It’s been way too long since we checked in with Demonic Resurrection’s frontman Demonstealer. The dude always seems to have about 1,000 things going on at any given time, and I’ll get to one more of his endeavors at the end of this post, but the main draw here at the beginning is his on-line cooking show Headbangers Kitchen and his latest guest from the incomparable Gojira.

If you’re not familiar with Headbanger’s Kitchen, it’s Demonstealer’s outlet for his culinary impulses. And whether you do or don’t discover something you might want to prepare for your own consumption, it’s fun to watch because Demonstealer often lures members of other metal bands into his kitchen in Mumbai, combining interviews with cooking. In the latest (14th) episode, the guest is Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier, who Demonstealer snagged during Gojira’s first visit to India several months ago.  And the dish that Demonstealer whipped up for Joe? The Heaviest Chole Bhature in the Universe!

I’m not an aficionado of Indian food. Hey, I grew up in Central Texas: a plate of Tex-Mex enchiladas smothered in chopped onions and sliced jalapenos or a slab of brisket served on wax paper is my go-to comfort food. So chole bhature was a discovery for me. But the chole seems to be prepared with green chile and onion, so it can’t be bad, can it?

On Sunday night, January 20, the current tour headlined by Gojira and also featuring The Devin Townsend Project and The Atlas Moth rolled into Seattle, and a good-sized group of friends and I showed up at Studio Seven to bear witness.  We had bought tickets in advance, which was fortunate, because although we arrived about 45 minutes before doors, the show was already sold out.

I was still trying to process the fact that we were getting to see Gojira and DT together on the same tour, and in a venue the cozy size of Studio Seven. I’m a huge fan of both, and I also really enjoyed the last album by The Atlas Moth (An Ache For the Distance), so this had the makings of a stupendous experience. And so it proved to be.

A couple of us grabbed perches up against the rail in the balcony bar overlooking the stage and never left those spots. I wanted a place where I could take some photos of the show, and I didn’t really feel like being smashed inside a high-pressure, breathless, sweaty mass of humanity on the floor for this show anyway.

After the jump, some impressions of what I saw and heard, plus a fuckload of amateurish pics.

(To see what this list is all about, read the introductory post via this link.)

I listened to a greater variety of metal this year than ever before, branching out more seriously into certain sub-genres that I had largely neglected in the past. It was fun, but I’m now paying a heavy price.

How heavy? Here’s how heavy: My list of candidates for this year’s selection of the Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, drawn from my own listening and recommendations from readers and NCS staff, consists of more than 230 songs from over 160 bands.

I’ve explained before that I don’t make my own annual list of the year’s best albums because I have so much trouble comparing large numbers of albums from different genres to each other. Also, I’m indecisive by nature. So how in the world am I going to whittle own a list of more than 230 songs into a smaller group of 20 or 30? Honestly, I have no fucking idea. However, as the Chinese philosopher Laozi wrote, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.  So I’m stepping off now . . . and I hope I will find a way to finish the list before old age claims all of us.

Because I felt the need to get this thing going despite the fact that I haven’t finished the final list, I decided to start with a couple of easy decisions. We begin with two great songs by two bands who are favorites of this site and whose 2012 albums have become quite popular across much of metaldom.

Photo credit: Romain Dronne

Those French titans of metal in Gojira are coming back to North America early next year to tour with The Devin Townsend Project and The Atlas Moth. I bought advance VIP tickets for the January 20 show at Seattle’s Studio Seven as fast as I could. One of the perks of doing that was the promise that I would get a download of two live recordings now and another one closer to the start of the North American tour.

Yesterday the download link arrived in my in-box. The two songs included in the download were “Love” and “Toxic Garbage Island”. They were recorded during Gojira’s performance at at the Studio at Webster Hall in New York City on August 14, 2012. They’re crushing, and too good to keep to myself. So, after the jump I’m going to stream both of them for you.

