Here we have the next two entries on our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs.  For a full explanation of what we mean by “most infectious”, read this.

In a nutshell, we compiled a list, in no particular order, of the catchiest songs from a wide range of extreme metal sub-genres — not necessarily the best metal of the year (though lots of these songs would qualify for that kind of list), but the ones that most effectively got our heads and other parts of our bodies moving, and then continued to ring in our tiny brains even after they ended.

Our fifth and sixth additions to the list are songs from albums we reviewed earlier in the year, one by Canada’s Kataklysm and one by Finland’s Kalmah.

KATAKLYSM

In our review of this band’s 2010 release, we called Heaven’s Venom “an irresistible onslaught of powerful grooves and dark melody, fist-pumping anthems and mosh-pit missiles.” (more after the jump . . .)

Fair warning: This will be one extended session of spittle-flecked frothing at the mouth, because we haven’t been this blown away since stumbling into a full-fledged Seattle windstorm last winter. So get the safety glasses on and strap on sanitary masks if you got ‘em.

The subject of our enthusiasm is Nothnegal. They’re a band from The Republic of the Maldives that now includes two non-Maldivian heavyweights — drummer Kevin Talley from Dååth and keyboardist Marco Sneck from those Finnish swamplords Kalmah. They’ve got a four-song EP to their credit called Antidote of Realism and they’ve just signed with Season of Mist for the release of their debut album early next year.

Oh yeah, they’re also playing with Arch Enemy this month and touring Europe in the fall with the likes of Rotting Christ, Samael, and Finntroll.

And we’d wager that most of you have never heard of them. Until earlier this week, we hadn’t either. But this band shows all the seismic signs of an impending Vesuvius-sized eruption onto the scene — and based on the band’s output to date, it would be well-deserved.

If you like technically immaculate, headbangingly compulsive, Scandinavian-style melodic death metal played at autobahn speed, stay with us after the jump. Among other things, we’ll stream all four tracks from that EP and we’ll show you how to download a cut from Nothnegal’s forthcoming debut album.

Suomalaista Metallia! About a week ago we stumbled headlong over a band from Finland oddly called The Jasser Arafats, and learned they were sharing the stage with the awesome Kalmah last week in Finland. Apart from the strange band name, the album art by V. Nyström from their forthcoming full-length debut was also arresting, and they had a widget that allowed us to listen to four tracks from the album. So we thought, what the hell, let’s listen to what they’re doing. And we liked what we heard and we wrote a short post about it.

That led to contact with the band, and although we couldn’t worm out of them the story behind the band name (more on that later), they did give us an advance listen to the whole album (Condemnation), which is due for an April 14 release on Violent Journey Records.

Listening to all 12 of the album’s tracks confirmed our reaction to the four teasers, and what we wrote a week ago still holds true:  ”Press play and it’s like opening the door to a blast furnace of scorching headbangery. There’s a real talent for riffage here, with grooves galore, ridiculously hard rhythms, and top-notch, full-throated, howling vocals.”

The music on Condemnation isn’t what you might expect from a Finnish extreme metal band. It’s a modern, American-style blend of thrash, death metal, and power grooves. Almost all the songs leap out of the box in a thrash-paced assault, with fast, percussive, down-tuned riffing and aggressive drumming. But there are rhythmic variations within each song, and a few (like “Price”) feature pronounced breakdowns.The guitars have got a thick, fuzzed-out quality, and the band has a talent for producing some relentlessly infectious riffs.  (more after the jump . . .)

Serendipity (noun): (1) an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; (2) the fact or occurrence of such discoveries.

Synchronicity (noun): the coincidental occurrence of events that seem related but are not explained by conventional methods of causality.

We always get these words confused, though they’re both cool words. Both came to mind as we thought about the following chain of events:

Two days ago we wrote glowingly about the new melodic death metal opus from those Finnish swamplords, Kalmah. Later the same day, we stumbled across a press blurb about a new Finnish thrash/death metal band called The Jasser Arafats that has a debut album on the way, called Condemnation. The album cover (above) plus the band’s wacky name made us pause and jump over to their MySpace page to check out the music. And there, on the band’s MySpace page, was a notice about their upcoming performance on March 19 at a CD release party in Finland for — Kalmah.

And then, just to round everything off, the music turned out to be sick! So, we guess it was both serendipity and synchronicity. And for the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake, we found a widget that allows us to give you a stream of four of the 12 tracks from the forthcoming album. (and that, plus a little more info, you’ll find after the jump . . .)

Melodic death metal as practiced by the Swedes and Finns is alive and well, and those swamplords from Kalmah proudly bear the standard in their sixth studio album, 12 Gauge. In our humble opinion, it’s the best music these five dudes from the northern marshes of Finland have put out since 2003′s Swampsong.

It’s the same model Kalmah have been driving since the beginning, but they’ve given their machine an oil change, a tune-up, and a supercharger, and it’s running fast and smooth. Hop in, fire it up, and the adrenaline starts flowing.

12 Gauge is filled with thrash-metal speed, hammering rhythms, and enough infectious power-metal riffs to wake the dead and set their heads to banging. But this is melodic death metal, and so 12 Gauge also delivers blistering melodic guitar solos and soaring keyboards. Pekka Kokko’s vocals supply a low-end howl that provides an effective contrast and complement to the melodies.

For variety, folk-metal stylings make an appearance on “Better Not To Tell” and “Sacramentm,” and in acoustic intros to “Rust Never Sleeps” and the title track, while black-metal style tremolo work mixes with swirling guitar and keyboard solos to flavor “Godeye”.

Lyrically, the songs are as interesting as the music. (more after the jump, including some Kalmah-style swamp metal to stream . . .)

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 . . . )