We previously reported that because of difficulties obtaining visas, Ghost would be forced to drop off the fall North American tour headlined by Norway’s Enslaved, which begins September 23. We mused that such a cloud might have a silver lining, ie, that another awesome band might be recruited to take the place of the missing phantoms.

Well, a replacement has indeed been found. Their name is Junius. I knew fuck-all about them when I saw the press release announcing their appearance on the tour. I have done some very quick research, and I now know (a) that they are from Boston; (b) that they describe their music as “art rock” and have been described by others as “a perfect hybrid of Neurosis and The Smiths”; (c) that they premiered a new song this morning on Brooklyn Vegan (here), which will appear on a new album to be released by Prosthetic Records called Reports From the Threshold of Death; and (d) the cover art for that new album is cool.

In case you were wondering, I did listen to that new song, “All Shall Float”. It’s not metal, at least not by my definition. It’s what I think of as emotional indie rock, and therefore (given my own tastes) it’s not something I would listen to on my own in a million years. So, it doesn’t enhance my anticipation for this tour, although I don’t really need any enhancement with Enslaved and Alcest already on the bill. Have a look at the cover art after the jump, and if you’re going to this tour and want to see what you’re in for from Junius, you can listen to “All Shall Float” after the jump, too.

For me, Enslaved’s 20th Anniversary North American tour with Ghost and Alcest is one of the high spots of this fall. Enslaved is very high on my list of bands to see who I’ve never seen before, and Ghost and Alcest are also bands whose music I like quite a bit and would love to see in the flesh. I suspect lots of you have been excited about this tour, too.

However, as I was checking my Facebook news stream this morning I saw this cryptic post by Enslaved on their wall: “We’re working on a replacement and will of course keep you posted. Still – we’re looking forward to celebrating our 20th anniversary with you! Working on the setlist… Suggestions?” At first I thought maybe someone in Enslaved had left the band. And then I saw this post on Ghost’s Facebook wall, which appeared in my news stream:

“Due to some last minute complications with our visas, we have been forced to cancel our North American tour. We are sorry towards the other bands on the tour, Enslaved and Alcest. And we are most of all tremendously sorry towards all of our fans. This is truly beyond our control and we are making everything within our (His) powers to be able to come back to the US as soon as possible and perform for all of you.

Our most malicious of wishes,
/A Nameless Ghoul”

What sucky news. Yet it seems things like this happen on a weekly basis — European bands being denied visas by the U.S. government, screwing up long-planned tours. I haven’t investigated why this happens so often, or why in particular it happened to Ghost. Maybe I will. Or maybe I’ll just mope. Perhaps there’s a silver lining to this cloud — the addition of a replacement for Ghost who will be an even more awesome addition to the line-up? Check the tour dates after the jump.

I have this compulsion to deliver music in our posts. Possibly it derives from a subconscious insecurity about my writing, but at least I tell myself that it’s because this is a music blog, and so there should be music. All the fucking time. This is why we so rarely post about news items that we can’t accompany with the music that’s the subject of the news. But this time, I’m making an exception, because the bands are pretty damned special: Meshuggah and Enslaved.

On the other hand, I can’t get rid of that compulsion, so I’m throwing in some music, too. The songs aren’t from Meshuggah or Enslaved (sigh), but they’re new and they’re good, so there’s that. The first track is from the new album by Cipher System (Sweden), and you can download it for free if you like what you hear. The fetching album cover by Seth Siro Anton (Septic Flesh) is up above. The second song is from another Swedish band, Apostasy.

MESHUGGAH

Guitar World magazine recently conducted an interview with Meshuggah guitarist extraordinaire Fredrik Thordendal. When asked about whether Meshuggah has been working on new music and if he has any new gear he is using, he said, “Yes, we are working on a new album and have been for a long time. I’m so excited about this one. We’ve always tried to change how we write songs to keep it exciting, but on recent albums we’ve also been moving further away from working together as a band. On this album, though, everyone is working together. Every day that we’re in the studio, we’ll play whatever song we’re working on, record a demo version of it to analyze at home, and then come back the next day, talk about it and try to make it better. I think because of this, it’s going to be our best album yet.” (more after the jump . . .)

At the risk of swamping you in too much music for a single post, I’m collecting four items here that I discovered this past weekend. The unifying theme for this collection is blackness.

Black, as in Black Dahlia Murder covering “This Mortal Coil” by Carcass, with Jeff Walker on guest vocals. Black, as in a good-quality video of Anaal Nathrakh performing “Do Not Speak” at a club in Paris on May 31. Black, as in news about a tribute album to Enslaved, featuring 20 bands (plus the schedule for a fall North American tour by Enslaved along with Ghost and Alcest). Black, as in another quality performance video — of Belphegor vomiting forth satanic spew in Denver on May 16. Without further ado …

BLACK DAHLIA MURDER

For some reason, I continue to receive my copy of DECIBEL magazine way early. I’m not complaining. Well, maybe I’m complaining a little. I’ve had the July issue for a week now — the one with Trey Azagthoth and David Vincent of Morbid Angel on the cover and a big feature inside about their new album Illud Duvinum Insanus — which has already generated an insanus amount of controversy in the web-world (much of it among people who haven’t even heard the album yet).

Because I received the issue early, that means I’ve had a week to stare at the “flexi disc” inside — the recording on a piece of plastic of Black Dahlia Murder covering “This Mortal Coil” by Carcass. I’ve been staring at it because listening isn’t an option — since I don’t own a fucking turntable. I’ve been waiting semi-patiently for someone to transfer the music to digital and put it up on YouTube, which has now finally happened. The digital transfer didn’t happen seamlessly — you can hear some of the imperfections on the flexi-disc — but the BDM cover is a slayer.  (more after the jump . . .)