Also after the jump, in case you missed it, is a video of the band performing “Explosia” from the new album L’Enfant Sauvage at the same Webster Hall show.  To get the North American tour schedule, check out this previous post about the tour.

Enjoy.

(UK-based NCS scribe Andy Synn was present for the November 10 performance of Gojira, Trepalium, and Klone in Nottingham, UK, and delivers the following review. Video clips from the show that Andy filmed appear at the end of the review.)

Here’s a tip: however heavy you think Gojira are on record, multiply that by a factor of 5 for their live show. My god, even the melody lines have a brooding heaviness that steps up significantly from their recorded output. They are just a stunning, devastating live act.

That being said, all that power would be for nothing if the venue weren’t able to handle it. Nottingham’s own Rescue Rooms has, over the past couple of years, transformed itself into a prime location for metal gigdom – despite the more indiefied aura and clientele of the venue (and accompanying lounge/bar). The stage is big, but intimate; the layout of the venue is (barring one unavoidable supporting pillar) really good for both the taller and shorter members of the crowd (particularly with the balcony above); the PA is powerful and can be incredibly clear in the right hands. Plus there’s a bar at the back, one in the balcony area, and access to the lounge/bar in the other half of the venue. Three possible sources of alcohol is always a good thing.

THis news is way too fucking awesome to wait until tomorrow for posting. Thanks to Lambgoat, I’ve just seen the news that Gojira, The Devin Townsend Project, and The Atlas Moth are teaming up for an early 2013 tour of North America. And I used to think men couldn’t have multiple orgasms.

I’m still sort of in disbelief that someone was smart enough to pull these three bands together on a single tour. It’s clearly going to be a huge profile upgrade for The Atlas Moth to be tagging along with the likes of Gojira and DT, and it will likewise be a boon to the many fans who’ll get a chance to hear them for the first time.

And the opportunity to see Gojira and DT sharing the same stage . . . well, that’s something I’ll spend the next three months salivating about. Given how much I drool on even a normal day, this is going to be embarrassing.

The tour was apparently exclusively announced during Full Metal Jackie’s show Saturday night (October 20), and tickets are supposed to go on sale October 26 and 27.

The dates and places as reported by Lambgoat are after the jump. I haven’t yet seen any other official announcements.

Gojira have produced another lyric video for a track from L’Enfant Sauvage. This time the song is “Liquid Fire” and the visual accompaniment is a montage of really excellent live performance photos.

The song is really excellent, too, including the lyrics. Not a bad way to end our posts for this work week. Of course, we will have some other kind of ear wreckage ready for tomorrow morning.

Video after the jump . . . .

As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m in the middle of a work-related trip that isn’t leaving me much blog time, and things won’t get back to normal until I get back to Seattle on Sunday night.  I do plan to catch up on what I’ve missed, as best I can, between now and Monday.

Here’s one thing I missed: Yesterday, Metal Sucks exclusively premiered a video of Gojira performing “Explosia” live in New York City last month. By the time I realized the video was out, the band had posted it on YouTube, so you can check it out here after the jump.

The video syncs the album track of “Explosia” to the performance footage (and accelerates some of the frames in a way that was fun to see). I go back and forth, but today I think “Explosia” is my favorite track on L’Enfant Sauvage, so any excuse to hear it again is welcome.

Gojira have now released a lyric video for “Explosia”, the first track on L’Enfant Sauvage. The visuals are not fancy. In fact, you’re looking at them right now (except for the words).

The photography, which is beautiful, is by some guy named Mario Duplantier.

Any excuse to listen to “Explosia” again, right? That’s my attitude. Watch/listen after the jump.

I watched some of the opening ceremonies from London. Some of it was cool, like the cascade of lights falling from those big gold rings in the sky. But I gave up not long after Mr. Bean accompanied the orchestra on the theme song from Chariots of Fire.

I decided if I was going to watch spectacle, with big throngs of people, lots of lights, and explosions of sound, I should at least watch something with good fuckin’ music going on. So I watched these instead: