEL)
Apr. 29 – Higher Ground – South Burlington, VT

Let me just get this off my chest: Fuck the Big Four. If we must have thrash, then let it be scum thrash punks drunk on metal and burning in a vaginal hell. Preferably written, performed, and recorded by a band named Prostitute, whose members preferably are called Scum and Slag.

Preferably playing songs like “Homage To Oblivion”, “Hell Is For Heshers”, “Let’s Fuckin’ Fight”, and “Titanium Scrotum”.

Yeah, go ahead and laff it up. I bet you think this is funny. But that’s because you haven’t heard the music yet. It’s dirty thrash, full of hell, booze, blood, and snot. It’s moshing, head-butting music that doesn’t give a rat’s ass — but damn it’s a kick in tender parts to hear. These two dirtbags know how to throw one compulsive riff after another until your mind is one big filthy riff, with evil vocals echoing off the walls of that empty cell you call a life.

I wish I could tell you more about Prostitute, but all I know is that they’re from Gainesville, Florida, and their debut album — Vaginal Hell Demos — is available for free download courtesy of Satanik Recordings and Bandcamp. Stream one song on the player that follows the jump and I bet you won’t want to stop. And if you do, well then I guess I was wrong: It’s too early in the morning for this.

 

And how ’bout a round of applause for the awesome Hot Graves for posting about this album on their FB wall, without which I would have missed this vaginal hell.

This news is spreading like a viral wildfire across the netz, and who are we to question it? It appears the godalmighty Meshuggah have intentionally leaked a new song through the website http://iamaleak.com. I’ve read that the domain was registered by the band’s manager, and that suggests the connection. Plus, the motherfuckin song sounds like Meshuggah.

News of the leak has appeared here and there through anonymous posts, with this message:

the ophidian whispered those who seek shall be rewarded….

a sonic declaration of spIte And resentMent
its resonAnce grinding to dust our souls
the twine of revenge tightLy strung
its subharmonics thE undoing of All

and for those who asK for my name? / dotcom

Go past the jump and give this song a listen.
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This is the third of three posts today featuring single songs recently released for streaming by bands who are new blips on our radar screen. This one comes from an Italian band named Gory Blister.

Now, it seems that the core members of Gory Blister have been playing off and on since the early 90s, with three albums to their credit and a fourth one scheduled for release by Bakerteam Records on April 23, to be titled EarthSick. What caught my eye was the report that Nile’s Karl Sanders would be making a guest appearance on two songs — one of them being “Soul-Borne Maladies”, which the band have recently released for streaming.

Before you Nile fans get too wild, Sanders is contributing vocals, not guitars, and the vocals are a near-chanting monotone, cavernous and cadaverous. But Gory Blister do just fine with their own instrumentals and song-writing. Their brand of technical death metal is all flying fingers and blazing footwork, constantly changing tempos and bludgeoning rhythms. And when the guitar solo in this song erupts, it’s like the second coming of Vesuvius.

Damned fine blowtorch metal, and it appears we have another Italian death metal album to anticipate this year besides the next one from Hour of Penance. Put on your asbestos suit and have a listen after the jump.

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This is the second of three posts today that focus on individual song releases by bands we’ve only recently discovered here at NCS. Credit to TheMadIsraeli for tipping me to Dissipate.

Dissipate are a prog/djent band from Livermore, California. Given my personal tastes in music, a little bit of prog/djent goes a long way, and a lot of prog/djent should just go away. I’m not trying to ignite a debate, just being clear about where I’m coming from.

However, although the nekro part of my multiple personality disorder has become increasingly dominant over time, I’m not too kvlt to dismiss this genre altogether. I still occasionally get a charge out of the sheer instrumental exuberance that some bands display, and that’s how I’m feeling about Dissipate’s new song, “Motion”.

Dissipate has chosen to include their fans in the gestation of this song, first posting their talented guitarist Mike Gianelli’s play-through of a rough mix last fall (here), then following that in January with a different play-through by the band’s bassist, JT (here), and finally uploading a Gianelli play-through of the finished song yesterday.

Despite the fact that I’m not conditioned to eat up this kind of music in big mouthfuls, I found myself hypnotized by this new video.

I have it on good authority that the guitar tuning on Gianelli’s 8-string Ibanez RG2228 is EAEADGBE, with everything flat. As a trained musical journalist, I can tell you that these are letters of the alphabet and they apparently have something to do with music. Also, there was a sweet-hitting outfielder named Ibanez who started his career with my hometown ballclub, the Seattle Mariners.

I find it more intelligible to describe the guitar tuning like this: bomb detonation/jackhammer drill/cruise missile/air-raid siren/acetylene torch.

Whatever you call that top string on the guitar, every time Mike Gianelli strikes it, the bomb goes off and you can watch the motherfucker vibrate like a shock wave propagating from the impact zone. In between those detonations, his spidery fingers fly over the strings, sometimes massaging them, sometimes striking them. By the time he finished, I was ready to be cocooned.

Other things happen in the music, like singing and drumming. At least I’m pretty sure there was singing and drumming. I could pay closer attention if I could keep my eyes off of Gianelli’s hands and what he’s doing to that monster guitar, but so far, no such luck.

Even though this post was supposed to be about a single song, I might as well throw in play-throughs of a couple more Dissipate songs. To keep track of the album’s progress toward eventual release, use this link to find Dissipate’s Facebook page.