Wasn’t so long ago that we had a pair of posts about cover songs (Andy’s special Synn Report on covers and my musings about the pros and cons of covers, prompted by Anachronaeon‘s cover of Iron Maiden). We followed that in short order with news of an awesome-looking cover album by Dying Fetus (here). Seems to be the season for covers, because late yesterday we got word about an EP by Atlanta’s From Exile that we’ve been waiting for, which is devoted to covers of four songs by Nine Inch Nails. It’s called Just Like You Imagined and it’s now available for free download in mp3 or FLAC. We wasted no time listening last night.

So, let’s first review what we discussed in those previous posts and in the accompanying comments about covers: (1) they fail more often than they succeed; (2) there’s no terribly good reason to listen to a cover if it’s just a re-tread of the original, except perhaps for a novelty factor when the normal musical styles of the original and the cover band are poles apart; and (3) the best covers turn the original songs into something new and different, re-sculpting them into new works that stand on their own through variation of the original — but without completely losing connection with the source.

All four of From Exile’s covers succeed, in spades. In both subtle and dramatic ways, depending on the song, they’ve creatively re-shaped the NIN songs, producing music that’s more guitar-driven and more metal. They’ve preserved the spirit of the originals, yet succeeded in adding something of their own, and the results are wonderfully appealing. After the jump, we’ll explore the changes in a bit more detail and juxtapose the originals and the covers for your listening pleasure.

We latched onto From Exile more than a year ago when they debuted their first, self-released album, Monolith. We wrote one of the more glowing reviews we’ve ever published at NCS (here), calling it “a 32-minute treatise on guitar metal.” And then we posted about them again last November. Even if we weren’t already high on From Exile, we would have listened to this EP anyway just because of the cover art by Jorden Haley.

The band is joined once again by Kevin Talley, the very talented drummer from Daath, and one of Daath’s resident guitar wizards, Emil Werstler, also contributes a guest solo that’s mind-blowing.

For this new EP, From Exile picked four songs from NIN’s extensive discography. The original version of the first song, “The Great Below”, is a moody and sometimes uncomfortable piece of music that builds like a threatening storm — but it’s a storm that never fully breaks. For their largely faithful cover, From Exile has trimmed the length of the song and made the guitar parts more active, while vocally matching Trent Reznor’s three-octave climb in intensity. (Speaking of the vocals on this EP, they’re uniformly fantastic.)

In the original, “Ruiner” merges a dance-beat with scratching, pulses of electronic noise, and emphatic melodic keyboards. Reznor’s vocals shift from subdued clean song to distorted shrieking and back to clean vocals in a higher register. The song collapses in the middle, the pace down-shifted and the melody executed by a spastic, distorted guitar lead, and that’s followed by a chunky industrial march and strung-out synthesizer craziness.

In their cover, From Exile preserves the beat and the vocal stylings of the original, but again employ the guitars to drive the melody in place of synthesizers. In that collapsed mid-section, the band features a duet between the bass and a layered, psychedelic guitar. The result is less industrial, less weird, but just as intense.

NIN’s rendition of “Sin” jumps and jerks with a pneumatic beat, Reznor’s snarling vocals only barely humanizing the mechanical precision of the instrumental tracks.  It’s a classic piece of dance-floor industrial rock. What has From Exile done with this one? Their version again reduces the presence of inhuman synthesizers and substitutes hammering riffage and Kevin Talley’s rock-style drumming in its place. The cover also injects a squalling, screaming, multi-tracked guitar solo that’s hotter than molten steel.

Instrumental track “A Warm Place”, in the original, is otherworldly, ephemeral, beautiful, anchored only by the low, muffled thrum of the bass line, the keys rising and falling, isolated notes revealing a haunting melody. It’s a mesmerizing, dreamlike song.

From Exile’s take on the song magnifies the rush and power of the sound, and a more flowing, reverberating guitar lead/solo by Emil Werstler replaces the isolated keyboard notes of the original. Werstler’s contribution is a superb and all-too-brief piece of instrumental extravagance, thankfully reprised again near the song’s end. Of all the tracks on the EP, this one made the deepest impression. On this song, the cover exceeds the original.

This widget will allow you to stream all four tracks on the EP. But if you’ve got the time, we’ve got another way to listen to these songs further below.

Just Like You Imagined by From Exile

Whenever you’re ready to download Just Like You Imagined, THIS is the link that will take you to the From Exile page where you can get that done. Unfortunately, if you’re a CD-hound like me, the only way you can get a hard copy of the record is by attending the band’s CD release show at 9 pm on May 14th at the Earl in Atlanta, Georgia. You pay your $8 to get in, and you get the CD free at the door.

One more piece of From Exile news: They’ve finished filming a video for their magnificent version of “A Warm Place”; those photos up above are stills from the video.

Now, if you’re ready to invest some more time in this covers phenomenon — and you may especially appreciate this if you’re a Nine Inch Nails fan — here’s what we’re gonna do: Down below we’re going through the EP track by track, and preceding each track we’ll have the original NIN song, followed by the From Exile cover. It will give you an even more precise appreciation for what From Exile has done with the songs.

THE GREAT BELOW

NIN

FROM EXILE

RUINER

NIN

FROM EXILE

SIN

NIN

FROM EXILE

A WARM PLACE

NIN

FROM EXILE

Cerebral Metalhead is a blog we like to visit because it often turns us on to new music we don’t encounter elsewhere and because the album reviews are so well-written. On our latest visit, we read a glowing review of a self-released album called Monolith by an unsigned Atlanta prog-metal band named From Exile. So we quickly got the album, and we gotta agree — this is an amazing piece of work, and we feel compelled to help spread the word.

At its core, From Exile are two very talented guitarists — Eric Guenther and Ben Wetzelberger. On Monolith, they are joined on drums by the ever-awesome Kevin Talley from Daath. And the Daath connection doesn’t stop there. Eyal Levi co-produced the album with Guenther, handled the mixing chores, and provided a guest guitar solo on a song called “In the Faded Silence.” And the Daath connection still doesn’t stop there: Guitarist extraordinaire Emil Werstler added another guest guitar solo on “Apparition.”

Basically, with magnificent help from Talley’s accomplished drumwork, Monolith is a 32-minute treatise on guitar metal. If you found yourself on Pandora with nothing but an electric guitar and you were trying to explain it to one of those blue Na’vi, we imagine the conversation would go something like this: “Yeah, that neural thing you got on the end of your braid is pretty cool, but this thing is a fuckin’ electric guitar, and if you wanna know all the sounds it can make, slot your braid into my iPod and listen to Monolith.” (read more after the jump, and listen to a track . . .)

That may be a slight exaggeration, but only a sight one. The album threads together arena-rock riffs, sublimely beautiful meditations, heavy-as-shit headbanging chuggery, blistering solos, and soaring anthems — among other things. Sometimes one guitar, sometimes two playing in harmony or at counterpoint, this is a work created by people who love the instrument and damn-well know how to use it, and the songs are intelligently constructed to make full use of that knowledge.

A few of the songs include electronically altered vocals, but this is really one long instrumental work, with each song bleeding seamlessly and without pause into the next. As the songs shift in tempo and texture, they evoke a range of feelings and beautiful images. We think of it as the sonic equivalent of those time-lapse films of massive open skies that rapidly display dramatic changes in the weather and the light over the space of a single day. Every time I listen to it, a goofy grin comes over my face. (Correction: a goofier than usual grin.)

Two years in the making, Monolith is quite evidently the product of a shitload of thought, work, and attention to detail. Among other things, the album includes judicious use of various electronic effects, classical acoustic guitar interludes, piano outros, and strings — but nothing happens that isn’t intelligently calculated to contribute meaningfully and effectively to the whole listening experience. And it all works.

It’s evident that we’re completely bowled over by this album. Monolith is the kind of music that appeals to both the right and the left sides of the brain — plus the reptile part that produces convulsive headbanging.

Picking any one song as a sample of the whole is hard, particularly because each one is simply a movement in a well-constructed symphony, but here you go. Have a listen to the first track on Monolith — and if you like what you hear, the whole album is available for immediate download (at a reasonable price) at From Exile’s website.

