Feb 082023
 


Dying Fetus, photo by Scott Kinkade

Here we have a mid-week round-up of new songs and videos I want to recommend. I was very tempted to call it “PART 1”, because I have another collection already picked out. But I also have to finish the write-up for a premiere we’re hosting today, and I never know when my fucking day job will rear its head. So, I’ll refrain from promises and just hope the today’s second roundup works out. If it doesn’t I hope this will tide you over.

DYING FETUS (U.S.)

To start, here’s “Unbridled Fury“, a new Dying Fetus single (and video) that came out last Friday. I don’t suppose I need to say very much by way of introduction. Dying Fetus are an institution. Most everyone who visits this site knows the band’s music and knows whether they like it or not. The song will please those who do (it pleases me), and won’t interest those who don’t, because this is a rock solid Dying Fetus song. Continue reading »

Sep 022022
 

Because this is a Bandcamp Friday a ton of bands and labels have launched singles and other releases to take advantage of the opportunity for a bit more income. I wish I could put the spotlight on a dozen or more of them, but I just don’t have the time for that. Instead, I’m reduced to throwing a few mental darts into that great mass and pulling out what got hit.

Barring a meteor strike on my house, an invasion of fast zombies, or prostration before the demon alcohol tonight, I should have another roundup of new music for you tomorrow.

DYNG FETUS (U.S.)

To help propel the launch of a North American tour that starts today, Dying Fetus have released a new single (with a video) named “Compulsion For Cruelty“, which apart from a 2018 split is their first new music since 2017’s Wrong One to Fuck With. Continue reading »

Apr 032020
 

 

We begin another mega-roundup today to assist you in enduring your shut-in time, with a second installment planned for Saturday. Long on music and short on words, it’s arranged alphabetically by band name. We have A-F today, and F through W tomorrow, unless an X, Y, or Z band surfaces between now and then.

Lots of old friends in this Part I, and some new names, a scattering of both big names and obscure ones, as well as a mix of genres. Almost everything here surfaced in the last few days. This time I added some artwork thumbnails, but don’t get used to that. It takes time I usually don’t have when I compile these monster collections.

ALKYMIST (Denmark)

Ugly, sludgy riffing that moans and groans… methodical drum pounding… grotesque, gritty growls and terrifying howls… a meaty bass line combined with eerie ringing notes… flares of evil braying chords rising up like a death anthem and descending like a plague gouging its way into the body… and then the guitar begins to pulse and the drums begin to hammer and rock… and things get fairly demented and frightening near the end before a final bout of gouging, groaning, and pounding. Really, the whole song is evil…. Continue reading »

Jun 272017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli review the new album by Dying Fetus, which is out now on Relapse Records.)

I’m just going to say it. If you don’t like Dying Fetus, nay, LOVE Dying Fetus, you don’t like death metal. I can think of no other band that has better personified the sonic violence, technical excess, genuine anger, uncompromising legacy, and lack of pretension that death metal is all about than Dying Fetus.

John Gallagher has been at this shit now for TWENTY-FOUR YEARS. He’s the godfather of the messy, grimy, seizure-inducing style of tech death, and his sound and approach to songwriting have never been successfully emulated, although no one really even dares to try. Who else is mixing technical death metal, grindcore, NYHC, and slam so well right now? Nobody that I’m aware of, and especially nobody who does it so organically, honestly, and with such passion and dedication. Continue reading »

Jun 152017
 

 

(DGR takes over our round-up rodeo for this Thursday, with a mix of news and new music from 8 bands.)

By the time you are reading this, I will likely be hiding like a coward underneath a fan set on incredibly high as this region of California experiences its first legit summer heatwave of one hundred plus temperatures. Considering that I am a soft wuss who has somehow survived many of these prior, you’d think that attempting to lose weight so that I may one day fit in my freezer with the door closed wouldn’t be the go-to gameplan, but alas, here we are.