I think Norway’s Enslaved are so talented that they can do anything they set their minds to, and do it superbly. As further proof, I have some videos for you, which, as the kids say, are fuckin’ siiiiiiiick.

Just the day after that Dimmu Borgir show that Andy Synn attended in Oslo on May 28, Enslaved played a special show in the same city at the Henie Onstad Art Centre, which appears to house Norway’s largest collection of international modern art.

In honor of Enslaved’s 20th anniversary, the Art Centre asked Enslaved to prepare a special setlist consisting of a mix of cover songs from their favorite bands as well as original songs. Among the artists Enslaved covered were Pink Floyd, Rush, Faith No More, Led Zeppelin, and King Crimson.

Thank goodness someone filmed this. So far, I’ve seen videos for the band’s performances of “The Immigrant Song” — one of my all-time favorite Zeppelin tunes — and ”Red” by King Crimson, plus a drumcam view of the band’s own original song “Lightening”, from Axioma Ethica Odini. The video quality is excellent and the audio quality is pretty good — good enough to blow me away.  (more after the jump, including the videos . . .)

(Our regular contributor Andy Synn, who has a penchant for making us jealous by attending European shows that aren’t available in the U.S., attended the April 22 performance of Enslaved and Negură Bunget in London a few days ago, and checks in with this concert review.)

A beautifully warm and sunny day provided the perfect chance to travel down to London to see some of black metal’s most forward thinking acts play a sold-out show to a rabid fan-base. The clear blue skies and crystalline rays of sunlight acted as the perfect set-up for the evening’s display of shining, progressive musical expression.

After a few beers in The World’s End, my companion and I attempted to join the queue for entry, only to baulk at its length and quickly scurry back to the bar for another few. Any excuse…

We eventually got into the venue shortly after Negură Bunget‘s set had already commenced, and thankfully the band had been given a lengthy 40-minute opening slot, so we were still lucky enough to catch the majority of their set.

With a primal and expressive sound, Negură Bunget provided a set of deep shadows and brilliant, shining highlights, which replaces black metal’s traditionally icy fury with a warm, organic exploration of mood and atmosphere, light and shade.  (more after the jump, including video of this show . . .)

Today we have two more additions to our list of most infectious songs.  Just in case you’re visiting NCS for the first time today, read this if you want to know our definition of “most infectious” and visit the Category link on the right of this page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS – 2010 to see and hear the other 22 songs we’ve named to the list so far. And to cut the suspense and get to the point, today’s songs are from Enslaved and God Dethroned.

ENSLAVED

Sometimes we don’t review albums because we know they’re going to be swamped with critical attention from all quarters, including net sites and magazines with massively larger audiences than we have here. Those albums don’t need our help, and so usually (though not always) we tend to focus more on bands that might slip under the radar of those other media outlets. And so it was with the 2010 release from Enslaved.

The absence of an NCS review didn’t mean we were meh about Axioma Ethica Odini. Far from it. In our opinion, the album was one of last year’s highlights. We weren’t alone in thinking that.  Several of our guest contributors who provided Best of 2010 lists for us — including Fredrik Huldtgren and Andy Synn — also raved about the album.  (more after the jump, including those tracks we like so much . . .)

We may have started the day with Linkin Park, but we’re trying to make up for that.

You may have seen elsewhere that Enslaved has just put up a new song for streaming on their MySpace page. Called “Ethica Odini”, it’s the opening track on the band’s next album, Axiom Ethica Odini, which will be released in North America on September 28.

What you may not know is that the song is also legitimately available for free download. The band has announced a contest, inviting fans to make videos for the song. They’ll pick the best one as the track’s “official video”, with some pretty good consolation prizes for second and third place. To facilitate the contest, Enslaved has made the song available for download at this location. You’ll need to give an e-mail address, and then go to your inbox for that address to get the download link.

The song is 8 minutes of tremolo-picked awesomeness. I didn’t even mind the clean singing in the choruses or in the beautiful two-minute finish, which includes a soaring, pure guitar lead. It inserted itself under my skin like . . . like . . .like . . . uh . . .

Crap, simile fail.

What inserts itself under your skin?  Got it!  A splinter!  The song inserted itself under my skin like a splinter!  Fuck, that’s not right.  You want to get splinters out, but I don’t feel that way about this song. Well, something will come to me. In the meantime, you should go trade an e-mail address for that song.

My, how time flies. Another month is in the history books. However much time you have on earth, you now have 31 days less of it since since the last installment of this post. Drink up!

But have no fear. You’re headed for a better place. That’s right, basically the same existence you had a month ago, but with more new metal ahead of you. Drink up!

And all those physical processes that are inexorably decaying your bodies on the rocky road to your demise, they’re still there and they’re still working on you like termites that have found a rotting log. But hey, you can still bang your head, so . . . Drink up!

Yes, we’re now a full seven months into 2010, and so it’s time for another monthly update to the list of forthcoming new albums we first posted on January 1. (All the other updates can be found via the “Forthcoming Albums” category link on the right side of our pages.) Below is a list of still more projected new releases we didn’t know about at the time of our previous updates, or updated info about some of the previously noted releases.

Once again, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Perhaps needless to say, these are bands that mostly fit the profile of music we cover on this site — the kind that would like to tear your head off.

So, in alphabetical order, here’s our list of cut-and-pasted items from various sources since our last update about forthcoming new releases. Look for the bands you like and put reminders on your calendar. Or if you’re like us, just stick post-it notes on your forehead. Of course, if your foreheads are the low, sloping kind, you may only have room for a few, so be choosy.