From Exile: Arrival

P.S.  Attention record label geniuses:  Someone go sign Eric and Ben so they can afford to fill out the line-up for a touring band and come play for us in Seattle.

We’re now almost two months into 2010, and it’s already time for our second update to the list of forthcoming new albums we posted on January 1.  (See the original list here and the first update here.) Below is a list of still more projected new releases that we didn’t know about on January 1 or at the time of our last update about a month ago — and there’s a lot of them.

Once again, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Needless to say (but we’ll say it anyway), these are bands that mostly fit the profile of music we cover on this site.

So, in alphabetical order, here’s our list of cut-and-pasted blurbs from various sources over the last month about forthcoming new releases:

1349: “Prosthetic Records will release the brand new album from Norwegian black metal legends 1349 in North America via an agreement with Indie Recordings. The new CD, which promises ‘a return to the band’s more traditional, raw-yet-technical black metal sound,’ is due on April 13. In support of the yet-to-be-titled record, 1349 will embark on a North American tour in April and May as the support act for CANNIBAL CORPSE (alongside SKELETONWITCH and LECHEROUS NOCTURNE).”

ABACABB: “ABACABB are currently out on the road headlining the Hot Dice On Black Ice Tour featuring Upon A Burning Body!. The tour just hit Texas and will be in California this weekend. Following the tour ABACABB will enter the studio with producer Will Putney at Machine Shop in New Jersey and will have a new album to be released sometime this summer.”

AEON: “Swedish death metallers AEON have set Path Of Fire as the title of their third album, due later in the year via Metal Blade Records. The CD was recorded in September 2009 at Empire Studio in Östersund, Sweden and was mixed the following month at Mana Recording Studios in St, Petersburg, Florida by Erik Rutan (HATE ETERNAL, MORBID ANGEL, CANNIBAL CORPSE). The mastering was handled by Alan Douches at West West Side Music (CONVERGE, HATEBREED, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) in New Windsor, New York.”

AMORPHIS: “AMORPHIS will release its first-ever live DVD, Forging The Land Of Thousand Lakes, in early June via Nuclear Blast, in time for the band’s 20th anniversary. The filming took place on November 20, 2009 at Club Teatria in Oulu, Finland, where AMORPHIS was supported by STRATOVARIUS and BEFORE THE DAWN. In addition to the full-length live show, the anniversary DVD will include plenty of bonus material documenting the band’s impressive career.”   (much more after the jump . . . )

ANTERIOR: “Welsh metallers ANTERIOR have announced the addition of drummer James Cook to the group’s ranks. ANTERIOR is planning to enter the studio in early 2010 with producer Scott Atkins (SYLOSIS, ROMEO MUST DIE, MADMAN IS ABSOLUTE) to begin recording the follow-up to 2007′s This Age Of Silence for a late 2010 release via Metal Blade Records.”

ARMA GATHAS: “The eminent metal outfit ARMA GATHAS has just signed an exclusive worldwide deal with Metal Blade Records. The band’s debut, Dead To This World, will be released the 23rd/26th of April in Europe and the 27th of April in North America. Arma Gathas, consisting of former Cataract guitarist Simon Fülleman, ex-Born From Pain singer Ché Snelting, Machinemade God and ex-Cornelius guitarist Marc Niedersberg, ex-Disloyal drummer and talented drum student Max van Winkelhof and Alex Härtel on bass, recorded their debut album Dead To This World in November 2009 at the Barracs Studios together with Sky Hoff as a producer, who worked with Caliban in the past. Mastering was done by the legendary Alan Douches at the West West Side Studio in New York together with Simon in early-December.”

BLACK ANVIL: “New York’s BLACK ANVIL recently entered Mark “The Animal” Mendoza‘s (TWISTED SISTER) studio in Long Island with engineer “General” George Fullan (THE ROLLING STONES, DREAM THEATER) to begin recording its sophomore album. Entitled Triumvirate, the follow-up to Time Insults The Mind will include the tracks “The Evil Of All Roots”, “What Is Life If Not Now!”, “Angels To Dust”, “Ultimate Reality”, “With Transparent Blood” and “Dead and Left”. . . . A late spring release via Relapse Records is expected.”