You may have noticed by our recent slowdown post that a good chunk of the NCS crew plans to spend the weekend cooped up in a handful of venues in Seattle for the Northwest Terror Fest, enjoying a smattering of different groups. So in order to offset that I’ve made a hefty collection of new music and some album artwork that has slowly been cropping up on the web in recent weeks that have floated by us recently, to be caught in the patented super-porous DGR news net. At the very end I’ll even toss in an album that I came across recently for all of you to enjoy.

So let us sunder forth so that I can quickly go back to attempting to stuff myself onto the second shelf of the freezer next to the frozen lasagna boxes. Continue reading »

May 202017
 


Vallenfyre

 

I’m in Austin, Texas, this weekend. I didn’t think I would have time to do any NCS stuff, but did find myself with some time this morning — though not enough time to do much writing. What I’ve done instead is just collect a bunch of new song streams and videos and some basic info about each one.

I might be able to do the same thing tomorrow, but probably not more than that. Hope you find some things to like in the following eclectic collection. Continue reading »

Apr 202017
 

 

Yeah, I know I did two of these round-ups yesterday, but I’m drowning in new music — but it’s the good kind of drowning, where you see the bright white light at the end of the tunnel and will never figure out in your moment of euphoria before the void takes you that it was just some dude with a flashlight trying to find your corpse in the pond you fell into while wasted.

Where was I? Oh yeah, I’m drowning in good new metal. However, I’m running out of time before I have to tend to my fucking day job, so I’m just going to pick quickly, one each from Columns A, B, C, and D from the genre menu, and cut back on the usual verbosity. Expect another round-up tomorrow.

DYING FETUS

Here’s a video that appeared today for “Fixated On Devastation”, a track from the new Dying Fetus album, Wrong One To Fuck With. It was filmed by Mitch Massie live at the Voltage Lounge in Philadelphia, PA, on March 17th. Continue reading »

Apr 102017
 

 

No sooner had I finished last week’s 4-part new-music round-up on Saturday than I began exploring other things, and of course found other things I’d like to recommend. But I’ll be smart this week and not forecast further installments. I’ll do this one, and we’ll see how the rest of the week plays out.

I chose the following music (and a new video) in an effort to cross through a few different metal territories, stylistically speaking. Someone said variety is the spice of life, and so it is.

WITCHAPTER

I found this new EP through a link on Facebook by Black Bow Records. Spellcaster is the debut release of a crushing UK sludge/doom trio named Witchapter. It’s available digitally now, and it seems that a physical release via Black Bow will happen on July 4th. Continue reading »

Mar 082016
 

Katatonia 2016

 

If you recall yesterday’s “Seen and Heard” round-up, I explained that I had fallen so far behind that I had a list of 30 new tracks from over the last week that I thought were worth exploring. And sure enough, the list has only grown, because so many other good new things popped up in the last 24 hours. So I’m starting with the four newest items and concluding with four from last week.

KATATONIA

Yesterday brought details about the next Katatonia album, as well as a very brief teaser video. This will be their tenth studio full-length, with the title of The Fall of Hearts. It’s set for a May 20 release by Peaceville Records. Here’s the artwork (by Travis Smith, of course): Continue reading »

Sep 052013
 

Collected in this post are a handful of tours that I decided were worth mentioning, even though only the first one is within my grasp. I’m trying to be less self-centered. This is like trying to levitate, but I should get points for the effort, don’t you think?

BEHOLD…THE ARCTOPUS / BOTANIST / LESBIAN

Earlier today we posted Old Man Windbreaker’s review of the entire discography of Botanist. And only now I come to find out that Botanist will be here in The Emerald City at Highline along with two other stellar bands in little more than a month (October 13). One is the brain scrambling Behold… the Arcoptus (featuring Colin Marston on Warr Guitar, Mike Lerner on Guitar Guitar, and Weasel Walter on drums), and the other is Seattle’s own Lesbian, who are riding a big wave of entirely justified attention drawn by their latest album Forestelevision.

But this turns out to be just one stop on a brief West Coast tour by BtA. On October 12, Behold…the Arctopus and Botanist will be playing together with Agalloch and Eight Bells at Day 3 of the Fall Into Darkness festival in Portland (OR). And on October 11 BtA and Botanist will be playing Oakland along with a Bay Area band named Burmese. Continue reading »