BLEEDING THROUGH: “Orange County, California’s BLEEDING THROUGH will release its new self-titled album on April 13 via the Portland, Oregon-based independent record label Rise Records. The CD was recorded at Planet Z Studios in Hadley, Massachusetts with producer Chris “Zeuss” Harris, who has previously worked with MUNICIPAL WASTE, AGNOSTIC FRONT and HATEBREED, among others.”

BRAIN DRILL: “In preparation for their recently completed, second full-length album Quantum Catastrophe, Santa Cruz, CA technical death metallers BRAIN DRILL have completely redesigned their MySpace page to feature the cover art created by Par Olofsson(www.parolofsson.se). In addition to the complete overhaul of the band’s page, BRAIN DRILL have also posted the new track “Monumental Failure”. Quantum Catastrophe will be available everywhere on May 11th.”

BURNING THE MASSES: “California metal band BURNING THE MASSES has officially added vocalist Cameron Argon (aka “Big Chocolate”) to their line-up. Argon replaces David Montenegro, who parted ways with the group in December. The group’s new album, Offspring Of Time, will hit stores this summer via Mediaskare Records.”

CANCER BATS: “Canada’s hardcore/metal band CANCER BATS has posted a brand new track titled “Scared To Death” on the group’s MySpace page. The song is taken from CANCER BATS‘s forthcoming album, Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones, which will be released in the United States and Canada on April 13. CANCER BATS has also announced that it will issue a digital EP ahead of the album release. The EP will contain “Scared To Death” and the band’s take on the BEASTIE BOYS classic “Sabotage”. It will be available from iTunes as of March 1.”

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY: “Former SEPULTURA members Max (guitar, vocals) and Igor Cavalera (drums) will return to the studio in April 2010 to begin recording the follow-up to CAVALERA CONSPIRACY‘s 2008 debut album, Inflikted. A late 2010 release via Roadrunner Records is expected.”

DAATH: “Atlanta-based extreme metal quintet DAATH has commenced work on the follow-up to last year’s The Concealers for a late 2010 release via Century Media Records. Commented the band: ‘Unpredictability and chaos are two themes defining the times we live in. Everything about DAATH‘s career has been married to these themes. We’ve accepted them as beautiful and have learned to love the ride. Despite the chaos there is one thing that is for certain: we will always be pushing the boundaries of what we do. This fall we will bring you a record you are not expecting to hear from us. This venture will have more to offer than our previous efforts.’”

DARKTHRONE: “The unrelenting Norwegian duo, DARKTHRONE, will welcome a new decade with a new album, to be released on Peaceville Records. Circle The Wagons, a creative feast of metal and punk, will initially be released on vinyl on March 8th, through the Peaceville Records webstore, as an exclusive taster for the legions of metal supporters out there who still care about great music delivered the classic way.  The vinyl will also include a link to download a digital version of the album, which will be available when the regular and special edition CD versions of the album are released on April 6th.”

DEAD BEYOND BURIED: “U.K. death metallers DEAD BEYOND BURIED will release their second album, Inheritors Of Hell, on April 5 through Siege Of Amida Records. The CD was recorded and a produced by the bandmembers themselves and was mastered by Tim Turan (BEHEMOTH, CANNIBAL CORPSE). The cover artwork was designed by Khaosart (MORBID ANGEL).”

DEAD SHAPE FIGURE: “Finnish modern thrash/death-influenced metal band DEAD SHAPE FIGURE will perform material from its recenty completed second album, The Disease Of St. Vitus, for the first time on March 26 at Vernissa in Tikkurila, Finland. . . . The Disease Of St. Vitus is scheduled for release in late April via Dynamic Arts Records.”

DEMON HUNTER: “The World Is A Thorn, the new album from Seattle-based Christian metallers DEMON HUNTER, is scheduled for release on March 9. The band’s fifth album follows the landmark documentary 45 Days, last year’s Live In Nashville collection and a catalog of landmark releases that have made the band one of the most important in the genre.”

EMBRYONIC DEVOURMENT: “EMBRYONIC DEVOURMENT have just finished recording their newest full length titled Vivid Interpretations of the Void. The new release will feature 8  songs recorded by engineer Juan Urteaga of Trident Studios. To catch a sneak peek of new music, head to their MySpace where the band has posted 2 of the new tracks – ‘Militarized Reptoids’ and ‘Darken Thy Fluids’.”

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “Rome, Italy-based death metal band FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE has completed work on a new EP entitled Mafia at 16th Cellar Studios in the group’s hometown with producer Stefano “Saul” Morabito. The CD will be released on June 8 via Willowtip Records.”

THE FUNERAL PYRE: “California death metal/black metal outfit THE FUNERAL PYRE is currently recording their next album. The group has issued the following update: ‘We have eight songs tracked (drums only) and are shooting for the end of this week to wrap all of the drums up. Then, we’ll start the guitars and proceed from there. I can give you two song titles, one of which we’ve played live, “Vultures” and “Monolith” are two tracks that will be on the record. We’re still mulling over what the name of the record will be.’ The effort is expected to surface this summer via Prosthetic Records.”

GUS DRAX: “22-year-old Greek guitarist Gus Drax (BIOMECHANICAL, PARADOX) has posted two songs — “Kiss Of Life” and “In Loving Memory” — from his upcoming solo album, In Search Of Perfection. The CD will feature guest appearances by keyboardist/guitarist Bob Katsionis (FIREWIND,OUTLOUD) and Steve Smyth (FORBIDDEN, ex-NEVERMORE,TESTAMENT).”

KALMAH: “Finnish metallers KALMAH will film a video for the song “12 Gauge” later this week. The clip will make its online debut in late February/early March. “12 Gauge” is the title track of KALMAH‘s sixth album, which is scheduled for release on March 3 via Spinefarm Records. The CD, which which will be made available in Japan on February 24, was recorded between June and August 2009 at Tico Tico studio in Kemi, Finland and was mastered at the Cutting Room in Sweden.”

KATATONIA: “Swedish masters of melancholy KATATONIA will release a new EP, The Longest Day, on March 15 via Peaceville Records. In addition to the album cut “The Longest Year”, the EP features the previously unreleased song “Sold Heart”, “Day And Then The Shade” (remix), and an alternative version of “Idle Blood”.”

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR: “Emerging from the caustic burrows of Chicago comes the monolith of metal known as LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, a sonic ‘fuck you’ to the current trends and sub-genres of metal who carry the torch of metal’s roots (CELTIC FROST, SLAYER, MOTÖRHEAD) with a death breath of fresh air, and spitting gas on the flames. The Greek mythology-inspired carnage continues on LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR‘s upcoming fourth full-length, Evil Power. The CD and digital download will be released on April 13, 2010 on The Grind-House Records.”

LEVY/WERSTLER: “DAATH‘s Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler will unleash their new collaboration, Avalanche Of Worms, on April 20 via Magna Carta Records. Both accomplished guitarists, their interplay allows Levi’s compositional style and Werstler’ virtuosic guitar abilities to compliment each other fully; this unique alchemy prevents this album from being classified under any one genre. ‘We work in metal but the vibe of this is just coming from somewhere else,’ Werstler says. ‘It’s hard to put your finger on what it is. . . . Drummer Sean Reinert (CYNIC, ex-DEATH) proves yet again to be unparalleled in his intensity and musicality.’”

M.A.N.: “M.A.N — the group formed out of the ashes of Sweden’s TRANSPORT LEAGUE (featuring former MNEMIC frontman Tony Jelencovich) — has posted a new song, “Logocide”, on the band’s MySpace page. The track comes off M.A.N‘s third album, Massive Audio Nerve, which will be released on March 26 via the German label Tiefdruck Musik.”

OBLIGE: “OBLIGE is proud to announce the addition of bassist Mike Bodkins (ex-Suicide Silence) and rhythm guitarist Greg Pewthers (ex-Impending Doom).  The band has been extremely busy finishing up their new album, with plans to record and release this year. A pre-production track has been premiered online, and can be found over at www.myspace.com/oblige. In addition, OBLIGE has also respectfully parted ways with former label Stillborn Records.”

THE ORDER OF APOLLYON: “THE ORDER OF APOLLYON, the new black/death metal project featuring current/former members of ABORTED, AKERCOCKE and CRADLE OF FILTH, has inked a three-album deal with Listenable Records. The band’s debut album, The Flesh, is scheduled for release in April.”

OV HELL: “The Underworld Regime, the debut album from OV HELL — the new black metal project featuring DIMMU BORGIR vocalist Shagrath and ex-GORGOROTH bassist King — will be released in North America on April 13 via Prosthetic Records. . . . The Underworld Regime was released in Europe on February 8 via Indie Recordings. The CD was recorded at Earshot Studio and features Shagrath on vocals, King on bass, Frost (SATYRICON) on drums, Ice Dale (ENSLAVED) on guitar and Teloch (NIDINGR, GOD SEED) on guitar.”

PATHOLOGY: “Recently signed to Victory Records, San Diego ’s PATHOLOGY will enter Doubletime Studios today to record their label debut. The band feels very comfortable there with producer/engineer Jeff Forrest, having worked together on the group’s previous recordings. Doubletime has been going for 20 years and has a great and diverse client list including As I Lay Dying, Atreyu and Bleeding Through. Upon completion of the tracks, the album will be mixed in March by Hate Eternal guitarist Erik Rutan at his Mana Studios (Cannibal Corpse, Vital Remains) for an anticipated early summer release.”

PURIFIED IN BLOOD: “Norwegian metallers PURIFIED IN BLOOD have set Under Black Skies as the title of their sophomore full-length album, tentatively due this spring. The CD was mixed in Seattle, Washington mixing with Matt Bayles (MASTODON, ISIS, BOTCH).”

SLUMBER: “Swedish melodic doom/death metallers SLUMBER have finished recording the instrumental parts for their new album, entitled Resonance, at Panic Room Studios in Skara, Sweden for a tentative late spring release.”

SOLUTION .45: “Swedish/Finnish progressive metal “supergroup” SOLUTION .45, which features in its ranks former SCAR SYMMETRY vocalist Christian Älvestam and Jani Stefanovic (MISERATION, ESSENCE OF SORROW), will release its debut album, entitled For Aeons Past, on April 9 in Europe via AFM Records.”

SOREPTION: “Swedish death metallers SOREPTION have had their album release date for Deterioration Of Minds pushed back to March 10. To offset the delay, two new clips from the album are up for prelistening on their MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/soreption. More clips from the album will be posted closer to the release.”  (Yeah, we already included these dudes in one of the earlier “forthcoming” lists, but we’re so hot for the full-length we thought we’d include this update here — bummer though it is.)

SUFFOKATE: “SUFFOKATE will release its new album, “No Mercy, No Forgiveness”, on February 23 via Mediaskare Records. . . . SUFFOKATE has amassed a rabid and extremely loyal following since releasing the band’s self-financed debut in 2004. Since then, the group has refined its lineup and sound to an amalgamation of angst-ridden hardcore, fused with a Bay Area thrash backbone.”

SHINING: “SHINING has completed work on its seventh album, “Shining VII – Född Förlorare” (English translation: “Born Loser”), for a March/April release via Indie Recordings. . . . According to vocalist Niklas “Kvarforth” Olsson, “Shining VII – Född Förlorare” will see SHINING ‘tak[ing] a deep dive into the darkest of all musical genres you could imagine.’”

THE SWORD: “THE SWORD entered the studio earlier in the month [February] with producer Matt Bayles (MASTODON, ISIS, MINUS THE BEAR) to begin recording its third album for a late 2010 release via Kemado Records.”

THULCANDRA: “THULCANDRA — the reactivated German black/death metal band featuring members of OBSCURA, DARK FORTRESS and HELFAHRT — has tapped Kristian Wåhlin (a.k.a. Necrolord; AT THE GATES, DISSECTION, EDGE OF SANITY, EMPEROR, DARK FUNERAL, SACRAMENTUM) to create the artwork for the group’s new album, Fallen Angels Dominion. The CD was recorded at Woodshed Studios with producers V. Santura and Steffen Kummerer for a 2010 release via Napalm Records.”

TRIDENT: “TRIDENT, the Swedish death metal band formed by guitarist Johan Norman (DISSECTION, SOULREAPER), will release its long-awaited debut album, World Destruction, on March 22 via Regain Records. The CD was recorded at Andy La Rocque‘s (KING DIAMOND) Sonic Train Studios in Varberg, Sweden. . . . Three songs from the CD — “Slaves To Anguish”, “World Destruction”and “Jaws Of Satan” — are available for streaming on the group’sMySpace page.”

WORLD UNDER BLOOD: “WORLD UNDER BLOOD, the melodic death metal side project featuring CKY guitarist/vocalist Deron Miller alongside Tim Yeung (DIVINE HERESY, VITAL REMAINS, HATE ETERNAL) on drums, Risha Eryavec (DECREPIT BIRTH) on bass, and Luke Jaeger on guitar, is continuing work on its debut album, “Tactical”, for a tentative July release via Nuclear Blast Records.”

Here at NCS, we’re putting a different spin on year-end listmania. Ours isn’t a list of the best metal full-lengths of the year. It’s not even necessarily our list of the best individual extreme metal songs of the year. Ours is a list of the most infectious extreme metal songs we’ve heard this year. We’re talking about songs that produce involuntary physical movement and worm their way into your brain to such an extent you can’t get ‘em out (and wouldn’t want to).

We’re not ranking our list from #10 to #1 because that would be too much fucking work (and your co-Authors would still be arguing about it this time next year). So, our list is in no particular order. We’re also dribbling the songs out one at a time because your lazy Authors are still debating what belongs in the remaining slots. (Yes, still.) Our list heretofore:

1.  Asphyx:  Sorbutics

2.  Mastodon:  Crack the Skye

3.  Amorphis:  Silver Bride

4.  Goatwhore: Apocalyptic Havoc

5.  August Burns Red:  Meridian

6.  Pelican:  Ephemeral

7.  Scale the Summit: Age of the Tide

And to see our eighth entry on the list, continue reading after the jump.

Our last two entries to the Most Infectious list were a pair of progressive-metal instrumentals played by two bands with amazing technical chops. Today’s entry is also from a group of dudes with top-shelf technical skills, but with a very different sound.

Someone is going to have to come up with a new sub-genre category for Daath. None of the existing labels really fit to a tee. Their 2009 release, The Concealers, is recognizably death metal, but though it’s heavy as shit, it’s groove-oriented, packed with pyrotechnical guitar work from Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler, melodic in just the right places, and feverishly infectious from start to finish. Sean Z’s scorching vocals and the instrumental work of Levi, Werstler, drummer Kevin Talley, and bassist Jeremy Creamer are completely integrated into achieving a well-planned design for each song.  As we said, very heavy, but very catchy from beginning to end.  Daath is on the road to defining a unique sound that is distinctively its own. Daath Metal? Daathcore? Whatever the label, it’s death metal you gotta move to.

There’s nothing bland on The Concealers — every song is distinctive, and every track is capable of worming its way into your brain and making a home there. But there’s one song we come back to again and again. It’s probably not the best, most fully realized song on the album — but shit, is it catchy!

“Wilting On the Vine” establishes itself with an epic riff, plays around with variations on that riff (augmented by Sean Z’s syncopated vocals), then drops into a lower gear to launch a shredtastic guitar solo by Werstler, which accelerates back up to the original tempo where the earlier infectious riff makes a triumphant return. Unadulterated, headbanging fun. (And speaking of guitar god Emil Werstler, if you didn’t catch the series of jaw-dropping videos posted last month by Metal Sucks, definitely watch them here.)

There you have it. The eighth entry on our Most Infectious list is “Wilting On the Vine” by Daath. Have a listen:

Wilting on the Vine

And as a bonus, here’s some vid of Daath performing “Wilting on the Vine” in Paris two months ago. The audio is not the best (listen to the audio stream above to really hear the song), but the video quality is decent and it’s fun to watch the guys rip into this song: